Shrek

Shrek, Donkey & Puss in Boots

The first LEGO Shrek, and honestly the sculpting is what sells it.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 72423 · 2026

Pieces1,403

Minifigs1

Year2026

Set number72423

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The verdict

This is the very first LEGO Shrek set ever, landing for the film's 25th anniversary, and the brick-built Shrek and Donkey are lovely.

What got me is that they nailed both characters using no big specialised parts, just clever shaping, and Shrek's chest even opens to a daft little waffle Easter egg. The one thing that'll bug you is Puss in Boots showing up as a tiny minifigure next to those chunky figures, so the scale is all wrong. If you grew up on Shrek and want a display piece with real personality, you'll forgive that quickly.

Best for: Shrek fans who love a characterful brick-built display over a minifig-heavy playset

The full review

What it is

This is a genuinely fun bit of LEGO history: the first ever LEGO® set based on Shrek, arriving to mark 25 years since the film hit cinemas. Instead of a swamp playset with a house and a dozen minifigs, LEGO went the display route, and I think that was the right call. You get a big brick-built Shrek and an equally brick-built Donkey standing on a little patch of forest floor, complete with sunflowers, an onion, a blue flower with red thorns, and that painted Beware Ogre sign we all remember. It's 1,403 pieces and it stands about 24cm tall, so it has real presence once it's finished and up on a shelf.

The catch

Here's what makes it click for me. The sculpting is the whole show, and it's excellent. Shrek and Donkey both look properly like themselves, and the clever part is that the designers pulled it off with almost no big custom moulds, just ordinary bricks and slopes shaped with care. Shrek's chest opens up to reveal a silly little interior scene with a waffle tucked inside, which is exactly the kind of daft humour the films run on. Donkey has a mouth that actually moves and can hold a flower, which is such a small touch but it gives him loads of character. The onion is a nod to the famous ogres have layers line, and if you know, you know.

Who it's for

Now the part you'll want to know before you buy. Puss in Boots is included, but he's a regular sized minifig, and standing next to two chunky brick-built figures he ends up looking tiny. In the films Puss is roughly as tall as Shrek's head, so the scale genuinely doesn't line up, and it's the complaint that comes up in nearly every review. He's a lovely fig on his own, with a new head mould, a cape, a sword, and a new rounded cavalier hat, he just doesn't sit right in the group. The price is the other thing. At 129.99 for 1,403 pieces you're paying for the licence and the display value more than raw brick count, and it is a static model, so once it's built there's not a lot to do with it beyond admire it. If you came up loving these films and you want something with charm and honest craft on your shelf, you'll be very happy. If you were hoping for a big playset with a swamp house and a pile of minifigs, this isn't that, and you'll want to wait and see what LEGO does next with the theme.

The parts story

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

The build breaks down into three clear jobs, and they pace nicely. Shrek is the main event: you're shaping his rounded head, that famous trumpet nose and those little ear stumps almost entirely from standard slopes and curved pieces, layering them up so the form reads as Shrek from across the room. Donkey is the fun surprise, built up around his long face with a mouth mechanism that opens and closes, and white ruffle detailing across his chest. Then there's the forest base with its flowers, onion and the printed warning sign, which is the quick satisfying finish after the two figures.

For parts people there's a decent amount to like. The set is packed with lime green recolours, and a few rounded elements look brand new to that colour, including small dome-top round bricks and curved slopes used for Shrek's fingertips and the back of his head. New Elementary flagged the Plate Special 2x3 with Rocks (27261) used cleverly as Donkey's white chest ruffles, which is a really smart bit of parts usage. Puss brings a genuinely new head mould and that new rounder cavalier hat. Value wise, at roughly 9.3 cents per piece it's fair rather than a bargain, and you're really paying for a big bank of usable lime slopes plus two figures that show off just how much you can do with plain bricks.

Fun facts

01This is the first ever LEGO Shrek set, released to mark the 25th anniversary of the original 2001 film.
02Shrek and Donkey are built almost entirely from standard bricks and slopes with no big specialised moulds, which is why the sculpting impressed reviewers so much.
03Shrek's torso opens to reveal a hidden waffle Easter egg, a nod to the films' sense of humour, and the brick-built onion references the classic ogres have layers line.
04Puss in Boots comes with a newly designed head and a new rounded cavalier hat, more curved than the old Musketeer hat used from 2011 to 2014.