Review: 76780 Wednesday Addams Figure
Posted by Huw,Season one of Wednesday, chronicling Wednesday Addams' first year at Nevermore Academy debuted on Netflix in November 2022 to great acclaim, and a second series will be screened next year.
Before that, three sets will be released on October 1st, including 76780 Wednesday Addams Figure, one of two that introduce a new style of brick-built figurine.
Summary
76780 Wednesday Addams Figure, 702 pieces.
£44.99 / $49.99 / €49.99 | 6.4p/7.1c/7.1c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A suitably gloomy-looking display model full of fun details that will delight fans of the show
- Build one of two versions of the figure
- Storage space for spare parts
- Strangely designed arm/hand piece
- Parts for long dress version don't all fit into the drawers
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Parts and stickers
There are a number of new elements in the set, including Thing, the disembodied hand that has been put in charge of watching over Wednesday while she's at the academy.
The printed piece is larger than a minifig hand. It has an anti-stud underneath and a 3.18 bar protruding from it. The horizontal hole through the piece is too small to fit a 3.18 bar through, though.
The element used for Wednesday's lower arm and hand is quite bizarre because it's a single piece, dual moulded in the case of the top one.
I cannot think why an oversized hand like that made for Thing was not produced instead, which would fit into an existing piece and also provide rotation of the wrist, but LEGO must have had its reasons...
The black flower piece is new, and I have no doubt it'll show up in a botanical set before long. The 1x1 3-leaf piece has been cast in trans-black and pearl titanium (not shown) for the first time.
The heads are also new, and you can find out more about their geometry at New Elementary.
The modest sticker sheet includes decals for the figure's outfits.
The completed model
The model comprises a display stand and a Wednesday figurine which can be built in two different ways, as shown below with a blazer and short narrow skirt, or with a long black dress.
The entrance gate to Nevermore Academy stands at the back, with elaborate ironwork between two brick pillars that are angled outwards to exaggerate perspective.
Artefacts from the show surround the figure, including the grave of Nero, Wednesday's pet scorpion, a typewriter upon which Thing is placed, and the crystal ball given to her by Mortica.
The thick ornately decorated base houses two drawers that slide out from the sides. They are designed to store the spare parts needed to build the other version of the figurine.
Pulling the 'N' Nevermore shield out of the front enables them to be removed.
The figurine, which stands about 13cm tall, has an oversized head, ball joint neck, and articulated shoulders and elbows. Her wrists, as I stated above, are fixed. The holes of two 1x1 Technic bricks at the bottom of her shoes enable her to be fixed firmly onto studs on the stand. The decoration on her blazer and pleated skirt are stickers. That for the latter is particularly hard to align accurately on the curved piece.
The figure has to be taken apart to build the other version, of course, although the legs and feet assembly is the same between the two, as is the core of the head.
The long-dress version of her has a different facial expression and hairstyle, and also bare arms. I particularly like the trans-black leaf elements used for frills at the top of her dress.
It's actually a bit of a squeeze to get this one to stand on the base as her dress interferes with the brick pillars, requiring rearrangement of both it and the leaves behind to get her to fit.
The parts that are not used for this version of her all fit into the drawers in the stand, but unfortunately that's not the case the other way round, there are too many.
Did you notice a sticker with a QR code on it on the back of the stand in one of the pictures above? The instruction manual suggests that scanning it leads to the set's instructions in the LEGO Builder app, but it didn't work when I tried, presumably because the set has not been released yet. I think that's a great idea, enabling the figure to be rebuilt to its other configuration when you don't have the paper instructions to hand.
Verdict
Some might think that the figurine looks slightly creepy, but then so does the titular character of the series, so the format suits her well.
The stand looks suitably dark and gloomy and is filled with references to the show that fans will enjoy. The storage space underneath for spare parts is a great idea, even if it is not quite big enough to store those needed for the long dress version when the blazer and skirt one is built.
Overall, I think it's a delightful set that will particularly appeal to older teenage fans of the show who have perhaps grown out of minidolls but still appreciate LEGO.
I am not the target audience for Wednesday or this set but, nevertheless, I really enjoyed both.
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30 comments on this article
The dual molded arms and stickers are dealbreakers for me
Eyyy, stone skull.
I don't hate this set, but I don't need it either. There's some great parts, though - but for the life of me, I don't get why the hands aren't separate, movable 3.18-barred pieces. That would have been a useful part in many colours; this just seems unnecessarily clunky.
I think the figure looks pretty good and could have been a nice small set at a relatively low price point without all the display around it. It makes even less sense if you cannot even get the parts into the storage section for one of the alternatives.
No doubt that Thing hand part will soon be listed under minifigures. Another one piece minifigure!
I wonder if the fixed wrist thing is to follow some internal LEGO code about "the design language of the system". Minidolls don't have moveable hands/wrists, and it seems that LEGO doesn't officially endorse removing minifigure hands from torsos (IIRC the Queer Eye set instructions didn't show the hands being removed from the torsos on the clothes rack; whilst only some of the promotional images did - and I think that's the only instance a set has even suggested it?). Most of the sets featuring swappable skin tones use gloves instead of swappable skin tone hands. Maybe they thought adding the feature here would lead to complaints of broken minidolls/minifigures from kids trying to do the same thing to them?
Or they tried it and decided the connection to the existing bar holder part was too loose. But since the part is dual-molded, molding in a swivel would have been cool!
Looks like somebody needs a few nights in the Harmony Hut.
Oh no, not the ball joint in grey again! When will Lego start producing ball joints in different colors?
If LEGO made something like this for Jack Skellington I'd be interested.
It is... Sunday... my dudes?
A fine enough set, but definitely not for me.
So you can't rotate her hands? Feels like a must for any product claiming to be a 'figure'.
The hands are most likely missing functional wrists to allow her to carry the heavier loads of appropriately large accessories for a figure of this scale.
Then again, the elbows and shoulders appear relatively weak, so I don't know what Lego was thinking. Maybe the set designers didn't get the memo?
Wow, the new flower piece and the trans-black plant plate are lit.
I didn't realize until this review that the hands weren't the mold for Thing, which is especially weird since that forearm piece is obviously based on existing parts that could articulate. I suppose having them be a locked molded piece allows for simplified construction, but I think that in the long term (if they support this system for any length of time) it'll cause problems because you'd need new dual molds for every hand and arm color combination across any skin tone they need, instead of just having faces and hands be in skin tones for long-sleeved characters. Heck, if they're already recoloring the piece for the upper arm to a skin tone, having the unified piece doesn't help in any regard. Heck, exactly here in this set, we have these two separate part/color combinations for the same character's skin tone eating budget that could be completely avoided if the hands were a standalone piece.
I want this new format to succeed, but molding the arms like this is a baffling choice on both the consumer and business end.
I have a hypothesis on why the hand/wrist are dual molded on this, and the Wicked figures.
The arms are constructed in a manner which prioritizes thinness, and thus, uses rod connections. The robot claw stuck through hollow stud is a potentially fragile connection, which could be broken by the friction in rotating the hands. Thus, the hands/wrist are kept together, to limit range of motion in favor of sturdiness.
@dcs34 said:
"I wonder if the fixed wrist thing is to follow some internal LEGO code about "the design language of the system". Minidolls don't have moveable hands/wrists, and it seems that LEGO doesn't officially endorse removing minifigure hands from torsos (IIRC the Queer Eye set instructions didn't show the hands being removed from the torsos on the clothes rack; whilst only some of the promotional images did - and I think that's the only instance a set has even suggested it?). Most of the sets featuring swappable skin tones use gloves instead of swappable skin tone hands. Maybe they thought adding the feature here would lead to complaints of broken minidolls/minifigures from kids trying to do the same thing to them?
Or they tried it and decided the connection to the existing bar holder part was too loose. But since the part is dual-molded, molding in a swivel would have been cool!"
Regarding the minifig hands it's surely true that Lego dislikes the idea. Minifig torso assemblies were never designed to be taken apart (although some earlier idea books show 'mixed up' torsos). The problem here is that taking them apart will sooner or later lead to the typical cracks in either the torso or the arms, which of cause is not very desirable by Lego. I have never seen those cracks on minifigs that were always left intact (I wonder though if Lego ever experimented with new plastics to overcome this issue?).
Funnily enough, characters in Lego Island constantly took themselves apart (either by accident or as some form of humor). Lego wasn't too happy about this either, as it was not allowed in any further games.
Looks okay, but the price ruins it for me. This really looks like a 30 Euro package and in a way I'm getting that odd LEGO Disney vibe where they're selling similarly overpriced chests and vanity boxes with some themed decoration on top. Perhaps I'll pick it up for a gut discount price, but it's definitely not top priority.
@Ridgeheart said:
"Eyyy, stone skull.
I don't hate this set, but I don't need it either. There's some great parts, though - but for the life of me, I don't get why the hands aren't separate, movable 3.18-barred pieces. That would have been a useful part in many colours; this just seems unnecessarily clunky."
If they were separate and you tried to unclip something from the hand, you'd yank it out of the wrist socket. The friction on a clip connection is exponentially bigger than the friction on a bar-hole connection.
Would still be super cool to have the hand separate, but it makes 101% sense why they went with dual-molded.
Is the fancy dress Wednesday assembled correctly? Her neck seems longer than on the official images, leaving the grey ball joint piece exposed.
@Corydoras said:
"Is the fancy dress Wednesday assembled correctly? Her neck seems longer than on the official images, leaving the grey ball joint piece exposed."
Yes, it is now.
For the life of me I can't understand why they wouldn't make Thing's hand slightly less bulky and use that piece for her hands, or at least make her arm and hand separate pieces. Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but I feel like they've created a situation where both pieces have no other uses.
That said, I do think the custom Thing piece is much better than anything brick-built would be at that scale.
Actually, the series debuted in November 2022. Regardless of that, it’s a great review. Was looking forward to see the figure, she looks quite nice. Sad though that the clothing is made of stickers, I guess print would look quite more appealing. Imagine using sticker on every BrickHeadz. Ugh. Still want this as soon as I can, and, of course, one would need two sets to have both of her displaying.
WHat the.... New Lego piece designers once again proved they are idiots.
Sorry but we are getting so many ridiculous and "hindered" pieces nowadays its unreal.
The hands should have been new pieces - they would be so usefull. And then Thing should also be one of them.
Interesting style that I think worked reasonably well, but poor part design based on what I can tell.
The reason the didn't use the Thing piece should be fairly obvious. "horizontal hole through the piece is too small to fit a 3.18 bar through, though."
It’s got a very…Bratz doll aesthetic, doesn’t it?
@lordofdragonss said:
"WHat the.... New Lego piece designers once again proved they are idiots.
Sorry but we are getting so many ridiculous and "hindered" pieces nowadays its unreal.
The hands should have been new pieces - they would be so usefull. And then Thing should also be one of them."
If they were separate and you tried to unclip something from the hand, you'd yank it out of the wrist socket. The friction on a clip connection is exponentially bigger than the friction on a bar-hole connection.
Would still be super cool to have the hand separate, but it makes 101% sense why they went with dual-molded. They definitely aren't idiots.
@Atuin said:
"Funnily enough, characters in Lego Island constantly took themselves apart (either by accident or as some form of humor). Lego wasn't too happy about this either, as it was not allowed in any further games."
I haven't noticed it in The Skywalker Saga, but in Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (and probably also The Complete Saga), Chewbacca has a special melee attack where he will pull the enemy's arms out of their sockets with a cartoonish "pop-pop!" sound, before the rest of the figure falls apart. Presumably the powers that be took C-3PO's advice and 'let the Wookiee win' on that one. :)
Definitely looks creepier now it's out of the box!
But Wednesday is meant to be creepy, as Huw stated.
I forgot to mention earlier that I love the use of the hockey stick in the gate.
@Maxbricks14 said:"Definitely looks creepier now it's out of the box!
But Wednesday is meant to be creepy, as Huw stated."
She's creepy and she's kooky, mysterious and spooky...
Absolutely bizarre decision with the hands/arms. Even Thing not being able to grip bars, which seems like an easy thing to manage.
That aside, looks quite nice. Not something I need, but I dig the look of the figure.
@Brickalili said:
"It’s got a very…Bratz doll aesthetic, doesn’t it?"
I've never recieved a bigger compliment.