LEGO ICONs appears to be on a roll with its collection of large-scale aircraft. In 2023 we saw the 10318 Concorde, and last year we gained the 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft – a combination 747 and Space Shuttle. This April, athe 11378 DC-3 Pan American Airliner is being released. Introduced in the 1930s, the DC-3 was the first airliner to be able to cross the continental United States in only 18 hours, with 3 stops. Carrying up to 36 passengers, it had a top speed of 333km/h. The DC-3 was in production until 1942. While around 600 DC-3’s were built, its military equivalent, the C-47 Skytrain, was produced in the thousands.

The LEGO Group sent this set over for an early look, ahead of it’s April release – but all opinions are my own. Let’s take a look at the pieces, the minifigures, and the final build, and then consider reasons that might exist behind some of the design choices with this set.

Let’s take a closer look:

The set has 1903 pieces and four minifigures. Inside the box, there were eleven numbered white paper bags, as well as an envelope containing the instruction manual, which gave us a quick overview of the DC-3, a short discussion of Pan-Am Airlines, and some of the steps taken to help ensure a more accurate design. There is no sticker sheet.

In the first instance, it is apparent that there are many elements in grey and white: plates, bricks, curved slopes and a smattering of wedge shaped elements, including some in pearl gold. We also see the first of several 6×6 round tiles featuring the Pan Am logo. A collection of Tecnic bricks, connectors and a couple of gears leave me feeling there might be some interesting features here.

Moving through, we have wedges and wedges and some interesting round forms, including a grey half hemisphere (quarter shpere?) and ablack curved slope element, similar to those that debuted in the Bouquet of Tulips. We also have some printed 1×8 tiles: two with ” Pan Am” and another two with “erican”. lots.

The final bags give us lots of grey wedges plenty of round plates and bricks, along with a variety of curved slopes. The final bags bring us some reddish brown arches along with white slopes, and another couple of rounded tiles. Not to forget the plaque – gold print on reddish brown.

According to the parts list, some of the white elements are in the ‘new’ V3 White which we discussed at length last year. Summer is currently failing to end here in Melbourne, but I will check the effects of almost one year of sun exposure in a couple of weeks. (we are almost in the second month of Autumn, and it is still over 28ºC every few days.)

The Minifigures

The set comes with four minifigures, depicting Pan American Airlines staff from across the years. The first we encounter is the pilot – dressed in a black uniform, with his wings visible. He wears a peaked cap, with a gold braid around the edges. His hands and face are nougat, and he sports a horseshoe moustache.

The first of the Stewardesses is dressed in the grey uniform of the 1940s. She wears a fitted grey blazer over a white blouse, and wears a (printed) grey skirt and boots – in fact, there is a pale nougat printed line around the middle of the legs, signifying the gap between skirt and footwear. Her round grey cap is incorporated with the hairpiece.

The next stewardess is sporting the bright blue uniform of the 1970s, including a bright blue Derby (or bowler hat). She wears a fitted uniform with gold buttons done up on the front. Her medium nougat head sports a broad smile. She has a similar leg print to the 1960s stewardess, abut with the colours adjusted.

Finally, we have the Steward, wearing a dark blue suit, with a striped tie, and wearing a very broad grin on his warm tan face.

All of the staff are sporting a winged badge on their left breast. the stewardesses are both wearing white gloves. None of them have double sided face prints.

The Build

The first step is to put together a stand Some golden wedge plates for wings on either side of a round tile printed with the Pan American Logo. We add the minifigures from time to time during the build. Just when? I won’t spoil that for you!

Next, we move onto the plane, starting with a central frame of bricks, surrounded by a couple of layers of plates and tiles. I was initially uncertain of where in the plane we were building, until we placed the 1×2 inward curved bricks, that mark the junction of the wings and fuselage. Hinges mark the edge of the central part off the wings, which I am sure we will finish off later in the build (ed: as it turns out, MUCH later!).

As we move upwards, the dark red carpet that makes up the floor of the cabin takes prominence, the rear of the engine cowlings take shape and a sneaky worm gear is installed in the lower part of the fuselage: I presume this will become part of the mechanism used to lower the wheels.

We fit out the cabin. After adding in the windows and blue panels, will add 15 seats: Sand blue with white headrests. In the rear starboard of the cabin is a small bathroom, with a shiny rolled silver sink.

We head to the tail end of the plane: a clever piece of stud reversal sees a pair of ‘normal’ 1×4 slopes become inverted, thanks to a couple of clips. After attaching the tail of the fuselage, we build up the sides of the tail with larger curved wedge bricks.

We move forward to the flight deck. Part of the distinct curve over the nose is achieved by the new curved slope element, first seen with the Bouquet of Tulips earlier this year, coupled with a 6×3 half dome.. Inverted Battle Droid torsos are employed for the pilot and copilot’s seats.

We add extra curves to the base of the plane, and build up the sides and roof of the forward section of the plane.

We create, an inset with a printed PAN AMERICAN logotype, which attaches at the forward and rear end of the cabin. We add a simple roof-line, covering over the cabin. We complete the undercarriage which can extend and retract, by turning a gear protruding from the underside of the plane.

We build up the engine cowlings on either side, stacking rounded elements in front of each other, before finally completing them with plate/tile built propellers. The connection between the front and rear of the cowlings is clever, using a stud and tile with a vertical bar connecting to a stud/connector attached to the element in front. However, the studs are wedged between 4 studs, and the bar is not inserted as far as it can. I found this part of the build occasionally felt a little loose – although the full assembly is secured by the prop-shaft and a series of connectors.

We start work on the wings, interrupted along the way by the tail plane and tail fin. The leading edge of the wings and tail plane is attached to the wing structure using a bar/snot element arrangement, and the final shape of the wing is such that it can be nicely filled in with plates. Both sides of the tail are decorated with a 6×6 round tile emblazoned with the Pan Am Logo.

The wings are attached using the hinges that we saw many steps ago on top, and with a technic connector from below. The connection is pretty firm, and was up to a good swooshing.

The final stage of building brings us the stand for the plane, in reddish brown, with a plaque printed in gold, bringing us the important milestones in the DC-3’s career. It is initially built sideways, with what initially appear to be forward facing slopes forming the actual base.

The wings attach to the hinges we installed back in the early stages of construction, and fixed in place by a Technic pin on the underside of the plane.

Thoughts

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Our completed airplane is quite an impressive sight. With a wingspan of 72cm and measuring 52 cm long, I was barely able to hold it at arm’s length to swoosh around. I was quite impressed with the overall build, and its perceived strength. However, due to its size, it is only plausible for an adult to swoosh it around!

Mos of the DC-3s that went into service were unpainted aluminium. However, appropriately shiny elements have long left the LEGO Palette. As such, I can appreciate the use of PAN AM livery on the model, even though there were only around 16 DC-3s painted with this colour scheme ever in use. It allows the bulk of the fuselage to be white, with a blue stripe – colouring that is reasonably simple to achieve in LEGO form. The livery seen here dates from the late 1950s

But what of the minifigure selection? I can understand the iconic captain, as well as the 1930s uniform depicted in grey here. However, the bright blue uniform with the derby/bowler hat was not introduced until around 1969, and as such is after the last of the DC-3 sporting Pan Am colours. From my point of view, it is a little weird. On the upside, of the four staff shown, they all have different skin tones. I presume that this is because this is a licensed set – bringing us natural skin tones, rather than yellow.

Overall, I enjoyed the build, although there was no mind mangling geometry to get my head around, as there was with the 747 (and indeed, Tintin’s Moon Rocket.). The model is fairly robust, and I found the wheel retraction mechanism to be quite reliable.

The Size is the Thing

The model is a big step up from the previous LEGO DC-3, seen in 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull set 7628 Peril in Peru. As you can see, that model was a significantly smaller model, although all of the key details were present. The new model had almost 20 years of development of the LEGO System behind it, to allow for a more realistic model.

But is it too much of a step up? The new DC-3 is swooshable by an adult, but only just: with a 76cm wingspan it is up there with a typical Star Wars UCS model for sheer size. Fortunately, it can be collapsed and tucked away for storage. By removing the wings and tail, it can return to the box it was bought in, just like last year’s Jumbo.

I feel torn, and will give the model three and a half out of five Arbitrary Praise units. It is a magnificent model, with fine internal detailing. My eyes were opened by the technique used to attach the wings to the plane. The stand displays the model in an appropriately dynamic fashion and the landing gear mechanism was flawless in its function.

But overall, it’s oversized for many household benches, almost demanding its own pedestal at this scale. (seriously, your standard bench is barely 60 cm deep, but the wingspan is over 76cm and the fuselage is over 50cm long.) The other implication of a large model is that it is relatively expensive: not outrageously priced, its just that a lot of LEGO bricks cost a lot of money. To say nothing about the relative disparity in prices, between North America and the rest of the world. While the minifigures are quite nice, a couple is also a bit anachronistic, with the blue uniform not appearing until 1969, many years after the DC-3 was retired from Pan Am’s fleet.

The build itself is relatively straightforward, with no evidence of reflected triangles or other mind mangling geometry. This may well be an advantage for vintage aircraft fans who might not be accustomed with advanced LEGO Building techniques. That said, I really like the final model, despite its size. BUT my long term interest in a set is dependent in part on whether I can comfortably store and display the set. This is especially important if the set doesn’t quite hit the right passion point for me.

But if you are passionate about aircraft, you will probably love building this model and keeping it on display.

With great size, comes great expense: $AUD379.00/ $USD219.99/£199.99/ 219.99€. It is still just a little over the 10c/piece (USA), and is another set where the US RRP is around 40-50AUD less than the Australian /European price on the currency converter.

I loved the final model, and its attention to detail, but at the end of the day, the set is too large for me to recommend to anyone who is not passionate about the source material – either the DC-3 or the history of Pan Am.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!