Posted By Adam White on Jan 20, 2020 | 2 comments

Throughout their long history, Manchester United Football Club has won numerous trophies and titles, it’s this success which has lead them to have supporters across the world. In fact, they have one of the largest amount of supporters for any sports team and they are one of the only UK teams to rank in the top ten sports brands. This is probably why their stadium has been chosen to be immortalized in LEGO bricks for the LEGO Creator Expert set. This is the first time a brick-built sports ground as been created by LEGO. Old Trafford celebrates its 110th anniversary this year and to mark the occasion you can build the ‘Theater of Dreams’ for yourself. With over 3890 pieces and a fairly hefty price tag to match, you could be asking if Old Trafford is worth picking up? Well, I’ve built it and this is my review.

Product Description

Manchester United fans will love building this big LEGO® set model of Old Trafford (10272) to show their allegiance to one of the world’s most famous football clubs. The building set for this LEGO football stadium provides a fun challenge to create a spectacular showpiece model. The ultimate Manchester United gift Manchester United fans can show off this Old Trafford replica at home or the office. New for February 2020, this LEGO® Creator sports set coincides with the stadium’s 110th anniversary. This building kit for adults features several evocative details including the players’ tunnel and the statue of the United Trinity. Bring to life your passions with advanced LEGO® sets! LEGO® Creator Expert advanced building sets allow adults to construct models based on some of their biggest passions, including cars, buildings and stadiums. Once the challenging and fun building experience is complete, these collector models from building bricks make an eye-catching display at home or the office.

• Set Name: Old Trafford – Manchester United
• Set Number: 10272
• Pieces: 3898
• RRP: £249.99/$299.99/269.99€
• Measurements: measures 18.5cm high, 47cm long and 39cm wide
• Availability: LEGO Brand Store, LEGO.com & LEGO retailers

The Instructions

The instructions are a key part of many LEGO sets, but especially so for these large-scale sets. Old Trafford is steeped in history, playing a major part in Manchester United’s successes. The instructions for the set include a nice little timeline of key events relating to both the club and the ground this set recreates. There is also a small section devoted to each part of the build. As the set is modular, each stand or area of the stadium you complete is preceded by a brief section of its history and a few fun facts. These informative insights included in the instructions are a welcomed addition, for both fans of the club and those merely interested in the build. Hey, there is even a mention of Leicester City in there.

The Build

The build is split across 22 numbered bags and at nearly 4000 pieces, each of these has plenty of elements in them. The stadium is split into five main sections – the four parts of the stands and the pitch which is where the build begins. This is a fairly simple section, with a number of printed pieces used to make show the markings as well as a lovely patterned pitch. There are even two transparent wall 1×3 wall elements which have a tiny net printed on them to represent each goal. The base of the pitch is made from a series of Technic bricks, with the holes used as connections points for the various sections of the stadium.

The stadium is split into four main quadrants – Sir Alex Ferguson Stand, Sir Bobby Charlton Stand, the East Stand, and the Stretford End. As the stadium is a modular build, each of these areas of the ground are built independently from each other and begins with the two smaller stands – the East Stand and Stretford End. These are very similar in their builds. With an impressive internal structure holding up a series of textured 1×2 bricks to represent the seating areas of the stands.

The only difference between the two stands is the exterior sections. Stretford End has a simple series of columns. But the East Stand has a vast blue-hued bank of glass, with a statue of Sir Matt Busby standing proud under the Manchester United sign. In LEGO form this is a tiny black Minifigure trophy. This is the image you often see on the ground during TV reports.

The roof section on both these stands looks great, thanks to all the various bars and clips elements, although building them is a little repetitive. But I do like how they connect to the rest of the roof structure, perfectly matching the actual stadium. Various details are added to the stands, both inside and out, thanks to stickers. These include a few pitch side hoardings, the names on the stand and the branding on the seats. These are the most daunting of the stickers but are actually really easy to apply. Admittingly some of the pieces could have been printed.

Much of the build is focused around the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand, which just so happens to be the largest stand of Old Trafford. The same system of textured 1×3 bricks are used to create the seats, along with more stickers. Once again the internal structure is really interesting and it does a great job of holding the seating sections up. There are three tiers of seating in the part of the stadium, although once the roof is attached, it’s hard to see the topmost section. The roof is an opposing section to add to the rest of the stand, it’s quite weighty and sits nicely once clipped to the back of the stand. It’s not until you add all the roof beams does it feel a lot more sturdy.

On the exterior of the stand are more of those blue windows, similar to the ones found on the East Stand. These frame another tiny stature, this one represents Sir Alex Ferguson and uses the same tiny black Minifigure trophy element. I like how all the turnstiles are represented with gaps under the stand and in between the concrete columns. I really like the large white fin sections, either side of the stand. These are connected in an unusual way, but the result is worth it.

The final section you build is the smaller Sir Bobby Charlton Stand. This is the lowest section of the stand and has the least amount of detail on the exterior. Despite that, it’s another great looking, especially the roof. This may not be as elaborate as the rest of the stadium, but it does feature a couple of fun new elements in the form of transparent curved bricks. These give the roof a great finish, especially when combined with the various curved bow bricks. This part of the ground also fits nicely with the pitch, having both the original entrance to the pitch, dead center of the stand and the tunnel used by players now, in the right corner of the pitch.

The outer section is very plain compared to the rest of the stadium, but it does feature a mini team bus and the Munich Clock, with commemorates the Munich Air Disaster of 1958, in which some members of the United squad lost their lives. The clock is permanently frozen at 3:04, which is shown on the stickered clock faces. Finally, there is a tiny statue known as the United Trinity. These once again make use of the Minifigure trophy pieces. I like that it has been included but it would have been nice have it actually connected to the stadium instead of as a completely separate piece. I understand it would change the footprint of the stadium, but it would have just made more sense, than being a random separate bit.

Each section of the ground connects to the pitch via a series of Technic pins. The smaller stand makes a solid connection but the larger stands are connected via the cross axis end of the pins. These offers absolutely no connection grip, although it may help when taking the sections apart, it also means the stadium overall is very unstable. You can just about move the whole thing as one piece, but it certainly isn’t very sturdy. The set is meant to be a display piece, so I doubt it would be moved around much, still, the connection points could certainly have been a lot more stable on the larger parts of the build.

Overall

I’m not a supporter of Manchester United, my sporting loyalty lies with Leicester City (who are probably just as famous worldwide after their amazing Premier League win and devastating helicopter crash) even so I understand the importance of the club on a global scale. I certainly wouldn’t have gone and bought the set, but I’m actually glad I got to review it. The build is genuinely very impressive and I found myself gladly ripping open another bag of bricks, just to see how the section I was building would take shape. I really like the modular nature of the set, as it is a rather large build, which would become rather annoying to construct if it was all one mass. Sure there are many stickers included and some of the pieces could have been printed, especially considering both the pitch and turnstile doors are printed, even those tiny goals have nets printed on them. On the flip side, some stickers work better on some elements, as they look a little like football ground signage. I personally really enjoyed the build, it has some great techniques under the hood, all of which are very well hidden once the cladding of the seating and the exterior is added. I may not support the team, but I definitely like the LEGO version of their stadium. The issue of how sturdy the whole thing is a little disappointing, but you could easily add a few Technic pins of your own should you wish for it to be held together a little better. Is it worth the price tag? Hard to say, I would certainly think this is a unique way for Manchester United loving LEGO fans to express their love of the club. But it’s also an impressive set build for non-football loving LEGO fans.

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 the set for free does not guarantee a favorable opinion of the set.

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