Phoning Home: How LEGO Ideas E.T. Took Me Back to the ‘80s

Nostalgia comes in all forms. A big part of my childhood nostalgia comes from movies and my favourite time of year, Halloween. My sisters, brothers, and I spent our time watching cartoons and movies when we weren’t outside playing. We had a small collection of VHS movies that we watched on repeat. One of those movies was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. So when I found out there was an E.T. LEGO set coming out, I was thrilled!

It's pretty exciting to have my very own E.T. in LEGO form!

E.T. won’t be lonley for long. I plan to create a few scenes from the movie to go along with him.

Rather than simply build the set, I decided to revisit the movie that inspired it. As I rewatched E.T., I was reminded of the scenes, quotes, and little details that made it such a memorable part of my childhood—and how many of those moments found their way into the LEGO model.

Oh, and this article contains spoilers for the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out on an epic movie! So join me as I revisit the film while taking a look at LEGO Ideas 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

E.T. Phone Home

I immediately began daydreaming about sitting in front of our big, bulky wooden-case TV on Saturday mornings or after dinner in the evenings. Scenes from the E.T. movie began fluttering through my mind, like looking through a View-Master with images whipping by as you clicked the lever. Along with the movie memories came memories of Mom constantly telling us kids to move back or we’d ruin our eyesight. I have been wearing glasses since grade six, so maybe she was right.

“E.T. phone home” is the first phrase that comes to mind when I think of the movie. My mind goes straight to that endearing scene with Gertie, Elliott’s little sister, and E.T. trying to use the push-button phone while literally dialing to call home. Yes, as a kid, we had that exact same phone.

An Easter egg that I absolutely love in 21370 E.T. is that there is a little red phone hidden inside E.T. However, I do wish the phone was on the outside because the scene is so iconic. If you’re a fan and know the phone is secretly hidden inside, then it’s OK. But if you don’t, it seems like something is missing. I think I’ll add one to the outside of my E.T.

Ouch!

The second notable scene is the closet scene where E.T. is hiding while listening to Mom read a bedtime story to Gertie. Elliott comes into the closet and accidentally pricks his finger. Elliott says, “Ouch,” and when E.T. sees the blood on Elliott’s finger, E.T. says, “Ouch,” too. Suddenly, E.T.’s finger lights up, and he brings his glowing finger to Elliott’s bloody finger. Once the fingers connect, Elliott’s finger is suddenly healed. Even now, I have a core memory of the feeling of connection and awe every time that scene came on. It felt like magic!

When Elliott first sees E.T. through the corn stalks

I thought it would be fun to use my own garden to recreate this scene.

E.T. movie scenes

I thought it would be fun recreating some of the scenes from the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial movie.

In this movie scene E.T. is trying to create a communication device to phone home.

Elliott riding his bike in the night sky

I got my spouse to make me a minifig of Elliott (the boy from the movie that connects with E.T. ) and the iconic red bike. This way I could recreate the bike going over the moon scene. Unfortunately the set does not come with minifigures, but it’s fun to build your own too!

The classic healing scene.

If I had a red minifigure hand I would have changed E.T.’s hand to represesnt the scene properly. This is the scene from the movie where Elliott pricks his finger in the closet and E.T. heals him by putting his lit up red finger onto Elliott’s.

E.T. going home

This is the scene from the spaceship when E.T.’s family comes back to pick E.T. up.

E.T. does have a red finger in the set, which is a must. I wish there were some way to light it up, though! It’s such a small part that I think it would be tricky to pull off. Having E.T.’s chest light up in the LEGO set was also a must, and designers Jordan David Scott and David Guedes nailed it. When the red light in E.T.’s chest starts to glow, I feel the same warm sense of love I did in the eighties while sitting cross-legged in front of that behemoth of a TV.

Push the lever on the back of E.T. and he lights up!
E.T.'s red finger

Unfortunately E.T.’s finger does not light up, but that would have been tough to pull off.

Switch for the light

This lever is right at the very back of E.T. It’s attached to a light brick which turns on when the back lever is pushed down.

You’re Going as a Ghost, You Promised!

In the movie scene where the kids are getting ready for Halloween, Elliott says to his little sister, Gertie, “You’re going as a ghost, you promised!” followed by, “Now, remember the plan.” Little Drew Barrymore (Gertie) retorts, “I’m not stupid, you know.” It’s classic! As kids, we repeated “I’m not stupid, you know” so often that we sounded like a broken record.

E.T. is ready for halloween! this was one of my favourite scenes from the movie.

Speaking of Halloween, E.T. is designed and positioned in such a way that you can easily dress him up for Halloween. I suspect E.T. will be a ghost this year in my epic Halloween display.

There is another quote in the movie that is quite inappropriate for anyone, especially kids, to repeat, but we said it constantly as children. I’ll keep this article clean, but if you’ve seen the movie, you may remember Elliott calling his older brother Mike _____ breath. If you need your memory jogged, it’s at the 17:34 mark in the movie. You’re welcome!

It was so much fun getting ready for Halloween as a kid. We even had an epic E.T. costume! It was a full-body suit that zipped up with a hood, similar to the one pictured here. Once you were inside that thing, you had to immediately go outside. It was the one costume we could wear and not freeze to death on a cold Halloween night. In fact, you’d sweat to death walking up the steep hills we had to climb while trick-or-treating.

Sadly, the costume is long gone, left behind in the eighties along with my youth. I couldn’t find any personal pictures of it, but it’s still a fond memory. There were also store-bought E.T. costumes available, but ours was way cooler because it was homemade. It was unique!

Be Back One Hour After Sunset, No Later

The Halloween bike scene is when things really started to get exciting. The kids head off trick-or-treating, with E.T. disguised as Gertie under a sheet. It leads to the famous bike scene with E.T. and Elliott. I was hoping this scene would be part of the set, but the designers chose to include the flower instead because it represents why E.T. and his family came to Earth in the first place—to collect a plant. Coincidentally, while the E.T. set was being created, a bicycle set was released! I know what I’m buying next!

The E.T. LEGO set includes three things tied directly to scenes from the movie: the flowers, which E.T. can hold, and two Easter eggs hidden inside his chest—the red telephone and the spaceship.

The iconic flowers

The flowers are much smaller than the LEGO Ideas submission. But that was necessary because they would have been too heavy for E.T. to hold.

E.T.'s feet move back and forth




Easter egg alert!

The red telephone and the spaceship are inside E.T.'s chest.

The dramatic scene of E.T. trying to call home with a makeshift communication device built from various pieces of equipment, including the Speak & Spell, was a tearjerker. The Speak & Spell would have made a great addition to the set, but too many loose accessories would have distracted from the main focus of the model: E.T. I did a quick search online and was happy to find a LEGO Ideas submission for the Speak & Spell. At the time of writing, it has only 1,564 supporters with 235 days left to reach the next milestone. So if you want to see that set become a reality, go vote!

The movie takes a turn when the government agents finally track E.T. down at Elliott’s family home. Some people have mentioned that this scene scared them as children. Some even say E.T. himself frightened them. I must be a different breed because the idea of being scared of E.T., even as a kid, never crossed my mind. I was too fascinated by this cool-looking alien! I guess my thinking has always been similar to Oliver Tree’s phrase, Ugly Is Beautiful.

The movie wraps up with the iconic scene of E.T.’s family finally returning to take him home. The heart-wrenching moment when E.T. has to leave Elliott and reunite with his own family brought me to tears every single time I watched it as a kid. It still tugs at my heartstrings today, usually ending with an uncontrollable tear running down my face. There was really no way to give this movie a completely happy ending, even though E.T. finally achieved what he had been searching for all along.

E.T. I Love You

I think this set will prove to be popular. Creative Team Lead Jordan David Scott, designer David Guedes, and fan designer Richard Lemeiter (aka Lafabrick), made a great choice by focusing on E.T. himself. Rather than trying to recreate one specific moment from the film, they created a character that instantly brings all those moments rushing back. Whether it’s hiding in the closet, healing Elliott’s finger, dressing up for Halloween, or trying to phone home, the model essentially becomes a canvas for fans to relive their own favourite scenes.

My E.T. set is so perfect he matches the wallpaper in my house! I love it!

Rewatching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial while building this set reminded me why the film has remained a classic for more than 40 years. It isn’t just the flying bicycles or the glowing finger that people remember. It’s the warmth, wonder, humour, and heart that made so many of us fall in love with this little alien in the first place.

I can’t wait to see what fans add to this model. Whether it’s a bicycle, a homemade ghost costume, a red telephone, or an entirely new scene from the movie, this set feels like it was designed to inspire creativity. And that’s exactly what a nostalgic LEGO set should do—remind us why we loved the story in the first place, then encourage us to make it our own.

LEGO Ideas 21370 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is available for preorders, shipping August 1st, for around US $140 | EU €130 | CA $200 | UK £120 | AU $230.

DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by LEGO. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

What movie from your childhood can you still quote by heart? Let us know in the comments below!

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