Back in 1982 Disney Pictures released one of their most ambitious movies yet, TRON told the story of a computer programmer who is transported inside the virtual reality world of a mainframe computer, where he interacts with programs in his attempt to escape and get back to the real world. Although the movie wasn’t a huge hit when it was originally released, it soon became a cult classic. Peoples love of the TRON universe prompted Disney to begin work on a sequel. TRON: Legacy was released in 2010 and was just as stylised as its predecessor. Legacy returned to the computerised world known as the Grid. Although both films looked vastly different there is one iconic aspect of both, which has captured the imagination of many – the Light Cycle. Which is the focus of the latest LEGO® Ideas set. Based on an original project idea by UK-based LEGO fans The BrickBros UK. The brothers love of TRON: Legacy inspired them to create a LEGO Ideas project based on the movie. We’ve headed into the mainframe and battled the programs to bring you our latest LEGO set review. Get ready to go back to the Grid.
Product Details
Build, play and display with this futuristic LEGO® Ideas 21314 TRON: Legacy set from Disney, featuring 2 Light Cycles, each with minifigure seats and translucent-colored light-style elements, plus a divisible TRON grid with attachment points for the vehicles. Use the grid as a display base for the Light Cycles or split it in 2 to recreate the chase scene from Disney’s TRON: Legacy movie. Alternatively, stage an Identity Disc battle between the 3 included LEGO minifigures—Sam Flynn, Quorra and Rinzler—on the grid. This construction toy includes a booklet with information about its fan creator and LEGO designers, plus the lowdown on Disney’s TRON: Legacy movie and its main characters.
- Set Name: TRON: Legacy
- Set Number: 21314
- Pieces: 230
- RRP: £29.99
- Fan Builder: The BrickBros UK
- Measurements: Each Light Cycle measures over 5cm high, 17cm long & 4cm wide. Display base measures over 22cm wide & 9cm deep
- Availability: LEGO Brand Retail Store & shop.LEGO.com
Journey to 10k
Downloading from Devon, England, brothers Drew and Tom are the talented fan designers behind the LEGO® Ideas Tron: Legacy set. Tom and Drew’s small childhood collection of LEGO bricks inspired them to come up with their own scenarios and builds. In designing their LEGO Ideas project, “We went through several models before settling on a design we both liked. We wanted to get the scale of the Light Cycle to minifigure right, and the overall colour scheme had to reflect the Tron feel.”
The project was submitted in November 2015 and took about a year and a half to get to the 10,000 supporters. After hitting the required 10,000 votes the project was officially announced as the next LEGO Ideas set in November 2017. Since the set has been transformed into the set you can see more of below by LEGO Designers (and rogue programs) Junya Suzuki and Samuel Johnson, along with LEGO Graphic Designer Mark Tranter.
The Build
The LEGO Ideas platform has given us some pretty varied sets over the last few years, especially recently with the likes of the Saturn V, Old Fishing Store and the most recent, the Ship in a Bottle. The 21st LEGO Ideas set scales things back a little compared to those, but just because it’s a little more compact, doesn’t mean it scrimps on creativity. In fact the set actually bucks the trend compared to most Ideas sets. Once the fan design goes through LEGO Design process, it’s not that unusual for it to be scaled back a little, here we get two bikes instead of one, two additional minifigures and a slightly less intricate display base.
The build itself is quite simplistic with only two bags of elements, which translates into three main sections, beginning with the display base. This represents a section of the futuristic world of Tron, known as the Grid, matching the aesthetics of the movie perfectly. The Grid is made up of a series of plates and tiles, with two separate sections pieced together with a couple of tiles. The use of Dark Azur plates topped with black tiles and trans-blue elements works really well and almost gives off the neon glow of the mainframe.
Both sections of the display plate feature a couple of single stud topped 1×2 plates, these can be used to place the minifigures in an epic Identity Disc battle more are better suited to displaying the Light Cycles. I say better suited as there is a slight issue, when you place the Light Cycles on the base, you’ll notice there don’t sit flush. This is a combinations of limited points of connection and the fact the wheels aren’t alined with the 1×8 plate which anchors each Light Cycle.
The slight oversight isn’t a major issue and despite not being ‘fully’ connected the Light Cycles still stay stuck to the display place, even when being held upside down, should you wish to do so, it’s ok we won’t question your display choices. Anyhoo although the Grid section is a little different from the original project design I think I prefer this version. The world of TRON especially in the 2010 sequel, is very sleek and minimalistic, which is nicely captured in this simple part of the build.
The rest of the build concentrates on the Light Cycles, as mentioned above the set includes two of them. Although they are trimmed in different colours to represent the two different programs, the builds are identical. The Light Cycle is a little more slimlined compared to the one originally submitted design. In fact although it’s based on the Legacy version of the vehicle, the LEGO versions have an air of 1982 ones about them, although probably not intentionally.
There are a nice selection of parts used including some recently released pieces including both right and left 45 degree bow plates, transparent banner elements and a couple of transparent round plates, which have print detail to help blend them into the body of the bike. The ‘wheels’ can be turned although movement is quite limited, partly due to have they are connected together and the alignment to the base of the bike. The Light Cycles are a decent LEGO representation of their on-screen counterpart, although there are a few little niggles such has the minimal use of grey elements. Some are necessary due to only being available in that particular shade. However the most grating use of parts is the Light Cycles accelerator handles, these are grey instead of black. The element is still in use in black, as it has featured in a number of 2018 sets already, so it’s a shame it hasn’t been used here.
One of the most fun inclusions in the set is the Light Cycle’s light trail, these are so simple using just a banner piece which is has been used quite a lot in the NEXO KNIGHTS range of late. The light trails are almost as iconic as the cycles themselves and the banner pieces are the perfect element to recreate them. They look great when the Light Cycles are on the display plate, thanks to how they are staggered.
The Minifgures
The set includes a trio of minifigures based on three main characters from TRON: Legacy – Sam Flynn, son of the original movie’s main character. Quorra, an advantaged program who helps Sam on the Grid and Rinzler, Clu’s primary enforcer, who was originally known as Tron, before being re-purposed by Clu. Each minifigure includes a Identity Disc, which is a 2×2 round tile that has a hole in the centre of it. This combined with the print detail adds a nice bit of detail to each character and they can be placed on the back of the minifigures, with Rinzler using a fairly rare element officially called the Angle Plate with Snap, this is a neck piece with part of a Technic pin on it, this allows the two Identity Discs to be clipped on it.
The print detail on each character is really well done in particular Rinzler, who’s darker suit is trimmed with slight splashes of orange and uses a recoloured version of the newer Iron Man helmet. Oddly I’m not a fan of the piece when used on Iron Man, but the piece is perfect for the character and makes Rinzler the sets best minifigure.
Both Sam and Quorra have alternate facial expressions, with the latter also including a sword along with her Identity Disc. Sam includes both a hair piece and a rather cool little helmet, which is mixture of a classic helmet piece and a transparent visor, normally used on Space Shuttle astronauts. Just like Rinzler, this is the perfect LEGO representation of what is seen in the movie. It’s nice the set includes three minifigures although Quorra, feel a little like a spare part has she isn’t really incorporated into the rest of the set, but makes sense in relation to the scene in the movie on which the set is mainly based upon.
Overall
TRON may not be a current brand, but it has a dedicated fan base, who helped the set to reach 10k in the first place and LEGO Ideas is the perfect platform to allow fun little sets like this to be made. Although it’s a more substantial set when compared to the original fan design, it’s still a fairly small set and so doesn’t take that much building. However a set doesn’t need to keep you building for hours to be impressive, it makes a nice little display piece and it will be one of sets that will become a collectors piece in years to come, especially if TRON ever appears on the big screen again There are a couple of questionable design choices such as the grey handles and the slight gap between the bottom of the Light Cycle and the Grid section. Finally a special mention must go to the first few pages of the instruction booklet, not only do we get to learn a little more about the fan designers and the movie we also get an impressive image of the LEGO Designers recreating the TRON movie poster. 
Set 21314: TRON: Legacy will be available exclusively from LEGO Brand Retail Stores and shop.LEGO.com from March 31st. Thanks to the LEGO community engagement team for sending us the set to review. The opinions express within this review are those of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group.
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