There’s a time in every Disney Child’s life when they must grow up to become a dreaded Disney Adult. It’s either that or remain a Kingdom Hearts Teenager forever. I myself belong to the last category. Boarding my Gummi ship, I’m setting a course for the best Disney Lego sets in 2024.
1. Walt Disney Tribute Camera
If you’re a Disney fan, what better way to express your love for the brand than with a set made as a tribute to the total psychopath—I mean go-getting entrepreneur who started it all? This Walt Disney Tribute Camera is a stunning replica of a real old-timey camera! Back from the days when they had to shoot on rolls of film! They couldn’t just CGI Mickey Mouse onto that steamboat! They had to actually set this thing up on the riverside to shoot him doing the stunt himself!
2. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs Cottage
Look at this quaint little Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs Cottage. Total cottage-core aesthetic! These dwarves must have all been Tumblr girlies back in 2012. All the dwarves are there! Grumpy! Dopey! Horny! Whatever the other guys’ names are! But uh-oh! Looks like that evil witch is there too! You might have to borrow a boulder for a Lego Indiana Jones set and reintroduce her to it if she starts screwing around with the fresh produce.
3. The Little Mermaid Royal Clamshell
Disney established that clamshells are an essential part of mermaid culture. They make everything out of them, including underwear-worn-as-outerwear! Just how many clams had to die for undersea Victoria’s Secret to get off the ground? And what about the giant clam that gave its life for the The Little Mermaid Royal Clamshell Lego set? This massive, noble beast was gutted to make room for King Triton’s throne. Lego must have designed this set to commemorate the tragedy.
4. Jack’s and Sally Haunted House
Who doesn’t wanna live like Jack and Sally? Just like the old Blink 182 song says! Now with the Lego version of Jack’s and Sally Haunted House, you can! The Nightmare Before Christmas can become the Nightmare Year-round! The house is replete with spooky pumpkins, spider webs, a black cat, and even a little Christmas tree! Just don’t touch the bats. They’re disease vectors.
5. Disney Princess Ultimate Adventure Castle
The Disney Princess Ultimate Adventure Castle is the castle that was no doubt created after the gals got tired of their Disney Prince husbands and decided to live far and away in a castle of their own. And now, you can be one of them! You can be the giant, smooth princess who gets invited to all the tiny, hard, 90-degree-angle Lego balls! Every Disney princess who’s anybody is gonna be there. They’re included in the set, after all.
6. The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage
Which one of you flatfoots lit the Black Flame Candle? Now the Sanderson Sisters of Hocus Pocus are back in The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage. And look! They even have two included children figurines to terrorize! As for the candle itself, you can see its purple flames burning in the chimney. Who KNOWS what sort of cursed greenhouse gases that thing is leaking into the atmosphere?
7. Princess Rapunzel’s Tower & The Snuggly Duckling
 Princess Rapunzel’s Tower & The Snuggly Duckling are the perfect Tangled two-in-one special. They’re literally connected by Rapunzel’s hair. And look! Rapunzel herself is sliding down it fresh from the salon rocking her bob. Slay. Hit the bar, girl. Show off.
8. Elsa’s Frozen Princess Castle
Elsa’s Frozen Princess Castle is perfect for that generation of children who forced their parents to watch Frozen twice a day for a year. Fair warning: this castle may retraumatize any parent whose brain was reduced to a mess of frayed gray matter by repeated exposure to Idina Menzel belting “Let It Go”. Just when you thought your mind would have a break, it’s brain freeze all over again.
9. Lego Steamboat Willie
Enough of these newfangled Disney sets. Let’s go back to the classics. I’m talking the OG Steamboat Willie, the first Disney film ever made. It’s historic for multiple reasons. It’s Mickey Mouse’s first on-screen appearance and the first sound-synchronized piece of animation ever made. But you don’t care about any of that, do you? You just want something to plop in your bathtub, and dammit, you’ll get it.
10. The Enchanted Treehouse
The Enchanted Treehouse is essentially the afterparty location from the earlier Disney Princess ball. Invite only. Moana, Tinkerbell, Jasmine, Mulan, Mirabel, literally all the Disney It Girls are gonna be there. The Enchanted Treehouse has more included minifigures than any other Lego set on this list. And still not a Disney Prince in sight. Good. Protect the vibes.
11. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse’s Camping Trip
Sometimes you just gotta get away. Away from all the balls, all the ice castles, all the invasions of Imperial China. Life can’t always be business, even if it’s to defeat The Huns. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse’s Camping Trip is the perfect Disney vacation. Go to real magical places like Yellowstone, or a very nice trailer park. The world is yours, and full of weiners and marshmallows to fry on an open Lego flame.
12. Simba
It’s Lego Simba! Hooray! They really pulled out all the stops with this one. All of Simba’s limbs are totally movable! And you can even swivel his head or raise and lower his tail! Maybe with that added 360 vision he’ll be able to see those wildebeests so Mufasa doesn’t have to swoop in and save him … oof.
13. The Disney Castle
Here it is. The Big One. The architectural marvel whose roof shingles are no doubt scorched by the millions of tons of gunpowder that have exploded above this thing over the years: The Disney Castle. This isn’t some kids’ toy. This is a bonafide Lego feat of engineering. Turn it around to see the castle’s bottom floor great hall, along with its upper rooms full of Lego suits of armor, chandeliers, familiar-looking candelabras, and one of those wooden spinning wheel things that you def don’t wanna prick your finger on.
(all images: Lego)
