LEGO Flagship Black Friday Release is Actually A Ship

Black Friday is on everyone’s minds as we rapidly approach November. We are listening for whispers on the grapevine about what deals are going to be where and for how long.

GET READY FOR A BIG ONE

It’s not just deals though that we need to look out for, the latest LEGO flagship release is on the horizon. LEGO has released some BIG sets on Black Friday in the past four years. The list over the last few years is as follows:

• 2020 – LEGO 10276 Colosseum
• 2021 – LEGO 75313 UCS AT-AT
• 2022 – LEGO 10307 Eiffel Tower
• 2023 – LEGO 76269 Avengers Tower

Speculation about the 2024 Black Friday release began fully in May (but probably started before then - you know how the internet works!). As of today, it seems to be widely acknowledged that LEGO will be launching a brick-built version of the historical Endurance Ship for Black Friday 2024, which is on Friday, November 29th.

HISTORY RETOLD IN BRICKS

The Endurance (formally known as Polaris) was purchased by Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1914. His mission was to embark on a voyage to the Antarctic as part of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Once alterations and adjustments had been made, Shackleton advertised for crew members; his wording in his advertisement was nothing if not brutally honest:

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

Even with this choice of wording, Shackleton managed to build a crew of twenty-seven men. The Endurance set off on its maiden voyage (and its last voyage) on August 8, 1914.

The journey was initially all ok, but in December 1914, as the Endurance and her crew headed for Vahsel Bay, they came across polar pack ice. This caused them to slow down to barely a crawl, thus not making much headway. The ship became encased in ice, and despite being less than 200 miles from their destination, there was nothing the Endurance crew could do. It was a waiting game at this point, waiting for cracks to open up in the ice to release the ship.

Over the next eight months, Shackleton and his crew had a few points where they thought they could escape from the clutches of the ice, but this was not the case. Finally, on October 27^th 1915 as the Endurance was flooding badly, Shackleton gave the order for him and his crew to abandon ship.

They had previously unloaded the ship’s boats, essential equipment, and stores onto the surrounding ice, where they had set up camp. The Endurance finally sank in November 1915. Shackleton and his entire crew made it safely to Elephant Island using the ship's boats. From here, Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew set sail in the James Caird boat to try to summon rescue for the remainder of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Due to this seventeen-day voyage, all the Endurance crew were rescued and returned home in August 1916 without fatalities.

LEGO has previously paid homage to a historic ship by releasing the 138cm long LEGO 10294 Titanic. It will be interesting to see how this rendition of another famous seacraft compares. LEGO 10335 The Endurance Ship allegedly comprises 3,011 pieces, roughly a third of the number of pieces in the Titanic set and is speculated to cost £219.99. This release will be part of the LEGO Icons series. LEGO 10335 is rumoured to have a 232-piece GWP attached to it, and this is a model of the James Caird Boat.

Do you have LEGO 10294 Titanic? Are you a little fed up with trying to keep it dust-free? Why not check out the display cases at iDisplayit? There are a variety of display options available for this behemoth set. You could go all out and treat yourself to an acrylic display case with a pre-applied vinyl background to really make your set pop.

What are your thoughts on this rumoured release? Is this a set you feel you must have, or do you think LEGO should have chosen something else for their Black Friday release?