[REVIEW] 40516 - Everyone is Awesome

[Bob De Quatre]

Disclaimer: I'll (try to) stay purely factual about this set, despite my personnal opinion. I know what the comments will be, I've already read them everywhere, and I don't want to be part of any witch hunt... because I love witches...

 

 

Set information

Set Name: Everyone is Awesome

Set Number: 40516

Number of Pieces: 346

Theme: Miscellaneous

Year Release: 06/2021

Prices: £30.99 / $34.99 / €34.99 (Euro prices may vary)

#40516 on Brickset

#40516 on Rebrickable

Quote

Construct your own tribute to positivity and kindness with this LEGO® Everyone is Awesome (40516) building kit. Presented in a spectrum of colours, this buildable display includes 11 monochrome minifigures against a rainbow backdrop. Each minifigure features its own colour scheme with matching hairpiece, showcasing the diversity we see in the world around us. Display your model with pride to show that although we are all different, we join together in a celebration of inclusivity and love.

• A buildable display of 11 monochrome LEGO® minifigures, each with its own colour and hairstyle, against a background of corresponding rainbow stripes.
• Measures over 10 cm (4 in.) high, 18 cm (7 in.) wide and 12 cm (5 in.) deep.
• This LEGO® Everyone is Awesome 40516 building set for adults offers a fun way to celebrate diversity with an eye-catching display piece for any room.

 

Box and content

The medium sized box shows the set on a black background with a white Lego bricks outline on the bottom. The black makes the box quite classy, but there are also splashes of colors from the set itself.

The back of the box has different angled views of the set.

The box contains unumbered bags and the instructions booklet.

The booklet features a text from Matthew Ashton, Vice President of Design at Lego. I'll let you read the text and make your own opinion about it.

 

The build

The build is really simple, and consists of layers of plates and tiles, and then layers of bricks. And then you add the 11 monochrome minifgs.

The top of the build features 1x3 arches in all the 11 colors.

The hairs parts are mostly new, and so are some of the 1x2 plates and bricks. The different body parts of the minifigs are also either rare or completely new, and at least we've never seens such a combination of monochrome minifigs before in any official set.

 

The minifigs

All the 11 minifigs are identical, with absolutely no printings even on then part. The only difference between them being their hair parts (and obviously their colors).

(Yep, a white monochrome minifig on a white background is hard to photograph...)

 

Conclusion

Design: 7/10 - The build is simple, but really convey the message behind the set.

Parts: 7/10 - The part selection may seem bad, but some parts are new recolors.

Minifigs: 11/10 - The 11 monochrome minifgs looks great with their uniques hairs.

Price: 7/10 - With a ppp of 0,10€ and 11 monochrome minifigs, the price of the set is... I don't want to put a price on such a set.

Overall: 32/40 (80%) - A nice set that as a lot of meaning to some, and less to other. A great opportunity to get monochromes minifigs if that's what you're interested in.

[jimmynick]

Are all the hairpieces ABS? Can't quite tell looking at the textures in your review pics.

[Bob De Quatre]

2 minutes ago, jimmynick said:

Are all the hairpieces ABS? Can't quite tell looking at the textures in your review pics.

Yes they are

[Murdoch17]

I think the regular old blue minifig's hair is a brand new mold... is that true?

Edited May 20, 2021 by Murdoch17

[jimmynick]

1 minute ago, Murdoch17 said:

I think the regular old blue minifig's hair is a brand new mold... is that true?

Yup, there's chatter in several threads about it, including in the Stranger Things rumour-mill, because the new mold would be perfect for Steve Harrington.

[Vilhelm22]

It’s a great build and will mean a lot to many I’m sure.  I love the monochrome minifigs particularly - they add so much more to the set!  I generally think of a single minifig has being £3, which means  that the rest of the set costs £-2 using this logic.  Even if it’s a dreadful PPP on the surface, when you look at it properly it’s pretty good.  
 

On a side note, even though it’s not it’s original intention, I can’t help but think the yellow fig just looks naked...

Edited May 20, 2021 by Vilhelm22

[Mister Phes]

11 hours ago, Bob De Quatre said:

I know what the comments will be, I've already read them everywhere, and I don't want to be part of any witch hunt... 

Mister Phes is a witch who loves to stir up controversy and be hunted....  but maybe the world isn't ready for my comments.

So I'll give everyone the opportunity to dissuade me from continuing along this line of thought before posting...

[CMP]

I really appreciate the message here. You can get across so much in one sleek little set- makes me happier than I can really put into words seeing LGBT+ visibility promoted in the form of LEGO, of all things. 

[icm]

Nice minifigure pack, nice message.  Thanks for the review.  Is the hairpiece on the yellow figure the same one used for Will Byers?

[Borex]

1 hour ago, icm said:

Nice minifigure pack, nice message.  Thanks for the review.  Is the hairpiece on the yellow figure the same one used for Will Byers?

You mean is that hair meant to be for a custom He-Man? Yes!

[Macropus]

10 hours ago, jimmynick said:

Yup, there's chatter in several threads about it, including in the Stranger Things rumour-mill, because the new mold would be perfect for Steve Harrington.

Or in orange for Conan O'Brien.

Nice review. I personally find the set boring, just because the monochrome aspect is not mine. I'm more a fan of printed minifigures.

[Professor Thaum]

4 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Mister Phes is a witch who loves to stir up controversy and be hunted....  but maybe the world isn't ready for my comments.

So I'll give everyone the opportunity to dissuade me from continuing along this line of thought before posting..

If your thoughts cross the red line I will ask the mods

[makoy]

Regardless on how you see this set, let toys be toys. I won't comment about the messaging here. As a parent, it is also very hard to explain what this set is about because I am raised in a conservative culture and family.

However, I appreciate this as a toy first and foremost, and I think that at face value one should critique it as a toy. Maybe it means more to other people and I respect that.

Personally, I like the different colours and  it is such a great way to start monochrome minifigure collection. Overall a great set with a very fair price tag.

[Seasider]

Even without the message behind the set this looks great as a display piece and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

[Borex]

2 hours ago, makoy said:

Regardless on how you see this set, let toys be toys. I won't comment about the messaging here. As a parent, it is also very hard to explain what this set is about because I am raised in a conservative culture and family.

However, I appreciate this as a toy first and foremost, and I think that at face value one should critique it as a toy. Maybe it means more to other people and I respect that.

Personally, I like the different colours and  it is such a great way to start monochrome minifigure collection. Overall a great set with a very fair price tag.

It isn’t that hard to explain your kids.  Even when conservative. It’s about equality. That we all should respect eachother equally. It is even a great lesson each kid should learn. It means that everybody is important. Such as themselves, but also that you don’t mock others, or people that differ from you. You can do it Makoy! I have faith in you :-)

btw i wasn’t aware of its deeper meaning until i saw the shitstorm on the internet because of this set. I thought it was just a cool monochrome set

[Mister Phes]

8 hours ago, makoy said:

Regardless on how you see this set, let toys be toys. I won't comment about the messaging here. As a parent, it is also very hard to explain what this set is about because I am raised in a conservative culture and family.

It's very simple to explain to your kids.

You say, "I've just bought some new LEGO. Now build whatever you like... Let your imagination run wild!"

[dr_spock]

You could try the even though we all come in different colours and shapes, we're all still human beings explanation.  Children will ask the strangest questions out of the blue.  Be creative. 

Thanks for the review.  I think this set is good starter into monochromatic minifigure collecting.

[Kalhiki]

I had to look up the modern Pride Flag because I'm not well versed on such things, and it looks like all the colors are accounted for!

Personally, I'm not terribly interested in this set, though the monofigs look cool as a novelty thing. Just don't really feel the need to have it as a display piece.

 

Honestly, the biggest gripe I have about it is that I feel it was a missed opportunity to have the individual colors be separate "modules" in order to rearrange or pick and choose, which would allow you to only have a few colors on display at a time. Looks like it would be possible to at least make Trans and Non Binary flags and almost the Asexual flag (missing gray), based on the images I've found. And for the MoCists, making strips in other colors would further the ability to make specific flags.

[MaxHeadroom]

Oddly the only LGBT+ related thing I own is a small flag I made out of LEGO, so I guess I'm the target demographic for this. It's a surprisingly tasteful set that doesn't feel too forced and corporate when it easily could have. I do have a slight issue with the build though which I'm surprised isn't being brought up more. Curved slopes connecting the backdrop to the base would match the curves at the top of the backdrop more and make the whole thing look more like a flag. Not a major issue but it could have been improved, maybe that would've been too many parts in new colors though. 
 

Hopefully LEGO has prepared for the massive amount of demand this set will have from both LGBT people and monofigure collectors. I could see this set selling out quickly and scalpers making a large amount of money. 

 

[Blondie-Wan]

20 minutes ago, MaxHeadroom said:

Hopefully LEGO has prepared for the massive amount of demand this set will have from both LGBT people and monofigure collectors. I could see this set selling out quickly and scalpers making a large amount of money. 

I think it’ll be like lots of popular sets, like the various current floral sets, for example - they’ll probably have periods of it going out of stock and then back in, as they do new production runs in an attempt to meet demand. Since it’s not touted as being limited to 20,000 copies or whatever, I think they’ll just keep it in production a good while, like any other set, and as it gets farther and farther from the release date it’ll become easier to get, like other hot sets (the Ideas Apollo Saturn V, for example).

I think pretty much anyone who wants it will therefore eventually be able to get it, but it’s quite possible they won’t be able to get it in time for Pride Month this year, say (just as it’s occasionally been difficult to snag a new Winter Village set in time for Christmas, for example, but one could get it the following year).

[Vindicare]

I’m most excited for the orange, yellow, & blue hair pieces. The orange is one of my favorites. Never got the Stranger Things set, & that blue one is shrouded in mystery I can’t help but love it. If it had the pigtails piece from Harley Quinn(LEGO Batman movie one) this set would be perfect. 

Not much to say on the review because there isn’t much to it. But the showcasing of the hairpieces in a more close up manner is good. 

[greenalfonzo]

Pink should have been a more stereotypically "male" hairstyle.

[Aanchir]

11 hours ago, Borex said:

It isn’t that hard to explain your kids.  Even when conservative. It’s about equality. That we all should respect eachother equally. It is even a great lesson each kid should learn. It means that everybody is important. Such as themselves, but also that you don’t mock others, or people that differ from you.

Yep. And even without explaining any of the connections to pride flags, it's easy to discuss the broader idea of rainbows as a symbol for how much better and happier our world is because it includes so many different sorts of people! Even if you were from a more progressive family, that would probably be one of the easiest starting points for discussing a set like this with kids, before getting into the specific meanings of the different colors and what they represent.

25 minutes ago, greenalfonzo said:

Pink should have been a more stereotypically "male" hairstyle.

While that could have been an option, I think LEGO made a pretty respectable choice here, considering that the pink, white, and sky blue colors are specifically intended to represent trans women, nonbinary people, and trans men (well, there's a bit more nuance than that, but this is the simplest way of explaining it). Therefore, it makes sense that they opted for more feminine-coded, neutral, and masculine-coded hairstyles for those respective colors.

Various other pride flags like the bisexual and lesbian pride flags also use colors like pink and magenta to represent femininity, in accordance with 20th-century Western tradition. It may seem stereotypical to you, but it's hard to assign specific meanings to colored stripes without leaning into stereotypes in one way or another. Similarly, the afro-textured hairstyles chosen for the black and brown stripes were chosen because those stripes on the Progress Pride Flag are intended to represent people of color. Rather than stereotyping, I feel that these hairstyle choices are a strong sign of respect and recognition for the meaning of these specific colored stripes.
 

Anyway, good review, @Bob De Quatre! My wife and I are both very excited about this set and plan to get one to display in our home — I still have to ask her if she wants a second one for her office back when in-person teaching opens back up. It's a great way to visibly and publicly celebrate our pride, and also a very attractive and eye-catching bit of home/office decor in general. And while I hope that we see more LGBTQ+ representation in the future (which wouldn't be nearly as difficult or creatively stifling as a lot of straight and cisgender people tend to assume), this set's very existence sends a powerful message of open, sincere support and acceptance.

While the LEGO Group has demonstrated these sorts of accepting values in the internal areas of their business for many years now, I can't tell you just how much it means to me that they are more and more willing to be open about those values to their customers and reflect them in their products, even if it might be controversial in some circles. And truth be told, I've seen WAY more positive feedback than negative feedback about this set, which says a lot about the positive strides that we've been seeing in society more broadly, and makes me very hopeful for the future (especially in light of how much less accepting the world tended to be throughout much of my childhood).

Some critics have disparaged this set as "pandering", but I think it's more accurate to say that the lack of LEGO sets and media promoting this sort of acceptance was a way of "pandering" to customers with prejudices against the LGBTQ+ community — even if that meant effectively muzzling the many LEGO designers who are members of that community themselves (and who are responsible for a lot more "fan favorite" sets and themes than a lot of y'all might realize). Needless to say, just like Matthew Ashton himself, I know that many of these designers would have been thrilled at the opportunity to express those aspects of their identity through their creative work, and to send a profound message of support to children and adults of similar identities or backgrounds.

And if anything, I think LEGO's willingness to introduce this set, and to firmly stand behind the values that it represents, bodes very well for the likelihood of seeing other LGBTQ+ representation in LEGO sets and media in the future. In the very least, it's going to be nice to finally be able to discuss future possibilities for more LGBTQ+ affirming content from LEGO now that sets that support the community this overtly are an unmistakable reality, not just a hypothetical dream scenario!

Thank you both for reviewing this set, and for all the work that the Eurobricks administrators and moderators have been doing to keep the conversation around it civil and free of needless hostility towards the very people this set was designed for. Please know that while it can't be easy, your efforts are greatly appreciated!

[jxu]

First thing I thought of was LEGO Movie's "Everything is Awesome" - ironic, considering it is obviously portrayed in the movie as saccharine vague corporate feelgood messaging, fencesitting and vague enough to not offend anyone. 

I never got the fascination for monofigs anyway, but I'm not a minifig person.

Edited May 22, 2021 by jxu

[makoy]

18 hours ago, Borex said:

It isn’t that hard to explain your kids.  Even when conservative. It’s about equality. That we all should respect eachother equally. It is even a great lesson each kid should learn. It means that everybody is important. Such as themselves, but also that you don’t mock others, or people that differ from you. You can do it Makoy! I have faith in you :-)

btw i wasn’t aware of its deeper meaning until i saw the shitstorm on the internet because of this set. I thought it was just a cool monochrome set

Got confirmation that it won't be sold here locally... and I think this could be a regional thing. I am upset because as I have mentioned, the set should be seen as a toy first and foremost, but I think retailers here won't even dare carry the set. Don't @ me ... as I don't make the rules in retail. That's what I meant "it's difficult" as there are more complex things out of my immediate control.

Subject like this is obviously a bit touchy to some people. Open discussions like this bring light to the topic. I am also for equality and all. Don't worry guys, I am working towards it :) 

 

13 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

It's very simple to explain to your kids.

You say, "I've just bought some new LEGO. Now build whatever you like... Let your imagination run wild!"

LOL. I know this is oversimplification, but in the end it is likely what this set is going to be for me and my kids anyway. As I am not a monochrome collector as well, but this set will be a great parts donour.