Minions

Brick-Built Minions and Their Lair

Three chunky brick-built Minions that spin their eyes and flip open to reveal a secret room each.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 75551 · 2020

Pieces876

Minifigs3

Year2020

Set number75551

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The verdict

The thing that got me here was the little gear mechanism that spins the Minions' eyes when you turn a wheel on the back.

It is such a silly, joyful touch, and it sums up the whole set. This is a playset dressed up as a display piece, and it works best when you treat it that way. I would send anyone with a Minions-mad kid straight to it, but a builder chasing clever engineering should know the fun is in the theme, not the technique.

Best for: Minions-obsessed kids (and the adults who quote the movies right back at them)

The full review

What it is

This is one of those sets that made me grin before I had even finished it. You build three oversized, brick-built Minions, Stuart, Kevin and Bob, and each one is basically a fat yellow capsule with a face. Turn a wheel on the back and a little gear train spins their eyes around, which is exactly the kind of pointless-but-perfect feature that makes Minions Minions. Then you flip each character open and there is a whole tiny room inside. Stuart gets a chill-out pad with a sound system, a dartboard and a fold-down bed. Kevin has a command center packed with screens and dials, a fire extinguisher, and of course a banana to snack on. It is playful from the first bag to the last.

The catch

Now for the part that trips people up. You cannot have all three Minions standing on the shelf at the same time. The box gives you enough parts to build two, and to make the third you have to dismantle one of the first two. The instructions nudge you toward building Stuart and Kevin, then rebuilding Kevin into Bob. For a kid playing with them that is fine, they mix and match anyway, but if you were picturing a proud trio lined up together, that is not what you are buying. On top of that the three bodies are built in a similar way, so doing them one after another can feel a bit like running the same recipe twice. And there are a couple of small fit issues that reviewers flagged, the yellow on some hinge pieces reads slightly off, and Kevin's hard hat needs a spacer plate underneath that leaves a visible gap. None of it is dealbreaking, but it stops the set feeling truly premium.

Who it's for

So who should get this one. If there is a Minions fan in the house, especially a younger one, this is a lovely thing to hand over. The play value is high, the characters are instantly recognizable, and the accessories give hours of make-believe. If you want a display centerpiece with three figures out at once, or you are a builder who lives for surprising techniques, you will probably find this a little thin. Buy it for the joy and the play, not for the engineering, and it delivers.

The parts story

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

The build itself is friendly and fast, the kind you can knock out in an evening. Most of the work is curving that rounded yellow body using hinges and bracket-mounted panels, so you spend a lot of time creating smooth, stud-free surfaces, which is satisfying in a tidy sort of way. The eye mechanism is the highlight to assemble, offset gears sit inside the head so both eyes rotate together when you turn the wheel, and getting them to mesh cleanly feels like a proper little win. Because you build the bodies in sequence, the rhythm does repeat, but each Minion has a different interior to keep your interest up.

For parts, the pull here is color rather than exotic molds. You get a big helping of that specific Minion yellow across panels, plates and slopes, which is useful if you build in that palette. New Elementary singled the set out for its recolored elements and the three exclusive Minion figures, whose overalls, goggles and hair mix and match so you can restyle them. Printed eye pieces, the little tools, hats and accessories, and the banana all add character. At around 6 cents per piece for 876 parts it is honest value, and the accessory count alone makes it a nice donor set even after the novelty of the build wears off.

Fun facts

01The set tied in with Minions: The Rise of Gru, which was delayed and did not actually reach cinemas until 2022, two years after the LEGO set launched.
02It retired in December 2022 after about two years and nine months on shelves, and sealed copies have since climbed to roughly 78 percent above the original 49.99 dollar price.
03All three Minion figures are exclusive to this set and appear in no other LEGO set.
04Stuart is built with a single central eye while Kevin and Bob get two eyes, so their internal gearing differs to keep both eyes turning in sync.