LEGO Ideas Hocus Pocus fan designer reacts to changes in final set

The fan designer behind next month’s 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage has reacted to the changes made to the finished set – both good and bad.

No LEGO Ideas set makes it from fan submission to shelves without at least a few changes along the way. The LEGO Group has strict standards for stability, the build experience and more, to which every single product must adhere, and the same is true of 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage. The bones of the idea – pitched by Belgian builder Amber Veyt – remain, but the skin around it has been stretched and reconfigured by the LEGO design team.

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The changes here aren’t quite as drastic as those made to, say, 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay or 21325 Medieval Blacksmith. But there are enough to tell the finished product apart from the concept model with not so much as a second glance; in broad strokes like the size, colours and approach, and in more specific details like the exterior décor and minifigures.

The burning question for any and all LEGO Ideas fan designers, then, is always: how happy are they with the finished product?

“I really love the compactness now, because mine was too big and it had too many empty spaces,” Veyt tells Brick Fanatics and other LEGO Fan Media. “And the roof wasn’t very steady, I know that. But now you can hold it and you know, it won’t fall apart when you hold it. I love the playability, the roof can open; the back can open; the side can open; the front can open. And I really love how [the designers] changed that. That’s really much better than what I could have done.”

As for what Veyt wishes had made it through production, but is absent from the final product: well, it seems like she’s on the same wavelength as the rest of us. “The first thing I’m thinking of is Billy,” she added, referring to the undead Billy Butcherson. He was among five additional characters Veyt proposed in her original Ideas submission, but like the rest, was ultimately left on the cutting room floor – thanks to Disney, who had final say on the included minifigures.

“I understand why Disney made the cuts, but [Billy is] the only thing I miss in the final product,” Veyt says, otherwise satisfied with how the LEGO Group took her initial concept and transformed it into something ready to be sold to the masses. We don’t have long to go now, either: 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage launches July 1 for VIP members.

Check out our review of 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage by clicking here.

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