Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM review

We knew as soon as we saw it that Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM would be a must-buy. This celebration of all things science, technology, engineering and mathematics is not only suitably geeky, but it looks fantastic too. It’s fun, colorful, and it packs in so much detail that it’s impossible to take everything in at just a glance. It’s the type of Lego set that needs to be explored to be truly appreciated: You’ll want to pick this one up, turn it around and carefully examine all of its different elements.

Being a Lego Ideas set, the design of The Evolution of STEM is based on a fan build. Lego held a competition asking budding designers to create a set that celebrated the ‘wonder of STEM’. The winning build belonged to ZeusBricks, who created a model called ‘Knowledge is Power’. It’s a little different from the finished build — Lego has added in additional details and refined some of its elements — but its basic idea of STEM through history, leaping out of a book, remains the same.

Personally, we prefer the Lego retail version of the set and think the designers have done a fantastic job of bringing it to life. Sure, more scientific discoveries and technological advancements could be included in the model; we’d have certainly liked to have seen a bit more focus on space, but then there are the best Lego space sets for that. It’s really hard to find too much to complain about with this set — it’s an absolute joy through and through.

Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM: The build

• Varied build with multiple features
• Simple but fun to build, even the few technical parts
• Some parts are a little flimsy

The building process of Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM is spread across seven bags. Each bag holds something entirely different, and that’s one of the greatest joys of this set. Because it contains so many different features and elements, it’s an incredibly varied build that never gets boring. You’ll go from building a tiny cityscape, to an apple tree, to an old-fashioned car, to a spinning double helix — and each part of the build is simply wonderful.

There are no fiddly bits or unclear sections of the instructions: everything has been well explained and appropriately laid out. At 879 pieces, it’s the perfect size to complete in one sitting: it took me approximately two hours to build, although you might want to put a bit more time aside if you’re fairly new to Lego. Either way, there’s nothing better than getting settled with a movie or two playing in the background while you get lost in your build.

There’s a tiny bit of technical work that goes into building The Evolution of STEM: The back of the set sports a wheel that can be turned to make the carbon atom move up and down and the double helix rotate. However, it’s nothing more than a few cogs, so even Lego newcomers shouldn’t have too much of a problem getting everything in the right place.

Perhaps the only downside of Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM is how flimsy some parts are. The atom and the DNA strand are rather wobbly, so be careful with the set as you move or interact with it. With the NASA probe, shuttle and bee secured by transparent stems from the double helix, too, they’re at risk of getting knocked and falling off: You need to make sure they’re as secure as possible as you’re building.

Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM: Design

• Scientist minifigures
• Colorful set with a few moving parts
• Lots of detail

What else can we say about the design of Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM other than: Wow!? This is a truly striking set, and the perfect addition to any science or tech buff’s shelf or desktop. It’s fantastically designed, and it’s clear to see how much work has gone into refining it, from ZeusBricks’ original fan design to the finalized official version.

It’s the type of set that needs to be picked up and fully inspected to truly appreciate, and unless you’ve built the set yourself, you’ll miss out on some of its little Easter eggs. Hidden underneath the pages of one side of the book is a message in Morse code (it says ‘STEM’), and at the other side, you’ll find a rainbow sequence of coloured studs. They’re wonderful little touches, but it’s almost a shame they’re hidden away.

Even without them, though, there’s so much detail to take in that is visible on the finished set. The selling point for many will be the three included minifigures: there’s Marie Curie, the ‘mother of modern physics’, Sir Isaac Newton, and agricultural science pioneer George Washington Carver. We’d have liked to have seen more minifigures included — three feels a little limited — but these are very well designed and are strong representations of everything this set stands for.

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Should you buy Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM?

While Lego Ideas The Evolution of STEM might not be wholly focused on space, this is an incredible set that we’re so glad to have in our collection. So, yes, we wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s educational, it’s eye-catching and it’s seriously good fun to build: It’s literally everything you could want in a Lego set. It doesn’t cost the Earth, either: At $79.99, we feel like it’s very well-priced considering how much detail is loaded into it.

Sure, there are a few niggles: it could have included some more important STEM discoveries through history, and we’d have liked to have had a couple more minifigures. But what is here is fantastic, and it’s hard to complain.

Other Lego sets to consider

As space fans, we’d have liked to have seen a bit more focus on space in this set. Thankfully, there are plenty of other excellent space-themed Lego sets out there, such as Lego Art The Milky Way Galaxy and Lego Creator 3-in-1 Space Astronaut. We also love the Lego Technic Earth and Moon in Orbit, which has moving parts just like this set.

Few other sets celebrate science and technology as well as The Evolution of STEM. However, there’s the impressive Natural History Museum set, if you have $300 to cough up, and Lego Ideas The Insect Collection is something a little different but wonderful to look at.