Sonic The Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog

A brooding buildable bust that plays much better in your hands than in the box art.

Brick Rated Score

3.6/5

Set 77000 · 2024

Pieces720

Minifigsn/a

Year2024

Set number77000

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The verdict

I went in a skeptic and came out a bit charmed, which seems to be the standard reaction to this one.

It is a 720-piece bust of Shadow's scowling face on a nameplate plinth, and the promo photos honestly do it no favors, because the angles and printing read far better in person. The build is genuinely clever for its size, but the finished model is top-heavy and a touch fragile, so it is really for the Sonic fan who wants Shadow glaring off a shelf, not for someone chasing a rock-solid display piece. If you love the character, you will forgive its quirks. If you do not, this will look very strange on your desk.

Best for: Sonic fans who want a display bust of Shadow and do not plan to move it much

The full review

What it is

The first thing you should know is that this set is a face. Not a diorama, not a scene, just Shadow the Hedgehog's brooding, red-streaked head mounted on a grey-and-red plinth with his name printed on the front. When I first saw it announced I honestly wrinkled my nose, because a floating hedgehog head is a strange thing to ask 720 pieces to become. Then I built it, and like nearly every reviewer who has touched this thing, I came around. The techniques used to sculpt those sharp angular quills and that scowling brow out of ordinary bricks are genuinely more interesting than a set at this price has any business being. It took me about two hours, and bags two through four, where the bulk of the face comes together, were the part that won me over.

The catch

Now for the honest part, because there is a real one. This is a top-heavy model with a lot of weight riding on a fairly delicate connection between the head and the base. Pick it up carelessly and you will feel your stomach drop as the whole head shifts. Several builders have flagged the same thing, along with quills that pop off if you grab them at the wrong spot. It is a display piece that wants to be left alone on a shelf, and that is fine, as long as you know it going in. I also noticed, as others did, that a couple of the recolored red elements sit right next to standard reds and the mismatch is just visible enough to nag at you. At 69.99 US dollars for 720 pieces it is fairly priced, but it is not a screaming bargain, and it lives or dies on how much you love the character.

Who it's for

So who is this actually for? If you grew up with Sonic, if 2024's wave of Shadow content pulled you back in, or if you simply want that famous scowl staring down from a shelf, this will make you happy and it looks far better in person than any photo suggests. If you are here for engineering you can fiddle with, or you want a sturdy centerpiece you can hand around at a party, this is not your set. It is a specific object for a specific fan, and it knows exactly what it is.

The parts story

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

Building this is a slow reveal, and that is the fun of it. The early bags hide little pockets of color deep inside the plinth and skull that you will never see again once it is closed up, including a green gem standing in for a Chaos Emerald right where a brain would be and three yellow ring pieces tucked into the display column. The real work is in the middle of the build, where you are stacking and angling bricks to shape Shadow's cheekbones, brow, and those signature upswept quills. It is bricky, hands-on shaping rather than a parade of specialized pieces, and it holds your attention better than a bust of a cartoon head probably should.

The standout parts are the prints, and I appreciate that LEGO went that route instead of leaning on stickers. You get a printed forehead panel with the red streak, a lovely printed jaw with Shadow's smirk on a tan curved piece, printed eye details that give the face its glare, and a printed nameplate on the base. Those prints are doing most of the heavy lifting on the finished look. The recolors are where it wobbles a little, since some of the reds are close but not identical to standard red, but for a set this focused on capturing one character's face, the printed detail is what you will remember.

Fun facts

01The set arrived during what fans dubbed the Year of Shadow the Hedgehog, with the character front and center in the Sonic 3 movie and the Sonic X Shadow Generations game.
02There is no diorama and no minifigure here at all, which makes it an outlier in the Sonic theme and closer in spirit to LEGO's buildable helmet and bust display sets.
03Almost every detail on the model is printed rather than stickered, an unusually generous choice for a set at this size and price.
04Hidden inside the finished model are Easter eggs you seal away as you build, including a green Chaos Emerald gem positioned where Shadow's brain would be.