Those looking forward to the LEGO Pac-Man Arcade set that was announced last month can now rejoice, as it has finally arrived in Malaysia. According to local authorised store Box of Bricks, the set originally arrived last week but was sold exclusively to the store’s VIP members until 3 June 2023. Well, seeing that it’s already the 8th, you can rest assured that it is now available to all.
To recap, the new LEGO Pac-Man Arcade set is a scaled-down replica of the game’s original arcade cabinet from the 1980s. To be more precise, its complete build only consists of the upper half of the machine in order to make it more desktop-friendly and still playable to an extent. On that note, the replica itself stands 12.5-inch tall, and features moving as well as electronics parts. According to LEGO, the entire set comes with a total of 2651 brick pieces.
The miniature arcade cabinet features yellow side panels with the original Pac-Man graphic, a marquee with the game’s retro logo, joystick and buttons, and a faux coin slot that lights up upon activation. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the model is its screen, which can animate through a clever internal mechanism – somewhat similar to “animated” Super Mario level on the TV set that’s included with the LEGO Nintendo NES set. Removing the cabinet’s rear panel reveals the moving parts responsible for this simple yet nostalgic gimmick.
As you may have expected, the screen on the cabinet simulates Pac-Man gameplay. Cranking the lever on the side activates the internal mechanism that moves the game’s titular character and the four pursuing ghosts (Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde) around the level, as well as increasing the score counter on top of the screen. Then we have the aforementioned coin slot, which emits a red glow when you press one of the buttons on the cabinet.
But that’s not all. Included in the set are two bonus items. One of which is a pedestal featuring larger versions of Pac-Man, Blinky and Clyde, while the other is a diorama featuring a smaller version of the arcade cabinet together with a LEGO minifig. The former can be displayed on its own or placed on top of the larger replica as an added decoration, whereas the latter can be stored within the model’s rear compartment.
Apart from Box of Bricks, the Pac-Man Arcade set is also available via other authorised LEGO stores as well as independent vendors in Malaysia. It is priced at a recommended retail price of RM1,199, though we’ve noticed that some online stores are already selling it at a slight discount.
