Tag Archives: Toys

This LEGO Pink Panther Figure Is Already a Staff Pick, and It’s Easy to See Why

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For a cartoon character who has never once opened his mouth to speak, the Pink Panther has spent over sixty years being one of animation’s most expressive performers. Every laugh comes from the smirk, the sideways glance, the exaggerated saunter set to Henry Mancini’s slinking saxophone theme. He is proof that comedy does not need dialogue when you have got timing, posture, and a really good walk cycle (I guess Mr. Bean had a fairly strong source of inspiration). It is a masterclass in physical comedy distilled into a single, impossibly lanky silhouette.

That silhouette has now been recreated in LEGO form, and it captures exactly the qualities that make the character work. The figure stands tall and thin on a black circular display base, paintbrush in one hand and a can of pink paint in the other, caught mid mischief exactly the way you would expect. The yellow eyes, the sly little smile, the long curved tail trailing behind him, it is all there, rendered in plastic with a surprising amount of personality for a figure with no moving mouth at all.

Designer: Legendary Brick2

So much of this build’s attitude is managed by practically one single color palette. The build is almost entirely pink, sleek fur pink for the body, a softer blush pink for the muzzle, with just enough black, red, and yellow accents to do all the emotional heavy lifting. The eyebrows are two thin curved pieces that somehow read as pure smugness, and the whiskers are simple black elements that give the face just enough texture to feel finished rather than blank. My favorite detail, though, has to be the articulated fingers gripping the paintbrush. It is a small thing, but it sells the entire pose, the idea that he is mid job and about to make a mess of something.

The tail is doing a lot of work too, sweeping out in a long curve that keeps the whole figure from reading as a stiff vertical column, and it is paired with a small pink dribble of paint resting near his feet, a nice little narrative touch suggesting he’s leaving some evidence, a calling card, so-to-speak. The paint can itself has a proper handle detail, and the way it hangs off his hand adds a bit of weight and believability to an otherwise cartoonish frame. It is the kind of build that rewards you for walking around it, since the side profile shows off the tail and the can strap in a way the front view just does not.

This one has already earned itself a Staff Pick badge on LEGO Ideas, and the community has responded in kind, with the project currently sitting at 3,723 supporters on its way to the 5,000 mark, with 564 days still on the clock to get there. If you have got any nostalgia for Saturday morning cartoons or just appreciate a well built cartoon silhouette, head over to the LEGO Ideas page and add your vote. I certainly did.

The post This LEGO Pink Panther Figure Is Already a Staff Pick, and It’s Easy to See Why first appeared on Yanko Design.

Hot Wheels and 7-Eleven Nailed the $7.11 GT-R Drop

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The convenience store has always been a place of small joys. A late-night hot dog, a 44-ounce Slurpee, a scratch card bought on impulse. But 7-Eleven just added something to that list that no one saw coming: a 1:64 scale 2017 Nissan GT-R (R35), draped in white livery, wearing the brand’s iconic green-and-orange logo like it was born into it.

Hot Wheels and 7-Eleven have teamed up before, and every time they do, the internet loses its mind a little. This year’s exclusive is the 2017 Nissan GT-R R35, a choice so specifically right that it almost feels too good to be a corporate decision. The GT-R isn’t just a car. It’s a cultural artifact, the vehicle that made an entire generation of gamers, gearheads, and anime fans fall in love with Japanese engineering. Choosing it for a convenience store exclusive feels less like a marketing move and more like someone in a boardroom finally got the reference.

Designer: Hot Wheels x 7-11

The design itself is clean and confident. Hot white, 7-Eleven branding running along the sides, and a set of 6-spoke rims that manage to look sharp even at this scale. Mattel has always been good at translating a car’s personality into miniature form, and this one lands well. The GT-R’s aggressive stance and wide haunches come through even when the whole thing fits in your palm. It doesn’t feel like a rushed licensing deal. It feels like a collectible that was taken seriously, proportioned carefully, and dressed with some actual intention.

The price is where the real cleverness lives. Retailing at $7.11, it’s a number that doubles as a receipt and a punchline, and I mean that entirely as a compliment. Pricing something at the exact numerical name of the store selling it is the kind of detail that makes you wonder why more brands don’t do it. It’s small, intentional, and memorable, the kind of thing you notice and file away simply because it made you smile.

Of course, the moment word got out, collectors mobilized. People were hunting these in-store at 2AM. Social media filled up with unboxing videos and “found it” posts. eBay listings appeared almost immediately, some going for double or triple retail. That pattern is exhausting and exciting in equal measure. It speaks to how deeply this kind of collaboration hits for a specific audience, and how quickly that enthusiasm can tip into a secondary market that shuts casual fans out before they even know the drop happened.

A chase variant is reportedly circulating as well, appearing roughly once in every hundred shippers. Finding the standard is already a small adventure. Finding the chase turns the whole thing into something approaching a ritual.

What makes this collaboration work, beyond the obvious nostalgia hit, is that it respects the cultures it’s drawing from. The GT-R carries genuine weight in car culture. Hot Wheels has decades of credibility as a collector’s brand, not just a toy. And 7-Eleven, despite being a global convenience chain, has cultivated a surprisingly earnest identity around moments of everyday delight. When those three things collide, you get something that doesn’t feel forced or cynical. It feels like three separate worlds sitting down together and actually enjoying the conversation.

I’ll be direct about this: limited retail exclusives are one of the most interesting design distribution strategies happening right now. Taking a well-made object and anchoring it to a specific physical space, a store, a moment in time, gives it meaning that an online drop simply can’t replicate. You had to be there. You had to walk into a 7-Eleven, scan the displays, and spot it. That friction is the point. It makes the object feel earned in a way that clicking “add to cart” never quite does.

Whether you’re a Hot Wheels collector, a GT-R devotee, or someone who just appreciates when design makes a weird, wonderful detour into your everyday life, this one deserves a second look. Or at the very least, it’s worth a late-night convenience store run.

The post Hot Wheels and 7-Eleven Nailed the $7.11 GT-R Drop first appeared on Yanko Design.

Believe It: The LEGO Naruto Ramen Shop Might Actually Happen

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If you grew up watching Naruto slurp down bowl after bowl of ramen at Ichiraku, you already know that the little noodle shop tucked in the village of Konoha carries more emotional weight than most fictional restaurants ever could. It is the kind of place that shows up at every turning point in the story, the quiet anchor in a series full of big fights and even bigger feelings. So when twin brothers David and Diego Escalona, known as DadiTwins, decided to recreate it in LEGO form, they were not just building a set. They were building a piece of pop culture memory, brick by brick.

The project, officially titled Naruto: Ichiraku Ramen Shop, was moved into LEGO Ideas’ “Parking Lot” on July 14, 2026, marking the first time in the concept’s long history that LEGO has genuinely entertained the possibility of turning it into an official product. To understand why that matters, you have to know that this is the fourth time DadiTwins have submitted this project. Fourth. They first reached the required 10,000 supporter votes in August 2020. Then again in October 2021. Then a third time in 2023 to mark Naruto’s 25th anniversary. Each time, LEGO passed. Each time, the community came back and voted again.

Designer: DadiTwins

The Parking Lot, for the uninitiated, is LEGO Ideas’ version of “we’re not saying no, we’re just saying not yet.” It is a holding stage where projects that weren’t immediately greenlit are kept under consideration for potential official release. It has produced actual sets before. Downton Abbey made it through. So did The Old Man and the Sea. The status does not guarantee anything, but it is a meaningful shift from flat-out rejection, and for a project that has been rebuilt and resubmitted across more than half a decade, it feels like a long-overdue acknowledgment.

The set itself is genuinely impressive. At roughly 1,600 pieces across a 22-by-24-stud footprint, it recreates Ichiraku as it appears during the Land of Waves arc, right at the beginning of the series before everything gets complicated. The ground floor has a working kitchen and a four-seat ramen bar. The upper floor, which was never actually shown in the anime, was invented by the designers as Teuchi’s apartment, complete with a bedroom and bathroom accessible via a rear staircase. That choice tells you a lot about how much thought went into this. It is not just a replica. It is an expansion of a world people already love.

Eight minifigures round out the set: Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Kakashi, Iruka, Teuchi, and one more. The designers also made the case that ramen itself, now a global obsession that has arguably outpaced sushi in worldwide popularity, gives this set crossover appeal for people who have never touched a manga in their lives. A beautifully detailed ramen shop, built from 1,600 pieces, with a cozy interior and a blue-striped awning? That is an easy sell, dattebayo or not.

What makes this story genuinely moving is the persistence behind it. DadiTwins did not submit once, get rejected, and move on. They revised. They commemorated anniversaries with updated designs. They kept making the case for a concept that tens of thousands of people clearly wanted to see made real. That kind of dedication from fan creators is rare, and LEGO Ideas, for all its genuine appeal as a platform, does not always reward it quickly.

Whether the Ichiraku Ramen Shop becomes an official LEGO set remains to be seen. LEGO’s July 2026 update says the company is “looking into the possibility,” which is cautiously optimistic phrasing at best. But the fact that it made it to the Parking Lot after four attempts says more about what fans are willing to fight for than any official statement ever could. And if LEGO does eventually greenlight it, I think this set would be one of the more emotionally resonant releases the line has ever produced. Some places, fictional or not, just mean something.

The post Believe It: The LEGO Naruto Ramen Shop Might Actually Happen first appeared on Yanko Design.

This 4-Player LEGO Chessboard Turns The Game Into Strategic Chaos

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Four-player chess is not some internet-era gimmick dreamed up for group game nights. Variants of it have existed for centuries, from Indian Chaturaji played with dice, to Victorian England’s fascination with elaborate cross-shaped boards designed specifically to seat four rivals at once. The format never quite dethroned standard chess in popularity, mostly because building a proper four-sided board was always a pain, and because the rules needed serious rethinking to keep games from spiraling into total mayhem. It is a format that rewards ambition and punishes anyone who tries to wing it.

That is precisely the gap LEGO Ideas creator CozyBuildingBlocks7126 decided to fill, with a physical, brick-built four-player chessboard that revives the format for a new generation of players, dice optional. The design leans into a cross-shaped layout, four full armies in distinct colors, and, most interestingly, a scoring system engineered specifically to make four-way chess feel less like chaos and more like calculated risk. It is a smart, tactile answer to a format that has always deserved better hardware.

Designer: CozyBuildingBlocks7126

The board itself is the first thing that grabs you, a cross-shaped slab built from 852 pieces and measuring a generous 51.2 by 51.2 centimeters, large enough to comfortably seat four full armies without anyone’s rooks bumping elbows. Blue, yellow, green, and red pieces line up along their respective arms of the cross, and the notched corners where each arm meets the central board are a genuinely clever piece of structural design, letting four ranks sit flush against each other without any awkward diagonal overlap. It reads almost like a plus sign built out of chessboard, which is exactly the kind of geometric problem-solving that separates a thoughtful MOC (my own creation) from a simple recolor job.

My favorite detail, though, is the scoring system, because this is where the design stops being a novelty and starts being a genuine strategic rethink. Pawns promote at the eighth rank instead of the fourteenth, landing them mid-board rather than at the enemy’s doorstep. Bishops are worth five points instead of three, queens born from promoted pawns are quietly capped at just one point, and a checkmate alone is worth a hefty twenty points. Captured kings leave their armies “dead” on the board, meaning their pieces can still be captured but no longer award points to whoever takes them. The result is a game where getting checkmated does not necessarily mean losing, since a well-timed capture can vault you into first or second place even after your king falls. That is a wonderfully devious wrinkle for a build that could have coasted on novelty alone.

The set is still early in its LEGO Ideas run, sitting at 105 supporters with 424 days left on the clock to reach the first milestone of 1,000. It has a long runway ahead before the official 10,000-vote threshold that triggers a LEGO review, but for anyone who has ever wanted to drag chess off the screen and back onto a real table, four opponents included, this is a build worth rallying behind. You can head to the LEGO Ideas page and cast your vote here.

The post This 4-Player LEGO Chessboard Turns The Game Into Strategic Chaos first appeared on Yanko Design.

This LEGO Godzilla Skeleton Set Has Movable Limbs and Jaw, Built From LEGO’s Dinosaur Fossils Kit

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Godzilla has spent seven decades stomping through movie theaters, but only recently has he stomped his way into an actual LEGO box. Builder Matthew Esposito’s Monsterverse-inspired Godzilla cleared the 10,000 vote threshold on LEGO Ideas and got the official nod from LEGO’s review team in 2025, meaning a real retail set is somewhere on the horizon. It is, by any measure, a long overdue arrival for one of pop culture’s most enduring monsters.

Across 35 plus film appearances, Godzilla has been a metaphor for nuclear anxiety, a wrestling opponent for King Kong, and an occasional force for good against even worse monsters. What he has rarely been is dead long enough to leave a skeleton behind. That oversight has now been corrected, and fittingly, it happened not through an official LEGO release but through the kind of scrappy fan ingenuity that keeps this hobby interesting, a build that arrives just as his living, roaring counterpart prepares for brick immortality of his own.

Designer: LaurensPosthuma

Unlike our usual LEGO Ideas coverage that proposes completely new bricksets, this one actually repurposes an existing set. It’s an alternate build for LEGO’s own Dinosaur Fossils set (21320), meaning every one of its 477 pieces comes straight out of a box most AFOLs already have on a shelf. Swap the T-Rex, Triceratops, and Pteranodon skeletons for this hunched, roaring Godzilla, and suddenly a paleontology playset becomes a kaiju shrine. No new molds, no rare parts hunt, just clever reassignment of an existing inventory into something the original designers never imagined.

Godzilla stands roughly 37 centimeters long, 12 centimeters wide, and 27 centimeters tall, anchored to a stable 10 by 12 stud base that keeps his hunched, forward-leaning stance from tipping over under the weight of that long, curling tail (a tail that, fittingly, needs its own separate support post, exactly like the fossil kit’s original dinosaurs). The head, arms, and tail are all fully articulated, letting you pose him mid-roar, mid-swipe, or crouched and ready to pounce. My favorite detail, though, is the jaw. It actually opens and closes, and paired with that jagged double row of teeth, it turns a static display piece into something you want to keep fidgeting with long after the build is done.

LaurensPosthuma built the instructions using Stud.io, LEGO’s official digital design software, and packaged them as a downloadable PDF rather than a physical retail kit, which is how most fossil-kit alt-builds make their way to fellow builders. “The feedback has been amazing and I love doing more skeletons,” the designer notes, a line that suggests this won’t be the last monster to get the bare-bones treatment.

There is something genuinely satisfying about a build like this landing in the same year Esposito’s fleshed-out Godzilla is being greenlit for retail shelves. One version gives you the King of Monsters in full menacing color, the other gives you what’s presumably left of him after a rough night in Tokyo Bay. Together they would make an absurdly good display duo, assuming LEGO ever decides an official skeleton variant is worth the tooling. Until then, this one is available now as PDF instructions for €6.50, buildable entirely from parts you already own if Dinosaur Fossils is sitting in your collection.

The post This LEGO Godzilla Skeleton Set Has Movable Limbs and Jaw, Built From LEGO’s Dinosaur Fossils Kit first appeared on Yanko Design.

LEGO Icons Hubble Space Telescope: A Build for Space Lovers

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Those of a certain generation grew up in an era where space travel and discoveries were fascinating topics. A lot of young boys and girls dreamed of becoming astronauts and going into space to make amazing discoveries. While there were probably some who eventually did (or at least worked on it in some capacity), most of us stayed on Earth and just consumed various news and pop culture content that made us live vicariously through them. The fascination with space may have waned for some, but there are still those who love anything space-related, especially after the recent success of the Artemis mission.

If you’re one of those who still dream of Moon landings or deep-space explorations, this newest build from LEGO will be the next thing to add to your collection. The LEGO Icons Hubble Space Telescope is an upcoming build meant for grown-ups (18+). It has 1,252 pieces, so it might be a bit intimidating for younger space lovers, but adults will definitely have fun putting together this version of the legendary telescope and displaying it proudly on their shelves alongside other space-related memorabilia.

Designer: LEGO

Before diving into the details of the set, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate what makes this subject matter so special. The real Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, completely changed the way humanity sees the universe. It helped scientists determine that the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old, discovered two of Pluto’s moons, and captured some of the most breathtaking images of deep space ever seen. These photos have since become some of the most iconic in human history. It’s one of the greatest scientific instruments ever built, and now you can have your very own version of it sitting right on your desk.

Once you finish putting together this build, you’ll have a finished model that stands 12.5 inches tall, making it a bold and impressive display piece that captures the real telescope’s iconic silhouette with remarkable detail. You’ll be able to reposition the solar arrays and antennas for a dynamic display to complement whatever other cool pieces you might have on your shelf or display table. It also comes with an opening aperture door that mimics the real Hubble Telescope’s mechanism, adding a satisfying interactive element to the finished build. The level of care put into the design is evident from every angle, and this is clearly a set that was built with true fans in mind.

The instrument bay is also pretty detailed, giving you a peek into the inner workings, at least the LEGO version of it. You will also get a NASA astronaut minifigure, included primarily for scale representation, which adds a nice layer of storytelling and authenticity to the display. It also comes with a display stand and an informative plaque, so your finished showpiece is more than just decorative. It’s a genuine conversation starter.

The LEGO Icons Hubble Space Telescope (Set #11382) is set to release on August 1, 2026, and will retail for $139.99 USD (£119.99 GBP / €129.99 EUR / $229.99 AUD). For a 1,252-piece, display-quality set, it sits at a very reasonable price point, especially considering how striking the finished model looks. Whether you’re treating yourself or looking for the perfect gift for the space lover in your life, this is one build that checks all the right boxes.

Space may feel like a distant dream for most of us, but LEGO has always had a wonderful way of bringing those dreams a little closer to home. The Hubble Space Telescope set is more than just a building project. It’s a tribute to one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements, packaged in a way that’s accessible, engaging, and genuinely beautiful to display. Whether you’re a seasoned LEGO collector, a science enthusiast, or just someone who has always gazed up at the night sky with a sense of wonder, this is one build that truly has it all. Mark your calendars for August 1, 2026, and make sure it’s at the top of your wishlist.

The post LEGO Icons Hubble Space Telescope: A Build for Space Lovers first appeared on Yanko Design.

LEGO’s Boba Fett Is Finally the 16-Inch Monument Fans Deserve

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Boba Fett has always been one of those characters who punches far above his screen time. He barely speaks. He barely moves. He’s in Return of the Jedi for what feels like fifteen minutes before unceremoniously falling into a giant sand pit. And yet, for decades, he has occupied some kind of untouchable throne in the Star Wars universe. People love him. Collectors obsess over him. T-shirts, statues, Funko Pops, limited-edition helmets, you name it. And now, LEGO has given him the monument he probably always deserved.

Set 75455, simply titled Boba Fett, is a 1,544-piece buildable display figure that stands over 16 inches tall and releases on August 1, 2026, for $169.99. It’s part of LEGO’s growing line of adult-oriented collectible builds, rated 18+, and designed to sit on your shelf and make people stop and stare. Which, knowing Boba Fett’s track record, feels entirely appropriate.

Designer: LEGO

I’ll be upfront: I am a sucker for LEGO’s collector sets when they get it right, and this one looks like they really got it right. The model is based on Boba Fett’s appearance in Return of the Jedi, which means the classic Mandalorian armor in all its battle-worn, weathered green glory. The attention to detail is immediately obvious. There’s the helmet with its swiveling rangefinder, the jetpack on his back, the blaster in hand, and then the detail that genuinely surprised me: a real fabric cape. Not a printed piece, not a molded brick approximation. An actual woven fabric cape. That single design choice signals that LEGO was serious about this one, and it lifts the whole build from a clever display piece into something that feels almost premium.

The figure stands on a display base styled after the sands of Tatooine, which grounds the whole thing visually and gives it that diorama quality that collectors genuinely appreciate. The head and arms are poseable, so you can adjust him into different stances, which adds a nice layer of personality to what is otherwise a static display piece. It’s a small feature on paper, but it makes a real difference when you’re placing it on a shelf and trying to decide whether Boba should look like he’s about to shoot someone or simply surveying the room with quiet menace. Both are valid.

The set also includes a new Boba Fett minifigure, this time in his Episode 6 look complete with a cape. It doesn’t change the core experience, but it’s the kind of detail that longtime fans will absolutely notice and appreciate. LEGO didn’t have to include it, which makes its presence feel intentional rather than filler.

At $169.99, this sits comfortably in what I’d call the “considered purchase” category. It’s not an impulse buy, but it’s also not asking you to take out a loan. For 1,544 pieces and the level of finishing involved, including that fabric cape, the poseable figure, and the Tatooine display base, it feels like fair pricing. LEGO’s adult collector line has trained us to expect a certain standard, and 75455 appears to meet it without overshooting the budget into luxury territory.

What makes this particularly interesting from a design standpoint is how LEGO continues to push the language of what a “LEGO set” can look like. This isn’t a spaceship or a modular building. It’s essentially a sculptural figure built from interlocking bricks, meant to be admired the same way you’d admire a well-crafted statue or a limited art piece. LEGO has been quietly building (no pun intended) a vocabulary for this format over the past few years, with character figures like C-3PO and K-2SO paving the way. Boba Fett feels like the line reaching a new level of confidence.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, a collector, or just someone who appreciates when a brand commits to doing something with genuine craft, this set is hard to ignore. It releases August 1, 2026, and given how Boba Fett tends to sell out, I wouldn’t wait too long to decide.

The post LEGO’s Boba Fett Is Finally the 16-Inch Monument Fans Deserve first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Leaked $300 LEGO Poké Ball Is the Most Ambitious Pokémon Set Yet, and It Opens Into an Entire World

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Polly Pocket understood something most toys missed. The magic was never the doll, it was the reveal, that little hinged compact snapping open to expose a bedroom, a beach, or a ballroom shrunk down to thumbnail scale. You held an ordinary object in your palm, and then it unfolded into somewhere you wanted to live. Kids in the nineties were obsessed, and the format quietly seeped into everything since, from music boxes to those tiny terrarium necklaces that keep showing up on my feed. The appeal is ancient and reliable. A sealed shell always feels like it might be hiding a whole world, and cracking it open rewards you every time.

Somebody at LEGO has finally applied that exact logic to a Poké Ball, and the images doing the rounds suggest it was worth the wait. I want to be upfront here, because this one has not been officially announced. It surfaced through leaked imagery via the r/Legoleak community, catalogued as set 72154 and titled “Iconic Trainer Moments: Poké Ball.” What the pictures show is a sealed red-and-white sphere that splits cleanly at its equator, the top dome cradling Professor Oak’s laboratory and the lower bowl opening onto a grassy battle clearing where a Pikachu squares off against an Eevee. One object, two folded worlds, and a build that finally makes the Poké Ball do the thing it always promised.

Designer: LEGO

The two halves are arranged with proper storytelling logic, which is my favourite thing about it. The top dome is where every journey starts, Oak’s lab rendered in warm yellow brickwork with three starter Poké Balls lined up on a white counter and the professor himself standing ready to ruin your afternoon with an impossible choice. The lower bowl is the payoff, an actual battle mid-scene on a bed of bright green, with your trainer on one raised platform and a rival in a green cap on the other. Open it top to bottom and you are basically replaying the opening arc of the first game in cross-section.

Down in the lower bowl, the battlefield is built on a raised green platform with rounded studs standing in for grass tufts, tiny red flowers dotting the field, and enough negative space around it that the two minifigures genuinely feel like they are facing off across an arena. The first-ever LEGO Pokémon set to feature actual minifigures, this one has Red in his signature cap and red jacket, Professor Oak in his lab coat with a swoop of grey hair, and a Picnicker in green, alongside brick-built Pikachu and Eevee figures that surfaced in earlier leaks.

The whole thing reportedly runs to 2,343 pieces, though the leaks quibble between 2,339 and 2,386, the sort of pre-announcement wobble that usually settles by launch. That sphere is clearly doing a lot of the structural lifting, given how much of the count never makes it into the diorama you actually want to stare at.

LEGO has not confirmed any of this yet, so treat the details as pencil rather than ink, but the noise points to a first of October release at a fairly hefty $299.99, which would make it one of the priciest Pokémon sets yet. It was apparently pushed back from an August date over production issues, while the rest of the summer wave held firm. My one wish, assuming the reveal lands as expected, is a satisfying, deliberate hinge on that equator seam, because a build like this lives or dies on how good the open-and-close reveal feels in the hand. Get that right, and it is an easy centrepiece.

The post This Leaked $300 LEGO Poké Ball Is the Most Ambitious Pokémon Set Yet, and It Opens Into an Entire World first appeared on Yanko Design.

LEGO Just Built the E.T. Every 80s Kid Always Wanted

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If you’re of a certain age or generation, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is probably part of your childhood (or adulthood). It’s one of the most popular sci-fi movies to this day, and E.T. itself is one of the most beloved aliens in movie history. There has been renewed interest in it lately because director Steven Spielberg went back to his alien roots with his latest movie, Disclosure. So now is probably the perfect time to release a new LEGO build featuring our favorite big-eyed extra-terrestrial who just wants to phone home.

What started out as a fan-born creation from LEGO Ideas is now produced by LEGO. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (21370) is a 1,226-piece alien figure designed primarily for adults, though there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying the build alongside your kids. It is a highly posable figure and comes with iconic accessories to help you re-live some of the classic scenes from the movie, or come up with your own scenes to let out your inner alien creativity. In other words, it truly is a set that the whole family can enjoy together.

Designer: LEGO

After you’ve finished building your very own E.T., you will be able to move its head up and down and even rotate it 360 degrees. You can also open and close its mouth and adjust its arms, wrists, and fingers, moving it whichever way you like. And of course, how can we not have that iconic forefinger pointing pose? There’s also a switch at the back for the light brick so you can make E.T.’s heart glow, just like in the movie.

The details of this build are particularly interesting, as you can see the wrinkles all over his body, and he has those distinctively long and spindly arms. Even the face is remarkably expressive, thanks to the clever use of offset curves and the printed eyes. The set also comes with a pot of sunflowers so you can recreate some of the most iconic scenes, including the tearjerking moment of him returning to his home planet, holding the pot as a fond remembrance of his time on Earth.

When it comes to size, this figure is no small feat. The finished build stands over 9.5 inches (24 cm) tall, 8.5 inches (21 cm) wide, and 6 inches (15 cm) deep, making it an impressive centerpiece worthy of any shelf, bookcase, or display cabinet. With 1,226 pieces packaged across nine bags and a 142-page instruction manual, the building experience itself is just as rewarding as the finished product. LEGO also offers step-by-step 3D building instructions through the LEGO Builder app, where you can zoom in, rotate the model, and track your progress as you go. Whether you’re a seasoned brick builder or a complete first-timer, the process is designed to be immersive, enjoyable, and surprisingly therapeutic.

What makes this set even more special is its origin story. Like all LEGO Ideas sets, this one started as a fan submission, dreamed up by a passionate LEGO enthusiast, voted on by the global community, and then brought to life by the LEGO design team. That community-driven journey gives this set an extra layer of heart, which feels incredibly fitting for a tribute to one of cinema’s most emotional characters. And since E.T. hasn’t appeared in LEGO form since 2016, this release is a long-awaited celebration that collectors absolutely won’t want to miss.

Whether you’re a lifelong E.T. fan, an avid LEGO collector, or simply searching for a meaningful and nostalgic gift for yourself or a loved one, the LEGO Ideas E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (21370) is worth every penny of its $139.99 price tag. It’s part toy, part art piece, and all heart, quite literally given that glowing chest. This is the kind of set that doesn’t just sit on a shelf; it sparks conversations, brings back cherished memories, and reminds you why you fell in love with that little alien all those years ago. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (21370) launches on August 1, 2026. Don’t miss your chance to finally bring him home.

The post LEGO Just Built the E.T. Every 80s Kid Always Wanted first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Game Where You Build the River and Set the Eel Free

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Most children’s toys today are remarkably good at keeping kids indoors. Between tablets, gaming consoles, and endlessly curated activity kits, the image of a child crouching in a stream, redirecting water with their bare hands, feels almost romantic. Which is exactly why Wild Wetlands, a modular outdoor toy designed by four students from Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, Cameron Murray, Corey Matheson, Jordan Gedye, and Rupert Shepherd, caught my attention.

Wild Wetlands is, on the surface, a modular tile game. There are 11 different tiles that children aged 5 to 12 can arrange and rearrange to create pathways for water. The main objective is simple: get the eel, known in Māori as Tuna, from the wetland tiles through a series of connected waterways down to the ocean tile. You build the river. You control the flow. You adjust, and adjust again, until it works. But calling it simple is a bit misleading, because the deeper you look at this concept, the more thoughtful it becomes.

Designers: Cameron Murray, Corey Matheson, Jordan Gedye, Rupert Shepherd

The game is rooted in a real ecological issue facing Aotearoa, New Zealand. Eels migrate from freshwater wetlands down rivers to the ocean to spawn. After hatching, young eels make the reverse journey upstream to mature in those same wetlands. It’s a remarkable life cycle, and for many New Zealand eel populations, it’s being disrupted by decades of human modification to waterways. Dams and culverts block these ancient migratory routes, and the consequences for eel populations across the country are very real.

The designers translated that problem directly into the game’s mechanics. The tile set includes both natural tiles, designed to mimic the organic curves and multi-directional paths of rivers, and industrial tiles that represent human-modified waterways. Kids can configure and reconfigure these tiles to send water flowing in different directions, and they can also bring in natural materials like rocks, mud, and sticks to further adjust the flow. It’s trial-and-error play at its best, open-ended enough that no two sessions will look the same, but purposeful enough that there’s always a real reason behind the tinkering.

The materials are worth noting too. The tiles are made from New Zealand recycled pine, PLA, and neodymium magnets, finished with a polyurethane varnish designed to hold up in wet, outdoor conditions. The magnets are intentionally left visible rather than hidden beneath the surface, because the designers wanted the connections between tiles to feel intuitive. You see the connection point, you feel it click, and you immediately understand how the system works. That kind of transparency in design is something more toy makers should seriously consider.

The question Wild Wetlands keeps raising for me is about how we teach kids to care about nature in the first place. Most toys built around environmental themes tend to explain the problem at you. They lecture. Wild Wetlands puts the problem in your hands and asks you to work through it. A kid isn’t told that dams block eels. They feel it when the water doesn’t flow right. They discover it when the eel doesn’t make it to the ocean. That’s a fundamentally different kind of learning, and it’s the kind that tends to stick.

The game supports one to five players and is designed to scale, with more tiles you can add for increasingly complex configurations. I love that it’s built to be played outside, near actual water, in the mud. The whole thing is made to get dirty and keep working, and somehow, that alone makes it feel more honest than most toys aimed at teaching kids about the environment.

At a time when “eco-conscious design” has quietly become a marketing checkbox, Wild Wetlands feels genuinely earned. The designers didn’t just make a toy with natural materials and call it sustainable. They built a mechanic around a living ecological crisis, scaled it for a child’s hands and attention span, and trusted kids enough to let the play do the explaining. That’s good design. And it’s the kind of outdoor play we’ve been badly missing.

The post The Game Where You Build the River and Set the Eel Free first appeared on Yanko Design.