Have I mentioned recently that I have the best job in the world? This week, I spent three and a half hours building an Xbox 360 out of Mega Bloks, the Lego-like bricks produced by Mattel.
In September, we brought you word that Target would exclusively sell a brick-built $150 Xbox 360 replica, complete with a gamepad, internal Easter eggs, and a “copy” of Halo 3.
Now, ahead of an October 8th debut, I’ve built the thing, snapped some hasty photos, and shot a little basic video:
It’s a slick set that absolutely captures the essence of the console — even if it might not live up to The Lego Group’s exacting standards when it comes to build quality.
Mattel starts you off with an appetizer — the Xbox 360 Wireless Gamepad — and it perfectly illustrates what the entire build is like.
Pros: Mattel nails the overall profile, turns the iconic guide button, joysticks, and (terrible) D-pad into perfect-match custom parts, and lights it up with a button-battery powered light brick that glows for eight seconds after you tap the guide button.
The joysticks have soft, flexible rubber stems that let you move them around, too. Every part with letters is printed — unlike many Lego sets, there’s not a single sticker in the entire box.
I also love that the controller “doesn’t have power” when you remove its battery because that’s where the light brick is installed! Each trigger and bumper is printed, the sync button is printed, the charge-and-play port is printed, and there’s even a printed headset jack on the bottom.
Cons: The printing quality is pretty hit-and-miss. The letters don’t line up perfectly for the legends above the “Back” and “Start” buttons. The “X” and “Y” aren’t centered on their corresponding face buttons. Some pieces, like the D-pad and the triggers, are flimsily attached by a single stud underneath — my D-pad has fallen off four times already when I’ve bumped it.
I don’t envy the designer who had to capture the Xbox 360’s subtle curves in brick form, and I’m a bit in awe. So many of them are spot on.
But there are also plenty of places Mattel’s blocks don’t line up with one another — sometimes because the bricks aren’t shaped for purpose and sometimes due to imperfections on the assembly line. An extra bit of plastic here, a misprint there; my Xbox power button‘s etched power logo is oh so slightly rotated wrong.
It’d be quite an effort even if they were all printed correctly, partly because the inconsistent clutch power of Mega Bloks’ studs makes it hard to seat them all flush. But also, many of my “air vent holes” were slightly misprinted, with the black dots too high or too low compared to one another.