I boarded a special new kind of spaceship on a suicide mission. I went to Tau Ceti and suffered some intense, coma-induced amnesia. I found an alien life form and called him Rocky. Rocky introduced me to a new material called Xenonite. Then I located the source of Astrophage and how to...
I didn't really, I just got a bit absorbed in reading Andy Weir's wonderful 2021 book Project Hail Mary in preparation for the upcoming movie of the same name starring Ryan Gosling, and now I have been lucky enough to review the LEGO® Icons set 11389 Project Hail Mary. Spoilers may follow.
We were given these products by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.
11389 Project Hail Mary
- Release date: 1 March 2026
- Pieces: 830
Price:
- US$ 99.99 on LEGO.com US
- CA$ 129.99 on LEGO.com Canada
- GB£ 99.99 on LEGO.com UK
- AU$ 179.99 on LEGO.com Australia
- NZ$ 199.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
- 99,99 € on LEGO.com Deutschland, Nederland, France etc
- PLN 479.99 on LEGO.com Polska
- NOK 1499,90 on LEGO.com Norge
- DKK 949.95 on LEGO.com Danmark
There are new elements in this construction toy, question?
Yes, there are a few new printed parts.
- 1x Tile Round 2 x 2 with Hole with print in White (6598717)
- 1x Tile 1 x 1 with Rocky’s tablet device print in Trans-Clear (6598722)
- 1x Tile 1 x 1 with tape measure print in Trans-Clear (6598721)
- 1x Tile 2 x 6 with ‘Hail Mary’ print in Black (6598719)
- 1x Brick Round 2 x 2 x 2 Robot Body, Axle Holder '+' Orientation with print in White (6598718)
- 6x Brick Round 3 x 3 x 2 Recessed Center with 2 x 2 Studs and Axle Hole with print in White (6628481)
- 1x Flag 5 x 6 Hexagonal with U Clips with Xenonite wall print in Trans-Clear (6598720 | 17979)
The graphic design for this set was handled by Crystal Marie Fontan (who was also responsible for the graphics on 10356 Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D™). The graphics throughout feel like they are of the more generic variety and I like this because it makes the printed parts way more useful in my own MOCs than if they were emblazoned with specific logos or identifying insignia.
There are elements that have not been seen for time long, question?
Yes, we have found two parts that haven't been seen in sets since the early 2000s.
- 1x Technic Axle and Pin Connector Perpendicular Double in Dark Turquoise (6584238 | 32291, 42163) last seen 2000 in just one set; only 4x were available in 8307 Turbo Racer
- 2x Bar, 4 Top Bars, Palm Tree Top in White (6602309 | 2566) last seen 2007 and only in five other sets previously to that
There are elements that appear not in many other sets, question?
Yes, there are a good selection of rarer parts that are nice to have appearing again.
In one other set
- 1x Brick Special 1 x 1 x 1 2/3 with 6 Studs on 3 Sides in Bright Green (6567110 | 7729) - 6x are also available in 21362 Mineral Collection
- 11 x Slope Curved 3 x 1 x 2/3 in White (6535081 | 7302) - 4x are also available in 40920 Bugs Bunny
- 3x Technic Wedge Belt Wheel [aka Pulley] in Flat Silver (6533241 | 49750) - 9x are also available in 60466 Yellow Bulldozer
- 1x Technic Axle and Pin Connector Perpendicular Double Split [Reinforced] in Yellow (6546797 | 69819) this remoulded element is available in just one other set, but the 41678 variant is more plentiful
- 1 x Plate Special, 1 x 1 Stud with 3 x 3 Ring Around in Sand Green (6562752 | 7610); just one of this colour of this very new mould is also in 11509 Flowering Cactus – see Tom's analysis of LEGO part 7610.
In two or three other sets
- 1x Technic Beam Round 15 x 15 in Lime (6437077 | 3250) in two other sets
- 2x Technic Beam 1 x 3 Thin in Bright Green (6573944 | 6632, 65123) in two other sets
- 2x Technic Pin Connector Hub with 1 Axle in Dark Turquoise (6500625 | 22961) in two other sets
- 1x Technic Axle Connector 5L with One Side Frictionless in Black (6546682 | 5443) in three other sets
- 1x Technic Ball Joint with Through Axle Hole in Light Bluish Gray (6551714 | 53585) in two other sets
There is an element that has high quantity, question?
Yes, the silver cheese grater appears in a significant quantity.
- 40x Slope 18° 2 x 1 x 2/3 with 4 Slots / Grate in Metallic Silver (6546109 | 61409)
There are a small number of sets that exceed this quantity of cheese grater, but specifically for the drum-laquered finish, this is the most seen in a previous set by more than double!
There are characters containing new elements, question?
Ryland Grace
The Ryan Gosling minifigure is comprised of:
Ryland is featured in his EVA suit. In the book, that's a real-world thing: a Russian 'Orlan' EVA suit that you enter via a back panel. The movie looks to have a different design. It looks great, and I think it too has potential usage beyond the usually restrictive movie tie-in designs.
Rocky
- 1x Dish 2 x 2 Inverted [Radar] with Eridian skin texture print in Dark Tan (6598715)
- 1x Animal / Creature Body Part, Claw with Clip in Dark Tan (6496672 | 3171) in three other sets
Where Project Hail Mary was concerned, we learned from the designer Nathan Heigert at a roundtable discussion with fan media that no frames were available for new moulds.
I think that this is a shame, I’m sure that a specially designed part would have worked very well for Rocky – ideally a new universal pentagonal element that would afford interesting building opportunities.
Despite the nice print on the radar dish, I can’t hide my disappointment that Rocky didn’t get something a bit more special than what we have settled for here.
The good news is that there are no stickers. This isn't a desperate mission to save the Earth, so everything you'll need is contained in six paper-poly bags and one familiar plastic bag for the larger LEGO Technic parts – at least in my copy, anyway.
They used Xenonite to build it, question?
No, just the regular plastic materials that have been tried and tested by the LEGO Group. There's a very nice mechanism that I'm sure an engineer as proficient as Rocky would appreciate though.
The first bag contains Ryland and Rocky and a pair of stands to place them on. The next three bags contain the stand mechanism, and that portion of the build is comprised of mostly LEGO Technic elements. That's not a criticism, I just felt that buyers should be aware that the majority of the build experience and the parts in this LEGO Icons set are taken up with LEGO Technic components to create the mechanism and stand.
It's a nice stand and the mechanism is wonderfully consistent. It depicts the centrifugal spin mode and configuration of the movie version of the ship, the Hail Mary, pretty well from a mechanical point of view.
The final two bags contain the fuel tanks and main drive section of the Hail Mary. The construction of this is very effective. The way that the three sections interface is achieved in an extremely neat way, with no unsightly gaps.
I feel that the overall proportions maybe a little bit off, and it looks like the habitation modules should extend further away from the fuel tanks and rocket section of the ship than they do, but I think it is probably fairer to overlook that in light of what has been achieved overall with the mechanism.
In all fairness, it is that mechanism that makes the set something special. It is something that the designer Nathan has a right to feel justly proud of.
The mechanism is surprisingly neat and simple, too. The rack (64781, 53504) extends until the timing (knob) wheel (32072, 49135) is blocked. This causes the habitation modules to rotate through approximately 60°.
The rack then continues to move to but just before it reaches the full extent, the timing wheel is blocked again. This causes the habitation module to fully rotate into its perpendicular orientation.
The rack then locks at the central gear (69778) and the rotational motion is transferred back to the LEGO Technic turntable (88738, 18939), causing the whole assembly to rotate.
I find the lime LEGO Technic ring (3250) a little visually off-putting, and while I think it is still probably the best of the currently available colours, I would have preferred a recolour of it.
The set is obviously primarily a display piece and that makes sense at the scale the designer has depicted the Hail Mary. The stand, by necessity of what it needs to achieve, has to be this size at a minimum, but it is still proportionately large compared to the size of the spaceship.
Rocky and Ryland help a little in reducing the impression of an oversized stand. The modules are unusual, cool little constructions and can be rearranged to create a little vignette of the characters' all-important first interactive meeting, divided of course by the Xenonite screen.
Rocky is an Eridian, a sightless life form that communicates using a whale song-like language and echo-location. In an ideal world I would have loved to have had some kind of sound chip activated in these modules.
Overall it's a fairly faithful interpretation of what I can see of the Hail Mary in the trailers I have watched. There may be some slight proportional inconsistencies but it's difficult to tell, and as I suggested earlier in the review, I think it is worth the compromise for the functionality. Furthermore, it makes the set something different from rocket ship LEGO sets we have seen in the past, with the possible exception of this year's 42221 NASA Artemis Space Launch System Rocket (see TobyMac's review of the LEGO Technic Artemis launch).
The design of the movie version of the Hail Mary is significantly different from the book, and I imagine the book version could have been a lot easier to build but much less interesting.
Value, question?
I can't imagine anyone buying this who isn't either a Sci-Fi fan, an Andy Weir aficionado or hasn't got a big old crush on Ryan Gosling. So it's possibly irrelevant that the cost here is US$99.99/ £99.99/ 109.99€/ AU$179.99, but if that seems expensive to you, you're flying around the same star I am.
The set weighs 1038.5g overall; that means this set has a price per gram of 9.63p and this is objectively pretty high if you have been following any of my weight-based price analysis in previous reviews. So sadly, I do feel that this is a little over-priced.
You will buy this new LEGO construction toy, question?
It's a fantastic mechanism. I love functions that enhance a LEGO set, as you may recall from my review of the LEGO Ideas 21358 Minifigure Vending Machine last year, and the function here is again a major and defining attraction. If you don't mind LEGO Technic System that is, because – it has to be stressed – that feels like it forms quite a large proportion of this build.
I don't have an aversion to LEGO Technic sets, and in this set it is a necessary means to an end. Certainly once the model of the Hail Mary is built, it does take centre stage, however, I still think that this set is a little too much stand and not enough spaceship. That said, I am a sci-fi and LEGO® Space fan, and I always want more "SPACESHIP"!
The Hail Mary ship looks really great and the detail of the printed parts is superb. Again, those parts all feel like their use hasn't been excessively limited by the diktats of the IP holder.
Ryland is a great minifigure, but I felt that Rocky deserved better. As discussed, a new pentagonal element would have been pretty exciting. Maybe some of the new LEGO® Smart Play™ System technology would have been a good fit for this set in an effort to bring some of Rocky's communication to life? I fear that would have inflated the price to a prohibitive extent.
I loved both the book and film of The Martian, which was also penned by Weir, and I wonder whether the existence of the Hail Mary set improves the chances of the LEGO Ideas The Martian project that is currently in review is more or less likely as a result of this new set?
With The LEGO Movie directors Lord and Miller at the helm, I'm sure I'm going to love the film version of Project Hail Mary as much as I love the book, so I would have definitely wanted to own this set anyway. As it is, I would have wanted it to be about 10% cheaper!
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