LEGO The Little Mermaid Royal Clamshell (43225)

The build has a lovely rhythm to it. You start with King Triton's throne rock, then set it aside so it can watch over the rest of the assembly, which is a genuinely satisfying bit of pacing. From there you construct the clamshell structure itself, building upward, sideways and clipping components on at odd angles before finally bringing the throne back in. The shell uses staggered arches in two colours to fake organic rock, off-grid wedge plates that radiate outward, and clever tricks like triangular road-sign clip pieces filling the gaps between plates. It is fiddly in the best way and a proper step up from a standard Disney playset.

On the parts front, the fun fact that got me is there are no new molds at all, which surprised reviewers given how bespoke it looks. Instead you get six recolors that were exclusive at launch, including Dark Turquoise small hair tufts, Magenta fish, and Light Aqua wedge plates. There is also a small pile of rare useful elements, most memorably ten White round-corner dome tops (New Elementary joked that is more domes than the Taj Mahal set). The minifigures are where the printing budget clearly went: metallic spray-applied inks on the mermaid tails, iridescent torsos on Ariel's sisters, and a repurposed King Triton head mold. For 1,808 pieces the part value is decent, especially if you are an underwater or organic-build MOC fan hunting those aqua wedges.