The new LEGO® Wicked 75682 Ephaba and Glinda Figures set introduces a new type of buildable character—quite a change from the articulated figures that have been seen in the superhero era in recent times. I was quite intrigued by how they might be constructed, and so, when the LEGO Group kindly sent over the sets based on the forthcoming movie Wicked, I decided to start with these. All opinions are my own.

Set 75682 Elphaba and Glinda Figures goes on sale on October 1 2024, priced at $AUD99.99/UDS54.99/£43.99/€54.99. It has 558 pieces.

Aimed at kids aged ten years and up, will these figures revolutionise how character builds are executed, or will it fall flat? Let’s take a closer look. And just how do they fit in with the multitude of different forms of licenced character builds that exist in LEGO form?

The Elements

I am grateful to the Knoller-in-Chief for her assistance with laying out the elements for you to look at. Feel free to send her kudos in the comments below!

The set comes in 5 numbered bags – in our review copy, they were all made of paper. The build has 3 distinct components – Glinda, the display base, and Elphaba. This is apparent as soon as you look at the colour palette for the elements:

Bags 1&2 are used for Glinda. Her face is light nougat, while her hair is blonde – tan for the sake of the build. She is clad in White, bright purple and light purple. The nougat elements are the most obviously new, including a new mould for her face (3×4), s well as the forearms, incorporating the hands. This is a dual molded element – Black and Green for Elphaba, and 2 separate parts in light nougat for Glinda.

Of some controversy, the 2×2 wedge plates in light purple are left wing only, while the bright purple ones are all right wings. I suppose this brings a degree of balance. Finally, the 2×3 wedge/curved slope are unmatched in Bright Purple but matched in dark Blue (one of each). There are a number of nougat recolours, including the clips, bar holders, polo studs and brackets. An inverted tile, with a bar attached to the base also makes an appearance – I’ve not seen this element before. Is it one of the new molds for this type of model?

Bags 3& 4 are dedicated to the stand/window over Oz. The stand is predominantly bright green, bright bluish green, earth blue and bright purple, with lime/bright yellowish green and warm gold highlights. There is a gold ring, with some technic connection points, as well as a foil, which provides a window (or is it a mirror?) onto OZ.

Bag 5 brings us all the necessary elements for Elphaba and her broom.

There are a few transparent green elements, including the 1x2x2/3 curved slope – perfect for space police 2 MOCs. The new palm leaf form appears in transparent green and we also see a new rose.

Elphaba includes the new arm elements in black and bright green. The more prominent cone element, hollow on the inside, is also new. The 3×3 plate with 2×2 cutout is also new for this year. Reddish-brown bush elements are relatively rare, too.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the obviously new elements:

The 3.2 SHAFT W/3.2 HOLE is essentially unchanged – although there have been 2 design IDs employed over the years: 23443 and 49755. I can’t really discern the difference between these elements. 23443 arrived in 2016 and was retired in 2021, 49755 arrived 2017 and continues to this day.

The new shaft with hole/clip with bar element has a unique Design ID:109866. Nougat:6518232 The Black/Green 6158235. The ‘hand’ element is fixed. I cannot readily tell if the element is dual molded or 2 elements separately moulded and welded together somehow. The former seems more likely, given the unique ID number. The Green hand is marked with 11B 01 and the Nougat hand 21B01. I presume this points to them being moulded on different days.

The Face bricks are geometrically complex due to their additional curves. They are essentially a 3×4 brick, 2.5 plates thick around the left, right, and lower edges, while the upper edge swells from 2.5 to 4 plates thick. The lower edge bows outwardly, from 2.5 to 3 modules in the centre, creating a chin. There is a small cutaway, 1x2x1/3 thick at the upper edge. The facial details are all printed.

The curve across the brow of the head lines up with the current 1×6 arch element, as does the curve on the chin. I could not make the profile of the chin line up with any particular curve, unfortunately. Perhaps I just lacked the patience!

OK, having examined the interestingly weird new elements, lets take a closer look at the building process for these new figures.

The Build.

Glinda

We start building Glinda’s upper torso, based around a double wedge plate, with two rounded plates 1x1x2/3 with 1 knob on the side forming the shoulders. A bar and clip goes in here, followed by a shaft with hole. Another clip, with the gap covered over by a stud with a hole in the middle, then connects to the forearm/hand element.

A brick underneath her arms holds the axle that goes down through her abdomen. This connects to a ‘weapon barrel’ element. – aerials are attached to this, as a strengthener for the legs, with round bricks and studs running over the top.

The shoes are a really clever example of SNOT Construction: a headlamp brick is placed onto a 1×2 plate, and a technic brick (1×1 with hole) provides a channel for the aerial to pass. The open antistud on the sole of the foot allows it to bind onto an offset plate, with little worry. A slope and curved 1×1 brick complete the effect. It does mean that the feet need to stand on a flat surface, with intermittant studs -side by side offset plates are used in the set. The will not just click onto a wider plate.

I’ll look at the core of the head a little later with Elphaba.

The details of Glinda’s dress take up a bag on their own. Lots of triangles, without a matching pair means we have left wings in one colour, and right wings in another. Stickers add to the decoration: be careful to make sure you get them aligned appropriately. this is the first time these 1×2 wedge plates have appeared in bright purple and light purple. It is a shame there is not a matching pair for them at this point.

That said, the look is very effective. We have alternating panels to attach to the octagonal ring at the waist

We also throw together a quick handbag, headpiece with a printed coronet as well as a wand:

Overall, she comes across as a very perky and upbeat character, just possibly letting her privilege show.

I’ll reserve my full thoughts on this new figure format until I have completed building Elphaba. But first, we build the baseplate.

The Display Base.

This is essentially a double plate thich construction, with light purple and green plates joined together by dark blue plates underneath.

We build up around the back and add a railing.

Once done, we install the mirror: adding a purple piece of foliage, with a rose element attached, as well as some transparent green

In front of the mirror, we add what looks like a small book, which has a special QR Code on the inside. Today, it links to the LEGO website. I dare say tomorrow (or at least in early October), it will redirect to a song from the film. Will it be just audio, or both audio and video? Time shall tell.

Glinda has a crystal ball, while Elphaba has a transparent bright green potion bottle.

Elphaba

There are a few interesting aspects of our primary hero in this build (villain, if you are stuck on the Wizard of Oz). She is a different build to Glinda, in keeping with her differing body shape.

The shoulders and arms are similar, albeit in black rather than purple or white. Her overall dress is much less voluminous. So we start her build just above the ankles, with the weapons barrel serving to stabilise the ankles. we build up, and add a new hollow cone element, and stack another cone on top. They are decorated with stickers to give the impression of wrinkles in the dress. She uses a similar shoe form to Glinda, but in black.

We build up the torso, with a similar structure to that used for Glinda. This time, the arms are black, with green hands.

Up to this point, we have used 45 elements, plus the stickers.

Now we start on the head. The core of the head needs to hold the 4x3x4/3 face element, as well as having studs facing front, back, up and to both sides. It’s good to see the new 3×3 with 2×2 cutout element in use after its recent introduction. so far, including the ball on shaft that forms the neck, 23 parts form the foundation of the head.

We move onto the hair and somehow, another 47 elements shape the top of her head, including of the hair and face. We throw a broom together with a narrow rad forming the handle, and pushing through the elements leading to the brush of the broom. a dark orange plate gave the feeling of the broom being tied together.

And here we are. The hat was completed a little earlier and can be placed on top of Elphaba’s head.

Here’s the completed figure:

Let’s add in the rest of the set. One of the key features of the stand is the placement of 2×2 offset plates for the characters to stand on. This is necessary because the single hole for a stud in the base of each shoe means that they cannot attach firmly onto a regular plate.

Now, long time readers might recall that as is common for vibrant coral, transparent light green and some bright green elements to fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Lets test it out.

Elphaba’s potion bottle glows, as do the coral leaves, and plates in Glinda’s bag. The Bright Green face brick DOES NOT glow, but her hands do. Disappointingly, but not surprising, the transparent green leaves around the mirror do not fluoresce. There is faint fluorescence in the transparent crystal ball, as well as the transparent elements in Glinda’s wand and crown.

Brick Built Licensed Characters(System/Technic): a quick history

Figures that involve for that a little more than throwing together a minifigure have now existed in LEGO Form for over 50 years, with the introduction of the Maxifigs in 1974. While there are a few aspects in common with these figures: a preformed face, and a degree of articulation at the shoulders/elbow, the lack of licensed arrangements at this time meant that we did not start to see licensed characters in buildable form until relatively recently. For the sake of this discussion, we will consider 3rd party IPs that have prompted a range of brick-built characters:

I’d rather not include large-scale sculptures in this list, as they are not really kids’ play sets, but they include the original Darth Maul and Yoda builds from 2002, the Spongebob Sculpture, and the buildable minifigure, which has become a template for many builds at public events.

Essentially, we are looking at licenced characters that might replace action figures rather than display pieces.

We probably start with the articulated Star Wars Technic sets of the early days of the century, before moving on to the Constructable figures in the Toy Story theme (2010).

Around 2010, we also saw Pixar’s Angus MacLane introduce a standard figure design, ‘Cube Dudes’ While not released commercially, they were released in a couple of sets at Star Wars Celebration as well as ComicCon and have been a fan favorite template for translating favorite character builds.

In the years that followed this time, we saw non-licenced display figures evolve from simplistic Miniland style (with 2×2 bricks serving as the basic head unit) builds to more detailed character builds, especially associated with holiday seasons.

In 2014, LEGO Mixels arrived, bringing with them a small ball joint, allowing more posable characters at the system scale.

Around 2015, coinciding with the release of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, they took a leaf from the Bionicle handbook releasing a series of buildable, posable figures – using custom head moulds, and covering many popular, and not so popular characters from the trilogy, they quietly vanished in 2018

In 2016, Brickheadz arrived, This format was a little larger than the Cube Dudez, and has expanded to include most of the 3rd party IPs that the LEGO Group are currently engaged with, as well as original character designs.

Covering all forms of superheroes, Harry Potter, Disney characters and holiday mascots galore, It felt like Brickheadz flooded the market for a couple of years. However, perhaps that was just for a year or two with these days, we might see around 14-20 sets appear per year, which is a relative paucity compared-2018’s 44 releases. The clearly defined rules behind the Brickheadz structure have prompted many custom builds over the years.

But is hasn’t just been Brickheadz…

We have seen a variety of Star Wars characters appear as brickbuilds, some as promotional material and others as regular sets. That said, most of them are not primarily meant for play.

In 2020, the LEGO Super Mario range was released. Now, while Mario, Luigi and Peach are built around the smart brick hub, all of the other characters – Bowser and the Koopalings, and every other enemy and friend to appear has been brick-built including, more recently, Donkey Kong and his family.

Mechs have started to be produced with ever-increasing frequency, while we have also seen large scale Minifigures used for Harry Potter characters, as wellas generic minifigures in their own right. This is at a much smaller scale than that used for 3723 – thanks to the advent of 3×2 and 3×4 curved slopes. This was reprised for the 45th Anniversary minifigure design released as a LEGO House exclusive.

Since 2022, we have seen an ongoing collection of buildable superheroes, both Marvel and DC. Well, it’s mostly Marvel. Indeed, mostly Spider-Man. There are some figures (e.g., Rocket Raccoon, Groot) that are built to their own scale. However, the ‘standard human’ figures are all essentially the same scale.

The superhero figures are the ones of most interest to me for the purposes of this discussion. As at 2024, all of these superheroes also exist in Minifigure form. And occasionally in Duplo, but mostly minifigures.

This new style of build seems to be associated with themes that also feature minidoll playsets (Wicked, and Wednesday). I wonder if we can see more of these ‘display doll’ sets coming up in the future? We are looking at you, Disney Princesses! Or even Friends? I am curious.

My thoughts

Of course, during this discussion, I have all but completely ignored the format of Miniland Builds – that typically seen in the LEGOLAND Parks, but occasionally they crop up in other places.

About 10 years ago, I built a model based on the Wizard of Oz – it featured a bit of forced perspective, with the foreground action at Miniland Scale, while the background was closer to Microscale (all the better to build the city of Oz with!) Through some miracle, my Wicked Witch of the West figure is still intact!

Let’s compare this figure with this new style and then consider some of the format’s pros and cons.

Miniland figures are relatively plain in their detail: blank faces except, possibly, for glasses or hats; and limited detail on the torsos which are typically limited to 3 modules wide. They are also much shorter: typically around 10 bricks tall, in the absence of novelty headwear. These new figures are much taller: closer to 14 bricks + hats, and demonstrating much more detail around the face and hair.

These new figures are quite dependent on decorations – print and stickers – for the face and torso, while larger skirts can be easily brick built, while a more slender silouhette is achieved using a truncated cone, decorated with a sticker. The overall look is almost cartoon like, where everyone has the same shaped face. I am wondering if the build in the head is a little overengineered – while it is certainly secure, it felt a bit odd knowing that about 50% of the part count was included there. It probably goes some way towards. That said, miniland figures are, on the whole, static creations, requiring a rebuild prior to changing position. These character builds can move their heads and have a lot more mobility in their limbs, including some positions that might not be entirely natural.

The aesthetic of these new buildable figures feels to me to be a little closer to that of existing fashion doll ranges than traditional LEGO Builds. Perhaps more like the exaggerated caricatures of Bratz or Monster High than Barbie. I am intrigued about the potential for the format – but find myself wondering how male characters might be tackled, or if it is only likely to be applied towards female characters. [Images: Barbie Wicked Witch 50th anniversary; Monster High Casta Witch]

Could we see this format applied to some of the friends characters, or retroactively applied to Elves? Would you want to?

BUT These figures are a sign of what can be achieved with the contemporary parts palette. A good number of the elements in this set are based on moulds that did not exist 10 years ago. As such, I don’t object to their relative complexity compared to a miniland equivalent, and it is refreshing to see new figures, using brand new designs. I would love to see a set with a blank face and a set of erasable markers, to allow you to determine their expression.

Will kids use the QR code embedded in the book to play the song while playing with the set, or just admiring it on the shelves? If they do, it will certainly help engage with the source material at a time when the majority of blockbuster musicals in places that aren’t the West End or Broadway are more likely to be based on existing movies rather than vice versa (please note: this is a gross generalisation, based on the blockbuster musical theatre scene here in Melbourne at present. It just feels like its been Disney adaptation after adaptation for a few years.)

In conclusion,

It’s taken me a little while to warm up to these figures. Still, the more I look at them, the more intrigued I become by the potential for designing builds aiming at showing off a fashionable look, rather than just being a minifigure for play. I don’t feel that I am the target demographic. That’s fine. The LEGO Group produce plenty of sets and pieces that I am interested in. That does not mean this set is without value.

The builds were technically interesting, but the head construction felt a little overengineered when the face was essentially a single element placed on the central core. Still, I am not sure it can be constructed in a simpler way, to achieve the proportions, at present.

I really like the stand, which adds so much to the display for the figures.

Despite their obvious differences in brick form, I found some shapes of lavender and vibrant coral a little difficult to distinguish in the printed instructions. I also wonder about just how popular the ‘play this tune’ code will be – although this is also a feature of licensed Wicked tyos – either within the doll or scannable link. I am a little disappointed at how dependent they are on printed elements and stickers, with little potential for details to be brick built at the scale…for now. Will the next LEGO Designer software feature tools for kids to easily design stickers to apply to their favourite buildable characters?

This set is designed for people who might like to display figures related to the film in their room. Unlike the buildable superhero figures currently available, which feel more like action figures, these are more like fashion dolls to display on the shelves, shifting their pose from time to time.

But what do you think of them? Are they appealing to you? Leave your comments below.

75682 Elphaba and Glinda Figures go on sale on October 1 2024, priced at $AUD99.99/UDS54.99/£43.99/€54.99. It has 558 pieces.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!