Next month is shaping up to be a special month for LEGO® Ideas, and one of the sets due to be released on August 1st is La Catrina. La Catrina is an elegantly dressed female skeleton that has become the central symbol of Mexico’s Día de Muertos celebrations, also known as the Day of the Dead. In Mexican culture, death is celebrated as a natural continuation of life. Although it falls after Halloween, the Day of the Dead is far more than a spooky seasonal holiday.
Product Details
Set Name: La Catrina | Set Number: 21372 | Pieces: 1212 | Theme: Ideas
Instructions: Paper booklet + Builder App | Sticker: N/A | Minifigures: N/A
RRP: £109.99/119.99€/$139.99/199.99AUD/199.99CAD
Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & LEGO retailers from August 1st
The Fan Build
Like all LEGO Ideas sets, La Catrina is based on an original fan-designed project. After hitting 10,000 supporters, the design was chosen to become a set in October 2025. It was inspired by a creation submitted by José Miguel Medina Pérez (yop1172). There is a little background on José in the set’s instruction booklet, which also offers context to the festival which has inspired the build.
The Build
In terms of size, La Catrina could be considered a fairly small set. Well, it has a small footprint, but is a tall build. Although smaller than many Ideas sets, it still has a piece count of over 1200 elements. That mass of elements translates into some great little details, especially on La Catrina’s dress. This is where the build begins. Starting with a small platform base, the dress is built up from that. It has a slim inner structure, which becomes the point upon which sections of the dress are clipped into place. Although there is some repetition in those sections, once complete, they look great. Especially, the little details that decorate the trim of the dress. These include colourful strips of elements, including leaf pieces and even recoloured croissants. But I especially like the series of printed 2×2 round tiles which feature La Catrina’s face.
The top half of La Catrina is just as detailed as the dress section, but offers a little more of a varied build experience. As the character is a skeleton, this is achieved with various white elements. But unfortunately there use of standard connector elements means the white is broken up with odd-looking grey and black pieces. As highlighted before, some pieces are only produced in certain colours. Mostly due to their robustness and ability to remain strong over an extended period on display. But they do not look nice.
With the body of La Catrina complete, the last pieces to build include the head and hat. The head, in particular, is a marvel of engineering. It’s such a compact build but still uses a lot of elements. The best of these are a pair of minifigure neck ruffles, which become La Catrina’s bony mouth. Despite the impressive build of the head, some of its sections are only held in place with a single stud, so it’s extremely easy to dislodge part of it with the slightest of movement. The head is tipped with a wide-brimmed hat, which continues the design used on the figure’s dress.
The Verdict
The Dead of the Dead has inspired several sets, including a La Catrina BrickHeadz set from back in 2021. This is, of course, vastly more expensive but also more detailed. Despite patterns of repetition, I had great fun building the set, especially the dress section. I like the choice of colours used for the set; these feel like a better choice compared to the original fan design. The darker colours of La Catrina’s dress also mean that the trim detail and other accessories really pop. The set is only let down by the unfortunate but necessary use of grey and black connector pieces, which break up white sections of the skeleton. La Catrina will be released on August 1st and is available to pre-order now.
The LEGO Group provided this set to BricksFanz.com for review purposes. The thoughts in this review are those of BricksFanz.com and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group or Peanuts Worldwide LLC. Providing the set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of it
