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

In 1993, the world was first introduced to Halloween Town and the Pumpkin King Jack Skellington. Since then, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has become one of the most popular Halloween films in the world.

With its striking claymation characters, unique and delightfully dark Tim Burton world, and catchy songs from Danny Elfman, this film truly has something for everyone.

Now we're gearing up for a trip to Halloween Town with the LEGO® Ideas Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas set. Turning the iconic film into a LEGO set isn't something you do overnight, so we caught up with two members of the design team to find out how they got the job done.

This is Halloween!

"I'm absolutely a fan of the film," says designer César Soares. "I've already forgotten how many times I've seen it!"

"When I was little, I was too scared to watch it," adds designer Laura Perron. "But when I first saw the film, I immediately fell in love with the style and the feeling the world evokes."

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

"By watching the film over and over again and trying to absorb as many details as possible," César explains. Sounds pretty fun, right?

But there's more to it than just looking, Laura adds.

"We looked at the fan submission and identified key locations and characters," she said. "Then we replayed those key scenes over and over to figure out what key details we needed to include. It was also helpful to look at behind-the-scenes footage and production photos. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stop-motion film that's hand-animated, so luckily there was behind-the-scenes footage that showed us the entire set and gave us a sense of the layout."

In our village you tremble for ten!

The final set includes connectable models of three iconic locations from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Spiral Hill, Halloween Town Hall and Jack Skellington's house.

The house has a removable roof with Jack's formula for Christmas underneath and you can sit Jack at the lectern in the town hall, ready to give his speech.

The set perfectly captures the unusual architectural style, but designing it presented some challenges.

"The LEGO building system is known for its straight lines, but you don't see those anywhere in the movie," says Laura. "It was fun to figure out ways to make everything look wonky and crooked, but still make everything strong and stable."

The result is a beautiful 2,193-piece set that is approximately 51 cm wide and will undoubtedly be an eye-catcher in your home at Halloween or Christmas (or both!).

Keep your nerves in check.

The quirky, unique design isn't limited to the locations, though: anyone who's seen Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas knows that the film is packed with unforgettable characters.

Our designers believe that this motley crew is one of the main reasons why everyone loves this movie.

“There are quite a few characters and they really stand out,” says César.

"And the character design is so bold and bold," Laura adds. "At first glance, you see a dark world full of mysterious creatures, but the film evokes so many emotions that you really fall in love with the characters."

This set includes 8 of those characters: Jack Skellington, Sally, Santa (or should we say Santa Claus?), Rot, Squash and Rommel minifigures, plus Zero the dog and a buildable Mayor figure with 2 faces.

I want something like that too!

There aren’t many films that manage to weave two such different holidays into one story. Is The Nightmare Before Christmas a lighthearted Halloween movie or a dark Christmas film? The fact that it’s impossible to answer that question has always been part of its unique charm.

We're thrilled that we've managed to bring that charm into the LEGO Ideas Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas set, so you can now bring a piece of Halloween Town into your home.