Lego’s new 2,650-piece Pac-Man arcade includes a mechanical crank

Last year, Lego released a set for the Atari 2600 console released in the 1970s, and now it’s paying homage to the definitive ’80s arcade game. The 2,650-piece Logo Icons Pac-Man set recreates the classic Pac-Man arcade cabinet, complete with a light-up coin-slot, joystick and mechanical crank that lets you move characters around the maze mechanically (though not actually play the game). 

There are brick versions of Pac-Man, along with the ghosts Blinky and Clyde, that can rotate on a base or be displayed on top of the cabinet. “Once complete, you can light up the coin-slot, plus there is a small vignette of a female mini-figure playing Pac-Man on an arcade, hidden inside the cabinet,” Lego notes in a press release. 

Lego detailed some of the history for Pac-Man, noting that first focus test with members of the public was held 43 years ago today on May 22nd, 1980. The Pac-Man character shape is based on a pizza with a slice missing, and the game was released in Japan on June 29th, 1980 and the rest of the world a bit later. Pac-Man became the most popular arcade game of all time, with 293,822 units installed around the world seven years after it was first released. 

The main character’s color was inspired by the “iconic yellow of the Lego brick,” according to the game’s creator Toru Iwatani. “Since Pac-Man yellow was actually inspired by the Lego Group yellow, it made the [collaboration] even more natural,” said Bandai Namco’s Aadil Tayouga. 

The Lego Icons Pac-Man Arcade set costs $270 (£230) and will be available to Lego VIP members starting on June 1st, then released to the general public June 4th. It follows the aforementioned Atari 2600 console from last year and the Lego NES console set released in 2020.