LEGO Red London Telephone Box (REVIEW)
The LEGO Ideas Red London Telephone Box turned out to be quite the interesting LEGO model, a display product at its core that does a lot more to me than the underwhelming Family Tree set I reviewed a few weeks ago. The iconicness of the K2 kiosk design is undeniable so it totally made sense in my opinion to turn into a LEGO set. The building instructions also do the model’s background history justice by going into less known details about it all that I was personally quite interested to know more about. Upon completion the model turned out to
be a lot bigger than I thought it would, a minifigure next to it doesn’t do too much for scale comparison, but maybe the latest modular building will so you can kinda see what I’m talking about right? The overall size of it, will fit most bookshelves as it isn’t very deep or too tall making it one of the best display LEGO sets being sold at the moment. It’s a bit niche and not comparable to the botanical collection but still great in my opinion. The model itself is made out of two parts as you can actually take
the phone booth out of the display base if you wish, not advertised as such but at least you know you have the option to do it, assuming you don’t like the base
flower pots done in the same style as the one sitting on the floor. There’s two metal posts down here and in the back a replica of a wrought iron fence, quite the repetitive build to do, but not that big to the point of boredom. The street sign is very fun with the word play referencing LEGO in some ways, like the Buildmore Road, or the City of Brickston. SC1 is a reference to the fan designers daughter initials, one of a few that can be found inside. Press kit images of the set show this whole thing as
an elaborate cellphone stand which in my opinion isn’t very practical to access, but this concept went as far as including a hole in the wall there for a charging cable to be able to go trough, but the way it’s done, at least for iphone chargers will damage your cord over time so I wouldn’t advise you to do it. Now the phone booth model does the real object justice I think, the back wall is kinda plain but then the 3 remaining sides have the glass windows all over, and the front facing door does have the door
handle as it should. At the top the rounded dome shapes were done relatively well I think, and in all four faces of the kiosk we can see 2 printed bricks, the one that reads telephone and the crown in the other. Again, it may look like a repetitive and boring build to do, which I personally am not a fan of as you might know, but this one was surprisingly enjoyable to do, as it wasn’t that big to bring me to the point of boredness. I do need to point out that with the door hinges the difference
in these red colored connectors when compared to the rest of the red colored pieces of the set is abysmal and not that great of a look for LEGO quality control. Opening the door will finally reveal the pay phone console itself with way too many stickers for the decorations, a loose phone book in a shelf down there and a couple signs. Love the one that references Legoland, and this one referencing LEGO ideas it seems though the phone number is the fan designer’s wedding date. Now during the building phase you’ll actually be given the choice of doing
this late twentieth century design, or the original 1920s version and depending on which one you choose, you’ll always be left with some spare parts. The original 1920’s while not being my favorite design does feature lots of cool references like this one referencing the Jazz Quartet as the trumpet here is the same one this guy has, under it a T.C. that got me real puzzled but turned out to be the fan designers sons initials, next to the LEGO ideas typewriter model or these emergency numbers here that are actually the product references of the LEGO Icons Police
Station and the Fire Brigade. But if all of that wasn’t enough, the model also includes a lamp at the top of the kiosk that we can light up by pushing this round tile outside. The way this whole assembly was done with a couple of sections being turned completely upside down was a pleasant surprise with how the building techniques turned out to be. The piece count of almost 1500 pieces for a set that retails for $115 was also a surprisingly good deal so besides the stickers, the terrible color of those connectors, and after the quality control
nightmare of the Orient Express, the terribly overpriced Polaroid camera or the underwhelming Family Tree, I’m happy to see the LEGO Ideas theme back on track with a model that unexpectedly positively surprised me.
