Stranger Things

The Upside Down

Two houses, one build, and a flip trick that actually holds together.

4.4/5

Set 75810 · 2019

Pieces2,287

Minifigs8

Year2019

Set number75810

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The verdict

If you love Stranger Things, this one's a pretty easy yes.

You get the Byers house on top and its creepy mirrored Upside Down version underneath, plus eight exclusive minifigs you can't get anywhere else. It's pricey and it's long since retired, so you'll pay a lot on the secondary market now, but the design cleverness and the fan-service details make it a genuinely special display piece. If you've never watched the show, though, a lot of the magic will go straight over your head.

Best for: Stranger Things fans who want a display centerpiece, not a play set

The full review

What it is

Let me tell you why this LEGO® set is one of the more quietly clever things LEGO put out in 2019. On top you build the Byers family house from Stranger Things, all sand-yellow siding and cozy 1980s clutter, right down to Joyce's wall of Christmas lights spelling out messages. Then you flip the whole thing over and there's the Upside Down, the same house mirrored into that dark, decayed, vine-choked parallel dimension. Two builds in one, joined at the middle, and the trees around the edges double as pillars so you can stand it either way up. It's the kind of concept that could easily have flopped, and instead it lands.

The catch

Now the honest bit. At 2,287 pieces it launched at 199.99 dollars, which was already a chunky ask, and since it retired in December 2021 the price has gone through the roof. Sealed copies now trade for somewhere north of 600 dollars, so this is a collector purchase, not an impulse buy. There are gripes beyond the money too. The minifig roster is missing Steve, Jonathan and Nancy, which stings for a set built entirely around the show's cast. A fair few builders also point out that the trees mostly earn their keep as structural pillars for the flip, and quietly wish LEGO had sold just the house for less. And a real question hangs over long-term display: a lot of parts hang inverted off that central plate sandwich, and people wondered aloud whether clutch power would hold for years. In practice it's held up well, but it's worth knowing the model is heavier and floppier than a normal build of this size.

Who it's for

So who should grab it? If you're a Stranger Things fan, this is a lovely centerpiece stuffed with details you'll keep spotting, and the eight exclusive figures alone give it real pull. Builders who enjoy techniques will get a kick out of how the whole thing is engineered. If you've never watched the show, or you want something to actively play with rather than display, skip it, because most of the payoff here is recognition and the clever inversion trick. For everyone else, it's a smart, characterful set that's only gotten harder to find. If you spot one at a fair price, don't overthink it.

The parts story

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

Building this one is really two houses stacked back to back. You start with the normal Byers house and it builds like a good modular, with proper interior detailing, furniture and those little narrative touches. Then comes the genuinely interesting part: you construct a lot of the second house upside down, hanging off a central plate sandwich, which means loads of SNOT (studs not on top) work and bracket trickery to get walls and floors pointing the right way in a mirrored world. There's real technique packed in here, nearly 200 SNOT bricks and around 46 bracket plates doing the heavy lifting, plus the trees that tie it all together and let the model be flipped without falling apart. LEGO reckons this was the first time it built a big chunk of a model upside down and had it survive repeated flipping, and you feel that engineering as you go.

On parts, there are five new moulds, including the Demogorgon's petal-faced headwear and Dustin's bright blue cap with reddish-brown hair combo. You also get fresh recolors like the 1x4x3 brick in sand yellow and medium stone grey, which are handy for anyone building houses of their own. It's not a set overflowing with a single money part, but the sheer volume of brackets, SNOT bricks and useful earthy-tone plates makes it a strong parts donor. At its old retail price the per-piece value was fine rather than amazing, but the exclusive figures and clever geometry were always the real draw.

Fun facts

01LEGO says this was the first time it built a large portion of a model upside down and had it survive being flipped over and over without falling apart.
02Every one of the eight minifigs is exclusive to this set, which is a big reason sealed copies now resell for well over triple the original 199.99 dollar price.
03It was designed by Justin Ramsden, a relatively new designer at the time whose earlier work included 2016's Spider-Man Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle.
04Built up it stands over 12 inches tall, 17 inches wide and 8 inches deep, and the manuals are sprinkled with show trivia matched to whatever part of the house you're building.