LEGO has recently released one of the more iconic commercial airline sets in modern history with the LEGO Icons Douglas DC-3 Pan Am Airliner (11378). The set has 1,903 pieces and retails for $219.99.
Minifigures
It’s very rare that LEGO Icons sets like this one gets any minifigures but here we have four of them spanning the history of the Pan Am uniforms. The Pan Am stewardesses in the 1950s wore the sand blue ones with the gold pin on the jacket and on the hat. The hair and the hat piece is a new one made for this minifigure.
The uniforms were slightly upgraded in around the 70s for the stewardesses to wear the bowler hat. The coloring on the uniforms were also darker but the one that LEGO used seems too dark compared to the real outfits but it seems that the coloring matches more with the ones in the Pan Am show.
The flight attendant wears a dark blue suit that’s pretty plain except that it has the printing for the pin.
Lastly, we have the pilot who wears the black uniform that has more distinct features such as the bands on the arms and the cap.
Build
Aside from the plane itself, we do have the display stand for the minifigures. In the back, there’s the printed Pan Am logo along with some wings.
As for the Douglas DC-3, it is very large given its wingspan. You’ll need a good amount of space to display it with or without the display stand. The dimensions of the plane measure 9.5 in. high, 20 in. long, and 30 in. wide.
The overall shape of the Douglas looks really good compared to the source material. This is mostly prominent at the nose where LEGO uses a lot of existing rounded pieces for.
At the cockpit area, you can remove the windshield to access the inside which shows the two pilot seats and the control panel. Right behind the cockpit are a couple of antennas.
Heading to the middle of the plane which is where most of the bulk is at, we have Pan America printed tiles right above the passenger windows on the outside. LEGO has also included the iconic blue stripes that go between the windows as well which is a nice touch.
On top of the plane, there’s a panel that you can take off the view the interior of the Douglas. There’s five rows of seats with three in each row, two on one side and a single seater on the other. Towards the back of the plane, there’s a small restroom with a toilet.
At the back of the plane, we have the vertical stabilizer that also uses the printed Pan Am logo on a 6×6 round tile. This is the same ones as for the minifigure display. There’s also printed 1×2 tiles of the American flag for both sides.
On to the wings which I think are the most impressive parts of the set. They are attached to the fuselage using two sets of Technic pins on the top and the bottom. After that, they are also connected with some hinged plates on top of the wings.
The engines have your typical engine look with the propellers. The propellers spin relatively well with no hangups. One interesting parts useage here are the hockey sticks to represent the exhaust stacks.
As for the wheels, there’s a nice landing gear mechanism for the two front ones. It uses various Technic pieces along with a gear mechanism to have them retract. It works fairly well as they don’t fully retract into the plane like with the real one.
Lastly we have the display stand for the Douglas DC-3. It’s nothing too spectacular but ther are some arch bricks to give it a clean look. It looks fine but I think gray ones would’ve worked better. The plane attaches to the stand using the block on the underside of the plane. I’m pleasantly surprised that a plane this large can fit on the stand this small. The information plaque is printed with various details of the Douglas DC-3.
Results
Overall the LEGO Icons Douglas DC-3 Pan Am Airliner (11378) is a very impressive set at a somewhat decent price. You would think a set this size would go for at least $50 more but somehow, the pricing is fair for what you get. Another nice thing is that everything is printed and there are no stickers at all.
One negative for me but maybe not for everybody else is that the Douglas does command a lot of space. Pictures don’t do it justice but this thing is huge especially the wingspan. If you’re trying to display it at an apartment or a small room, you’ll probably have a harder time displaying it.
Thank you to LEGO for sending in this set for me to review. The content above represents my own opinion and not the company. Review sets sent in does not guarantee a positive review.
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