LEGO confirms the rumours: 21341 Hocus Pocus borrows from a cancelled theme

The designers behind 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage have confirmed that the latest LEGO Ideas set borrows an unreleased element from a cancelled theme.

When the LEGO Group first unveiled the finished product of a LEGO Ideas project submitted by Amber Veyt, all eyes were on its cast of minifigures (including those mysteriously absent). Among the six characters included in the box are the three sisters Sanderson, along with our three heroes Max, Dani and Allison. Two of the witches sport brand new hairpieces, while Max borrows his from 21339 BTS Dynamite.

Perhaps the most interesting piece among all its minifigures, though, is one that’s never been seen in a set before – but technically isn’t brand new. Dani’s hat-and-hair combo brings us a witch’s hat with dual-moulded hair for the first time, and feels like a near-perfect fit for the young Thora Birch’s character. Word has been floating around for a while, however, that this piece wasn’t developed specifically for 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage.

Instead, the rumour mill has claimed that the element in question was actually designed for LEGO VIDIYO, an app-based theme that came to a premature end in 2022. Any further products developed for the theme were canned – but their new moulds seemingly live on, because LEGO Ideas Design Manager Jordan Scott has confirmed that Dani’s headgear is based on an unreleased VIDIYO piece.

“[Later waves of] LEGO VIDIYO never came out, but I know there’s a lot of leaked images of that particular element,” Scott tells Brick Fanatics. “It made the most sense, but it’s not a shot-for-shot, exact element, so we did make some changes to it. Otherwise it would have gone to waste, and why make something that’s pretty much exactly the same? We might as well reuse what we have.

“So we did some changes; Lauren did some great graphics on it to make it feel more like the IP, and that’s how it came up. And it fits really well for that particular character.”

That also explains why Dani’s flowing ginger locks lift up and away from her shoulders on one side, erring away from her on-screen hair: if this piece was designed specifically for her, it would likely have done away with that bit of superfluous plastic, allowing her hair to fall down in front of and behind her shoulders.

It’s not what you’d call a dealbreaker, though, so you can understand why the LEGO Group was so keen to make use of what would otherwise have been wasted development time for LEGO VIDIYO. The orange dots also help to make the piece specific to Dani, even if it’s missing the red rim. You can take a closer look at all six minifigures in 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage in our in-depth review.

21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage launches July 1 for VIP members. You can support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your copy (when the time comes!) using our affiliate links. Thank you!