Brickheadz

Moana & Merida

Two Disney heroines built entirely out of hair technique.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 40621 · 2023

Pieces410

Minifigsn/a

Year2023

Set number40621

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The verdict

I went in expecting the usual Brickheadz cube-with-a-hat routine and got surprised.

Moana's curls are stacked from bun slopes and cheese slopes to fake volume and wave, and Merida's mane is built from layered 2x2 round plates, three deep in places, which is a genuinely clever bit of engineering for a 400-piece box. For nineteen dollars you get two fully realized characters with real personality in their faces, and that price to piece ratio is hard to argue with. This is a set for Disney collectors and for anyone who wants to see how far LEGO can push a hairstyle out of plastic, less so for someone who wants a meaty afternoon build.

Best for: Disney Brickheadz collectors and anyone curious how LEGO fakes hair texture out of studs

The full review

What it is

I'll be honest, I don't usually get excited opening a Brickheadz box. The formula is the formula: big square head, stubby cube body, done in under an hour. But Moana & Merida caught me off guard the moment I hit the hair. Moana's curls aren't a single molded piece the way most Brickheadz hair is. They're built up from bun slopes and cheese slopes layered to fake actual wave and volume, and it reads instantly as her hair, not a generic ponytail. Merida's mane goes even further, stacking 2x2 round plates three deep in spots to get that wild, voluminous red hair from the movie. It's the kind of small-scale engineering trick that makes you stop and actually look at what the designers did with 410 pieces.

The catch

The honest caveats are the ones you'd expect from this line. An hour of build time means this isn't a weekend project, and once it's done, Moana and Merida just stand there on their little baseplates looking cute. There are no printed parts to speak of, and if you've built a dozen Brickheadz already, the core body construction here won't teach you anything new. At nineteen dollars, though, the piece count and the hair techniques alone make it feel like fair value rather than a quick cash grab, which isn't always true of this line.

Who it's for

Get this one if you collect Disney Brickheadz, you love Moana or Brave, or you just want a fun half hour showing a kid how LEGO fakes hair texture with plates instead of one big mold. Skip it if you want a substantial build or posable figures, since this is pure shelf display through and through.

The parts story

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

The build itself moves fast and in two clean halves, Moana first and then Merida, so it never drags even at an hour total. Most of that hour is spent on the heads, since the bodies are the standard Brickheadz cube treatment with a skirt or dress piece clipped on. Moana's decorated skirt piece is the one bit of real character on her body, echoing the patterned look from the movie rather than a plain block color.

The real payoff is in the hair. Moana's curls stack bun slopes against cheese slopes to create a rippling, layered look that's a step up from the flat wig pieces older Brickheadz relied on. Merida's is the standout though, with 2x2 round plates piled up to three layers deep in places to capture the sheer volume of her curly red hair, using ordinary parts in a way that doesn't feel ordinary at all. For 410 pieces split across two figures at this price point, getting two of the trickiest hairstyles in the Brickheadz catalog is a good return.

Fun facts

01The set released March 1, 2023 with an RRP of nineteen ninety nine USD, one of the lower price points in the Disney Brickheadz range
02Merida's hair uses 2x2 round plates layered up to three deep in places, an unusually complex technique for the line
03Moana's curls combine bun slopes and cheese slopes together to fake volume and wave rather than using a single molded hair piece
04The set is now retired, pairing two Disney heroines from different franchises, Moana and Brave, in a single Brickheadz box