Trick or Treat? The Nightmare Before Christmas in LEGO

Today’s guest article comes from Aubree Moctura (moctura_), one of the driving forces behind Friendshiptember and known for her fandom of the spooktacular.

We reached out to Aubree to see if she would like to review LEGO’s new 21351 Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas set on BrickNerd’s behalf. She replied, “The Nightmare Before Christmas is my favorite movie of all time!!!” Will this tribute set also become her family’s favorite LEGO set of all time? Read on to find out!

A Welcome Nightmare Before Christmas

T’was a long time ago, longer now than it seems
That a little girl was changed by grand sights on a screen.
She asked her mom for a pet spider to hold.
Placed a pumpkin on her head, orange and bold.
If you had been wondering when her spookiness began,
It was this life-changing film, for this Nightmarish fan.

*Cue music*

When BrickNerd asked if I wanted to receive The Nightmare Before Christmas LEGO Ideas set on their behalf, they knew I loved Halloween and all things spooky. However, what they didn’t know was my passion for The Nightmare Before Christmas or how impactful Tim Burton’s movie has been for me throughout my life. 

As you may have guessed from the cheesy re-write of the opening poem, I first saw The Nightmare Before Christmas (NBC) as a child in the theater. This moment in time was a core memory in my life. Since then, this movie has always been my favorite. So much so that I watch it year-round, with more watches around Halloween and Christmas, of course. However, my true appreciation for this film began when I started studying it in school for both music and art. It’s a masterpiece. I’m not using that word lightly here, it’s the first of its kind! It took hundreds of artists to create this film, who in turn have inspired so many of us to create our own art around this fandom.

I personally have made drawings, paintings, cosplays, pumpkin carvings, clay sculptures and I’m sure many more things that were all inspired by NBC. Thanks to Simon Scott and the LEGO Ideas team, I now get to say that I’ve made an official NBC LEGO set too! 

What’s This? What’s This?

The set itself is stunning, and it is built in three sections: Spiral Hill, Jack’s House and Town Hall. All three have their own instruction booklets which makes this set perfect to build with your best ghoul friends! 

Lock, Shock, and Barrel,,, or is that Shock, Barrel, and Lock?...

In the instruction booklet of the Town Hall you’ll find a page dedicated to Simon Scott, the fan designer of the set. Simon (@tvrulesmylife) had submitted the project to LEGO Ideas twice (it had my vote both times). It reached the 10,000 vote milestone on its first submission, but ultimately it was not chosen during the review stage. Thank the pumpkin lords that Simon was persuaded to resubmit. After some design changes and a record speed of reaching 10,000 votes for the second time, it was finally chosen to become an official LEGO Ideas set. 

The build itself features interesting techniques to achieve the unique angles of Halloween Town. You’ll feel the warmth in your bones as you build the fun trinkets and Easter eggs this set has to offer. 

On Jack’s chalkboard you’ll find the formula for Christmas that reads: “(S.I.) = XMAS?” which is a really sweet Easter egg to Simon as the fan designer. My personal favorite was the amount of skeleton heads the set has! 

You get six minifigures; Jack, Sally, Sandy Claws, Shock, Lock and Barrel, plus a brick-built Mayor and a new element for Zero—the most perfect goodest ghost dog.

Shock, Lock and Barrel have fairly basic legs and torsos, with only Barrel having a printed torso, but it works. They have double sided heads, but no masks. The designers said they tried to make masks for the trio but they always ended up looking demonic. Those are sketches and prototypes I want to see! 

*Side note* Don’t throw away the part for Jack’s coat-tails! Trust me, it is hiding from you somewhere.

How did we get this far without mentioning that the Jack minifigure has the tall legs? I don’t think any of us need that reminder but I’d be remiss if I didn’t call that out. It is one of the great details that helps separate the figure in this set from the Disney CMF series of NBC from 2019. I personally would love to see Jack as a minidoll. Don’t come for me—it would work! He would look great.

There are many great elements in the set, but the moon is a standout. We were all curious about what it was made of, and to me, it felt like a light plastic. When we asked the question during LEGO’s designer interview, the answer we were given is that it is a “foil card.” I don’t have any elements similar to it in my collection, but I hope we get more like it! 

“Where’s That? Where’s That?”

This set has a lot of great things to offer but as any good fandom nerd would, you have to ask yourself “what would I add?” LEGO designers have many constraints on what they can put into LEGO sets, especially when in the realm of IPs. For this particular set, they had to work with Disney and Tim Burton Productions who each had to approve everything that went into the set. Plus it has to honor the original fan design by Simon, which is what survived the Ideas process… and not to forget meeting the expectations of all the fans. Talk about pressure!

When I started my journey on building this set, my daughter actually pointed out something to me that she found was missing for her; the Mayor’s car! So she ran off to build her own version. A few minutes later she brings me a car with some fun details, including wonky tires because it wobbles when it’s driving on the road. I love this approach. She happily built her own version of the Mayor’s car and now it is a great addition to my set.

The biggest question and complaint I've been hearing since the set has been revealed is “WHERE IS OOGIE?!?” Which IS a valid question. Oogie is an iconic character from the film and I think we would have loved to have seen him in the set but there are many reasons why he didn’t make it into the set. The main reason is he wasn’t part of the character line up that Tim Burton Productions and Disney had approved. He isn’t in the scenes that are portrayed in the set, so they thought it would make the most sense to leave him out. Simon also says you can blame him for not putting Oogie in the original submission. 

However, I was thinking… Oogie IS in one of the scenes depicted in the set. Just maybe in a different way then we would have imagined. As I mentioned before, the moon is a stand out element, and where is the first place we see Oogie? As a shadow on the moon at night! So let’s see if we can add him in!

Let’s Oogie Boogie!

First, I had to make the moon sit above spiral hill instead of behind it. To accomplish this I needed two trans clear inkwells, a trans clear 1x1 round with open stud and a trans clear 12L bar (part 49546). 

Then I made a cut out of Oogie Boogie on card stock using a pattern I found online. You will want the paper to be thick enough to block the light. Then I used a flashlight to make him appear on the moon! Viola, you have a simple way to add Oogie to your set!

I tried a couple different ways to make this purely LEGO. What I was hoping would work was using a light brick and making the cutout of Oogie from an instruction booklet or box, but I couldn’t quite make that work just yet. I also think a brick built yellow moon with a silhouette of Oogie built into it would be a fantastic idea to add him in. 

Dearly Departing Thoughts

The Nightmare Before Christmas has been inspiring me to create since childhood and this LEGO set is no different. The LEGO community itself is one full of creativity. I am grateful every day for the inspiring people who have welcomed me into this hobby, and given me a place to express myself.

This set is a beautiful display piece that any fan of the movie can love. I appreciate its “build together” features, which is a great way to share your passions and hobbies with friends and loved ones. Building it was a real “treat.” This will be a well-loved, well-played-with addition into our LEGO and NBC collection. I’ll continue to create more additions for it, and I’m sure my children will too.

What would you have liked to see added into this set? The great thing about LEGO is that if for some reason you do find that a set is a little lackluster, you can always build your own creations to really make it sparkle.

Spooky Building! 👻

The LEGO 21351 Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is available starting on September 6, 2024 for $199 US.

DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by LEGO. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

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