First look at LEGO BrickLink Designer Program Series 4’s Merchant Boat in hand

Early reviews of BrickLink Designer Program Series 4’s crowdfunded LEGO sets are continuing to pop up online, this time offering a closer look at Nicolas Carlier’s Merchant Boat.

The first reviews of the five sets that will be available to crowdfund as part of Series 4 have so far given us early looks at Siege Encampment and Medieval Seaside Market in hand, and YouTuber Stud City has now published an in-depth review of Nicolas Carlier’s Merchant Boat. It’s the smallest and cheapest set of the latest selection, but still comes in at a respectable 2,180 pieces for £149.99 / $169.99 / €169.99.

Those elements combine into a set that Stud City says serves up an interesting and fun build, and it sounds like it’s not dissimilar to the way 75397 Jabba’s Sail Barge comes together – at least on the base level, where the hull is enclosed by panels. The Merchant Boat also takes its cues from modular buildings to a degree, with removable upper levels with detailed and fully-furnished interiors.

There are a handful of stickers used in fun ways, such as large portrait paintings of a couple of its four minifigures, while the entire boat can also roll along any flat surface thanks to the tyres built into its base. And when it does, the paddle wheels on either side of the boat actually turn – while the mechanism even sort-of recreates the sound of a paddle boat chugging along.

Stud City shows off the model next to 10335 The Endurance and 71705 Destiny’s Bounty, and while the Merchant Boat is a lot smaller than last year’s flagship Black Friday set, it’s also much more densely detailed thanks to coming in at minifigure scale rather than microscale. The change in scale opens the door to more details, from the flowers and flags to the buoys and even a butterfly.

You’ll be able to pre-order the Merchant Boat when crowdfunding for Series 4 of the BrickLink Designer Program kicks off on February 4 at 4pm GMT / 8am PT. All sets that reach a minimum of 3,000 backers will enter production, with a maximum of 30,000 copies of each one available to pre-order. Sets will then begin shipping around six months later (which is when your card will be charged).

Check out all five sets in Series 4 in the table below.

LEGO BrickLink Designer Program Series 4 sets

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