Is LEGO Icons 10362 French Café to scale with minifigures? Not really

LEGO Icons 10362 French Café doesn’t include minifigures, but at first blush looks to be scaled appropriately. Add a few in, though, and the reality quickly becomes apparent…

An unusual set in the LEGO Icons line-up in more ways than one, the first instalment in the Restaurants of the World collection establishes a series of new design rules for its façades – chief among which is the absence of minifigures. That may seem a little surprising given that at first glance this looks to be compatible with tiny plastic LEGO people, but as it turns out first impressions can be misleading.

While putting together 10362 French Café for our review, we tried adding a few minifigures to the scene, and… it didn’t really work as well as you’d imagine. There are clear storytelling opportunities baked into this display model that could be brought to life by minifigures – a young couple eating pastries at the outdoor tables, a businessman walking past during his morning commute, a waiter zipping about with trays of drinks – but they’re ultimately for your imagination only.

A standard LEGO minifigure is going to need a little assistance clambering up to the high chairs positioned outside the venue, for example, while the building itself feels that little bit too tall and out of scale with them. The doors may use the same pieces as modular buildings, but open them up to reveal the tiny bit of interior visible in the façade – a table and counter – and you’ll see that everything’s just a couple of studs out of reach.

Those slightly warped proportions suggest 10362 French Café wasn’t designed with minifigures in mind, and that’s in line with comments from the set’s designer, Hoang Huy Dang. He says he designed it first and foremost to ‘bridge the gap between my parents’ generation in their 60s and the fan communities that are around my age’, noting that ‘my parents like the minifigures but they see that as something for the grandkids to play with’.

Even adding Avatar’s long-limbed minifigures into the mix, it’s clear that characters really have no part to play in 10362 French Café. The result is a static display piece that for many fans will feel at odds with what you’d typically expect from a set like this, building out a little slice-of-life scene that doesn’t actually include any life – but for many other fans, and potentially new fans, will prevent it from feeling too juniorised.

It’s that target market the LEGO Group is aiming for with 10362 French Café, and that means minifigures will not only be forever absent in the Restaurants of the World collection, but adding your own probably won’t work out either. Or at least not without a little modification…

10362 French Café debuts March 1, 2025 for £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99. Check out our full review here.

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