Pinocchio premiered in theaters on February 23, 1940. It was the 2nd animated feature film released by Walt Disney Studios and is widely considered the studio’s most technical achievement. Not only this, but almost every Disney movie you see is preceded by the instrumental version of the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” that was originally featured in Pinocchio. In 1994 the film was picked by the United States National Film Preservation Foundation to be included in the National Film Registry as a culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant film. Only one film is picked to receive this honor each year. Michael Comeau and his wife are huge Disney and LEGO fans and to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Pinocchio they have created a LEGO version of the endearing puppet. 🙂
Michael shares the following about their LEGO Pinocchio: “My wife and I both have a love for puppets and marionettes and Pinocchio is one of our all-time favorite movies. For the LEGO Pinocchio project I designed the marionette using real LEGO bricks, and then did the rendering so Pinocchio had the correct coloring. My wife designed the Jiminy Cricket minifigure, tested the build of the final real life marionette, and did the graphic-design to present both characters. We are very excited about this project and decided to post it on LEGO Ideas for other Pinocchio fans, and for the possibility of making this into an official LEGO set.”
The LEGO Pinocchio marionette is 12 inches tall. His elbows, shoulders, knees and hips incorporates loose ball-joints that allow for free movement. Both his ankles are poseable with friction ball-joints and his fingers are individually poseable. He was built with playability in mind so that parts would not pop off while controlling Pinocchio. The marionette is controlled by manipulating the control-bar where the strings are attached (see video below). A display-stand is also included. The Jiminy Cricket minifig comes with an umbrella.
The total piece-count for the LEGO Pinocchio project is 837 pieces. 667 pieces for Pinocchio himself, which includes extra pieces for making the stringless display version, and possibly a few extra pieces to make Pinocchio’s nose longer. The stand is 140 pieces and the control-bar is 23 pieces. Jiminy Cricket includes 7 pieces with his accessories.
The LEGO Pinocchio project has been posted on LEGO Ideas just a few days ago, and it already started gathering support. However to achieve the minimum 10,000 votes for LEGO to consider this project for production, Pinocchio will need a lot more supporters before the one year deadline. If you would like LEGO to make Pinocchio into an official LEGO set, you can vote for it at the following link. It only takes a minute to register your support. Supporting a LEGO Ideas project doesn’t cost you anything nor does it oblige you to buy the set in the future. It simply shows LEGO that there are lots of people who like the project. Also, don’t forget to share LEGO Ideas projects that you like with your friends and family. Gathering 10,000 supporters is not an easy task: SUPPORT LEGO PINOCCHIO PROJECT
So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO Pinocchio marionette? Do you think this would make a nice LEGO set? Would you buy it? Do you think other people would buy it? Would you have any ideas or suggestions for the creators of this project to make it even better? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! And you can also check out the currently available LEGO Ideas sets designed and supported by LEGO fans at the Online LEGO Shop. 😉
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My first thought: looks fragile. Even though you said it’s built for playability, I can still see a few weak points. The ropes that hold him up have studs at the end, and those aren’t always the strongest. The connections to the legs look far the weakest, though I suppose the rest are okay. However, I do like the idea, it’s a great looking model, lots of detail, and the stand is a nice thought. 🙂 I really like the Jiminy Cricket minifig as well, though my opinions of the actual character vary. Too bad it’s so many pieces, that will push the price upwards of $80. 🙁
Also, some extra parts are required: his nose may be too short at times. 😉
Good points, but keep in mind that LEGO Ideas projects don’t have to be perfect. It is basically just an idea, and if it makes it to 10,000 votes it will get redesigned by LEGO’s own professional designers to their standards of quality and playability. The original Exo Suit was so fragile that it fell apart if you looked at it wrong. It also contained a lot of illegal connections. So yeah, here we are only looking at the idea; would it make a good LEGO set? Overlooking imperfections in design, color, etc.
Too many huge and completely impractical projects make it to 10,000 votes because they look awesome but would never be made into a LEGO set, while projects that would actually make a good LEGO set get overlooked because of minor design flaws or because they are not enormous. If you like an idea, vote for it. LEGO will take care of the rest. 😉
I see how you would think that it could have some weak connections, but the whole marionette is supported by the main strings attached to the head. The connections on the legs are only for getting his legs to move. I also tried to use very few pieces on the legs so they weren’t too heavy. The leg stings actually stay on all the time which is crazy concidering how they are attached. There is a video of the puppet dancing in real life too which thebrickblogger have posted the link to. The head is where a lot of the part count comes from. The stand also has a lot of the count which I am sure could be modified with fewer parts. I appreciate the feedback.
Yes, I saw the head-strings. I watched the video after I commented, so I hadn’t seen the legs’ strength. I guess that since the joints are non-friction, and the legs are lightweight (as you said), an embedded connection isn’t really necessary.
I think that the head is required to be many pieces, as you could not have attained that brilliant level of detail using only a few parts. The stand could no doubt be made less pieces, probably with the help of Technic parts, though I cannot see a large change in part count. I should really see about my Ideas ID, so I can vote on great projects like this. Right now I don’t think I can. 🙁
Sadly I’m only a KFOL so it won’t let me register but I do like the idea! 🙂
Looks original at least.
Ps Got the Exosuit today!! :-0
Awesome! 😛
Pinocchio has been picked as the LEGO Ideas staff pick for 3/27/15. What an honor! 😀
Nice! 😀