LEGO - Disney Castle #71040 Updated Lighting Journal

Howdy LMBeamers, today we’ve got something a little different for the blog, we’re going to take a short step back in time and take a quick look at an older kit, that being the original LEGO Disney Castle 71040!

Talk about an oldie but a goodie! the Disney Castle (or Cinderella’s Castle as it’s also known!) set was released in 2016 and to this day is one of the most iconic and sought after sets on any LEGO collectors want-list!

We can still remember when our copy arrived on our doorstep like it was yesterday (though paradoxically 2016 feels like forever ago? I guess that shows how much we love thinking about LEGO!) and building this beauty of a castle was a real treat.

The classic set is made up of a whopping 4080 pieces and measures a gigantic 74cm tall! The flow of the build is broken up into three sections - the lower great hall, the main building and the tall tall tower. These all come together to form the finished castle as you progress! Part of what made this such a pleasantly memorable build, was the wild techniques the LEGO designers employed! All kinds of interesting LEGO elements are put to use to produce the architecture, detail and interesting features packed into this set, where much simpler and less engaging bricks might have been an easier solve!

Now back in 2016 Light My Bricks was still a young company, with only a handful of light kits under our belt! So the (much smaller) design team at the time was determined to give this magnificent castle, a corresponding light kit fit for a king… or Mouse!

The first opportunity to add an exciting feature, were the custom made Pearl Gold Torches that greet the castle’s guests upon entry. These are carefully created with genuine LEGO elements with one of our most trusted 30cm Bit Lights pre-assembled inside. It’s very rare, but on occasion there is a feature of a set that simply must be lit up - but needs a small, but precise amount of modification to allow said feature to be lit by the kit assembler! Our LEGO Street Lamps, featured heavily in our Modular Building Series are another rare example of this, but these Pearl Gold Torches we’re really proud of. All torches need flickering fire right?!

Secondly and most importantly, the team knew it had to recreate the iconic colour show that the castle is known for around the world. For those not lucky enough to have seen the castle in person at night, when the sun sets on Cinderella’s Castle in real life, it comes alive with a changing colour show! To replicate this incredible vision, we produced a pair of Multi Colour Strip Lights as well as a series of LEGO elements, so that these lights could be positioned to shine up and on the outer walls of the castle.

They automatically change colour every 7 seconds, accurately recreating the renowned light show see by millions of Disney fans around the world each year… now Disney can add LEGO fans to that list as well! The effect of drenching the amazing set in a wide range of colours remains on of our proudest LEGO model moments and one that still generates a lot of positive feedback from fans today!

There's always more to get into with an awesomely iconic set like this, from the great Minifigures included, to the sheer number of Bit Lights necessary to light it up from turret to toadstool! But we just wanted to highlight some of the finer points on this flashback today!

What can we say, we (still) love our work here at Light My Bricks and it’s worth stopping and smelling the LEGO roses every once in awhile, amid the flurry of new sets and light kits that are released week to week to week. The Disney Castle remains on of LEGO’s most popular sets to date (regularly listed as sold out online even today!) and it’s corresponding light kit is unsurprisingly one of our most popular too.

If you’re as big of a Disney LEGO fan as we are, and picked up the set back in 2016 as well - drop us a line and let us know one of your favourite memories about building and lighting the set too! We always love to hear from fellow fans and also get feedback on our light kits! You can reach out via the contact page on our website, leave a review on the product page, or just drop a quick note on social media! Bye for now!

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