Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D review: "Wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross... but it's not for the timid"

It's been a long road, getting from there to here, it's been a long road, but the Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D is finally here.

I know, I know, that's the wrong show, but I couldn't resist. I'm giddy with Star Trek joy, because after waiting for my entire lifetime, the first-ever Lego Star Trek set is here. And while the choice of set might be controversial for Captain Kirk die-hards, I'm thrilled to see the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation make its blocky debut.

And now, having constructed this 3600-piece beast — and with an entire bridge crew's worth of minifigures lined up in front of it — I'm thrilled to say that it's definitely one of the best LEGO sets I've built in recent years. Lego has made sure that history will never forget the name Enterprise.

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Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D features

• The first ever Lego Star Trek set
• A display kit of the Next Generation Enterprise
• Features the show's bridge crew & main cast

The Lego U.S.S. Enterprise is a stunning recreation of the Federation flagship, which — if we're honest — is a weird-looking ship even by Star Trek standards, thanks to the massive saucer section, which dwarfs the main body and engines that sit below it.

Comprised of 3,600 pieces, the Lego Enterprise costs $400. Not quite enough to buy your own moon with, but it's still going to put a dent in your gold-pressed latinum reserves. Still, you get a lot of starship for your money, with the completed model measuring almost two feet (23.5 inches) in length, and 18.5 inches off the ground when sat on its display stand.

Alongside the ship itself, you also get a platform that holds the nine included minifigures (the entire main cast of the show), a display stand for the ship, and a plaque that sports some key facts and figures for the Enterprise.

As the first-ever Star Trek Lego set, there aren't any older sets to compare it to, and I'm not looking to start a nerd fight by stacking it up against a Star Wars set like the Lego UCS Venator, but it's a hell of a debut entry for the franchise.

Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D build

• Took us about a week of evenings to build
• Well-paced, with plenty of mini-goals to provide sense of achievement
• Small typo on secret plaque hidden in the ship

The 3,600 pieces are spread across two instruction books and 30 individual bags of Lego, so suffice to say, you won't be finishing this set at warp speed. I built it over the course of a week, tackling sections in the evenings.

While it's easy to imagine that building a big gray spaceship for that long could get tedious, I found it to be an engaging and well-thought-out affair, with plenty of mini-goals and checkpoints along the way to give a sense of progress. The minifigures are also spread throughout the build, too, giving you a nice surprise every few bags.

The build starts with the lower section of the ship, which is constructed from two mirror sections that get pinned together. From there, you attach the engines (nacelles if you want to go full Trekkie) and add the main deflector array — both of which use transparent blue pieces to great effect, duplicating the glowing energy effect from the show. After that, it's onto the massive saucer section, which starts as a spider-web-style framework, to which you attach panels and an outer rim to complete the ship. The final stages felt a bit sketchy, as I had to manhandle the model a bit and often knocked pieces off, but I got there in the end.

While I wouldn't say there are any complex techniques and unusual sections to the build, the sheer enormity of it means that you'll need to be on your toes. It might be possible to commit no mistakes when building this set, but I wasn't so lucky. A tiny mistake I made during an early stage of the build came back to haunt me when I tried to attach the saucer section near the end of the project. Fortunately, it was an easy fix, and I didn't have to destroy my almost complete set, but I was on red alert for a hot minute there.

My eternal nemesis, stickers, make an appearance, but they're reserved for a single small sheet that's supplemented with a good number of custom-printed parts, including the ship's name and registry number proudly displayed on the top of the ship. Of the stickers that are included, they're all relatively simple to attach, with nice square edges to line up with hard-edged pieces.

There is a hilarious typo on one of the stickers, though — the dedication plaque that hides inside a secret compartment says "to boldy go" instead of "to boldly go". A minor mistake, and not one you'll see most of the time, but still not ideal on a $400 set (Lego has issued replacements on request, but as Brickset points out, the replacement sticker is pretty ugly… I'll stick with the typo, personally).

Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D design

• Inventive use of existing pieces to create the iconic ship
• Fantastic minifigures & accessories
• Can be quite fragile

It has been nearly 60 years since Star Trek first graced our screens (I say our screens, I was very much not alive to own a screen back in 1966). It is staggering that it took this long for a Star Trek Lego set to arrive, but with the completed Enterprise-D set in front of me, I don't care that it arrived at sub-light speeds, because it's magnificent.

The ship isn't at a big enough scale to have a playable bridge — and that lack of interior space does reduce the opportunities for Easter eggs and cool details a bit — but the outer surface is packed with references that were inventively recreated in blocky form.

The "glowy" bits of the ship are nicely represented with some blue and red transparent pieces, including the deflector array, which is made from two inverted cockpit canopies. The phaser array on the top of the saucer section is a very nice touch, too, built from thin tubes bent into place.

On the top, you'll find the registry number (which is a printed piece rather than a sticker, sitting just in front of the small bump in the center that represents the main bridge). The main shuttle bay can also be found on the back of the saucer, with a little shuttle approaching that cleverly doubles as the pin that attaches the two sections of the ship together. You can remove the roof of the shuttle bay to find another shuttle docked inside. Actually detaching the saucer section is more of a gimmick than anything else, but I'm glad they included the option. Now — just like the creators of the show — you too can realise it's dumb and never really do it.

The included flight stand is a very welcome edition (it was a must, really, given the lack of landing gear to rest the ship on). Likewise, I really appreciate the display platform for all the minifigures, all of whom look fantastic. Almost the entire main cast has been recreated here (Tasha Yar and Chief O'Brien would have been nice, but I can see why they were omitted), and each of them comes with an accessory. I love Riker's ridiculous trombone that's bigger than him, Data gets his beloved cat Spot, and of course, Captain Picard has his tea, Earl Grey, hot.

It's not a toy — picking it up is an exercise in knocking bits off and never finding where they're supposed to be reattached — but as a display piece, the Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D is a thing of beauty.

Should you buy the Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D?

Make it so! The Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D is a triumph of Lego engineering and a beautiful display piece for any Trekkie, assuming your wallet can withstand the $400/£350 price tag. I had an absolute ball turning my dining room table into a shipyard for a week, and now that the ship is finished, it will be taking pride of place as the flagship of my Lego collection.

Can you really put a price on that kind of happiness? As Picard himself said, "What we leave behind is not as important as how we’ve lived." Try using that line when your kids ask you where the inheritance money went.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Lego U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D

Our reviewer built this set over multiple nights across a single week, pausing for breaks or to take notes when needed. They have reviewed multiple large-scale 'ship' models during their time writing for GamesRadar+ and our sister-site, Space, so are able to easily compare this kit to those models.

For more details on our procedure, take a look at how we test products.

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