I ordered this set for the fun of building and to display the set. For those purposes, the ISS set was a great product. The only drawback would be if you wanted to actually play with it. There are so many odd small pieces jutting off the main fuselage that I routinely knock multiple pieces off when i try to move or adjust it. When I first finished building it and taking a couple pics I went to put it up on the display shelf I'd selected. Unfortunately I misjudged the space and long story short, a slight bump against another object and I had to spend another 20 mins finding where the dropped pieces belonged. I don't meant to sound nitpicky but it's the type of item you put up for display and don't touch. That's the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

Overall the build experience was challenging but very fun! It looks amazing, and aside from the fragility, it's an awesome homage to our longest running international space collaboration in the name of science and all humanity rather than individual sovereign prosperity!

I highly recommend this set for anyone that is a fan of space exploration. Next I want to get the space shuttle and Saturn V sets if they ever come back into stock!

A fun build, plus so much more

I have always been intrigued to watch the ISS (International Space Station) fly over my house, so when I saw this Lego Idea in a magazine, it was an impulse buy.

I have not played with Lego for more years than I will admit to, so had no idea what I was letting myself in for.

It arrived in a beautiful box, full of pictures of the finished product, and inside were 6 plastic bags, each full of a multitude of tiny LEGO parts in all shapes and sizes. Plus a nearly A4 sized booklet with 100 pages of instructions!

There are 6 stages of completion, so I did one each day. It certainly took concentration to ensure I was adding the pieces correctly, and was fun to see it grow. Finger dexterity and a steady hand are required to add some of the fiddly parts. Rectifying a mistake was a bit tricky if there was much to take apart. I soon learnt to really be careful to ensure I was getting it right!

The model stands on its own stand, though needs careful handling to ensure bits don’t fall off!

I loved this. Having read Endurance by Scott Kelly, about his year in space, my interest in the ISS has grown, so putting this together was fun and informative. As a result of this LEGO project I have now started a free MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) on An Introduction to Human Space Flight. I am keen to know more about the model I have built – like where the living quarters are, what the various parts purpose are etc, so I anticipate spending hours on the NASA site finding out more.

5* from me, as by following the instructions carefully it assembled well and relatively simply. All the parts were present (thank goodness), and the instructions were clear and concise. Great value as building it has sparked my interest to know more about the ISS.

It was an easy build, although the model felt more and more fragile as it went.

This set is rated for ages 16+, and I agree with that. Children definitely won’t have enough fine motor skill to make the build process enjoyable, and half the model will end up in the vacuum cleaner :) Also, you can’t build much else with the pieces. Although Mir space station and a space telescope or two are achievable :) Finally, there are just way to many tiny parts.

As a display piece, this model is remarkably fragile. You’d need to guard it very diligently from the guests’, partner’s and children’s hands. Getting the dust off of it would be a non-trivial task. Also, the stand would need some redesign, because the model isn’t actually attached to it - it just balances on top of it and wobbles pretty freely. Any slight draft in the room, and the station will go off the shelf orbit XD

I think the main problem of the model is its scale - it’s very small (approximately 1:220), and as a consequence, there are tons of microscopic pieces barely hanging on other microscopic pieces. If it were larger it could have been funner to build and potentially less fragile. Speaking of scale, the astronauts figures included with the set are 2x too large for the scale of the model, and the space shuttle included in the set is about 1.5x too small.

All in all, would make a nice display piece with the caveat that something must be done with the stand.

I've been on a Space kick of late and this one has been catching my eye for a while. I am glad I took the plunge and purchased the kit as it was a lot of fun to build. This starts with the instruction book that has a plethora of information on the I.S.S. which was interesting to read through before I started the build. One downside is the blue background of the instruction manual, I found it distracted from the build experience and made some of the diagrams hard to see - some are in a white background fly out and much clearer.

One good thing about it is there are no stickers, everything is prepinted. With the number of tiles needed to create the solar panel fins this is a very, very good thing.

As a completed figure it is enormous and much bigger than I expected. Looks really good on display and it is really east to adjust the fins for the solar panels and also the white stabilisers.

Very happy with the finished look and the sturdiness of it. Despite having a few issues when constructing it because I am ham fisted it was nicely rigid when carrying it upstairs to my display area.

Number Of Pieces: 864

Approximate Price Per Piece: £0.08

Build Time: 2 Hours