While reaching The Inferno is the finale of the adventure in the film, the LEGO Ideas design team explain how they balanced combining a ship with storytelling for 21363 The Goonies.
The LEGO Group’s design professionals worked hard to ensure that 21363 The Goonies has a full interior that tells the story of the adventure movie. It is launching at LEGO.com on November 1, with a bonus free model – 40773 The Walshes’ Attic – for the first few days it is available.
Hidden on a secret lake and filled with extraordinary treasures, the lost pirate ship of One-Eyed Willy was actually built as a practical full-scale ship during the filming of the 1985 action adventure flick The Goonies. Inspired by the vessel in The Sea Hawk, it was based on the frigates used during the 17th century – the Golden Age of Piracy. It took more than two months to build and measured a whopping 32 metres. When the Goonies see The Inferno for the first time, their reaction in the film is genuine, as it was kept secret from the actors until filming. Its sheer and scale mesmerised the cast and moviegoers alike, which was an essential element to convey in 21363 The Goonies.
Although the finished model is slightly smaller than the original submission from fan builder Vaggelis Ntezes, the LEGO Ideas team were still very conscious about the scale. “The main thing we did was scale it down and then added the treasure room as it’s so important in the movie. It’s the end goal of the adventure,” explains LEGO Senior Model Designer Marina Stampoli.
“It was a challenge though. Whenever we needed to move something around or scale it down, we always needed to consider the relative placements of the different caves and rooms. Because you need to put the minifigures in the rooms throughout the whole adventure, climbing from one cave to the next. So each one needed to be at a specific level, size, and doors needed to connect. While we split the model into four sections, we constantly had to ensure everything aligned.”
“And one of the earliest challenges was mirroring the whole model,” adds LEGO Ideas Creative Lead Jordan Scott, referencing how the interior is now the other way around compared to the original submission. “We flipped everything so that the treasure room is in the right place on the actual ship.”
Although The Inferno captures many details of the frigate used in the movie, it’s only half of the ship. “The ship works as a skin for the model, as a hiding place, and also as support between the hull and the caves. So it was very complex and it had to be balanced between the exterior to the interior of the model,” says Marina.
“I always look at previous versions or similar models to try and learn or use techniques from my colleagues. Another model that was very inspiring for this one was the Indiana Jones set [77015 Temple of the Golden Idol] because of the way the functions worked throughout the model and the layout.”
Upgrade your LEGO hobby! If you take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine, you’ll get each issue first and at a discount, plus other perks including a free digital subscription and the chance to win LEGO prizes every month.
“It’s basically as much about the caves as it is about the ship,” says LEGO Senior Designer Markus Rollbühler. “Getting them to have a synergy and a combination that made sense was very tricky. We spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to build up the caves while also getting the ship hull to work. And how do you assemble that? What’s the order of things? You have to strategically place rocks to then cover seam lines and stuff like that. It’s not things you need to think about on a standard ship.”
With the ship not following the typical shape or style of a frigate, it led to some creative parts usage as things had to also work as details for the caves. “There’s a bunch of brown elements we recoloured for the ship hull. My favourite is a very obscure one! It’s this piece here,” says Markus, pointing to the element that doubles as the ceiling in the organ room. “That piece is actually a train chassis. We had a huge issue getting this section stable and sturdy, then I suddenly found that train chassis element and it solved everything”
However, an essential mainstay for any ship are the sails. The ones included in 21363 The Goonies are directly inspired by the recently released LEGO Icons 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship, using almost exactly the same fabric die-cuts. “The sails are new though,” explains Markus. “We started with the sails used for Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship and then adapted them to have space for the mast function [for Sloth] and to get them a bit more raggedy. A bit more messed up.”
If you fancy LEGO Ideas 21363 The Goonies, please make your purchase via our affiliate links so that we can bring you more fascinating designer insights like this.
If you want to know about new LEGO sets as soon as they are announced, sign up to our free newsletter. Of course, if you really want to upgrade your LEGO hobby for the true insider experience, take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine for fans.