LEGO has officially revealed their newest Disney product, 43179 Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Buildable Characters. The set comes with 1,739 pieces to build both Mickey and Minnie Mouse in dynamic positions as well as autographed bases and several accessories.
Mickey and Minnie will be available from LEGO starting July 1st for US $179.99 | CAN $229.99 | UK £169.99.
Take a closer look at the LEGO Disney Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Buildable Characters
I’m a die-hard Disney fan. Walt is one of my creative heroes — a constant source of inspiration — and the theme parks at DisneyWorld are some of my favourite places. The current lockdown situation has seen us have to cancel a family trip to Florida, and whilst there are obviously much more serious problems in the world than a missed holiday, I’ve been feeling a bit down about it. I decided to cheer myself up by attempting to recreate some Disney magic with LEGO bricks. Three years ago, I enjoyed putting together a microscale LEGO version of Cinderella’s Castle, so I decided to set myself the challenge of creating some other iconic theme park sights. In addition to a rebuild of the Magic Kingdom’s centrepiece castle, I took a crack at Spaceship Earth at Epcot, and the Chinese Theatre at Hollywood Studios. We’ll see where my microscale tour of central Florida takes me next, but I feel Animal Kingdom and Typhoon Lagoon beckoning…
Come along and sing the song and join the jamboree! Mickey Mouse may have already celebrated his 90th birthday (Steamboat Willie premiered in November 1928) but there’s always time for LEGO cake.
Mickey and his birthday cake were sculpted by Californian Bill Vollbrecht, a former Master Model Builder and LEGOLAND park designer who clearly still has the magic touch, as Mickey exhibits all the character and detail known the world over, down to the buttons on his pants and shape of his eyes. There’s even a really neat and appropriate inky splotch base.
Bill also shared with us that the cake was imagined as one Goofy might have baked for Micky in Toontown: lopsided, multicolored and with candles askew.
Want to have your own Mickey adventures? Read our reviews of the Disney Train and Station and Steamboat Willie, both featuring Mickey minifigures and for sale now. If minifigs are too small, get instructions or inspiration from Build Better Bricks or Alanboar Cheung!
It’s a whole new world of LEGO building when MSIndustries uses the plastic bricks to create this spectacular Aladdin model. I will admit to being a hardcore Disney fan so of course, my scrolling stopped upon seeing this image. I was immediately drawn to the nicely rendered characters and that wonderfully fluid magic carpet that seems to float in the air by magic.
The characters are full of life and interesting parts usage. The construction of Aladdin’s turban and Jasmine’s hair is particularly well done as well as their outfits. The Genie’s expression and pose are perfect and really give him a lot of personality. But for once, Genie isn’t the center of attention here. Its’ the magic carpet’s turn to shine. The patterning is beautiful and the undulation in its’ form is achieved using a combination of 10 x 10 LEGO nets, round 2×2 plates and bars. And that floating look? It’s not Photoshop trickery but in fact a practical effect.
Check out the magic that helps keep the carpet afloat
Look who’s laughing now… It’s Shenzi, Banzai, and the cackling Ed — the trio of villainous hyenas from Disney’s 1994 animated classic The Lion King, created in LEGO bricks by Timofey Tkachev. The sculpting here is excellent — each beast well-posed, and their different faces captured perfectly through a variety of building techniques and parts. The key to success lies in the choice of scale — these shady characters are surprisingly large, giving Timofey space to nail all the details. And while simple, the surrounding landscaping enhances the presentation of the central figures, suggesting the bleak elephant’s graveyard, which surely stretches to the horizons around them.
The Lion King‘s characterization of these hyenas received a mixed reception back in 1994, with some critics accusing Disney of racist caricature in the voice acting and dialogue. Disney never acknowledged any of this criticism, but Scar’s hyena lieutenants were quietly rewritten, and mostly renamed, in the 2019 live-action remake. Whatever you might think of the original movie’s depiction of this trio, it doesn’t affect the quality of the LEGO building on display here.
A new month means new LEGO sets are now available, so here is your TBB New LEGO Set Guide for February 2020. There are 12 new items available (much less than the 153 sets from January!) including the Ideas International Space Station, Disney BrickHeadz, general availability for the Creator Expert Manchester United Stadium, and a few more.
Additionally, you can get the Hidden Side 40408 Drag Racer as a free gift with purchase with orders of US $45 | CAN $45 | UK £45 or more through Feb. 9th while supplies last.
See the entire February 2020 wave of new LEGO sets now available
Whether you’ve seen Fantasia or not, you likely still recognize Mickey Mouse in costume as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Mops play a large part in the story, and builder Alanboar Cheung has done well to incorporate some mop Easter eggs in his creation. Ignoring the brick built mop, the first mops are the old witch’s brooms, cleverly used as the ends of the apprentice’s belt. Especially ingenious is the use of the janitor’s mop as the apprentice’s wand. While there are no other hidden mops in this charming creation, there is so much more to appreciate about this well sculpted icon.
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…
Click to read the review and follow the building process
Today we get a reveal of the upcoming Disney Themed BrickHeadz featuring Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy. These new characters will be a welcome addition to the existing family together with the Mickey and Minnie Mouse sets.
Click to have a closer look at the two new BrickHeadz sets
These days it’s pretty impossible to escape exposure to a Disney product. They own the lion’s share of today’s biggest themes and properties. (Was that an oblique Lion King joke? You bet it was.) But, before they owned Marvel…and Star Wars…and everything else, Disney created their own in-house characters, too. Like Mickey Mouse. You’ve heard of him, right? Cool. But how about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?
…Yeah, that one stumped me too. It turns out Oswald starred in 27 animated shorts back in 1927 or so. He made a return in 2010’s Epic Mickey video game. Still managed to fly under my radar, though. Luckily, Bruce Lowell didn’t overlook Oswald. And, as a result, we get an amazing LEGO recreation of this possibly-not-quite-iconic character. The expert use of rounded tiles recreates the distinctive facial styling. Even if you don’t know the character, you know this guy has to be part of the Mickey Mouse Club.
Bruce was inspired by Paul Lee’s 2010 Mickey Mouse build. Paul was inspired in that build by Bruce’s sphere technique. What goes around comes around! (Get it? Round? Like a sphere? Oh, nevermind…)
Is this real life? Or is this just fantasy? How about a fairy tale then? Yeah, that’s what we’ve got here. Letranger-Absurde brings Rapunzel’s Tower to tiny life in this charming microscale build. Filled with innovative part usage, this scene balances whimsy with rock-solid building techniques.
The most eye-catching feature is probably the use of the costume from the LEGO Movie 2’s Crayon girl minifigure. (Some other figure lost their purple leg to fill in the archway, too.) That tower also features the use of a banana and bar holder with clip to make Rapunzel’s tresses.
The rest of the landscape has some cool secrets as well. That’s a dragon arm providing a bit of greenery. Tree tops are from Joker hair and a skater helmet. My favorite detail, though, is the waterfall turbulence that perfectly-repurposes ghostly minifigure legs.
2020 has arrived and the floodgates of LEGO have opened with 153 new sets available today. Fans of Star Wars, Technic, Ninjago, City, Architecture, Creator 3-in-1 and even the new Trolls product line have a lot to choose from. The new modular Bookstore is available today as is a new white baseplate. Nearly every LEGO theme has some new sets–it can be a lot to process!– so we have your complete guide right here detailing each and every new set and item.
Some regions have seen these sets on shelves already, but now they are all available online. There are a few sets that really stand out to us, and you can see the complete list of all 153 sets and items after the jump.
See the entire January 2020 wave of new LEGO sets now available
