Review: LEGO Disney's Winnie The Pooh 21326

LEGO Ideas #34 – LEGO 21326 – Winnie The Pooh

Not too long ago, people were losing their mind over the LEGO Sesame Street set as it indulged their inner child. Now LEGO has done it again with Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. Although the original submission on LEGO Ideas was Christopher Robin’s house.

We are instead receiving the more iconic home of Pooh Bear and we think this is much better. For lovers of Disney, such as myself, we tend to expect important details of our most cherished characters. So how does this set hold up?

RRP UK £89.99 – EUR €99.99 – USA $99.99 – AUD $159.99 – CA $139.99
1265 pieces.
Available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores from 18th March 2021 for LEGO VIP members, and 1st April 2021 for everyone else.

The Exterior

Pooh’s House is simply adorable. It has a whimsical charm about it that draws you in for a closer look. I found my self searching for the important details that I would expect LEGO to include. ‘Hunny’ bees, Mr Sanders sign and an unusual number of empty honey pots which are all accounted for.

LEGO has also made the bold choice to use coral pieces for the tree instead of the traditional flexi leaf pieces. With the small tri-leaf pieces layered on to them. I really like the look of the tree foliage. The different tones of greens in the branches. With yellow beehives, makes for an attractive palette, which again is complemented by the red tones found in the cottage’s features.

As for new pieces, we gain two parts in Nougat. Thick-macaroni pieces and arches. We also see a new Bee tile print and some not new, but uncommon Beehives and a ladybug tile.

This set looks like it would be a good boost for a Nature MOC builder’s collection.

The Interior

Inside Pooh’s home, we find a relatively simple interior. This makes sense as Pooh is a bear of little brain, he is a simple guy with simple needs. There are some unique stickers that bring some humble character to the space, a map of the Hundred Acre Woods.

Bee art and chair cushion details. Most iconically, we have a new ‘hunny’ pot print, a detail that if missed, I would probably be unreasonably mad.

We also see some subtle but effective parts-usage for the flume of the fireplace and the bed frame. A 2×4 tile with rounded corners is easily the most versatile piece for a mirror sticker. Giving a classic look from the normal squared-off style.

The Pooh Sticks

I’ll be honest, I had to have a google on this one, as well versed in the realms of Disney I am, this reference is one I could not recall. It turns out that Pooh sticks is a game that is played on a bridge.

The competitors choose a stick, throw them into the river below and the first stick to make it under of the bridge is the winner.

It seems that it originated from Winnie the Pooh and then it became a whole championship game in some parts of the world. Should have probably googled this prior to the photo… Sorry…

Winnie The Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is the titular character of this set and sports solid legs. Half red/yellow arms and a new moulded head for his character. Despite the fact he is the same height as Rabbit, and a little shorter than Tigger, he oddly enough looks slightly too tall in our opinion.

I guess this might come from the fact he has more than half of his figure in the yellow colour. When we most associate the character with a mainly red-figure outfitted figure. A potential simple fix to this would be LEGO using the newer moulded Midi-Legs. To not make him too yellowy but still give him moving leg functionality. It’s a tiny personal gripe, alongside the torso printing looking odd from slightly side-on angles. But otherwise, he looks perfect.

Piglet

Piglet in the Pooh universe and narratives is always been shown to be incredibly small. Incredibly small enough that he hides in Pooh’s Hunny Pots and is almost half the size of Pooh himself. Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy to portray in this medium and instead Piglet becomes a fully-fledged short-legged Minifigure. I don’t know how he would have gone being converted into a new baby-sized mould. Or even comparable to the mini-dolls in the Disney fold-out books. But some choices were really tallied up with LEGO, and they opted for the most child-friendly play-orientated style.

Tigger

Tigger comes across perfect in his LEGO form and it is really hard to critique in any way shape or form and that’s a good thing! He is immediately iconic, covered head to toe in stripes and even comes with his own shoulder carry-bag-on-a-stick.

If we had to be super picky, it would have been nice to get some side LEGO printing. But it’s so inconsequential to the overall aesthetic that you don’t really notice that it isn’t there. Good job LEGO.

Rabbit

Rabbit is also another figure that comes in this set that is almost too perfect to fault. The choice to make him custard yellow is rarely seen in Minifigures, so this is a welcoming touch. He has minimalistic detailing, which is exactly the right amount of detail without overdoing the character.

I’m also glad they chose a somewhat neutral expression, despite him being angry most of the time. So he can happily come over for Hunny at Pooh’s.

Eeyore

The biggest concern we had for the set, as well as the biggest surprise, was Eeyore. When the LEGO Ideas set was originally announced. We umm-ed and uhh-ed about how LEGO was going to create such a character in LEGO form without compromising on the character or making him too blocky and to our surprise.

LEGO just outright made a new mould entirely. Technically made of two parts, as the bow on his tail can be removed. This character is absolutely fantastic and hands down our favourite character in the whole build.

There would be some folks out there definitely wishing that his tail could be removed to recreate some classic scenes and we would have liked this too.

But in truth, this would have compromised the clean-ness of the figure for a gimmick which isn’t essential at the end of the day. This was the better way forward, and we cannot get over how good this guy is.

Storybook Instructions

We also just wanted to quickly point out the alternate art style of the instructions of this set. It is common for some of the Ideas sets to change the instruction book slightly nowadays.

But the art style displayed is very reminiscent of the same art style as the Classic Winnie the Pooh books and media.

Final Thoughts

LEGO has captured Winnie the Pooh brilliantly. This set is beautiful and close to the source material. It will have huge appeal to both nostalgic adults and to young children.

With an exterior and interior to play with, I expect the set to be a hit with most demographics. I often find that Disney and LEGO don’t mix with few exceptions and this is one of those exceptions.

I truly hope LEGO might consider releasing sets for Owl’s tree. Rabbits burrow or even a pop-up book where characters interact with the narrative, as they do in the movies.