[REVIEW] 10284 - Camp Nou - FC Barcelona

[Jim]

REVIEW - 10284 - CAMP NOU - FC BARCELONA

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to my review of Camp Nou, the stadium of FC Barcelona. Being a Barca fan, I was excited this being the next stadium to be released (the first one was Old Trafford). And I was even more excited to be able to review this set. After the initial excitement (I hadn't seen the pictures yet), I realized that Camp Nou is actually quite a boring stadium. Seeing the first pictures confirmed my fears. At first sight, this seems to be a quite repetitive build. I do understand that most of the stadiums have some repetition, but the Old Trafford stadium looks like a more interesting build. I haven't built that one, so I can't compare it to this one.

About me being a Barca fan; I have been a fan for a long time, but I absolutely lost some of my love the last couple of years. They seriously screwed things up. But for the sake of this review, I like to remember the good old days when Koeman scored his free kick in the "Champions League" final in 1992, when it was still called "European Cup 1".  Obviously, the Messi era wasn't too bad either

PICTURES
Pictures can be clicked to view hi-res versions. My Flickr album contains all the photos taken for this review.

DISCLAIMER
The CEE Team of TLG has provided this set. It's not my goal to promote this set. It's my goal to give you an honest opinion about it. Therefore, the opinion in this review is my own and is in no way linked to TLG.

SET INFORMATION
Number: 10284
Title: Camp Nou - FC Barcelona
Theme: Creator Expert
Released: 2021
Part Count: 5509
Box Dimensions: 58,0 cm x 47,5 x 16,5 cm
Weight: > 5 kg
Set Price (RRP): £299.99 / $349.99 / €329.99
Price per Part: £0.054 / $0.064 / €0,060
Links: Brickset, Bricklink

THE BOX
The box is exactly the same size as the Technic CAT. Weighing in over 5kg it's quite heavy.

The back shows the stadium will consist of a pitch and four quarter stadium parts.

CONTENTS OF THE BOX
The box contains:

• 1x Inner box
• 1x Cart board envelop containing the manual and stickers
• 2x Half a pitch tile
• 42x Numbered bag
• 1x Unnumbered bag containing a numbered bag

 

The picture below shows the contents of the inner box.

The envelop contains two booklets and a sticker sheet.

 

The sticker sheet contains all the letters used to write "Mes que un club" which translates to "More than a club" and "FC Barcelona". The score you see is their 5-0 win over Real Madrid, the rival of Barca.

At the beginning of the first booklet there is some interesting information about the history of the club.

BAGS
In total there are 43 bags for a total of 32 steps. One of the bags is unnumbered, but it contains a numbered bag. I don't recall ever seeing this.

        

        

        

        

      

PART LIST
The complete part list for all 5509 parts.

THE BUILD
You start by building the pitch. Except for the corners, the pitch looks the same as the Old Trafford one, which makes sense. However, the midfield section is built using different parts. Old Trafford uses a single tiles, where Camp Nou uses three tiles.

The picture below shows the shape of one of the quarter foundation sections. You will build four sections and slide them together.

To be honest; this is basically what you will be building most of the time. Rinse and repeat.

There is a slight variation in building the top ring, but the first and second are nearly identical. Each quarter stadium consists of 11 sections, so you will be building 44 sections. And yes, that S is upside down

Completed half of the stadium. Each side contains some offices/business units. The rods aren't positioned correctly. They need to touch the building.

Same stage, from a slightly different angle.

The penultimate quarter with the partial roof (awning) and one of the dugouts. By this time you will probably be done with building the sections.

After building the last quarter and some railing on the top, you have finished the stadium! Except for the truck, there aren't a lot of extra details. The top ring with the lights, score boards and partial roof looks okay and adds some charme to the stadium. And obviously the finished set does look impressive, due to its size.

I do like how the partial roof (or rather, a big awning) has been built. That looks great and it would have made the stadium look cooler if the actual stadium had a this around the entire stadium.

One of the pillars has been slightly bent when attaching the railing. Since the real stadium is almost falling apart, this adds to the realism hehe

A picture from the other side of the stadium showing the entire awning and both dugouts. All in all I do like the end result. The stadium looks properly impressive, but there isn't a lot to be seen.

SUMMARY
Writing this review felt kinda boring and I am sorry if the review IS a bit boring. But there was simply not a lot to talk about. The build is repetitive and it's not the most enjoyable. It feels like something you need to do in order to get to the end result. So this build is not about the journey, but about the destination.

And is that destination worth it? I am not really sure about it. If you are a big Barca or soccer/football fan and have some display space, you might want to add this to your collection. If you are planning on making your own stadium, this may be a nice starter kit, a rather expensive starter kit though. Some people will be over the moon with this set and other people could not care less. I am somewhat in the middle after building the set.

Before I started building this set, I was contemplating on getting Old Trafford to start my stadium collection, but after this build, I think I will leave it at that. Maybe I will change my mind if the rumored Real Madrid stadium has been released, but I highly doubt it. I do appreciate TLG releasing these sets, but I will probably do with some pictures in the future.

To end with a more positive note; the final model is impressive and the overall design is on par with the real stadium. it's instantly recognizable. So this is a proper LEGO version of the Camp Nou stadium!

PROS

• Impressive model
• Iconic stadium

CONS

• Repetitive build
• Not a lot of intricate details

SCORE
How do I rate this set?

8 DESIGN

Design is impressive and on par with the real stadium.

6 BUILDING EXPERIENCE 

Too repetitive to be really enjoyable.

6 FEATURES

No extra features besides being a stadium.

6 PLAYABILITY 

This being a display set, it hardly has any playability.

7 PARTS

Decent parts pack, but not a lot of variation.

7 VALUE FOR MONEY 

Expensive, but you do get a lot of parts.

6,7 ONLY FOR TRUE BARCA FANS

[Borex]

Thnks for the review. These bigger sets are intruiging. I do like to build it (even if it’s a bit repetitive) but i don’t want to own it. 

[prateek]

Strange that they selected Camp Nou this year and Santiago Bernabeu for next year considering both stadiums are undergoing renovation. The interior is amazing on this one though, so making modifications to include the new roof should be pretty straightforward!

[VBBN]

Great review Jim!

Im not really a sports fan (and being in the US my knowledge is a bit further removed from these stadiums), but I must say I am highly disappointed seeing photos of this set. It’s that same repetitive build style of Old Trafford and the Colosseum (all three are made by the same designer and honestly it shows). It’s a decent enough finished product, but these sets feel soulless to me at this point. 

[Cwetqo]

I see this finding it's place in discount shelf, as with Old Trafford. I'm huge Barca fan, but have no real wish for this. Ok, maybe for half price, but still , the question remains, where to put it?

[Redhead1982]

On 11/14/2021 at 5:52 PM, Borex said:

Thnks for the review. These bigger sets are intruiging. I do like to build it (even if it’s a bit repetitive) but i don’t want to own it. 

I'm in the same boat. I like the set for its interesting geometry, but that's it. For my purpose, seeing a set review satisfies my curiosity. As above, I wouldn't mind building a set like this, but I don't know what I could you the set for. It's not interesting as parts pack, it's too big for a display piece, not really eye-catching. Perhaps for a football fan, but I still don't see a typical football fan with fancy shelving displaying a set like this. I admit, I'm not a target audience for this set, and I can't really imagine the target audience for it. In my view, the most interesting detail is its structure, the angled seating area, and the curved shape. But then this is something you can look-up online in the digital instructions to satisfy curiosity. Strictly from an architectural perspective, it's built true to the real model in a much smaller scale. I wonder what TLG's idea behind these football stadiums is.

Nevertheless, thanks for doing this review. 

[Borex]

1 hour ago, Poncke said:

Lego rent service Rent Legos, Lego Rental Service | Netbricks

Ey, that’s a cool idea! I’m going to check if they have it in the Netherlands as well

[Jim]

1 hour ago, Borex said:

Ey, that’s a cool idea! I’m going to check if they have it in the Netherlands as well

We sure do! Multiple ones if I am not mistaken.