Earlier this year, Pokémon officially confirmed it would be getting LEGO sets in 2026. Not much information has been revealed about the upcoming collaboration, except that it will feature the popular monster-catching characters in LEGO form.
If the promotional teaser video is anything to go by, at least one of the sets will likely include a buildable Pikachu. This information is fantastic news since it means that fans will likely be able to build their favorite characters out of the iconic interlocking bricks.
However, it might also mean that Nintendo intends to repeat a big mistake that it made with the existing LEGO Mario sets.
LEGO Mario Sets Have Been A Bit Disappointing
Buildable Characters Galore, But Not A Minifigure To Be Found
There have been several LEGO Mario sets, ranging from a massive fire-breathing Bowser and a replica of Luigi’s Mansion, to iconic Mario Kart vehicles and riders. The problem with all these sets is that, instead of including minifigures of Super Mario Bros. characters, they featured buildable figures.
These figures are made up of existing LEGO blocks and allow the characters to be rendered in large format and in great detail. Other versions of the characters do include figures, but these are much larger and blockier than the traditional minifig.
Not all LEGO or Mario fans like the way these larger builds look, though, and the lack of brand-themed minifigures has been a point of frustration among many.
The only footage officially revealed so far for the upcoming Pokémon LEGO set shows a Pikachu tail being built out of flat LEGO bricks, heavily implying that the character will be buildable in the same way as Mario and friends.
Minifigure-Scale LEGO Pokémon Is A Must
Nintendo Needs To Include Iconic Franchise Characters As LEGO Minifigures
Building large Pokémon out of LEGO might be fun, but fans will also want to see some classic minifigures in the sets. Nintendo should include Pokémon characters that can fit into the regular minifigure play scale and feature beloved characters like Ash and Professor Oak.
Nintendo has gone several different routes with each of its IPs that have already made the jump to LEGO. While Mario features large, blocky characters, The Legend of Zelda went for the more realistic minifigure rendering, and Animal Crossing struck a cute middle ground with custom figures that resemble beloved franchise characters.
The decision about what kind of blocks to include might have a lot to do with the intended audience of each set, with Mario targeting younger fans than the Zelda sets, for instance. Luckily, leaks have revealed that the coming collaboration will be rated 18+, so the Pokémon LEGO sets may not follow the same path as Mario.
This may mean that Nintendo won’t be repeating the same mistake it made with Mario for the upcoming Pokémon LEGO sets. We might even get some tiny Pokémon minifigures, an addition which would surely send the sets flying off shelves just for the collectible value and cuteness factor.
- Created by
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Satoshi Taijiri, Ken Sugimori, Junichi Masuda
- Latest Film
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Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
- First Episode Air Date
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April 1, 1997
- Current Series
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Pokémon
