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Icons of Play

Four real footballing legends in minifig form, and a half pitch that never quite fills up.

Brick Rated Score

3.4/5

Set 40634 · 2023

Pieces899

Minifigs15

Year2023

Set number40634

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The verdict

This one landed for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, and the heart behind it got me before the bricks did.

Megan Rapinoe, Sam Kerr, Asisat Oshoala and Yuki Nagasato as real minifigures, on a stand full of cheering fans, is a genuinely lovely idea. The trouble is you only get half a pitch and a crank-and-bob crowd, so it works better as a minifig collection than as a set you build and love. Get it if the players or the moment mean something to you, not if you want a satisfying build.

Best for: women's football fans and minifig collectors who want the four star players

The full review

What it is

Icons of Play arrived alongside the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, and I want to be honest that the concept moved me more than the plastic did. LEGO put four of the biggest names in women's football into minifigure form, Megan Rapinoe, Sam Kerr, Asisat Oshoala and Yuki Nagasato, each with her own printed face and a couple of hairpiece options so you can style her the way you remember her playing. Around them sits a buildable stand packed with cheering supporters and half a football pitch to play across. The first time I got the crowd bobbing up and down on the crank, I grinned. There is real warmth in the idea, and for a lot of people the point of this set is simply having those four players on a shelf.

The catch

Here is where I have to be straight with you though. The build itself is very simple, aimed at younger or newer builders, and it goes together fast without much to chew on. The bigger sticking point is that you only get half a pitch. It genuinely feels like LEGO wanted you to buy two boxes to make one complete field, and once you notice that, it is hard to unsee. The football gameplay is basic too, a flick and a hope, and it does not have the clever mechanics some of the older LEGO football sets pulled off years ago. Reviewers landed around three out of five for a set at the hundred dollar mark, and I understand why. The minifigure haul softens the price, but the model you actually assemble is slight for the money.

Who it's for

So who ends up happy with this one. If you follow women's football, or you were watching in 2023 and those names mean something, this is an easy yes, because owning Rapinoe and Kerr and Oshoala and Nagasato as minifigures is the whole reward. Minifigure collectors will feel the same, since fifteen figures with this much variety in one box is a lot of shelf value. Parts builders quietly love it too, mostly for those neon footballs. The people I would steer away are builders who live for the engineering and the sit down satisfaction of a meaty model, because the half pitch and the quick build will leave you a little cold. Know which camp you are in before you commit, and this set will either delight you or disappoint you almost exactly as much as you expect.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building Icons of Play is a gentle, breezy afternoon rather than a challenge. The stand and the half pitch come together quickly, and the one moment of mechanical fun is the crank that runs under the crowd and makes the supporters bounce, which is the sort of thing kids adore. It is approachable enough for a younger builder to do largely on their own, and that is clearly who a lot of it was designed for. Do not come expecting Technic style trickery or a slow, layered assembly, because that is not the experience on offer here.

The pieces are where the set quietly earns its keep. The four star players carry exclusive face prints you will not find elsewhere, and each comes with alternate wigs so you can match a look. Those new neon yellow footballs are the collector magnet, prized by the ball contraption crowd for machine builds. Beyond the headliners you get a real spread of skin tones, hairpieces and supporter outfits that make the fan minifigures useful far outside this box. With 899 pieces and fifteen figures it works out near eleven cents a part, and the part out value on the secondary market sits well above what the set cost, so the raw material has held its worth even as the model itself divides opinion.

Fun facts

01The set was released on 6 June 2023 to line up with the FIFA Women's World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand.
02It packs 15 minifigures, the four named footballers plus goalkeepers, a coach, a referee and a crowd of supporters.
03The four headline players are Megan Rapinoe, Sam Kerr, Asisat Oshoala and Yuki Nagasato, each with a unique printed face.
04It is now retired, and its BrickLink part out value has climbed to well above its original 99.99 dollar price.