Lego 40478, Mini Disney castle is the miniature version of the much bigger and sort after 71040, with the big one costing over £300, the miniature one retails at £30.99 and contains 567 pieces and one minifigure, Mickey Mouse.
I’ve been circling the much bigger Disney castle for some time due to it having exclusive minifigures and the huge castle. With us being Disney fans this as a family obviously appeals to us but being so expensive im still circling. However! with the release of this mini set gave us a great opportunity to own something that meets our Disney love.
Table of Contents
Mickey Mouse
Mickey is the only minifigure in this set, which is a little unusual, not even Minnie made it in with him. However the Mickey included here is an exclusive version of him, its similar to the one in the bigger set, and at this point there are a few fantastic versions of Mickey out there. He is in that traditional red and black design which looks great, however, some have noted that he wears a yellow bow tie in Disney land, even still the red version looks great.
Castle
As you can imagine the bulk of the build and pieces then is the castle, the castle itself is based on the Florida Cinderella castle, slightly different to the Otherworld Resorts like Paris that uses Sleeping beauty Castle. Being a Mini build everything is intricate especially the inside and places the technic style around the sides, I took control as Tigger wasn’t around to do it, but I do think kids could do it, however with certain parts it might just get a little tricky.
inside the castle are a few little details, unfortunately, these are a little hidden on completion but they are fantastic, the main walkway has a couple of micro figures. But either side of this is a little gem, one side is a tile about Cinderella’s slipper, and the other side is a tile with the Disney castle on it.
As you build up the castle the central part gets hidden and it’s then all about the spires and the angles of the castle going round the side, the technic pieces allows those angled walls within the spires that circle the base. These are all Grey, gold and blue, and really shows the intricacy of creating the castle walls on such a tight space.
This surrounds the white, Gold and Blue central castle and looks great as it raises higher than the rest, As we go higher and higher the tall tower with joined Bartizan is iconic id Disney princess design, and again the colours look excellent. From the front there’s a Bridge/moat style that brings your eyes to show the entrance, with a tile of a clock above and the gold trim back down to the bridge, this is arguably the best visual part of the whole design. Unfortunately from behind the detail fades off and looks very weak in comparison.
Overall
Now you have two options here before we start, do you like the idea of the mini build or not? if not then perhaps this is a hard pass, for you there’s probably not alot going on, only one mini figure, and the detail at parts is limited, is it worth the £30+? , However Disney fans and fans of mini builds for display will be fine with this as it’s a good display set.
It really is a good looking display item, the build was fine and as I said early a little intricacy in places as you use lots of small pieces in tight situations to continue to build up, but for experience builders relatively straightforward. There are little gems in the set with the tiles of detail and Mickey himself. But the overall visual look with gold blue, and then either the grey or while looks very good in comparison to the actual castle.
From behind it looks weak and you would always have this face forward and not wanting it seen from behind, ultimately is the set worth the price? maybe… it was probably a £19.99-£24.99 set max, but it’s Disney and unfortunately, you do have to pay a slight premium with Lego Disney sets.
