LEGO's New 1,226-Piece E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Set Has a Whole Lot of Heart

The LEGO E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial set (21370) arrives as the latest addition to the LEGO Ideas collection, translating one of cinema’s most enduring characters into a 1,226-piece buildable figure designed for adult collectors. It is a set that carries more than four decades of cultural weight on its small, articulated shoulders.

Few films have embedded themselves in the collective imagination as thoroughly as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Released in 1982, Steven Spielberg‘s suburban fairy tale about a lonely boy and a stranded alien overtook Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a title it held for over a decade. Its emotional vocabulary was deceptively simple: a glowing heart as a proxy for empathy, an outstretched finger as a gesture of connection, a bicycle silhouetted against the moon as proof that wonder could lift you off the ground. That final image proved so defining that it became the logo for Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, a permanent watermark on decades of Hollywood storytelling.

More than four decades later, E.T. endures as a rare cultural artifact: a blockbuster built not on spectacle, but on emotional precision. The alien’s vulnerability, his childlike curiosity, and his aching desire to return home resonated far beyond the suburban California setting Spielberg constructed around him. “E.T. phone home” became one of cinema’s most quoted lines not for its cleverness, but because it articulated something elemental about longing and belonging. Where other sci-fi franchises of the era leaned on scale and mythology, E.T. staked its legacy on the radical proposition that tenderness could carry a film further than any lightsaber or starship.

That cultural gravity is what makes this new LEGO E.T. building set feel less like merchandise and more like a considered tribute. The 1,226-piece build captures E.T. in meticulous anatomical detail, with a head that angles up and down and rotates a full 360 degrees, a mouth that opens and closes, and arms, wrists, and fingers that adjust into the alien’s most recognizable poses. Point his forefinger skyward and the gesture carries the full weight of that original scene. Place the included pot of sunflowers in his hands, and the LEGO figure recreates the quiet moment where E.T. revives a cluster of wilted flowers, one of the film’s most tender exchanges of life force. At the back of the figure, a switch activates an integrated light brick that illuminates E.T.’s chest, bringing the alien’s signature glowing heart to life on the shelf.

The LEGO Ideas E.T. set sits within a platform where fan-submitted designs are voted on by the community and, if selected, produced by the LEGO Group. It carries an 18+ age rating, a classification that signals both the complexity of the build and its intended audience: adult LEGO fans who grew up with Spielberg’s film and have carried its imagery ever since. Standing over 9.5 inches high, 8.5 inches wide, and 6 inches deep, the finished LEGO figure is scaled for display, designed to hold shelf space with the kind of quiet presence that mirrors the character himself.

The LEGO Ideas E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial set (21370) is available for pre-order now online, with shipments beginning August 1. A limit of three units per household applies.