The original wave of SpongeBob sets ran from 2006-2009, with a few loose bits in 2011 and 2012. Looking at these listings on BrickLink, you may notice that this new set is not listed under SpongeBob SquarePants! So what is up with that?

Join us as we explore what this new LEGO Icons set presents to us. Modular buildings may be mentioned, speed champions explored, TV series Friends may come to visit, a potential new theme may be suggested, some discussion on undersea gas, and there may be some exploration of this set as a LEGO set in its own right.

It’s dark underwater

Previous incarnations of SpongeBob SquarePants sets have all had bright and light colors, which is a bit odd since “He lived in a pineapple under the sea”. Light does not travel very well in water, so unless Bikini Bottom is at the bottom of a very narrow sandbank, it is likely that not much light arrives there.

With this in mind it makes full sense for this new box to be black. No light. Deep ocean, tick. This alone should be sufficient motivation to release this set as an icons set, but perhaps there is more. The TV series SpongeBob SquarePants has been running for 27 years, so some of the people who have grown up loving SpongeBob will have entered adulthood now and may be looking for a slightly more sophisticated expression of their childhood fandom.

Black or not, the box clearly shows what the setting is. This is Spongebob, no doubt but it’s also clear that this is not a typical playset.

The box is one of the new flip-open designs, which confuses me. It does not compact like the loose lid designs; it uses more cardboard than the boxes that just open on the side, so why has this design changed (again)? One of the mysteries of a large corporation, I suspect.

Regardless of the design, the box contains 14 bags two booklets and two small sticker sheets. These sticker sheets confuse me. A choice was made to print a very SpongeBob-specific tile with Gary (the snail) or the name “Bikini Bottom” on it, and at the same time a tile that would be far more widely useful (music note sheet) has a sticker! What is the reasoning behind this? [Editor: on close inspection, the music shows a highly specific part of the SpongeBob theme tune]

Bikini Bottom Buildings

The first booklet builds us Patrick’s ‘house’, which is a rock. In LEGO form, it’s a dome created out of hollow dome pieces that I have not seen in this form or color before. It’s pretty much a Brick, Round Corner 5 x 5 x 3 1/3 Dome Top but hollow. A very exciting addition that will allow for some nice domed addition to buildings (especially if we’re going to get it in other colours).

The resulting house comes with some sand-built interior which channels the idea of Patrick’s house quite nicely, which is inconsistent in the series so as a concept this is fine. We also get a printed sign for ‘Bikini Bottom’ and it is unclear why this is not a sticker.

The next house on the street is Squidward’s ‘Moai’ house. The LEGO version captures the shape from the TV series very well, including the printing on the windows that serve as eyes.

The attention to detail in this build is far beyond what I expect from a play set like LEGO Friends or City. Notice for example how a double wall is used to let the interior walls have a different colour than the outside. Even Modular buildings do not typically show this, and often one side of the wall (the back side) looks a bit funky as a result of the details needed inside. Not so in this case, very nice! Each of the floors even has it’s own colour and texture!

On each floor a separate room is offered with a comfortable looking lounge chair, a four poster bed with straw ceiling and cute bedside lamps, a shower with tub with bubbles. (bubbles? underwater…? More on this later). Next to the shower is great-looking toilet and another lounge on the roof terrace. The build contains several references to the show that I completely miss because I don’t really know the show.

The front door, accidentally has a bit of a ‘poor workmanship’ look to it because the colours of the parts do not quite match. I say accidental because I’m confident that these parts are all classified as being ‘Medium Nougat ‘, although some are a bit more medium than others. Do better LEGO, do better, this is where feedback on the outside of your moulding machine comes in. This issue is especially grating because so many competing brands have entered the market that do not seem to be struggling with this (I know this is not a fair comparison, but this is what customers observe).

At this stage, we are also presented with the boatmobile and DoodleBob holding a pencil. A sticker for Doodlebob’s face makes sense to me here because it is so specific to this set.

The high attention to detail in the building raises expecation of the boatmobile. It captures the shape seen on TV very nicely but it falls a bit short of Speed Champions. Part of that is because the boatmobile is only 5 studs wide, which puts it more in line with playset scale such as Friends or City.

Next we come to the star of the show, the Pineapple. Let’s face it, the pineapple is mentioned first before anything in the theme song for a reason.

Seeing medium azure pieces (or light blue if you are so inclined), and no orange at all was a little surprising, considering the big orange pineapple on the cover of the instruction booklet. These pieces are used in a very entertaining manner, layout out cool patterns in the sand and creating neat diagonal walls using my favourite LEGO piece the plate, round 1 x 2. I found this part very satisfying; this is why I build sets.

The furniture is mounted in elegant ways, that are a nice inspiration to build off-grid (or at an angle at least). On the lower floor all furniture is mounted to the wall, reminding me of the warnings that come with IKEA furniture about fixing your furniture to the wall. Does Spongebob shop at IKEA?

During assembly of the front door, the first orange pieces start to appear; do not worry. The pineapple is not blue on the outside.

Around the blue walls a technic frame is created to support the outer walls. Just like Squidward’s home this home has double walls, giving the inside a different appearance from the outside, which is not at all common in LEGO sets and I am loving it!

You can see that the outer frame looks so ‘messy’ that it would not work as interior at all, so it makes sense to hide it behind internal cladding, and it comes with the bonus that the interior resembles the appearance in the TV series very nicely.

The chequered pattern of the pineapple is achieved with building several square(-ish) pieces, which are satisfying the build because all the parts come together in a neat slightly rounded part. This gave me similar pleasure to putting the last piece in a puzzle.

The top floor of Spongebob’s house contains several recognisable details that match the TV series, such as his wall texture, headboard for his bed, alarm clock, etcetera. Notice that the ring for the headboard is a new piece for this set.

Finally, the pineapple is topped off with the crown and chimney with bubbles. Where do these bubbles come from? Is this a result of Spongebob’s digestive system? If so; why is he selling his bubbles at a stand outside his house? Is he capturing bubbles from an underground gas reserve? What use do they have for such gas under the sea?

To be clear, the bubbles look fantastic, but they just raised more questions that I was willing to know the answer to.

We wrap things up by building the jellyfish field and the aforementioned bubble sales stand.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

This does bring forward the conversations “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” which, by now, has an obvious answer, it is Spongebob Squarepants and his pet Gary, with neighbours Squidward Tentacles and Patrick Star. See below how they compare to the versions from 2009 “3834 Good Neighbours at Bikini Bottom“.

With the crew added, we complete the neighbourhood.

What is this set?

We are presented with a lovely bright, colourful and striking display, but what kind of set is this? What can you expect when you buy this set? The details in some ways match or exceed that found in modular buildings, but the rear of the buildings are open. This is convenient for narrow shelf displays, but also for a playset. There are no stairs connecting the floors but underwater that would be a bit redundant anyway. The details of the interiors themselves are nice to display but it looks a little chaotic (or just too busy).

Playsets tend to have open backs for easy access, but the detail does not match that, so it appears what we are actually looking at is a TV filming set, similar to Seinfeld or F.R.I.E.N.D.S. After all, Spongebob Squarepants is a TV series and we only know these buildings as sets in the series. Don’t you think these sets would fit well during a studio tour, next to Central Perk?

I can imagine attending the recording of a Spongebob show, and it would look a bit like this. Especially if I show a bit of the photo setup, there is a ‘behind the scenes’ feel to the setup.

A new branch of ‘botanicals’, fruit?

I am absolutely delighted with the pineapple by itself, and I imagine this could remain on display long after the other parts of this set disappear into a box. It just looks the part, and if you remove the windows, well, judge for yourself.

17 years on

Our editor-in-chief happened to have a 17 year old Bikini Bottom set (3834) on hand for comparison, and it highlights several of the observations we encountered so far.

This set is in a different category. It does not look like something I could come up with myself and also doesn’t quite look like something I would be allowed to touch, as a child. (“Nay!”, I say, touch all you want children! It’s LEGO, if it breaks it’s a chance to make it better!)

I am impressed how much of the same spirit was caught with only a quarter of the pieces! You can see some of the compromises between inner and outer wall appearance, and lack of polish, but the bits are there!

The boatmobile looks a bit better although by using a boat piece has been available since 1989.

and despite the different times, Squidward still seems to know what he likes; to sit back and relax.

“Are you ready kids?”

This is a great set. Yep, that’s a period. Admittedly it is a bit expensive but it seems every licensed LEGO set seems to be hovering at this kind of markup, so it’s not particularly unusual. I will admit that I would never have considered buying this set, but I am just finding it has given me great joy to build an research it. Watching Spongebob on TV makes me extremely uncomfortable, but this set did the opposite.

I’m hoping LEGO may release some other fruits I can display with the pineapple, but even by itself it’s a keeper.

Great set, for me means 4 out of 5 arbitrary praise units, leaning towards 5 if it wasn’t for the subject matter not appealing to me, and the colour mismatch on Squidward’s door.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!

Appendix: Parts Under the Sea

For your reference find some quick pictures of the parts included in this set.