At the time of writing, the Tallneck is the only set Lego has released from the Horizon series. While I hope to see more in the future, if this does turn out to be the only one then they've absolutely nailed the brief with a memorable and wonderfully detailed set.

The set contains 1222 pieces, so even if you're paying full RRP it comes in comfortably under the 10p/piece threshold which a lot of AFOLs use to gauge a set's value for money. The fact that the set only contains one minifigure is largely contributory to this relatively low price (especially for a licensed set), but in no way detracts from what an overall great display piece this is.
As with many 18+ sets, the instruction book includes several pages talking about the Tallneck's presence in the games, and the process of designing its Lego counterpart. It's a feature which I believe started with the UCS Star Wars sets, and for those of us who enjoy a little background knowledge, it's great to see it appear in more and more sets outside of a galaxy far, far away.

The build time for myself was a whisker over 4 hours, and that was taking things at a leisurely pace. The set comes in 8 numbered bags for ease of construction, with the first 3 being dedicated to the large scenic base, and the following 5 to the colossal Tallneck itself. The base could have easily ended up being a tedious build, but the Lego designers put in enough detail to keep the process interesting. I'm particularly fond of the sagging traffic lights, overgrown with plant life, but the miniature Watcher is also a delight, with options of blue, yellow or red lenses, to indicate a passive, alert or hostile status accordingly. You'll also find a small patch of tall grass, perfect for Aloy to take cover while she stalks her quarry.

The Tallneck build involves very little repetition. While the left and right legs are mirror builds of each other, the front and hind legs are different enough in design to keep you from feeling bogged down whilst building. The disc-shaped head is accomplished using some interesting build techniques, and results in an almost perfect circle, often difficult to accomplish with Lego's blocky nature. The bulk of the Tallneck is comprised of black and white plates, with some blue-grey and sand coloured pieces thrown it to give it some much needed contrast, and a few gold pieces to really make the set pop.
Once assembled and on display, you could almost be forgiven for overlooking that it's a Lego set. The Tallneck itself is very short on visible studs, presenting a very clean looking model which looks incredible. The base has a much more classic Lego look to it, which personally I'm a fan of as I still like my Lego sets overall to be identifiable as Lego (otherwise you may as well just buy a model kit).
Additional touches of detail are provided through the use of stickers. These are a divisive point amongst AFOLs, for me personally I'm happy enough with them as long as a set doesn't go overboard. The Tallneck doesn't include a ridiculous number, and the metallic silver detailing on some of them contribute to giving the set that nice little technological touch to drive home the world Aloy lives in.
Once the Tallneck is built, the unarticulated legs slot into technic pins on the base, holding it securely in place. It makes the set surprisingly sturdy, but at the cost of losing any kind of posability. It took me a few adjustments to get the Tallneck's posture correct to match the box art, but once I did it was very satisfying, and it certainly has a majestic feel to the pose.

On the subject of Aloy, her minifigure is one of the best I've seen in any Lego set. There is a ton of detail on the printing, including arms and legs, and two alternate expressions on the front and back of the head, so you can set her mood as desired. The hairpiece is long and drapes down over her shoulders, but has a softer, rubbery texture to it, enabling her head to still face slightly to the left and right. Her Focus is printed on the side of her head, and the hairpiece also includes a strategically placed hole to allow the Focus to be visible through it.
My only criticism of the minifigure (and to be fair, it's not actually an issue with the minifigure itself) would be the bow. Her spear is a nice mini build, with the end result being undeniably Aloy's spear, but the bow is just a generic, single-piece Lego bow. It would have been nice if this was a mini build in itself, in order to have it looking more like it belongs in the same world as the rest of the set.

Overall, this is an amazing set if you're a fan of Horizon and Lego. Even if you're just a Horizon fan, this may be the Lego set which gets you hooked! With a thoroughly enjoyable build, an excellent final display piece, a good price-per-piece value, and one of the nicest minifigures Lego have produced to date, I can't recommend this one highly enough.

I'll start with a small disclaimer; I have never played this particular game. But I have previously worked with video games as a 3D artist, so I certainly appreciate the source material here. I know what goes into designing and producing this sort of thing. And this huge giraffe-like mechanical creature is full of intricate detail and shaping, much of which would be a tall order for anyone to replicate in bricks.

Build

It's an advanced experience. Everything, including the beautiful and detailed display base, is constructed mostly with studs-on-the-side techniques. Whenever some sub-assembly seem somewhat straight-forward during building it's soon covered up with plates and tiles in different directions, or the entire thing is finally mounted at an angle onto the rest of the model. It's a great and challenging learning experience of what can be done with the system, even though the order of operations sometimes feel unnatural. A result of clarity I suspect, as the instructions are easy to follow considering the complexity of the build. For that final touch though, you may need some artistic skill to align things like foliage and figures by yourself to get the most out of it as a display piece.

Parts

The set has an interesting selection of parts. Most notably a huge amount of different SNOT-bricks and plates, I count 140 in total! Also, four sturdy ratcheted joints, many different curved slopes including inverted ones, and some nice plant and foliage pieces, amongst many more. The vast majority of elements come in the colours you see in the pictures, but there are a few contrasting ones used on the inside, as usual. Aloy, the included minifigure, is of excellent quality with printing almost on every possible area. She has a built-up spear-like weapon and a white bow-and-arrow. The hairpiece is dual-moulded with a soft rubbery plastic for the hair itself and a trans-light-blue ear-piece of sorts.

There is a small sticker sheet included for some added details. I think the model looks great even without them with loads of contrast and colour-blocking. But then I wouldn't know if they add any detail of significance for those who played the game. Perhaps.

Playability

This is a set for display, rather than play, but no surprise as it's marketed as 18+. Most of it feels very solid and secure, despite its impressive height, but many smaller details can swivel around and easily get misaligned or loosened. The actual Tallneck could in theory be disconnected from the base (it's built separately to begin with anyway) and it will stand on its own, although not as sturdily. There is even some articulation of its legs, but only at the hips and feet, so you could maybe try to get it into a slightly different pose. The little Watcher build looks very nice, but is definitely on the flimsy side (and I would personally not consider it a minifigure). Once you get it into a desired pose you better not touch it again.

Value and Summary

I got this set as a Christmas gift, but I had been eyeing it anyway because it looked like a good value. At the time of writing, it's available for about 70€ which is not bad for its amount of stuff. Having now enjoyed the building experience, seen what an excellent collection of parts it comes with, and adored the charming yet dystopian scene it results in, here's my conclusion: You don't need to be a fan of the game, this is just an excellent set. Challenging. Beautiful. Inspiring. And worth every penny of my friends' money. Thank you!

A Platinum trophy for Lego and Playstation fans!

Minifigure

Aloy is the protagonist of both games. The minifigure is wearing the Nora Brave outfit, one of the first clothes present in both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. It's Aloy's most common look in promotional materials, with brown, beige and tribal details in blue and red. The printing from the torso continues to the legs. The feet are printed with blue details that represent the ropes that Aloy ties her boot (which I only noticed when I saw a high resolution render). The minifigure also has prints on the arms, representing the short sleeves and metallic forearm armor. Mine has the print on the left arm thicker than the right one, which I believe is a defect. But that didn't ruin the design. Aloy's head has two expressions: one with a more serious and focused expression (probably concentrating while hunting a machine) and another face as if she's contemplating the Tallneck. Both have freckles and the Focus device in the right ear. The minifigure's highlight is her characteristic voluminous red hair, with braids. This piece was developed especially for Aloy, being flexible and dual molded: inside the hair there is a transparent blue piece that forms a ring around the Focus on the right ear, representing the effect of when it's activated. Aloy comes with her two iconic weapons: a bow and her spear. The bow is white like the default bow in the game. It's not possible for her to aim it because of the hairpiece. The spear is built with only 6 pieces and very well represented, especially due to the red feather at the end.

The build

A lone Watcher accompanies the set. It makes sense because not only it's the most common enemy in the first game but also because lesser machines usually accompany the Tallneck. It's built with few parts, and it could easily be sold in a polybag if Horizon proved as popular as Star Wars or Marvel. Although easily recognizable, the machine is quite fragile and could be sturdier, especially in the body and head. The machine's feet in the game are quite thin and the width of the Watcher's legs doesn't allow it to connect to two studs. A positive point was that the designer included the lens in 3 different colours, according to its behaviour: blue for passive, yellow for alert and red when attacking.

The diorama base is fantastic. Three types of terrain are represented in an oval shape: vegetation, rocks and earth, without any kind of pattern. Essential game details are present: a birch tree, the tall grass where Aloy can hide and a traffic sign taken over by vegetation, a relic that remains from the ancient world. Foliage and flowers further decorate the base. Four connectors are symmetrically positioned to keep the Tallneck attached to the base.

The Tallneck is, of course, the main attraction of the set. As it's the only peaceful machine in the games, it's a good choice for a +18 diorama: there's no need for functions like shooting studs or other action features. The machine is not to scale; it should be much bigger. However, its 35 cm still makes it a great machine in every way. The construction starts with the body, neck, hind and front legs and finally the head/antenna. Neck construction is fun as you form the white plates that make up the long neck. Golden Uruk-hai swords are used as platforms to Aloy climb up, just like in the game, although the minifigure can't grab them. The head is the most complicated part as it involves many buildings on different axis and stickers lined up around it. Speaking of stickers, none of the ones on the body are really essential, except the ones on the head. The Tallneck has little articulation: only the joints that connect the legs to the body and ball jointed feet. There is only one possible angle of the legs connect to the base. Thus, although in the game it is a machine that is constantly walking, here it is represented as it's stationary. A walking position would be more accurate, but I believe that due to the weight, 4 points of support are necessary.

Playability

There is a clear green tile square with a single stud for positioning Aloy near the tall grass, although you can place the figure anywhere on the base. The same applies to the Watcher, which is indicated to stay on the earth, close to the traffic sign. It's also possible for Aloy to grab the golden piece on the front legs like she's climbing up to the top. She can also stay at the head to convert the Tallneck (used to uncover the map in the games). The lack of other play features makes it very obvious that it's not a toy for children to play with.

Final thoughts

If this set was a trophy, it'd be a Platinum. Great build, beautiful in all its aspects, easily recognizable if you played the game, an excellent minifigure and a decent price. A must-have for Horizon and Lego fans. Hopefully, more Sony's franchise will arrive in the future.

The History

The Tallneck is one of the many mechanical creatures referred as Machines of the Metal World from Guerrilla Games' Horizon: Zero Dawn from 2017 on PlayStation 4 (and PC in 2020) and its official sequel Forbidden West, released in 2022 on both PlayStation 4 and 5. While the product is tagged as licensed set from Forbidden West, the Tallneck made its striking debut in Zero Dawn thanks to its "giraffe"-like appearance. Featuring thirteen toes on the feet, a giant neck and a saucer-like head, and measuring the size of regular skyscrapers from our modern and contemporary societies, the Tallneck is one of the non-violent Machines roaming in the wilds of a post-apocalyptic world. The protagonist, Aloy, climbs on top of the head of the Tallneck to recover map data and knowledge before exploring the area surrounding the roaming Machine. With the set 76989, LEGO attempts to recreate the Tallneck, some of the post-apocalyptic wilderness, the minifigure of the protagonist as well as one of the vigilant Watchers.

Before all of it...

As of the writing of this review, this set seems exceptionally difficult to find as it is out of stock at most LEGO stores, online and other retailers. If you're lucky to see one on the shelves, chances are I would tell you to pick it up. It may go down in history as one of the most sought-after LEGO products along with 76139 1989 Batmobile. As a result, the Tallneck has seen its price increased thanks to resellers.

Poor box...

My set wasn't shipped by LEGO... but I didn't expect the box to be damaged in multiple areas. Wherever I purchased it, it will be the last time. For a $100 CAD set, I expect better. It is definitely disappointing and unacceptable.

The instructions booklet

I wasn't expecting much from the booklet, but getting a bit of insight regarding the lore of Horizon is great. Both the Tallneck and Aloy are featured in details, specifically the Tallneck and its multiple features. One of the designers is also presented in the booklet which is always appreciated as it brings a human touch to the overall project. However, I did notice a mistake between Page 68 and 71 when constructing the main body of the Tallneck. There was a step where pieces were clearly put on the model, but the next few pages had them removed... only to have one of the last steps on Page 71 to have them again.

The construction

The piece usage for the Tallneck is clever in MANY areas. There are some surprises along the way in how they made sure to capture the angles and shapes to make the overall structure of the Machine as authentic as possible. I do appreciate how they use the snowboard pieces for the quad set of tails. Another amazing usage of piece was the Uruk-Hai sword, five of them serving as platforms for the protagonist yet I wouldn't recommend posing the minifigure on these pieces. The construction of the saucer-like head was definitely the most interesting and I wouldn't spoil the surprises. I would have preferred all the pieces to be printed but the sticker usage is okay. It could have been avoided entirely.

I expected the construction of the base to be the least fun, but it was enjoyable thanks to the variety and shapes of the ground. The vegetation and urban elements, both defined by the post-apocalyptic setting that transforms the Old World back to its natural state, bring colours and life. I think the underside of the base is meant to represent the colours associated to the Nora tribe whom Aloy comes from.

The complete model

This is ONE set that you have to see in person. The Tallneck on its base is almost as tall as the box of the set itself which is exceptional due to most boxes being very large for very little. The Tallneck and its base as a set strike an immediate impression due to the already magnificent shape of the head, the animalistic aspects, the colours, and the finer details of the structure in general. The base complements the Tallneck and it does feel like you're building and looking at a gameplay sequence from Guerrilla's work. I love the addition of the road signal being rusted and taken over by nature and the Watcher, as simple as it is, adds on to the "life" of the model itself.

And the minifig?

Aloy is the true minifigure in this set. The protagonist is a red-haired woman, a hunter for her tribe in the post-apocalyptic setting. In the game, she's efficient with multiple weapons and gadgets to take down the heaviest Machines. She's often seen with a bow and arrow, yet the Spear is part of her main arsenal. The bow and arrow is all white yet I don't think the complexity of the in-game model would have been well-translated in LEGO form. The liberty taken for the Spear is most welcome with colours, a feather piece and an alternative placement for the element that serves to control the Machines and gather the data from the Tallneck.

The minifigure itself is... EXCEPTIONAL! Thanks to side printing on the headpiece, the dual-moulded headgear that is meant to represent Aloy's basic haircut from the games allows for the Focus to be seen. This is some nice trickery. Apart from the fantastic heargear piece, the overall printing for the clothes mostly matches what you would see from the original character model. It is based on her second outfit, a traditional garb fabricated given by a member of the Nora tribe she did meet in her childhood. The head also is well-detailed, including the freckles. However, I don't know if mine has a larger print for the eye or it is common on most Aloy minifigures for one of the sides of the head... Regardless, this is an outstanding minifigure of a recognizable fictional woman in video games.

Price per piece and licence

With 1222 pieces at $100 CAD ($80 USD), this set on its own already represents good value based on piece count alone. However, the outstanding and unique minifigure of Aloy, the clever usage of part of the Tallneck, the packaging, the branding... This is one special set in terms of value and licence combined. Many LEGO Ideas, Star Wars and Super Heroes sets didn't interest me due to how expensive they've become for very little. This isn't a fanboy of Horizon speaking here as I did play but never had the time to finish the original game on PC... This is exceptional value as a LEGO set.

Conclusion

76989: Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck will go down in history as one of those unique moments for LEGO. The world of Horizon was a perfect match with LEGO thanks to the mechanical creatures, and all sorts of machines have been created by the LEGO brand over the years. The Tallneck is perhaps the most-striking in appearance when playing the game and its pacifist roaming configuration makes for a great LEGO set. The minifigure of Aloy is exceptional as mentioned earlier and the overall colours on the base and the Tallneck itself make the entire set shine for all the good reasons. What could have been the cherry-on-top of an already impressive LEGO product is a plaque with the features of the Tallneck, but I think it would have increased the price by a significant margin.

That being said, the Tallneck will probably stand the test of time much like the 1989 Batmobile which I still consider, in my small collection, as my favourite LEGO experience in my life. From Overwatch to Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, LEGO has tackled several video games properties and I do hope we'll see more in the near future.

If you are a fan of video games as a I am, there's no doubt that you should consider it in your collection along with your artbooks and statues. If you love the world of Horizon and I do thanks to the mechanical creatures, this is an immediate purchase as this is a celebration of the franchise. As a LEGO product on its own, it is an impressive piece that is visually incredible thanks to the structure, elements, and the minifigure. The fact that it made a lot of people happy the moment it was officially revealed is wonderful. What is not wonderful is that the after-market has jumped on this set and made it more difficult for the average consumer to obtain it.

I wish Lego made more T-rated game sets and this is just great.

The build is a bit odd in some areas like the feet connections to the base, but the final result is worth it

Also, the Aloy Minifigure is incredible from a print and new hair mold standpoint.