Review: 21354 Twilight The Cullen House from LEGO® Ideas

Stephenie Meyer started her writing career by breaking the mould, not realizing publishers expect shorter teenage novels than the author's debut manuscript. That didn't stop the voracious hordes of 2000s teen readers; once they had a taste of blood they wanted more of Twilight's supernatural love triangle. Five books, five movies, and twenty years later, the fandom lives on like some kind of immortal vampire, prompting fans around the world to support the LEGO® Ideas 21354 Twilight The Cullen House into production.

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
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21354 Twilight The Cullen House

• Release date: 4 February 2025
• Pieces: 2001

Price: 

• US$ 219.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 279.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 189.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 349.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 389.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 219,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 219,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ 219,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLN 949.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 2699,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 1699.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

 

 
This February set is one of many LEGO Ideas minifigure-scale pop culture adaptations, such as August 2024's 21350 Jaws; see Ben's review of set 21350. Similar to Jaws, The Cullen House is a set which is both playable and displayable. Seven of the most significant Twilight characters have been made into minifigures and yes, Edward sparkles. The Cullens' home glimmers as well, with much of its walls built out of windows. That means lots of recoloured window frames thanks to the house's dramatic futuristic architecture – of course vampires would live somewhere dramatic.

New Twilight minifigures

Every character represented in 21354 Twilight The Cullen House features a new printed face with dual expressions, and all but Charlie Swan's torsos are newly printed as well.

Bella Swan's two facial expressions are film-accurate – her face barely changes. At least she has her cactus from Arizona to remind her of how life used to be before getting caught up with these two lunatics.

Edward Cullen marks the third character portrayed by Robert Pattinson in minifigure form, and his strong cheekbones and eyebrows receive some slight updates. Looks like he's got a little vampire dust this time around, though.

Jacob Black comes with both long and short hairstyles, distinguishing his boyhood from his maturation into a full werewolf in the second film. Jacob's torso (6535691) includes the first-ever dual-moulded warm tan arms — fantastic minifigure parts, but they're not quite as sensational as the sweaty, muscly, shirtless torso featured in the LEGO Ideas fan design by Nick Micheels (LobsterThermidor).

Three more Cullen vampires are included, but Edward is the only one who sparkles. Graphic Designer Ashwin Visser experimented with test prints, and this final version appears to include the maximum amount of minimally-sized dots of metallic silver ink to recreate "the skin of a killer." The end result looks a bit scaly, but this extra detail is a fun one.

Even with a new wolf model, one aspect goes unchanged from Nick's LEGO Ideas submission: "You can transform the Jacob minifigure by quickly throwing him to the side and pretending that he shape-shifted before your very eyes!" This still doesn't answer the question of where the werewolves of the Quileute tribe get their jean shorts after returning to human form deep in the forest.

Some reduction in scale makes Jacob's wolf form closer to minifigure scale, and new wolf eye prints are put into action.

Rosalie, Alice, and Dr. Carlisle Cullen expand upon Edward's found family. They also include golden-eyed alternative expressions, and Alice's slate blue waistcoat and white sweater coat from the Cullen's introduction stand out as one of the most detailed outfits in this set.

Charlie Cullen tries to do what's best for his daughter, but even as the Chief of Police he's unaware of all the supernatural goings-on in Forks. His minifigure wears a torso from LEGO Harry Potter 76437 The Burrow – Collectors' Edition, though his head is newly printed with Charlie's cop-moustache and luscious lashes.

New parts 

The gloomy setting of Forks, Washington lends the films a certain dull palette, but this LEGO Ideas set is a shining treasure trove of minifigure prints and recoloured dark orange parts. The original 2995-piece LEGO Ideas submission was clad in brown and black, and dark orange is decidedly more exciting, even for its brooding inhabitants.

 

Recoloured elements

• 5x Door Frame 1 x 4 x 6 (6522740 | 60596)
• 4x Window 1 x 4 x 3 without Shutter Tabs (6522738 | 60594)
• 14x Window 1 x 2 x 3 Flat Front (6533058 | 60593)

As LEGO designer Laura Perron explained during the set's reveal, The Cullen House "is filled with windows because this is the one place where they don't have to hide". Deep in the forest, the vampires' sanctuary hides from mortal eyes, and Laura took that opportunity to freshen up the obfuscated house. 

The choice to refresh Nick's fan LEGO Ideas submission with brighter colours might clash with some Twilight fans' desaturated vision of the house, but it does bring numerous elements representing the house's wooden walls into the "fun brown" shade of dark orange.

• 4x Wedge Plate 12 x 3 Right (6533065 | 47398)
• 19x Plate 1 x 12 (6536566 | 60479)
• 4x Wedge Plate 12 x 3 Left (6533064 | 47397)

Clean geometric lines are a hallmark of this modern house and Laura Perron said of them, "A few strategic angles keeps it engaging, so it's not just a box." Many thin walls on the complex second floor necessitated the introduction of the skinny and long 1 x 12 plate in dark orange, while the large wedge plates complete the subtle angles.

Well, just the left wedges are needed, actually. If those left wedges cover all the visual aspects of the build, why are there also four newly recoloured right wedge plates in the bags?

All four right wedges fill in a rectangular area in the build's foundation. Perhaps Laura knows the pain of MOCcing and finding unequal, or worse completely absent wedge halves after breaking down a set for parts. This set does builders the favor of including a matching amount of recoloured wedges — even though they're hidden.

• 4x Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 2 Inverted (6522737 | 73825)
• 2x Hinge Plate 1 x 4 Swivel Top / Base (6533074 | 1927)

Hinging parts to align with the wedge plates' angle also required two other helpful elements, newly drenched in dark orange.

• 2x Stairs 7 x 4 x 6 Straight Open (6522741 | 30134)

This is one of those elements you have to wonder why it took so long to arrive in a classic LEGO colour. These stairs have been in production since 1996 but never in white until now. We may be in a trend of recoloured stairs, as last year the LEGO® Sonic the Hedgehog theme finally recoloured these stairs in dark tan.

New printed element

• 2x Brick Round 1 x 1 x 1 1/3 Quarter Dome with Black Eye, Nougat Fur print (6523171 | 1871pr0003)

As mentioned, Jacob's wolf form is included, and one new print adds detail over the brick-built LEGO Ideas submission. Yes, these are the same one new print, as they're not simply mirrored to form left and right versions. 

Graphic Designer Nathan Davis said at the reveal, "Making left and right eyes is easier as a designer, but it often makes it harder for builders to spot at a glance which way around they have them, and can limit how they can be reused to build something else. My first year included a lot of lessons in how we think of pieces being used beyond just the set you buy them with!"

Read the end of this article to see how I re-used these symmetrical printed round corners – not just as eyes – to create other animals.

Rare parts

• 4x Plate Round Corner 6 x 6 in Reddish Brown (6268433 | 6003)
• 2x Wedge Plate 6 x 2 Left in Dark Orange (6490607 | 78443)
• 3x Plate 1 x 1 x 2/3 with Open Stud in Reddish Brown (6492305 | 86996)
• 1x Tile 2 x 2 with Groove, Black Checks Print in Reddish Brown (6430841 | 3068bpr0670)
• 2x Plate Special 2 x 2 with Only 2 studs in Medium Nougat (6528998 | 33909)

No rare elements return from the long-gone times which only vampires remember, instead these are all in three or fewer other sets from the past two years. No "mirror-matchiness" is afforded to the 6 x 2 wedge plate in dark orange, and only one pair of them are in another set, LEGO Harry Potter 76435 Hogwarts Castle: The Great Hall.

Building the The Cullen House

Compared to the original LEGO Ideas submission, The Cullen House is smaller but more polished. The strong stacked geometric shapes differentiate each floor, with the majority of the detail packed into the middle level.

A new inclusion is Bella's 1963 Chevy C-10 stepside pickup truck, contributed by LEGO product designer Adam Grabowski. The perfect shade for the truck's faded paint would be sand red, but with that colour long out of production, bright red will have to do.

This central floor houses the kitchen, and the space-efficient building techniques Laura mentioned. One 1 x 2 wedge tile in orange (not dark orange) helps secure the left edge of the angled wall, and of the many Easter eggs hidden in this set, I have to wonder if this is in any way a reference to the single carrot left on the cafeteria table for Edward.

Each floor can be individually removed, with the top floor covered by two roof sections. 

To prevent those sections from sliding around, yellow ceiling lights and the bathroom vent are positioned all the way to the wall:

Unlike many other LEGO buildings, The Cullen House is pleasing from its reverse side with more windows and two stories of porches. After all, behind the house is where Bella and Edward get married.

With the build finished, I naturally had to bring the set near the real residence in Portland, Oregon, USA. Known as the Hoke House, Skylab Architecture designed the house and it was completed in 2007, barely before the release of Twilight's 2008 film. A director of Nike footwear design footed the hefty bill to call the luxury home their own, which is nestled between Portland's forest and urban areas.

Taking a closer look inside, we can find key objects in the plots of Twilight movies and eagle-eyed readers will find some of the many Easter egg references. The main living area includes a grand piano for Edward to play "Bella's Lullaby", and a panoramic landscape sticker perhaps depicts fictional Isle Esme, filmed in Paraty, Brazil between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The middle floor has more references than a casual bystander of the series notices – my Twilight experience mostly included being called Edward in high school – but a big one here is the Cullens' collection of baseball gear. The kitchen is incredibly detailed for a family who don't eat food.

The top floor is smaller, leaving room just for a bathroom and Edward's chaise longue, record collection, and some other knickknacks. The Cullens' wall art of their accumulated graduation caps is a byproduct of being trapped in teenage bodies – "we matriculate a lot," per Edward.

Two of the music records are out-of-universe references. The B-52s' "Rock Lobster"-style record is instead inscribed "N-92" — likely references to fan designer Nick's name, birth year, and his LEGO Ideas handle, LobsterThermidor. "N92" also appears on the truck's license plates. The grey record on the bottom shelf is titled "Yogurt Funny" which, if Internet rumours are to be believed, is some kind of in-joke among author Stephenie Meyer's family.

Scenes from the movies

With so many good angles and numerous character minifigures, it was impossible to not head into the Pacific Northwest forest to emulate the Twilight films.

"You better hold on tight, spider monkey." Another fun nod to some of the campest scenes in the saga is an included neck bracket for minifigure Edward, who can carry Bella before she gains her own vampiric powers.

Zachary Hill's MOCs inspired by the new wolf eye print

"You brought a snack." The symmetry of the printed wolf eyes (6523171) inspired me to build a couple more articulated animals in roughly the same size and style as Jacob's wolf form; this time they're both predator and prey.

This hawk is built with the wolf eyes opposite one another, rather than in-line as on The Cullen House wolf. This hawk's legs utilize clip and bar hinges, similar to Nick's original fan design for wolf-Jacob, though the final wolf design only uses Technic pins for limb articulation.

Not only does the new printed corner look like an eye, it can also be reimagined as a furry mouth with a single tooth at the bottom. Brick-building eyes at this scale was a challenge, but the large 1 x 1 round stud eyes give this hare a shocked appearance, fitting their do-or-die escape from the hawk looming overhead.

Twenty years late, or right on time?

LEGO Ideas gives fans the opportunity to see their favourite films in plastic bricks, even after their heyday, and 21354 Twilight The Cullen House is a perfect example of that. At US$220, this set likely wouldn't fit into teenage fans' budgets twenty years ago, but now this testament to Twilight may be within reach to fans fortunate enough to have adult money.

MOC builders might see value particularly if they're seeking dark orange parts, but the added cost of film licensing and actors' fees can incline the set's value more toward folks who love the characters from the books and films. At the very least, the extensive dark orange frame recolours have opened up a whole new palette for architectural builders.

 

READ MORE: Review of sets 42652, 42662 & 42663 from LEGO® Friends

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