Sony Interactive Entertainment revealed the LEGO PlayStation during its September 3 State of Play. Set 72306 contains 1,911 pieces and recreates the original console together with its first controller at what LEGO describes as near 1:1 scale.
The finished console measures more than 6 cm high, 26 cm wide and 19 cm deep. Its brick-built controller connects to the front, while the familiar Power and Open buttons incorporate working mechanisms.
Two PlayStation games are hidden inside
Open the model and the more playful part of the design appears. LEGO has built two removable miniature scenes into the console, one based on Gran Turismo and another on Ape Escape.
Gran Turismo gets a tiny racing circuit populated by scaled-down cars. The Ape Escape scene uses an island setting and includes the series' familiar monkey helmet, with a choice between red and blue lights.
Those references give the set a more specific identity than a generic celebration of 1990s games. Gran Turismo arrived in 1997; Ape Escape followed in 1999 and became closely associated with Sony's analogue-control era.
A piece of hardware history, without the hardware
LEGO is positioning the model as an 18+ display set. That makes sense. The attraction is not that this brick-built PlayStation behaves like a console, but that familiar physical rituals have been reproduced: plugging in the controller, pressing the round buttons and lifting the disc lid.
It is a slightly strange milestone for any technology company when one of its old products becomes recognisable enough to be reproduced as decorative architecture. Sony reached it a while ago. The LEGO model simply makes it very literal.
Its scale matters here. At 26 cm wide, this is not a tiny desk ornament that loosely suggests a PS1. It is designed to occupy approximately the visual footprint people remember.
Early access starts October 1
The LEGO PlayStation costs €159.99, £139.99 or $179.99 depending on market. PlayStation Direct will begin selling it on October 1 in supported countries including France, the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy.
LEGO Insiders can also buy the set from October 1. General LEGO.com, LEGO Store and selected-retailer availability follows on October 4.
For anyone who spent the late 1990s staring at a grey console beneath a television, 1,911 bricks is apparently enough to rebuild the outline from memory.
