rocket

LEGO Ideas 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket: Hands-on Review

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LEGO Ideas 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket set displayed with five astronaut minifigures and a dog figure, featuring a red and white rocket in the background.

I mentioned in the post announcing the upcoming release of LEGO IDEAS set 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket that this set represents a key factor in one of the earliest fandoms I was part of: I first read Destination Moon in January 1977, during the summer holidays. As the new school year began, I hunted the books down, eventually hunting most of them down through various school libraries over the following years. As I put the rocket together, I was excited by a sense of nostalgia as a childhood memory, now pop-culture icon, came into being on my desk.

I am grateful that the LEGO Group sent this copy of the set over in advance of the release on April 1. This set is based on the moon rocket from TKel86’s LEGO Ideas submission, which also included a gantry. In the design process, the team decided to focus on the rocket, which ties into the two books telling the story of Tintin’s journey to the Moon: Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon. The rocket’s gantry is only a feature in the first of these. However, I might have some parts lying around the house, which I picked up for another project a couple of years ago.

During properation for this review, I had the chance to take part in a round table discussion with designers Jordan Scott and Ellen Bowley – I’ll add their insights as we go along…

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Destination Home! Tinitin’s Iconic Moon Rocket Arrives, thanks to LEGO Ideas.

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A stylish interior featuring a wooden shelf decorated with books, a red and white rocket model, and framed artwork. The image promotes LEGO Ideas bringing Tintin's Moon Rocket to life.

It’s January 1977 and 8 year old me is on holiday in New Zealand with my family and I am needing something to read. One day we are looking around in some local specialty stores (I seem to remember beeswax candles being bought at the time), and we take a detour to a book shop. I have never seen a tintin book before: More substantial than a 22 page comic – and with far more words than you might ever expect to see in tone too. I look over the shelves and one in particular catches my eye. Destination Moon. I am sure I was drawn to it by the large red and white rocket on the cover. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that the story continued in a second book, Explorers on the Moon. Not one to be deterred, I devoured every Tintin book that I could find in my primary school library.

Two vintage comic books featuring 'Destination Moon' and 'Explorers on the Moon' from The Adventures of Tintin series by Hergé, set against a golden background.

The appeal of this rocket is undeniable: for me, I first saw it in the years between the end of the Apollo program, and the arrival of the Space Shuttle. And it was not until a couple of years later that I realised that this book predated the original Sputnik launch in 1957 by several years.

Fast forward some 29 years to 2006 and I am sitting down in front of the TV with my kids, while we watch the 1990s Adventures of Tintin animated series on DVD. At some point in the next year, my son is given a copy of Explorers on the Moon: at last we have the complete story.

Fast forward another twenty years to 2026 and the LEGO Group are proud to announce that LEGO IDEAS set 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket. With 1283 pieces, and including five minifigures (and one dog), the set presents the Rocket from Destination moon and Explorers on the Moon in LEGO Form. Based on the submission by Tkel86, the final model has done away with the gantry from the original submission, choosing to focus on the iconic rocket.

LEGO set of Tintin's Moon Rocket, featuring a large red and white rocket on the box, alongside five minifigures in orange space suits.
Box art for LEGO Ideas rocket set featuring a large red rocket with white stripes, detailed interior, and five astronaut minifigures in orange jumpsuits.

Read on for more pictures and the official Press Release…

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