LEGO Ideas 21350 Jaws isn’t the biggest or most novel LEGO set of the year, but it is still – even unexpectedly – one of the very best.
Some of the best LEGO sets are great because they create a spectacle – they’re either based on something that makes for the sort of novelty that draws a smile and a crowd, or they are built to a scale that allows all manner of details, references, character and features to come together to form a complete masterpiece. There are any number of such sets released each year that you can picture right now.
And in either case such design approaches often make the most impact at point of reveal and release – they create sets that review well and, when it comes to the end of the year, they are LEGO sets that often take a majority of the spots in ‘best of the year’ lists. And deservedly so.
However, much like for our pick for the best LEGO set of 2023, one of our absolute favourites for 2024 isn’t the biggest, nor is it the most original idea. Coming in at £129.99 / $149.99 / €149.99 with 1,497 pieces and minifigures for Roy Scheider’s Chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss’s Matt Hooper and Robert Shaw’s shark hunter Sam Quint, 21350 Jaws is on paper as conventional as a successful Ideas set can be at the moment – offering up a mid-budget display-orientated piece based on an iconic moment from a famous film and intellectual property. It's a no-brainer for the LEGO Ideas team to pick up and develop, and pretty straightforward to translate into LEGO bricks – in all, an excuse to print some money.
Yet even with that cynical edge, at this size of set and for being based on something where everyone can picture what is going to be built before we have even seen it, 21350 Jaws delivers one of the best LEGO experiences of 2024 for taking every possible expectation and flipping it on its head. This is in spite of the fact that at first glance not a lot has actually changed from fan designer Jonny Campbell’s original submission, with the addition of a base to pull the set together and a slight colour change on the Orca the only major tweaks.
However, look more closely and you can begin to see what makes this final, official LEGO set so special, as it takes Jonny’s excellent work and refines it ever further. Other details across both the boat and shark begin to show what the LEGO Ideas team has built into the set from that already very stable starting point, and as you begin to spot them, all these little details will pull you in to find better understanding of exactly how this all comes together.
And it’s the only way to understand how it’s all built, because it won’t be how you may otherwise guess, and that’s the secret to what elevates 21350 Jaws to the top of almost all LEGO sets this year. It really rewards anyone who picks this up with a unique and explorative LEGO experience. Starting off in a standard manner with the base of the boat there are early hints at the unconventional as you begin to wrap the black and red finishing of the hull around the core structure in a way that the stern of the boat feels barely attached – fitting when you consider the climactic scene from Steven Spielberg’s film that this depicts.
Continuing into the cockpit/cabin, each segment of the tiny living quarters that Shaw, Quint and Brody squeeze into and share tales of their different scars is built separately and in directions that take you by surprise but that so wonderfully – and quite miraculously for the space available – fit together inside.
Where 21350 Jaws takes a creative turn, though, is in how the front end of the hull is put together, and you know the LEGO Ideas team are deliberately having fun at this point, almost playing with you by luring you into a false sense of what you are building and how, before turning everything around for a wonderful reveal at the last moment.
We won’t go into specifics because it’s something to enjoy in hand for the first time, but most significantly it’s a trick that demonstrates excellent parts selection and knowledge to achieve, as well as a keen understanding of the mathematical dimensions of LEGO as a creative medium. And it’s a trick repeated twice more across the set, both times in ways that will have you questioning your eyesight, your observation skills or both, for how what you thought was conventional LEGO building is indeed anything but. Our only hint – look at the window piece at the front of the cockpit and the two dark red angled plates above it. They are upside down.
Each time the build for 21350 Jaws does something unexpected it is not just for the fun of it (though a lot of fun it is), because it is immediately followed by instructions that make it make sense and give each technique purpose and meaning. Not only are you taught something cool that you’ve likely never tried before, but you're given deeper understanding to exactly how such a new trick can be used, in a way that opens a completely different direction of imaginative thought.
Once the boat is built you may feel like the best is over and indeed it is quite deep into building the shark until it comes into focus and the realism that is captured begins to show, and the techniques to finalise some of the more important aspects such as the shaping of the jaw come into play. But those techniques are just as novel and interesting to take in, before you really get to play around with the final model and place the top two-thirds of the shark in the water and the boat at a nice angle like it’s about to sail out of the black-edged display board.
21350 Jaws looks great when finished and contains all the different nods and details to the tense third act of Jaws that anyone who has watched that film would enjoy, as first and foremost the LEGO set delivers on looking the part. The action that is built into the final model is such that you can’t help but be pulled back into the set, as it takes Jonny Campbell’s two models designed in his fan submission and gets them interacting with each other in the water midway through the dramatic clash.
And then, for everything that is there in front of you to enjoy in the long term, the experience of how it all came together and the different ways that it managed to surprise you along the way will stay with you just as long. It’s stayed with us over the course of a year that has seen us build very many excellent LEGO sets and it remains one of the stand-out LEGO experiences of the past 12 months. If there’s one LEGO set to recommend seeing out 2024 with, it’s LEGO Ideas 21350 Jaws.
This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes.
This feature is part of our wider look back over 2024 in LEGO. Head here for more, including our top 10 sets of the year, deep dives into specific sets and strategies, and reflections on a year in LEGO Space.
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