LEGO 43196 Disney Belle and the Beast’s Castle Building Toys from The Beauty and the Beast Movie with Horse Toy, plus Princess & Prince Mini Dolls

Absolutely delightful . Loved by recipient

Daughter loves her Legos and this one fits the bill just right!

It was exactly as described on Amazon

The media could not be loaded.  This is a fantastic set of Lego, so many little extras and add ons, great links to the film, characters and mini figures!So many little nods to the storyline, two Belle characters in her ball gown and her ‘rags’, a mirror with Belle’s father in hidden in a tower, the rose under the glass dome, the ripped picture of the prince that the beast tore, the horse and carriage that Belle takes to the castle, the beasts head and princes head are interchangeable. Adorable tiny Mrs Potts and Chip! There’s Lumiere the candlestick and Cogsworth the clock, these you have to assemble and are a great little addition to the set! Cuisiner the oven which has an opening door and comes with pots and pans that sit on the hobs. Madame de la Grande Bouche is the wardrobe which has opening doors and some tiny accessories to store inside such as a hairbrush! There is a spinning wardrobe section that you can stand Belle on one side and spin to reveal Belle in her ball gown. Theres also a spinning dance floor in the tiny Lego Ballroom, with quaint glass panels. I love the stained glass frontage, the golden castle gates and the little owl statues. The little library is brilliant with two little armchairs and a sliding ladder so Belle can peruse and choose her reading material, as well as two little book accessories that sit in the shelves. There’s also a banquet table with cakes and croissants to feast upon!It was an easy to follow build with all of the instructions placed inside one booklet which I appreciate as it keeps everything in one place so the odd booklet can’t go missing. You can also access the instructions via the app, which also helps as you can save your progress if you wanted to leave the build and come back to it.I feel this is a great set with fantastic play opportunities and value for money with all that is included. You can really relive the story tale and find so many things to entertain!

Growing up, I always loved Lego and 30 years later, I still do. I must admit that my preference was always the basic Lego sets where you could build model cars and trucks (or be as creative as your imagination allowed), along with the Lego Technic models. However, as Lego strives to become ever more popular with a wider target audience, I can see what the appeal of this Lego Disney set might be.The main part of this (which requires full assembly) is a castle, with a few other smaller pieces as well. As always, the instructions for constructing the models are extremely clear but unlike other sets which I've recently constructed, all the instructions are contained within a single book (the thickness of the book can make the task seem a little daunting at the start but the clear illustrations do make it easier). The book clearly identifies the specific bags of parts which will be required to make each part of the model.For the construction of the models, I reckon there is sufficient detail to keep your kids occupied for 3-4 hours in construction alone, never mind the time spent playing with the models thereafter. Once constructed, there are a number of aspects which will help to maintain the interest of your kids, albeit these principally involve spinning things around (but I'm sure imagination will create a story to suit whatever your kids want to do!).As far as I am concerned, the only thing which compromises this Lego set is the price but that seems to be the same as every Lego set these days. However, if you can manage to get past this aspect, it offers no less enjoyment than any other Lego set which I've had the privilege of constructing.

Some recent lego sets have been a little basic with the feeling that they've been dumbing down the bricks just so they can make them look more realistic when built. This Disney Castle, despite being aimed at a younger audience, isn't like that. Yes there are unique pieces that really help to shape this into a good representation of the castle from Beauty and the Beast, but overall it has a lot of bricks and will take a while to build.The brilliant thing is that you can build each piece individually (the instructions are designed to do this as well) and then rather than dealing with an increasingly large build you simply move on to the next one from scratch then clip them together at the end. This is a far better idea.There are loads of nice details, some of which are from the stickers in the set (there are quite a few detailed stickers) but some come from the special features such as the wonderful glass windowed ballroom that has a rotating base and a changing room to change Belle into a dress. There are also loads of characters, all the favourites are includes, some as figures and some as builds, including the wardrobe and cooker that were prominent in the live action movie as well. Chip and Mrs Potts are adorable and even the Beast has his prince face as an alternative.It perhaps could have done with Gaston as a character to re-create more of the story, I do have a feeling the marketing team underestimate girls not wanting to play with the bad characters but I think they'd love to see him included (and, of course, it should be aimed at everyone). That's one small concern, though, in an otherwise great set.