Winnie the Pooh Review (21326)

I’ve finally realised that I really love sets with many colours and variation. Plus, we’re huge Disney fans in our household, so Winnie the Pooh was on our list as soon as we saw it. With new minifigs, another love of ours, and some great elements, we couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

Opening the box gave us our first delight – the instruction booklet is amazing. It’s just like the actual picture book itself and perfectly matches the theme.

As we start building, this is perhaps one of the sets that justifies the 18+ tag. No doubt, junior master builders could build it of course, but it was a little challenging for Leanne particularly around the green shrubbery at the base of the tree. The instructions are relatively condensed with some steps requiring multiple actions without being overly explicit. Luckily we had the Mini Disney Castle to keep Leanne occupied and Oscar and I swooped in to the rescue. As you can see, the set opens up to allow play inside the house. You can then shut it away to give Pooh his privacy.

After the base is built we start on the inner living spaces. The techniques in use are pretty simple, but really pleasing to me. Why, I’m not entirely sure. It might be the nice mix of a relatively quick build, but also that if reflects the simplicity of Winnie the Poohs life.. who knows?

The other part of the living space is equally as enjoyable. It’s simple, homely and really takes me back to my childhood reading about Winnie the Pooh. The bee needlework on the wall is a nice touch as are the planters flowers outside the window.

For us, this set had the right amount of stickers. Naturally we would prefer no stickers at all, but if there needs to be stickers, less is more. As we moved to the front of the build, the sticker on the doorframe has a clear purpose, doesn’t overload the set. The symmetry of the bushes pleases my OCD tendencies the the use of the whip to hold the light is a great NPU.

Building the upper branches reminded me of the Bonsai Tree – a set we reviewed recently and really enjoyed. Research has shown that being in nature really does make you feel better. I’m not sure how much this applies to LEGO, but I certainly get great enjoyment in all the sets that have trees. The Bonsai Tree, the Bouquet, this set and the Blacksmith all have trees that really makes the sets standout.

We finish the rest of the living space with a fairly simply roof pattern of 1×2 cheese elements. The addition of the chimney for the pot belly stove looks splendid. This flows through the roof and connects directly to the stove to complete smoke path. It’s a little detail, but makes a difference rather than just having it cosmetically added to the roof.

Putting the leaves on the tree was the most tedious part of this build. Yet, there’s not really any way around it for things such as this. Nevertheless the addition of the beehives with little bee’s flying around it, absolutely makes up for it. They are very cute and again, fit the theme perfectly.

We finish the build with the minifigs. As we touched on earlier, we’re huge fans of minifigs in general. They add character to any build, even where they aren’t always to scale (e.g. Batmobile Tumbler). In our view, every set should have at least 1 minifig. The gang from the Hundred Acre Wood are all here except for Kanga, Rooh and Owl. I would have been happy to pay an extra $10 to have them included, but they aren’t completely key characters. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Each of the characters is well defined, with Eeyore our favourite.

Overall Thoughts

We loved building this set and it makes a great display piece. The build was a little challenging, but brings a lot of unique and cute internal features. Although not all the minifigs were present, the key characters present definitely tell the story.

With enough swooshability and great looks, we highly recommend this set.