• Elsa's Ice Palace

    <h1>Elsa's Ice Palace</h1><div class='tags floatleft'><a href='/sets/43172-1/Elsa-s-Ice-Palace'>43172-1</a> <a href='/sets/theme-Disney'>Disney</a> <a class='subtheme' href='/sets/subtheme-Frozen'>Frozen</a> <a class='year' href='/sets/theme-Disney/year-2019'>2019</a> </div><div class='floatright'>©2019 LEGO Group</div>

    Elsa's Ice Palace

    ©2019 LEGO Group
    Overall rating
    Building experience
    Parts
    Playability
    Value for money

    A Winter Wonderland of Icy Lego Pieces

    Written by (AFOL , bronze-rated reviewer) in United States,

    This set is a re-release of Elsa's Magical Ice Palace (2017), and I was surprised to find no reviews for either version here on Brickset. As a 40-something male, I'm nowhere near the target market for this set, but when I found it on clearance for only $20 US, I couldn't resist buying it and building it.

    The finished palace is beautiful, and it makes a great display piece with lots of icy translucent blue pieces. There is a side build on a 10x6 plate with a tree and a see-saw, and there is also a little three-part sled train as a vehicle of sorts.

    The first floor includes a table with a pink teapot, two clear goblets, and a printed chocolate bar, plus a little sink area with a gold-colored faucet, a carrot, and a cabinet under the sink. There is also a stand with (stickered) sheet music on it. The second floor has a bed (with stickered bedsheets), a stickered rug, and a stickered standing mirror. There are about 10 stickers in this entire set, but they are used well and don't seem to be too many considering the size of the set.

    For playability, there is a spiral staircase to the second floor that can easily be rotated in and out of position, and of course the small see-saw mentioned above. The best play feature is a sliding mechanism that opens and closes the front door, and it is very smooth and glitch-free. A minidoll or minifig can be attached to the sliding mechanism inside so when the doors are opened, the minidoll/minifig slides forward as if they are coming out to greet visitors.

    The set includes two minidolls (Elsa & Anna), and they are wonderfully detailed. There is printing on both the torsos and the dresses, including some nice metallic ink -- silver for Elsa and gold for Anna. While minidoll heads aren't compatible with minifigs (minidoll necks are skinnier), their hair (made of a somewhat rubbery material) is compatible with standard minifigs, providing more options for minifig hairstyles.

    Olaf the Snowman isn't really a minidoll or a minifig, but he looks great as his own thing. Olaf has a molded head that can rotate at the neck, but unfortunately no articulation other than that -- like an actual snowman, his arms are permanently stuck in the position they're in. This set also includes four little "snowgies," which are tiny snowmen (two bricks tall) with printed faces. The snowgies are quite cute, and Lego was generous to include four of them. All four snowgies are identical.

    There's a brick-built snow monster with a printed face (named "Marshmallow"), and it's designed similar to a mech with good articulation for the arms, claws, and legs. It's small compared to the large intimidating monster in the film, but still looks great to me at this size, and can be put into some fun poses.

    This set will also appeal to a lot of people as a parts pack for winter scenes. By my count, there are 172 translucent light blue pieces (in 18 different shapes from small to large), plus another five pieces in the fancier glitter translucent blue, including the two big panels on either side of the front door. There are also 250 white pieces (including a 1x16 brick, a 16x8 plate, and a 16x16 plate), 38 medium azure pieces, and 29 light aqua pieces. (Click here for the full breakdown of parts in this set.) Anyone building a large wintery display (whether it's a Christmas village or the ice planet Hoth) would find plenty of great parts in this set to work with.

    But if you're a fan of "Frozen," I think you will greatly appreciate this set as-is.

    9 out of 10 people thought this review was helpful.