Disney

100 Years of Disney Animation Icons

Pixel-art Disney portraits you can swap on a whim, and honestly it's a lot of fun.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 43221 · 2023

Pieces1,022

Minifigs1

Year2023

Set number43221

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The verdict

This is a mosaic playground dressed up in the Disney 100 badge, and if you love the idea of little tile portraits you can rearrange whenever the mood hits, you'll grin the whole way through.

There are 72 character designs and only room to show ten at a time, so it turns into a rotating gallery rather than a one-and-done build. It won't scratch the itch if you want engineering or a proper model, but as a cheerful, low-stress build with an exclusive Mickey thrown in, it earns its keep. At the price it's one of the friendliest Disney 100 sets going.

Best for: Disney fans who want a swappable pixel-art gallery, not a fiddly display model

The full review

What it is

Let's set expectations honestly, because that's the fun of this one. The 100 Years of Disney Animation Icons is a LEGO® set built around tiny tile portraits, the kind of pixel-art mosaics that turn Mickey, Simba, Stitch, Ariel and dozens more into little grids of color. You get two picture frames, a stack of 8x8 plates, and buckets of small tiles, and your job is to lay out recognizable Disney faces one square at a time. There are 72 designs in total, grouped into sets of twelve, and only some are printed in the paper instructions while the rest live in the LEGO Builder app. So this isn't a model you finish and shelve. It's a rotating gallery you keep tinkering with, and that's exactly where its charm lives.

The catch

Now the caveats, and there are a few real ones. The bigger frame holds nine plates and the smaller one holds a single design, which means at any moment you can only display ten of the 72 characters. Two designs are always sitting in a drawer somewhere, and plenty of reviewers found that odd bit of math genuinely puzzling. Building that nine-slot frame is also the least exciting part of the box, because you assemble the same little holder again and again before you even get to the pretty part. And I'll be straight with you, this is a DOTS set wearing a Disney badge. If you came hoping for clever engineering, hidden mechanisms, or a build that surprises you, you won't find it here. It's placing tiles on plates, pleasant and repetitive in equal measure.

Who it's for

So who should grab it. If you love the idea of swapping your favorite characters in and out, or you want something a child can build, rebuild, and proudly hang above their bed, this is a lovely pick and the price makes it an easy yes. It's also a soft, relaxing build for anyone who finds tile-laying soothing rather than dull. Skip it if you want a proper display piece with structure and technique, or if the thought of leaving twelve characters unbuilt because you ran out of frame space is going to bug you. For the right person, though, this is one of the most cheerful, best-value ways into the whole Disney 100 lineup, and it keeps giving long after the first build is done.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The building splits into two clear jobs. First you assemble the frames, a small single-portrait one carrying the Disney 100 logo and a larger nine-slot frame with a wall hanger built in. That larger frame is the tedious stretch, since you repeat the same holder construction several times before anything looks like Disney. Then comes the good part, the mosaics themselves, where you follow color-by-number style layouts to drop 1x1 and small tiles onto 8x8 plates until a face appears. Each finished plate clicks in and out on just four studs, so swapping designs is quick and satisfying. It's gentle, forgiving building, ideal for younger builders or anyone who wants to switch off and just place tiles.

The real value here is in the sheer volume of small elements. Over a thousand pieces, and the bulk of them are the little printed and plain tiles that form the portraits, which is why you can build 72 distinct designs from one box. The genuine highlight for collectors is the exclusive Mickey Mouse minifigure, dressed as a painter in teal overalls splattered with purple and blue, holding a brush and palette, and he only appears in this set. For a 59.99 box you're getting more than a thousand parts, a stack of reusable 8x8 plates, two display frames, and that one-of-a-kind Mickey, which is why it lands as one of the strongest value plays in the Disney 100 range.

Fun facts

01The set holds 72 different Disney character designs but the two frames can only display ten at a time, so two builds are always left out no matter how you arrange it.
02In everything but name it's a LEGO DOTS set, using the same tile-mosaic approach that DOTS made popular before it was folded into other themes.
03The exclusive painter Mickey, in paint-splattered teal overalls with a brush and palette, appears in no other set, making him the collector's draw here.
04It launched in May 2023 as part of the Disney 100 anniversary wave celebrating a century of Disney animation, from Steamboat Willie onward.