A tour of the LEGO® Ideas Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas set

In 1993, the world got its first glimpse of Halloween Town and met the Pumpkin King Jack Skellington. Ever since then, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas has been a favorite seasonal movie all around the world.

With its distinct claymation characters, unique and darkly delightful Tim Burton world and its catchy songs by Danny Elfman, this movie really has something for everyone.

Now, we prepare ourselves for a trip to Halloween Town with the LEGO® Ideas Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas set. But turning this iconic movie into a LEGO set was no small feat, so we spoke to two designers from the design team to find out how they did it.

This is Halloween!

“I absolutely was a fan of the movie,” says designer César Soares. “I’ve lost count of the times I watched it!”

“I was too scared to watch it when I was younger!” adds designer Laura Perron. “But when I watched it for the first time, I just fell in love with the style and feel of the world.”

Both designers knew that capturing that style and feel was crucial. So, how did they approach the design process?

“By watching the movie again and again and trying to capture as many details as we could,” says César, making his job sound like enjoyable work.

But, Laura adds, there’s more to it than just casually watching.

“We looked at the fan submission and identified what locations and characters are important,” she says. “Then we watched those key scenes over and over to highlight the important details that we needed to include. It was also helpful to look at behind-the-scenes images and production photos. This movie was stop-motion animated by hand, so thankfully there were a few behind-the-scenes images where we could see the whole set and get a sense of the layout.”

It’s our town, everybody scream!

The final set features connectible models of three iconic Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas locations, including Spiral Hill, the Halloween Town Hall and Jack Skellington’s house.

The house has a removable roof that reveals Jack’s formula for Christmas and you can place Jack on the lectern in the Town Hall ready to give his speech.

It captures the off-beat architectural style perfectly, but designing for this environment did come with its challenges.

“The LEGO brick building system is famous for its grid, but in the movie, there are deliberately no straight lines,” says Laura. “It was fun to find ways to make everything look crooked and spindly but still strong and stable.”

The process has led to a wonderful 2,193-piece set that measures over 20 in. (51 cm) wide and is going to make the perfect display for Halloween or Christmas (or both!)

Wouldn’t you like to see something strange?

The quirky, unique design didn’t just extend to the locations though, everyone who has seen Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas will know that it’s packed with unforgettable characters.

Our designers believe that this motley cast of characters plays a big part in why people love the movie.

“The characters are many and rich,” says César.

And Laura adds, “The character design is so distinct and bold and iconic. At first glance, you see this dark world filled with creatures, but the movie has so much heart that you really come to love these characters.”

This set features 8 of these characters, including Jack Skellington, Sally, Santa Claus (or should that be Sandy Claws?), Lock, Shock and Barrel minifigures, plus Zero the dog and a brick-built The Mayor figure with two faces.

I want it for my own!

There aren’t many movies that blend such very different holidays into a single story. Is The Nightmare Before Christmas a light-hearted Halloween movie or a dark Christmas movie? The fact that this question is impossible to answer has always been part of its unique charm.

Now, we’re delighted to bring that charm to the LEGO Ideas Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas set and to let you bring a little bit of Halloween Town to your very own home.