LEGO Ideas Old Fishing Store Review

Some of the best LEGO builds I’ve seen have come from the minds of die hard fans. Thankfully, LEGO appreciates this creative drive and encourages it with LEGO Ideas. Case in point, the new Old Fishing Store is hands down one of the best sets to come out of a LEGO box. It is well thought out, visually stunning, and offers hours of playability. Let’s take a look at this set in more detail.

This post may contain links from a trusted partner. Thank you for supporting Wagon Pilot Adventures.

The Basics

The LEGO Old Fishing Store # 21310 is made up of 2049 pieces, quite a large build. Included are 4 minifigs, a cat, 3 seagulls, and dozens of little accessory parts. Tools, dynamite, fishing tackle, and fish. The set is recommend for ages 12+. It is not an overly technical build, so detail oriented younger fans might also enjoy constructing the store. The set fills a 32×32 sand colored base plate to the edges with only a few places with any extra room.

 

The Design

The model consists of a fishing store with a tower rising up alongside. The building has stairs and a deck on one side, a side entrance, and the rest is finished down to rock/beach level. The exterior has an incredible amount of detail going on. Several signs, a rack of freshly caught fish hanging outside the front entrance, boxes of tools and seafood ready to be shipped. The building is aged well with random pieces of siding askew and mismatched wood planks. The roof is patched with several different patterned pieces along with the front awning. I’m impressed with the insane amount of detail included and at all fits flawlessly. There are about a dozen stickers included. I usually dislike the decals, and sometimes leave them off, but these all blend well with the brick colors.

The tower contains small office on one level with a ladder well leading to the upper level with a window to the outside and telescope. The inside of the store, the real highlight of this set, features a checkout counter surrounded by all sorts of fishing, boating, and diving equipment. The roof is removable and the back wall swings out for access. The only thing missing is enough space for playability. Being that most of these sets will be intended only for display, all the little pieces just scream out for play time.

 

The Build

Overall, this is not a very technical build. The structure and detailing are all straightforward and would be repetitious in areas if not for the haphazard design to show the age of the building. The set is built in stages from the ground up and the manual does a good job of flipping around to different angles to keep it fun. The only difficulty I had was trying to fit the small items into the store. In fact, I had to have my daughter place a few pieces since my fingers wouldn’t fit.

Improvements

Though this is currently one of my favorite sets, there are a few small improvements and suggestions that come to mind. The main issue I have is the size of the store. It is so well designed and is great to look at, but could offer so much more for both display and playability if it was just a few studs wider. You can’t really place the minifigs in the store because it is so compact. The tower also suffers from this problem. They went through the effort to design a ladder well, but the upper level is too short and could use just one more course of siding to bring it to a good height.

While it is a bit beyond my skills to adjust, I can see some other fans modifying the building to be larger and keep the same look. Shifting the tower forward a bit would allow the store to be widened. There is also a chunk of open real estate in the back that would allow for expanding the office or adding a small shed, etc.

Overall, a top notch job from the creator and LEGO to bring the Old Fishing Store to life. I would love to see additional small sets to match for both display or play. At $149 it is a very good value for a larger set and I highly recommend buying one before they disappear.

Watch the video for a a detailed look at the full build process.