Set Review ➟ 76781 LEGO® Wednesday and Enid’s Dorm Room
When the offer came through for reviewing this set and 76780 Wednesday Addams Figure, we had no idea what the sets were. The only information was 76780 and 76781. Some days later the grapevine indicated that they were Wednesday sets. I told the wife; she had immediate interest. When the sets arrived we discovered that the figures were minidolls and not minifigures and the wife immediately lost interest.
That small disappointment aside, the rest of the set does a reasonably good job of representing the dorm room from the Wednesday Netflix series. The exterior balcony area is insufficiently wide to accommodate Wednesday sitting to play the cello, but does have the pillars and gargoyles and otherwise general shape of the show’s set.
The interior also does a respectful job of representing the two sides of the room. Enid’s side is colorful with draped cloth, bedding, stuffed animals, and other details. Wednesday’s side is appropriately dark with cello, chair, record player, and desk.
Regarding the furnishings, Once you clear it of pillows and stuffies, Enid’s bed is too short to accommodate her body and she has to sort of levitate over the bed. Wednesday’s stuffed chair accommodates Enid fairly well, but Wednesday’s braids force her forward in the seat and she basically has to balance on her crotch or be content listing either to port or starboard unless her arms are placed on the chair’s arms to provide balance. If you want to fashion a seat out of a spare brick and a tile, then Wednesday will fit with her legs under her desk so she can type.
As is the case with the Wednesday Figure set, the base of this set has secret drawers. The drawers hold the alternate figures and some utensils. The drawers are held in place fairly securely with a clip-and-hinge attachment and levers on the sides of the model serve to push the drawers out.
The build, while mostly straightforward, has a few fussy areas. Attaching the lower roof panels is done with clips and bars. I found these panels easier to attach if I removed Enid’s bed and Wednesday’s bookcase—assembly of which takes place earlier in the build—allowing me to get my fingers in the holes to snap the bars into the clips.
The upper roof panels were also a bit tricky. There is a certain amount of pin and hinge complexity involved to allow the roof plates to angle appropriately and the roof panels ultimately attach by axle ends fitting into axle holes in technic plates. A little patience and persistence is required because basically everything is in the way of everything else and all the angles need to be just right to fit together.
The round window is hinged, and at one click will clear the balcony railing, but at second click it bumps into the roof panel above. The roof panel has enough give to accommodate the second click with the window pushing the roof back a bit. The issue here is more one of the roof panel being heavy and attached with pin-and-hole hinges that the panel as a whole wants to pivot down as opposed to there being sufficient friction in the assembly to hold the panel back. In any event, it is possible to pass figures through the window if the window is opened.
The set provides four figures, two Wednesdays and two Enids.
Apart from the wrong that is these figures are minidolls and not minifigures, Wednesday’s braided hair is just wrong. Her braids always hang down the front of her body, never the back. But here’s a guess: LEGO had to put the braids in back because minidoll heads are wider than their torsos and front-hanging braids would interfere with the figure’s arms being able to move.
Then.
Enid.
Enid in the show has blonde hair with a side part. Her blonde hair piece in the set is a center part. In the show Enid wears a pink wig with a center part and bangs. The pink wig in the set has a part on the right side with no bangs. For pity’s sake. Really. LEGO manages to get the hair styling correct on the Brickheadz version. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s not a big thing…but it is a little thing that is just enough off to make you think that something is not quite right and you can’t quite put your finger on what it is, and thus: nagging discomfort. So. Swing and a miss with the minidoll wigs. The rest of the reference for the figures seems spot on, though.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section
In my copy of the set, bag 5 was missing one 1x4 black plate.
New molds
- 5785 gargoyle in medium stone grey
- 5786 Thing, printed stitches
- 5904 flower in black (also seen in set 76780)
- 2632 Enid’s hair in bright light yellow
- 1879 Enid’s hair in bright pink
- 5784 Wednesday’s hair with braids in black
- 5950 8x8 hinged dish, printed spider web
For reasons my puny brain cannot comprehend, LEGO has, at least for now, classified Thing as a minifigure. I would hope to see Thing in other colors in the future as the part makes a wonderful and natural complement to the 65578 handle part.
Hair pieces are discussed above. It should be noted that the blonde and braid hairpieces have holes in the top, and one set of cat ears is provided. This is a nice touch and callback to the show.
The 5950 8x8 hinged dish has a clear matte coating over the artwork making the dish translucent as opposed to transparent.
New Print
- 1 x 2 tile with monster and scribbles in tan
Recolors
- 18852 bunny in dark turquoise
- 24183 unprinted hamster in orange
- 32828 1 x 1 round plate with hollow stud and horizontal bar in white
- 3131 2x2x1 corner posts with center stud in medium stone grey
- 28836 tassel in white
- 80444 cello in black
- 3544 8 x 3 wedge plate, 8° left in black
- 3545 8 x 3 wedge plate, 8° right in black
- 38585 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 arch corner in medium stone grey
Parts roulette, your mileage may vary
The bionicle eye/bulb with bar pieces are from different molds, which is not unexpected given that two are transparent plastic (28624) and two are opaque plastic (29380), and both have solid bottom pins. Some of the more recent versions of the opaque part (4278) have holes in the pin bottoms.
Instructions claim the set uses transparent yellow part 3262 2x2 round dome top with the vented (2-hole) stud. My set has 40528 version with hollow stud.
My copy of the set comes with the 42914 version of the 2x4 modified brick with top pin.
Summary
If you are looking for a one room gothic dollhouse, this is the set for you. Articulated features are scarce, unless you count drawers as play features, but the room is full of nice touches and ornamentation which should make for enjoyable dollhouse play.
Disclaimer
Thanks to LEGO for kindly providing the set for review.
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