Pinball machines can be fun. Full of challenges and, in my hands, just a little bit too unpredictable. The new LEGO ICONS 11374 Arcade Pinball Game sets out to bring us a playable pinball game, full of challenges and loaded with a heartwarming story: can you reunite the new pale blue LEGO Space Explorer with their baby?

Is this a brilliant exercise in construction, or is it an expensive alternative to a tabletop toy? The LEGO Group sent a copy over for early review. Somewhere along the way, something didn’t work the way it should – so I sat down to troubleshoot it. I may have been distracted while putting this review together, by wondering how to incorporate Smart Play. I will look at this in a future post.

Pick up a coffee and come on a journey. Let’s look at the set and put it together.

What’s in the box?

My copy of the set came with 16 paper bags of elements, and one bag containing a thick instruction manual and the sticker sheet.

The sheet has a mixture of 5 small and 8 large stickers, and they are brightly coloured, presenting the type of artwork that you might expect to see on the side of a space-family-themed pinball machine. How do I feel about these large stickers, for 6×6 tiles? I don’t mind: the tiles naturally have an injection point in the middle, and the sticker over the top hides this blemish from manufacturing.

The manual presents a brief history of pinball (overlooking its original descent from bagatelle tables in the 1800s), and provides an insight into the story behind the game. From here, it presents the instructions for plating the game, before moving onto the gameplay itself.

The Elements

I won’t dwell on the elements too much. For such a functional model, however, there are not and many Technic elements as you might predict. Suffice to say they will be used quite efficiently! We have a couple of printed elements: a 6×2 tile ;abelled ‘mission’ and another 1×8 tile graded from purple to pale green. Just how they get used, tile will tell.

There are a few elements in colours that I know will show up brightly under UV light: the Transparent bright green and transparent light blue panels for a start, as well as a some smaller pieces in these colours, while vibrant yellow tiles will also make an impact. We also have plenty of tiles appearing in the new blue-violet colour, introduced earlier this year, sitting nicely between the pale blue and medium lilac, thankc to the efforts of the Knoller-In-Chief.

The Minifigures

Aspects of the main minfigure have appeared before: the torso in Build a mini Stations around the world last year, in the setting of a wave of Dreamzzz figures (albeit with yellow hands); the air tanks in the LEGO Ideas Italian Riviera set. This set marks the debut of the Space helmet and baby spaceman in this colour.

The Build

We start with the frame of the base of the machine over the first few bags. The legs of the machine have rubber stoppers in place to prevent the machine from slipping in play. The frames is essentially brick built, rather than employing Technic elements. Around the edges are a few plates with bars: I presume they are waiting for something to clip onto them. I am sure will will see how this proceeds as we go along.

We start work on the lower park of the playfield: the main frield is constructied by stacking a mixture of Black plates and bricks, with the occasional gap for transparent elements or coloured plates, decorating the playfield. Moving back from the field are a couple of built-up areas that will add to the model’s cabinet, including some clips that will attach to the bars on the base frame.

As we build upwards, we incorporate a red arrow with a colour gradient fading through orange to cool yellow. We turn the panel over, and start adding the mechanism that will become the flippers and plunger.

As the side buttons are pushed in, a gear plate rotates a gear attached to the flippers themselves. The Spring on a Technic Suspension unit returns it to the starting point. Another Technic suspension element is used to power the machine’s plunger. this comes together quite smoothly.

SNOT elements (Studs not on top) provide connections for the fascia around the cabinet of the game. The front is patterned with blue and pale blue tiles. A compartment for the spare ball is added to the front panel on the left, while the plunger is completed on the right.

We build up the playfield with more mysterious details: a SNOT brick here, a technic brick with a hole in there, and a mysteriously wedged shaped hole on the right. There is a hilarious tile/sticker combination at the base of the hole – a nod to the notes that might be left in real pinball machines for technicians to find, and the original Classic Space Logo.

We secure it to the frame, using the clips, reinforcing the attachments using some black 6×6 tiles, with artwork applied..

Asd we build the playfield up, I am delighted by the designer’s use of colour fades: green to lime; red to cool yellow and more. These add to the model’s stylish brick-built decoration.

We build up the final panel of the playfield and clip it into place.we have a connector pin in place herealso build in the mechanism that will carry the spaceman across the top, keeping score. We also add in the transparent light blue fence element, new for this set, at the top of the launch run. At this stage, most of this run is unpaved: I guess this will happen closer to completion.

Having completed the playfield, there is a partial mechanism across the top – a rotating screw that serves to move our score marker across. A one way cog also assists this mechanism.

We complete most of the work on the main cabinetry: panels along each side, and a blue-violet trim around the top edge of the machine. We install an angled stand for our minfigure, and we have also installed a lever in the middle of the field that links to the figure moving mechanism. The Progress marker is one of the relatively scarce printed elements included in the set. Some transparent bright green globes are attached to the rim.

The machine is starting to look pretty smart. At the rear, you can see the spiral worm gear to which we attach a coupl of technic bricks, on an angled connector. Just perfect to carry the astronaut across the top as you hit the asteroid target. Said target will be installed shortly.

We flashback to LEGO DOTS and create a mosaic on a series of plates that is ultimately attached to the rear end of the Pinball playfield. The rounded letters interrupted by a transparent pale blue strip, with a small shuttle on the right side of the field. On the side of the cabilet, stripes in pale blue/blue-violet and medium lilac sweep upwards. Side panels are installed, giving the entire setup a cabinet vibe.

The final bags complete the game: capping off the backboard, adding in the launch chute detail, and completing the obstacles on the main playfield.

There are several components here: one is the launch chute, guided on either side by transparent light blue panels, the floor glides from pale blue, past the azures and bright blue, with dark blue lines as you reach the top. Along the wat, the central strip is interrupted by a vibrant yellow tiles. A vertically aligned brick defines the outlane. This white brick, covered with transparent plates from red to yellow – pausing at orange – in between feels brightly lit up, adding further colour to the field.

We add spinners – held in place with white Technic axle pins – with transparent pale blue globes at each end, they will add life to the board as the ball is in play. We add an upper flipper, as a last line of defence against the outlane and build up the asteroid, along with its counterweight.

Finally, we add the transparent bright green ramp that lifts a path up and over the playfield.

And with that, the build is finished. It’s a striking-looking piece, with the cabinet as well as the playfield containing lots of striking contrasts. But it does not apply to any specific LEGO Space Theme.

One of the challenges in the design phase would have been to decide on a ‘Skin’ – will we run with Classic Space, M-Tron, Blacktron, Ice Planet, Unitron or even Insectoids? These themes were all defined by their colour schemes, but the transparent neon elements that helped define some of them are now defunct, to say nothing of the change in grey pigments used in the mid 2000s. Instead, the decision has been made to run with generic cabinetry (which is pretty consistent with what 10-year-old me remembers), with striking colors.

The playfield itself relies on the smooth colour gradients associated with arrows to convey a lot of its mood, while the spinners and ramp bring their own neon twist in daylight (or blacklight for that matter), while the contrasting white of the flippers helps reduce the overload of such a busy colour palette.

The use of orange tones to portray the alien world and the return of DOTS elements to spell out the word ‘Space’ e fits with the bright colours nicely. The decorative stickers on the side of the cabinetry were a little annoying to apply over the 6×6 tiles. However, these tiles feature a centrally located injection point which would disrupt the printing. As such, I think stickers are a better choice than a prints in this situation.

My favorite part of the color scheme is the use of graded hues of blues, interrupted by vibrant yellow squares running up the launch chute. This just feels perfect. In my mind, vibrant yellow is the spiritual successor to transparent neon green, so my 90s space fan feels adequately satisfied.

Viewing under Ultraviolet.

I feel I would be negligent if I did not provide some shots of the pinball machine under ultraviolet light, revealing the fluorescing colours in all of their glory.

There are a few colours here that reliably fluoresce: vibrant yellow and transparent bright green. The transparent light blue, used on the walls of the launch chute as well as the globes on the tips of the spinners, is also prone to fluoresce.

Other colours such as the solid bright light orange and red pigments have demonstrated variable, batch-dependent fluorescence. Unfortunately, none of the elements in the plates or bricks in these colours appear to have used flourescent pigments in my review copy. Am I motivated enough to hunt some down and install them? Not at this point. Perhaps I will take my UV lamp into the brick pit and see what shows up…

Game Play

It’s one thing to spend $AUD350 on a model of a pinball machine, but how does it play?

It starts simply: you place a ball in the launch chute, pull the plunger back and release. The spring does an admirable job in sending the ball up and over onto the playfield. It took me a while to get my reflexes sharpened, and so many early balls fell between the flippers.

The spinners would spin with vigor.

On a couple of occasions, the ball would run up and over the ramp. But not as often as you might hope.

On the whole, I found the game fun to play – and once I got past the next little hurdle, it took around 3-4 minutes for a typical game, with infinite balls, getting the astronaut from left to right.

When I first played the game, I was surprised that the spaceman did not seem to be moving across the top of the field when I hit the asteroid. that said it would move across the field if I just hit the asteroid repeatedly. (To reset the counter, you slide the astronaut from right to left. It is a bit stiff to do so. It is a bit looser, but still firm if you hold the asteroid upwards.) The need for troubleshooting is afoot…

Troubleshooting the mechanism.

Since the movement of the Spaceman towards the Spacebaby is key to the ‘Story’ behind playing this game, the initial failure of the figure moving mechanism was frustrating.

Some troubleshooting followed: I checked that the counterweight/asteroid mechanism was swinging smoothly if disconnected from the mechanism. It swung smoothly, so I moved along the mechanism to see where the problem lay.

I tested the arm that was responsible for turning the gears and driving the spaceman across the field towards the baby. There seemed to be a lot of resistance to this movement. I applied a little pressure to the bushes on either side of the one-way gear, loosening up the mechanism overall. This seemed to get things moving more smoothly. To ensure the movement happens, the asteroid must be struck firmly firmly, to get a good swing.

The ‘score counter reset mechanism, i.e., sliding the spaceman back to his starting position, offered quite a bit of resistance, too: I sprayed the corkscrew gear with a little lubricant spray (such as Silicone or PTFE), and found the return process became a lot smoother.

Why isn’t this set sold with Smart Bricks included?

The set is a lot of fun, but one of the big differences between a ‘real’ pinball cabinet, and this LEGO Model are bright lights and sounds. This appears to be an excellent opportunity for LEGO Smart play to be incorporated in the model. LEGO Smart play allows a smart brick incorporating a collection of sensors, lights, and a sound synthesiser to interact with RFID tags (smart tags, incorporating in a uniquely shaped tile) and Smart Minifigures . So, why hasn’t it been incorporated here? I think there are several reasons.

While at present, LEGO Smart Play has been restricted to LEGO Star Wars, there will be a range of Pokemon sets that incoporate Smart Play technology, but they will come out in August. Despite this variety of sets being available, Smart Play sets have had limited market release. For the time being, their availability has been restricted to USA, UK, Australia, France, Germany and Poland.

The Smart Bricks themselves are also relatively expensive: I expect they add a price of around $AUD30-40 per brick. Given the price point of this set, would you be happy to find $75-100 added (or more) to allow for the price of two or more Smart Bricks to be included in this set? And would that even be enough. At first glance, I can see how I might with to use one, two, three or even four Smart Bricks. That becomes a significant investment.

While having Smart Bricks interacting with the Pinball machine sounds like a great sounds like a great idea, the machine itself is quite noisy during gameplay, and can drown out the sounds of the Smart brick, making it feel like a low value proposistion.

Finally, there is the issue of keeping the Smart Bricks charged. I have easily found myself lost with the pinball machine for an hour or so at a time. To have the Smart Bricks run flat frequently (you get around forty-five minutes of consistent play after two hours of charge. And occasionally, the bricks go to sleep, needing to be shaken or placed on the charger to wake them up. This will definitely disrupt the flow of playing with them.

We actually have quite a variety of sounds available through LEGO Star Wars that may well be appropriate to use in a pinball game, demonstrating a similar variety of uses to LEGO Elements themselves: You could argue that specific tags are not necessary, and by leaving this aspect open to your own play, it makes the use of Smart Play more creative than might otherwise be perceived…

At this stage, Smart Bricks are somewhat limited in their availability, BUT my expectation is that in years to come, they will turn up more often, across all themes. It will become normal for most households to have 5 or 6 smart bricks, accumulated over a couple of years. Adding a couple of Smart Tags to a set will bring very little additional cost. When that time comes, I would be very surprised if models like this are not sold ‘Smart Play Ready’.

Now… This might sound like a less-than-ringing endorsement for Smart Play. I have to say, I have now spent a few days considering (and implementing) Smart Play within the 11374 Arcade Pinball Game. It certainly makes the gameplay more engaging while adding some lighting effects as well.

The whole process is too much to describe here: Come back soon, for the article where I will demonstrate how I have integrated Smart Play with this set. I’d love your thoughts on the process.

And Finally

I enjoyed the construction of this set: it can be easily broken into chunks of about an hour or so. I like the way that the Playfield is broken up into several segments, while the mechanisms for the flippers and plungers are well integrated. Unfortunately, while the ‘Score progress meter’ is an ingenious inclusion, it required a bit of care and attention to ensure that it runs smoothly.

The design scooted around the problem of ‘Which LEGO Space Faction should we base the design on by cheerfully ignoring all historical LEGO Space Faction colour schemes. The incorporation of brick-built decorations on the playfield takes advantage of the 2026 colour palette and is incredibly eye-catching. A collection of fluorescing elements add to the visual spectacle, especially under daylight or Ultraviolet light.

Gameplay is engaging, and distracted me longer than it should have. The whole machine is quite robust and capable of withstanding constant use without suffering undue damage during hours of play. It is quite refreshing to have a set in this price range that is an impressive display piece, while also serving as an interactive toy, just as our childhood LEGO sets did.

While this appears to be the obvious choice for an adult-focused set to incorporate LEGO Smart Play, I can understand why this approach was not taken at this time. There is nothing to stop you from doing it yourself. Later in the week, I will demonstrate how you can install some Smart Bricks in a relatively simple way. Be sure to come back soon.

And all of this is without considering the new spaceman: hopefully this means that we will see the helmet and airtanks cropping up in the LEGO Online Pick a Brick in a few months, especially after many people tracked down the pale blue torso through the Pick-a-Brick wall.

Overall, I give this set a four out of five Arbitrary Praise Units. If it appeals to you, I think you will enjoy it a lot. If it doesn’t, don’t. This LEGO Model is significantly more expensive than similarly scaled pinball toys equipped with lights and sounds, but putting this model together is about more than that: it is about building an interactive toy, evoking childhood memories as you go, and finishing up with more than just a display piece.

LEGO Icons 11374 Arcade Pinball Game comes with 2272 pieces, a pale blue classic spaceman and space baby in pale blue. It will go on sale on July 1, 2026, priced at $AUD349.99/ £189.99/ €209.99 / $229.99.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!