There’s an emerging issue with Patrick Star minifigure from the LEGO 11386 SpongeBob SquarePants: Bikini Bottom that’s due to be released on 1 September 2026.
There appears to be a critical flaw with some Patrick Star minifigures that could cause his new large headpiece to crack. How do I know? Because I just discovered that mine just developed a hairline crack.
Yikes! I was pretty taken aback to discover this crack, but after hearing rumblings about there potentially being issues with Patrick Star, I decided to check my one again, and lo and behold, a small hairline crack has developed.
It’s really odd, because when I took photos for my Bikini Bottom review (published on 12 August), the Patrick Star minifigure was perfectly fine.
The crack on my Patrick is quite tiny (for now), but what’s really odd is that when you remove the headpiece, it disappears from sight, which strengthens my belief that this is an issue with the mould, and there being too much tension when inserted into a minifigure torso.
From some of the other early reviews, it seems that Brickset’s early review copy also suffered from the same issue, with their crack being a lot larger and more dramatic than mine.
This is obviously quite a concerning issue and I’m not sure if this is bad luck, or isolated to a few early batches, but with the release of 11386 SpongeBob SquarePants: Bikini Bottom coming up really soon, we’ll begin to see reports of any more Patricks cracking at scale.
There also might be an issue with the colour, as Patrick is made from Warm Pink elements, which only just made their debut this year as a new LEGO colour, but obviously, if this is a widespread issue, it could point towards a more critical flaw with the mould itself.
I’ve already flagged this with The LEGO Group, but just thought I’d share my experience in case you were on the fence about picking up 11386 SpongeBob SquarePants: Bikini Bottom when it launches on 1 September.
Do note that it’s quite mixed and not all Patrick Stars are affected. I checked in with 4 other creators who have had an early review copy, and theirs were fine (for now), so this seems to not be a completely widespread issue.
If you’re picking up 11386 SpongeBob SquarePants: Bikini Bottom, keep an eye out for your Patrick Star Minifigure, and let me know in the comments if you’ve come across this issue.
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