Review : LEGO Disney 43263 Beauty and the Beast Castle

Today we quickly take a look at the contents of the LEGO Disney set 43263 Beauty and the Beast Castle, a box of 2916 pieces which will be available as an Insiders preview on the official online store from April 1, 2025 at a retail price of €279,99. The product will then be available globally from April 4, 2025.

Disney castle lovers who already have the references in their collection 71040 The Disney Castle (€49.99) and/or 43222 DisneyCastle (€399,99), will be happy to have a new building to display on their shelves and this time, as the product title indicates, it is the castle from Beauty and the Beast.

Be careful, this new castle is less ambitious than the one in the set 43222 DisneyCastle which culminates at 80 cm high, this new construction reaching only 53 cm high but retaining a certain presence accentuated by the progressively reduced size of the windows which gives a fairly convincing forced perspective effect.

This isn't a cheap castle, though, as the whole thing is really detailed and has some interesting features. The proposal does indeed replicate the main towers present on the castle seen in the 1991 animated film, although some of them are slightly repositioned or reduced, and the entrance porch, which is placed lower than the level of the main door in front of the building, is missing. Thinking about it, the model obtained here is actually more the one seen via the Casey Jr. train attraction in Fantasyland or in Tokyo Disneyland than the one seen in the film.

We could discuss the choice of colors for the walls and roofs, it's very contrasting, perhaps a little too much for those who would have preferred more pastel shades, especially for the walls. As it is, it's frankly mauve (Lavender at LEGO) with some gray bricks on the surface for the walls and dark red (Dark Red) for the roofs and we will have to deal with it.

Construction is carried out in modules that must then be stacked to obtain the final layout of the premises. This is practical both in the assembly process and in handling the result obtained, with the possibility of moving the thing without taking too many risks.

Likewise, this division into several modules will simplify the storage of the castle if you decide that it has been displayed enough or that you need space to display another set from your collection in the same place.

The assembly of the product remains pleasant without being revolutionary: the building offers some sequences that require attention and meticulousness but it also makes use of shortcuts with some panels and other large pieces that allow you to quickly gain height. Lots of SNOT (for Studs Not on Top) to come for example to build the red staircase to cover the sections of walls of the towers, the techniques at work here are used wisely.

We notice that the floors are not all covered with Tiles Depending on the level, the visible studs may seem practical for displaying the characters provided, but the finish may seem very uneven depending on the space for some.

The various interior spaces of the castle are well laid out and furnished, the designer has made good use of the open side of the place which takes the form of a luxury playset on a different scale from the facade. The grand staircase is removable, you can display it separately from the castle by staging for example the two main characters without disfiguring the place.

Seen from the side, the castle is, as is often the case, of a finesse which brings it back to its condition of a simple cinema facade, even if the whole thing is a little deeper than some of the LEGO proposals based on the same principle, I am thinking in particular of the manor in the LEGO Harry Potter set. 76453 Malfoy ManorThis relative depth allows for a slightly more accomplished interior layout than usual, with the possibility of furnishing the room on the back wall and placing usable accessories such as tables and chairs within easy reach.

It's a common choice at LEGO to use this dual scale, which allows the minifigures to take advantage of the rooms of the building in question without penalizing the product's display potential. Unsurprisingly, the higher you go, the more symbolic and cramped the available spaces become: while the spacious entrance hall may seem a little empty, the niche that houses the rose under a bell jar is, for its part, reduced to its simplest expression.

Without spoiling too much of the pleasure of discovering the secrets of this castle, know that it has a few features like the inevitable ballroom with a rotating floor, the dining room table with its dishes that can be set in motion thanks to a few gears or even the possibility of changing the appearance of The Beast via a few elements stored in a niche placed at the top of a tower.

These features are welcome; they bring a bit of life to a product that will inevitably end its career on a shelf. The bravest might try a motorized ballroom that could also have integrated some LEDs if LEGO finally took this project seriously.

The included minifigures include Belle, the Beast, Gaston, LeFou, and Maurice. Belle can be posed standing in her beautifully crafted ball gown or seated on a chair by replacing the lower half of the figure with a collection of pieces. LEGO has provided for both possibilities, and it's a welcome addition.

The Beast becomes what some call Prince Adam thanks to the hair provided in a "secret" niche dedicated to accessories, it is possible to store the other appearance of the character with an additional support provided for the tail. The pad-printed "human" head remains on the figurine in all cases. I find the Beast's head a little too "cartoonish" with its very big blue eyes but that's very personal.

Gaston, LeFou, and Maurice are also very well executed; regulars will immediately recognize these three characters. It's a shame about the usual technical errors concerning the color differences between the pad-printed pieces and the mass-dyed elements; you end up getting used to them.

LEGO also provides Lumiere, Fifi (Plumette), Cogsworth (Big Ben), Chip (Zip), and Mrs. Potts (Mrs. Potts) with pretty pad prints on these objects that come to life. It's worth noting that LEGO is content with a very reasonable sheet of stickers in this box.

Whether it's a slightly fragile luxury playset for lucky children or a sufficiently detailed exhibition model for a nostalgic adult fan, it's up to you to assess the positioning of this product, which offers a bit of both and is sold for €280, depending on your requirements.

There are obvious architectural compromises here, aesthetic shortcuts, features that are certainly present but limited, and this set will undoubtedly not be unanimously appreciated. Nevertheless, the exercise seems to me to be rather successful with a building with immediately recognizable contrasting colors, an effort on the included characters when LEGO could have been satisfied with the main protagonists and a building experience that knows how to be entertaining. Many current products from LEGO do not offer this.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 24, 2025 at 23:59 pm. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. Avoid "I'm participating" or "I'm trying my luck", we suspect that this is the case.

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