LEGO 40478: Mini Disney Castle is a magical miniature [Review]

When LEGO releases big sets, it is not long before someone comes up with a miniature model to satisfy builders with a more modest budget. Sometimes LEGO even releases microscale versions of their own sets, like the microscale modulars. Well, if you have been craving the huge Disney castle set, but have not talked yourself into spending big money to pick it up, your dreams are about to come true with the upcoming set from LEGO, 40478 Mini Disney castle, which will include 567 pieces and will be available starting October 1st for US $34.99 | CAN $44.99 | UK £30.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of these sets for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The box and content

The front of the box features the castle with fireworks bursting over the top just like the intro to Disney movies. In the upper right corner is the Walt Disney World 50th anniversary branding. On the back of the box, the castle model is shown from the back. There are three small insets in the top right corner. One showing the set dimensions, another shows a close-up of the printed clocktower, and the last shows the actual castle.

Inside the box, there are 6 numbered bags ranging from 1-4 and an instruction booklet.

The front of the instruction booklet includes a 2-page overview of the set and the castle.

The set comes with a single Minifig of Mickey Mouse dressed in his fancy red pants and tuxedo jacket, which is a reference to the costumed host who has greeting park guests for many years.

A few other parts worth noting are the three printed tiles, the face of the clock tower, a tile depicting the official Disney Castle LEGO set, and Cinderella’s glass slippers. There are also several elements in transparent blue opal… radar dishes in two sizes and some cones.

The build

The build starts out, not surprisingly, with the foundation. A rounded black base with a gold drawbridge connected to what will become the clock tower above the main gate. We also get the bases for the other towers and a few skeleton arms which we will get to in a bit. There is a neat technique using light gray hinge bricks with white tops to get a thin line along the top of three of the castle walls.

With the bases of the round towers out of the way, we begin to attach the straight sections. They are built with white shields on the back which attach to the skeleton arms.

There are four sections of walls with three different designs. The last one has two interesting features. First, there is a new gently sloped part previously available in black, used here as a support for a small tower, and second, a Minifig scale cargo box which has four tabs that make perfect parapets.

Moving on we begin tackling the main central structure, which is made up of more side-facing studs than a BrickHeadz buddy, along with a smattering of brackets and some blue sloped roof parts.

Around the back, we add a few more slopes to the central structure and add three small walls, along with a few gold details.

The central tower continues to come together, with a neat wraparound detail attached to brackets and some gold ski poles atop two tiny towers made with some of the new pearl blue cones. We also get a few of the new tall brackets that we saw in the Space shuttle Discovery

Before we build the sparkly clock tower there are two small gold spear tips that fit just behind the main gate to form the raised portcullis. The clock tower itself is made up of just a few conventional parts but is fronted by the printed angled tile with both the clock and a few gilded archways.

And now we come to the rest of the transparent pearl opal parts, used to create the five ornate tower tops that circle the central structure. They are made with gears at the bottom and stacks of the larger and smaller discs topped with more gold ski poles.

These 5 towers fit all along the outer wall, which surrounds the main castle.

With the 5 dazzling towers in place, it is time to move on to the final few details. A pair of short towers made from upside-down trapezoidal droid heads flank the clock tower, and the last tower attaches to the top of the central structure.

The finished model

The finished model is really quite lovely, with plenty of dazzling, sparkly, shiny parts, and a simple display stand. The small size makes it a perfect set to display alongside any other Disney sets like BrickHeadz or collectible Minifigs, and the unique version of Mickey Mouse that is included is great.

Conclusions and recommendations

If you are a Disney fan and would like a more affordable version of the famous castle, or if you are looking for a good parts pack, this set is a great value, for the number of parts in gold, and the array of new transparent pearl opal, as well as a decent collection of unusual parts like the white shield piece and the many brackets. 40478: Mini Disney Castle includes 567 parts and will be available on October 1st, for US $34.99 | CAN $44.99 | UK £30.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of these sets for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.


3 comments on “LEGO 40478: Mini Disney Castle is a magical miniature [Review]

  1. TP

    Fun set! I wish you had photos highlighting the new pieces/colors that you mentioned throughout the article, though.

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