LEGO 41950 Lots of DOTS: Lettering – Just your type(face) [Review]

We’ve been taking a look at the new sets from the DOTS theme for Spring 2022, and found some serious ups and downs in the 41951 and 41952 Bulletin Board offerings. Now we turn our collective eyes towards a set designed to bring those two sets up a notch. LEGO 41950 Lots of DOTS: Lettering is available now for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 UK £17.99 | EUR €19.99. Making legible text out of LEGO is a bit of a challenge – will this new DOTS accessory pack help put the “fun” into “font”? (If so, how would you even pronounce that?)

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


Unboxing the parts and instructions

This set comes packaged in a small thumb-punch box. Although listed as “Lots of DOTS – Lettering” on the LEGO website, the “lettering” part of the set name is shown here as a separate floating call-out in the middle of the packaging. There probably won’t be much confusion with the 41935 Lots of DOTS set – but it is a little odd not to have a specific set name in the usual spot next to the set number.


The back of the packaging shows the parts list, and some example of “boosting” the other sets. There are some nice ideas shown, along with a sample “ABC” in four different buildable fonts.


Inside the box are six unnumbered parts bag and a folded instruction sheet. The sheet has the full alphabet for the four fonts teased on the back of the box. Pretty handy!


The parts

This set comes with a pretty wide assortment of colors and shapes, as seen on the back of the packaging. Of note, there are several scarce/new part-color combos.

  • Bright green 2×2 curved tile: One other appearance in Disney 43203: Aurora, Merida and Tiana’s Enchanted Creations
  • Dark azure 1×1 round:  In two DOTS sets – 41918: Adventure Bracelets and 21226: Art Project – Create Together
  • Lavender 2×2 curved tile – unique to this set
  • Vibrant Yellow is a new color for 2022. The 1×1 square tile, 1×1 round, and 2×2 curved tile are all unique to this set. The  1×1 quarter circle tile also appears in two other DOTS sets. (41943: Gamer Bracelet with Charms and 41945: Neon Tiger Bracelet & Bag Tag)

The parts come mixed together in the bags, grouped by color family. As usual, I found this really annoying when trying to separate out the shapes and colors. For example, there are four parts mixed together in the green assortment. The only soothing factor is the usual LEGO practice of “overfilling” with an extra copy of the most easily-lost parts. A few bonus tiles expand the usefulness of the set just a bit.

Spread-out, there’s obviously more bulk in some parts and colors than others. It was nice to see that the new vibrant yellow parts had a very healthy representation.

Here’s how the parts break out over the shape/color divide. Note that there isn’t a match between all the 1×1 round, square, and quarter circle options, so that will have to inform your building choices. You do get a couple of nice transparent opalized 1×1 round shades – light blue and clear. It would have been really nice to see that tint the other pieces. Maybe next time.

Here’s an idea of how that new Vibrant Yellow shade fits into the spectrum of other available LEGO colors. From left to right are white, light yellow, vibrant yellow, yellow, flame yellowish-orange, and orange. I included the minifigure head to help color balance things. Without it, “normal” yellow looks deceptively orange.


Combining the parts

Mixing this set with the parts available in the 41951 and 41952 Bulletin Board offerings give a really nice range of nested curves. There’s also a white version – I ran out of room when building my color guide, so I decided to include it in the next shot.

Combined, the three sets fix the “dot every i” issue, although the quantities of each combo vary greatly. The resulting spectrum of human shapes in this little color guide kind of reminds me of the Everyone is Awesome set. Not quite as inclusive, though.


Getting a second opinion

Since I had already taken a stab at creating my own message board images in my previous review, I wanted to bring in a fresh perspective. Luckily, my spouse Jennifer Doyle is an artist and was willing to give it a go. She was kind enough to share her thoughts on part selection, color choices, and ease of build.

LEGO is not my usual medium, so I had to plan ahead in different ways (‘erasing’ is more difficult than pencil, but ‘removing color’ is easier than acrylics).

The color selection wasn’t bad, but it was limited (my idea of a Jorts the Cat meme was abandoned when I realized shading an orange cat would have to be done in red), and I found myself really wanting a few black or brown tiles. Simpler, bold designs turn out great – the Ukrainian flag, for instance. I think my main frustration was having an idea, then having to adjust it for the number of parts in available colors.


The assortment of shapes was really great, and the ability to get curves into the mix was quite fun. I let myself just play with those curves after a few evenings of feeling thwarted, struggling with concept vs execution.

But where I feel the kit really shines is lettering. The ‘fonts’ included in the booklet and the options for creating your own are amazing!


Conclusion and recommendation

As a “Lots of DOTS” booster, this pack is very similar to the 41935 Lots of DOTS set. Like that booster box, there are a few minor nits. In particular, the way the parts are packaged, and the non-uniform assortment of colors and shapes across the set’s contents could both be improved. But if seen “just” as a parts pack? No real complaints at all. At $20 US for 722 pieces (slightly higher if you count the overfill), the price-per-part comes in at a reasonable 2.7 per. Even though the majority of parts are small, there’s a great range of colors, some of which are very scarce or unique to this set.

When viewed as a booster box designed to enhance the 41951 and 41952 bulletin board sets – then this is almost a necessary addition. The extra tiles really expand the designs and words you can create. If you buy all three as a bundle, it’s almost enough to salvage the disappointment of the “big bulletin board” set.


LEGO 41950 Lots of DOTS: Lettering is available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 UK £17.99 | EUR €19.99. It is also available via third-party sellers on Amazon and eBay.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.


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