LEGO Brick Sketches 40456 Mickey Mouse Review

Earlier in the week, we reviewed LEGO Brick Sketches Minnie Mouse. Now we’re reviewing its partner, Mickey Mouse. Either set looks fabulous by itself, but the two sets work beautifully as a pair. They’re very similar – both Minnie and Mickey’s faces are constructed in the exact same way. But the different coloured backgrounds, Mickey’s accented bowtie and Minnie’s hair bow give both sets enough distinction to be fun builds in their own right.

What’s in the box?

As you’d expect for a set that contains just 118 pieces, the contents of LEGO 40456 are fairly simple. There are four small bags of bricks, all un-numbered, so you’ll have to open them all at once. There’s also a slightly-larger-than-A6 sized instruction booklet. Pop it all out of the box, open up your bags, and you’re ready to get going.

The build

LEGO Brick Sketches 40456 Mickey Mouse is a very quick build – it took us just over 10 minutes, though expect to spend a bit longer if you’re newer to LEGO building. Despite the limited amount of pieces, though, the Brick Sketches range uses bricks in unusual and interesting ways thanks to the way they’re layered on a flat surface. Building a Brick Sketch is unlike any other type of LEGO model, and thanks to that it’s a really interesting experience, despite its brevity.

As you can see from the image below, the first layer of bricks to go on doesn’t reveal anything about the finished model:

There, you can see the smooth red tiles, which will form Mickey Mouse’s background. The other studded bricks will become hidden underneath Mickey once the rest of him has been formed. We love the way his big, round ears overhang the ‘canvas’ slightly, as does his yellow bow tie. His nose provides an interesting construction too; a hinge brick is used to tilt it slightly upwards, giving his face a great sense of depth.

Despite being only 118 pieces, this is a really fun build to put together. It’s just a shame it’s over too quickly. We’d love to see the techniques used in Brick Sketches transplanted into bigger builds. Imagine putting together a huge brick-built canvas in this style!

Play or display?

Unfortunately, ‘Play’ isn’t a factor at all when it comes to LEGO Brick Sketches, and Mickey Mouse is no different. These are purely display sets. The back of the model comes with a stand and a wall-hanging hook so you can display it either on the wall or on a flat surface.

We love that you get a choice – ours will eventually be going on the wall alongside sister set, Minnie Mouse. As you can see, the pair complement each other perfectly, with their contrasting red and yellow colourways.

Value for money?

At £15, LEGO Brick Sketches 40456 Mickey Mouse might sound a little overpriced. After all, it does only contain 118 pieces. That’s less than some Brick Headz sets, which retail for £9.99. But we love the uniqueness of these, and so we think £14.99 is money well spent on an innovative piece of decoration. If you enjoyed building the previous wave of Brick Sketches, you’ll enjoy building Mickey Mouse just as much. And just look at his little face; how could you not love that?