43197 The Ice Castle is the fourth Lego edition of Elsa's ice palace — fifth if you count the DUPLO version, or sixth if you count the re-release — and is by far the largest and most detailed yet. Ironically, it got a somewhat cold reception: LEGO did not send out review copies to any of the major Lego news sites, so it flew a bit under the radar and was soon lost in the flood of new releases in 2021. Arguably, this should have been released 7 or 8 years ago when Disney's Frozen was at its peak, or in 2019 when the sequel came out, but better late than never, I guess?

It does seem like this set was released at an odd point in time. 43172 was still available until December 2021 — several months after the release of this set — and then LEGO released yet another ice palace in August. Which means we had a total of three different Elsa's ice palaces available during the latter months of 2021. Make of that what you will. Personally, I liked the look of this set and thought it worth buying, albeit at a sizeable discount.

The Minidolls:

The set includes 5 minidolls plus 4 snowgies and.... a penguin-looking thingy? I admit I had no idea what it was at first. A quick google search revealed that this little black penguin-mutant is actually Elsa's childhood toy, a stuffed puffin named Sir Jorgenbjorgen. He.... he doesn't really look anything like the source material, to be honest. He's far too plump, lacks detail, and the beak is downright weird. The graphic designers clearly tried their best to print a 3D beak onto a 2D curved surface (and to their credit, it could've turned out a lot worse), but it simply doesn't work. I can see now why they don't give minifigures noses. A new mould, as the teddy bear, would've looked much better, but would've been a waste of machinery on something that would probably be one-use only. Sir Jorgenbjorgen is a nice Easter egg, but he's still a bit disappointing.

The snowgies, four of them, have the same old face printing but now employ unprinted BB-8 heads for bodies instead of the minifgure heads from previous sets. Frankly, I don't see the reason for the change. They look decent either way.

The character selection is pretty good, featuring Anna, Elsa in two outfits, Kristoff, and Olaf, although it's a shame Sven is missing, as he would've been the perfect addition to complete the main quintet of characters. I won't complain about minidoll physiology here, since that topic has been covered elsewhere, though I personally prefer minifigures. Having said that, these minidolls are surprisingly high-quality. Kristoff and Anna are both nicely detailed, the former carrying a cleverly-made lantern and the latter donning a new magenta cape, but Olaf and Elsa are the real stand-outs.

The new Olaf mould is probably the best approximation of Olaf achievable given the restraints of the medium. The nose is still slightly too big and the wrong shape, and the twigs for his "hair" are slightly too thick, but those are forgivable inaccuracies. Overall, Olaf looks excellent.

Elsa comes in two flavours here: one is her coronation dress, complete with orb and sceptre, and the other is the sparkly crystal-blue dress she created out of thin air at the end of her musical number (I'm not mocking the film, I actually enjoyed that song). I totally agree with the inclusion of both Elsa versions, since these are probably the two best minidolls ever produced. The attention to detail is astounding! Each figure is clad in a long sweeping cape twice their own height, giving them a sense of resplendence and majestic grace — not something you often get with Lego. The torso printing is equally amazing as it actually goes all the way round on both dresses, even on the sides. You don't see that on minifigures. Minidolls 1 – Minifigures 0! Never thought I'd say that.

Do I still prefer minifigures? Yes. But the minidolls from this set sure are giving them a run for their money.

The Parts:

Based on comments sections, the parts are what will probably draw most fans to this set. And it is indeed a fantastic parts pack: 17 recoloured elements exclusive to this set, and 55 that have appeared in less than 5 sets to date (excluding minidoll elements). The most enticing pieces are, of course, the ones that come in transparent opalescent light blue — the "ice-coloured" pieces. The Ice Castle includes 10 different elements in this colour, or 146 overall:

• 2 of Windscreen 2x5x2
• 1 of Satellite dish 6x6
• 2 of Elves diamond w/ 3.2mm shaft
• 34 of Pentagonal Nexo Knights tile
• 2 of Windscreen 4x3x3
• 12 of Windscreen 4x5
• 8 of Brick 1x2x5
• 8 of Brick 1x2
• 50 of Wall panel 2x2x5, 45 deg.
• 27 of Tile 1x4

(I think the opalescent transparent pieces might be made from a different type of ABS plastic than regular transparent pieces, since they feel softer and are less prone to scratching.)

There are also 16 of what I think is a new mould: roof tile 2x2x2, 65 deg. At least, I haven't seen this part used in any other set of which I am aware. So I think it's new. (And no, it's not one of the opalescent pieces, it's just regular transparent light blue.) It's a lovely addition to the slope family that fills a niche gap in the roster of slopes-with-wedges. I definitely expect it to appear in more colours later.

Lastly, there's one more piece that caught my eye: Technic half bushing in white. You get 22 of them plus a spare, and so far they're exclusive to this set. Up till now, they've only appeared in yellow and light bluish-grey. It's not often you see a normally colour-locked Technic piece released in a new colour, so it's perhaps a bit odd they chose to do exactly that for this set — and for this set alone. I wonder if we'll ever see it again in future Technic sets?

The Build:

A funny thing happened while I was building this set. Bag 3's minibag had the parts for Stage 4, and Bag 4's minibag had the parts for Stage 3. Somehow, they'd got swapped around — which was very confusing for a hot minute, let me tell you!

It's probably an isolated issue, but if my memory serves me right, LEGO factories weigh each bag to determine if they have the correct number of parts.... so the fact that this sneaked its way through undetected is just hilarious.

Anyway.

The build is split across 9 bags (*snerk*) and took me a little less than 4 hours. There's also a large sticker sheet with 28 stickers on it. Some of them have easter eggs or add important details, but the majority are superfluous and can be easily ignored; the model looks pretty good with or without stickers. The build itself is fairly uncomplicated for its size, but I don't see that as a drawback. Rather, I think the set strikes a lovely balance between good ol' fashioned brick-stacking and modern building techniques. I was especially impressed by how — despite containing dozens and dozens of wall panels and door frames — the castle walls never feel skeletal or boring. My favourite part, however, is the "ice" roof above the balcony: the designers used some clever angle-work to cover what would have otherwise been an unsightly gap.

The Completed Model:

No question about it, the completed Ice Castle looks amazing. It's tall, imposing, and stands out from the crowd, easily surpassing all of its many, many predecessors in every way. It is not 100% faithful to the source material, though — but as you will see, I don't think the set suffers for it.

The Interior:

The grand staircase is fabulous. It's not accurate to the one in the movie, but it is suitably icy and has the same aura. I imagine it's also the largest single staircase in a Lego set. Underneath the stairs is a white grand piano; it's not actually the perfect shape, but I love it anyway. There are lots of Frozen references on the second floor — some stickers, other brick-built, like the Queen Iduna bust. The third floor is tiny but manages to squeeze in a canopy bed for Elsa, which I thought was a nice touch.

The Exterior:

Elsa's ice palace in the film is very narrow and tall, and the Lego version is a bit short in comparison. Despite that, it doesn't come across as squat, which I think is a testament to the designers' skills — and at 65cm, it's still an impressive sight.

The colour scheme might bug some people because it's not pure transparent blue, it's transparent blue, aqua, and white. It's a limitation of the medium — they can only make so many parts in a new colour before it becomes too expensive. Taking that limit into account, I think the designers have done extraordinarily well. Rather than spreading the colours throughout, they've instead colour-blocked certain areas — trans. opalescent light blue for the ice pillars, aqua for the doors and sides, white for the angled sections — which is surprisingly attractive. It really looks like it's been made out of ice and snow (also helped by the pervasive use of sharp angles to give it a crystalline structure).

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

• Minidolls look fantastic
• Lots of obscure Frozen references
• Tons of new parts, including a new mould
• A fun building experience (the bags getting mixed up was so strange and yet so funny)
• Beautiful, sweeping staircase and a grand piano
• Looks very impressive on display
• Best Lego version of Elsa's ice castle yet.

Cons:

• Sir Jorgenbjorgen is weird
• Feels like it came out at the wrong time
• Is not very accurate to the source material (it resembles Elsa's palace, but it's nowhere near one-to-one)

First, a side note: I gave it 5 stars in everything because sometimes people place too much emphasis on the star rating and not on the actual review, and I didn't think that was fair to the set. (I'd probably give it a 4/5 though.)

Despite noticeable inaccuracies and one dubious-looking toy puffin of questionable printing standards, there's a lot to love about the Ice Castle. Thanks to its unique design and colour scheme, it will definitely stand out on your shelf (if you can find the space for it). I would recommend this set not just to Frozen fans, but to anyone who loves Lego castles in general. And I guess spaceship fans too, because — let's be honest — there's never been a Lego castle that looked more like a spaceship.

Bonus Points: Is It Swooshable?

Yes, yes it is.