I couldn't quite decide what to make of the oddest LEGO release ever, so I built it. Will I be "Over the Moon" or just over Pharrell after this? The set will tell…

It most definitely feels odd to see Pharrell Williams' name on the LEGO store shelves. It feels odd, it looks odd, and you can't but raise one eyebrow, then another and wonder confused as to why a musician suddenly ended up being immortalised as a LEGO minifig, and what in the brickin' heck's name is that rainbow-coloured thing shooting out of a black Spaceship's rear end? Those are just a few of the questions you'll have seeing the new "Over The Moon with Pharrell Williams" set sold for 110 bucks.

The brand new set released in September 2024, and it's hands-down the most unexpected LEGO set to ever hit the shelves. Rumours of a "black Spaceship" were circulating for many months, and everyone — yours truly included — expected a revival of the 1987 LEGO Blacktron Renegade or something along those lines. Turns out, we were all wrong, and the blurry leaks were, in fact, about Pharrell Williams' new set.

Pharrell and LEGO? But why?!?

You'll see it's a clever case of blurred lines between creativity and LEGO, though sadly I suspect some will remain with the feeling of more of a case of self-indulgent expression of creative freedom. It turns out, the artist has been working on a biopic called Piece by Piece scheduled to be released on the 11th of October 2024. To quote LEGO:

"Piece by Piece is a unique cinematic experience that invites audiences on a vibrant journey through the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told through the lens of LEGO® animation, turn up the volume on your imagination and witness the evolution of one of music's most innovative minds."

I'll be honest, my first thought was "this must be the most self-important, narcissistic creative expression I have ever witnessed" but then I remembered that less than a year ago I, myself, released a novel based on my experience as a cleft lip and palate person, so maybe I should at the very least shut up and judge in silence or take a closer look at what Pharrell Williams actually intends to achieve with his movie and this LEGO set. I opted for the latter, watched the trailer and as soon as I got back to Dublin from my travels to Romania, I picked the set up and built it. And boy, am I happy that I did.

Building the most inclusive LEGO set ever

Over the Moon with Pharrell Williams is what I would call a medium-sized LEGO set. At 966 pieces, you should expect no more than 2–3 hours of build time. While it's marked 18+, that only reflects the target-audience and not the difficulty of the overall build. I think even a 10-year-old kid can completely independently build it with zero adult help required. Whether a kid would be interested in such a LEGO set, that's an entirely different question, though I think it's colourful enough to attract attention regardless of one's age.

Unlike most LEGO sets, this comes in a matte finish part black, part white box, where the LEGO model and Pharrell are the only glossy areas. I am not sure whether I'd like this style of finish on all future sets, but it definitely adds to the premium feel on an already premium product. Inside you'll find — as usual — the building instructions and 8 paper bags of LEGO pieces.

Take some time to read the first few pages of the instruction manual, it gives all the context you need to understand why this set it special and inspiring. As Pharrell puts it: "Curiosity is the life force in all of us." Be curious.

And how right he is. Pages 4–9 explain all about the set and Pharrell's mission with this unusual brick-based homage to his work and genius. It also finally clears up the meaning behind the model's various parts:

• The Spaceship is all about one's limitless potential able to take us anywhere we can imagine.
• The rainbow-coloured column that appears to originate from the rear of the Spaceship is a brick-based metaphor for creativity and play as fuel — and that's what LEGO is all about, so it starts to make sense why Pharrell chose The LEGO Group for his biopic.
• Finally, the 49 minifig heads in a 7×7 grid are about inclusivity — an invitation open to everyone to put themselves in the pilot seat — and this will turn out to be for me the most powerful and beautiful message of the set because very unexpectedly, it even includes me! 🥹

The build begins with putting together Pharrell and no, no, not some random lost queen, as I first thought, but Helen — his wife — as astronaut minifigs. Finally! All the girls out there drooling over Pharrell can just substitute Helen's minifig head with one of the other 49 that come with the set and imagine they're an it girl finally together with their idol. At least in an imaginary LEGO universe that is. 😄

Jokes aside, both minifigs are excellent in every way. The torso and leg prints — identical on both — are of very high quality, and the minifig head prints also resemble semi-accurately the artist and his wife. Would I recognise them without having any context? I don't think so. That said, in the set's context, I think LEGO did a good job portraying them. Both minifigs also get a helmet with an opulent gold visor. Helen's hair piece even has highlights — a detail I have never ever seen before in a LEGO set. Pharrell gets a standard red baseball cap.

The build continues with the frame for the 7×7 minifig heads grid, which then throughout the build get completed with an additional 7 heads from every of the remaining 7 bags of LEGO pieces. The grid's frame also comes with a printed piece saying "My Phriends" in all-caps — you get the word-play, right? 😉

Bags 2 and 3 are all about the black Spaceship. It's a fairly straightforward build, with some SNOT technique, but overall not at all challenging. I remember building similar complexity planes when I was just 10 years old. The cockpit inside is fairly detailed and has sitting space for the two minifigs. It all ends up being a pretty robust little Space-shuttle, so you don't have to worry about handling it, even if it's a younger child. Perhaps the highlight of the Spaceship is the gold windshield — another unique piece to this set.

The neon guts coming out of the Space-shuttle's engines — aka the fuel of play and creativity — starts taking shape in bag 4, all the way to bag 6. First you'll be building an inner hollow structure, onto which you'll be placing the four rainbow-coloured sides. When I say rainbow, I don't necessarily mean the traditional rainbow colours, though. It's more of a combination of blue, green, pink, and orange. I suspect it's meant to also signal LGBTQIA+ inclusivity as some flags do include those colours. The coloured column is quite tall, about 29 cm onto which the Spaceship is connected making the entire structure 52 cm tall — so do take that into account should you wish to display it. The build generally relies on fairly basic SNOT techniques, so no head-aches here either.

The final bit — bags 7 and 8 — are the base on which the coloured column and the Space-shuttle stand. It's meant to represent a cloud of white smoke coming from liftoff or passing through clouds — whichever you prefer — but it also acts as a very-very stable base for the rest of the build. Surprisingly enough, this is probably the most challenging part of the build. At times, it's both fiddly and some of the more intricate details of the smoke/clouds require some additional attention.

The entire build is about as challenging as a LEGO Creator 3-in-1 set, so if you or your kid can build that, you can build this too.

The resulting "edifice" — as I am not entirely sure what else to call it — is quite impressive, and displayed, it will become a conversation starter for sure, which brings me to its message.

A message delivered well

If you're receptive enough, the message of the set hits you like a gust of wind. Sure, creativity, and play aren't anything new. Frankly, LEGO has become the world's biggest toy company selling exactly that message for nearly 100 years. What changes everything for me is Pharrell's spin on it and the way he decided to deliver that message through a LEGO set.

If you start taking a closer look at the 7×7 minifig head grid, you'll notice a vast range of skin colours, making sure to include everyone from all over the planet. But the set goes even further. Some of the minifig heads portray different human conditions like vitiligo and hearing impairment.

And then… there was me. Whether it was Pharrell or LEGO's decision, perhaps we won't ever find out, but there is one minifig head that brought tears to my eyes and dropped the jaws of many fans on Reddit — a cleftie minifig head.

Having been born with a cleft lip and palate, seeing myself represented in LEGO form was a uniquely inspiring experience.

It reminded me of all the struggles I had as a kid, as a teenager and even as an adult. I used to say as a teenager and I keep saying this as an adult as well, that "Life is worth living out of curiosity" and here I am building a LEGO set that sends the same message — "Curiosity is the life force in all of us." Proof are my achievements of just how powerful that message can be. When I look at the 49 minifig heads, I see everyone I know. My friends, my colleagues, my relatives, many of whom are still struggling, still trying to find or accept themselves. When you suddenly know who you are, life is so much more rewarding, and you start daring to dream in ways you haven't before.

I feel humbled, included and inspired

Is this the number one LEGO set you'll be buying this year? Of course not, and something tells me neither LEGO nor Pharrell expect this set to sell out or win special prizes. But it's a unique enough set to go down in LEGO history as the one that challenged AFOLs around the world in ways that LEGO bricks rarely do. It certainly made me have a closer, more profound look at diversity and inclusion.

If anything, Pharrell Williams' Over the Moon set isn't about Pharrell at all, but all of us, our dreams and creativity, regardless of who we are, and where we come from.

The "Over the Moon with Pharrell Williams" LEGO set made me feel seen and accepted, and I am willing to bet many will feel the same. It is — without any exaggeration — a stunning, albeit somewhat expensive, display of creativity and inclusivity. Will the movie be as inspiring as the LEGO set? I guess we'll find out… 😉 But, I am definitely over the moon by the set and Pharrell — on the off-chance that you're reading this — thank you, and respect! 🙏

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes, blogs and books. Author. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility! For my less regular readers, I also write about random bits and writing.