There are new pieces in the adorable 21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. that recently joined the LEGO Ideas collection – here, Designer Tom Gerardin and Design Manager Jordan Scott reveal why they needed brand new elements to justice to the iconic mascot.
First a herald of digital animation’s dazzling potential then the mascot of beloved animation studio Pixar, the feisty little lamp named Luxo Jr. is now a LEGO Ideas set. Based on the original 1986 short film simply titled “Luxo Jr.”, 21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. recreates the lamp as well as the bouncy ball that appeared in the short.
The LEGO Ideas project was the brainchild of LEGO and Pixar fan Toby Brett, which was then passed along to Model Designer Tom Gerardin and Design Manager Jordan Scott once it reached the required 10,000 supporters and passed the official review. As is typical, Toby’s model underwent some changes on its journey to becoming an official LEGO Ideas set. Luxo Jr. in particular had the designers working tirelessly to find the perfect balance of playability and stability.
Hopping towards release
One of Luxo Jr’s most iconic aspects is of course his ability to hop around, whether it be in the original short film or the Pixar title card. And that mobility is no easy thing to recreate with LEGO bricks, especially when considering the scale of the model.
Model Designer Tom Gerardin explains the tricky process of working out building Luxo Jr as more than just a static display piece. “We had to up the scale a little bit compared to the fan design for stability, and we needed the space for the movement and the joints and everything like that. That was the reason the lamp changed — because of the idea of actually getting it to hop. It’s such a mad concept.”
“I keep getting surprised about what is feasible to build with LEGO bricks,” adds Design Manager Jordan Scott. “This was a big discussion point in the review process. Can we actually make this work and hop and have the strength and stability to be able to play with it? That was a big learning curve, because there was a lot of pressure on this model in particular to do this, and I think everyone on the team pulled it off.”
“The set is very easy to hop around and very resilient compared to my model, which was very top heavy. He fell over quite a lot,” jokes fan designer Toby Brett.
A key element to making sure everything worked properly isn’t even a LEGO brick. Rather rubber bands turned out to be the critical part. Two are included in the set, attached right around the middle, and are what allow the lamp to bend forward like it does on screen. But it’s not just the rubber bands — they’re used as part of a rather unorthodox building technique, each running through another element designed to look like the springs on the animated lamp.
“I went to our building instructions team with the corrugated bar here and a rubber band,” Jordan recalls, “and asked ‘can we put the rubber band through this?’ And they looked at me like I was mental, but they accepted it. And that’s kind of how you get that springing motion, and it looks like the coils.”
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At the forefront of innovation
Just as the short film was a trailblazer in the world of digital animation, LEGO Luxo Jr has his own innovations beyond the creative techniques used to achieve the model’s motion — two new elements are included in the set to ensure the little lamp and his toy are looking their best.
The lampshade uses a new piece to properly capture the smooth shaping of the ‘real’ thing. Two of the new elements connect together via a Technic pin inside the shade, and then have axle holes towards the back that are then used to secure them to the rest of the lamp.
“We did try some stuff for the shade,” says Tom. “But it’s such a crazy shape in the actual thing that we thought a new element would just work way better and match that iconic shape the lamp has.”
“We did try the balloon elements, and things didn’t work,” Jordan jumps in. “So we said ‘let’s make a new piece that’s nice and clean, and then we can do the decoration at the back for the kind of vents as well.”
Being able to print on addition detail was a main motivator for making the set’s other new piece, too — a 6×6 round element that’s used to turn the ball from a square skeleton into, well, a ball.
The overall design of the ball had already undergone serious revision before the project was selected. “I did three different iterations of this model,” Toby explains. “The ball started off very blocky, then went into the smooth bits, then eventually went to the final design, where you get the triangles that make a sphere.”
Tom was so impressed by Toby’s design that he was determined to keep it as similar as he could for the final product. “I’m a huge fan when the fan designers can see their stuff in the models as well. So I wanted to keep the ball as it was. And for that, we created a new element.
“We wanted to replicate Toby’s design,” he continues. “And the size of it was 6×6, but we didn’t actually have anything that did that. So we thought it’d be super cool if we could make something and actually print it. It’s like a satellite dish piece, without the studs and without the hole, and it’s got tube sites underneath.”
“Then you get a nice, clean surface for the stripes, but also the star. So that’s why this one was made,” Jordan concludes.
Another perk of the new piece was that it allowed the sides to easily pop off, letting Luxo Jr. stand right on top, as if he’s flattening it just like in the short film. Plus, both pieces will be able to be used in future LEGO sets, which is always a consideration when creating a new part.
“It’ll be great in the future for character building and really rounding stuff off,” Tom says of the new dish element.
As for the lampshade, it’s already made a home for itself elsewhere. “It’s being used for something else that you would not think it would be used for,” Jordan teases. “But that’s coming in the future.
The set all around benefitted greatly from the innovative thinking of both the fan designers and LEGO design team, resulting in a model that puts on a brilliant balancing act between accuracy, mobility and stability.
21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. is currently up for preorder and will be available from June 1, 2025.
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