The newly dubbed Fairground Collection began with The Mixer, although there was a carousel released back in 2009 and technically, the subtheme of sets didn’t gain the Fairground Collection moniker until the recent Haunted House. To confuse matters more the various Fairground ride sets have been released under the Creator Expert, Adults Welcome/18+ and now LEGO Icons theming. But despite their branding, the set has one thing in common, they all recreate the fun of the fair with increasingly elaborate buildable rides. This July the theme park thrills return with one of the tallest LEGO sets ever created. Dare you face the drop of The Loop? Is the latest addition to the Fairground Collection worth a ride? Here’s a closer look at the LEGO ICONS Fairground Collection Loop Roller Coaster. The Loop Coaster will launch on July 5th, with early VIP access from July 1st.
A little note on the photos for this set, it’s so big I’ve struggled to get images I’m 100% happy with so apologies for those included in this review, hopefully, they still manage to show some of the detail and size of the set.
Product Details
Take your seat. It’s time to relive the thrills of your favourite rollercoaster rides. But wait – there’s no rush. This LEGO® Loop Coaster (10303) is a building project for adults. So take your time crafting all the details of this functional roller coaster model.
Twists and turns
The gravity-driven roller coaster comes with 1 train and a boarding station with opening barriers and a control panel. Lower the bars to secure the riders into the roller coaster carriages. Then release the brake to send the train to the foot of the elevator lift. Activate the elevator lift and enjoy the ride as the carriages whizz through the roller coaster’s loops and turns. Upgrade the coaster with LEGO Powered Up (available separately) for a motorised elevator lift. Accessories include a park bench with a map, balloon cart, pretzel cart, hot-dog stand and height marker.
- Set Name: Loop Coaster
- Set Number: 10303
- Pieces: 3756
- RRP: £344.99/$399.99/399.99€
- Number of Bags: Bags x 15 + loose elements
- Stickers: 1 sheet
- Minifigures: Ride operator, balloon seller, pretzel seller, hot-dog seller, a grandma, a young boy, and 5 riders
- Instructions: Booklet x 1 + LEGO Building Instructions App
- Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & General Release From July 1st (VIP Early Access)
I’ve built a lot of LEGO sets over the last few years. I had the pleasure of constructing sets of all sorts of sizes from a simple minifigure to the UCS Millennium Falcon. Obviously, the larger sets offer the biggest challenge but even those sets wouldn’t prepare me for The Loop. It’s absolutely monstrously huge, that’s in terms of its scale and the build. The box is jam-packed with bags of elements, there are 15 build steps, with each one having multiple bags of bricks as well as additional elements such as plates and pieces of coaster track.
You’re guided through the build with a single and extremely weighty instructions booklet, this comes in a new style cardboard envelope, replacing the plastic wrapping previously used. You’ll also find a sheet of stickers in there as well. The instructions give a nice overview of the sets included in the Fairground Collection. With a timeline of their releases highlighting each build beginning with The Mixer. I do enjoy it when the instructions have extra things in them like this. But of course, the instructions have a more important purpose – building the set.
The build begins in a fairly tame manner, with a few minifigures and some accessories including a balloon cart, hot dog stand, pretzel cart and a bench with a theme park map on it, which you’ll notice, features some previous fairground-themed sets. You’d expect to find these things at a Fairground or theme park. Those will not prepare you for what’s to come.
Strap yourself in as the build experience is something else. It begins with the base of the ride. This alone has a massive footprint, which is made from a series of large plates. These are two plates thick in most places, which gives the base its much-needed sturdiness without being too heavy or too flimsy. I also like that most of the corners are rounded off, it gives it a much more visually pleasing finish. The base does have a few other little flourishes including a few plants and the entrance of the ride, but the purpose of much of the base is to provide the foundations for the massive structure which creates the coaster.
The right side of the base area features a few small pillars and beams, which hold much of the coaster track including two loops. Some sections of the track are also held in place with additional beams to anchor them in place and give them a little more stability. Obviously, this isn’t the first LEGO Roller Coaster, in fact, a few other sets have featured the track elements in various ways. But new pieces have been created in order to make the track layout work. They include a new curved piece for the loop section.
Even at this stage with so much built, the set is nowhere near being complete. With this being a drop coaster it needs a tall tower to be launched from and the structure feature on the Loop is a significant piece of LEGO construction. It’s not the tallest LEGO set, that honour remains with the Saturn V rocket, but this isn’t far off. The frame-like structure which makes the tower is almost akin to a small ladder. Even when it’s not connected to the base, it’s an imposing sight. Even more so once secured to the base. This is quite unusual as it sort of sits on a couple of foundations but doesn’t physically connect via clutch power. Instead, it’s held in place by small Technic beams and pins. The engineering which has gone into this coaster must almost be on par with a real coaster. Getting every price on the track to line up is an impressive feat in itself. This is really evident on the curve of the drop. Two sections of curved track are used back to back, with the required amount of elements in between them to make sure they line up with the rest of the track.
Once the framing of the tower is complete and in place, there’s still another significant part to build and it’s rather important has it house the mechanism which raises the platform carrying the coaster carriages. This particular part of the build has a lot of repetition including a number of flat tiles, an alternating pattern of triangular plates and a stupendously long chain featuring over 250 elements. Protip, create the chain in sections of 10 as it’s much easier to count them up and make sure you have the required amount. Keeping count of them as one long chain is impossible. You’ll notice a section of wider chain links. These help to pull up the coaster’s carriage lift. Once it reaches the top, the coaster train should continue along the track and soon after the lift drops back to the bottom ready to receive the carriages again. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, the ride didn’t go to plan. The lift reached the top, but it’s as if it didn’t go up far enough for gravity to take effect and the carriages to move back onto the track. I’ve triple-checked everything and all pieces appear to be connected correctly so I’m not too sure what the issue or solution is for this.
Update: I was sure something must be wrong with my build of the set so I’ve been playing around with it since writing my review. Everything was built correctly but the carriages wouldn’t move from the lift platform to the rest of the track. I’ve found the solution, the lift platform has a counterweight which is mounted on a rail track on the back of the tower. The instructions tell you to line it up with a certain point on the tower. Despite this being done as shown, it still wasn’t working as intended. However, I found that with the lift at the top, if you loosen or tighten the string on the counterweight so that the carriages depart as intended, that completely solves the problem. Still an annoyance but it does mean the set does work perfectly.
Despite this slight but annoying issue, the mechanism which powers the coaster is quite clever. The handle turns and powers the chain, but it also connects to a tyre near the ride station, this helps to nudge the carriages along. There’s also a small barrier, which prevents the carriages from moving forwards until the lift is back into position. You can also add Powered Up elements to automate the ride. You’ll need motor 88013 and battery box 88015. They add an additional cost to an already pricey set. In all honesty, it will have little impact. Sure you don’t have to crank the handle but not sure that’s worth over £55 plus batteries for then pleasure.
Even with the track complete and fully connected, there’s still the rides embankment station to build. This is actually a really cool build as it uses track beams as the roofing to the station. This ties nicely into the track used in the ride. The station features a number of screens, displaying snapshots of the riders and a rogue squirrel. It’s just a cool little build and adds a unique feature to the ride. The only thing it’s missing is the ride’s logo, which has been incorporated into the tower of the ride.
As mentioned above, the set contains various minifigures, with a few more found in the final stages of the build. Overall, they provide a mix of vendors, staff and visitors. Although they don’t appear to offer anything super exciting, I do like that some of the visitors have wacky hair and outfits. With a mix of outfits and faces, many of which have been used before with a few new pieces as well. It’s a shame there isn’t a theme park nut within their ranks, kitting out in clothing featuring the ride’s logo. That would have been fun.
With the set being so big it’s been a little iffy trying to get any decent images and as I’ve built I’ve shared a few showing the scale of the set compared to BricksFanz very own Chief of Biscuit Procurement – Lola. Often these images are more popular than the actual reviews, so here are a few behind the scene shots. Many of which she Lola looking suitably confused.
Review Round-up
I’ve had the pleasure of building some of the other Fairground Collection sets, but this is my first coaster and it was certainly an experience. The scale alone is impressive, some sections are amazingly huge. How they all fit together to create the complete structure and how they perfectly combine to create the ride is impressive. It’s slightly let down by the ability to inadvertently be put together slightly wrong. As much as it’s a technical and visual feat, its scale is a little too much in all honesty. You will need a fairly large area to display it. This will also make it tricky to incorporate into larger displays and it’s not the easiest thing to move around.
For
+ It’s an incredible build experience
+ The engineering of the set is outstanding
Against
– Almost impossible to display
– Can easily be constructed ‘incorrectly’
– Very pricey even more so when adding powered functions
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This set was provided to BricksFanz by the LEGO Group for purposes of review. The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group. Providing a set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
10th July 2022
May I ask which powered up codes are needed to automate the set?
10th July 2022
They are noted in the review but you’ll find direct links to them here