LEGO The Nightmare Before Christmas team talks lack of Oogie Boogie

17/08/202417/08/2024 Matt Yeo 490 Views 1 Comment

The LEGO Ideas design team behind 21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas explains why there’s no Oogie Boogie build in the upcoming set.

Fans of director Tim Burton’s work have plenty to look forward to in the months to come, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice arriving on cinema screens on September 6 and a wide launch for 21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas on the same date. LEGO Insiders members will be able to pick up the 2,193-piece set slightly earlier on September 3 though, with the model priced at £169.99 / $199.99 / €199.99 for all.

While Simon Scott’s original LEGO Ideas submission included a few minifigures that ultimately didn’t make the cut, many fans have been asking about one character they feel should have been included in the build: Oogie Boogie.

In a recent roundtable interview with the design team behind 21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas, the same query came up and Brick Fanatics was provided with an answer regarding the omission.

“I’ll address the elephant in the room, or the Oogie Boogie in the room,” said LEGO Ideas creative lead, Jordan David Scott. “Ultimately, we are working with an IP partner, actually two in this case, because everything had to go through Tim Burton’s company as well.”

“So when we proposed the character line-up, this is what was agreed upon. He is a very iconic character,” Jordan explained. “However, he doesn’t really appear in any of the scenes [in the set] and having the Town Hall without The Mayor seemed a little odd. We took the liberty of talking with Simon and saying we’re not going to include [Dr. Finkelstein], but we’re going to do The Mayor instead.”

“We also have constraints on how many brand new elements we can make, how many decorations we can make and colour changes. Of course, we would love to do everything, but [Dr. Finkelstein] really required a new head sculpt to be able to capture him properly and we felt like we could get away with doing The Mayor as a brick-built figure [instead].”

“Yes, he is taller,” Jordan continued, “but I think he’s quite charming being a brick-built character because it allows for those really odd proportions of him basically being a triangle. That’s why we wanted to include him and we had some fun with the decorations on his face and [torso]. So that’s how we came to this conclusion on [all of] the characters as well.”

You’ll be able to get to grips with the full selection of frightful faces included in 21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas when the LEGO Ideas set arrives from September 3, for £169.99 / $199.99 / €199.99.

To find out more about the model, be sure to check out our upcoming in-depth review of 21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas dropping later today.

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Matt Yeo

From video game journalism to kids’ publishing, I’ve been there, seen it, done it and worn the T-shirt. I was also the editor of the first-ever official LEGO magazine way back when, LEGO Adventures. I have a passion for movies, comic books, tech and video games, with a wallet that’s struggling to keep up with my LEGO set wish list.