Lego version of the launch PS1 reproduces the style and size of the landmark piece of game-changing video game tech.
When the original PlayStation launched back in December of 1994, it was an odd-looking design. CD-based gaming was still something new for many mass-market console gamers, making the clamshell-lid design an unfamiliar element, and the controller seemed downright bizarre, with its two-pronged form and lack of exposed center for the directional pad.
It wouldn’t become long, though, until the PlayStation’s mix of high-tech edges, inviting curves, and playful splashes of color became something gamers became very accustomed to, the visual prelude to the fun of playing the lion’s share of memorable blockbusters and niche titles of the 32-bit era. In recognition of the PlayStation’s now iconic design, it’s about to become the latest piece of video game retro tech to inspire its own Lego set.
The straightforwardly named Lego PlayStation recreates what you got in the PlayStation box on launch day: the console itself and one controller (Sony’s tradition of naming its controllers “Dual-something” didn’t start until later in the PlayStation’s life with the introduction its analog controllers in 1997). And yes, it includes the cord, so that you can plus it into the console.
The console’s buttons for opening the lid and turning on the power can be pushed and are functional. Look closely, and you’ll see that Lego has left a slit in front of the power button, where the PlayStation’s green power indicator light would glow when the system was turned on, and it seems like that effect will be reproduced, judging from the preview announcement in which Lego’s design director says “We have the opening button, we have the light.”
The Lego PlayStation is a1,911-piece set. If you’re a master builder and thinking that number seems too high for what’s seen in the above photos, your keen eyes aren’t deceiving you, because in addition to the console and controller, the kit includes parts to builddiorama-like scenes of Gran Turismo and Ape Escape, two of Sony’s biggest first-party hits from the PS1 days.
The scenes can be displayed separately from the console, or they can be slid inside it so that they occupy the area underneath the lid.
It is, admittedly, a little odd that, despite the set recreating the system’s original controller, the two games being given a physical shout-out are both titles that were heavily promoted in conjunction with the PlayStation’s analog controller, which wouldn’t come out until a few years later. As a matter of fact, Ape Escape was the first PlayStation game that required an analog controller, meaning that it couldn’t actually be played with the controller recreated in the Lego set.
▼ Try not to let that upset you too much, though, and instead choose to be upset that Ape Escape wasn’t released worldwide under its Japanese title, Saru Get You.
Lego says the console “Measures over 2.5 inches. (6 centimeters) high, 10.5 inches. (26 centimeters) wide and 7.5 inches (19 centimeters) deep.” Setting aside the unusual vagueness of the “over” part, that would make the Lego PlayStation pretty much the same size as the actual system was.
Regional pricing for the set will be 27,980 yen in Japan, US$179.99 in the U.S., 139,99 pounds in the U.K., and 159.99 Euros in the EU. Preorders open through the respective Lego online shops on October 1 for Lego Insiders with Early Access privileges, and October 4 for everyone else.
