Review: LEGO Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone (21331)!

When it comes to LEGO Ideas I tend to gravitate towards the sets that bring back happy childhood memories, be it films, music, or in this instance video games. I’ll admit that Sonic the Hedgehog wasn’t my go-to game when I was younger, that was Super Mario, but I did have a space, very small space, for Sonic and his gang.

So when LEGO finally announced they were making Toastergrl’s Sonic Mania – Green Hill Zone into an official set I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it!

I purchased this set online at LEGO.com as I had a VIP Coin to redeem, two birds with one stone and all that, so it wasn’t quite a day one set for me. It arrived and I built it live over two parts on our Instagram account (@thebrickpost), please feel free to watch them back for the full build experience.

Here is my review of LEGO Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone (21331):

The Box & Contents:

Heading into the store or popping online to purchase this, and any set for that matter, and the firdt thing you see if the box and the incredible art upon it. This one instantly transports you back to your childhood with the blocky graphics and iconic blue Hedgehog, Sonic, pride of place in the front and back of the box.

You’ll see the usual gumph on the front listing name and set number (21331), along with the piece count which is 1125. Also present is the LEGO Ideas logo and the 18+ certificate.

Flip the box around and you’ll see a few of the play features of the set, including the spring pad which Sonic uses to get to higher levels, this is operated by tapping down a plate on the back, but more on that later in the review.

Opening an Ideas box is so satisfying with the lift up flaps and hinged back, almost like a treasure chests of sorts but filled with LEGO!

There are six numbered bags, two sticker sheets and of course an instruction manual. The manual is in itself a work of art and features retro callbacks to Yesteryear, the front cover alone is enough to get the nostalgia juices flowing.

Turning the first few pages of the manual is a journey through Sonic’s history and displays the entire video game lineup in a handy timeline format.

It also dives into how the original product idea came about and what it took to get it into stores and on shelves, all whilst showing off stunning art work. It’s always great fun reading though this and is part of my build process, getting to know just how it came about is fascinating to me.

Each of the two sticker sheets are again filled with callbacks to the original video game, especially the games power-ups and unique landscape. I particularly like the design of the main plaque, Sonic’s life count, very retro!

For detailed shots of the stickers in their rightful place checkout the ‘Build‘ segment of our review below.

The Build:

Getting stuck into the build I  quickly get an idea of how most of the construction will go, stacking 1×1 plates on top of each other isn’t a great way to start off any LEGO set. If you have built this set then you know what I’m talking about.

I do understand why LEGO have done it this way as full height bricks would look slightly too big and out of place, also in keeping with the Minifigure scale it makes even more sense. But continuously stacking 1×1 plates isn’t fun and kind of ruins the experience.

Sorry to start the build segment of the review off on a bad note but I had to get it out of my system, it was the one constant moan I had whilst building this live on our Instagram.

Looking past that the rest of the build is actually very enjoyable especially creating the loop, seeing how the LEGO Designers produced a perfect circle whilst keeping the whole and feel of the set is pure genius. Having exposed studs leading up to and away from the loop is nice and great for placing the Sonic Minifigure, although somehow incorporating one half way round the loop would have been the icing on the cake and would allow us to take some rather cool photos of Sonic in action!

The build in its entirety is almost like a modular, in the sense that you can switch up its design by moving the different sections around, creating new level designs as you go. That was until I plated and tiled along the base of it as per the instructions, thus joining and securing the whole together and making it pretty solid, removing the modular feel completely.

If this was left untouched I think the whole idea would have worked so much better!

As you can see the sections are perfect for this way of thinking and would allow MOC builders to really experiment and produce some really cool things and level addon.

There are some really nice printed parts included which are used for detailing along the verge/edge. These designs carry on from where the base left off, adding a more rounded (squared in LEGO terms) look to the relatively flat 2D build.

We also get a few brick-built characters, Crabmeat, Motobug, and Dr Robotnik.

Not really playing much of the classic game I can’t tell how accurate they are, but after a quick Google search I can see that LEGO haven’t done a bad job in capturing their look, even right down to supplying an alternative face (sticker) for Motobug!

I do know who the main villain of the game and series is and that’s Dr Robotnik, here he has been built entirely out of LEGO Bricks and he looks great, even with his thin legs and very pointy shoes.

He comes complete with his Egg shaped hover vehicle, which again is brick-built. A few more stickers are applied here too seeing grille details and Hazard Arrows along each side of the vehicle.

Once the build is complete it looks absolutely stunning and the tedious rask of those pesky 1×1 plates are long forgotten, we can finally sit back and appreciate it for what it is, a cool display piece that harks back to the 90s and hopefully brings back some awesome childhood memories of pure gaming delight!

The Minifigure:

I maybe a little bias, being more of a Minifigure collector than some, but as always the real gem is Sonic, he looks absolutely fantastic immortalised in LEGO form.

Now this isn’t the first time we’ve been graced with his presence, as he was first seen in a LEGO Dimensions expansion pack. Although this new incarnation of him is slightly, great news for collectors of the original one as the price will still stay consistently high.

The printing on both the front & back is ‘spot’ on and does look good if not a little plain and lack-lustre. There is a small detail printed on both sides of his dual moulded legs and that is the shoe buckle.

It’s the small details like this that really add life to the Minifigure and one LEGO are known for, they go that extra mile to make their products standout. Not only that the head is once again a fully moulded piece, which it would have to be as it’s such a cool unique shape. 

The Conclusion:

Overall a fantastic display set that oozes nostalgia and looks great doing it!

The build is a little repetitive, ok extremely repetitive, but once you get past that you can appreciate the set for what it is tended for, display.

The brick-built characters look enough like their video game counter parts to get away with, Dr Robotnik being the best of the bunch.

Sonic Minifigure is the gem here and really raises the bar higher, it’s so good to finally have this iny collection!

I highly recommend this set not only if you’re a video game fan but for a LEGO fan that likes a challenge and loves a retro, cool display piece.

Thank you for reading our review of LEGO Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone (21331), we hope you enjoyed it, please feel free to leave a comment, don’t forget to bookmark our website for nore reviews and LEGO related news.

Until next time, keep on building!