(Written by William)
I’ve seen the idea of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs pop up several times on LEGO Ideas. However, each time they weren’t chosen to become official LEGO sets. Perhaps it was because LEGO had been planning the #43242 LEGO Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage for a while now.
Right off the bat, this set is packed with detail. And when I got to the carved owl tiles poking out under the eves of the roof, I realized something; I didn’t recall much of Disney’s version of Snow White. So, I found an old copy I had and also streamed it on Disney Plus. Turns out, my copy didn’t have descriptive audio like the streaming version. But either way, the movie is pretty simple when it comes to the plot.
Keep in mind, that this was Disney’s first full-length animation film. Additionally, it was 1937, a time when pacing was a lot slower than in films today. As such, details are heavily packed into every shot of the film much more than what LEGO designers could build into the set. On the other hand, due to the limited plot, the LEGO set does a fantastic job of covering some of the most important settings from the movie. Personally, the set made me enjoy the movie quite a bit more, but I can’t say the movie did the same for the set. Thankfully, I’m reviewing the LEGO set and not the film, so let’s see why it is so impressive!
LEGO SNOW WHITE – HELPFUL BUILDING PRACTICES
The #43242 LEGO Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage is fairly advanced when it comes to building techniques. There are a lot of details crammed into this set and some of these details can be overwhelming. I believe LEGO designers were well aware that due to what this set is representing, it may be an adult’s first major set. I was impressed by some of the obvious and not-so-obvious tricks LEGO designers employed to make the building experience more enjoyable for those new to the hobby. Best of all, I definitely recommend builders consider using these practices in their own creations to cut down on features they may find tedious.
Let’s start with an obvious practice. In the instructions, when we get to building the thatched roof, there are a lot of curved slopes with a left-cut angle and a right-cut angle. Normally, it’s pretty obvious which is which in a model. This is often because we have a clear right and left side to work with. However, in this set, we’re building intricate texturing using these parts. So, the instructions call out the suggestion of separating these pieces ahead of time. This is something I do in every set I build. Hunting for the right part every now and then might feel like a fun discovery, but too much hunting can break the flow of building. This is especially true when the pieces in question look remarkably similar just at first glance. Having distinct piles prevents frustration, especially when building with larger-than-average quantities of similar elements. In short, sorting makes happy builders.
As an example of a less obvious building practice, how about planning a good floor layout. LEGO fans often like to highly detail everything, including floors. This means, that we tend to use lots of tiles, more than any official LEGO set. Sure, we may add studs to attach pieces of furniture, but we still tend to treat our floor design like a floor in our own home. In other words, the floor should look consistent and completely covered. However, in many cases, we are building over the floor by adding chairs, tables, shelves, and other furniture and decorative pieces. In this set, we have the dining table with seven chairs, which is a lot of furniture to lay out properly. Fortunately, LEGO designers silhouetted the floor with distinct colored elements for where the chairs need to go. By using this simple technique of just picking a color that will stand out enough, you can visually plan out where everything will fit. It’s a practical tool especially when space is tight.
LEGO SNOW WHITE – BLENDING A SPECTRUM
When I first started building the top framework of the building, I was introduced to a color I wasn’t expecting. It was an almost gaudy orange-yellow. By contrast, I had been working with much more muted colors, so it was a shock to see something so bold. I honestly didn’t know how I felt about it. Then something amazing happened, it began to blend. You see, the majority of the model is split between the brown family of tans and reddish-brown and the green family of sand-green and olive-green from the various bits of greenery around the cottage. On their own, this doesn’t look bad at all. In fact, we expect to see these colors together since they appear in nature all the time. But we also have the cottage that is not something from nature but should look like it belongs in this natural setting. Well, that’s when you use a color that can bridge over a spectrum.
When you put colors together, they tend to take on characteristics of each other. This gives us an optical illusion where these colors blend together. So how is the orange-yellow-flame a bridge color? Simple; the orange works well with all the various browns in the model, while the yellow connects with the green elements. After all, we mix blue and yellow together to get green in pigments, so it makes sense that yellow would work well. This is especially true with the greens LEGO designers chose for this set.
Olive-green and sand-green are a bit softer in their hue. This means they appear to have a bit more yellow in them. This trick of color gives our brain a way to easily transition from one color to the next thus crossing a wider spectrum of color than we normally experience. It’s more common for us to create stark contrasts of colors to really make our creation pop. Choices like this often make interesting methods of accenting bold lines we want to emphasize. This model, by contrast, looks as though it has taken root in its environment and that is all thanks to clever color usage.
If you want to use color in this way, it helps to know the color spectrum of ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet). This is how light is broken down when using a prism. It also gives us a map to show us which colors are closest to each other when viewing. You can also use knowledge of how pigments of red, yellow, and blue can combine together to make a wide range of colors. For example, red and yellow make orange, blue and yellow make green, and red and blue make purple. This type of knowledge will let you have a greater depth in your own model building especially when you want to have a subtle effect.
LEGO SNOW WHITE – ACCESSIBILITY HINGE
Nearly every time I have seen a LEGO building with a hinge, it is to do one thing. To close it all up to create a stand-alone building and to open it up to have access inside. So, it was rather odd to see in this set a hinge added purely for additional access. Turning the set around, the building is open from the backside. Opening up the hinge doesn’t close this part of the building off. Rather, it simply allows more access to the bottom floor of the building. This is really not normal since the placement of the hinge means it can’t fully open. You only get a 90-degree opening based on where the hinge is placed.
The biggest reason why this is done has a lot to do with the depth of the building’s interior. There are a lot of ways to approach how to allow LEGO fans to reach in and arrange the characters. You can simply make a larger opening for a person’s hand. But with a crowded space like in this set, you might need multiple angles to reach in from. Another solution is to have a large detachable section to allow access. This set actually has that for the second floor to get into the bedroom. However, the rest of the roof needs to be solidly anchored due to its steep peaks. That leaves the solution LEGO designers went with in this set. Find a sensible place for the building to split without giving up structural stability and allow it to open up for additional access. Just know that, depending on how the hinge must be placed, you still have to deal with noticeable limitations.
LEGO SNOW WHITE – THE ARC OF THE STORY
Before I wrote about this model, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything about the story this set is based on. The odd thing was, I couldn’t recall too much about the movie apart from a few key scenes. So, I sat down with my wife and we watched the movie. To my surprise, despite its 87-minute runtime, not a whole lot actually happens in the film. There are roughly four key locations for Snow White in the movie and a smattering of side locations for the rest of the characters. This means the set represents the majority of the film in its three settings.
For Snow White, the first important scene is by the well where she sings with herself using her own echo down the well and meets Prince Charming. We do get the well, but not the castle wall or the castle itself. The next location is the field where Snow White is threatened by the queen’s huntsman and she runs into the frightening forest. This is missing from the set, but it is more of a transition setting than a space where anything takes place. This then leads into the cottage where the majority of the movie takes place. The final setting is when the dwarfs put her in the glass and gold coffin while she’s under the sleeping death spell. This is the last thing you build in the set.
As for other locations we don’t get, there are the queen’s rooms where she talks to the magic mirror, and the dungeon where she creates her potions. However, these are highly generic spaces. And for those who really want the queen and magic mirror, I believe they are available in one of the Disney Collectible Minifigure series. As for the dwarfs, we don’t have a mine for them to work in. However, on the side of the cottage, LEGO designers did create Doc’s work table that was in the mine when he was examining gems.
Beyond these locations, the only other one of note is the cliffside the queen fell from when the dwarfs and all the woodland creatures chased after her. This was such a nondescript setting that I’m not even sure it is worth mentioning. On the whole, LEGO designers really did pick the most iconic settings, giving the set a beginning, middle, and end, which is really hard to do these days.
LEGO SNOW WHITE – FINAL THOUGHTS
The #43242 LEGO Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage is so full of details. I don’t think I would have noticed half the details in the films if they weren’t added to this set. It also felt like LEGO designers tried to keep stickers down to a minimum. There are stickers on the foot of each dwarf’s bed and stickers on the pipe organ, but everything else is printed.
However, Snow White fans will need to dig into their own LEGO collection to supply more of the animals that are missing from the set. Watching the movie, I was amazed LEGO designers didn’t add in a deer or a turtle, which were some of my personal favorites. However, you do get two squirrels, a bunny, three birds, a spider, and a butterfly. It’s nice but feels like less than a fraction of the creatures you see in the film.
To make up for this, the only humanoid missing is the huntsman. LEGO designers do provide the queen in her old peddler’s disguise, the prince, Snow White, and all seven dwarfs. I do want to point out that the dwarfs have the non-poseable type short legs. This was probably to save a little money to keep the price as reasonable as possible.
I can’t express just how impressive the color palette and nature building is in this set. Every tree feels like a fresh design with a novel look. In addition, you get a great selection of parts in good quantities as well as a solid building experience.
However, I fear that the $219.99 price tag is going to be what stops many from making this set an easy buy. The price is doubly a problem when LEGO has recently inundated adult fans with so many great options. Fortunately, I do think this one will stick around for a while. So, when you do have the extra funds and can afford it this set is well worth the price. If you want to check it out, it’s available at the LEGO Disney section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like this LEGO Disney set? And what do you think of the building techniques we discussed? Are there any other interesting techniques or features that you like in the set? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!
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