Review: LEGO Disney 100 Years of Disney Animation Icons

LEGO Frame your favourite Disney faces!

LEGO DOTS may be disappearing, but it seems like the trend simply can’t stay at bay! LEGO’s 100 Years of Disney Animations Icons set very much has a familiarity of LEGO DOTS crossed with nostalgia of children’s animated movies – but is that a match made in heaven? Or should it have stayed in development hell? Read on!

LEGO® Disney™ 100 Years of Disney Animation Icons (43221)
RRP AUD $89.99 – CA $79.99 – EUR €54.99 – UK £49.99 – USA $59.99
1022 pieces
Available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores from 1st June 2023.

The Frames

The main display of the set comes with two different ways to display; one small portrait for one character, and one large for up to nine. Each frame utilizes the frame pieces that were introduced in the DOTS line, and each come with their own little Mickey logo.

I can honestly see a few AFOLS possibly removing the Mickey logos entirely, and utilizing this as a normal photo frame. These are simple, white frames that use really simple but structural sound techniques to hold it all together. Each portrait is also held within the frame by four contact points on each corner.

The Pictures

The 100 Years of Disney is certainly not short-stacked with a only a handful of character options. There is a mix of Mickey Mouse and Friends, traditional princesses, physical items and even characters that have never made a LEGO appearance before (I’m looking at you Mike Wozawski from Monsters Inc!)

Some of the builds are one to two plates high, but when the builds become three plates tall the portraits look a little distorted unless looking head on.

As I feared, there isn’t enough pieces to make a lot of the characters as spares. If you’re wishing to showcase all of your favourite characters, you might come up a bit short on a few parts. There is a decent handful of spare parts however.

The frame also comes with a few extra plates to make some extra characters on to, allowing for a quick change in-and-out system. This is great for kids trying to make a new character before swapping it in, but for display purposes these are just large extra parts.

Verdict

The Disney Animation Icons set feels very much like a themed DOTS pack, but with lots of nostalgia thrown into the mix. I feel like this set will be better received with a larger adult audience than what the DOTS theme did.

I’m glad to see a much larger representation of animated characters in this set.

This set doesn’t leave me wanting anything more from it. It hits the nail on the head for what it is, and I can’t fault that. Positive vibes here.