The latest wave of LEGO Disney sets features a modular design element, allowing sections of the Princess themed builds to be switched, re-arranged, and stacked. To get the best out of the system and build the super castle, fans need all five sets...
What do you do when you have all five of the new
LEGO Disney sets? Once they are built, you use the new modular function to build an incredible super castle. The
LEGO deisgn team intentially made these five Disney Princess themed sets with a modular aspect, so that those who collected several of them could combine them to make really cool castles. To give Brick Fanatics readers a sense of what is possible, this feature shows some of the fun ways that these sets can be arranged to create impressive displays.
While never higlighted on the box art ot marketing materials, many fans have long known that
LEGO Friends sets can be combined, as most buildings feature rooms built on the same footprint – 8x16 plates. This previously discrete feature has been formalised in the
LEGO Disney theme this year so that individual sets can be swapped into different arrangements using other releases, and almost any two sets can be combined into one larger structure. This adds a fabulous additional level of playability to the sets and theme as a whole. The dream of course is to have all of them, and should aspiration that be fulfilled, something truly magnificent is possible.
The configurations shown in this feature use the following five sets:
The key to this system is that there are three different sizes of components as defined by their baseplates. The vast majority of the sets feature either an 8x8 stud square or a modified 8x8 stud with curve foundation. Aside from the modules that are designed to be pinnacles, all have a top that is designed to receive one of these two shapes. Square sections can be attached to rounded ones, provided that the builder does not mind the minor visual mismatch. Indeed, in order to combine as many sections as possible, some of those types of connections are required.
The largest of the two castles both include a double length section that is 8x16 studs. It serves as the entire base of
41152 Sleeping Beauty's Fairytale Castle and the foundation of the towers in
41154 Cinderella's Dream Castle. Due to that synergy, the two can be combined so that a very solid and very tall foundation can be created for constructing a particularly tall tower. Alternatively, 41152's base can simply be set alongside 41154's base if a wider castle is desired. Unfortunately, no peg and hole system to actually join the two structures is provided, which is surprising. The reason for that might be that they are one plate different in height, which does feel like a missed opportunity. Regardless, large structures are possible in either configuration.
It is amazing just how many different combinations of the castle are possible. While it does not get quite as big as
[geot exclude_country="United States"]71040 Disney Castle[/geot][geot country="United States"]71040 Disney Castle[/geot], it is possible to get surprisingly close. I was surprised to find that it is not possible to come up with a configuration that uses all the modules from every set in the 2018 wave simultaneously.
41155 Elsa's Market Adventure and
41151 Mulan's Training Day are both problematic as they must be pinnacles – they are not designed for modules to be stacked on top of them. Combined with the pinnacle components from 41152 and 41154, there just ends up being too many toppers. Most of the modules from the various sets can be incorporated.
This modular feature is an brilliant addition to the LEGO Disney line – as these images show, the resulting structure can be a tall castle or more of a fantasy village. The ability for the builder to create their own enormous dollhouse is fantastic feature, that will be especially fun for the target audience. This feature extends the life of the sets, encouraging fans of the theme to go beyond the instructions and start experimenting. It will be great if future sets can continue to be joined to these initial ones, as the size of structure could quickly become immense and even more impressive.
The products shown here were provided for this feature by the LEGO Group.
LEGO Disney sets are available now at [geot exclude_country="United States"]shop.LEGO.com[/geot][geot country="United States"]shop.LEGO.com[/geot]. You can help support Brick Fanatics’ work by using our [geot exclude_country="United States"]affiliate links[/geot][geot country="United States"]affiliate links[/geot].
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