LEGO loves its brick-built characters in 2026

The LEGO Group's collection of brick-built character models is on a roll in 2026, adding Shrek to a line-up that is just getting bigger year after year.

If there's one thing that the designers at the LEGO Group have been obsessed with in the past five years, it's buildable characters of all shapes and sizes. The count of characters recreated in LEGO form is only going up year after year. Four months into 2026, and we're already nearing the total of these models released last year.

These models have come in all shapes and sizes, covering a wide variety of themes. 72423 Shrek, Donkey & Puss in Boots is just the latest in this extensive collection.

This isn't something new for 2026, either. Buildable character models have been a key feature of the LEGO portfolio in recent years. One look at the statistics proves that the LEGO Group is leaning further and further into these figures, over something minifigure-scale. The table below won't count creature models unless that creature is a known and iconic character. We're making an exception for all of LEGO Pokémon, due to how high-profile those creatures are.

It's a range that is only getting bigger, but its roots go much farther back in LEGO history. Technically, the first buildable character sets (of the full character, not a bust) were 8010 Darth Vader and 8011 Jango Fett in Star Wars' brief crossover with Technic in 2002.

It didn't take long for the range to embrace the more familiar System elements, though. SpongeBob was the first theme to experiment with buildable character figures that used System parts primarily. 3826 Build-a-Bob from 2006 laid the groundwork for the rest of the range in the years to come, but the range wouldn't really hit its stride until the 2010s.

With the debut of LEGO Toy Story and a series of buildable figures based on the film's characters, the Disney partnership continued to result in buildable figures from Cars to more Star Wars to WALL-E.

Come 2017, such sets would become a normal part of the LEGO portfolio, but only with a handful of sets every year. We were still a long way from the likes of 20-plus buildable characters every year.

As more licenses would join the portfolio, the range of buildable character sets continued to grow. Notably, Star Wars would remain a part of it at every stage, and now we have a bigger selection of buildable characters to choose from than at any other point in LEGO history.

These come in all shapes and sizes, too. Whether you want them to be huge and displayable, or smaller and playable, there's something for everyone. They don't always depict humanoid or otherwise normal versions of these characters, either. Most recently, the LEGO Group has experimented with up-scaled minifigures of key characters, such as Santa and Harry Potter.

Whether you love them or not, LEGO buildable character sets are here to stay, and it looks like the collection is only going to get bigger as it continues. You can pre-order 72423 Shrek, Donkey & Puss in Boots on the official online store now, and find a wider range of models based on iconic characters while you do.

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