This is a special Bricklink set from their AFOL Designer Program. The set is called “Eight Studs” and was created by Christian Bechinie. The build is a very creative modular home inspired by the iconic LEGO brick design.
The AFOL Designer Program is a collaboration between Bricklink and LEGO to celebrate LEGO’s 60th anniversary. So, all AFOL Designer sets come with a special part (#39789pb01) commemorating this milestone!
So, since this is a Bricklink set, and not an official LEGO set, I expected some differences and the first thing I noticed was the bags. They felt different, but most noticeably they have stickers on them indicating their bag number. One oddity to this is the bags also contain a letter: 1A, 1B, etc. I am still unsure of the meaning behind this, and I think all of the same number bags are meant to be open at once. The instructions only call for “Bag 1” without specifying a letter, and early steps will include bricks from 1B and 1C. Therefore, I think it’s safe to ignore the letter all together.
If you want to see the Eight Studs set in action and hear my thoughts about it, you can watch the YouTube video I made for my LEGO channel.
I started off building the base, which I discovered at the end was going to need to be repeated again. It makes sense, since there are two halves that look very similar. It would have been nice to know from the start. Then I could have built the two simultaneously instead of one right after another.
As I built the bases, I started noticing a pattern of using lots of tile bricks when regular bricks would have done. When you stack three tiles, it’s the same height as a full brick. I’m not sure why tiles were preferred, but that seemed to be the case.
The other thing I started to notice was how flimsy some parts of it felt, especially while building. LEGO instructions typically have a strong focus on support that moves in a sensible manner so you create the necessary support as you build. Instead, these Bricklink instructions often had you building pieces together that seemed very poorly supported until later steps.
There were even several steps that involved setting bricks next to each other and connecting them with another brick later in the instructions. So, no actual snapping them together at first.
Because of the lack of support, I ended up adding my own brick under the base on one side each just to make it sturdier while building.
The set does include minifigures: a very plain man and woman. Typical LEGO sets usually start off a bag with building the minifigures. However, this set had the minifigures come randomly in the middle somewhere.
There were also several instances where I don’t think the design would have met LEGO’s own standards. That’s part of what made it flimsy. In particular, I think the railing around the deck is tough. These kind of connections make the set feel more AFOL than LEGO, for sure.
The end product looks awesome, though! The fact that the house is modeled after a LEGO brick is ingenious, but more ingenious is that the house can stack together with others like it just like real LEGO bricks!
The interior of the two rooms also has a lot of great detail. I’m not sure what one of the rooms is, but it seems to be a bit of a toy shop area. There are some microfigs on a shelf, an awesome little wooden ship and a space rocket! The other room is a more traditional living room with a couch and coffee table. It also has a bookshelf and a little place with a painters brush and palette.
The outside is a lawn which includes several grass stem pieces. These are also added alongside the deck in a kind of hanging flower pot garden on the rails.
This set comes with a backdrop too, which is a nice, interesting addition.
If you didn’t order this during the AFOL Designer Program process, then I don’t think it’s available for you to purchase anymore. I imagine, since it’s Bricklink, you can probably find the instructions somewhere and order the pieces directly. It’s certainly a lot of fun for adult fans of LEGO and would make a great addition to your collection. It would also be nice to have two of them, but the original price was $100!
Check out the full gallery below
