The new LEGO Loop Coaster is a massive thrill ride with a vertical, 90-degree drop and two inversions. It is the latest entry in LEGO's "Fairground" collection, and it is an impressive spectacle, either as a singular centerpiece or as a beloved addition to a growing LEGO amusement park.
LEGO offers smaller amusement park builds through its LEGO City branding, but the Fairground-branded rides are adult builds that lean heavily on ingenuity. I have three prior builds in the collection: the Ferris Wheel (2015); the Carousel (2017), and the original Roller Coaster (2018), inspired by the Coney Island Cyclone. They're beautiful, but my enjoyment of them is enhanced by the knowledge of how they work—of how this gear turns that rod, which turns the chain lift and the wheels that line the track, which allows the Roller Coaster cars to pick up speed.
It's the knowledge of how the Carousel animals roll on a secret track above the ride, and crooked LEGO technic rods allow animals to "gallop" up and down. An outside observer sees the pretty final product. But a builder sees, up close and personal, what must have been an exhausting exercise in trial-and-error. A builder sees a mechanism that:
- Creates the desired visual effect
- Is hidden or integrated enough to be seamless and not call attention to itself
- Is consistent and functional 100% of the time
The 2018 Roller Coaster fulfilled all three qualities. Its cars left the load station, ascended, ran the entire track, rolled back into the station, and repeated these functions: fluidly, seamlessly, and indefinitely. The new 2022 Loop Coaster also demands all this, plus a new complication: two large, inverted loops.
To gain the necessary acceleration and velocity to make both loops, the Loop Coaster would have to be tall—at least 3 feet. And therein lay the problem: how to get the roller coaster cars from the bottom of the ride to the top of it, both quickly and efficiently. A classic chain lift hill would get the job done, but would add hundreds of redundant pieces to a 3500+ piece build. A 3-foot-tall, reinforced incline is a building project unto itself, and it's not a very fun one.
So, the designers eliminated the hill entirely and replaced it instead with an elevator mechanism. It lifts the coaster cars, via a small section of track, to the top of the ride. The coaster cars slide off the elevator and begin their looping descent. And while this is going on, the lift lowers back down to the bottom of the ride—in time to catch the cars after they've completed their run—and sends them back up. Again, and again, and again.
When I first saw the trailer for this set, I wondered how the elevator would work. Would I turn the crank clockwise to send it up, and then counter-clockwise to send it back down? It didn't seem possible to accomplish both whilst turning the crank in a single direction. But the LEGO designers managed it by using different sized links on a single chain. The larger ones "catch" the elevator and send it up. And then the smaller ones release the elevator, and gravity does the rest.
The Loop Coaster has a cool blue and yellow color scheme, a departure from the more whimsical coloring of the prior rides in the Fairground series. The coaster is space-themed, and decorated with stars and a sci-fi entranceway The ride is loaded with the minute detail that these advanced sets are known for. There's a red, helium balloon that's floated away in the area over the line queue. There's a tiny ladybug crawling along the footpath. There's a squirrel next to the park bench. There's a height requirement ruler to prevent little minifigures from boarding the ride. There's a candid camera attached to the track near the inversion, and there's corresponding television monitors in the line queue which show the minifigures' terrified faces. And there's more.
The set includes eleven mini-figures—10 adults and 1 child. Of these, 4 of the adults are employees—a ride operator, a balloon busker, a hot dog man, and a pretzel lady. The latter three each come with their own concession stand. The hot dog stand is especially cute, using minimal pieces to create the impression of ketchup and mustard bottles and an open grill.
I'd strongly recommend getting a corresponding motor (sold separately) to turn the gears. You can crank it manually, but it's much nicer to stand back and enjoy the experience than constantly run it. This build is micro-oriented, but more than worth the effort it takes to build it. And the elevator is better seen than described; you're assembling this complex mesh of weights, counterweights, gears, and lifts, and it isn't until the last possible moment that you realize how it all fits and works together. You surprise yourself.
The LEGO Loop Coaster, Set #10303, retails for $399.99. It is composed of 3756 pieces and was designed by a team led by Senior LEGO Designer Pierre Normandin. It is available now.