LEGO - Jaws Review: A Brick Recreation of One of Cinema's Greatest Moments

The new LEGO Jaws set is fantastic, even if you're not a diehard Jaws fan.

By Christian Hoffer

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The new LEGO Jaws set combines the usual combination of building ingenuity with plenty of nods to the classic Steven Spielberg film. Released at the beginning of the month, the new LEGO set is the latest LEGO Ideas set, with this particular build originally designed by Jonny Campbell, a Jaws superfan. The set itself features a recreation of the final confrontation between Quint, Hooper, Chief Brody, and the infamous shark from the movie. While the set itself is rather modest for a LEGO Ideas box, coming in just shy of 1,500 pieces, the set is still a ton of fun to build, especially the diorama display portion that shows the shark emerging from the water amid choppy water.

The Jaws set is split into three parts – the Orca fishing boat, the shark, and the diorama display piece. The Orca is your typical boat build but filled with plenty of references to the movie, ranging from a map of Amity Island, to several explosive barrels perilously positioned at the boat's stern. Outside of a couple of tight piece fits, the Orca isn't too difficult of a build, although it was tough finding the right tautness for the string used for the rigging without potentially breaking or bending the mast of the ship. I didn't find the Orca to be a particular tough build compared to other recent LEGO pieces, but I also enjoyed the attention to detail to the original Orca and how shockingly accurate the boat felt compared to the movie version.

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(Photo: LEGO)

The shark can be assembled either as a standalone piece or as a breakaway piece that can be used in the final diorama part. My favorite part of the build was the diorama itself, anchored by three large flat pieces, with white and blue pieces used for choppy waves. I loved how the shark emerges naturally from the water in the diorama surrounded by bobbing barrels and the Orca firmly within its jaw's grip. It's the diorama portion of the set that really pushes this set from "neat" to "really cool," as it helps recreate one of the most iconic scenes in all of cinema and does so in a fantastic way.

All in all, the new Jaws LEGO Idea is simplistic but elegant, just like the movie it was inspired by. This isn't an overly complicated set, but it understands that Jaws really stands out in large part due to the cinematography and visuals and aims to recreate that rather than play on cheap nostalgia. Even if you're not a Jaws super-fan, the diorama makes this set one of the more visually impressive LEGO pieces in recent memory, with a focus on an iconic cinema moment. If you want to check it out for yourself, you can order a copy here at the LEGO shop for $149.99. 

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