There’s something strange in the neighborhood! Well, No not strange but new, awesomely & nerdfully wonderful! In these days of Covid-19 and the general roller coaster it has caused the year 2020 and currently spilling into 2021, Who Are You Going To Call? The LEGO Company have the answer to your boredom and stress! Boy have they ever come back and done it yet again with another fantastic phenomenal LEGO set – this time based on the Ghostbusters franchise. This set is sure to bring “Ghost Heads” out of the Woodworks. What’s a ghost head you might ask? Well, a Ghost Head is the equivalent of a Trekkie or Trekker (Star Trek), Whovian (Doctor Who), or Seussian (Dr Seuss), but applied to the Ghostbusters franchise. It’s been seven years since the original Ecto-1 (21108) was released. Now, almost a decade later, there is a brand new BEAST of a LEGO Ecto-1 (10274) out.

It is based on the slightly rusted “updated version” as seen in Ghostbusters Afterlife in theaters November 11, 2021 (the 4th tentative release date as of publishing of this article). Let me tell you this thing is beautiful and for only $199 USD you get 2,352 pieces of LEGO plastic crack goodness. This beast of a set will easily keep you entertained for AT LEAST a few hours compared to the original Ecto-1 set (21108) containing a mere 508 pieces. I was an adult with a well-paying job when they started making Ghostbuster LEGO Sets. I had no one to tell me “no, you can’t have that” and that made me happy.  A serious catch 22 is you don’t get any minifigures with this set and some people might not be okay with that (given the price of the set) but what you DO get are a bundle of expensive Technic pieces to build the chassis of this monster.

***The following section (within Details) contains minor Spoilers about Ghostbusters: Afterlife. DO NOT click the “Details” Dropdown for a spoiler free experience.***

• In the LEGO 10274 Ecto-1, you also get a brick-built version of the brand-new remote-control Ghost Trap!

  

   

For a true Ghostbusters fan, this is a huge win win because what we are pretty much going to do with it is make a 1:1 scale version to come along with us when we dress up in our flight suits, throw on our proton packs and go cosplaying around as “Real” Ghostbusters.

 

In my opinion, that is good enough to make up for the lack of minifigures.

***This concludes Minor Spoilers segment, Continue on reading for rest of article***

The price tag may deter a few buyers. It is a little more expensive than most average LEGO sets out there, especially if you’re not a hard-core LEGO collector and you just like to dabble in LEGO or just buy your favourite franchise when the licenses come out. To help you in your debate as to whether this newest set, based on The Ghostbusters movie is worth it or not, I’ll help break it down for you. $199 USD is going to get you 2352 pieces, which is exactly 2284 pieces less than the Ghostbuster Firehouse (75827). The Firehouse (75827) has 4636 pieces for $349.99 US dollars. You’re paying roughly half the price for half the kit, but let me remind you what a kit this thing is!

The details range from the open up rear doors, the rusted old body panels,

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the brand new swing open suicide door and gunner seat (seen in the trailers) with proton pack attached.

It also has those big beautiful red fins, and a bumper that is unmistakably a 1959 Cadillac,

This set also actually has glorious brick printed “No Ghosts” logos – unlike the Ghostbuster Firehouse (75827) which rewarded you for your investment with impressive applicable stickers.

There is not a whole lot of detail that a brick-built set this size is going to miss. It even has the T.U. Antenna AKA “sniffer” on top!

I, for one, am the type of person who, when I buy a new set, will not necessarily sit down and “binge build” it brick by brick all at once until it’s done. I’m going to savor the build… First, I’m going to Knoll (a term invented by Andrew Kromelow a janitor at Frank Gehry’s furniture fabrication shop). In the LEGO world it means arranging the elements by colour, type, or how I personally prefer it, by element and color combined. Doing this helps keep everything organised, highly visible and helps avoid going “piece blind”.

Once all the pieces are out you need to get them nice and organized and grouped together, so they are easy to find when they show up in the instruction booklet. Don’t open all the bags at once of course, just a single step bag at a time. None of this bag one, two and three all opened and just dumped into a huge pile! Instead: Step one open up the bag. Two, dump it on the table. Step three, Knoll it out and  four get ready to rock! Now I’m going to be a builder for maybe a half hour-45 minutes and then I’m going to take a break and come back when I’m ready to rock again. I would stretch this thing out for a good solid month. When I built my Firehouse (75827), I managed to stretch the completion of the set for at least six months!

Perhaps install some official LEGO lights in some tactical spots on the ECTO-1 or maybe source yourself an aftermarket light kit that specializes in brick lights (like Game Of Bricks) and get them buried in there real nicely so you don’t see any wires or leads sticking out of your brick seams. Then this thing will truly look phenomenal when the lights are dimmed or even turned out. One obvious but not so obvious question a non AFOL or KFOL may have “Is this LEGO Plated, Technic skeleton of a kit going to fit inside my brick built LEGO Firehouse?”… Probably, most definitely, not! However, is this thing going to look super badass laid beside your LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse? Absolutely! Is it worth your hard-earned dollar? In my opinion, one hundred percent!

Realistically, whether to purchase the LEGO 10274 Ecto-1 will come down to the “eye of the beholder”. If you are a Ghostbusters fan, AKA Ghost Head, are you going to need this set? Almost 100% positively (It will keep you entertained between your pack build, lol). Is it getting more fun to be an adult in this ever-shifting market and age of LEGO with ever evolving technology? Absolutely! Now WHO ARE YOU GOING TO CALL?

Ghostbusters: Afterlife now tentatively busts into theaters November 11 2021.

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