Disney Castle(s)

Build Log - March 2017 

Alright guys, here it is. For our birthdays, we got the Lego Disney Castle (71040). I took pictures during the build (and at the time, posted it onto a Facebook note, which is mostly copied-and-pasted here), so you can see the progress.

But it's hard to get a sense of scale from the picture of the castle, so here's a picture of the box on our table before I begin.

That's 19” x 23” x 7” of legos - over 4000 pieces. And then there’s the book.  491 pages, ya’ll. This is going to take a while.

Well...Thirty-four bags marked with numbers 1 - 14, plus the book and a small sticker sheet. A very small sticker sheet, for such a large build. Which means the special-detail bricks are mostly printed instead. Printed bricks are nicer than stickers, after all.

Here's the structure of the base. They had me build a framework, then put some flat pieces on the bottom of it, then start adding flat pieces to the top. Here you can see the tile mosaic floor, which is recessed a bit below the main floor.

With most of the base floor completed, we've already added the first movie reference, for the Princess and the Frog. The information and instruction book shows all the movies that will be referenced in the build. I'll try to show most of them as we go.

And here is Stage 1 (of 14) completed. I love the intricate steps leading up. Each level of steps is built all the way back to what will be the castle walls, and the staggered smooth and standard tiles are lovely.


All in all, Stage 1 took around an hour to complete.

We're beginning to go vertical with Stage Two. Here's Mickey with a couple of columns and torches.

I even started seeing pieces that were new to me during this build. This one was the first; I've seen it in a few other builds since then, and even used it in other custom designs.

And Stage Two is complete, with six vertical elements - four of them using hinges, for what I presume will be angled walls. Or maybe secret passages?

You can actually see an error here where I placed the far-right column too close to the center, making the stuff between those angled walls fail to fit. It's not symmetrical! Backtracking a bit in the book, I did fix it before anything went on top of them.

Stage Three built up the entrance, with doors and railings and very complicated lamps. My husband helped me work on this part. He said it was too much like writing code (his day job) for him to relax with it.

Now in Stage Four, the next level's floor is starting to go on top of the first floor. Where I haven't yet put that floor down on the right, note where most of the top has smooth tiles instead of bricks. That makes it easier to remove the upper floors to get to the lowest floor, either for repairs or to play with it. 

(Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was wrong about removing floors. for play. Not gonna happen with this set.)

And here's the fancy chandelier for the first floor. 

For the second movie reference, Merida's bow & arrows and target, with a few fruit tarts for small bears/boys.

Stage Four is finished off with a couple of suits of armor, a large vase, and a grandfather clock, all on the first floor.

Stage Five brings in Minnie Mouse to join Mickey. We built two towers with a wall. Inside it includes a shield display wall.

On the outside, we finally used several of those stickers to make the wall look more 'stone-like'. And the wall fits in at a nice angle.

Stage Six is, of course, the other ground-floor wall. Here we have a nod to Aladdin, with a magic-carpet-like wall tapestry. I brought in my magic carpet from a Princess Jasmine set, on the table to the left. Definitely like that one better. It's possible I'll swap them out after the build is complete. I like to build it as directed, then modify.

And with this, the ground floor (and Stage Six) is complete. That fourth tower is quite strange. There's a white box inside the top, and it was built without any 'wall' pieces. It's much more dense and only rounded partway down.

Stage Seven starts with a pretty elaborate balcony over the entrance.

On top of the balcony is a pretty blue clock tower. Lots of 'unicorn horns' all over the place.

Stage Eight involved two very complicated round bits that looked more appropriate to a spaceship set than a castle, and the topper for one of those two towers. The very top of it looks a lot like the top of that fourth tower, built back in Stage Six.

Stage Nine starts with topping the second and third towers to be like the first, and also added a fifth mini-tower (on the left side). And finishes with putting roofs on all four towers, complete with golden flags waving!

Stage Ten starts us building in tans and whites instead of grays and blues. This one has been a lot of smaller bricks, in very detailed combinations. Probably the hardest stage so far. That curved-out piece is going to end up being the chimney for the cooking oven in Tiana's kitchen.

For our next movie reference, I give you the Beauty & the Beast room! I have the Beauty & the Beast castle set, so I may change out that flower dome with a sparkly one.

I'll see if the Lumiere in that set is the same size, so I can have the one with the face in here.

Note how detailed the table is. It's just a table; a brown flat tile with four legs would have been sufficient. The gold pips on the feet were good. But there's a four-or-five-piece build that connects under table just to give it that little gold drawer tucked under there. That's great detail.

And we finish Stage Ten with the kitchen from the Little Mermaid, complete with pots and pans and cleaver. Also, the pumpkin is apparently supposed to be a nod to Cinderella. It's actually a jack-o-lantern head cover turned around backward. I'm pretty sure it's going on a minifig monster instead of staying in the kitchen. There's another nod to Cinderella later.

This will, of course, be Tiana's kitchen eventually.

Daisy showed up in Stage Ten. Eleven has us building on top of the set from Ten, building that fireplace up into a tower. No clue when we'll connect it to the rest of the castle.

Our next movie reference is Fantasia - there's the wizard's hat, a mop, and a couple of buckets, along with a book (The Spellbook?), all hanging out in/near a treasure chest.

Then we have a spinning wheel for Sleeping Beauty (left). On the right is one that I had created from some pictures found on the internet. Okay, Lego Builders, you win.

Stage Eleven completed - here's the outside, still disconnected from the gray base-castle that we build up previously.

We've continued adding more windows and front detail with Stage Twelve.

Meanwhile, on the inside, we've built a bed and bedroom, just over the Fantasia room - how clever that bed is! Note the printed bricks on the end - the same shape I've seen used for animal tails.

We later removed the bed and turned the bedroom into a sand-castle room for Princess Ariel - look for it in later pictures! The bed got slightly modified and used in another build.

Finishing off the biggest of the tan towers with lots more unicorn horns!

Two special pieces: Cinderella's glass slipper in a glass display box, and a storybook, still disassembled at this point, with an inside page that reads "Once Upon a Time..." The slipper and the book go in a hidden compartment under a roof piece! Finally, a secret compartment!

Here's our 'Snow White' room, with the magic mirror and the apple in a bowl.

And the Mulan reference, with her ponytail in a chest, and fireworks that really shoot!

Tinkerbell is the last figure to come in the set. Here she is on the tower built in Stage Thirteen. Only one more to go, and it's a small bag - we're almost done!

Stage Fourteen creates this ornate gold topper for the last tower.

Here we are with the Last Tower put on top of the tan-and-white section of the castle.








And here's the tan-and-white section on top of the grey section - it's done!

Here's the complete castle from the inside view, with everything built as-instructed, before making any custom adjustments.

From this side view, you can see the area between the two sections, where Merida's archery target is set up. Castle-knowing folks, what is this area called? It's on top of the second floor of the gray section.

The entire build took many hours from March 12, 2017 through March 22, 2017. I spent at least a little time each day on the build each of those days, and a lot of time for several. But that doesn't mean I was finished. I love to build things as per the instructions, and then after I'm finished, continue modifying it to make it 'mine' for some time. 

One of the most important things I did was to buy a turntable (https://smile.amazon.com/Crown-Mark-Walnut-Lazy-Susan/dp/B001D9EOY0) to display the castle on. I had a few near-disasters before getting the turntable and while trying to get it onto the turntable.

The other major renovation is that I wanted to have all 11 official Disney princesses resident in the castle. Some of these I already had sets for, and some even duplicates, which means they just moved over to the castle. But a few of the Princesses don't have Lego sets for themselves. So I had to create minidolls that would represent them. And of course, Ariel needed a sand-castle room to live in, so the bedroom mentioned earlier had to be renovated.

Here you can just barely see Merida getting some archery practice in the space between sections, and there's Pocahontas looking over the wall. Pocahontas is one that I had to create out of the minidolls I had, as she doesn't have her on Lego set yet. Formal Mickey and Minnie are waiting to greet guests to the castle.

One of those frogs outside the wall has since moved into the kitchen with Tiana, as well.

On the inside we have Rapunzel at the top of the tallest tower, and below her Snow White, Mulan, Aurora, and Tiana in the kitchen. On the left, Cinderella, with Jasmine (and Aladdin and Genie and Carpet). Down the middle is Ariel, Classic Mickey, and Belle. Some pieces from the Moana set are on the far right wall, with Pink Minnie.

Mulan and Tiana were also pieced together out of minidolls I had, as they also don't have Lego sets (yet). The room Ariel is in was a bedroom in the original castle, but I thought a sand-waterfall-wading pool room was more interesting, so that's all my own design. 

Moana isn't an official Disney Princess yet, but it's assumed she will be, so she gets a wall, though she isn't there herself. That's because she's out on her boat, of course, with Maui. I put that set together recently.

Pink Minnie has with her a table with holographic cookies in it. That's for my daughter, who recounts a few sparse memories from visiting Disney World when she was 5 years old. One was a table in Minnie's House that appeared to have cookies out for the grabbing, but turned out to be holographic. Mindblowing for the wee child. So I've recreated those as best I can here, for her.

There is now a YouTube video of someone building the castle - watch it here.


In integrating all the princesses into this castle, I dismantled Merida's castle and Jasmine's palace - smaller sets. I took the walls and some other pieces from them and partially rebuilt Rapunzel's tower with them, so we have an auxiliary tower if any of the princesses need some time away from the big castle. You can see it here, 'out back' of the big castle - all on the turntable together.

And of course, I have the Beast's Castle intact with Belle and all the enchanted servants. That one will remain separate.

The original build comments as I made them... https://www.facebook.com/notes/420496899348588/