Designer interview: LEGO® Ideas 21356 River Steamboat

At LEGO® Fan Media Days in Denmark in September 2024, I was lucky enough to meet some of the design team behind the biggest LEGO® Ideas set to date.

Design Lead Jordan David Scott and Product Designer Marina Stampoli talked me through the absolutely massive LEGO Ideas set 21356 River Steamboat, which comes in at 16" (40cm) x 28" (69cm), contains over 4000 pieces and weighs 3 kilograms. "I did some exercise," says Marina as she lifts the model.

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21356 River Steamboat

• Release date: LEGO Insiders early access from 7 April 2025 and for all customers from 10 April
• Pieces: 4090

Price: 

• US$ 329.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 429.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 289.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 499.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 599.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 329,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 329,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ 329,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLN 1399.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 3999,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 2599.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

 

Last month, when the set was officially revealed by The LEGO Group, I shared my 3-minute video of Marina's reveal of the set at Fan Media Days. This was on YouTube and our social channels, so if you haven't seen it yet, check it out now to first understand the set's functions:

Interview with Marina Stampoli and Jordan David Scott 

New E: First and foremost, what can you tell me about the new moulds in the set? 

Marina: We have two new elements here. One of them is a 1x6 bow. 

New E: Was that introduced for this set? 
[Note: since the time of this interview, part 6801 has become available with printing in many colours in the wave of LEGO® Speed Champions F1 sets, as well as coming unprinted in black (6535144) in 77250 MoneyGram Haas F1 Team VF-24 Race Car, and tan (6544405) in 21355 The Evolution of STEM.]

Jordan: This one was a bit different, because we have a team that develop “platform” elements; the ones that are universal and can be used across the board. And we typically bring a few of those in every year. This one was expanding on the bow platform, so it was coming out at the right time. It's not specifically made for this set, but it just came at the right time for this. 

Marina: And then the other one is is very useful piece that's kind of a connector, although it doesn't connect on one side because it has friction on one side and non friction on the other. They were both very useful elements for what we wanted to do, but they were not designed specifically for this model. 

New E: I guess you don't have a dedicated LEGO Ideas element designer? 

Jordan: We have, well, it's more for all the Adult lines. So LEGO Ideas, LEGO® Icons, LEGO® Architecture, LEGO® Art, we all sit together. Currently, we have four element designers and one element lead. Some are more into sculpture, others are more into bricks and geometry. So we have a nice variety, where we can bring those people on – like for the peony and the tulip. 

Jordan: This one, there were ideas of it floating around, but people just couldn't find the home for it, at least not at the time. So when we saw that, we thought it could be useful. So we put some resources into fleshing it out and making it how it should be, to see if it worked. 

New E: Recolours, I see you have kindly laid out for us already! How about decorations? 

Marina: We have one print here on the tile for the name of the boat, and then we have stickers on the interior. 

New E: Can you talk us through the moving function? 

Marina: If you take a look underneath, we have this wheel in the centre that's attached to two beams, and then we have two gears. One is with no friction, so it's connected to a pin, and then the other moves up and down with the non friction gears. It's pushed so that it always touches the surface, so no matter if you have a table or a carpet or any other surface, it will always stay close to the ground. 

New E: That function must have been difficult to get right? 

Marina: We tried different elements at the top side to make sure the height was what it should be – too high, and it doesn't touch and the function doesn't work, or too low and then only the wheel touches and it becomes unstable – because, besides the wheel, we have all the slide shoes underneath touching the surface. It needs to be touching at every single spot so that it's stable, because it's quite big and long, and we need to have stability underneath. The interior, that's again like a real working engine of a steamboat, and it's connected. Then we have the steering function where you can, again, control it from the steering wheel. But because the steering wheel is in a tiny space where maybe some people couldn't put their fingers in, we added the alternative knob on the back. There's a rudder at the bottom. 

New E: So if you remove floors of the model, you separate the Technic cross axle running through the model? 

Marina: Yes, and then you need to adjust each a bit when you put it back, because you need to align the hole. 

New E: Can you tell us about each room?

Marina: Here we have the crew cabin, and then we have a full bathroom – shower, toilet, towels, toilet paper, soap dispenser, lights, everything a bathroom needs! Then we have the restaurant. 

New E: What are the lamps made from? 

Jordan: It's the mace head from the D&D set, from the Dragonborn, just turned upside down to make it look like a ornate lampshade. it's exactly what I wished people would use that piece for besides a weapon. We also have our we have our flowers back, the tulips and the peony, but it's upside down in this one, so it looks a nice cake! We thought you might like the backs of the chairs as well.

Marina: This was mostly inspired by Nile river boats, from Egypt, so I wanted to have wooden or Viennese-style chairs as an interior. Then, in the restaurant entrance we have a few Easter eggs for the fan designer; a picture of the Rocky Mountains with a tiny A-frame cabin – it's the fan designer's wife’s favourite place to go – we have a menu for the restaurant, and a poster for the music stage – Breckin is the fan designer's son, and the date is his wedding anniversary. Then we have the music stage itself. 

Marina: On the drums we have a red Northern Cardinal bird, which is one of the symbols of Illinois in the US where the fan designer is from. When we showed him that he was very excited, because the bird also has a special meaning for his wife. Underneath the music stage, you can find the gearbox for the steering.

New E: And the next deck down?

Marina: So on the boiler deck, we have no boiler because it is underneath it – we wanted more space. When you build the hull you you also build the boiler, and then the chimneys go up from there. We have used the space for a kitchen for the restaurant, and then we have the Steam Engine Museum.

Marina: In the museum we have a James Watt steam engine, and then we have the aeolipile which is this one that looks like a barbecue. It's actually a Roman invention, and it's the first steam engine ever to have been described. And then we have a piston blueprint next to it, because it's a museum and we have to explain how things work. That's a sticker. Then on the other side, we have the actual boat working engine, and again, it tries to imitate a real steamboat engine. We have more stickers: a blueprint of the boat, and a caution sign, so that you don't trap your hands in the working engine.  

New E: So complex! Even the landing stages look rather complex too?

Marina: Again, it's not a simple function of just raising and lowering them. I used espresso handles to lock the cross axles, and you can also rotate the stages. Very hard to get right, especially with the alignment, the different heights and the strings. And again, issues with friction, because we wanted them to swing freely, but not too freely. So we have a turntable here and then we have a friction pin here, so you have some friction so that they don't go crazy. Then, we had to work a lot on how the instructions would show the building steps. So it was a bit of a big challenge here. 

Many thanks to Marina, Jordan and the AFOLET team at LEGO for the fantastic opportunity to explore this set early. Our full review will be coming closer to the release date of the set, which is 7 April 2025 for LEGO Insiders early access and for all customers from 10 April. In addition, between 7th – 13th  April, LEGO Insiders will receive a free Gift with Purchase: The LEGO Amelia Ticket Booth (10+), while supplies last.

 

 

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