LEGO Art

Elvis Presley, The King

A calm 3,445-piece brick mosaic of the King, with three faces to choose from.

3.4/5

Set 31204 · 2022

Pieces3,445

Minifigsn/a

Year2022

Set number31204

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The verdict

If you love Elvis and you want a chilled-out, switch-your-brain-off building session, this LEGO® set delivers exactly that.

It's a wall-mounted portrait mosaic, so it's more relaxing tile-placing than clever engineering, and the finished piece looks properly sharp from across a room. Just go in knowing it's a paint-by-numbers kind of build, not a puzzle. For the right fan it's a lovely thing to hang up.

Best for: Elvis fans who want a relaxing, display-worthy mosaic build

The full review

What it is

So here's the deal with the Elvis Presley 'The King' set. It's part of the LEGO® Art line, which means you're not building a 3D model, you're building a big flat portrait mosaic out of small round tiles that clicks together into a picture you hang on the wall. And this one is a genuinely nice tribute to Elvis. What makes it stand out from a lot of the Art sets is that the box actually contains three different portraits of the man, one from his early rise, one from his prime, and one from later in his career. You pick which face you want to build, follow that section of the 111-page instruction book, and the other two are there waiting if you ever fancy a change.

The catch

Now for the honest bit. At around 120 dollars for 3,445 pieces the value looks great on paper, but you have to know what kind of build this is. It's methodical. Really methodical. You spend roughly three and a half to four hours placing single-color round tiles into a grid, one at a time, and there's basically no clever technique or building challenge to it. Reviewers pretty much all call it a paint-by-numbers experience, and that's fair. The Brickset community score sits at 3.4 out of 5, which tells you people like the result more than they're wowed by the process. There's also the mildly annoying reality that you can only ever display one of the three portraits at once, unless you're the sort of person who buys three copies for the giant combined build (and yes, that exists, but the instructions for it live on the LEGO website, not in the box).

Who it's for

So who's this for? If you're an Elvis fan, or you know one with a spot on the wall that needs filling, this is an easy yes. It's also lovely if you specifically want a low-stress, meditative build you can chip away at over a few evenings with the soundtrack playing. If you want something that keeps your brain busy or gives you a display piece with depth and moving parts, this isn't it, and you'd be happier elsewhere. It retired at the end of 2022, so it's an aftermarket hunt now, but for the right person it's a warm, good-looking bit of music history to own.

The parts story

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

The build is about as gentle as LEGO gets. You start by putting together a couple of little color-reference tools, then you join nine 16x16 Technic base squares into one big canvas and get placing. From there it's all rhythm: the instructions call out coordinates, you drop the matching round tile into place, and you slowly watch Elvis appear out of the dots. There's no real pacing curve or twist, just a steady, satisfying flow, and honestly that's the appeal. Pop the QR-code soundtrack on, settle in, and the three-plus hours drift by. It's the kind of build you do to unwind, not to be tested.

On the pieces themselves, the star is quantity of humble parts. Inside you get around 15 bags of colored round 1x1 tiles plus a few bags of regular bricks and plates, with a color spread that runs deep on black (nearly 600), medium blue, dark blue and sand blue. The genuinely special element is the printed 2x4 Elvis Presley signature tile that's unique to this set, and there's a neat choice at the end to either fit it or swap in six plain 1x1s for a signature-free version. You also get the nine canvas base plates, two hangers, a divider and a LEGO brick frame. With 3,445 pieces landing at roughly 4 cents each, the parts value is excellent, especially if you're the type to raid the round tiles for your own mosaic projects later.

Fun facts

01Senior designer Kitt Kossmann said the trickiest parts to capture in brick were Elvis' eyes, his famous lip curl and his jawline.
02The box holds three separate portraits of Elvis from different eras of his career, but the base plates only let you display one at a time.
03Buy three copies and there's a hidden 'ultimate build' that combines them into one giant portrait, with instructions posted on the LEGO website rather than in the box.
04Scanning the in-manual QR code opens up a purpose-made soundtrack of nearly two hours to build along to.