We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more here.

Shopping

The New LEGO River Steamboat Is a History Buff’s Dream

The steam engine turns and the paddle spins, but you’ll have to supply your own illegal gambling.

America loves a steamboat. Just look at the roster of pop culture heroes who got their start on one. Mickey Mouse’s first appearance was on a steamboat, back before he mellowed out and quit being a fun-loving dick.

Huckleberry Finn, the eponymous character of every school kid’s favorite forced reading assignment (until high school’s Catcher in the Rye), got up to shenanigans on a steamboat. Now, thanks to Aaron Hall—LEGO fan and inventor of this kit—you can, too.

Videos by VICE

LEGO Ideas is a program by which fans can create and submit new kit ideas of their own creation. Other fans vote on it, and if it gains enough traction that LEGO thinks there’s a market, they’ll put it into production.

Freshly announced this past week, the LEGO River Steamboat goes on sale for $330 on April 11. And we’ve got all the pictures so that you can drool yourself up a river before then.

LEGO River Steamboat — Credit: LEGO

The 4,000-Piece LEGO River Steamboat Is a Real Dreamboat

The River Steamboat isn’t a period piece that replicates what a steamboat would’ve looked like in its mid-19th century heyday, but rather one that “has been refurbished to become an entertainment tour boat and steam engine museum,” as LEGO puts it.

interior of the LEGO River Steamboat — Credit: LEGO

Once built, you can open up the model to reveal various decks without having to disassemble it to check out the various rooms, such as the boiler room, band stage, pilothouse, crew cabin, restaurant, and kitchen.

Within the boiler room you’ll find a steam engine that has a movable piston, steam turbine, and Watt steam engine. It isn’t as detailed as what you’d find in a LEGO Technic set, but the parts do work together and move when you turn it by hand.

engine room for the LEGO River Steamboat — Credit: LEGO

The LEGO River Steamboat Is 4,000 Pieces of Intricate Fun

It’s in the boiler room that you’ll notice the detailed nods toward it being a model of a modern-day museum ship, with the caution sign and miniature explanatory diagrams on the walls that a working ship back in the day wouldn’t have had.

If you’re bummed to see that the ship isn’t period-correct for a past century, it wouldn’t take much more than a minute to remove the modern elements and make it period correct. Just leave off the diagrams and the caution sign, and swap out the modern instruments on the band stage for something old-timey.

Can’t wait to get your hands on one? Well, you’ll have to. LEGO isn’t doing preorders. The River Steamboat goes on sale for $330 on April 11, although LEGO Insiders members can order it on April 7.

It’s free to sign up for LEGO Insiders, so if you’re dead-set on buying the Steamboat and want to make sure you snag one before they sell out, you may as well. It’s also expected to be available on LEGO’s LEGO Ideas storefront on Amazon.

Thank for your puchase!
You have successfully purchased.