Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure review

It’s a funny thing to be building Duplo as an adult. But these blocks, designed for toddlers to hold in their chubby little hands, are more than just oversized Lego bricks. They’re super smooth, incredibly tactile and oh-so-satisfying to click together. You don’t get the same feeling from regular bricks, so it’s no wonder tots love playing with Duplo so much.

Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure is made up of 58 pieces, which doesn’t sound like a lot in terms of ‘proper’ Lego, but when you pour all the pieces out in front of you, there’s a substantial amount here. An instruction booklet is included, designed for parents to put together one of the three advertised models for their kids, but the real joy of the set is simply letting tots create whatever they like.

With the blocks coming in a variety of bright, bold colors and plenty of special pieces thrown in — like a winch, a spanner, a propeller and even a space-themed teacup — kids’ imaginations can go wild. Honestly, we’d say the models in the instructions aren’t anything spectacular, but the pieces themselves hold a great deal of potential.

That’s the real joy of this set: Allowing little minds to create whatever they want, with a space-themed slant. And that’s the reason it has earned a place on our best Lego space sets: It’s the best option out there for under-5s.

Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure review: The build

• 3 ‘instructed’ builds, but endless possibilities
• Colorful, chunky pieces that click together wonderfully
• Lots of fun pieces

The strange thing about the Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure is that its instruction booklet seems to be designed for adults. Rather than guiding kids to build their sets, it’s laid out exactly the same as a ‘grown-up’ adult set, making us think the idea is for a parent or guardian to build it for their tot to play with. It makes sense, but we’d have expected specially designed simple instructions that young kids would be able to follow themselves, like you’ll find in a 4+ Lego set.

That’s about the only strange complaint we have to levy at the Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure set, though. Everything else here is utterly wonderful: This is the type of playset we’d be very glad to gift to any child, smug in the knowledge that they’re getting a well-made toy packed with STEM learning opportunities that’s designed to last a long time.

Of course, it doesn’t really matter that tots won’t be able to follow the instructions. We’d wager most kids will take hold of these chunky blocks and design whatever they want, making the ‘3-in-1’ moniker of the set a little redundant. Still, we appreciate the effort of the Lego designers, even if the sets will get broken apart in a matter of minutes, with bricks being placed back together in a completely random and creative fashion. After all, wasn’t that the original idea of Lego bricks in the first place?

There are some truly unique pieces here, like a set of two cogs that can be placed together to spin or used to create imaginative shapes. There’s an ‘Earth’ block, a sun, and even an adorable little alien that pops out of a rock. Most of these pieces aren’t well integrated into the three included designs, but we do not doubt that children’s imaginations will put them to much better use.

Being Duplo, you won’t find any minifigures here but two chunky play figures are included: A pair of astronauts wearing blue and yellow space suits. Unlike minifigures, they don’t need to be assembled — they come in one piece and aren’t made to be taken apart. They have movable arms and legs and rotating heads, making for fun and easy roleplay.

Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure review: Design

• Beautifully made, solid blocks
• Great choice of colors
• Multi-colored light brick included

As we’ve already said, the real joy of Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure is that it allows kids full creativity to use the pieces however they want. While 3 models are suggested in the instruction book, none of them use all the pieces, with some of the most creative pieces left out for kids to do what they’d like with. There are printed tea cups, screens, translucent blocks, star-shaped blocks, and blocks of all shapes and sizes. The potential for creativity here is huge.

We love the color scheme here, too. Lego has gone for largely pastel colors — they don’t necessarily scream ‘space’, but they’re bright, attractive and aren’t stereotypical to either boys or girls. This is a set that will appeal equally to any gender, and it’s clear that care and thought have gone into that from Lego.

One very neat touch included here is a multi-color light brick. Each push of the button will bring up a new color, cycling through red, blue, pink and more. It can be incorporated into the set in a myriad of ways, either as a light on a space shuttle or attached to a translucent star to make it appear to glow. Honestly, we wish adult Lego sets featured multi-colored light bricks. What a thing.

What has impressed us most, though, is the quality of the construction of each of the pieces. Glossy and smooth to the touch, every piece is perfectly moulded without the slightest hint of a manufacturing fault. Pieces simply glide together, with their ‘click’ mechanism being much more satisfying than standard small pieces of Lego. While $60 feels like a lot of money for a 58-piece set, the value is very much in the design and manufacturing. It oozes quality, and it’s the sort of thing that’s going to last even the most ham-fisted child a long time.

Should you buy Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure?

If you have under-5s in your life who love space, you should not hesitate to buy this set. It’s a little expensive, sure, and from what we’ve seen, it’s rarely on sale, but after having our hands on it, we’re certain it’s well worth every penny. It’s beautifully made, offers endless creative play for kids, and it’s something that will last for a very long time — the sort of thing that can even be passed down to younger siblings or cousins in years to come.

Other Lego sets to consider

The Lego Duplo 3-in-1 Space Shuttle Adventure set might be the only space-themed Duplo set currently available, which is a little disappointing, but there are plenty more sets that can complement this one. Kids could get creative and design their own moon buggies with the Cars and Trucks Brick Box, for example, or they can simply let their imaginations run wild with a standard (and budget-friendly) Brick Box.

For slightly older preschoolers, Lego’s 4+ range is a great way to introduce normal-sized Lego bricks to them: These sets come with kid-friendly instructions and larger molds that support easy building. The Spaceship and Asteroid Discovery set is a lot of fun, as is the Creative Space Planets brick box.