The LEGO Group feels laser-focused on buildable characters right now, and they’re threatening to subsume the Disney line entirely – but some work better than others.
The number of buildable LEGO characters has skyrocketed this year and is threatening to climb even higher in 2027, with at least 11 sets currently on the cards that sound – at least on paper – like brick-built characters. Six of those are under the LEGO Disney banner alone, and within their product names encompass 10 different characters.
Going by those stats alone, that’s at least 15 unique buildable characters from the handful of 2027 LEGO sets rumoured so far. And as things stand, it’s difficult not to imagine a world in which the overall number of buildable LEGO characters continues to increase year on year – just as it has every year since 2022. Check out the graph below for a snapshot of how these numbers have changed since 2020.
The 2026 assortment includes everything from 76469 Dobby the Free Elf to August’s 75455 Boba Fett, across themes such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Disney, Pokémon, Marvel, KPop Demon Hunters and Ideas. The figures here specifically track sets that include buildable characters rather than individual characters, and do not include small brick-built characters within the Pokémon SMART Play or Super Mario sets.
Even then, it’s plain to see that the LEGO Group is going all-in on buildable characters right now. The question is: why?
And the obvious answer is that they are – presumably – bringing in the big bucks. The trend here is over a course of years rather than months, so for the LEGO Group to continually commit to more brick-built characters year after year suggests they must be selling well as a collective. We’ve seen this kind of thing before: a particular concept performs well, and the LEGO Group gets laser focused on it.
For modern examples, think mid-range Technic cars, animals in Creator 3-in-1, or – on a broader level – Formula 1. Going further back in time, BIONICLE’s success bled out into similar constraction-style figures for other themes, including Star Wars and DC.
But you could argue that all of those are, in some way, specific to certain audiences. The very concept of buildable characters is something even broader – the sort of thing that will have LEGO execs doing that one emoji where their eyes turn to dollar signs. If buildable R2-D2 is a hit, why not cook up buildable Hagrid, or buildable Shrek, or buildable Stitch?
Yet while these sets may be slowly becoming the bread and butter of more LEGO themes than you’d like, or in some cases – like Disney – swallowing up more than half the assortment (at least as things stand for 2027), are they really the sort of thing that gets the creative juices going? Well, sometimes, sure – but not all buildable characters are created equal.
There’s not necessarily much merit in recounting those that didn’t land. You’ve probably seen them, even if you haven’t built them. (One memorable example, if you need it: Chewbacca’s face.) But when a buildable character comes along that does tick the right boxes, it’s worth pointing it out, because it’s otherwise a little bit at risk of getting lost in a sea of them.
So it goes for 43306 Lotso, one of a handful of Toy Story-themed sets that arrived earlier this summer to ride the wave of the fifth movie. Once upon a time a new Toy Story film would have been accompanied by an entire wave of minifigure-scale playsets, but this is LEGO Disney in 2026, so the best we get is a single 4+ set and a range of buildable characters and objects.
It’s easy to complain about that, and if you came out of Toy Story 5 wishing there were more playsets you could pick up from the LEGO Store, fair enough. But making it just that little bit trickier to complain is our old pal Lotso from Toy Story 3, which for our money is one of the best brick-built characters of the year for a few different reasons.
First up there’s the price: 43306 Lotso comes in at just £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99, positioning it as one of the cheaper brick-built characters around. And for that cost you’re getting 570 pieces, many of which are larger slopes required to achieve the mischievous/misunderstood (delete as applicable) bear’s shaping. This is no handful of 1x1 studs masquerading as decent value: it genuinely feels worth the price tag.
And that’s only because of how well designer Tom Gerardin – who cut his teeth on LEGO Friends, but has also worked on Ideas sets including 21357 Luxo Jr. and 21363 The Goonies – has put those pieces to use here. If Lotso didn’t work quite this well at this scale, the value would be lost regardless. Thankfully, this bright pink strawberry-scented bear is almost perfectly captured here.
The proportions are practically spot on from head to toe, making inspired use of the modern LEGO parts palette to recreate Lotso’s limbs and appendages, and there’s plenty of articulation baked in too. There’s motion in the shoulders and wrists – just as much as you’d need – and while the head can’t rotate, it can tilt from side to side, which is arguably more appropriate for Lotso.
A small shift in his head and a quick tweak of his eyebrows completely transforms the demeanour and expression of this LEGO character just as quickly as he changes on screen. And it’s within those subtle degrees of articulation that you can really see the argument for realising Lotso in this format and at this scale.
Where those things perhaps prevented articulation, the designer(s) found other solutions. Lotso’s legs can’t bend, but you can detach them entirely and – after also removing two rounded corner slope pieces – attach them directly to his torso to mimic him sitting down. There’s even a spot behind his back panel to store those extra slopes, which is a nice touch.
Buildable LEGO characters essentially live and die on their faces, though – see again Chewbacca, who is arguably otherwise fantastic but let down by his mug – and in that regard 43306 Lotso comes out on top of almost the entire pack in 2026. That he does so without relying on specialist pieces beyond those printed eyes, and at such an accessible price and form factor, pushes him pretty much to the top of the list.
And if LEGO buildable characters are indeed to continue with all the pace of a runaway freight train, it would be nice to see others fall into this price bracket. 75455 Boba Fett looks like a fine example of what a higher budget can unlock, but we can’t all go around buying and displaying £150 characters every single time. More like Lotso, please, LEGO.
43306 Lotso is available now for £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99. This copy was provided for review by the LEGO Group.
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