LEGO Ideas and CUUSOO

123 Sesame Street

The brownstone from your childhood, and the minifigs steal the whole show.

Brick Rated Score

4.5/5

Set 21324 · 2020

Pieces1,367

Minifigs6

Year2020

Set number21324

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The verdict

This one got me the second I clipped Big Bird's head on.

It's a warm, faithful little slice of the show, and the six characters are honestly some of the most charming figures LEGO has made. The building itself is a touch plain and the roof gets a bit fiddly, but the nostalgia and the parts value carry it. If Sesame Street was part of your growing up, you'll adore having it on a shelf.

Best for: Anyone who grew up on Sesame Street and wants the characters done right

The full review

What it is

There's a specific kind of warmth that hits when you snap together a set based on something you watched at four years old, and 123 Sesame Street lands right in the middle of it. This LEGO® set recreates the famous brownstone stoop with Bert and Ernie's apartment behind it, Elmo's little bedroom, Hooper's Store on the corner, Big Bird's nest tucked around the side, and of course Oscar's trash can out front. It's 1,367 pieces, it came out of the LEGO Ideas program in 2020, and it was dreamed up by fan designer Ivan Guerrero (known in the community as Bulldoozer), who later got hired by LEGO itself. The whole thing is bright, friendly, and completely unpretentious, which feels exactly right for the subject.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about the caveats, because there are a few. The building itself is not the most exciting architecture LEGO has ever produced. The walls go up quickly and without much technique, and a lot of reviewers, myself included, felt the roof section got a little fiddly and awkward near the end. There's also a sense that some detail in the main brownstone got sacrificed to squeeze Hooper's Store into the corner, so it can look slightly cramped from certain angles. And here's the practical one: this set retired at the end of 2022, so you're now paying a resale premium. Sealed copies have been running close to 200 dollars, well above the 119.99 it launched at. If you're only lukewarm on the theme, that price jump is a fair reason to pause.

Who it's for

But honestly, nobody buys this for cutting-edge engineering. You buy it because Cookie Monster's googly eyes are perfect, because Big Bird actually looks like Big Bird, because Oscar pops up out of his can and makes you grin. The characters are the heart of it, and they deliver. If you grew up on the show, or you're building a display of things that make you happy rather than things that impress, this belongs on your shelf. If you live for dense, clever builds and the nostalgia does nothing for you, this probably isn't the set that wins you over, and that's completely fair. For everyone else, it's a lovely, huggable little corner of the neighborhood.

The parts story

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

The build is a quick, gentle one. You start with the sidewalk and stoop base, work up the brownstone walls, then move through the interiors: Bert and Ernie's apartment, Elmo's room, and Hooper's Store on the ground floor. It's mostly straightforward stacking with a few nice interior vignettes, so it's a relaxing evening rather than a technical workout. The one spot that trips people up is the roof and the rooftop birdhouse near the finish, where the angles get a bit fussy. None of it is hard, but the pacing does dip toward the end.

The parts are where this set genuinely earns its keep. There are five brand new molds, all created for the characters, including Big Bird's tall headpiece, which is molded in rubber rather than the usual ABS so it stands up sturdy. On top of that you get 18 elements in new colors or appearing unprinted for the first time, plus a generous pile of printed pieces. The clever standouts are everywhere: Oscar printed on a lime 2x2 sphere so he sits down in his trash can, Slimey the worm printed on a 1x1 heart tile, and Dorothy the goldfish printed on a head inside her bowl. For 120 dollars at launch, that density of new molds, recolors and prints is a strong deal, and it's a big reason the set holds its value so well now.

Fun facts

01Fan designer Ivan Guerrero, known as Bulldoozer, reached the LEGO Ideas 10K Club seven times and was later hired as a LEGO designer on the Icons team.
02Big Bird's tall yellow headpiece is a new mold made from rubber instead of the usual hard ABS plastic, so it doesn't snap under its own height.
03Oscar the Grouch is printed on a lime 2x2 round sphere and attached to a minifigure head, a trick that lets him actually pop up and duck down inside his trash can.
04The set retired at the end of 2022 and sealed copies have since climbed to roughly 196 dollars, about a 63 percent jump over the original 119.99 price.