Set Review ➟ LEGO® 76786 Morticia’s Cottage
Exuding a similar vibe to 2024’s Wednesday and Enid’s Dorm Room is Morticia’s Cottage. While the dorm room set had hidden storage drawers, the Cottage does not, and where the dorm room was one large open room with plenty of space for minidolls, the Cottage has six rooms with virtually no space for minidolls.
Opening the set, this is the first time I am seeing instructions inside a paper envelope. I have encountered the cardboard envelope several times, and usually with larger sets, but here is a brown paper envelope with printing. Note I am have a European prerelease set provided by LEGO and the parts, too, are in paper envelopes.
There are four small, thin instruction booklets…
…and two sticker sheets, one on a white carrier and one on a transparent carrier.
The set comes with four minidolls: Lurch, Bianca Barclay, Wednesday, and Morticia. The Wednesday figure is a pick up from the dorm room set and the others are new.
Lurch is given a lift piece for his feet to give him a little added height and he gets the Ron Weasley wig for hair. I get LEGO was probably trying to give Lurch a bowl cut, but this hair piece to me seems just wrong, as in it is just too much hair. And while LEGO does give Lurch two different color eyes, the face is standard male minidoll face and not particularly Lurch-like. The whole figure is not particularly Lurch-like. It would have been nice to see Lurch included as a minifigure similar to Woody from the Toy Story sets. That way he could be tall, blocky, and have a more square head, one decorated with the Frankenstein brow headpiece and with dark coloring around the eyes. There is precedent for including minfigures and minidolls in the same set; this was done in the LEGO Movie 2 sets.
Would have been nice to get a Gomez and a better Lurch.
Bianca also has too much hair when compared to the show, but the piece she gets is probably as close as LEGO can come when it comes to existing parts.
While lining up figures for photos, I found the greatest TV show incongruency to be the relative heights of Morticia and Wednesday. Morticia is a whole head taller than Wednesday in the show while Wednesday in minidolls is taller than Morticia due to the wig. That was worth a laugh.
'Wednesday' HELEN SLOAN/NETFLIX
Growth spurt, I guess.
Accompanying the cottage is a version of the Addams’ limo. Noticeably present on the car are the ADD*4M5 license plate, a roof rack, and a hood ornament.
Noticeably absent is a steering wheel and the rear-facing row of seats. While the roof of the car is attached by two studs and removes easily, removing the windows will be required, along with some effort and creative arm positioning, to seat all four minidolls.
Lurch attaches into the vehicle with studs (because his shoe lift piece is not split and he is a stud taller) while the other dolls’ feet and dress slip over 1x2x1 panels with divider.
The exterior boasts many interesting visual elements including flowers, leaves, gables, columns, gingerbread, large stained glass windows, a tall chimney, and more.
The cottage has six rooms, divided into three sections with one upper and one lower floor each. The sections hinge on bar-and-clip assemblies and do not clip closed. The left and right upper sections are easily separated from the main structure. The center top section, though, does not separate.
While the top sections on the ends of the building do come off, there is little benefit to that feature in this instance as there is no place in the bottom rooms where a figure can be practically placed that is not accessible with the top sections attached.
As is typical of many LEGO buildings, while the rooms are decorative and ornamented, there is a dearth of available space to place figures. Figure placement with attachment to studs is further complicated by the facts that minidoll legs do not move independently as do minifigure legs and minidoll feet are longer than the 1x1 footprint of a minifigure, so an effective equivalent of a 2x2 space is required.
Taking a trip through the cottage, on the left bottom is the kitchen.
Situated above the kitchen is the seance room. Candles are on either side of a small table with a crystal ball. A portrait of Morticia and Gomez is placed above.
Center section bottom is an entryway. It is adorned with a landline phone, grandfather clock and stained glass window. The doorway will accommodate standing passage of the figures, including Lurch, but just barely.
Center section top is a bedroom. The bed is attached to the floor and the roof section is not constructed in a way that it is easily removed, so anyone going to bed has to be floated in. A figure can be attached to the bed in the same way they are attached by the feet in the car.
Top right is the bathroom. The characters can not actually take a bath in there, but they can attend to other…business…some of which may potentially be swordfighting.
Bottom right is a sitting room with a fireplace. Studs on the carpet allow for optional positioning of the chair.
Morticia’s hair extends behind her such that it prevents placing her all the way back in the chair, so sitting her there is a little dodgy. Wednesday has the same issue.
The back of the fireplace is a secret door.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section
Below are the extra elements in the set.
Summary
While the cottage’s design and appointment is charming, cramped interior spaces inhibit dollhouse type play. The secret door behind the fireplace seems superfluous as removal of the chair is required and the flame pieces will likely be disturbed as a figure is passed through. Although the car does accommodate all four figures, disassembly beyond what is prescribed by the design is required to achieve figure placement.
The build is primarily brick stacking with minimal SNOT elements that are for the most part decorative and not structural. The front center gable section roof elements are attached with a single axle, and while they are prone to slight wobble, in my experience they are not prone to falling off.
The set gets some points for being evocative of some Wednesday show elements and may be considered delightful as a display piece but is barely adequate as a play set. Wednesday and Enid’s Dorm Room makes a better play set.
Disclaimer
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review.
33673