Lego 75810 is based on the popular Netflix show Stranger Things, in which it follows the events in the town of Hawkins, and the set shows the iconic scene of the Byers House both from the normal and the upside-down. The Set has a healthy 2287 pieces and 8 mini-figures! alongside the snapshot of their house is the Sheriff’s car.
Because of the nature of the show and age rating of the box Tigger would not be joining me on this, he hasn’t watched it yet, but no doubt will in the future, but I would be more interested in doing this. Stranger things are one of my favourite shows of the last few years so I was more than happy to buy this, let alone that it actually looks pretty cool especially with the unique ability to be turned upside down.
Being a unique product, it normally means more effort has been put into the design but not just there, also in the instruction books and box etc.. the box has the clever two-tone effect which is the theme of this set. The book, however, has been broken down into two parts with references to the show from cover onwards, the first book which is in normal colour focuses on the normal part of the house, whereas the second book focuses on the upside-down and its grey and blueish colour.
However, with this book, it has more information, a brief overview of the show, the characters, the lego Designers, in both books on the first few pages.
Table of Contents
The Build…
In Bag 1 has Hopper, a stand for the kids, Wills Bike and hoppers Sheriff Car. Hopper has his coffee mug alongside his uniform, which looks great and true to the program, along with his hat. I assume they opted with his mug over a gun or anything else just to show how reluctant he was. The sign is fine, its a similar design to others, however, I disagree it only has 4 spaces, but that’s my opinion.
The Car/Van is styled on the show which in turn was based on the films Jaws, there are lots of little things like this in the book and on the show if you watch it. It’s a simple design but effective, used in many lego vehicles which is not a negative, I like the open back that can be used if you take the roof off, I also like the pumpkin in the back, which is a neat touch if you have watched the first series. Wills bike is……a Bike, but it is designed to stick into the studs, which is good with the turning over of the set.
In Bag 2 sees Mike Wheeler, one of the four boys, his attire if well represented in the fact his top, and jacket match the series very well, as he would often be wearing this. His face is fine, though his hair isn’t exactly as it’s used a traditional piece, he is holding a torch and a walky-talky. The rest of Bag 2 is laying the groundworks for the house and area, often used in these housing builds.
This one uses large plates connecting together with the evidence of the foundation in place, greens for the outside and browns for the inside and rooms starting to be divided by colours and size on the floor, with a beige colour representing the porch area. However at this point, you get a scale of the size of the house, you also start to see how perhaps the trees connect.
Bag 3 has the owner of the house, Joyce Byers, she’s wearing a similar outfit to the series with green jacket and striped top, she has a torch and a drawing from Will, who is the boy that’s missing (if you haven’t watched the series) She like the other characters has a reverse face of shock and horror etc.. her hair is also not quite right but not really noticeable.
The rest of this bag is about the interior of the house and focuses on one side, wills bedroom and half of the living room, there are lots of nice touches in the room, a Jaws poster, a D+D poster and other posters on the wall, a tape stereo, a bed and furniture, obviously none of this is to scale but they never are on this half house designs, like Flintstones, Hobbit hole etc..upstairs is a white ceiling with support ready for the roof, again not to scale, there isn’t much room to do anything up there for design.
The lounge is started with pictures on one wall, the couch, the door, a coffee table with some papers about “missing Will Byers” and some blocked out windows which is a fabulous touch that could have been ignored. Most importantly and one of probably the most iconic things are the letters on the wall with lights, this is a sticker so these lights don’t light up (more to come with this though)
Bag 4 has the best mini-figure so far, Lucas Sinclair whos sister will also come into the show in the future. But for now, this is a series one design, so he has camo style bandana, which is similar to Ninjago style but unfortunately, this then men’s top is a shiny solid black hair, not what is has as hair. However I do appreciate the bandana, as do I with what he’s wearing, like the others a good representation in style, a red jacket blue top, he’s carrying a torch, done differently to other ones, but a slingshot, which I haven’t seen before and perhaps is a new element (wheres Bart Simpson one?).
The building continues and like the other half of the house walls of beige are made with studs facing outside every so often, this time it focuses on the rest of the lounge area including a trap, bookshelves, axe, boxes, the Xmas lights box for the letters, which is another good touch, an armchair and plant. I do feel I would have prefered the kitchen or something but this is fine, again the white ceiling with roof support adds to the other side leaving the middle empty above the lounge.
The outside of the front of the house lots of studs visible from previous bags, so now we were covering them with different sized single flats, for me choosing grey was a poor option, as the whole point of the colours with the upside-down is blue and grey! for me its to close to grey!
The porch area is ok, a swinging chair is good, and the holes for places the furniture like chair, table and bench was all pretty clever in prep for it being overturned, I was naturally worried this wouldn’t be enough to support it. The outside is pretty basic in design though, all the theatrics are inside.
Bag 5 has, in my opinion, the best mini-figure! Dustin Henderson! he is also holding a walky-Talky, but also a clear compass, which is a new element I believe, however, his design is great, the hat and hair combo suits him and is unique, his printed facial gets him to bang on especially if you use the open mouth version. the jacket and rest of the look also is bang on.
The building construction continues with the porch posts to hold the roof up, these are traditional in America and with the number on the post is a great front view, The roof is made from a long white length made to fit the posts, with large slopped grey roof tiles over them, remaining roof is made part of this and partly of part stud flat all joined together, they join on the front roof part and the holders that we on the white ceilings from earlier.
The partially seen attic has a wizards hat and more D+D drawing, and video camera, more finishing off round the outside of the building with stickers and slats, a chimney and vent. lastly a light brick is placed in the middle where the open space was created in the ceiling, this attaches to the roof and faces the letters on the wall, if you press the light brick gives the illusion of the letters lighting up, much like the series.
In Bag 6 has the missing boy of the gang, Will Byers, his outfit is matches the series well with his red and yellow jacket and blue pants/trousers. His face has two sides as per the rest, frightened and normal, but his hair the bowl cut design is new, hard to believe that this old hairstyle is a new design in lego, surprising to see it not done before, but it looks bang on to the character. The rest of the bag is a copy of bag 2 with the floor and rooms being mapped out with grey and blue, this time reversed so when its positioned it will mirror the normal.
Bag 7 has no mini figure and like bag focuses on one half, this time everything is grey and blue but still the same design as the normal house, just again flipped. This follows through to the bed, light posters that were all brightly coloured in the normal house. But with the ceiling being grey and placed on the top, there are slight additions around the house, these are plants and leaves, which uses the Limb element to show and to represent the upside-down better with its distorted feel.
Bag 8 continues the middle part of the house, with couch, lounge, letters etc..and the other side of the ground floor with the armchair etc.. but again these are all grey and blue and the furniture itself being black very different to the normal house, more limb parts for roots etc. are used and dotted around, Remember at this point the build is still the same as the first house but reversed. With the ceilings in place and the roof holders up aswell the attention turns outside, the light blue slats are used to deck the house along with the odd root coming out, and plant.
Again this is nice the colour has been changed and it does look different to the normal house, I just think the house being white for normal and blue and grey for upside down would have had a better feel to it. The porch area is done the same with the swing, bench and chairs.
Bag 9 continues like bag 5, porch posts, but this time grey are placed, they now have more roots around them using the whip element that wraps around, the roof is now a dark blue and built the same with the addition of more limb elements for plants and roots, across the middle is rope lights like the normal house but this time they are clear and no colour, with also there being no light brick as well(obviously.)
The rest of the outside slats are finished and use of stickers cover the grey supports, even the stickers have roots on them. The chimney and vent finishes of the roof as more limb elements dotted around the house as it’s completed, with the feel of the outside I would have prefered my detail outside on the upside-down part of the house.
Bag 10 and 11 are done together, which I don’t completely agree with, 11 or 12 already feels like it has the most piece count with additional bags and ones inside, but to add them together with two Minifigures as well means a lot of pieces n the table at once. I was generally ok with this as I’m used to creator sets but it did slow me down compared to the other bags, I don’t know why these weren’t broken down and remained into separate bags. Its easily done as this two are based on the two supporting trees.
However in these bags is the Demogorgon, which is an actual d&d monster, which I didn’t know, his figure ofcorse is completely custom and looks great, a nice touch underneath the open hed is a closed version should you wish to take the open one-off. The claws could be better but generally, these are fine and been used in normally sliver colour and weapons etc.. before.
The other Minifigure is Eleven (Elle to friends) with now three series several people will have an opinion of what she should wear, they opted for this look, blonde wig, pink dress and blue jacket, I don’t like the fold around dress element but I understand that’s how lego do dresses, I know many people would prefer the crew cut dark hair rough look, but to be fair in series one she is mainly in this type of disguise and stands out better than if they had gone the other way, lets be honest there not going to have her bleed out of her nose?
The next part is step 1 of probably the most challenging parts, a child would really struggle here and you may feel better if there’s two of you, we now clip the two houses together, floor to floor, they are done by 8 beams elements which are disguised at the end by smaller limps or the house etc itself, once connected its sturdy, but it is challenging to clip them as like me you are worried about breakage.
The two tree elements are actually pretty straight forward and not the most thrilling thing to build, they are identical and I built these simultaneously to speed up time, as it does feel like you are taking ages to do not a lot.
The tree is built up of interlocking pieces and technic pieces to add the sturdiness of it, the top and bottom of the tree which also act as platforms on the floor are designed in that way, both flat on top but the limp parts for the leaves are all at angles with roots hanging down from upside down etc. 3 large limp pieces are at the top to add the nice look to it, but these are covering up that flat support. In the middle are 4 ball joints, these correlate to the side of the house, these snap-on much like the beam joints did with the houses coming together.
Again! this step 2 is the most challenging part, this is more difficult than the first part as you are positioning the tree through the pre-made area and pushing hard to clip all 4 in, and I mean hard! which adds yet more worry! again this is a two-person part if I was you. But once you have done the colours match both ends nice and it seamlessly goings from upside down to normal both with the trees and the house.
The final parts are adding a couple more decorative pieces around the house and foundations to cover up what has happened, a poster of missing Barbara on the trees is a final great ouch, but also reminds me that I’m annoyed I don’t have her in mini-figure form.
Overall…
Overall it’s a great set, it’s unique and novel as it can be turned upside down for play and display, the detail is great with the interior and the ability to keep the car and bike in place when flipped. There are lots of nice references to the series, I understand some people will want more or different stuff, but this was based on series 1! thus why it has these characters, these clothes and this house, though I appreciate perhaps a couple of characters are missing, thus i would like a second set at some point but who knows.
Things have moved on in stranger things but this shouldn’t be held to account on this set, I’m not the biggest lover of Half houses but it works ok here, I realise there’s only so much you can do, especially as your doing it twice lol. In a way that’s the only negative, if you aren’t a big fan of stranger things there is a lot of replication, which for an average lego builder, they would get annoyed, the house is the same but reversed, the trees are the same.
But for me a fan, I’m fine with this set, its a really good set, lots of neat things, not my favourite set there’s been but still a good one and having something different like the ability to turn it over I since to see something different in the world of Lego.
