Hear from LEGO fan Toby Brett, Designer Tom Gerardin and Design Manager Jordan Scott as they reveal how 21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. went from a fan concept to an official Ideas model depicting the Pixar mascot.
The latest LEGO Ideas set, 21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr., began its journey not from a meeting full of LEGO designers, but from the inspiration of one motivated fan. Toby Brett, wanted to make his idea a reality and 10,000 users on LEGO Ideas agreed with him. Their votes took the product idea through to the official review stage, at which point the LEGO Ideas team approved Toby’s model to become an official LEGO set.
A lightbulb going off
Luxo Jr. is the 65th LEGO Ideas set, so Toby had plenty of past models to study and get a sense of what sort of set he wanted to make. “I remember looking through the past catalogue,” he says. “The one that stood out to me is Wall-E. That inspired me to go down the Pixar route, because I’m a huge fan of the movies ever since I was a kid. What sums up Pixar is that first thing you see in any of the films — the lamp.”
The lamp features in the Pixar introduction that is shown before every film the studio has made, beginning with its very first, Toy Story, in 1995. But the lamp predates its appearance in the logo by nine years; it debuted in the 1986 short film titled Luxo Jr., which gives the character his name. The short is only two minutes long, but it was enough to have Luxo Jr cause plenty of shenanigans with his toy ball.
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“He has so much personality, even though it’s just a lamp jumping around,” Toby laughs. “I thought that would translate really well into LEGO [bricks].”
Toby’s initial project didn’t gather enough support in the required timeframe, ending the first Luxo Jr. model’s hopes of becoming a LEGO set. But that didn’t deter Toby, who made not one, but two more attempts to get his model chosen.
“I learned a lot about the value of patience,” Toby says. “It went through quite a lot of different iterations. I think that’s something all LEGO builders can relate to, that there’s not really such a thing as a perfect model. There’s always some tweak to be made, where you come back the next day and you’re like ‘why don’t I just do it like this?’ The whole voting process definitely makes you value patience, as well. I wasted a lot of time refreshing, you know, one vote at a time. Is it going to do it today?”
Toby’s patience — or lack thereof — eventually paid off, as his third iteration of the project earned the necessary 10,000 supporters and entered the review stage. At which point the LEGO Ideas team decided to turn Luxo Jr. into an official LEGO product.
Reimagining the idea
Any accepted LEGO Ideas project has to undergo a redesign before it’s suitable for official release. This is done to ensure that the flow of the build, model stability and playability are all up to the LEGO Group’s high standards. In charge of bringing Luxo Jr. up to par were Model Designer Tom Gerardin and Design Manager Jordan Scott.
“First and foremost, we really wanted the character to come to life,” says Jordan. “It’s not just a lamp; it is actually a character. So the articulation in the head, the bouncing, hopping, fun nature of it, that’s what had to come across. Otherwise, it’s just a lamp.”
It was Tom’s task to accomplish all of this — a somewhat tall order for him, as he usually works as part of the LEGO Friends team. “Friends is stuff for a younger audience, so it was super cool to learn about how to build for adults. You can do more funky techniques and everything like that. And things I normally make as sets are so different to this. I probably won’t do anything like this again, it’s such a mad concept,” Tom laughs. “But yeah, I had the best time.”
On top of ensuring that the lamp was able to move around enough while not falling apart, Tom was also sure to include plenty of fun Pixar easter eggs in the set to make the building process all the more enjoyable. Mostly centred around the ball, the set comes packed with extra details for fans.
“If we’re talking individual characters and just little things, 32 is my number,” Tom says. “There’s 32 different characters and references.”
Including the references within the ball is a clever way of sneaking in details that wouldn’t otherwise belong in a Luxo Jr. model, giving fans a little treat without compromising the look of the finished product. The team worked closely with Pixar on all aspects, including those references.
“With an intellectual property (IP) project, ultimately, they’re the final approvers,” Jordan explains. “So we had to work with them, mainly with Disney, and they collaborate with Pixar. So you’re going through multiple different people to get to the final design. It was a lot of back and forth, and it’s a very challenging model to get right.”
Necessary compromises
Sometimes compromises need to be made, not just with IP partners, but with the limitations of the LEGO System itself. One of the main features of Luxo Jr. in the short film and Pixar logo is the light bulb; it’s present in the LEGO model, but it doesn’t light up.
“We explored using a light brick,” Jordan says. “But our light bricks are not that strong. So putting one in here, it was like a pinpoint, a small light. It didn’t function like a lamp.”
With the light brick not offering a good solution and the focus of the model being more on the character of Luxo Jr. than it being a lamp, the decision was made to drop any light functionality.
But that doesn’t stop 21357 from being a fun representation of the iconic Pixar mascot, with plenty of functionality and fun details for fans. And it’s of course a crowning achievement for Toby, who gets to see his LEGO Idea project join other fan-favourite sets on shelves.
21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. is currently up for pre-order and will be available from June 1, 2025.