‘A hug is always the right size’
Recent LEGO® Ideas have proven to be a fertile ground for harvesting pop culture nostalgia: both The Flintstones (21316) and Sesame Street (21324) sets have turned childhood memories into LEGO® gold, and now we have another model coming out 1st April that has the potential to eclipse those two achievements and might well reduce grown men and women to baby tears in the process – Winnie The Pooh (21326), priced £89.99/$99.99 and aimed at 18 years and above.
Using the fictional abode of A.A.Milne’s beloved creation, 100 Acre Wood, as the inspiration for his proposal, builder Ben Alder (aka benlouisa) presented a design with a large oak tree as its main focal point, with Winnie The Pooh’s hidden tree house built under its shade that opens up into two halves (and clips back together again), unveiling a cutely-detailed interior, chockfull with endearing and authentic touches.
The design was taken up by Lego’s Ilia Gotlib and Aswin Visser and eventually presented as a set comprised of 1,265 pieces.
I have been impressed with the Bedrock-build of The Flintstones’ home and am currently pleased with the ongoing construction of Sesame Street, but I am really looking forward to this release. To be honest, Winnie the Pooh had never really captured my imagination as a child but a couple of recent movies, ‘Christopher Robin’ (2018) and ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’ (2017) have piqued my interest in the imaginary play Milne’s son had with his toys and how it inspired a whole range of children’s stories. Judging by the advance photos and YouTube reviews by those lucky enough to have already laid their hands on a set, it appears once again that LEGO® have done immaculate justice to yet another mainstay of popular culture, featuring as it does a whole host of Easter eggs, which even to the casual Pooh enthusiast, like this blogger, will have them heading back to the source material not only to assess how faithful the design team has been, but also to reacquaint themselves with the original text and illustrations by E.H.Shepard.
It looks to be a fastidious build indeed with a lovely, multi-shaded tiled roof and 6 sections of green foliage promising to be the most repetitive phases of the build.
However, there looks much fun to be had along the way as you assemble a whole treasure trove of elements that includes Pooh’s blue armchair (with matching curtains) and built-up bed, a stove which leads into a wonderfully-conceived chimney and beehive, replete with a swarm of bees around it.
There’s an umbrella stand (with brolly naturally), a bee photo, honey pots, a mirror, a box of ‘pooh sticks’ emblazoned with Christopher Robin’s initials (nice touch!) and Tigger’s golden heart locket too.
The wonderful thing about its mini-figures is that their figures are wonderful things, save for the absence of The Old Wise Owl, but the sculpting thereof is of a highly accurate standard as with the Sesame Street inhabitants (save for Oscar perhaps) and The Simpson mini figure range before that. Animated fare seems to lend itself to this approach unlike what LEGO® did with The Flintstones characters.
Great care has been taken to fashion this warm hug of nostalgia, for this set looks like a highly versatile display item which invites children of all ages to immerse themselves in an intricate world of make believe and that, surely, is what Christopher Robin would have wanted, I know I do.
Let us know what you think by dropping a comment below!
