One feature from the LEGO Ideas fan design may not have made the cut in 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but some clever Easter eggs have taken its place.
Steven Spielberg’s beloved alien lifeform will land in brick-built form next month with the arrival of 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The upcoming model is based on a winning submission from fan designer Richard Lemeiter (aka Lafabrick) that almost made it through the first LEGO Ideas review of 2025, save for one specific feature.
The original version of E.T. boasted an extendable neck, mimicking the creature’s ability in the 1982 film, but there were issues replicating that functionality in 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as discussed by the LEGO Ideas team in a recent roundtable interview with fan media.
“There were absolutely thoughts to implement it!” exclaimed LEGO Icons designer David Guedes. “I spent far too much time trying to design that neck extension into this model. At one point I had the trigger for the light up in the shoulder, and there was a different mechanism here in the shoulder that would lift the neck up and down.
“The biggest challenge in designing this model, was the whole shoulder section. You'll see how complex it is, and how much moving function there is in there, and how much space there is not in there, and there was not space to include any sort of neck going up and down. I probably spent about a month trying to make that neck work.”
“I think we ultimately had to make a choice of, do we want the light brick, which I think is arguably more important for the story,” added LEGO Icons design manager Jordan David Scott. “The extendable neck is nice, but it's only really in one short scene, so we decided, let's make it more accurate and not sacrifice the overall look and feel of the sculpture to get that one function in.”
With the potential neck feature now left in the cutting room floor, the LEGO Ideas design team soon realised that the unique layered internal structure of 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial's potato-shaped torso now had some space for a couple of Easter eggs for dedicated fans to find, specifically a red telephone and a microscale spaceship.
“The body was not designed specifically to hide Easter eggs in the design process,” said David. “We knew it would have a cavity, so we knew there would be space for it, but the way it ended up being designed was not to include Easter eggs, was just because that made the most sense in how to construct the body again.
"I knew there'd be a cavity, and there would be space for Easter eggs. It just really worked out that it was nice having studs facing up to make it really easy to place the Easter eggs.”
Fans of the classic 1980s sci-fi movie will be able to get their hands on 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial from August 1, with the 1,226-piece LEGO Ideas set priced at £119.99 in the UK, $139.99 in the US and €129.99 in Europe.
You can find out what we thought of the brick-built version of Steven Spielberg’s iconic creation in our full in-depth review right here.
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