Posted By Adam White on Feb 16, 2019 | 2 comments

Back in the 60s one family were the most thing on TV at the time, a modern stone age family no less. Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones followed the daily adventures of Fred, Wilma and their family, along with their neighbours Betty and Barney. The show originally began as a situation comedy style animated show, which was hoped to capture a adult audience as well as kids. Because of that the show has become a cult legend and paved the way for other animated shows such as the long running Simpsons. Now The Flintstones are the inspiration for the latest LEGO® Ideas set. Originally submitted to the Ideas platform by fan builder Andrew Clark, this latest LEGO set to feature a brand new IP for LEGO and another from Warner Bros. But how does the set compare to the original project and is it fun to build? There’s only one thing to Yabba Dabba Doo and that’s take a closer look.

Product Description

Enjoy modern Stone Age suburban life in Bedrock with this LEGO® Ideas 21316 The Flintstones collectible toy! A wonderfully nostalgic building toy, it features The Flintstones house and their iconic family car. The detailed house has a removable roof for easy play, an opening front door, sofa, TV, coffee table, bowling ball and bowling pin elements, plus a green garden baseplate with a buildable palm tree. Build your own Flintstones vehicle that seats 4 minifigures and features a new-for-March-2019 fabric car roof element and an attachable dinosaur rib for creative play. The first animated TV series ever to be aired in a prime-time slot, The Flintstones cartoon was first broadcast in America in 1960 and has become an enduring family favorite around the world. Recreate hilarious scenes with the included cartoon character minifigures of Fred Flintstone, wife Wilma Flintstone and their friends Barney and Betty Rubble, or simply build and display this instant classic LEGO Ideas model.

• Set Name: The Flintstones
• Set Number: 21316
• Pieces: 748
• RRP: £54.99
• Measurements: 12cm high, 16cm wide and 12cm deep
• Availability: Exclusive to LEGO Brand Retail Stores & shop.LEGO.com

set image

Journey To 10K

Fan builder Andrew Clark is no stranger to LEGO Ideas, he’s the brains behind the LEGO Ideas Doctor Who set. His project based on The Flintstones was first added to LEGO Ideas back in early 2017 and it was announced has one of the upcoming new LEGO Ideas sets in October of last year. Interestingly there is an odd connection between both of Andy’s sets. In the game LEGO Dimensions, the TARDIS could be used to travel back in time to Bedrock, where you could visit a digital LEGO recreation of the Flintstones house. You can learn more about Andy, as well as the LEGO Designer behind the retail version and a little history of the show, inside the sets instruction booklet.

The Build

Split across six numbered bags, the build begins with the Flintstones iconic stone-age car. This foot-powered car, is a unique looking vehicle, made from two stone rollers, some wooden beams and a bit of animal fur. Not the easier things to recreate with LEGO elements, but somehow the original design and the final model manages to pull it off. The rounded wall elements are the perfect pieces for the wheels, both connected by a couple of Technic pin rods. These are hidden by a printed 2×2 round tile which looks like the end of a cut log.

The interior is mainly white and roomy enough to seat all four Minifigures, the ‘dashboard’ area is built on a trio of hinge elements, which allows it to be tilted forward and allowing more room to fit in the driver and a passenger. The same element used on the wheel hubs, doubles up as a steering wheel. The canopy section is uses Technic friction hinge elements to create the roof section. Unfortunately these are grey coloured so break up the brown elements, which is a shame. A brand new material piece is used for the roof, this is cleverly attached to a couple of rods and held in place with a couple of plates with shafts. If it wasn’t for those grey hinges it would be perfect. I would’ve also been nice if the floor of the car was open, to allow for a little foot power. But if this was built into the car, it would of make it unstable and you wouldn’t be able to place the Minifigures correctly. Although not actually a part of the car, the set includes a comically large rack of ribs, which can be placed on the side of the car, just like in the cartoon.

Although Bedrock was a large place, much of the action took place in the Flintstones family home. Which is also the focus of this set. The house comprises of the front of the house, side walls, a removable roof and an open plan back so you can access the interior of the house. Much of the building is made from a seemingly mismatched selection of light grey bricks. Admittingly under the bright lights of my photo box, it makes the joins look at little in your face but when you see the set in person, you’ll see how well they actually connect together to create a pretty good recreation of what’s seen in the cartoon.

As with many sets born from the LEGO Ideas platform, there are a number of changes between the original project submission and the set we see here. The fan built version used a lot more rounded parts to give the impression of large stone boulders, but I have to say I prefer the approach in this version. It looks a lot more of like the cartoon version and uses plate sections to give it a more rounded look on the sides. One of my favourite sections of the house is the chimney, not only does it look great, it’s also fun to build. Inside the stack is a varied selection of 2×2 and 1×2 bricks, which make the perfect surface to connect a trio of plates, adorned by a patterned spread of various flat tiles. Just behind the chimney is a palm tree, mounted upon a hinge brick, which allows it to angled nicely against the building.

One of the key elements of the house is its angled roof. Now creating angled sections like this isn’t easy to do with LEGO elements, but it’s actually been simply achieved by a stud and an angled plate. The roof section is built independently of the main body of the house and thanks to those to points on the lip of the house, it snuggly and quite firmly fits to the shell of the house, that’s without any clutch power. Being able to remove the roof, give you better access to the inside of the house. Although the it’s quite a small area, the room expands beyond the inner section of the house, thanks to the couple of 6 x 8 plates, connection to the house by a couple of hinges. This allows them to swung out to expand the set.

As mentioned above it is a small area, which feels a little cramped, but it does have some fun little features. Inside the house is a brick-built couch, a little coffee table, which uses the Unikitty Collectible Figures baseplate, and a cool little retro style TV. Couple with printed screen. The two sections which can be opened out, feature a cute little shell phone, complete with white coloured croissant for the receiver. On the opposite side is lamp and a wooden box featuring Fred’s bowling gear.

The set features some fun little builds, which you can see in more detail below and there isn’t a single sticker in sight. All graphic detail is entirely printed. The TV screen is printed and also gives a clue as to why the set doesn’t include Dino, who is reported missing on the local news. A picture on the wall of a woolly mammoth is also a nice printed piece. But the most impressive printed piece is a curve topped 1×4 brick, used to create the Flintstones mailbox. This has the Flintstones name ‘engraved’ in it. I was expecting this to be a sticker but I was pleasantly wrong. Other printed pieces include the parts on the car and a couple of pairs of tiger-print curtains.

The Minifigures

The Flintstones set features four Minifigures, namely Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their neighbours Barney and Betty Rubble. As with many animated characters, they have a unique look that can be difficult to translate into the standard Minifigure form. For example the most recent Incredibles 2 sets just ‘normal’ Minifigures elements to create the characters, where as the Simpsons Minifigures, made use of unique new moulded heads, for every character. For the Flintstones characters, standard Minifigures have been used and they maintain the print standards as well, so no noses. Admittedly these make the characters look a little odd, but I prefer them in this style.

Fred and Barney are fairly similar, with both characters having almost identical faces and the same hairpiece as Emmet wears, in different colours. They are also of wearing their highly recognisable outfits. So Fred is sporting is orange and black animal print tabard and Barney is in his brown one. My one gripe with Barney is his legs. They should have been either the original short legs or the newer ‘teen’ legs to make him shorter than Fred. This is a key characteristics of the character and a big missed opportunity.

The ladies fair a little better, not only does Betty and Wilma have the perfect hair pieces for the character’s look, they both have double facial expressions. I was expecting them both to have material skirts, but their dresses have been achieved with a mixture of printing and the recently introduced dual-molded legs.

Overall

The Flintstones maybe an odd choice for a LEGO set, it’s no longer on TV so most kids will probably be unfamiliar with the show and its history. So I’d definitely say the set is aimed towards older LEGO fans. That being said it’s not a complex build but I quite enjoyed building it. I like how the building has been give texture thanks to layered plates and the chimney is great. I was expecting the roof to fall off just by looking at it, but I’m surprised how well it remains in place considering it’s not actually connected to anything. These all help to give the set a little character. The car is a decent representation of the what’s seen in the cartoon, abielt with a few tweaks to make it work with LEGO elements.

I love all the little details inside the house, particularly the TV and the telephone. It’s also nice to have all graphic elements as printed pieces. I also like the Minifigures, I’ve seen people complain about the faces, but Minifigures don’t have noses, so I like that the LEGO Designer have chosen to stick to that tradition with these characters. The overall look of all the characters make them easily recognizable as who they are meant to be, it certainly would have been nice if Barney was a little shorter. Although the set doesn’t feature all the elements included in the original Ideas project, what has been included makes for a unique set. One that is fun to build, makes a nice display piece and will most likely become a collectors item, thanks to its unique subject matter. Plus the set features one of the new teal brick separators, which is a nice added bonus.

This set was provided via The LEGO Group for free for the purposes of review. The thoughts and opinions of the set reflect those of BricksFanz and not that of the LEGO Group.