LEGO Ideas 21372 La Catrina lacks printing on the skull compared to the figure's BrickHeadz, but there's a reason for eschewing such decorations.
Despite the differences in size and design, it's easy to draw comparisons between 21372 La Catrina and the retired 40492 La Catrina BrickHeadz. While they share an overall colour palette, outfit and floral accessories, the new LEGO Ideas model has fewer printed areas than the BrickHeadz set.
The skull in 21372 La Catrina appears in just white, rather than with the paint as seen in 21372 La Catrina. Brick Fanatics had the opportunity to ask the LEGO design team about this decision in a recent roundtable interview, and they had a case for eschewing some decorated pieces in this model.
"We never considered it," explained designer Jim Clayton. "We talked about the decorations overall for the set, both in the skull and on the dress, because sometimes you'll see La Catrina depictions where the skull is detailed and painted, and sometimes you don't. The original versions of La Catrina didn't have paint."
"We went up and down with Melody, saying that we were going to do some decorations for a Mexican skull, and then that we weren't going to do decorations for a Mexican skull. In the end it was great, because it was really cool to see many variants," LEGO Ideas Creative Lead Jordan Scott adds.
Graphic Designer Melody Flores then chimed in with a perspective from someone who grew up with the Day of the Dead. She went on to reveal why eschewing any decorations on the skull is more appropriate culturally.
"I know the perception is that La Catrina has all these painted details, but La Catrina herself is just her; she's the Lady of Death, right?" Melody said. "So she is a skull; I don't think she needs makeup. I think we made the right call here, and saving the decorations for other things makes the most of it."
Those other decorations come in the form of skull patterns on 21372 La Catrina's dress, adding some specific details to the outfit without overly relying on them.
"Originally we thought maybe we'd decorate the dress, so there would be some patterns on it, and then we said we're not going to do that," Jim continued. "We're going to brick build details on the dress, and then we went to having sort of this mix, and that's when we got the skulls."
LEGO Ideas 21372 La Catrina, and its singular printed design across multiple elements, will launch on August 1 for £109.99 / $139.99 / €119.99. You can read our in-depth review by clicking here.
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