LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage review

LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage makes the most of a higher piece count to offer a great LEGO set.

The LEGO Disney design team have been given a bigger piece count to explore something from the theme in more detail again and this time it’s the cottage from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

One of the very best classics of Disney’s 100-year history, this is a famous story with iconic characters and a very memorable setting. It’s perfect for a LEGO set and particularly one where the design team have been given more LEGO pieces to work with, to really explore all the LEGO opportunities that this film offers. The result is 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage, so how’s it stack up? We best get building. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go…

— LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage set details —

Theme: LEGO Disney Set name: 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage Release: March 1, 2024 (Insiders)

Price: £189.99 / $219.99 / €219.99 Pieces: 2,228 Minifigures: 10

LEGO: Order now

— Where to buy LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage —

LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage releases March 1, 2024 exclusively for LEGO Insiders at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores, before going on wider sale from March 4 for non-Insiders and at selected third-party retailers, starting with Disney Store.

— LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage build —

Quite immediately, any LEGO set that can offer over 2,000 pieces, 10 minifigures, be based on a licensed property and still come in under £200 is immediately off to a good start, and that’s exactly what LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage does. Whether or not you can remember the story or are sure or not (or care or not) about the accuracy of the build in front of you, on paper, 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage is a substantial LEGO set and experience in terms of bang for your buck.

Where 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage could have easily been a much smaller façade of a build more in line with a LEGO Friends set and some of the more junior LEGO Disney sets, instead it is a 14-stage build offering a detailed and thorough exploration of the seven dwarfs’ cottage, capturing so much of the everyday life and characterisations of the seven titular characters and the princess they take in.

It’s not to say that this is a set that may meet every expectation you have, but 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage surely delivers something far more engrossing than any of us would have otherwise thought, starting of course with its impressive size. This comes in at minifigure scale to create a beautiful and large medieval-style cottage from the front, and a two-tiered interior from the back complete with large living quarters for Snow White and the seven dwarfs, from the spacious kitchen-diner and living room downstairs to the slightly-more-cramped bedroom with seven beds in it.

While the minifigures themselves may divide opinion (more on those later), the build itself is the clear star of this set, as much as anything for just how smartly it makes use of its 2,228 pieces. For how detailed and complex the exterior to the property is, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the interior would be sparser as a result. Likewise, for how much is actually built into every room, or for how many different colours and techniques that go into the walls and surrounding grounds of the cottage, you’d otherwise assume that the designers would not have built out the thatched roof in quite so much detail, yet they have.

On top of all this, 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage is just a really pretty LEGO set – specific details worked in from the cartoon combined with the colour choices and the extra attention to which parts are used where and in what technique really shapes the cottage into its own clear, cartoonish, vibrant style that really places it within the Disney world of Snow White. Some of what works for this set is subtle and hard to pinpoint, but altogether it contributes to finding that same charm and character that the cottage has on screen, with the end result an intelligent LEGO set that feels almost as if it was hand-drawn too.

LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage ticks a lot of boxes for those looking for an involved, explorative LEGO experience, be that for the fact it is based around an iconic Disney licence or for just offering up yet another medieval-based LEGO set at a time when LEGO Castle fans are increasingly spoiled. If the former is your entry point into 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage or not, this isn’t a set that asks of you a deeper knowledge of the film, its story or which details built into the set you need to immediately recognise or not. Those details are there for those of us who can spot them, and make the set all the more enjoyable, but none feel out of place to the wider LEGO build or play experiences that the set delivers on so well. If you don’t remember how the film goes but love Snow White, this set still feels just right.

None of this is to say that 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage is a perfect LEGO set. As a small point, the vibrancy of the colours used works well from a LEGO perspective but the brightness of those greens for the exterior could have been toned down and not detracted from the set’s appearance. It’s a Disney set, though, and the colours are part of how the tone is set. It won’t sit best with your Castle collection because it’s not meant to.

Further to this, the open aspect to the back of the LEGO set hasn’t been welcomed by all, with early expectations otherwise centred on how the cottage could have been more of a complete build front and back, with removable walls and roofs offering access to the inside (similar actually in style to how the roofs are otherwise placed on the model). This sort of approach would have tied the set in a whole lot better to others like LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith and certainly have appealed more to broader LEGO and LEGO Castle fans. Yet, it would certainly have drained the inside of all its detail, and left the set devoid of a lot of the story that it is otherwise able to tell, and a lot of the play that it is otherwise able to offer its core audience who are expecting something Snow White-related.

The only other quandary around the set is in the fact that it has hinges built into it to open it up. Or rather, the puzzle is in where these are placed – have we built the set wrong? Why does it open outwards from the front like that? You can see from how the base and shape of the cottage perhaps prevents the model hinging open the other way, to better explore the interior, but that doesn’t mean opening it up from the front makes much sense at all.

These are all minor and easily-addressable observations mind, around a set that otherwise delivers in every way that those looking for a LEGO Snow White experience could hope for.

— LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage characters —

That is, perhaps, except in the minifigure department. As mentioned, LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage certainly packs in a complete line-up, offering an impressive 10 characters within the one set, which is otherwise fantastic value.

The designs for Snow White, the Prince and the Queen are all spot on, continuing in many ways their character designs from previous LEGO sets. The colour choices and the designs for their respective faces are spot on and really add value to the set’s wider storytelling. The innocence of Snow White, the naivety of the Prince and the conniving of the Queen are all excellently captured in minifigure form – place them around this LEGO set and the story begins to come to life.

However, the seven dwarfs will, at best, divide opinion. Their outfits are great and the colours perfectly match what we see on film, and even the new beard pieces add an extra level of detail we weren’t expecting. From afar and based in and generally around the set they are almost exactly all that they need to be as a collective – they fill the spaces well and again help with furthering the storytelling. Yet it seems that their noses were quite intrinsic to their expressions, because without them any closer look will reveal that their respective faces really don’t seem to work.

Instead of characterising them as we see on film or instead going the other way and leaning into a pseudo-LEGO charm with it all, the versions of Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey here are all left looking a little scary if we’re honest. Without the big red noses represented in any way at all, and because of the cartoonish style of print that the designers have otherwise gone with here, the eyes and mouths to these guys aren’t half as welcoming, charming or familiar as you’d hope – instead they are trapped in this unfortunate halfway house where they don’t look like any other LEGO minifigure you have seen before, nor do they look like the Seven Dwarfs. Case in point is that the only one that somewhat settles on your eyes is Doc, where the framing of his glasses and smile perfectly shape where his nose would be.

— LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage price —

LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage does offer really good value. Accurate dwarfs or not, this is a set that packs in over 2,000 pieces, 10 minifigures and a large and substantial LEGO build all for a price that you wouldn’t otherwise expect to have all that. Whilst £189.99 / $219.99 / €219.99 remains a sizeable amount to spend on any LEGO set, packaged within 43242 is everything fun and authentic for anyone with expectations of what a LEGO Snow White experience could and should be.

For those with eyes on this being incorporated into a LEGO Castle-themed display instead, maybe wait a little while for it to appear on sale, as you’ll need a bit of a budget to adjust some of the colours and to add walls and roofs to the back.

— LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage pictures —

— LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage pros and cons —

LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage delivers in a lot of ways, starting with the sheer value of what’s on offer. While spending almost £200 on any LEGO set is by no means a small thing, what this one gives you in value is excellent, from the quantity of bricks and minifigures through to the quality of the LEGO experience and the detail and enjoyment to be found in the finished model.

The design of some of the minifigures feels like a creative misstep, but it is perhaps the only aspect to find any room for improvement here – 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage delivers in every other way that a set based on one of Disney’s most iconic films should. It may not tick all the boxes for wider LEGO fans, but for those wanting the most authentic and fun Snow White set, you are in for a treat.

43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage pros	43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage cons
Excellently detailed and large cottage build	The seven dwarfs don’t look great
Lots of minifigures	Could have had more forest animals for Snow White
Built in such a clever way that it jumps straight out of the cartoon	Weird placement of the hinge function

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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— Alternatives to LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage —

LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage is first and foremost a LEGO Disney set and is best set within that consideration. Yes, it has a lot of pull for LEGO Castle fans and comes in at a similar price to the upcoming 10332 Medieval Town Square, but stylistically it carries a lot of those same intangible Disney feelings and emotions as the likes of 43217 ‘Up’ House and 43227 Villain Icons.

— LEGO Disney 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage FAQs —