Lego Grand Piano 21323

George bought me the Lego Grand Piano 21323 set for my birthday.  If you scroll down that link, you can see their promotional video.  This is a prettier commercial, and this is a short interview with the designer, Woon Tze Chee.

14 Aug 20

The manual is 564 pages.

There are 3,662 pieces.

Those pieces are divided into 21 sets of bags, which I brought to Sealy.

Assembly starts at dawn.

15 Aug 20

Bag 1: Partial Underside & Partial Rim

Bag 2: Crankshaft, Motion Sensor, Motor, Battery & Bluetooth

Bag 3: Damper Rail & Rods

Bag 4: Partial Soundboard

Bag 5: Completed Soundboard & Rim Tail

Bag 6: Partial Case Front & Partial Rim

Bag 7: Partial Case Front, Partial Rim, & Partial Cheeks

Bag 8: Completed Case Front

Bag 9: Completed Rim

Bag 10: Legs & Pedal Lyre

Bag 11: 7-Note Keyboard

Bag 12: 12-Note Keyboard & Action

Bag 12.1: Keybed, Keyframe, & Balance Pins

Bag 12.2: Close-up on those Adorable Yummy Hammers

Bag 13: 17-Note Keyboard & Action

Bag 14: 24-Note Keyboard & Action

Bag 15: Completed 25-Note Keyboard

Bag 16: Fallboard

Bag 17: Music Stand & Damper Heads

Bag 18: Partial Lid

Bag 19: Partial Lid

Bag 20: Completed Lid

Bag 21: Bench

With a Horse & Little Ones

Measures 8.5" by 12" by 13.5" When Closed

Final Thoughts:  What a beautiful model.  The Lego set does not produce sound, but rather runs the crankshaft which depresses sets of unrelated keys while your device plays selected recordings through an app.  I don't really see the difference between this and listening to any piano recording while the crankshaft runs, but I still love this set.  The highlights of this design include a vintage LEGO logo, rolling casters, an adjustable bench, a foldable music rack, a foldable lid that can be raised, a working damper pedal, a removable fallboard, and a removable action.  Each of the 25 keys has its own "string" and its own hammer.  The colors, down to the red and green felts and white hammers are reflected beautifully in the design.  It's also quite the build; if you were to connect 6 pieces per minute for 10 hours straight, you'd almost be done.  We'll do about a section a day starting every December 1st for the holiday season.  I think it's lovely.

Playday by Donny Chen, Lego Piano Ideas Proposal Author

Basic Disassembly

But that wasn't all the fun. Then it was time to organize the pieces. I bought six Sterilite 14028606 bins, which I love for so many reasons. They're semi transparent, stackable, and come with two different types of interchangeable removable trays.  I made a lengthy post on exactly how to organize all the pieces, but of course I redid the project later.  Click here to see the updated version from January of 2022.