By Rakesh Gosai (SAFOLs Brick Deputy)
The 21338 Ideas A-Frame Cabin, an insanely detailed model that was satisfying to put together but a bit on the controversial side of things, due to significant changes when compared to the original fan submission on the LEGO® Ideas platform, more on than later.
Looking at the model, I have to say, it looks stunning! It has such a unique style that it really shows what the LEGO® system has to offer. What’s also stunning is the artwork for the building instructions.
There’s a daylight scene in book one, and a nighttime scene in the book two. Hopefully we’ll get to see a lot more of this in upcoming releases.
The building instructions are split into two books, which means that this is a great build to share with someone else, which I feel is always great to have.
Let’s look at the side builds first, which actually come off of the main build. The cross-axle connectors make it so that the side builds are always loose, to avoid the model breaking if you were to lift the whole set. The smallest of the two has a wood storage space with different sizes of logs to chop
Down, and an autumn shaded tree with lots of different foliage elements with the red leaves being a new colour exclusive to this set.
You’ll also find some wildlife, a blue bird up the tree and a butterfly which seems to be the first
time it’s been printed. The second side build is significantly bigger, with bigger trees as well, designed in a similar way as the previous one, but featuring different colour schemes, a yellow and a green
one on top of which we can find the red bird. There’s also a different print to the butterfly, an otter and a frog by the simple creek build.
It will be hard to miss the canoe, under it some life vests in a crate, and the paddles by the barrel.
The base has different kinds of shapes and colours which looks like it could have been better put together. The mushrooms were a nice touch, and a rock element built sideways for some cool stone texture on the ground was an interesting building technique.
The two sections can be connected together for a small mini forest scene if you want to have this detached from the cabin. This could have also been a gift with purchase set! The set is all about the cabin and, I find it absolutely stunning. The official GWP is shown here: https://norton74.com/2024/11/12/exclusive-gwp-for-the-a-frame-cabin/
From the start of the main build, a frog is hidden under the stairs that lead to the house, a few more mushrooms and a squirrel. The cobblestone work is amazing because it uses a bunch of Thor’s Mjolnir hammer as the stones in a staggered way! Talk about nice part usage. It’s also worth mentioning that the first few steps of the set also have us building a secret Italian flag, a cool Easter Egg that references the nationality of the designer of the set, Andrea Lattanzio, aka Norton74 in the AFOL community. More of his portfolio can be seen here : https://norton74.com/portfolio/
On the porch, there is a rocking chair with the whip element, a very clever detail, an egg being fried here and another small bench to the other side. There’s two more butterflies, the same prints as the ones previously mentioned and a small bird house next to one of the windows, that feature the dark green colour with printed wooden plank pieces above it, something that can be seen on all windows of the cabin, like the ones on the sides of the roof.
There’s a ton of tiles used here on the roof, for a nice effect, though I think the model would have benefited with the use of at least an extra colour for some variation. There isn’t a lack of detail on the back as well with a gas tank and a petrol container, judging by the Octan colour scheme to the left a shower with a pink soap and a door element for a towel. Or is it toilet paper next to a shovel?
There’s also a chimney that goes all the way up, and I would also like to highlight the texturing of the wall. It is very interesting with the use of different pieces and there’s also a lot of different layers of depth, achieved with a mix of modified bricks and brackets on the layers underneath, breaking an otherwise flat surface really well.
The roofs could have benefited with the use of a few more colours. Both sides of the roof can be removed, and they’re actually only resting, relying on gravity to stay in place which is great for ease of access to the interior.
The roofs don’t line up perfectly as they do on the box as there’s this small gap at the top, not a real issue but something I wanted to mention. There’s a ton of interior details, a bit too much for my taste but I have to agree that it resembles what you would expect to see in these kinds of cabins.
Starting from the top there’s a bedroom with lots of objects lying around. I’ll have to highlight the painting above the bed, an image of a custom build by the fan designer of the set, a cool little Easter
egg in there, a miniature LEGO® Ideas Tree House reference and a hidden nut that the squirrel placed under the bed.
He isn’t the only creature that has been inside though…look out for the spider!
The whole top floor can be removed for easier access to the ground floor, and I like how the chimney outside was split but still matches the lower section when in place.
The ground floor has an even crazier number of details that are really fun to put together, like a desk with a typewriter, a reference to yet another LEGO® Ideas set, the wooden stove in there is very neat, the exhaust was made with a car spoiler element on its side, or the sink’s tap made with the flintlock piece.
In the couch area there’s a collection of vinyl disks, a record player and a collection of minerals as well.
As you probably know, there’s no stickers in the set, everything is printed including the entrance mat with the LEGO® print, an element only seen once before in the red pickup truck set, and above the door, a tile that up until now was exclusive to the LEGO® Ideas Blacksmith set.
Well Priced with 2082 pieces, no stickers, a great building experience, fun details and an amazing looking model when put together, I think this set offers a lot of value and then there are the 4 minifigures, all featuring appropriate clothing for the setting were the action plays out.
It does confuse me how these four people will sleep with the cabin only having a double bed upstairs though. Maybe they’ll share the woods with all the different animals that this set has to offer.
This set seems to be getting some criticism due to a few changes when we compare the final model, to the initial fan designer submission on the LEGO® Ideas platform. The trees are the most obvious changes which understandably can make some people less happy. The original ones also seem incredibly difficult to build strongly enough for LEGO® quality standards. I can understand if the changes were made due to stability. There’s also the overall look of the model, the original looked way more dated, whereas the final model looks a bit more modern looking.
I don’t mind the changes all that much and the model still looks amazing!
