The LEGO Movie

Queen Watevra's 'So-Not-Evil' Space Palace

The curviest palace LEGO's ever made, and honestly one of its most joyful.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 70838 · 2019

Pieces997

Minifigs5

Year2019

Set number70838

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The verdict

This one snuck up on me.

It looks like a novelty tie-in, but the organic curved shell and the pods that sweep around the base make it one of the most genuinely creative builds of its year. It's playful, it's pink and gold and white in a way that just works, and there's real cleverness under the sugar. The sticking point is the $99.99 price for 995 pieces, so you're paying a bit for the movie license.

Best for: Builders who love unusual organic shapes and don't mind a bright, girly-leaning palette

The full review

What it is

Queen Watevra's So-Not-Evil Space Palace is the big centrepiece LEGO® set from The LEGO Movie 2, and it's the home of the shape-shifting alien queen from the Systar System. At 995 pieces it stands over 18 inches tall when you're done, and the shape is the whole story. Instead of the usual straight walls and right angles, you're building something bulbous and swooping, all soft curves and layered tiers that flare out like a wedding cake designed by someone very happy. Wes Talbott designed it, and you can feel a designer having real fun. There's a rotating top section, a detachable rocket for the Queen, and little pods on arms that swing around the base so the other characters can dock and undock. It photographs like a toy and builds like a proper piece of sculpture.

The catch

Now the caveats, because there are a few worth being honest about. The price is the main one. A hundred dollars for 995 pieces works out to about ten cents a part, which is a touch steep by LEGO's own standards, and some of that is you paying for the movie name. The palette is also going to divide people. If bright white, magenta, gold and sparkle is your thing, you'll adore it. If your shelf leans grey spaceships and castles, this will look like a flamingo wandered into the collection. And the one specific gripe builders keep raising is Sparkle Batman, or Bachelor Batman as the box calls him, arriving without a cape. It's a tiny thing, but on a figure that's clearly meant to be a highlight, it stings a little. The Movie 2 sets also famously didn't sell well at retail, which is why this one had such a short life on shelves.

Who it's for

So who's going to be glad they got this. If you're drawn to unusual shapes and you're a bit tired of building boxes, this set is a genuine change of pace, and the curved techniques teach you things you can carry into your own builds. Fans of the film, obviously, and anyone who wants something bright and characterful rather than another grey vehicle. If you're a purist who wants realistic architecture or a subtle display piece, this isn't the one, and that's completely fair. But for the right person it's a warm, clever, oddly beautiful build that's much more than the cartoon tie-in it looks like from the box. It won me over, and I went in a bit sceptical.

The parts story

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

Building this is a lesson in making LEGO stop looking like LEGO. You start with a fairly conventional base and interior, the dining room with its little smoothie maker, the security room, the DJ booth, all the play features that keep kids busy. Then the walls start curving and it gets interesting. Loads of the outer shell is built with angled and hinged sections that fan outward, so you're constantly stepping back to check the whole thing is flaring evenly. The pods on their swinging arms are a neat sub-assembly, and the rotating top and detachable rocket give you a couple of satisfying mechanical moments in among all the shaping. It's not a hard build, it's rated 9 plus, but the geometry keeps it from ever feeling repetitive.

On pieces, the value is really in the colours and the curves. You get a big pile of white and trans-blue elements, generous gold, and pops of magenta and purple that were still fairly uncommon in these quantities in 2019, so parts people quietly love this set as a colour donor. There are curved slopes and rounded elements everywhere, exactly the bits that are gold for organic MOC builders. Figure-wise it's five proper minifigs (Bachelor Batman, the glittery Celeste mini-doll, small Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, the Ice Cream Cone and a Royal Guard) plus brick-built Star and two Heart characters, so LEGO's box claim of eight characters is fair once you count the little brick-built ones. For a colourful, curvy parts haul with genuinely rare shades, it earns its keep even after the ten-cents-a-piece math.

Fun facts

01The palace was designed by LEGO designer Wes Talbott, who leaned hard into organic, curved shapes to make it look almost nothing like a normal brick building.
02It's home to Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, the shape-shifting ruler of the Systar System, which is why the whole thing looks like it could reassemble itself at any moment.
03The set had an unusually short retail life, listed from May to the end of December 2019, part of the wider story of The LEGO Movie 2 sets underperforming at retail.
04It packs eight characters into one box: five minifigures plus brick-built Star and two Heart figures, more little personalities than most sets this size.