Simba the Lion King Cub
A tiny cub with more personality in his joints than sets three times his size.
Brick Rated Score
Set 43243 · 2024
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This is a brick-built animal, not a minifig scene, and that changes everything about how you experience it.
Simba's head turns, his legs pose, his tail swings, and by the last few pieces you are genuinely posturing him like a toy rather than just setting a model on a shelf. I love that LEGO gave a Disney classic this treatment instead of another minifig-scale playset. It is a quick, cheerful build that rewards Lion King fans and young builders far more than it rewards adults chasing part-count value.
Best for: Lion King fans and younger builders who want a poseable character toy, not a display piece
What it is
I will admit I did not expect much going in. A brick-built lion cub sounded like a small, forgettable side release next to LEGO's bigger Disney sets, and at 222 pieces it certainly is not a weekend project. But the ball-jointed construction won me over fast. Simba's legs actually hold a crouch, his head tilts and turns, and his tail has real swing to it, so once he is built you are not just admiring a static shape, you are posing a character. That is the whole appeal of this line, and this cub pulls it off with real charm.
The catch
I will be straight with you about the honest part too. This is a quick build, done in an hour or so, and if you are the kind of builder who wants a satisfying afternoon of construction, 222 pieces will not get you there. The little ladybird and snail that come with him are a genuinely lovely touch straight out of the film's opening, but they are small additions, not a second build. And the community rating, a fair but unspectacular 3.7 out of 5 from Brickset reviewers, tells you this landed as a nice little set rather than a must-have.
Who it's for
Get this one if you are buying for a young Lion King fan who wants a toy they can actually play with, or if you collect LEGO's buildable-animal line and want the set filled out. Skip it if you are shopping for part-count value or a serious building challenge, because at under twenty dollars this was built to be a quick, affordable grab, not a centerpiece.
The parts story
What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.
The build itself moves fast and stays simple, which suits its young target audience well. You are working mostly in tan and gold-brown tones, stacking a ball-joint skeleton and cladding it in curved slopes and plates to get Simba's rounded cub proportions right, then finishing with his mane tufts and tail. There is no minifig here at all, the whole point is the posable creature itself, so anyone expecting little figures to arrange around a scene should look elsewhere in the Disney lineup.
The pieces worth pointing out are the printed elements on Simba's face and body, which do the heavy lifting for his expression and are not something you will pull from a generic parts bin elsewhere. The ball-joints in the neck, legs, and tail are the real engineering story of this set, the same posable-animal system LEGO has been refining across its buildable-character sets, and they are what make a 222-piece set feel like more than a quick stack-and-done build. Value per piece is fair for a licensed set at this price, though you are paying for character and playability here, not bulk.
Fun facts
- 01The set released in June 2024 to mark the 30th anniversary of Disney's The Lion King film
- 02It uses a fully posable ball-jointed body rather than a minifig, letting Simba hold different stances and expressions
- 03The build includes a small buildable ladybird and snail, a nod to the famous opening Circle of Life sequence
- 04It launched at a low price point of $19.99 / £17.99, making it one of the more accessible Disney licensed sets of 2024
What other builders say
This write-up is grounded in real reviews and builder discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:
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