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Up-Scaled LEGO Minifigure

The little yellow smiley you love, blown up to the size of a table lamp.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 40649 · 2023

Pieces654

Minifigs1

Year2023

Set number40649

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The verdict

This is the classic yellow smiley minifigure scaled up to about 28cm tall, and I found it genuinely hard not to grin at it sitting on my desk.

The build is quick and cheerful, the posable arms and legs are a lovely touch, and the opening hat hides a normal minifigure inside like a tiny secret. It is not a value monster and the cap gave me grief, but as a pure feel-good display piece it earns its keep.

Best for: LEGO fans who want a joyful desk-sized icon rather than a technical challenge

The full review

What it is

The Up-Scaled LEGO Minifigure is exactly what the name promises, the plain yellow classic smiley figure enlarged to roughly 28cm, the same friendly face that has been printed on more torsos and boxes than anyone could count. It is modelled on the giant minifigure statue that stands outside the LEGO Campus headquarters in Billund, and it is the fourth of these up-scaled figures LEGO has released, following the Harry Potter and Hermione pair from 2021 and the pirate tribute figure sold only at the LEGO House. I will be honest, I did not expect to fall for something this simple, but the moment the head clicked on and that little smile looked back at me, I was sold. It has a movable head, arms, hands and legs, so you can pose it mid-wave or sit it with its legs out, and it holds those poses well enough for a shelf.

The catch

Now the caveats, because they are real. At 654 pieces for around 50 dollars, and with most of those pieces being very ordinary bricks and plates, this is not a set you buy for parts value or price-per-piece maths. Several reviewers hesitated to recommend it on cost alone, and I understand why. The other honest note is scale, the box photography makes it look larger than it turns out to be, roughly the size of that old wooden minifigure LEGO made years back, so temper your expectations before you open it. My biggest single frustration was the cap. Building that flat brim takes far longer than it has any right to, the back of it sticks out further than the real minifigure cap does, and then the whole thing only attaches with about four studs, so it slides off if you so much as breathe on it wrong.

Who it's for

So who ends up happy with this one. If you love the LEGO minifigure as an icon, want something cheerful for a desk or a shelf, or you just enjoy a low-stress build that makes you smile, this is an easy yes and it looks great in the room. It would also charm a younger builder who can then role-play with the hidden minifigure inside. If you live for clever engineering, dense parts value, or a set that challenges you, I would gently steer you elsewhere, because this is comfort food, not a puzzle. Buy it for the joy of it, not for the piece count.

The parts story

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

Building this is a relaxed afternoon rather than an event, and that is the whole point. The body goes together in solid, satisfying layers, the arms and legs use clever hinge and click connections so they actually swing like a real minifigure's do, and there is a genuine little thrill when you finish the head and clip it on. Because of the size and weight, posing those arms takes a bit of patience, and the legs being partly hollow means the figure carries its weight up top, so it is happiest standing straight or sitting rather than doing anything dramatic. It is the kind of build you can do with a coffee and a podcast on, no fiddly sub-assemblies to trip you up.

There are no exotic new molds or printed rarities hiding in here, which is part of why parts hunters shrug at it. What you are really buying is the shaping, the way ordinary yellow, black and blue elements are stacked and angled to recreate that curved head and cylindrical torso in brick form. The single hidden minifigure tucked under the hat is the sentimental standout, a normal smiley figure sitting inside the giant one, and it is a lovely bit of LEGO winking at itself. If you want a set stuffed with recolors and unusual parts, this is not it, but as an exercise in turning the most common LEGO shapes into something instantly iconic, it works.

Fun facts

01It is the fourth up-scaled minifigure LEGO has produced, after the 2021 Harry Potter and Hermione Granger set and the pirate figure sold exclusively at the LEGO House in Billund.
02The design is based on the giant minifigure statue that stands outside the LEGO Campus headquarters in Billund, Denmark.
03The hat lifts off to reveal a standard-size smiley minifigure hidden inside, a role-play touch shared with its up-scaled predecessors.
04It stands about 28cm (10.5 inches) tall and launched in June 2023 with a recommended price of 49.99 dollars.