Review: LEGO 31210 Modern Art

August 6, 2023 | 5

LEGO’s Art theme is slowly but surely turning into one of my favourite themes, and I say that sincerely. 2023 has been a pretty strong year for the theme, with numerous unexpected sets and experiences, such as the excellent Hokusai: The Great Wave and the comic-book come alive d 31209 The Amazing Spider-Man, and now in August… we have 31210 Modern Art.

True to its namesake, Modern Art eschews traditional art or anything the LEGO Art theme has ever done, with a wacky take on Contemporary Art.

This set isn’t for everyone, but I think this is one of LEGO’s best designed sets of 2023, and no, I’m not kidding when I say that. Just like Modern/Contemporary Art, if you expand your horizons and be open to unorthodox LEGO sets, there’s a lot of creative enjoyment to be found with this set.

I hope this review helps you see this set in a new light, because I definitely did and had a lot of fun with 31210 Modern Art.

Who is this set for? People that appreciate art and design, and want a playful, creative LEGO experience that’s suited to grown-ups.

Special thanks to The LEGO Group for sending this review set over.

31210 Modern Art Set Details

Name: Modern Art
Set Number: 31210
Pieces: 805
Price: US$49.99 / AU$84.99 / £44.99 / €49.99 / CAD$64.99
Minifigures: N/A
Exclusive to: LEGO.com / LEGO Stores / selected toy stores
Theme: LEGO Art
Release Date: 1 August 2023
Designer: Samuel Johnson (@spider_sam_builds)

I will preface this review by saying that I’m not a MOCer. In fact, I find freestyle building quite intimidating, and I also don’t consider myself artistically-inclined, which is why I was quite hesitant about this set.

When LEGO offered this review set to me, I was quite dumbfounded and honestly not quite excited but I pushed myself to open the box and give it a shot for the sake of this review.

And I discovered a really wonderfully-designed product that’s a lot more than meets the eye. Kinda like modern art. Is it a squiggly or straight line or is it a deep narrative about the struggles of life?

Here’s the contents of the set. You get a healthy number of LEGO elements, 805 to be exact which is a really good bunch of parts for a US$50/AU$85 set. The parts are mostly bright primary colours and there’s quite a number of useful and uncommon elements in this too.

You begin by constructing this white frame out of the first two bags, and from the getgo, I was clear that I was going to freestyle this set and build whatever that came to mind.

After all, if Piet Mondrian can make a name for himself with a bunch of straight lines and red/yellow and blue squares, who says I can’t be the next contemporary LEGO artist?

There are of course instructions included, with the option to build one of 4 Modern Art designs if you choose.

The instructions function to ease you in to building creative different shapes using the elements included, which you can then mix and match to create any of the 4 designs.

Of course, for a set like this, LEGO really wants you to eschew the instructions and build whatever, which is a challenge I set for myself.

And here is my creation! I was inspired by Picasso, and Cubism in particular, so I somehow found myself building a sort of face, starting with the two circular “eyes” in the middle and expanding from there.

For someone that builds with instructions 99.5% of the time, it actually was a lot of fun and a good exercise for my brain and soul to just make weird shapes, mix colours and just get weird.

The frame makes attaching shapes and elements quite easy, and you can also easily detach them after you’re done and start afresh.

Oh, and you can also flip it around, and it works too, something that I didn’t quite intend, but discovered as I was building this weird thing.

The more I look at it, I slowly began to relate with the chaos that’s probably a good snapshot of what goes on in my head most days.

Here are some close-ups of the shapes I built.

Pretty fun and bizarre, but fun!

What I liked:

• Decent value as you get a good mix of useful, colourful elements that won’t break the bank
• Encourages creativity and self-expression
• Makes for a great gift for art/design enthusiasts
• Has plenty of potential as a LEGO group activity

What I didn’t like: 

• It’s a very niche set
• Should have some in a flip open box for easy storage

FINAL THOUGHTS:

31210 Modern Art is a really well-designed LEGO experience. It’s essentially a creative design kit in a box, packaged with an affordable pricetag that will appeal to those that appreciate art, and design.

It’s so unlike anything that LEGO has ever done, even within the LEGO Art theme, but at the same time, feels so incredibly familiar. It’s as if LEGO took the LEGO Classic theme (sets with random elements and bricks) and went, hmm, how do we translate that experience of freestyle creativity for adults.

This set definitely doesn’t appeal to everyone, and is one of the most niche products in LEGO’s portfolio. If your idea of a good LEGO experience is amassing Star Wars Clone armies, or building a massive LEGO Castle, this set is unlikely to fall on your radar, but I still maintain that set has a lot broader appeal than it may seem.

For one, the set’s US$50/AU$85 pricetag is close to impulse purchase territory for adults with disposable income. Secondly, this is a really fun creative activity in a box that benefits from LEGO’s tactile properties.

If you just want to create and build freely, in the context of creating some Modern Contemporary Art, this set does a fine job of putting the medium in your hands, to shape as you please. It’s a lot of fun and has a lot of potential for a group or date activity, and I daresay makes for a fun little gift.

Modern Art gets clowned on quite easily, and sets like 31210 Modern Art can seem really random, and almost bizarre but once I actually spent some quality time with this set, the merits of what the LEGO Art team had in mind with this set became clear as day, and I think will have plenty of appeal to those outside the AFOL bubble.

Adults looking for something fun to do with their hands, and a light creative endeavour that’s tactile and more tangible than adult colouring books will find a great experience in this 805-piece LEGO set.

As a product, this is one of the most innovative and well-thought out sets that LEGO have produced for adults, and after building my weird art creation, my soul and being did feel quite enriched.

Kinda like the same feeling you get after visiting an art museum, or when you create something that has never been created before.

Rating and score: 4/5 ★★★★✰

Build [4] – Open-ended creative building in the context of Modern Art
Real Value [4] – Incredibly well-priced that it can serve as a fun activity, or gift
Innovation [5] – I’m impressed by how well this experience is designed, how the intended builders were considered as well as how risky of a concept this is!
Coolness [4] – I have a mild appreciation of art and design, so I value sets like these deeply
Keepability [5] – Infinitely recyclable and can easily be turned into something else when inspiration strikes

Thank you so much for reading this review of 31210 Modern Art! For such a bizarre and unorthodox set, I hope I’ve treated you to a slightly different perspective of why sets like these exist.

31210 Modern Art is available from LEGO.com or your local LEGO Store.

What do you think of LEGO Modern Art? Do you think sets like this have broad and mainstream appeal outside of traditional LEGO fans?

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