Review: LEGO Mini Disney Castle (40478)

The LEGO Mini Disney Castle (40478) released 1st October, wow I can’t believe the month just flew by, and already this review is somewhat behind, seeing as how I built this live on our Instagram the same week it came out.

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I’ll be totally honest here and say that I’m not really a Disney fan, sure as a child I watched pretty much everything going, but now it’s more Star Wars and Marvel oriented. The same goes for LEGO Disney sets, chuck a LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Marvel set my way any day!

But every once in a while a set comes along that even I can’t say no to, and yes you guessed it, it’s the LEGO Mini Disney Castle (40478).

The Box & Contents:

Slice open the box, which is a wonder in itself and looks spectacular with the design work and art on both the front & back, and you’ll find four numbered bags and a very small instruction booklet inside

The booklet suits the whole Disney feel as it resembles a book more than traditional LEGO instructions do. It does however make the building process that little bit more frustrating as the pages are narrower and tend to flick closed on themselves.

There is even a small section that dishes out information on the set and the actual Disney Cinderella’s Castle!

The Build:

The build itself is actually quite a tough one in the sense that the 567 piece set is mostly very small parts and gets rather fiddly in places. Constructing the small display base first and then building the Mini Disney Castle on top of that, adding hidden references along the way such as two printed tiles, one with the larger LEGO Disney Castle box art and the other a 1×2 clear tile with Cinderella’s Glass Skippers.

Each of the angled wall sections are constructed away from the main build and then clip into place with parts that are more commonly used as LEGO Skeleton arms. This is where some of the frustration comes into it and trying to lineup and connect these wall panels, a couple of times the LEGO Skeleton arms pinged off and found themselves lodged somewhere inside unreachable crevices, especially for my big sausage fingers.

It’s a pity that you eventually seal the easter egg tiles away in there plastic tomb, never to be seen again. Although being made of LEGO you can simply remove the top section very carefully to take a peek.

The turrets and spires are a joy to construct and the central building is made up of SNOT (studs not on top) techniques and is surprisingly quite an interesting part to build. Each of the main spires share a unique part usage, a golden LEGO ski-pole is used for the very tippy-top, from a distance it also looks similar to a Cross.

As you’ll see in the photos there are a ton of transparent blue opal inverted dishes, 2×2 and 3×3. These look a lot better in person as if you catch the light just right they sparkle.

Thankfully all the designs are printed which include the two tiles mentioned above, and the clock piece that sits slap-bang in the middle, just ablive the gold drawbridge. The design team have done an exceptional job with all the prints and I particularly like the clock element. It could be used effectively in a ton of MOC (my own creation) projects.

The Minifigure:

Also included is an exclusive LEGO Mickey Mouse Minifigure and it finishes the set off nicely, and being exclusive gives you another reason to pickup this reasonably priced (£30.99) set!

There is substantial printing on the torso and a tiny amount on the legs which represent the shoes. On the torso we see a red bowtie, white buttoned short, and a black tuxedo.

You can’t really fault this rendition of Mickey Mouse as far as LEGO goes, and no extra arm or leg printing is need. So overall a very well received Minifigure that will make any Disney fan happy to have in their collection.

The Conclusion:

The set as a whole is nothing short of amazing, especially when you take the cost into account, the part count (567) is also great when compared to other sets of a similar size.

Building it can become somewhat frustrating and in particular the angled wall sections are quite fiddly for larger fingers/hands. There are some interesting techniques used including SNOT (studs not on top).

The Mickey Mouse Minifigure takes a backseat to the Castle here but that doesn’t mean he’s not worth it. His exclusivity will draw in fans on its own and would look amazing sat in a Disney display.

Overall we highly recommend this set and would love to see how and where you display yours,why not tag us on social media for us all to see (@thebrickpost)?

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