Set Review ➟ LEGO^® Ideas 21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas

2025-01-30 | Mark

Jack Skellington and a few other members of Halloween Town have made their way into Billund and manifested themselves in plastic. This Ideas set comes in at 2193 pieces according to LEGO, and according to me at least 500 of them are 1x1 pieces of one sort or another. Lots and lots of 1x1 pieces…plates, tiles, modified plates, cones, bricks, slopes, and so on…and that’s not counting the 1x1 pieces that are over 1 brick in height, of which there are also many.

Aesthetically the set is evocative of the aesthetic of source material, The Nightmare Before Christmas movie, with wacky angles and lots of texture. For a set with over 2000 pieces, when assembled The Nightmare Before Christmas set is relatively modest in scale, no doubt in part due to the fact that a quarter of the pieces are essentially 1x1 plates. Assembly takes place in three main sections: the hill/cemetery, Jack’s house, and Town Hall. The sections can be assembled out of order if you wish as there are three instruction books, one for each section, and each section is independent of the others, although they can ultimately be snapped together in a single configuration with bar and clip connections.

The movie characters with their varied and impractical designs are compromised into standard minifigure parts with the exception of the Mayor who is brick built and Zero the dog who gets a custom mold.

Sally, Jack, Lock, Shock, and Barrel

The roofs of the Town Hall and Jack’s house are simply set in place with no physical connection for easy removal and access to the various Christmas decorations stored within.

The Town Hall roof removed

The Town Hall attic

Jack’s attic

Jack’s attic

Removing the main portion of the Town Hall reveals a cellar of sorts containing additional decorative elements.

The Town Hall cellar

Some play elements are tucked into the backs of the two buildings. The downstairs of Jack’s house contains a Christmas tree and town hall contains a lectern. These elements need to be removed from the buildings to effectively use the buildings with minifigures, and apparently the intended use of these elements is outside the buildings as it is highly problematic to attempt to fit figures in the rooms if the elements are present. A final orphaned play element is the bathtub for kidnapping Santa. Also of note is that the tree and bathtub assemblies are fine, but the lectern really does not want to stay together. The wedge comes off the base, the top comes off the wedge, and the side grill pieces want to droop and pivot. All three points of failure are single-stud connections. So, yeah, any time you want to move that lectern you should also expect to reassemble it.

Lectern, Bathtub, and Christmas Tree

With the lectern removed, the mayor will fit inside town hall, but only through the back and definitely not through the narrow and crooked front door. I tried my best to get Mayor inside Town Hall along with the lectern but that was a no go. Jack, however, will fit with his feet attached to the base of the lectern.

Town Hall with Lectern

Lectern removed

Town Hall with Mayor

Similarly with Jack’s tree removed, Jack can fit in the downstairs space, but only through the back and with some degree of difficulty because the space is tight. Jack can fit in front of the front door but with the door in place the doorway is too narrow to accommodate Jack and he will have to be set at an angle to get him further in. And, again, access is tight and the gate topper elements are in the way of hands getting into the space.

Jack’s tree

Tree removed

Jack in the tree space

Jack at the front door

The upstairs of Jack’s house is rich with detail, but usable space for figures is poor.

Ultimately the interior spaces of the buildings is rather limited and not really all that usable for dollhouse play. For that matter even the exteriors, although exquisite in detail, are not especially suited for play either. Some spaces are too confined to accept minifigure placement, others dense with decoration that impedes getting one’s hand into spaces. There is definitely no place for the bathtub anywhere except off the confines of the model bases.

The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section

Somewhat disappointing is the fact that there is little in the set that fluoresces. The two jack o’lanterns and the transparent bright green elements are it. One would have hoped that the moon, at the very least, and the ghost dog would have some striking presence under black light. And if ever there was a set ripe for illumination under black light, this would be it.

Santa has the dual molded 102264 hat.

10164 painted, left, and 102264 dual molded, right.

10164 painted, left, and 102264 dual molded, right.

Zero is dual molded in red and white with painted eyes and nose.

Shock’s hat is part 88085, similar to 20606, but slightly smaller.

The light and dark areas in this superimposition show some design variances.

Summary

The set has definite charm and aesthetic appeal going for it. It absolutely looks great. While the movie’s inspiration is obvious, also obvious are some design compromises. The Oogie Boogies of the set are the many one-stud and other less-than-robust or non-existent connections where things want to come apart easily and the tight confines of usable interior and exterior spaces. To be fair, the set is listed by LEGO as 18+, so the intention is not for it to be a child’s play set, but I would be surprised if that intention actually deters a kid. The real nightmare, though, is the price. At 200 dollars/euros chances are you’ll be screaming while Disney, Tim Burton, whoever was the MOC designer, and LEGO all take their cuts.

Disclaimer

Thanks to LEGO for providing the review set.

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