Announced just last month and out on August 1st, The Brothers Brick is pleased to bring you a full review of the new 10252 Volkswagen Beetle, thanks to a special delivery from LEGO headquarters in Denmark. This new Beetle in stunning dark azure joins the dark green 10242 Mini Cooper and classic 10220 Volkswagen Camper Van in what I’m hoping is a permanent fixture in LEGO Creator sets. The set includes 1,167 pieces, and will retail for $99.99.

The build

We’ve come to expect some solid techniques and clever tricks in the “Expert” LEGO Creator series sets, many of which are very obviously designed by the numerous builders who have disappeared from the face of the Internet only to turn up in Billund. And that’s the case here — the set was designed by the very talented Mike Psiaki, whose LEGO creations we’ve featured many, many times here on The Brothers Brick over the years — most notably one of the best LEGO X-wings ever made.

Mike’s Beetle doesn’t disappoint. The 211 steps span an instruction booklet 124 pages thick. I recently also built the new LEGO Ghostbusters (2016) Ecto 1, and it had far more complicated techniques than this larger vehicle does, but the Beetle is still full of half-stud-offset, SNOT, complex headlight and bracket geometry, and other techniques you’ll rarely if ever see in a LEGO City set.

The set comes in three batches of numbered bags, though each set of bags includes a lot more parts than your average, highly modular LEGO Star Wars set. The first set of polybags take you through step 67 as you build the chassis and some of the rear body, the second bags get you to step 119 and the front fenders.

The stickers are noteworthy for several reasons. First, they’re only placed on “common” parts (none of the dark azure pieces). Second, there’s a complete extra set of bumper stickers on the decal sheet — something I’ve never seen in a LEGO set before. Finally, the set includes spare license plates — stickers on different-colored tiles — for Germany, the US, the UK, and presumably Denmark (I have no idea).

I placed the stickers on the window at a jaunty angle, because I’m a rebel.

Parts & price

Oh, the azure! My God, it’s full of azure! I don’t even know where to start, so how about this brand new piece in dark azure?

While this 6x6x2 round brick appears to be the only totally new part (in other words, from a brand new mold), there are more parts in dark azure for the first time than I can list here. For example, the set includes 4 1×2 brackets in dark azure, plus 2 more of the “inverted” versions, typically only available in boring “internal” colors like light gray. Similarly, there are a whopping 30 1×2 tiles, 33 1×2 plates, 16 double-wide cheese slopes, and so on. The designers have even used the rare color in places where the bricks aren’t visible in the finished car (as long as the same bricks are also used elsewhere).

Also noteworthy is that several key pieces are printed. The VW logo on both the hood and gas cap under the hood is printed on a 1×1 round tile, and since they’re built from separate bags, you end up with two extra tiles. The top of the beer can in the red cooler (hey, it’s an “Expert” set geared toward nostalgic adults, right?) is also printed, and you end up with an extra of that tile as well.

For over a thousand parts at a hundred bucks, including hundreds of rare dark azure pieces in a huge range of shapes, you can’t go wrong here.

The finished model

The set depicts a 1960’s Beetle kitted out for a day of fun in the sun at the beach. Like the charming little extras that came with the Mini Cooper, this set includes a surfboard, cooler, and even a striped beach towel. LEGO Scala Man is perfect for this set, complete with turtleneck and cargo pants.

(Note: Slightly out-of-scale LEGO Scala Man not actually included. If you want your own LEGO Scala Man — his name is “Chris” — you can pick him up new for about $5, which is just over half of what he retailed for in 2000. Not all LEGO appreciates like gold. See also, Galidor.)

All of the gear fits on a cool roof rack, with some rubber bumpers to hold everything in place.

The roof itself comes off so you can check out the mostly tan interior.

The Beetle has a surprising amount of functionality, including seats that fold forward so people relegated to the back seat can clamber in.

While the wheel doesn’t do anything (a lost opportunity for working steering, as Ralph pointed out in his review of the Mini Cooper), the Beetle includes a parking brake and manual gearshift so you can exert total control over that high-performance 40 horsepower engine.

Speaking of the engine, the 1200 cc, 4-cylinder engine appears in the same place as the Porsche 911 GT3 RS — in the back.

The hood opens to reveal the spare tire and gas tank (useful as a crumple zone in front collisions), whose cap has another printed VW logo.

Finally, it’s worth comparing this Beetle with some of its LEGO forebears. Here it is with the Camper Van, proving how wonderfully they go together.

This new Beetle is substantially smaller than 10187 Volkswagen Beetle from 2008, and has about 500 fewer parts. I know many LEGO collectors loved this older set, but I much prefer the smooth shaping and curves of the new version. Plus, DARK AZURE!!!

You can also see a few more photos in our album on Flickr.

Recommendation

Even though this set doesn’t include a LEGO Scala Man named Chris wearing a turtleneck and cargo pants, it’s still a pretty groovy set. For $100, you get over 1,100 pieces, including a massive amount of dark azure. In addition to great parts, a fun build, and cool play features, this is a stellar display set.

As you can probably tell already from my writeup so far, this was a joyous build that had me grinning often as I built the set. I rarely recommend buying two of a set, but I’m doing so here — buy one for the parts (I expect to see plenty of azure spaceships at BrickCon in three months), and buy one to display proudly in your LEGO room or at work — mine is going on a shelf in my office next to my Mini Cooper.

LEGO sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set to review. Providing TBB with products for review does not guarantee coverage or a positive review.