Lego Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck review: a displayable homage

Tallneck climbing is difficult, but it’s worth the effort. These tall machines, which look a lot like giraffes, roam the streets. Horizon Zero DawnAnd Forbidden West’s worlds; they’re so large you can easily spot them from afar. Getting to the top allows protagonist Aloy to use her staff’s override powers to reveal a region’s entire map — but it requires a delicate mix of grappling and careful platforming. Aloy could fall to her death if she makes a mistake or worse, get stepped upon. And don’t try to fight back; Tallnecks take no damage when you hit them. They’re basically indestructible.

This is what tickles me about Lego’s new Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck set. Instead of being stomped to oblivion you can now assemble this massive creature and show it off in a smaller size. Building is simple and fun. It strikes that perfect balance between visual fidelity, complexity and surprising piece use. With 1222 pieces, it’s no simple task — but each step of the way sparked that “aha!” moment of seeing things come together.

Tallneck Lego assemblies start with a strong base. A lot of the build’s strength comes from the number of SNOT pieces (heh), which stands for “studs not on top.” In human language, this means slim, L-shaped bricks are interspersed throughout a stack built horizontally, forming a solid foundation — and four little prongs for the Tallneck to snap into — that’s disguised under green-piece foliage. The upward facing studs on those L-shaped pieces connect to these green pieces, which evoke the game’s lush, overgrown dystopia. The look is completed by a couple of plants and an older traffic light that has a vine running around.

Assembling the actual Tallneck is instantly gratifying, and significantly different from the other film- and video game-themed Lego sets I’ve enjoyed. Whereas bulkier sets have hidden interior pieces that allow the model to move or do cute things — like the Super Mario 64 Question Mark Block, which holds various scenes, or BB-8’s swiveling head — the Tallneck is too lanky to hide much in the way of secrets. Instead, the fun moments of surprise came as I admired the elegant geometries that allowed the set to support the creature’s enormous, disc-sized head.

After attaching pieces that looked just like socket joints and ball ends, I began with the torso. Then I moved on to the Tallneck’s tall neck, one of the coolest bits of Lego engineering in the set. The neck looks like it’s sloping backwards, but it’s actually a series of thin, flat pieces that — when assembled flat on a tabletop — looks like an extremely shallow, very long set of stairs. Other small SNOT parts allow for tiny visual details, such as chest plates. The neck attaches to the torso at a right angle and coalesces to give the creature its shape. Brontosaurus-like look.

Image: Polygon via Nicole Clark

A similar principle held for the Tallneck’s legs. First, I put the back legs together. After I put in those two first legs, I realized that my Tallneck looked more like a chicken than a tallneck. It was easily fixed. After completing the last two legs, I was able to create Tallneck.

Like many of Lego’s other sets aimed at builders over 18, this one is clearly meant to be displayed. Even if the ball-and-socket joints allow the Tallneck’s legs to be articulated in a variety of positions — and I did play with a couple of poses — the back legs are shorter than the front ones, which limits the arsenal of poses. When I snapped it into the base, however, everything was gracefully balanced, with the Tallneck’s enormous head looming, centered, above it all. From the high perch on my bookshelf, mine now looks at me.