Hands-on with LEGO BrickHeadz 40377 Donald Duck & 40378 Pluto & Goofy [Review]

Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy — famous and much-loved, and yet somehow always relegated to the second-division of Disney characters behind Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Sure, the Disney Empire is The-House-The-Mouse-Built, but personally I’ll take Donald’s edgier attitude over Mickey’s slightly bland wholesomeness any day of the week. As for Goofy, he’s a classic clown, good for causing chaos and taking a painful pratfall — he’s always been one of my favourite of the Disney gang. Along with Pluto, Mickey’s pet dog, these are the latest Disney-themed releases in the BrickHeadz line of blocky figures. This new pair of sets will allow Disney fans to put together a wider BrickHeadz family of their favourite characters alongside the previously released Mickey & Minnie.

Goofy and Pluto will be available on 1st February and will be priced at US $14.99 | CAN $19.99 | UK £13.49 while the single build Donald Duck will be going for  US $9.99 | CAN $12.99 | UK £9.99

What did we think of this latest addition to the BrickHeadz range? Check out our full review…

The boxes and their contents

The box fronts feature images of the figures, and the rear of the packaging essentially repeats this but on a yellow background, whilst also featuring the “other set.” This feels like a bit of a missed opportunity — a little background history on the characters would have been nice (although it’s likely the requirement to translate any such commentary into multiple languages means there’s not enough space).

Inside the boxes there are bags of parts and the instruction booklets. Donald’s booklet runs to 36 pages, whilst Pluto and Goofy’s instructions come in at 32 and 44 pages respectively.

Aside from the standard “BrickHeadz eye” tiles, there are only 3 printed parts in these sets — Donald’s sailor suit goes across 2 pieces, and Goofy’s orange turtleneck is printed on one…

The build

The building process for each of the figures varies. Pluto starts out with some inverted slopes and curves to model his crouching pose, whilst Goofy and Donald start out in similar ways before diverging later in the build.

It’s when you get to the heads that things get interesting, with each figure offering a different building experience. Pluto is put together predominantly from 1×1 bricks with studs on the side, including a decent number of 1×1 side-studded “corner” bricks. Donald is a more traditional BrickHeadz construction, whilst Goofy ends up with a variety of side-ways connection points created by a multitude of different bricks.

Once the internal facial structures are in place, it’s time to add the all-important details which really make a Disney character — the eyes. On all three characters, these are areas of white created with curved elements, with the usual BrickHeadz eye tiles used as pupils within the larger space.

With his face in place, Pluto is finished. But there’s more work to do on the others — cladding the sides of the head, adding ears and nose on Goofy, a beak for Donald, and completing both characters’ headgear. Goofy features his classic tall green and blue hat, whilst Donald sports his equally iconic blue beret.

In my opinion the finished figures are a mixed bag. Goofy’s face looks great, especially with his signature teeth protruding from his mouth (via clever use of 1×1 bracket parts). However, I have to say he doesn’t feel tall enough for me. It’s fine to render him in the chunky BrickHeadz style, but a large part of his essential character is missing without his gawky, lanky frame. Alongside Donald, Goofy just looks too squat — he really ought to be at least 2 or 3 bricks taller than his quacky pal.

Donald’s a good little figure, immediately identifiable from his sailor suit, and his yellow bill and feet. I also love his little tufty tail sticking out behind.

But Pluto is something of a let-down. The model lacks the character of the Disney original, looking more like a generic “cute dog” rather than this most famous of pooches. Even taking the blocky aesthetic into consideration, I don’t think this model looks much like Pluto beyond being yellow with a green collar. The eyes are good, but for me, there’s something off about the shaping and size of Pluto’s nose.

Our verdict

If you’re a Disney fan, and enjoy building figures in the BrickHeadz style, these sets are fun, offering a nice variety of construction techniques in the methods used for the faces. However, the rendition of Pluto isn’t as distinctive as it might have been, and if you’re going to display them together, I’d say Goofy is too short. The Goofy height issue could be easily solved with the addition of a couple of blue 1×2 bricks from your own collection, but the lacklustre design of Pluto doesn’t have an easy DIY fix.

If you’re not a Disney fan, these sets probably aren’t for you, although there are some fun techniques to be found, and as with most BrickHeadz sets, they contain a fine selection of bricks and brackets for sideways-building.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick these sets for review. Providing TBB with product guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

3 comments on “Hands-on with LEGO BrickHeadz 40377 Donald Duck & 40378 Pluto & Goofy [Review]

  1. Bob Shuster

    Just FYI, you have the wrong item number in the title for this article. Donald Duck BrickHeadz set should be 40377 – not 40337.

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