BRICK BY BRICK | The LEGO® PlayStation™

I feel like I just ‘KNEW’ about the LEGO® PlayStation™.

Yes, I’m going to be annoying and keep the registered and trademark characters there. I am a ‘capitalism baby‘ after all. Following what felt like months of rumour and conjecture, Sony finally confirmed the LEGO® PlayStation™ in their most recent State of Play. While it will no doubt go down as one of their less popular streams, considering the current tension between consumer and PlayStation™. It will have succeeded thanks to one particular announcement. Which was…well…the LEGO® PlayStation™.

Designed around 30 years of play (which I talked about here and here), the 1,911-piece set will represent a near 1:1 scale of the console, measuring 26 cm wide when fully assembled. PlayStation™ said “we collaborated closely with LEGO® designers to craft an experience inspired our origins. While building the set, players will notice hidden details from our history and references to two iconic games which launched on the original PlayStation™ console, Ape Escape and Gran Turismo. Each diorama features customizable elements – Gran Turismo includes a miniature track complete with scaled down cars, while the Ape Escape diorama has a nostalgic island scene with a swappable blue or red light on the monkey’s helmet. The interactive set has functional mechanisms for the console’s Power and Open buttons, a controller that can plug into the console, and the ability to remove both game dioramas so they can be displayed separately.”

Wait, but why a standard controller?

A friend of mine wanted to make sure I included this. When most fans of the PlayStation™ One think of Ape Escape, they think of its biggest sellilng point: The first title on the console to use the Dual Analog Controller. That’s right. It wasn’t even a DualShock at this point. Dual. Analog. As the Nintendo 64 innovated the major market with its single analog stick, PlayStation™ responded swiftly with two of them. I mean…a lot of the competition that was happening between them was out of spite after all. And the first game to utilise these dual analog sticks was Ape Escape.

So why the standard controller? Because a lot of the major titles that are the nostalgia-bait for the original PlayStation™, aren’t owned by Sony. And the majority of these were the games that worked with the standard controller. Think your Crash Bandicoots, Spyros and Final Fantasy VIIs. It’s that simple.

Licensing. Ye devil.

While the other titles would be nice to have, especially the likes of Tekken, Tombi or Kula World, it’s just business ultimately. And while Ape Escape doesn’t necessarily ‘click’ with the standard controller, I do think it holds enough reverence to be included alongside the Gran Turismo diorama. And at the end of the day, this is LEGO® we’re talking about. A hobby which allows a tonne of customisation, meaning Ape Escape may not necessarily stay as Ape Escape should you get your hands on the set.

To quote the PlayStation™ Blog:

You can pre-order the set through the LEGO® website here, for its release on October 4th, 2026.