Lego’s Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck won’t step on you, even if you want it to

polygon.com:

Climbing a Tallneck is tricky, but worth the challenge. These towering, giraffe-like machines roam Horizon Zero Dawn and 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. One miscalculation and Aloy can topple off to her death, or even worse, survive the fall only to get stepped on. 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. Now, instead of getting stomped into oblivion, you can assemble and display this enormous creature at a fraction of its size, complete with a miniature Aloy and Watcher machine, in a sort of amicable vignette. The building process is fun and streamlined, striking that balance between complexity, visual fidelity, and unexpected piece usage. With 1222 pieces, it’s no simple task — but each step of the way sparked that “aha!” moment of seeing things come together.

The Tallneck Lego assembly starts with a sturdy 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. There are a handful of plants and an old traffic light, with a vine