NASA, Space And Childhood Dreams…
A dream come true, worth waiting for 30 years…
Alright. Let me show you something. As a kid, like almost every kid, there were just a few LEGO sets that I really, really wanted, but knew my parents would never be able to afford. Don’t misunderstand me, I wanted them all, but there were a few that I wanted so much, I was crying inside every time I saw them in the LEGO catalog. Two of these highly coveted sets were the NASA Space Shuttle. One of them was the #8480 Technic set, while the other the #1682 System set. In the 90s, these were considered massive sets, especially the Technic one. Suffice to say, I never had the pleasure of building either of these.
Time passed by, years, heck, decades actually, and as I was walking in Smyths Toys a few months ago, I realised I was looking at a resurrected iteration of both sets in the form of the #10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery set, a 2021 release and at 30% off! You probably know the rest of the story… I went ahead, and bought it on the spot, and I am mighty glad I did.
LEGO’s NASA Space Shuttle Discovery feels like a mature culmination of merging the old #8480 and #1682 sets into something entirely new, yet heartwarmingly familiar.
Out of the three iterations, this one is actually the largest. At 2534 pieces, it comes in a gigantic box, chock-full of great parts, though a tad too many stickers for my taste, though there’s a semi-valid reason for that, which I’ll get to in a minute. It’s advertised as an 18+ set, but as it is more often than not, that’s a number most LEGO fans over the age of 7 should probably ignore.
At full price, it’s not a cheap set, though still cheaper than many less impressive sets out there. In Europe or the US this will set you back 200 bucks, but if you hunt a minute or two online, you can get it as low as 140 bucks! In all honesty though, even at full price, it’s plenty worth the cost. You get not just the shuttle, but also the Hubble Telescope, which among other contains a ton of silver elements, something you rarely get that many of in a set.
Where the far too many stickers come into play it’s the shuttle itself, namely the inside of the payload bay which can open and reveal the arm that can support the telescope, should you wish to mount it like so. The inner side of the bay is covered with mirror-finish stickers, presumably to reflect more light onto the telescope’s movable solar panels (I think, I’m no space expert).
While the telescope itself is fairly static apart from the lens cover that can be opened, the shuttle has a few tricks up its sleeve. The landing gears can be deployed via pressing on the back of the shuttle, and the elevons on the wings can also be adjusted via turning one of the engines to the left or right. It’s a pretty clever build altogether, and some of these mechanisms took me a while to make sense of, so there were a good few aha moments.
Speaking of building experience, I need to go back to that original comparison I made to the two older sets I had my heart set on as a kid. It’s probably not as complex as the Technic one, but it’s not that far off either, and the aesthetics and minute details of the otherwise System style build are pretty impressive. I would have appreciated a tad more detail around the landing gears, but otherwise I really can’t fault it, it does in every way resemble the actual NASA Discovery space shuttle. It’s not a tough build, per se, but it does require perhaps a bit more patience than I anticipated, especially around the base of the shuttle and the wings. The mirror stickers were probably the most repetitious part, and can’t say getting all those stickers on straight was much fun. I did actually have to take one off and reapply.
The end result is larger than you’d expect. While LEGO claims it’s the perfect size to display, I’d argue it’s a tad larger than I expected, and hence I struggled finding it an appropriate space to display. The shuttle measures over 8.5 in. (21 cm) high, 21 in. (54 cm) long and 13.5 in. (34 cm) wide, which if you ask me, is definitely difficult to find space for in most homes, if you don’t want people to knock it over every two days. Regardless, once you do find it some space, it looks cool as fuck!
LEGO’s NASA Space Shuttle Discovery is probably one of the most inspiring display sets since 1999.
While admittedly, it’s not great for general play, the human achievement it represents, the immersive building experience and the feeling of a childhood dream come true, makes this particular set quite unique for me. I am not sure if LEGO will launch anytime soon another version of the Discovery space shuttle, but if you’re at all into space, this is probably one you absolutely should pick up while stocks last.
Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility! For my less regular readers, I also write about random bits and writing.
