Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera review
Picture perfect.

Since its release last January, I feel like the Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera has been rather underrated. I’ve not seen much buzz about it, and the fact that it’s usually been reduced by 20% or more means it probably hasn’t sold all that well. After finally building it myself, though, I’m struggling to see why. Not only does this set look absolutely phenomenal, its simple mechanisms are clever and seriously pleasing. It can actually spit out a photo with the push of the shutter!
You’ll find my full Lego Ideas Polaroid review below, but trust me when I say that this wonderful little set is worth every penny. And if you can pick it up in a sale, then even better.

Lego Ideas 21345 Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera
- RRP: £69.99
- Number of pieces: 516
- Release date: 1st January 2024
- Age rating: 18+
- Time to build: 90 minutes-2 hours
Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera review: What’s in the box?
There are four bags of bricks inside the box, along with an envelope containing the instruction booklet, a tiny sheet of stickers and three thin plastic ‘Polaroid’ images. The bags here are of the paper variety, which I’m surprised at considering this set is a year old (and some newer sets still don’t have paper bags). It’s likely to have been one of the first to be produced with paper bags.
The included Polaroid images are a great touch. The three of them show chunky cartoon Lego scenes, and they can be fed into the camera one-by-one to be released as if you’ve just taken them. Despite getting slightly bent when you place them inside the camera, they come out straight thanks to the hard-wearing material they’re made out of.

Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera review: The build
Putting together the Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 is a seriously enjoyable experience. Despite being a fairly small build at 500 pieces, it’s varied throughout and never gets repetitive. And despite having some Technic mechanisms hidden within in order to make the shutter work, there’s nothing too complex here. It may be an 18+ set but there’s nothing stopping younger builders putting this together if they’re interested.
It isn’t until the very last bag that the camera comes together: over the course of the first three bags you’ll be slowly working to piece together the mechanisms inside the camera. I was unsure exactly what the functionality of the camera would be, but when it all came together, I was seriously impressed. Of course, the Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera isn’t a fully-working camera. It can’t take photos, and it certainly can’t print out your real images.
See the step-by-step process of building the Polaroid OneStep camera below:
But pressing the shutter button will set a rudimentary mechanism inside the camera in motion and, if you’ve loaded in one of the included photos, it will shoot it out — just like a real Polaroid camera would. It’s seriously neat. What’s also cool is that you can sort-of see through the camera’s viewfinder too. It’s a shame there isn’t a transparent brick over the lens — it’s just a black piece — but it’s a small niggle.
Alongside the camera, there’s also a pack of film, which makes a good place to store the three included Polaroid images. It’s an unnecessary addition but a welcome one: the colours used are beautiful, and it’s an eye-catching piece, even if it is a bit of a pointless build away from the camera.

Overall, the finished set looks stunning. I’m gutted I don’t have a real Polaroid OneStep SX-70 laying around to put the pair side-by-side because I’m convinced that, at a glance, you wouldn’t be able to tell the different. Not until you see the Lego studs on the side of the Lego Ideas model, anyway. Lego’s design team has done a fantastic job of bringing Minibrick Productions’ Lego Ideas submission to life
Play or display?
Despite Lego Ideas 21345 Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera having some working functionality, I can’t really recommend it as a playset. It’s designed to go on display, and it’s going to look stunning on any shelf or desktop. It’s going to particularly appeal to photographers I think: who wouldn’t want to display this alongside their real camera collection?
Kids can play with it and pretend to snap photos, and it’s solid enough that I wouldn’t be too concerned about it breaking (unless it gets dropped, of course). But youngers would get much more out of running around with a real camera: keep this one safely on display, I reckon.

Does Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 offer value for money?
Without seeing the set in question, a 516-piece Lego set for £69.99 doesn’t sound like great value. But the Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 is so substantial and striking that I think it’s worth every penny. If I had to, I’d have guessed it’s made up of way more than 516 pieces, particularly considering it includes a film box and the working mechanisms inside.
It’s frequently on sale, and you should be able to claim a 20% to 30% discount if you shop around. But even at full price, you shouldn’t hesitate to pick up the Polaroid OneStep, particularly if you’re a photographer. If you have a real-life Polaroid camera in the house? Even better: they’d look incredible stood side-by-side.
Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep SX-70 review
We like…
- Looks just like the real thing
- Really enjoyable build
- Working mechanics are simple but impressive
We don’t like…
- Its lens isn't transparent