I may have a problem. I have a teeny tiny obsession with Disney merchandise (or merch) at the moment. And since my entire family loves LEGO, I bought four individual bags of the mini figures that were released as part of the celebration of 100 years of Disney. I hadn’t really paid attention to them, but they were a nice cheap bit of swag from two companies that we enjoy, and the kids had expressed an interest.
So while two of my three were at camp, the package arrived. Also while they were gone I decided to open my package. It was glorious. The first bag I opened was one that two of my kids wanted, the lovable Baymax from Big Hero 6. I should have expected it, but I was still blown away by the quality and detail, even on just this completely white mini figure. I put him on my desk at work, and put the other three packages away for my kids. I perused the leaflet that he came with, and saw just how perfectly selected the other characters were. I am a sucker for an older Disney character, or a side lined character, or an out of the box character. Prince John? The Queen of Hearts? Robin Hood? I kept giving the leaflet the side eye, and staring with longing at the drawer containing the other three figures.
After about twenty minutes of this, I caved and opened the second one. I figured I could deal with the kids later. Perhaps it might be better for me to open them all, and redistribute based on knowledge instead of mystery. To reduce the bickering over Baymax. Perhaps I should buy a few more, because surely we were bound to get a double. Perhaps I should keep them all?
The second one was Pinocchio. Oh Pinocchio: 63 years from Walt Disney to my desk, 63 years of strings and whales and hi-diddle-dee-dee-ing. Now here he was sitting in my office. He was beautiful. The nose was just the right length for a few lies: his, not mine. The colors rendered perfectly. The hat at just the right jaunty angle. And the accessory, oh my! A clear head, that attaches to his hand, which serves as a fishbowl to the beautiful Cleo. Oh, hi-diddle-dee-mine!
It’s a particularly stressful time at work, and rather than calm my nerves with candy, I thought I may as well calm my nerves with LEGO. Theorizing that any time it got particularly bad, I would open a minifig. Thus I would have something to look forward to, and a barometer to gauge just how bad my day was really going. And my kids would never know that they almost got these. No one would have to know right?
Within an hour I had opened the third package.
Other than confirming that I had made the right decision to keep them, what did I spy? A little spotted dog! Could it be? Cruella De Vil, in all her LEGO glory, comes with a purse and a dalmatian. Be still my beating heart. For this alone, I would risk buying many more packages, just to have many more pups. After all I do still have 88 of the original McDonald’s toys from the ’90s. What’s a few LEGO Dalmatians to that? From her hair to the tips of her red pumps, LEGO Cruella is dastardly and delightful. Also, if anyone has Puppy on Umbrella circa 1996, please let me know.
I would like to tell you that work was awful that day and so I was justified. I would like to tell you that the fourth package made it past noon without being opened. But I shall not lie. I had an early lunch and opened the fourth package, to one of my favorite Disney villains in this collection. Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the sneakiest parent of them all? The Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is one of my favorite animated villains, and also one of my favorite characters from ABC’s Once Upon a Time. She is glorious in her floor-length purple gown, with perfectly accentuated cape and collar. The accessory with this figure is sublime: a free standing mirror, where the face in the mirror is a mini fig head! This is one of the four figures featured in the instructional leaflet, showing you how to assemble the cape. She is delightful, and may be my favorite of the four.
My daughter has since visited my office and seen my LEGO; she does not know that one was almost hers. My sons returned from camp, and know of their existence, but not of their original intent. They all want Baymax, so I think I made the right choice in keeping all of them to myself—far fewer arguments this way. So now, only one problem remains. If I buy 16 more bags, what are my chances of duplicates? Or do I just buy them one at a time until I get Oswald and Prince John? Oh, and Robin Hood. And Princess Aurora, complete with owl! The struggle is real.
No LEGO minifigs or children were harmed in the writing of this post.
