Review: Disney BrickHeadz
Posted by Huw,
LEGO is going all-out on Disney character BrickHeadz in the year of the film studio's 100th anniversary, and next month three double-packs will be released, featuring a variety of characters from animated and live-action films.
40619 EVE & WALL-E
Transforming characters into BrickHeadz is not always successful, but WALL-E is well suited to the format given that he has a rectangular body, and this version of him looks pretty much like he would if you were to build him at this scale anyway.
He's equipped with a toolbox and carries the precious plant that he found while out on his rounds, and his neck is articulated, allowing him to gaze up into the stars.
Eve has a featureless conical body and a squashed-spherical head, which are not best suited to the BrickHeadz treatment, but nevertheless this figure is recognisable, and one of the few that does not have the distinctive print on its eyes.
40620 Cruella & Maleficent
Live-action versions of the 101 Dalmatians films usually show Cruella de Vil in black or red coats or dresses, but LEGO has taken inspiration from the earlier animated version, in which she's attired in an opulent red-lined cream-coloured fur coat over a black dress.
Her black and white hair gives the figure interest, although the white side blends in with the coat somewhat.
Maleficent is the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty and the spin-off films that bear her name. The character is tall and slender, but of course looks short and stubby here.
Her spring light green skin and horns/headpiece help her stand out from the BrickHeadz crowd.
40621 Moana & Merida
I've saved the best until last.
The reason for that is simple, and I state it in every review of a good figure: BrickHeadz are really only successful and appealing when they have an interesting, distinctive, or 'big' hair-style, and Merida from Brave certainly does!
Her voluminous curly red hair has been crafted using a variety of curved plates and slopes, and it contrasts pleasingly with her dark blue dress. She's equipped with a bow and a quiver attached to the belt around her waist.
Moana from the eponymous animation also has lavish hair which is topped off with a flower garland, making the figure even more attractive and colourful.
A printed brick provides the pattern of her tapas top, 1x2 tooth bricks finish off the bottom of her shredded pandanus skirt, and overall it's a very good-looking figure.
There's a BrickHeadz for every Disney fan here, although they are something of a mixed bag. Some characters are better suited to the blocky treatment than others and that's certainly evident here.
WALL-E and EVE are OK for what they are, but the latter is not really suited to be turned into a BrickHeadz.
The renditions of Cruella and Maleficent are perfectly fine, but they are not interesting enough characters to make truly great BrickHeadz.
Moana and Merida on the other hand have great hair, colourful dresses and interesting accessories, everything you could want, and as result both are among the best and most appealing BrickHeadz ever made.
They'll all be available at LEGO.com from March 1st. 40619 EVE & WALL-E will be $14.99, £13.49, €14.99, while 40620 Cruella & Maleficent and 40621 Moana & Merida will cost $19.99, £17.99, €19.99.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the sets for review. All opinions are my own.
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42 comments on this article
Moana, Brave, Tangled. All three much better than Frozen. And, I like Frozen. It’s just that those three movies are better.
First of all, they all look amazing. Second, Cruella’s sleeves are mad ingeniously, and finally malificent’s horns remind me of Hollow Knight.
Did they make a new colour called spring light green or is Maleficent's skin tone aqua?
While all decent figures, the WALL-E set is the only one I'm interested in. Honestly, I have not much issue with EVE, she looks just fine I'd say. As for Wally himself, it's nearly impossible to mess up this character, but there are a few things I'd wish were better. For one, I wish the head was on a ball joint so it could tilt sideways. And the tracks could have been better, maybe even just the narrow Technic chains?
But still, for just €15, how could I resist this?
Maybe it would be too hard on this scale, but WALL-E and EVE having a compartment that opens up (flap, door piece) would have been a nice touch for both.
Some of the best Brickheadz I've seen.
@MaxA said:
"Moana, Brave, Tangled. All three much better than Frozen. And, I like Frozen. It’s just that those three movies are better. "
Disagree with Brave and Tangled - neither has the wonderful betrayal moment of Frozen. Moana, though, is an absolute gem of a film. Hei hei the chicken is magnificent.
My opinions on both Moana and Brave are, middling at best, although some of that can be blamed on just having seen Moana too many times, but boy are those Brickheadz tempting...
Wow, the hair design on Moana & Merida looks impressive. Good job.
I don't even love the movie Brave much, but that Merida is absolutely fantastic. Definitely picking her pack up, along with Wall-E and E-e-e-ve!
@mediAFOL said:
" @MaxA said:
"Moana, Brave, Tangled. All three much better than Frozen. And, I like Frozen. It’s just that those three movies are better. "
Disagree with Brave and Tangled - neither has the wonderful betrayal moment of Frozen. Moana, though, is an absolute gem of a film. Hei hei the chicken is magnificent."
Are you referring to Hans?
@CCC said:
"I find the pairings quite strange (except Wall-E and Eve). I think I'd prefer them to do single character packs at £8 or £9 each."
I'm guessing the other two packs are under "Villains" and "Princesses" banner. The Cruella and Maleficent pairing makes sense to me as they're usually in the Top 5 of most popular villains, Moana and Merida less so. I can only guess they felt one or the other wouldn't sell as well as a single figure.
These look good but as I've said before I'm kinda baffled by the pairings. Just feels weird to get two random characters paired together. Obviously there's some loose theming but for instance Moana and Merida don't seem like a close pairing.
Also while the hair on Merida looks great, it's otherwise bland, and TBH if I saw the brickheadz with zero context of what medium it was from I don't know that I would even recognize it. In that sense it's on the lesser side IMO.
Moana and Merida feel like they were selected not because they are the most iconic (though Moana is definitely popular) but because they make good BHz.
Wall-E is cute too. The villainesses are okay but poor EVE just does not work. In general these are better than the four-pack released earlier though.
Cruella & Maleficent are the only ones I'm likely to get. The other 2 sets look great but hail from a time when my interest in Disney films had long gone.
It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off.
I'm loving the fact that they scaled the Brickheadz eye tile up for WALL-E. Speaking of which, do he and EVE have the standard pink "brain," or do they do something different? Doesn't really matter, I'm still going to get it, I'm just curious. To the people wondering about Cruella and Maleficent's pairing: the fact that both have had live-action movies focusing on them might have something to do with it.
also voiced King Candy
@mediAFOL: That's because he was voiced by Alan Tudyk, who also voiced King Candy (speaking of which, I want Wreck-it Ralph sets!) and played Wash in Firefly, among other VA and live-action roles. He is an awesome actor.
Moana's forehead is too big. The crown needed to be one stud lower.
@Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers."
They are not.
@Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off."
No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers.
@SolidState said:
"Did they make a new colour called spring light green or is Maleficent's skin tone aqua?"
It looks like aqua to me as well.
@Huw said:
"No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."
That's a relief. The LEGO shop site needs to update their descriptions then, because they say otherwise.
@Huw said:
" @Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off."
No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."
Which is why I have quite a few BrickHeadz, even though I don't like them as a concept. Some of those prints are awesome, and with BrickHeadz being on constant deep discount, they often make excellent parts packs.
@Fan_Of_Bricks said:
" @Huw said:
"No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."
That's a relief. The LEGO shop site needs to update their descriptions then, because they say otherwise."
That's weird indeed. It's also mentioned in the Dutch, German and French descriptions, weird that in the process no one seemed to have noticed.
I think all of these look fantastic! These are all day 1 purchases for me. I'm also looking forward to the new Moana minifig in 43212.
I think these all look good but it's unfortunate that they paired characters that are in different movies (other than Wall-E and Eve.) It's not a given that a fan of Maleficent is a fan of Cruella, or that a fan of Moana is a fan of Merida.
@Huw said:
"Brickheadz never have stickers."
: 40348 had a sticker sheet with "Happy Birthday!" in multiple languages, as you yourself noted when you reviewed it. There's been another one, I can't remember which one. But otherwise, yeah, all prints.
If I were to get any of these it would be the Merida & Moana set as they are just lovely. Alas I refuse to purchase any Brickheadz unless they ever do Lilo & Stitch.
@Huw said:
" @Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off."
No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."
41597 Go brick me had stickers...
I make quite a lot of custom Brickheadz on a regular basis and already have a better looking Wall-E, except for the fact that the eyes I'm using are from Harry in 40495 . I will pick up the Brickheadz of Wall-E so that I can get those printed parts to make a good mix between the two.
Also, Moana's eyes look a bit lopsided.
It's weird that they picked the main character from Brave instead of a character from a movie that's more popular, (and not bad) like Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Encanto
@Blumbirde said:
"It's weird that they picked the main character from Brave instead of a character from a movie that's more popular, (and not bad) like Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Encanto "
Yeah! When are we getting Brickheadz of the really popular villains, like the the Horned King from "the Black Cauldron", Professor Ratigan from "The Great Mouse Detective", or the Maximilian robot from "the Black Hole"?
@Huw said:
" @Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off."
No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."Huh? The official set description mentions WALL•E and Malificent have decorated pieces. On some of the official pictures it looks to me you can see edge of the stickers on the eyes and ‘front plate’ of WALL•E. Has LEGO changed that? It seems so weird that they would leave it in the description.
@Huw said:
" @Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off."
No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."
Fantastic! It was kind of hard to tell. I was happy that the color-matching was good. But, no stickers is even better!
"... WALL-E is well suited to the format given that he has a rectangular body, and this version of him looks pretty much like he would if you were to build him at this scale anyway."
Yep. As other's have also noted, that's why I'm excited about this one.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @Huw said:
"Brickheadz never have stickers."
: 40348 had a sticker sheet with "Happy Birthday!" in multiple languages, as you yourself noted when you reviewed it. There's been another one, I can't remember which one. But otherwise, yeah, all prints."
You are technically correct. The BEST kind of correct...
No mention of WALL-E's gigantic Brickheadz style eyes . . . they are fantastic!
Is this the first time we've gotten the bigger version of these eyes?
Hey a Huw review! Feels like we haven't had one of those in ages. A pleasure to read.
The shoulders of Cruella's overcoat are some crushingly good NPU, brilliantly combined with those 1x1 corner pieces. Fantastic.
I am not a huge fan of BrickHeadz but they are getting better and better.
I love Wall-E so I'll definitely try to buy 40619!
EVE does look a little bland and would have benefitted from just a little bit of light bluish gray, but I think she looks quite nice accompanying Wall-E.
@Tc99m said:
" @Huw said:
" @Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off."
No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."
Huh? The official set description mentions WALL•E and Malificent have decorated pieces. On some of the official pictures it looks to me you can see edge of the stickers on the eyes and ‘front plate’ of WALL•E. Has LEGO changed that? It seems so weird that they would leave it in the description. "
Decorated could refer to either prints or stickers. They certainly could have been more specific about what kind of decoration.
@darkstonegrey said:
"Decorated could refer to either prints or stickers. They certainly could have been more specific about what kind of decoration."
They (still) specifically mention stickers though....
@Tc99m said:
" @Huw said:
" @Fan_Of_Bricks said:
"It's worth noting that WALL.E's eyes and torso, along with Maleficent's torso are stickers. That to me is a huge turn off."
No they are not. Brickheadz never have stickers."Huh? The official set description mentions WALL•E and Malificent have decorated pieces. On some of the official pictures it looks to me you can see edge of the stickers on the eyes and ‘front plate’ of WALL•E. Has LEGO changed that? It seems so weird that they would leave it in the description. "
Has happened before with product pictures on 40355 : Year of the Rat , clearly look like stickers, even are a different shade of white, but the final product has eyes printed.
There isn’t a single one of these I don’t love.
eth wrong lego site