Review: 75691 Glinda & Elphaba Bookends
Posted by SetToBuild,
This is not the first set of its kind: Disney fans might be reminded of 43227 Villain Icons, and just before the release of this set, the book nook series launched with Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Whether or not a Wicked book nook will join these is less certain, but let’s take a look at one of just two 18+ sets we’ve finally seen in the Wicked theme.
Summary
75691 Glinda & Elphaba Bookends, 1,327 pieces.
£109.99 / $129.99 / €119.99 | 8.3p / 9.8c / 9.0c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Attractive bookends conceal special minifigures
- Function well as bookends
- Substantial and detailed
- Excellent figures
- Worse value in USD
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
Glinda wears her iconic bubble dress. The same crown and wand are used as before in 75684 Welcome to Emerald City, with a now-common hair piece used across the second wave of minifigures and minidolls. In my opinion, the skirt is better depicted in minifigure form using the CMF queen’s ball gown piece (despite its plain back face) rather than the earlier minidoll using the full skirt piece.
Minidolls are consistently much better than minifigures in representing skin on torsos: the light nougat neckline printed on a bright pink surround continues to bother me.
Pfannee is one of Glinda’s ‘conniving compatriots’, and is much more prominent in the latest movie than the (usually presented as a woman) character has been in the stage shows. This probably explains why he hasn’t appeared in LEGO form until this wave. The torso is detailed and versatile. I never thought I’d be complaining about white printing being too opaque, but the spectacle lenses make this head look much older than the Shiz University student should. I look forward to using it for a disgruntled librarian!
Elphaba continues to use the same iconic hat-and-hair piece from the previous wave, and her unique outfit is the minifigure version of this minidoll from 75684 Welcome to Emerald City, showing the layered purple and black dress without a pinstripe jacket on top. The face is shared with 75685 Emerald City Wall Art, showing simple closed- and open-mouthed faint smiles, and delicate green freckles.
The Wizard also emulates his minidoll’s outfit from that first large Wicked set. (The database entry shows that minidoll with hair, but the same hat is included there too.) He keeps his leg and shoe detailing, gains a little more detailing to the front of his jacket, and uses printed coat tails instead of the minidoll skirt/leg piece. These are sadly always a bit lacklustre as the printing is not continued around the sides.
Fiyero is fairly similar in minifigure form to his minidoll debut in 75684 Welcome to Emerald City, as the two ensembles are not dissimilar. The main difference is that he’s now wearing just a waistcoat with the sleeves of a slightly more detailed loose white shirt exposed in the horseriding outfit. He’s lost his two-toned trousers and boots, and the traditional neck printing issues still prevail.
Madame Morrible’s figure shows the biggest departure from the earlier minidolls. It depicts the blue velvet dress with gold detailing that she wears while teaching at Shiz University, before her change to more green (or rather, emerald!) tones later in the story. The dress is excellent, but the gold doesn’t perfectly align, and the white-on-navy skirt could be better. This figure uses the same hair, complete with an accessory pin hole indicating its origin as a minidoll hair piece, but the hole is still not used for anything.
Completed Model
The completed pair of bookends includes two brick-built books with ornamented ‘G’ and ‘E’ lettering to their spines, and a small plinth on each side with further
books and trinkets to suit the Glinda/Shiz University and Elphaba/Emerald City themes of the two sides. I like that the two books are slightly different heights (just like the characters are!), so that the display still looks appealing without any real books between them.
On the underside of each, feet are formed using the rubber track attachments, which normally provide grip on the base of vehicle treads. Despite being around for a while in that function, recently they have not only provided friction for these bookends but also stabilised the feet of 75417 AT-ST and 71860 Lloyd's Titan Mech, among others. They’re very successful for their purpose in this set.
The first half of the set depicts books, scenes and objects associated with Glinda, including Shiz University and her wedding. The butterfly is similarly constructed to those in 75688 Glinda's Wedding Day, at a slightly smaller scale. The flowers are not too complex, given the modern standards for Botanicals sets, but they have satisfying attachments: the angled clips within the vase fix them securely in the optimal angle for display, leaning within the vase.
The interior face of the book reveals a hidden surprise: a microscale scene of Shiz University with a space for Glinda to stand. I was blown away when this took shape during the build process. The unfortunate different-coloured bricks within the arch mean it’s much better looking with the figure covering these. Glinda’s bubble dress doesn’t quite suit the university setting, but it is an understandable choice as her iconic look.
The lock shape on the heart here is the first time I’ve put a sticker on a gold ink piece—it feels quite wrong! Unfortunately, not only that, but it makes the imperfections on the clear sticker extremely obvious.
Appropriately, the teacher and classmate are stored inside the Shiz University side of the model.
After my very good first impression building the Shiz side of the set, I found the second book less exciting than the first, perhaps because the structure is fairly similar in the early stages. However, it did go by quickly, which is all we can ask for in repetitive builds!
The second hidden microscale scene depicts the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. Its construction is a bit simpler than the first, and the end result (while effective) didn’t wow me so much. It also includes spaces for Elphaba to store her accessories; she carries a slightly different broom, which features an anti-stud on the base of the bristles, allowing it to stand up within the bookend display. The Grimmerie also fits neatly to one side, and interestingly here is constructed from two pieces rather than the single triangle tile that's been used before.
The Wizard and Fiyero are (somewhat precariously) held within the triangular Grimmerie book on the Emerald City side of the model. A red poppy for Fiyero and a map of Oz for The Wizard are hidden in their sleeping spaces, which are fitting nods to details in the story.
From behind, both bookends surprisingly don’t look too bad. Given they’re so close to being fully finished-looking from all sides, it’s a slight shame that the ‘page edge’ look isn’t continued around the books. However, we can’t complain about that if the parts budget was spent on details or minifigures instead—after all, most owners will probably display these against a backdrop.
Unfortunately, the glue on the clear-backed stickers felt poorer than usual, and they picked up at the edges too easily and showed imperfections or gaps in the glue uniformity.
I was relatively surprised by the number of spare parts, which hints at the ‘18+’ level of detail and part density hidden within the set.
Conclusion
As far as 18+ LEGO sets go, this one stacks up pretty well: over 1300 parts, fair price-per-piece, several exclusive and detailed minifigures, and a successful ‘real-world’ function. Perhaps I just don’t shop for bookends often enough (read: ever—there’s no space on my shelves!), because I’m not ready to learn that paying over £100 for a pair is reasonable. However, since this set’s launch, I’ve hardly seen it discounted, which suggests that more than enough fans of Wicked, LEGO or both have been snapping up this set eagerly! It also compares relatively well to 43227 Villain Icons, with more minifigures, and is more explicitly identified as having a ‘real-life’ function as bookends. Overall, it’s a lovely creation and fitting for the target market’s tastes.
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25 comments on this article
The set looks fantastic and is an interesting build. I'm not fan enough to add it to my collection, mostly because I do not feel the urge for bookends like I might otherwise buy an additional location building to add to my very crowded Lego City.
i've been trying to hunt this set down during the christmas season but ended up settling with the wall art.... i'll get this eventually... after i clear some star wars wishlists
Jeff Goldblum racking up yet another minifigure. Man's making waves.
Is it possible to show a pixture of what these look like with a book nook set or two between them?
Regarding the value, I am not sure I agree.
Depends on if there is tax added to the USD.
Price £109.99 / $129.99 / €119.99
Currency conversions right now:
£109.99 is $147.45 and €126.74.
€126.74 = $147.44
€119.99 = $139.59
Minifigs are ok, the set, very nice.
Target here in the US had a sale on this set prior to Black Friday I was almost certain was an error, with my employee discount I ended up paying around $80 which felt very fair.
Just disappointing that they found ways to hide all the minifigures but no way to display them.
@Toa_of_Pi said:
"Is it possible to show a pixture of what these look like with a book nook set or two between them?"
I'm afraid we don't have any of those, sorry! The green book here is just under 23 studs tall, while the Sherlock Holmes book nook looks to be 24 studs + the top details, if that helps?
This set sits nicely against the Pop-up book ( 21315 ), but the spine of that book is less detailed. The Villain Icons set ( 43227 ) has too much texture on its right-hand face to add one of these against it, and the Storybook Adventures sets are too small to look good immediately next to this either. Maybe should have put a sentence in the review to lament that we can't make a full shelf of Lego books!
@ShivaMT said:
"Regarding the value, I am not sure I agree."
Hmm, you're right, thank you. I'm now a bit puzzled - if I accidentally mixed up that con from another review, I don't remember what I had meant to write here! Maybe there just aren't any :)
Bonus Lego bookend fact that didn't make it into the article: set 852521 is a pair of glued brick-built bookends with the Lego logo printed on them, with I think metal plates to stabilise them with the weight of the books on top. Sadly I'm not sure I've ever bought a bookend, never mind these - I wish I had!
Ugh…stop with these good reviews. I can’t keep adding to my wish list! :o)
I hadn't thought about it until I read the words "green freckles," but now I want the Witch's head to make a custom figure of Tendi from Lower Decks.
@Crux said:
"Jeff Goldblum racking up yet another minifigure. Man's making waves."
Anybody hear that? It's a, um, it's an impact tremor, is what it is. I'm fairly alarmed here.
Target had this discounted in November believe first full week for $89-90
I bought a copy Then. Target had a lot of great sales in November however targets terrible customer service on the phone is what will always hold them back
@TheOtherMike said:
"I hadn't thought about it until I read the words "green freckles," but now I want the Witch's head to make a custom figure of Tendi from Lower Decks."
Oh yeah! I can’t unsee that either now! She can join the enterprise D crew for now.
@Crux said:
"Jeff Goldblum racking up yet another minifigure. Man's making waves."
Yep, we pointed that out in a previous review - if we count the minifigure and minidoll separately despite being the same character, he’s a top contender. @CapnRex101 will need to update this article: https://brickset.com/article/51885/which-actor-has-the-most-minifigures
@crankybricks said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I hadn't thought about it until I read the words "green freckles," but now I want the Witch's head to make a custom figure of Tendi from Lower Decks."
Oh yeah! I can’t unsee that either now! She can join the enterprise D crew for now."
Or, come up with a Mistress of the Winter Constellations outfit.
Between this and 75685 I’m a little miffed that two of the prettiest recent sets are for a thing I’ve never got around to watching. Still, it’s great for the fans that they get nice things.
1/10 Hate the "playsets" that mimic real life stuff instead of being a cool castle.
Books tend to be displayed alphabetically— why does G come before E here! It doesn't even work for their surnames (Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland)
@jmck45 said:
"Books tend to be displayed alphabetically— why does G come before E here! It doesn't even work for their surnames (Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland)"
Not everyone displays their books the same way. Some people go for whatever they think looks best, some people go by date of publication, and there are plenty of other ways to display one's books.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @jmck45 said:
"Books tend to be displayed alphabetically— why does G come before E here! It doesn't even work for their surnames (Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland)"
Not everyone displays their books the same way. Some people go for whatever they think looks best, some people go by date of publication, and there are plenty of other ways to display one's books."
Fontname, weight, page-count. Price-per-page, if I'm feeling frisky.
@jmck45 said:
"Books tend to be displayed alphabetically— why does G come before E here! It doesn't even work for their surnames (Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland)"
I have never heard that outside of a library (and even then that's just the Author alphabetically)...
Mine are on shelves how they look good together. Colors, Titles, Authors be damned...
@jmck45 said:
"Books tend to be displayed alphabetically— why does G come before E here! It doesn't even work for their surnames (Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland)"
I have never heard that outside of a library (and even then that's just the Author alphabetically)...
Mine are on shelves how they look good together. Colors, Titles, Authors be damned...
I got this set in November at that awesome Target sale. I don't care for the movies, but the set looked neat enough. Probably should have saved the money, but you see a deal you spend spend spend...
I don't know yet if I will build it, but it looks neat enough on its own. The details are fun.
@Sethro3 said:
"I got this set in November at that awesome Target sale. I don't care for the movies, but the set looked neat enough. Probably should have saved the money, but you see a deal you spend spend spend..."
CONSUME!
@TheOtherMike said:
" @Sethro3 said:
"I got this set in November at that awesome Target sale. I don't care for the movies, but the set looked neat enough. Probably should have saved the money, but you see a deal you spend spend spend..."
CONSUME!"
So do I take my sunglasses off or put them on?