Growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s meant that sitcoms from the 1960s were standard after school fare in Australia, and among these was the Addams Family. Occasionally it would alternate with the 1973 Cartoon, and eventually the inevitable slew of reunion specials that littered the prime time of the off seasons of the early 1980s television. There was something about the on screen chemistry between John Astin and Caroline Jones, to say nothing of her deadpan delivery of concepts that would shatter the sensibilities of a dormitory suburbia. 

Or perhaps it is just nostalgia calling.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the remakes, reboots, new Addams Family, New Addams Family Reunion Special or the New – new Addams Family (1998) or any of the movies. They just didn’t seem necessary. The stories were perfect in scary Black and White: the arrival of colour didn’t seem to add anything other than the need for a greater special effects budget. 

Suffice to say, I was intrigued when I saw Netflix launching a series following the life of Wednesday Addams as she heads off to a boarding school for ‘Outcasts’ – Nevermore Academy, where Gomez and Morticia originally met. It’s the Addams Family meets Tom Brown’s School Days in the American backwoods. Wednesday’s characterization as a cynical teenager with a morbid curiousity, forced to make friends she has no interest in, and accompanied by the disembodied hand and household helper, Thing, the first season worked for me. Meanwhile, the underlying mystery of the second series felt a little disjointed, as B and C plots Lurched backwards and forwards through the story. Still, All’s well that ends.

Among other things, Wednesday’s second season also brings us a little of Thing’s life beyond that of faithful retainer to the Addams Family. It is in this context that Wednesday’s roommate, Enid Sinclair, and her friends welcome Thing to their friendship group, and present him with an apartment in an old trunk. Certainly a glow up from the small box he lived in back in the 60s. It is this ’apartment’ that set 76785 Thing’s Apartment is seeking to replicate.  

With 828 pieces and priced at $AUD129.99/€79.99/$USD89.99/ £74.99, this set will be released in October 2025, just in time to prepare for Halloween.

This set was provided by the LEGO Group for Review purposes, but all opinions are my own.

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