Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball (72152) review: "In the end the fragile final result can be a real pain in the butt"

Arguably one of the most anticipated tie-ins in Lego history since somebody suggested that a buildable Star Wars set might be a cool idea, Pokemon Lego sets are finally out in the wild zone, and of those the flagship model is clearly the franchise's mascot – the Lego Pikachu (72152) and attached Poke Ball, priced at a teeth-suckingly robust two hundred dollars, but nonetheless holding the attention of fans around the globe.

Was it worth the wait? Even now, I'm not wholly certain, as there's more than a couple of issues floating around Ash's best buddy that nostalgia can't spackle over. It also goes without saying that it has to justify that very hefty price tag that could challenge the best Lego sets – and ultimately that's where Pikachu reveals more weaknesses than just Ground-type attacks.

Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball features

• Hefty display piece
• A little too fragile
• Some cool tricks in the details

As with many Lego sets, it's worth addressing whether this is more of a toy – something with articulation and robustness and that can easily be reassembled in the event of breakage – or a presentation model, designed to pose on shelves but never to leave them.

I'd definitely say the latter more than the former, though that was probably obvious given the price. Owners can rotate their Pikachu's ears, reposition their nodule-like limbs in different directions, and are granted a smidge of tail articulation, but that's about it for mobility. In fact, Pikachu's unyielding neck means he can't even look directly ahead, always peering upwards at an angle. It's also a bit fragile – more than once moving the arms as intended caused them to snap off, or tweaking the ears caused the scalp around them to slough away. It's not like I'm bashing it against the wall, I'm just reposing it as intended and pieces are still falling off. Somebody get this thing a Full Restore.

Still, there are some nice extras. You can swap out the tail tip to alternate between male and female variants, the accompanying Poke Ball can be made to open and close (though you have to reassemble the two halves with a different connecting piece to do so), and I like the base that supports Pikachu having a flare of lightning, and even having a subtle "25" built in, referencing the mouse's Pokedex number. Details like that definitely elevate the whole thing, and make the build itself more interesting than just assembling some generic rectangular support.

Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball build

• A build that skirts the line between monotonous & mellow
• Occasional moment of unclear instructions, but mostly straightforward
• Building the Poke Ball was cool

So. Much. Yellow. I know, I know, that was clearly inevitable, but after a while the process of stacking concave lemon-tone pieces on other concave lemon-tone pieces was melting my brain a little. True, Pikachu's innards are a spectrum of different colours, which helps with clarity, but the exterior is practically all a uniform banana, which does make interpreting the instructions occasionally difficult, as there's very little to distinguish certain components at a glance. Same goes for the black base, a huge flat section of effectively identical pieces.

Still, things were largely smooth going besides. It's a build where you start with the critter itself, spend about thirty minutes afterwards making a Poke Ball, and then assemble the base to join it all together. Once or twice there were a couple of unclear moments, but the process was largely smooth, if a bit monotone. Assembling a series of yellow blobs isn't as moment-to-moment entertaining as building individual rooms in a tower or engines on a spaceship, but again, I don't think there's a way around that. This is just what Pikachu looks like, and at the very least there's no little decal stickers to fiddle and fumble with – always a plus in my book.

Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball design

• One design choice explains 18+ rating
• Face is oddly & uncomfortably uncanny
• Side accessories are well-designed (mostly)

So, uh… Pikachu has a pole up its ass.

Yep. Right up there. I promise I'm not trying to be crass, I'm not reading too deeply into it, that's just a big part of the design. See, rather than just stand on the base, there's a supporting stick onto which Pikachu is slid via a large aperture located squarely in the gooch. As defining details go, it is so obvious and yet so oblivious that it's bewildering. It was the first thing noticed and the last thing mentioned by everybody who saw it. I don't know how this choice made it past the design phase, how both the family-friendly censors and fun police from Lego and Nintendo OK'd old Pegachu here. I don't even know if it's a flaw. I can't say it doesn't make it a superb conversation piece.

Beyond that, there's the aforementioned basic articulation on limbs, ears and tail, but the other thing everybody noticed is that there's something off about the face. Less fat Pikachu than flat Pikachu, it reminds us that Lego has always struggled to represent living, organic things beyond the minifig size, and all this obvious vacant artificiality doesn't serve what's supposed to be a dynamic cartoon pet particularly well.

But the base is a good compromise on style and substance (rectal scaffolding aside), and I do like the Poke Ball, a little quick-build side activity that results in a pleasant little desk toy. In a saner world, Lego would be selling just Poke Balls for a few bucks apiece, though it would've been nice to have a technic mechanical hinge to open it, rather than having to break and reassemble the two halves each time. There's also a tiny stand if you want Pikachu on its own aside from the support base, which is inserted… Well, you can guess.

Should you buy Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball (72152)?

So, should you buy this Lego Pikachu? My answer is... Maybe? I guess if you're the most dedicated of Pokemon trainers there's a model here that's certainly unique, but that price tag is even more eye-watering than the support pole, and there are more than a few issues in the final result – the fragility and uncanny valleyness of it all feeling like real standouts. Still, the base is nice, as is the Poke Ball, and if you're currently on the fence, wait for a Black Friday sale and you probably won't be disappointed. Still though, Lego – we need to talk about some of these sharkish pricing models.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball (72152)

I built the Lego Pikachu over the course of half a week, usually in installments of an hour or so with the TV on in the background at times. The end result took somewhere between four and five hours, though speedy builders who just want it done might be able to assemble it faster than that.

For more info, check out our guide to how we test products.

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