LEGO Ideas set to dial back the clock as Retro Arcade reaches 10K

A retro arcade project has reached the review stage on LEGO Ideas, proving that tapping into nostalgia is basically a guaranteed recipe for success.

British builder Richard Dane’s Retro Arcade rocketed to 10,000 votes in just over two months, and is now in the hands of the LEGO Ideas team. The 1,849-piece model matches the design standards of the Modular Buildings Collection with its tiled pavement and brick-built lettering, but is set over only a single storey.

Just like 10278 Police Station, 10264 Corner Garage and company, though, you’ll find plenty of detail inside – including multiple arcade cabinets, interactive functions (such as a superbike machine operated using an external control knob) and indoor light bricks. You can check out all the moving parts of Richard’s model on his YouTube channel.

The Retro Arcade will now progress to the first 2021 review, joining 42 other models in a list that shows no signs of slowing down – but will it stand a chance against the rest of the projects in contention in this review period?

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History tells us that we can’t rule it out: while SpacySmoke’s Sega Classic Arcade Machines was rejected in the first 2017 review and avilabrick’s Modular Arcade followed suit a year later, the former model was included in Ideas’ second-chance poll in 2019, suggesting the LEGO Group is open to the idea of producing a model based on a classic arcade.

For now, here’s the full list of LEGO Ideas projects in the running in this review:

Retro Arcade
Modular Portal Testing Chamber
Working Bowling Alley
Violin
LEGO Viking Longship
The Village Post Office
The Office
Succulent Garden
Ancient Greek Temple
SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy (BFR)
Steampunk Airship
VIA Rail Canada – The Canadian
Marine Life
A Map of Middle-earth
My LEGO Totoro
Jazz Quartet
The Trulli of Alberobello
The Polar Express
Train Bookends

The Nightmare Before Christmas
The King’s Castle
The Sewing Workshop
Forth Bridge
A Nice Day at the Farm
The Castle of Brickwood Forest
Baba Yaga
Claus Toys
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Paradise
NASA’s SLS & Artemis
LEGO bookends
Metroid: Samus Aran’s Gunship
Hyrule Castle (The Legend of Zelda)
The Karate Kid “Wax On, Wax Off”
Scania Next Generation S730 
4½-Litre 1927-31 Bentley ‘Blower’ 
Asterix and Obelix 
The Simpsons – The Krusty Burger
The House of Chocolate
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Castle of Lord Afol and the Black Knights
Among Us: The Skeld Detailed Map
The Office
The Shire

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Author Profile

Chris Wharfe
I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

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