Every now and then, a set comes along that makes you remember the past and makes you realise how many things have changed in the world of LEGO sets. The new 40955 Maersk Dual-Fuel Container Vessel is one of those sets, so let’s take a closer look at where it all started and how the new set shapes up.
Container ship “Ane Maersk”, the first ship of the new dual-fuel class.
A History of Blue
The partnership between two of Denmark’s biggest companies dates back to 1974. The year before LEGO had started a line of floating ships (that I’ve written about before), and a Maersk container ship was a perfect fit for the next one.
Set 1650 was produced as a promotional set for employees and partners of Maersk. The company has its own trademarked shade of blue, and ABS pellets were produced in that specific colour (read all about LEGO plastics in this article we published yesterday). Back in those days, the pellets were produced and stored in the required colours rather than being dyed in production as they are now.
Set 1650 from 1974. The only LEGO Maersk set that floats. Image from Brickset.
In the 1980s and 90s, LEGO produced three more promotional sets for Maersk, all container trucks. It wasn’t until 2004 that they created another ship. And this is where things get interesting. The initial production run of set 10152 was created for Maersk, but 10,000 copies were sold through “Shop at Home” as the online LEGO shop used to be called.
Set 10152 Maersk Sealand Container Ship
Image from Brickset.
These sets used up the last of the Maersk blue ABS pellets LEGO had. The set sold well, so in 2005, LEGO wanted to produce a second batch. Maersk agreed and paid to create the pigment in their trademark colour so LEGO could produce more Maersk blue parts using their new process, where colour additives are mixed into almost colorless base-ABS in the molding machine.
In 2006 there was a third version of this set, now with updated stickers after Maersk changed the branding on their ships from Maersk Sealand to Maersk Line. Demand remained high enough for these Maersk ships that LEGO released a fourth version in 2010. This was sold as set 10155.
Set 10241 Maersk Line Triple-E. Image from Brickset.
A year later, in 2011, LEGO released 10219 Maersk Train which used up the remaining Maersk blue dye. When the 10241 Maersk Line Triple-E came out in 2014, it used Medium Azure to replace the old Maersk blue, effectively killing the older colour. This new set, 40955 Maersk Dual-Fuel Container Vessel, uses the same colour, so there’s no return of the old Maersk blue for the named “Ane Maersk.”
40955 Maersk Dual-Fuel Container Vessel. Image from LEGO
One thing that’s noteworthy is the theme. The 2004 set was released under “Advanced Models” although sets in that theme had no branding on the box. By 2014, the Advanced Models were called “Creator Expert” instead, and the Triple-E does indeed have the Expert branding on the box. Since 2020, the “Icons” branding has replaced Creator Expert, so you might expect the new set to be branded as Icons, but that’s not the case.
There is no theme mentioned on the box; it is just a generic LEGO set. It does, however, have the Maersk logo prominently displayed on the box, and that’s a first. The set number sits between LEGO Creator 40954 Germany Postcard and an extended line 40957 Spring Wreath (there’s no listing for 40956 yet). LEGO trivia buffs, this one is for you: That means that there are four Maersk ships in four different LEGO themes
STAMPs & Stickers
Remember STAMPs? No, I’m not talking about philately… I’m talking about STickers Across Multiple Parts. That technique used to be common practice back in the day. Luckily, LEGO has banned the practice now, but it’s really not that long ago that it was still being used. In fact, the Maersk Train and the Maersk Triple-E were among the last sets that used STAMPs. They were used on the sides of containers, most notably on the hull. “MAERSK SEALAND” goes across ten bricks!
STAMP!
Thankfully, the new Maersk Dual Fuel Vessel uses two-brick-tall panels in the hull to prevent stickers from going across multiple parts. The Maersk name and logo, much smaller than on previous ships, are printed on two panels, while the phrase “All the way to zero” is a sticker that covers one panel.
“All the to Zero Way” sticker on a 1×4×2 panel
There was another issue with stickers in the early 2000s. After a few years, they crumbled and disintegrated. I’ve certainly experienced that problem with my first Maersk ship as you can see above. Actually, previous Maersk ships have sticker sheets that would make Speed Champions blush. Sets 10152 and 10155 have 92 stickers, and the Triple-E has 130! Applying them is no fun, so I was happy to find that the containers in this new set are printed.
Comparing Containers
I’d like to thank the crew from the Maersk train for their contribution to this article.
Speaking of containers, their size has changed a lot over the years… in the LEGO sets, of course. In the real world, these 40’ metal boxes, known as “intermodal containers” (free instructions there), are ubiquitous in international shipping because their size has not changed for over 50 years.
On the Maersk Sealand, the containers are eight studs long and five plates tall and wide. The proportions are a bit off, but based on the set’s length, that’s a scale of 1:190. On the Triple-E, the containers are 2×4 bricks, so the length scale is 1:380. On the new ship, the containers are halved again, with the side of three containers printed on a 2×2 tile, meaning a scale of 1:760.
The relative sizes of the three large LEGO Maersk container ship sets.
The ships themselves are similar in size, and so are the models. The scales still vary a good bit, as shown in the table below. That table also shows that all three sets are 12 studs wide, which is spot-on for the Triple-E but too wide for the other two.
Comparing dimensions and scales between the three Maersk container ship sets.
So the hull scale doesn’t match the container scale in any set, but what about the bridge and accommodation blocks? Like the containers, they have changed scale over time. On the Maersk Sealand, the bridge looks almost half-minifigure scale, judging by the window sizes. The scale of the bridge and size of the containers make the model look like a coaster, carrying only a few dozen containers. On the Triple-E, the bridge is about half that size, making the proportions look more realistic. The new Ane Maersk ship has smaller windows again. In that respect, it’s the most accurate-looking of the three.
“Who gets the egg?”
The first ship was more of a play model, with individual containers and removable racks; the new ship has gangways you can pull out and twist down. This play feature is disproportionately big, and with the handle to pull it out, it looks like a drawer in the side of the ship. It also has a tiny bit of interior in the accommodation block, but at a completely different scale, and invisible when the model is built. LEGO designers seem fond of these hidden bits lately. It’s as if they couldn’t decide between play and display.
Colours
“I’ve got the Blues.” – Comparing Maerk Blue and Medium Azure to Medium Blue, Bright Light Blue and White.
In 2004-05 when LEGO was releasing the first of the big Maersk ship, a lot of things were happening. In 2003, LEGO almost went bankrupt, and in 2004, new CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp started restructuring the business, and part of that plan was an overhaul of the colour palette, which had gotten out of control. There were around 100 colours in use—that number was roughly cut in half.
History has an odd way of repeating itself… the number of LEGO colours has steadily grown again to around 80 now. Just look at the blues: Bright Light Blue, Medium Blue, Blue, Dark Blue, Sand Blue, Light Aqua, Medium Azure, Dark Azure…
Around the same time, the production process was also changing from pre-coloured ABS to uncoloured ABS with colour additives being combined in the moulding machine. LEGO’s “Maersk blue” (which is a fan-named colour—it is known as “Pastel blue” internally) may have slightly changed as a result, between the first and second release of set 10152.
Shipbuilding
Enough about ship history and colours, it is time to visit the shipyard and start building this ship!
“Does that engine align properly?”
The first two bags are for building the straight section of the hull, and you immediately get a sense of the size. Technic beams are the go-to pieces for strength in long structures, but here they are not connected with pins, so they offer no benefit over regular 1×16 bricks. Bag 3 is for the stern, which is partially built upside down to accommodate the 911 curved slopes. They don’t have inverted counterparts yet, so the only option was to turn the whole section upside down which works well. Bag 4 builds the engine.
“How do we connect this to the engine?”
“Eight Cylinder MAN engine built by Hyundai? Cool!”
The engine is green—sand green to be precise—although the new bracket 7674 is regular green. Sand green is actually a realistic colour for ship engines because it’s easy on the eye in bright light. It also makes leaks easy to spot thanks to good contrast with oil, fuel, and rust.
“This is all going sideways…”
Bag 5 builds the upper half of the hull, including a window to see the engine. The window panels here are smaller than on the Triple-E, and the engine is further from the window because there’s only one, so it’s harder to see. Bag 6 is for most of the bow and contains one of the very few SNOT sections.
In Bag 7, things start to get repetitive: first 24 boat studs, then 40 2×2 plates that the containers will later sit on. Bags 8 and 9 contain 62 dark red fences and 20 dark red plates that form the racks that hold containers in place. What’s strange is that the contents of bags eight and nine are identical, and they are used in the same build phase. (Apparently, multiple bags with the same number are no longer allowed in the era of the paper bag? Remember when we had plastic numbered bags?) Actually do you remember before then, when we had un-numbered plastic bags? Sorting the 5,197 parts before building the UCS Millennium Falcon in 2007 was quite a job…
“Four down, sixteen more to go…”
Bag 10 and the production line continues with the first of the container stacks. The first five, I should say. These are the lower stacks, with printed 2×4 tiles on the ends. Unlike the previous sets, the containers in this set are so small that they are no longer built individually. That certainly saves time!
Bag 11 is for the stern, which for no apparent reason, is built separately. A nice trick here is a Unikitty tile to hold a gun, which in turn holds the rudder.
“Let me just drill a hole here for that rudder.”
Bags 12 and 13 are identical bags again, this time for building the next eight stacks of containers. These stacks are fairly simple; two large panels in the middle, a 1x2x5 brick on either side, then some SNOT bricks outside of them. Finally, a printed tile on the outside.
That’s no Star Wars set…
“What scale is this?”
Bag 14 is for the accommodation block and bridge, and the last bit of the bow. Inside the accommodation block is a hint of a cabin and the crew mess in no particular scale. As soon as they are built, you place a large printed panel in front and a roof on top, and the two rooms are hidden. The bridge is built sideways on top of the block, and unfortunately, it is done with stickers. A minifigure ice skate makes a comeback as a piece of radar equipment on the roof.
Two more bags complete the ship, each containing another seven identical container stacks. Bag 17 is for the stand, which looks like a slight upgrade from the Triple-E’s stand. The plaque with the ship’s vital statistics is another sticker. And now we have a built ship!
All done!
Veering Off Course
Even with the repetitive container stacks, the instructions still take 171 pages for the 1,516 parts. That’s an average of 8.9 parts per page. Twelve years ago, the Triple-E, with an almost identical parts count of 1,518, had 123 pages of instructions. Twenty-two years ago, the Maersk Sealand needed only a mere 54 pages for 990 parts, averaging 18.3 parts per page. For reference, in 1978 the instructions for the USS Constellation took 33 steps for 973 parts, an average of 29.6 parts per step.
“Billund and Copenhagen are here.”
It’s a trend that has been going on for a long time, and it’s not just LEGO. Pardon a small rant, but what people today enjoy in hobbies and leisure activities is not the same as 30, 40, or 50 years ago. There is less tolerance for struggle, for learning from mistakes. People look for a smooth process that delivers satisfaction at the end. Older generations (and yes, I must admit, I am now part of an older generation myself…) took satisfaction in the process, in overcoming difficulties. You also see the change in how children grow up. They are no longer allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Just compare a playground from the 1970s with one from recent years. But I digress. Check out Free Range Kids if you want to know more.
So instruction books are getting ever thicker. Whether you like it or not, there is another way to look at this: they use a lot more paper and ink, which is not exactly in line with the green progress LEGO is trying to make. The Maersk Dual Fuel ship claims to be a step towards Net-Zero greenhouse gas emissions, but that green methanol still has to come from somewhere. I could write many pages about that, but this is not the place. Container ships are more efficient than even trains if you look at energy per ton per mile, but the question we should really ask is why we ship crazy amounts of goods around the globe… but that is a discussion for another day and another outlet.
The Vessel Verdict
As you may have gathered, 40955 Maersk Dual-Fuel Container Vessel wasn’t the most interesting build. There are a few small sideways sections, but otherwise it’s all stacking bricks… and a lot of those stacks are repetitive. But was it worth it? Is this set a step forward from the Triple-E?
The scale is definitely more consistent, even if she’s a little too wide. The size and number of containers is more realistic. The gangway, though, spoils the look, but that is easily fixed with an extra 1×6 brick in medium azure. The window on the engine is only on one side of the hull, so you can just look at the other side. Overall, this looks more like a model of a large container ship than its predecessors. It’s the front, the bow, the bridge, and the accommodation block where I’m really disappointed.
“There’s a joke about gaps here somewhere, but I can’t find it.”
The bow uses the same large slope pieces as the Triple-E, but because the hull shape of the real-world new ship is very different, with a vertical bow, the designer had to put some bricks in front of it to match that shape, leaving an unsightly gap.
Those gaps are just not pretty…
The corners of the accommodation block have angles and use facet bricks. Those facet bricks have gaps to allow for studs underneath, which work fine in a minifigure-scale castle wall. However at this 1:600 microscale, that gap is the size of a cabin. If the whole block was built sideways, then you could avoid those gaps by using slopes.
The stern is partially built upside down to use the nice double curved slopes that were introduced for the Icons Porsche 911. They do work well here, but right above them are some blocky stepped plates that, again, make me wonder whether a bit more development time might have yielded a more elegant solution.
The funnel is missing an All the way to ZERO sticker. There’s a story behind it that involves my cat Lister…
Let’s call it room for improvement. I think this would have been a more accurate and better-looking model at 11 studs wide, using the wide palette of slope bricks now available, and with a fully sideways built accommodation block.
No LEGO model is perfect, and this one certainly has its quirks. But the Maersk ships have always been a little different from the rest of LEGO’s lineup—part promotional curiosity, part display model, and part celebration of a uniquely Danish partnership. Half a century after the first Maersk ship floated in a bathtub, it’s nice to see the fleet is still sailing.
LEGO 40955 Maersk Dual-Fuel Container Vessel is available for around $150 US | $190 CA | €150 EU | £140 UK | $250 AU.
DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by LEGO. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
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