Before putting together the LEGO Ideas Pixar Luxo Jr. set, I threw Toy Story on the TV in the background and got to work. I finished the set in one sitting, which took me roughly two hours and lined up nicely with my movie selection. During the build, I was delighted to find (similar to the LEGO Nintendo NES and other pop culture-inspired sets) the Pixar lamp has a handful of tiny Easter Eggs that reference Pixar movies hidden throughout the process.
LEGO Ideas Disney Pixar Luxo Jr.
LEGO Ideas Disney Pixar Luxo Jr.
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There are small references to classic Pixar films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and Up, to name a few. My favorite Eater Egg is a tiny buildable Pizza Planet truck that made its first appearance in Toy Story, and can be seen in most other Pixar films.
Despite its size and relatively low brick count (the entire set is made up of only 613 pieces), the Luxo, Jr. build was actually pretty intricate. The structure is an impressive combination of traditional brick connectivity and LEGO Technic design. There are even some rubber bands to give the lamp neck tension. This isn’t the first time LEGO has used non-LEGO bricks as part of their builds, but it’s fascinating to me every time a set uses something like this.
The LEGO Ideas product line is a collection of sets from amateur designers that LEGO fans vote on to become official sets available in stores. The Pixar Luxo Jr. is one of these, and I can see why it made it through. The build itself was super fun to put together – creating a real round ball out of LEGO bricks took some clever engineering – and the finished product is a pretty faithful recreation of what we see in the movies. Inside the ball is where a good portion of the Pixar Easter Eggs are; the internal structure uses bricks that represent the colors of iconic characters like Carl from Up or Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc.
The base of the lamp has some fun Easter Eggs as well, like bricks that are the same color as Marlin and Dory from Finding Nemo and the a group of stacked studs to represent the Incredibles. The entire lamp was also my favorite part of the build, and took the majority of the time to assemble. LEGO designed this extremely well, as it’s a faithful almost one-to-one recreation of the lamp we’ve seen over the decades during the Pixar logo screen before each of the studio’s movies.
The LEGO version is very bottom heavy and the base is super sturdy, making it easy to pose it however you want. It also has a bit of modularity; you can remove the top and bottom of the ball to have the lamp stand on it.
Overall, the LEGO Luxo Jr. set is great for Disney / Pixar fans of all ages. Sure, the box says 18+, making one of the many LEGO sets for adults, but if I got this when I was a kid, I would have been over the moon. It would make a great addition to your game room’s book shelf or in your child’s bedroom. You can also buy a third-party light attachment to actually turn it on. At only 613 pieces and a 94-page instruction manual, it’s the perfect date night set with your favorite Pixar movie on in the background.
Set #21357 was released earlier this month and will run you $69.99. It’s available at Amazon and the LEGO Store.
Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.