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For the first time in LEGO’s history, Wallace and Gromit are made of bricks — and a French fan designer named Sébastien Esnault is the reason why. LEGO revealed set 21371 Wallace & Gromit on August 31, 2026, an 1,038-piece adult collector build depicting the beloved Aardman duo astride their signature red motorcycle and sidecar from the 1995 Academy Award-winning short Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave. Priced at $99.99 USD / £89.99 GBP (approximately $122 USD) / €99.99 EUR (approximately $116 USD) / $149.99 AUD / $139.99 CAD and rated 18+, it will go on sale October 1, 2026, exclusively at LEGO.com, with pre-orders now open. The set joins a year in which Aardman Animations is celebrating its 50th anniversary with exhibitions, concerts, knighthoods, and a new Shaun the Sheep feature film — making the timing about as fitting as a cracking piece of Wensleydale.
What Makes A Close Shave the Right Starting Point
Wallace, an absent-minded inventor with an unfailing love of cheese and crackers, is running a window-cleaning business with his far more capable dog, Gromit, when a runaway sheep sneaks into their house at 2 a.m. That lamb — whom Wallace names Shaun, introducing a character who would eventually headline his own franchise — is the first sign of a sinister sheep-rustling plot. Wallace falls for local wool-shop owner Wendolene Ramsbottom, whose menacing robot dog Preston turns out to be the real culprit, framing Gromit for the crimes and landing him in prison. The plot of A Close Shave operates in the warmly absurd register that defines Aardman at its best: gentle farce, quiet heroism, and a climactic motorcycle chase across the English countryside that is equal parts thriller and slapstick. That motorcycle-and-sidecar chase — Wallace driving with intent for once, Gromit riding shotgun, ears flat against the wind — is exactly the moment LEGO has chosen to freeze in brick.
A Close Shave took home honors at the 68th Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film in 1996. It was also the film that introduced Shaun the Sheep, the character who now headlines his own series and multiple feature films, including Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, releasing in cinemas in September 2026.
How a Fan’s Under-1,000-Piece Concept Became a 1,038-Piece Product
LEGO Ideas is not a design-replication service. It is a design-validation market. When fan builder Sébastien Esnault — whose handle on the platform is Pidelium — submitted his Wallace & Gromit concept to the LEGO Ideas challenge entry for the “90s Throwback – The Next Chapter” challenge, the entry had to come in under 1,000 pieces. He built a faithful recreation of the duo on their motorcycle and sidecar, navigating real constraints: LEGO bricks are angular and geometric, while claymation characters have organic, rounded forms pressed into shape by human hands.
Pidelium won the Grand Prize in his challenge category, and then the real work began — not his, but LEGO’s. The LEGO Ideas royalty program promises winning fan designers 1% of net sales royalties, 10 complimentary copies of the finished set, and credit in the product materials. What it delivers in exchange is access to something no community builder has: parts that do not yet exist. LEGO’s production design team rebuilt the concept using macaroni-style curved elements in new colorways that were unavailable when Esnault submitted his entry. The result is a production set that is 1,038 pieces — 38-plus pieces more than the challenge maximum — because the curves needed to replicate Wallace and Gromit’s bodies properly required more geometry than the fan submission could provide.
The differences between fan concept and finished product reveal exactly what LEGO’s design process adds. As the Brick Fanatics design comparison documents, Gromit’s head has been revised: his mouth is shorter, his nose more prominent, bringing the brick version closer to the original clay puppet. A custom-printed dome piece was developed specifically for this set to replicate Gromit’s distinctive rounded eyes — the feature that carries his entire expressiveness, since the character never speaks. His goggles magnify those eyes further; his hat straps are posed as if lifting in the wind. Wallace received a printed tile showing his signature wide teeth and a hidden printed cheese slope inside his torso. The motorcycle’s inner structure was redesigned to match the vehicle as it appears in A Close Shave, with wider changes to the fender and overall shaping.
The one notable omission that the LEGO community flagged immediately: the sidecar does not convert into a small plane, as it does in A Close Shave’s climax. There is no alternate build for the aircraft configuration. For a set built around that specific film, it is the single design decision fans most wish had gone differently.
What Is in the Set
Set 21371 depicts both characters in their motorbike outfits from A Close Shave rather than Wallace’s more iconic green knitted jumper. Both figures are fully poseable buildable models; Wallace is rendered in full, while only Gromit’s upper half is included — consistent with his seated-in-sidecar position. Both figures can be removed from the vehicle, and the sidecar detaches from the motorcycle for separate display configurations. The wheels on the motorbike spin freely.
Hidden inside the motorbike’s seat hatch are three Easter eggs for longtime fans: Wallace’s beloved crackers, a ball of wool, and the diamond — each a nod to storylines from across the shorts, per the Brickset set reveal article. A printed cheese slope, initially thought absent, was confirmed by eagle-eyed community members in a lifestyle photograph: it is tucked inside Wallace’s torso.
The finished model measures over 23 cm (9.1 in) high, 23 cm (9.1 in) long, and 18 cm (7.1 in) wide. It is a substantial display piece, designed for shelves rather than play — which is exactly the positioning the Ideas 18+ line has established over the past several years.
Fan Reception Has Been Immediate
The Brickset set reveal article published at 2:00 p.m. BST on August 31, 2026 accumulated 9,502 views in under 24 hours — a metric that places it among the most-read Ideas reveals of the year. Community comments ranged from “Day one purchase” and “absolutely cracking” to “one of the few times the official set looks better than the original submission.” Even commenters who said they had no particular attachment to the IP noted the model’s quality: “I have no interest in this… but my first reaction seeing this set was that it’s gorgeous.”
One commenter noted a practical bonus: the motorcycle’s wheels are apparently debuting in black for the first time, making the set a useful parts source for builders working on other projects. That kind of secondary appeal — the set as a parts library as well as a display piece — is a pattern in highly regarded Ideas releases.
Aardman’s 50th Anniversary Year in Full
Set 21371 lands in the middle of the most event-dense year in Aardman’s history. The Bristol-based studio, founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, marked its anniversary in 2026 with a series of activations that have given the characters sustained cultural presence for most of the year. In June, King Charles knighted Sir Peter Lord and Sir David Sproxton for services to animation and the creative industries.
The Young V&A museum in London opened Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends on February 12 and runs it through November 15, offering more than 150 objects from the studio’s archives — models, sets, storyboards, and props — alongside interactive stop-motion activities for families. The M Shed Bristol exhibition launched Cracking Exhibition Gromit: 50 Years of Aardman in Bristol this summer. The Royal Mint 50p coin featured the studio’s characters in a limited commemorative release. The Aardman in Concert tour is running through October, pairing classic clips with live orchestral performance. And beginning October 14, the Lightroom immersive experience at London’s King’s Cross will host Larger Than Life: Starring Wallace & Gromit, Shaun and More, a 50-minute experience using the studio’s full character roster.
The capstone of the anniversary year will be Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, which releases in cinemas in September 2026. In it, Shaun’s mad-scientist attempt to save a ruined pumpkin patch sends things spectacularly off the rails — a premise that takes visual cues from Hammer Horror films, rendered in the studio’s saturated, hand-crafted stop-motion palette.
Set 21371 thus hits the market just two weeks after that film’s theatrical debut, at the precise peak of the anniversary momentum — a circumstance that will amplify its appeal well beyond the dedicated LEGO collector community.
How to Pre-Order and What to Expect
Set 21371 Wallace & Gromit is available for pre-order now exclusively at LEGO.com and will go on sale October 1, 2026. For at least three months after launch, it will remain a LEGO.com exclusive before potentially moving to other retailers.
Set details at a glance:
DetailSpecification
Set number
21371
Name
Wallace & Gromit
Piece count
1,038
Age rating
18+
Price (USD)
$99.99
Price (GBP)
£89.99 (approximately $122 USD)
Price (EUR)
€99.99 (approximately $116 USD)
Price (AUD)
$149.99 AUD
Price (CAD)
$139.99 CAD
Release date
October 1, 2026
Availability
LEGO.com
Dimensions
23 cm × 23 cm × 18 cm (9.1 × 9.1 × 7.1 in)
Currency conversions are approximate based on rates at time of publication.
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is LEGO Ideas, and how did this set come to exist?
LEGO Ideas is a crowdsourcing platform where fans submit original designs for potential LEGO sets. If a submission reaches 10,000 community supporters, or wins a designated challenge, LEGO’s Review Board evaluates it for production. Fan designer Sébastien Esnault (Pidelium) won the Grand Prize in the LEGO Ideas “90s Throwback – The Next Chapter” challenge. LEGO’s design team then rebuilds the concept using production-grade parts unavailable to community builders — including new colorways and custom-printed elements made specifically for the finished set. Winning creators receive 1% of net sales royalties, product credit, and 10 complimentary copies, per the LEGO Ideas platform overview.
Is this the first LEGO product featuring Wallace and Gromit?
Yes. Set 21371 is the first-ever LEGO product to feature Wallace and Gromit in any form. The LEGO Group and Aardman had a prior collaboration (referenced by Brick Fanatics as beginning with “Boop”), but this is the first commercially available set carrying the characters, as the Brick Fanatics set reveal confirms.
Why is there no transforming sidecar-to-plane option?
In A Close Shave, Gromit’s sidecar converts into a small aircraft for the film’s climax. The production set does not include an alternate build for this configuration — a point the Brickset set reveal article noted immediately after the reveal. No official explanation has been given.
What else is happening with Wallace and Gromit and Aardman in 2026?
Aardman is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a packed schedule: the Young V&A exhibition in London (open through November 15), a Bristol M Shed retrospective, a Royal Mint 50p coin, the Aardman in Concert orchestral tour, and an immersive experience at the Lightroom in London from October 14. The biggest release is Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, arriving in cinemas in September 2026. Founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton were knighted in June 2026. Full details are available on Aardman’s 50th anniversary page.