LEGO’s new VHS tape is a wildly obscure reference to Disney history

The LEGO Group is about to release its first brick-built VHS tape – and it could well be a wildly obscure reference to a long-forgotten piece of Disney history.

43227 Villain Icons launches on June 1 (and is available to pre-order at LEGO.com now), and packs in plenty of references to Disney on its 100th anniversary. From Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan to Aladdin and Snow White, the depth and breadth of Disney’s silver-screen history is rebuilt in 1,540 pieces – but there’s also a specific reference to its home media releases in the brick-built The Little Mermaid VHS tape.

That’s notable not just because it’s a LEGO VHS cassette, which will be a big deal to anyone born in the ‘90s or earlier (stay out of this, Gen Z), but because it represents a very particular video: the title that caused Disney to reassess its entire home release strategy.

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The Little Mermaid originally arrived on VHS, LaserDisc and Betamax (if you know, you know) on May 18, 1990 – only six months after the movie debuted in cinemas. This wasn’t standard practice for Disney at the time, as the studio preferred to limit home releases in order to reissue films in cinemas every few years, pulling audiences back to theatres. But by the end of June, The Little Mermaid had sold 7 million copies on home video formats.

The animated film went on to become the best-selling home video release of 1990, ultimately contributing to its overall gross of $1 billion (between box office, home video and merchandise sales). For Disney, the message was clear: once you’ve conquered the VHS mountain, it’s hard to climb back down. The studio swiftly shifted gears in the years that followed, and soon the majority of its animated films arrived on home video shortly after their theatrical runs ended.

The Little Mermaid is maybe the most important Disney VHS of them all, then – which may have inspired the LEGO Group to pick it for 43227 Villain Icons. We don’t know for sure that that was the designers’ reasoning, but if it was, it’s definitely the kind of Disney deep cut we can get behind. And if not? Well, it’s at least a cool coincidence…

43227 Villain Icons launches June 1, and is available to pre-order at LEGO.com in the UK and Europe for £124.99 / €129.99. It’s only listed as ‘coming soon’ in the US at $129.99, so you’ll have to wait until release day to secure your copy stateside.

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