Review: 43266 Cinderella's Dress
Posted by SetToBuild,
LEGO has been expanding its repertoire to bring children more objects for display rather than play in their rooms. These new ‘dress sculpture’ models follow other display-style sets in recent themes like Fortnite or Wicked.
43266 Cinderella's Dress does at least have some added compartments for play, but its overall purpose seems to be to showcase the dress model.
Is this new approach dressed to impress, or will it burst at the seams?
Summary
43266 Cinderella's Dress, 474 pieces.
£34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99 | 7.4p/8.4c/8.4c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A striking new set concept starts with elegance.
- Scenes built into the base
- Detailed minidoll
- A little fragile
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Box
Understandably, the box is tall, but there seems to be a lot of blank space on the artwork and backdrops since this is mostly a display piece.
Characters
The Cinderella minidoll is unique to this set. She last wore the large ballroom skirt piece in 2017’s 41146 Cinderella's Enchanted Evening, so it’s a welcome return. The new more elegantly detailed print is seamlessly aligned to the torso. Cinderella’s hair has also been recoloured this year from bright light yellow to bright light orange, a part which has been used in a couple of 2025 sets already.
A Gus Friends-style mouse is also included in the set for the seventh time, yet they still haven’t given him a small teal hat. Moreover, how has our buddy Jaq not gotten a proper figure yet?!
Completed Model
The dress is shorter than the floor-length skirt mould that the minidoll is wearing, which is a bit disappointing since the iconic Cinderella look is known for its full-skirted ball gown. Despite the length, the dress and its stand have an impressive presence. The 4x2 pointed wedge plates, now for the first time in Dark Azure, will hopefully find their way into other models.
The fullness of the skirt is created with 4x4 curved wedge slopes, and is a satisfying detail. The new round modified 2x2 plate with bar frame is only available in this set in white and in 43262 Maleficent's and Cruella De Vil's Dresses in black. Its bars are at the same angles as the parabolic ring, but this element has thicker ‘blocking’ sections that make whatever is clipped to it stay in place.
I was impressed that the pumpkin stalk printing on the 1x3 tile lined up perfectly with the 1x2 half-circle tile. The added dimension of the 2x2 round tile fills out the pumpkin shape effectively. At the neckline, a nice use of the heart and 1x2 wedge tiles forms a bow, and at the waistline, non-structural 1x1 clips are added purely to fill in gaps.
Interestingly, the new 1x2 curved slope is used here along with a 1x1 plate to create straps that wrap around the arms of the dress, but the taller, previous curved slope brick would have done this job just fine.
The plinth has two Polly Pocket-style compartments that contain a table with a tea set and a sewing machine. In the time between building the set and taking the article’s photos, I actually forgot that these compartments were there since the doors are so seamless! Here is a lifestyle photo from LEGO to prove their existence—you can also spot them in the box art at the top of this article.
The base’s top surface provides a blank canvas for your own DOTS-style patterns. Here are some of the designs that the instruction booklet suggests.
There is a third compartment to store Cinderella and Gus at the rear of the base with a standard doorway and opaque white door.
I enjoyed the ornate flourishes using flower elements, curved slopes and arches to simulate carved wooden legs. The 4x4 printed tile is graceful and well-matched to the new colouring of the minidoll’s hair and the other orange-yellow decorative components on the plinth.
It’s excellent that the tea cup and saucer pieces are both spare parts, and the 1x2 half-circle tiles are also very welcome extras. The key wasn’t an extra piece, nor is it functional to lock any of the base’s compartments, but is simply provided to help you lever off and rearrange the decorative tiles.
Conclusion
The model is more substantial than it first appears, so feels like better value now that it’s been built. Initially, it seemed quite lacking for £35. The target market is a little unclear, as there’s a fine balance between those who will value the opening-up of the plinth and those who would have preferred the parts investment made in a more detailed dress instead.
Oddly, this isn’t at the same scale as the recent Wicked or Wednesday doll statuettes, so it doesn’t encourage customisation or swapping of clothing between characters. Understandably, that wouldn’t be a primary feature of these sets, but it’s disappointing that creative kids (and adults) don’t have the opportunity. The styling of the model feels fitting for motorisation as a rotating music box.
I’m curious what dresses they may tackle next. Belle’s seems like a logical follow-up, given that 43263 Beauty and the Beast Castle was just released.
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21 comments on this article
Honestly this dress is way too small. It feels like the stand has more substance to it than the actual dress itself
I don't see the appeal. It doesn't work as a toy (fragile, no doll to put it on) and it doesn't look as a display piece, as it looks nothing like the real thing (brick-build, blocky). One of the worst product ideas Lego had in a long time, imo.
She's wearing headphones- it's a silent disco! Either that or she's being really rude and listening to her own music at the ball.
When I saw the upside down Cinderella picture in the second to last picture, I honestly thought for a second it was Donald Duck.
@CinnamonRobin said:
"When I saw the upside down Cinderella picture in the second to last picture, I honestly thought for a second it was Donald Duck. "
A really old Donald Duck. *sigh* I see it.
I got this at Walmart when they had them on clearance for $9 just after they came out. I'm absolutely going to turn it into some kind of tentacle monster wearing the dress
If it's so fragile, maybe it should have been pink to match her first dress, which gets torn to pieces by jealous relatives.
This looks good enough on it's small stand, without the full display box beneath it.
I know price is determined first, and the sets are built out to that, but the second picture of the main model makes me think they could have done concept at 1/3-1/2 the price, and maybe made a small initial series of dresses that way. The big base just seems to overstretch the concept for insufficient return.
I really liked the flowerpots from last year. This seems like the next version of those; was hoping for more flowerpots, myself!!!
Cool Spaceship.
These dresses are interesting concepts and do look nice as display pieces. I agree it is kind of odd how Cinderella's dress isn't a ballgown, though it does look nice and imo has good part usage. The display stand with the base is great storage for the figures.
This particular Cinderella minidoll included looks really nice, love how her hair is done in bright light orange, matches better with the 1950 film.
Hang on Mario... could you just try on this dress first!
"A little fragile"
So can you tear it apart as easily as in the movie? Accuracy W!
Cool idea but I’d rather they just expand on those buildable doll sets Wicked and Wednesday got. I’m weirdly obsessed with them.
Gus-gus battle pack.
Gus looks more like a Koala on first blush.
After looking at the pics, I like this collection of space parts. It’s a nice variety of shapes and colors.
I’m curious about that new 1x2 curved slope. There have been a few times where I wished the standard piece was shorter, so I definitely want to get my hands on some. And I’ve definitely wanted a parabolic ring with better connections. Wow!
"Is this new approach dressed to impress, or will it burst at the seams?" This review didn't skirt any issues, so we won't have to bustle you out of here.
This looks like a lovely set with nice surprises inside.
1/10
I’m just really disappointed in the opacity of the printing on those pumpkin stalks, even though the alignment is impressive. Otherwise I think these dress kits would be must-have’s for me, but it’s a big ding on an otherwise lovely display set with really charming hidden features. I’d rather have a print than a sticker, even a poor print, but I’d also rather the prints were good! The sole reason I didn’t buy the Coruscant Guard Gunship was the appalling pink printing on Fox, and it’s likely the sole reason I won’t get this.
The dress design looks fun, but I think it's such a waste that they didn't go for a full figure route.