LEGO Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe (31197)

Name: LEGO Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe
Brand: LEGO
SKU: 31197

Pop art you build one tiny round tile at a time, then hang on your wall.

Brick Rated Score

3.5/5

Set 31197 · 2020

Pieces3,341

Minifigsn/a

Year2020

Set number31197

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The verdict

The finished piece is what won me over.

It reads instantly as Warhol from across the room, and there is a real calm to building it. Just go in clear-eyed: this is less a traditional model and more a very zen, very repetitive tiling puzzle, thousands of 1x1 round tiles placed by number. If you want swooshable spaceships or clever technique, you will be bored stiff. If you like methodical, low-pressure building with a payoff you can frame, you will genuinely enjoy it. It's retired now, so grab it if the price is right.

Best for: Warhol fans and adults who want a calm, meditative build that ends up on the wall

The full review

What it is

Here is the pitch: this LEGO set turns Andy Warhol's famous Marilyn Monroe silkscreen into a piece of wall art you build yourself, one tiny tile at a time. It landed in 2020 as part of the very first wave of LEGO Art, and it is the loudest, most colorful of that launch lineup. You get a mosaic portrait built across nine canvas plates that lock together into one square panel, designed to actually hang on your wall when you are done. It even ships with an audio soundtrack you can play while you build, with stories about Warhol and the artwork, which is a genuinely nice touch if you like a build with a bit of atmosphere behind it.

The catch

Now the honest part, because it trips people up. This is not a normal LEGO build. You are placing thousands of 1x1 round tiles onto baseplates by following a numbered color guide, and that is the entire experience start to finish. Some folks find it soothing and almost meditative. Others find it mind-numbing after the first panel, and the reviews reflect that split right down the middle. It also clocks in around two and a half hours, which is short for a 3,341 piece set, precisely because it is the same motion over and over. Then there is the value question. At an RRP of about 119 dollars, more than one buyer has grumbled that it is a lot of money for colored dots, and if you want Warhol's actual four-panel Marilyn series you need four copies, so the true wall-filling version runs the better part of 500 dollars.

Who it's for

If you like Warhol, pop culture, or the pure calm of methodical tiling, and you genuinely want a display piece rather than a model to admire on a shelf, this is a lovely thing to have on the wall. It is also a great gift for a non-LEGO adult who likes art. Skip it if you build for clever technique, playability, or minifigures, because there are none here and you will be climbing the walls before panel three. It is retired now, so pricing on the secondary market has crept up, which means the smart move is to pounce only when you spot a fair deal rather than paying a big premium.

The parts story

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

Building this is about as far from a Technic supercar as LEGO gets, and that is the whole point. You start by clipping together nine baseplates into one large square canvas, then you work panel by panel, laying down 1x1 round tiles according to a numbered map. Each of the seven colors matches a number, and you just work your way across, section by section, filling in Marilyn's face, hair, and that bold background. There is almost no traditional technique to learn, so the pacing is entirely down to you. Put a film on, throw on the included soundtrack, and it becomes a properly relaxing couple of hours. The trade-off is obvious: the repetition is real, and by the later panels you will know the routine in your sleep.

The star part here is the 1x1 round tile, and this is the only one of the four 2020 LEGO Art sets to use round tiles instead of studs, chosen to mimic the dotty texture of a silkscreen print. You are getting a huge, colorful haul of them, roughly 3,100 tiles to cover about 2,300 spaces, so there is a generous 1,000 or so spares left over for your own mosaics. That is the real parts value: a bulk supply of 1x1 round tiles in seven colors, which is fantastic if you build mosaics or MOCs. On top of that you get an exclusive printed Andy Warhol signature tile, a brick-built frame, and a new hanging element plus a piece separator to make rebuilding into a different Marilyn easier.

Fun facts

01The set is based on Warhol's 1962 Marilyn Monroe silkscreens, which he made in the weeks right after the actress died that August, turning a publicity photo into pop art history.
02This was one of the four sets in LEGO's very first Art wave in 2020, alongside The Beatles, Iron Man, and a Sith/Star Wars trio, launching an entire theme aimed squarely at adults.
03Buy four copies and you can reproduce Warhol's full multi-panel Marilyn grid, each set offering four color variations so you can mix and match your own arrangement.
04It uses 1x1 round tiles rather than studs specifically to recreate the printed, dotted look of a silkscreen, making it the odd one out among the launch Art sets.