LEGO in itself is is made to be built, broken down and rebuilt, time and time again, so the idea of another design or two, or ten, coming from a single set is brilliant. It not only makes the set live on and played with over and over again but it can inject new life into a build perhaps you’ve lost interest in or no longer want. The latter is the conclusion I came to when looking at the LEGO Ideas Sesame Street (21345) set, it’s a great set don’t get me wrong but lately my goal has changed and I’m focusing on my LEGO Cityscape.

One of the alternative builds I spotted on Rebrickable, a site dedicated to alt builds and MOCs, really grabbed my fancy, it looked smart, would slot between my existing modular buildings and most importantly uses parts only contained in the set. The alt build by Just Create was perfect!

Having the set already dismantled, due to moving house last year, I dumped all the pieces onto the floor and began building. Thanks to the free instructions there was no additional payout needed to complete this build, even better news.

To make the transition to a modular style build I substituted the two included 16×16 grey plates for a 16×32 green baseplate, this is to make it the same height as the other modulars that would be next to it.

I won’t lie and say it was a struggle to find the pieces but this was totally my fault, as like I mentioned before, I had emptied the entire LEGO Ideas Sesame Street set out onto the floor and only sorted a handful of bricks into tubs. I found the free instructions to be good but there was one issue I had trouble with, the colours, especially medium nougat and a shade of orange, often mixing them up with their close neighbour.

As the front of the build is left blank, I chose to change this and tile it to match other modulars, with dark gray tiles of varying sizes I created a path that joins seamlessly. To keep the depth roughly the same I moved the whole build back a few studs, this did cause the back garden area to become slightly cramped but I could live with that.

If you’ve ever built the LEGO Ideas Sesame Street (21345) then you’ll recognise some of the build techniques. The window surrounds, doors, steps and some side builds are kept the same, this isn’t a bad thing as that is what drew me to the original set in the first place.

The back looks a little messy but it serves a purpose, the toilet and bathtub is located in this extension. It’s a tad cramped inside but the details look great, again using some build that are seen in the original set. Parts of the building can be removed to gain access to inside, with the roof popping off, the lower-back window slides out and the extension building sort of comes off it’s base.

Using bits from just the original set is great and why I chose this design, I hated the thought of extra cost. Bearing this in mind and the parts available, the sides of the building look like a piece of abstract art, to put it politely. Thankfully both sides won’t be scene as the town house will slide between two bigger Modular buildings.

With all that being said this is a great alternative build for those looking for something different. This is made to be slot into a Cityscape, which is what I’m intending to do with it. My LEGO City, Gregsville, will finally have a standalone house for at least two residents to stay, perhaps it’ll be home to my Sigfig, Lil’ G!

If you would like to build this yourself please use the link below to support the creator, Just Create, and download the free instructions.

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-101137/Just%20Create/alter-sesame-street/

It started out as an idea by Ivan Guerrero (aka. bulldoozer) who submitted the project to LEGO Ideas. If you don’t know what LEGO Ideas is, it’s a platform for everyday fans & builders to showcase and submit their ideas for LEGO to potentially make them into real, purchasable sets. The struggle is gaining the 10k supporters needed to see it through to the review stage. To find out more head over to Ideas.lego.com.

When I was younger I used to watch Sesame Street, so when I heard LEGO were producing a set based on the 1969 show I knew I had to get it and add it to my growing collection, I may have to add to it and slot in between my Modulars!

A friend of mine, Martin (a.k.a LEGO Fan UK) was fortunate enough to interview the creator on his YouTube Channel, I’ll embed the video at the end of the review.

The Build:

When it comes to building LEGO I like to take my time and enjoy it, rightfully so, but when I received this as a Christmas present from my Wife I was like a Child again and couldn’t wait to open it!

Box art

It’s not often my Wife asks to help construct it, lets just say she isn’t into LEGO as much as I am and leave it there, she could’t wait just as much as me.

The box follows suit of the recent 18+ theme, with its dark background and brightly coloured informaiton banner along the bottom, in this instance the banner is Green to match the town of the set.Along with it the instruction manual is also black and features the five and a half Minifigures on the front. it is surprisingly chunky for the part count, 1367 in total, I guess i’m comparing it to LEGO Modulars when I shouldn’t.

Instruction manual

As always with LEGO Ideas sets the manual features a nice welcome message and a brief history of the source material and product. The same can be found here with details on the TV show, it’s makers and puppets, the set creator and the LEGO designers that made it possible.

Welcome to 123 Sesame Street

Slide out the rest of the boxes contents and you’re presented with a sticker sheet and six numbered bags, some numbers having multiple smaller bags inside.

Stickers glorious stickers

Bag one starts of very easy and straightforward as you’d expect, it makes the base and basement area of the set. It uses two 16×16 grey baseplates and several smaller ones for the foundations. I particularly like the way the pavement curves and makes the whole set into a corner building, great for eventually inserting into my Cityscape.

Bag one

I love it when LEGO sneak in some extra detail, here they have put a Spider and its Web under the whole building which you can just make out through the basement window.

It’s the small things that count, details

Bag two adds most of the ground floor and a whole host of details and Easter eggs. From Elmo and his Family members to an orange ball and a wall mounted telephone.

Ground floor

The ground floor features Elmo’s residence, with his sleeping quarters and train set.

LEGO and their design team do a great job when it comes to architecture, I really like the window style used here. The dark tan colour really compliments the green window frames. Leaving the bottom window slots open like that works so well in the whole look of it.

On the side you’ll find Big Bird’s house, well his basket and tree. It’s not until the final bag (6) that we add the finishing touches to the overall build.

Ground floor interior

I’ve always like the way LEGO beds look, there’s something just so aesthetically pleasing about them. The ultimate bed would have to be the one from the Destiny’s Bounty set, you can actually place a Minifigure in it and tick them in!

Bag three – first floor

Bag three builds up the building and adds the first floor, this is where Bert & Ernie reside.

With the outer shell the main focus here we do however add a few details and a mini-build inside the apartment. A shelf with books, a dark blue curtain, and of course the iconic bath tub and rubber ducky!

The bath tub is really nice and well designed, the classic style tub with its gold feet and taps looks amazing and the added blue & white rug finishes off the bathroom nicely.

Bert & Ernies apartment

Bag four adds some much needed details to the front of the building as well as more beds and furnishings to the interior.

Bag four – exterior & interior details

Windows, exterior details and bedding etc on the inside, bag four is very much a filler bag. We make both Bert and Ernie’s beds, which are identical in construction but super enjoyable to build, again I don’t know what it is about LEGO beds I like, I just do!

First floor furnishings

More stickered tiles and accessories here featuring Bert & Ernie’s friends. There’s a nice clock sticker that sits above the bookshelf and behind their dark green armchair. It’s quite a small but cosy apartment, with their bedroom, sitting area, and bath all in the same room, I don’t recall it being like that in the TV show, but this is LEGO so a bit of  forgiveness is given.

Bag five adds Hooper’s Store, it features an outdoor seating area for the lunch counter and a well stocked general store.

Hooper’s Store sign

Big Bird often frequents Hooper’s Store for a Birdseed Milkshake, it’s a shame the designers didn’t include one.

It also acts as a newsstand and features two new sticker prints. ‘Super Grover saves the day again‘ and a rather concerning headline that reads ‘Winter porridge shortage‘!

Read all about it!

I wonder if Hooper would mind if i slipped a ‘The Brick Post‘ custom tile into the basket, I’m sure Big Bird would love to read it.

Upstairs in, above the general store, is where a very greedy monster lives, the Cookie Monster!

Cookie Monster’s residence

This was one of my favourite yet equally worst parts of the build as it features some really cool and retro elements. From the VHS player and cassette tape to the classic TV and framed picture of Count Von Count. The yellow chair looks really comfortable with it’s accompanying footstool, who wouldn’t want to sit there and stuff cookies in their face. The bad point is with the actual building itself and the open sides. From a display point of view it truly is terrible, from any front facing angle you can see somewhat inside the rooms. Inserting it into a Cityscape brings with it a whole new set of problems, granted it’s not designed to slot into a City, if it has a side wall of sorts with one or two big sticker panels it would fit so much easier. There is a chance LEGO could expand on this set as along one edge of Hooper’s Store there are two pin holes, and as many Modular builders know this makes joining buildings together much easier – fingers crossed! 

Bag six – finishing touches

Bag six adds the final touches to an overall great set. We build the rest of Elmo’s furniture as well as the roof antenna, chimney, and air-conditioning unit. We also see some finishing touches to the outside also, with two giant stickers, which are quite nerve-wracking to apply.

Outside area

The two stickers in question are situated on the side of the building. Ones an advert and features Biff & Sully’s Construction Co., it is placed on a 5×5 red tile.

Biff & Sully’s Construction Co.

The other big sticker to apply is of a relatively new character, Abby Cadabby. She pops up during each season and stars in a handful of episodes throughout. Her popularity has grown and she is now a fan favourite. Her magic wand takes pride of place amongst her colourful garden.

Abby Cababby

Overall the set is stunning and I had so much fun building it. Usually these bigger sets do get a little repetitive but I’m happy to say this one isn’t at all!

The first bag is so easy going it gradually prepares you for the bags and build ahead. Even for a first time builder such as my Wife found it enjoyable and can’t wait to see what LEGO do next with this new found theme. I really do hope we get more Sesame Street in the future, there is so much material there to pull from. For starters it would be amazing to expand on the Minifigure selection, more on that below.

The Minifigures:

The Minifigures are key to any and every set regardless of what the build is, in my opinion as a Minifigure collector, and LEGO Ideas 123 Sesame Street 21324 has some of the best Minifigures of 2020.

The usual suspects

We get five, six if you count Oscar the grouch, these include:

• Big Bird
• Elmo
• Cookie Monster
• Bert
• Ernie
• Oscar the grouch

I don’t mean to offend Oscar the grouch but in my eyes he’s not classed as a Minifigure, due to the fact he’s just a head in a trash can, in LEGO form that is, sorry.

Starting in order of appearance, Big Bird. Big Bird is the first Minifigure we see and is included in the first bag we open.

Big Bird

He totally took me by surprise when i put him together. He is made up of standard Minifigure legs and a torso, although the legs are unique to this set, the main body piece is entirely rubber, which was a very pleasant surprise indeed.

Rubber body and unique legs

His wings may look familiar as they’ve been used before with the Chicken Minifigure.

This is personally in my top five Minifigures of 2020, and that’s coming from a collector of figs!

Cookie Monster and Elmo up next, and they each have rubber moulded heads. The paint jobs on both are outstanding and done to a very high calibre.

Cookie Monster & Elmo

If you look closely at the photo their legs differ slightly, Cookie Monster has the newer junior legs while Elmo has the smaller toodler legs. I think this works really well at scaling the Minifigures to what they’d be in ‘real life’.

Bert & Ernie have the same leg setup and it works even better here. They both have new torso prints which look amazing, i love the retro design and can see myself using them in MOCs.

Bert & Ernie

Again their heads are rubber and feature black paint for their hair, LEGO usually suffers when it comes to dark colours on light and as a result the darker colour looks faded, not her though, the black hair paint it solid and looks so good. I hope this is a sign of better paint/print jobs from LEGO.

Bert, being slightly talled, implements the junior legs while Ernie gets stuck withthe shorter ones. I’m a really big fan of the new bendy legs as it gives the Minifigure more room to move and pose. The quicker we lose the short toodler legs the better, in my opinion.

As I mentioned above Oscar the Grouch isn’t technically a Minifigure but i’ll mention him here no-the-less.

Oscar the Grouch

Oscar the Grouch is made up of two parts, a ball for the head and a green Minifigure head as his body (which is hidden inside the trash can). So now you see why he isn’t classed as a Minifigure.

That being said the head print is crisp and detailed enough for fans to instantly know who it is , although the trash can does give it away somewhat!

Overall the Minifigures are great and ultimatly make the set. Big Bird is the standout one for me and I’m so happy they got his spot on, yes his scale is a little off (short) for what we see on screen but he’s just big enough compared to the other Minifigures to stand tall.

The other Sesame Street Minifigures are cool and they’ll all be stood in my collection, pride of place!

LEGO Fan UK‘s interview with Ivan Guerrero is a must watch, please watch the video below and head over to Martin’s channel to subcribe for more. He also posts on Instagram.

Gallery:

Box art front

Box art back

Sesame Street started back in 1969 and has been a hit with Children Worldwide ever since. LEGO and LEGO Ideas decision to turn Ivan Guerrero’s LEGO Ideas project into an official is a very good call, and one that perhaps should of been done Years ago! It still holds the personality of the original submission which is always great to see. 

Consisting of a respectable 1367 pieces and a plethora of new prints and moulds, including the unique heads of the included Minifigures:

• Bert
• Ernie
• Elmo
• Cookie Monster
• Big Bird
• Oscar the Grouch.

Big Bird and Co.

Children of the 80s, myself includes, will get a huge nostalgia kick when setting eyes on this bright and colourful set. The main build is of course the Street where it all happens and with the facade it Almost has an Expert Creator vibe about it. Rotate the building and we get to see the interior that is jam packed with details and Easter eggs from the show!

123 Sesame Street

Cookie Monster’s House

Release date is 1st November and RRP is £109.99 / €119.99 / $119.99. It’ll be available in all official LEGO Stores and Shop@Home

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/123-sesame-street-21324

Official description:

STEP UP TO THE BRAND-NEW LEGO® IDEAS 123 SESAME STREET

Imagined by a keen LEGO builder and seasoned Sesame Street fan, the first-ever Sesame Street product from the LEGO Group will be available from 1st November from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores.

Voted for by LEGO brick lovers all over the world, a wonderfully nostalgic new LEGO Ideas set has been brought to life after being envisioned by an avid builder. The brand-new LEGO® Ideas 123 Sesame Street set is the latest product from the LEGO Ideas collection, which conceptualises and produces the creative wonders imagined and voted for by LEGO brick fans themselves.

Created with all the delightful elements of 123 Sesame Street, the new set is packed with authentic details from the famous New York City neighbourhood. From Bert and Ernie’s apartment, in which Bert famously pleaded with Ernie to remove a banana from his ear so he could hear better, to Big Bird’s nest, where the grown-ups finally met Mr. Snuffleupagus in person – builders will marvel in Sesame Street’s most memorable moments.

As they embark on their immersive build journey of LEGO® Ideas 123 Sesame Street, seasoned LEGO fans and younger builders alike can take a trip down memory lane, passing by Hooper’s Store, Oscar the Grouch’s trash can, and many more quintessential Sesame Street locations, making it the perfect set to enjoy on your own or together as a family. Fans can even bring their favourite characters and show moments to life with the brand new and exclusive buildable minifigures which have been moulded specifically for the set, including characters such as Cookie Monster, Elmo and Big Bird.

The new LEGO Ideas 123 Sesame Street set is part of the LEGO Ideas collection, which offers fans the opportunity to submit their own brick creations with the chance to have their concept brought to life with the help of LEGO master designers and a share of the profits. Other recent LEGO Ideas sets inspired by LEGO fans, include the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano and the LEGO Ideas Friends Central Perk.

Created by Sesame Street fan and LEGO enthusiast Ivan Guerrero, this set brings together the magic of the iconic New York City street with the mindful and creative building experience of LEGO bricks to create an instant classic.

Speaking about the creative journey, Ivan Guerrero said: “As a long-time fan of the LEGO Group and Sesame Street, it has been a dream come true to be able to merge my two passions into a memorable set for fellow builders to enjoy. LEGO bricks and Sesame Street shaped both my childhood and adult years, and the opportunity to work with the LEGO Ideas team to bring this quintessential New York street to life has been thrilling.”

Federico Begher, VP of Global Marketing at The LEGO Group added: “We were instantly drawn to Ivan’s idea, as we had never created an official LEGO product with Sesame Street before. It was clear from the submission that Ivan is passionate about Sesame Street and he really brought it to life with the wide array of characters and bright, classic colours. For the first time in the history of LEGO Ideas, we also had the opportunity to create brand new minifigures for a set – bringing something new and exciting to our LEGO fans.

Knowing the impact Sesame Street has had on the world for decades, sharing similar values with generations past and present, this felt like an exciting way to blend novelty with nostalgia, and pay homage to the truly iconic 123 Sesame Street through LEGO Ideas.”

“Your imagination and creativity can take you places—and with the help of LEGO Ideas, it’s now transporting fans to Sesame Street where you’re never too old for a playdate,” said Gabriela Arenas, Sesame Workshop’s Vice President of Licensing, North America.

Once built, the 1,367-piece LEGO® 123 Sesame Street is sure to bring excitement and nostalgia into any space, measuring 9” (24cm) high, 13.5” (35cm) wide and 8.2” (21cm) deep.

The new LEGO® Ideas 123 Sesame Street set is the latest example of how the LEGO Group aims to inspire builders of all ages to build, rebuild and get excited by the process of creation.

LEGO® 123 Sesame Street will be available directly via LEGO.com and LEGO Stores from 1st November

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors

21324 – LEGO Ideas 123 Sesame Street

RRP £109.99, €119.99, $119.99, CAD149.99,
Aged 18+
1,367 pieces
Product available direct from LEGO.com and from LEGO Stores