Review: 75682 Elphaba and Glinda Figures
Posted by SetToBuild,
The two stars of Wicked, Elphaba and Glinda, are represented in LEGO’s new 10+ buildable figure style. Fortnite is not the only theme to be toying with the idea of display-oriented sets for a younger audience; we saw this new doll form introduced with Wednesday to mixed reception from adult fans, so what will old and new (or old and young!) fans of Wicked think of their favourite magical characters built in bricks?
I’ve enlisted the help of my wife and resident minidoll fan, Catherine (CrankyBricks), to explore the LEGO Wicked sets. Over to her after the break…
Summary
75682 Elphaba & Glinda Figures, 558 pieces.
£49.99 / $54.99 / €54.99 | 9.0p / 9.9c / 9.9c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Another experiment in display/play pieces for preteens.
- New style of buildable figure
- Both main characters
- Expensive for two dolls
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Dolls
Many builders will be disappointed to learn that the hand and forearm are a single mould. I speculated with other fans that one possible reason for this could be the slight unreliability of the clutch power of inserted bars, sometimes being loose or at other times seemingly impossible to separate. A loose connection might have meant, for example, that Elphaba couldn’t consistently hold her broom without her wrist rotating. You can find out more about this part’s geometry (and others in this set, like the new face pieces) at New Elementary.
Gilnda’s skirt shaping is quite effective with clipped-on segments, but in person it feels very transparent. Distraction is offered through the decoration, provided by a sizeable sticker sheet. On Glinda’s dress, the same pink bubble sticker is used in two orientations on the same piece, which many builders won’t notice in the instructions. Finally, the triangular plates at the top nod to the dramatically flared bodice of this dress.
The head is built much in the same way as Wednesday’s, but from certain angles, sometimes some of the internal head structure is very slightly visible. Given that this was hard to capture in photographs, however, maybe it’s not too noticeable to those who don’t know it’s there. Unfortunately, the curved tiles for the hair by the sides of Glinda’s face are very easy to dislodge.
Glinda has three accessories: a tiara, handbag and wand. Thankfully, her transparent tiara is a printed Nexo Knights shield, thus the sticker sheet can remain opaque. I found I had to hold the head quite carefully to put the tiara on - her neck is too loose to place it on the standing figure unaided.
Occupying only one bag of five, Elphaba’s outfit is more slender. The hollow Concorde nose cone piece forms her long skirt. Her legs beneath this feel flimsy while building (and pushing bars through 1x1 round plates with a hole is hard work), but once complete she stands quite steadily. Although hidden, the flowers for her frilly socks are a nice touch.
The instructions guide you to place the stickers after assembly which helps to get them aligned—they would never be able to show the builder the correct alignment otherwise. Overall, not as hard to place as I expected!
Elphaba’s head and hair is assembled in a similar way to Glinda’s, leaving studs available on top to receive her hat. The hat is a nice design by itself, but does sit quite awkwardly high when attached to Elphaba’s head.
Both figures have very similar poseability and articulation: the head can be rotated and angled quite freely on its ball joint neck connection, the legs and feet can be rotated, and the arms hinge in two places but not easily rotated. Only Elphaba's torso can be rotated at the hips, hwoever. The golden handle of Glinda’s bag can’t be held despite her hand being a bar-sized clip, but the bag can be looped over an elbow.
Backdrop
The base and backdrop build is surprisingly substantial compared to my expectations from the box art. Each half has decorative elements representing the Emerald City (such as the excellent wine bottle fences) and the character’s style, with more of the fantastic transparent green leaves that appear in 75684 Welcome to Emerald City. It’s easy to warp and damage the pink limb element while assembling this though.
The reflective printed vinyl piece is held in place with Technic ball joints and pearl gold Bohrok Eyes. It’s quite stiff and held nicely flat despite its large size. The printed front image will distract from any creases or scuffs it receives during its journey.
Hidden within the central Grimmerie spellbook is a QR code sticker. The press release tells us that “fans can scan a QR code to play along a brick build story to the iconic tune of “Defying Gravity” from the film”, but it just seems to take us to the same LEGO Kids play area as 75681 Glinda, Elphaba & Nessarose at Shiz University did. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t something more offered for this set’s slightly older target audience.
Completed Model
The completed model includes the two figures and a reasonably large display stand with imagery of the Emerald City behind, and spaces for mounting the accessories. While it offers a clear pink/white to green/black visual contrast, I’m a little frustrated that the new movie chose to give Glinda a homogenous pink wardrobe. Although this is true to the 1939 movie, in the stage show her bubble dress is traditionally blue—more bright light blue LEGO pieces would have had my vote!
The dolls are well-equipped, and all their accessories each have a dedicated spot on the stand. I particularly like that Glinda’s wand uses the Belville snowflake, new here in transparent clear; I fondly remember its introduction in 5850 The Royal Crystal Palace back in 2002!
It wasn’t really necessary to use the transparent clear saucer piece to hold the bottle of Green Elixir in its place on Elphaba’s side, so given how useful and interesting a part it is, I’m certainly glad to receive another in a way that can be swapped out easily. There’s even a spare! Sadly the other spare parts are not as exciting.
Conclusion
I have to admit that I’ve never been much of a doll or action figure person, as a child preferring to build scenes or buildings occasionally populated with much smaller occupants such as LEGO minifigures. However, the idea of this set for 10-year old Wicked fans is growing on me, as I can imagine them enjoying the display/play hybrid style.
The figures can be removed easily from their stands and played with as dolls. They’re reasonably sturdy for older children to role-play with, but Glinda’s skirt in particular wouldn’t withstand rougher treatment, and both are fiddly to put back on their stand. I had to use a hand on each foot to carefully align the anti-studs, and it was a frustrating process, so I definitely agree with the 10+ age suggestion.
This set costs a pretty steep £50, which I suppose is better value for money than 76780 Wednesday Addams Figure. The backdrop was more substantial than I imagined, and contained some nice parts and colours, but I don’t know if that’s enough of a justification for the price for two dolls. Having said that, non-LEGO dolls are expensive! Will fans prefer to spend £50 each on ‘deluxe’ Barbie-style dolls, £30 each on foot-tall fashion dolls, or £13 each on POP figures? Or will LEGO successfully carve out a niche for buildable, playable, displayable dolls?
81 likes
29 comments on this article
Thanks for the review.
Should we call them macrodolls ? And sets 40649 and 76393 with megafigs (or gigafigs) ?
Interesting concept for customization, like the Brickheads.
Their ocular globes have bigger volumes than their entire arms.
Nightmarish.
But I do appreciate them being something other than yet more Brickheadz.
Excellent review; nicely comprehensive.
LOB
@Brickeric said:
"Should we call them macrodolls ? And sets 40649 and 76393 with megafigs (or gigafigs) ?"
I think really they're just classed under 'brick built figures'. If they were actually made from specifically designed parts like 'bigfigs', then I'd say we need new terms. No objection to the term macrodoll though as it is a fitting description.
These are making me nostalgic for the brick built figures of the 70s…I would be very interested in a kit with generic, non-licensed characters to build and mix and match parts.
My sister was really into Wicked for a time growing up, but that era is now something like 15 years in the past. I really feel like this movie missed the "Wicked moment" by quite a long time, but well there is a new generation of preteens and teens to get sucked into it again so I can't discount the idea this will revive that Wicked obsession many had. Either way, these are two weird looking Bionicles. :P
The price point isn't really that bad when compared to the Mattel doll offerings for these characters. I find these far more interesting to look at than a traditional fashion doll, with the added experience of getting to assemble them.
If there were younger Wicked fans on my Christmas list, this would be my go to purchase. I'm half inclined to pick them up for myself. I'm a big fan of the IP and here's something about the very unique style that appeals to me.
Bricklink hasn't added this set to the inventory yet I believe, but this comes next to Pirates of Baracuda bay with most green bottles(6) in a set?
I really like the look of these, deformed enough to be cute but not so much that they turn into generic looking vinyl figures. The limited articulation is a shame, I'm sure they could have found a better solution for the hands (if homemaker figures could do it back in the 1970s, surely they can find a way now). The elaborate display bases are pretty, but definitely push these way up in price, to the point where I'm not even considering it, as much as I love the Wizard of Oz and think the wicked witch would look cute on my desk.
They aren't as ugly as I thought.
@Ridgeheart said:
"Oh, take me down to the Emerald City where the grass is green and the girls are green and the fence is green and the drinks are green and the dogs are green and the walls are green and the floor is green and the tiles are green and the rain is green and the sun is green"
And the green is green?
Great review! Can't wait to get this set at some point.
@Ridgeheart said:
"Oh, take me down to the Emerald City where the grass is green and the girls are green and the fence is green and the drinks are green and the dogs are green and the walls are green and the floor is green and the tiles are green and the rain is green and the sun is green"
As the song says; "It's all grand, and it's all green! I think we've found the place where we belong!"
I have to say that I like the Wednesday set more than this, and, luckily, that’s the only one I need. While I might see the problem with the hands, I don’t think it does much. I looks quite good on the pictures and, unlike minifigures, these are more for display than really playing with, at least in my opinion.
Also, I’d like to point out the description of the ‘window’. I would’ve never thought that LEGO would make any PVC items in their products, making their policy about environment seeming a little confusing. I mean, they are looking for more environmental materials, right? I do know it’s easier and cheaper to produce something like that in PVC, but, knowing how harmful the plastic is for humans, animals and the environment, this seems totally wrong. And, yes, this seems like nothing and there’s a surprising little amount of people caring about it, but I still think it’s important to notice. Great review, anyway.
The more I look at that foil piece, the more I see lightning bolts instead of the outline of clouds.
They’re both certainly cute, but not quite as refined as the Wednesday doll set, which comes with an even more attractive base, in my opinion. Though this one lends itself better to play, given you have two whole dolls to work with.
Can’t say Elphaba’s depiction here really matches Cynthia Erivo’s likeness. I wonder if she’s upset the Lego group erased her real eyes in favor of a more stylized depiction. XP
I should’ve made my LEGO Ideas project for Tim Burton’s 9 in this style.
Flesh parts look creepy, like bones or something...
@KyloRen0806 said:
"Also, I’d like to point out the description of the ‘window’. I would’ve never thought that LEGO would make any PVC items in their products."
How do you know it uses PVC? PVC isn't the only vinyl plastic material.
I don't see PVC in Lego's description for the set or the review here, and they don't list PVC as one of the plastics used on their official company-wide "Materials" page.
I was sooo looking forward to getting this, building it, playing with it, and displaying it in the pride of place in front of my collection.
But, now that the reviewer has rashly presumed to assume that it's only for pre-teen, Barbie-lovin' girls... I guess I won't get it and cherish it after all.
@N_Cat said:
" @KyloRen0806 said:
"Also, I’d like to point out the description of the ‘window’. I would’ve never thought that LEGO would make any PVC items in their products."
How do you know it uses PVC? PVC isn't the only vinyl plastic material.
I don't see PVC in Lego's description for the set or the review here, and they don't list PVC as one of the plastics used on their official company-wide "Materials" page."
Mostly, vinyl and PVC is the same as vinyl is just the short form for polyvinyl chloride. I do know we can’t live without it, but companies tend to use it wherever they can.
And that is what is confusing me, as it is written in the review where the ‘window’ is shown.
That's quite creepy.
@StyleCounselor said:
"I was sooo looking forward to getting this, building it, playing with it, and displaying it in the pride of place in front of my collection.
But, now that the reviewer has rashly presumed to assume that it's only for pre-teen, Barbie-lovin' girls... I guess I won't get it and cherish it after all."
You've ignored every reviewer that's recommended a Star Wars set for the past few years, but *this* is where you draw the line?
@N_Cat said:
"How do you know it uses PVC? PVC isn't the only vinyl plastic material.
I don't see PVC in Lego's description for the set or the review here, and they don't list PVC as one of the plastics used on their official company-wide "Materials" page."
To be clear, the word “vinyl” was used in the review as a layperson’s term for the plastic sheet material used by Lego for wings, canopies and so on, to differentiate it from fabric or paper or metal. We don’t know it’s PVC. As you have noted, there is no readily available information from TLG about its actual chemical composition.
@StyleCounselor said:
"now that the reviewer has rashly presumed to assume that it's only for pre-teen, Barbie-lovin' girls... I guess I won't get it and cherish it after all."
The word “only” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this comment… suggest you remove your own biases and re-read the review ;)
@TheOtherMike said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
"I was sooo looking forward to getting this, building it, playing with it, and displaying it in the pride of place in front of my collection.
But, now that the reviewer has rashly presumed to assume that it's only for pre-teen, Barbie-lovin' girls... I guess I won't get it and cherish it after all."
You've ignored every reviewer that's recommended a Star Wars set for the past few years, but *this* is where you draw the line?"
Oh, please! The Cap'n and I are in lock step in our opinions of Star Wars sets. I'm just meaner.
And.... I still buy the d**n sets! I'm just tired of overpaying for mediocrity. With just a bit more effort, Star Wars could be the best Lego line instead of one of the worst.
@crankybricks said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
"now that the reviewer has rashly presumed to assume that it's only for pre-teen, Barbie-lovin' girls... I guess I won't get it and cherish it after all."
The word “only” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this comment… suggest you remove your own biases and re-read the review ;)"
Oh, don't get cranky with me.
"Another experiment in display/play pieces for preteens."
"[T]he idea of this set for 10-year old Wicked fans is growing on me,"
"Will fans prefer to spend £50 each on ‘deluxe’ Barbie-style dolls,"
You find this expensive? The Wednsday cost as much for single doll xD
This is so much better than Brikheadz at least.
So it's a LEGO set based on a movie based on a stage musical based on a novel based on a movie based on a different novel? Whoa.