Lego® Tuxedo Cat 2024 (Review)

Remember Lego® from when you were small? Maybe you had a set or a friend had a box and you would be absorbed for hours with the blocks? Well, Lego has grown up, in spectacular style with jaw-dropping results!

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Meet the model causing a delighted stir in 2024 in the cat community. A Tuxedo Cat model that captures the ‘who me?’ look of a cheeky but cute (almost life-size) tuxedo cat. Could you make the kit? Yes you can, so let me share this fun project in a bit more detail.

Meet Tuxedo Cat

The model is part of the Lego® ‘Ideas’ range and this particular ‘meowdel’, the Tuxedo Cat, is spectacular. Cat lovers will have so much fun, and be totally absorbed assembling this kit.

Let me give you an idea of the features:

• Highly detailed, easy to follow instruction book
• Stands 30 cms/1 foot tall (which is huge!)
• For 18+ age group
• 1,710 pieces
• Cat’s head rotates, ears, paws and
• Posable tail
• Customisable eye colour (Blue/Brown)
• BONUS: An add on set of lights (available separately)

The step-by-step guide includes an illustrated booklet featuring an interview with the set’s Lego® designer, plus very clear instructions to guide you through every step of this creative activity.

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Just like their Notre-Dame popular due to its historic reopening) or Harry Potter Hogwart’s Castle this is a model of substance packed with creative playability.

Lego® Cat Looks Complicated

I can hear the questions piling up:

• 1,710 pieces?
• Where do you start?
• The box is huge!
• What do I do first?

Don’t worry, because this is where the quality and preparation of Lego as a company really ‘owns’ a kit of this quality. A Lego® kit this size is not cheap and you are paying for something that justifies the price tag.

What’s in the Tuxedo Cat Box?

When you take the lid off the box, you would expect to find dozens of bricks and shapes and be prepared to be a bit overwhelmed…

But no! As the lid slips off you see the kit is carefully packed into smaller packets of Lego parts. Each recyclable packet is carefully numbered from 1 – 20 and yes, you DO start with number one. Each packet links to a section in the instruction manual and you open one packet at a time and assemble one section at a time.

A clearly organised kit with instructions that you can follow, and beautifully organised components.

• In addition, each element of the packaging is recyclable, from the clearly labelled component bags to the splendid presentation box.

Putting Your Cat Model Together

I have a few suggestions about how to start your kit based on my own experience.

Your guide and most important tool with any Lego is the assembly book. For the Tuxedo Cat this is a full-sized paperback; not a brochure, or a foldable instruction sheet. Each assembly instruction has a clearly drawn illustration, and each assembly piece is clearly shown. Every single block, and every single step.

Take a look at this page from near the start of the model:

• A picture of the numbered packet from the box
• A clear image of the pieces you need
• Easy assembly instructions

Every page is like this. You see the pieces you need, and how you put them together. It’s just like the joke about eating an elephant (one piece at a time), you assemble a complex model in lots of small steps.

How do I know this works? Because it’s what I did with my first model, the smaller Halloween Cat and Mouse. I thought I would get anxious about the assembly, but the instructions are the best I have ever seen for a model and I feel any of you can tackle the bigger project with confidence.

Tips from Our Lego® Experience

• Open the box and check you have the manual and the correct number of bags.
• Find a workspace e.g. a tray with a lip to avoid losing pieces.
• Open and assemble one bag of pieces at a time in the order the manual tells you to. You will rarely find a manual so well thought out and presented than this.
• You will need to focus. The kits are not hard but you do need to pay attention as you go.
• Work on one step and one page at a time. The exact number of pieces you need will be listed for each step.
• The images are very clear and helpful – you can see where every piece fits. The pieces and placement for each step are outlined in red.
• Some sections of your cat are created twice, like a leg or paw. You make the first part, turn the page and repeat the process again. You are always moving forward with no frantic leafing back to find where to start the repeat.
• Lost? It happened to me! Dismantle your cat to the start of the previous step then begin that step again. You will have an ‘A-ha!’ moment when you realise what needs moving or adjusting. There is an orange tool to help if you struggle to separate pieces.

Bonus Tips from Experience

• Sticks: There are several small ‘sticks’ that help align the model. Some of these have one circular end, and one + plus sign end. Make sure you position these correctly.
• Working Solo: If you want to make your cat on your own, do it on your own. If people offer to help, politely decline. Tell people this is your ‘me time’ (and suggest they get their own kitty!)
• Team Work: Set ground rules and boundaries. Making a kit together can be fun but everyone needs to be respectful and patient with slower workers. Everyone gets to participate, and to make suggestions. Everyone celebrates when each bag is complete.

Lego® Cat Summary

There are a lot of pieces and a lot of steps involved in the kit, and you want to enjoy the creative process as much as the end result. Work patiently through the manual, step by step and between stages store all of your pieces and packets in the large box your cat kit arrives in.

You will really enjoy yourself and get lost is a world of Lego® creating something thrilling and spectacular that will make a superb display piece you can be really proud of and display for your friends to see. Hmm where will I put mine? The living room? My desk…….

Tuxedo Cat Out Take

This was too cute not to include!