Review: 75681 Glinda, Elphaba & Nessarose at Shiz University
Posted by SetToBuild,
Based on the upcoming November movie release, this small wave of four Wicked sets aims to please young new fans and also lovers of the Broadway and West End stage shows. Die-hard musical theatre fans should be prepared for things to not be as they expect, since the sets focus on the movie and don’t always align with the musical.
I’ve enlisted the help of my wife and resident minidoll fan, Catherine (CrankyBricks) to explore the sets. Over to her after the break…
Summary
75681 Glinda, Elphaba & Nessarose at Shiz University, 304 pieces.
£24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99 | 8.2p/9.9c/9.9c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A detailed and playful little set with main character figures.
- Detailed
- Lots to play with for the size/price
- Affordable way to get major characters
- None
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Box
The boxes for this wave have a striking green and gold colour scheme, which is very appropriate. Our copy of the set contained paper bags, even for those holding the smallest parts within other bags. I find these are very hard to open: the tear notch is too far down, causing parts to either go flying or get stuck in both halves of the bag.
Minidolls
Nessarose is the most ordinarily-dressed of the figures, and very versatile for use in other settings. Detailed back printing seems to be the norm nowadays, so minidolls are catching up to minifigures in that respect.
The wheelchair is a new pearl gold recolour of the part introduced last year. The back detailing uses a sticker which adds interest but isn’t entirely necessary. Luckily, fans can use it elsewhere if they please.
Glinda (or Galinda as she’s known at this point) is outfitted in a detailed lavender ensemble. This colour isn’t quite movie-accurate, but I suspect this was deliberate as the best LEGO colour would have been light nougat, the same as her skin tone.
A far cry from rubbery cool yellow hair, these blonde locks are perfectly sculpted in truly intricate detail. There are accessory holes to both the top and the side. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to want to stay on the head. I’m not sure if it's a moulding issue or a one-off problem, but a gap forms at her forehead hairline a few seconds after it’s pushed down. Nevertheless, I do hope that this piece is recoloured and available widely.
Elphaba is the first minidoll with green skin. Printing over darker colours has long been a challenge for LEGO, and although her shirt and waistcoat are crisply printed, the ink on the arms is inconsistent and too thin in places. My figure even had a green scratch on one arm.
The hair, however, is one of the most striking aspects of the figure. It’s again a very detailed mould with intricately formed curls. This isn’t the hairstyle (nor outfit) that Elphaba is wearing when she first meets Galinda, but of the four sets in this wave it’s an appropriate place to include a more everyday look from the early parts of the story, since the figures in 75683 Glinda & Elphaba's Dormitory focus on a specific scene.
Until recently, extraordinary minidoll skin tones have mostly been purples or blues, and most of those were in the LEGO Movie 2 theme. This is a good opportunity to try out the “knolled” option on the Brickset parts search to see the selection for yourself!
Completed Model
The completed model consists of Galinda’s boat laden with luggage, and the entrance to Shiz University itself complete with a printed ‘S’ logo on the floor. As a fan of fantastical LEGO architecture, it hurts to see the missed potential of this extremely grand building, but for the size and age range of the set I’ll concede it’s an appropriate interpretation.
The new coral rowing boat is vibrant and fun, albeit slightly jarring against the muted tones and elaborate golden swirls decorating the sails. Vinyl sails have had a place in my heart ever since 1992’s 6401 Seaside Cabana, and these are a classy addition to the range.
The curved bars are new in white, formerly only appearing in transparent clear. They’re perfect for the slender arced masts of this craft.
A little more nostalgia creeps in at the facade of the main building, where 2x4 curved slopes new in cool yellow form the rounded towers. These were used as pillows in Belville sets such as 5848 The Belville Luxury Cruiser. Despite being targeted for age 7+ this set has some fairly complex moments of detail, like the stacked columns and Technic rotor blades used in tan on the front of the upper arch, covered with mosaic-like bright light blue tiles. You can’t miss the beautifully decorated 1x6 tiles either.
The complexity is apparent from the rear, with the stacked columns and double-layered arch at the upper level. I wonder what the bars are for at the back corners—can it connect to something else?
The spellbook lies loose on its stand to the left. Hidden behind the removable potion shelf to the right is a QR code which the press release promised would “unlock unique LEGO Wicked online content”. It links to a LEGO Kids web page with a trailer for the film, and various activities (printable images, a character quiz, a searching game) clearly designed for young children—sadly no build-along backing track for this one.
The spare parts are quite exciting for the scale of the set, including three additional gemstones, a couple of useful bar pieces and an extra wheel. An additional pink flower (beyond the usual spare) is provided so that Galinda can wear one in her hair without removing it from the flowerpots in front of the building.
Conclusion
From an interview with the design lead, we learn that Universal Pictures arranged for her design team to see the musical on London’s West End, and invited them to the actual sets of the Wicked movie during filming. This sounds like more engagement than we’ve heard of from other movie-based set design teams! For this set in particular, however, the behind-the-scenes information isn’t quite apparent in terms of accuracy due to its scale.
Overall, this set reminds me of Disney Princess sets of a similar scale and age range—41052 Ariel's Magical Kiss comes to mind, perhaps just because of the boat! With plenty of places to place figures and act out scenes, the lack of precise relation to the source material doesn’t particularly hinder the target audience’s imaginative play. Three minidolls and over 300 parts is unusually generous these days for a £25 licensed playset, meaning that in a single purchase, a young fan can own the two main characters from the movie.
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21 comments on this article
What????!
I guess I'm not up on the derivative Somewhere O'er the Rainbow lore.
...more like sh*t university... hehe...
Ok, but seriously, this is a fine set, but what's the point of the QR code brick after a couple of years? Surely the page it links to would be down shortly after these sets are retired?
The new QR codes are interesting. Maybe for Big Bang Themes in the future, instead of there being a full-fledged TV series, QR codes could be provided that take you to a short movie featuring the lore for the characters and models behind the set it came in!
I feel like this set might have worked better with a couple of desks - something that might facilitate an actual learning scene rather than merely being an entryway.
What a load of shiz.
I had missed that set and it looks like a fantastic play value, even totally out of the Wicked lore. Thanks for the review !
What a way to get a LEGO® brick dirty, with a QR code!
The boat and outer facade remind me a lot of the Elves sets, and it’s got some great pieces.
I wonder if the QR brick counted against the printed parts “budget” for this set.
Anyway, since the review lists the set’s negatives as “none,” would you say that it’s Tha Shiznit?
Well.....wicked.....I guess?
@ClutchPowers7306 said:
"The boat and outer facade remind me a lot of the Elves sets, and it’s got some great pieces. "
Maybe that’s why I liked it!
@ForestMenOfEndor said:
"I wonder if the QR brick counted against the printed parts “budget” for this set."
It’s a sticker, so I doubt it affected the decisions on printing - and since we have printed sails, floor mosaic and decorative facade tiles, I didn’t feel they skimped on the printed parts for this set!
I quite like the building's architectural style.
@crankybricks said:
" @ForestMenOfEndor said:
"I wonder if the QR brick counted against the printed parts “budget” for this set."
It’s a sticker, so I doubt it affected the decisions on printing - and since we have printed sails, floor mosaic and decorative facade tiles, I didn’t feel they skimped on the printed parts for this set!"
Ah, I did not realize that it was a sticker. And yes, the (actually) printed parts are nice!
What's the shiz?
Doesn't look bad at all aside from that hair mold problem. At $25 I'd pick this up on a whim, but at $30, despite being an alright value, it doesn't pass the "ambivalence to the source material" threshold.
Not the university I would be proud to call my alma mater.
;-)
I snatched up the other Wicked and Wednesday sets as fast as possible, but this one just doesn’t do it for me. The facade looks attractive but that’s about it. I can see myself buying this on clearance, maybe bricklinking the dolls, but it easily pales in comparison to the dorm trunk or the Emerald City.
I really hope this line does well. I’d love to see sets for the second film, and more new Minidoll themes in general! It’s refreshing to have more fantasy-inspired dolls. Friends does its character designs super well, but my brain itches for more rainbow colored characters.
My biggest pet peeve about this set is that in the book "Wicked", Shiz University is in the Gillikin Country (the northern region of Oz), so I would greatly prefer the buildings and uniforms used shades of purple — the Gillikin signature color — more prominently than shades of blue. That said, much of Wicked takes more inspiration from the 1939 film than from the original Oz books, and that film largely did away with the color-coding of Oz's regions (aside from the Emerald City), so it would not surprise me if this film does the same. Alternatively, it's possible the film is just gonna relocate the university to the Munchkin country, where such a blue-heavy color scheme would not be at all out of place.
Anyway that's just my Oz nerdery speaking, and has more to do with my mixed feelings on Wicked as a franchise than with the LEGO sets themselves. Design-wise, this seems fine for such a low-priced set, with appropriately colorful and whimsical architecture, a really nice construction for the sails and masts of the boat, and three prominent characters in detailed outfits. Thanks for the review!
@AustinPowers said:
"Not the university I would be proud to call my alma mater.
;-) "
BS = Bull Shiz
MS = More Shiz
PhD = Piled High and Deep [in Shiz]
:~P
@Zander said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Not the university I would be proud to call my alma mater.
;-) "
BS = Bull Shiz
MS = More Shiz
PhD = Piled High and Deep [in Shiz]
:~P
"
You gotta go to the party school, Schiz State.
Go Shizheads!! Woof! Woof! Woof!!
Nothing: the set
There is not even fun playpattern.