If there’s something we love more that the humble LEGO Minifigure it would be Animal figures. We’ve had many over the years including Chickens, Cows, Sheep, Piglets and perhaps the greatest of them all, the Goat. The majority of these have come from the LEGO City theme, thankfully it’s not going to stop with all new creatures releasing this Summer. The Jungle sub-theme is back and looks to be better than ever with a surprise character returning, Johnny Thunder. Not only that but joining him will be a handful of new Animal moulds, which include a Tiger, adult & infant Gorillas, a Red Panda and recoloured Crocodiles.

The new LEGO City sets will be available from 1st June, check them out here in all their glory. Let us know what LEGO Animals you’d like to see in a future LEGO set via the comments section below. 

Among a few things you might see in Antarctica are impressive ice sculptures carved out by the wind, penguins (my favourite animal), or if you are lucky you might even witness the southern lights! I wanted to combine my passion for design with my fascination with Antarctica to create a model which appeals to Lego fans and explorers alike!

– Josh Tarling (Tarlinator)

So it’s a great idea to have a dedicated LEGO display set showcasing the beauties of this continent. It’s a quite substantial display featuring around 3,000 parts. Included is a light brick feature (which I’ll cover later on) and a nice range of penguins. Smile and wave boys!

The 7 species of penguin, from left to right are: Emporer Penguin, (Emporer penguin chick), King Penguin, Macaroni Penguin, Gentoo Penguin, Adelide Penguin, Magellanic Penguin, Chinstrap Penguin.

My favourite feature in this project must be the use of a light brick to create the southern lights (aurora australis) in the backdrop. Using several colours transparant pieces to give the impression of a true spectacle of light. This screenshot doesn’t really do it justice, so I can only encourage you to head over to the project page and watch the video that’s embedded to see the light function in operation. And while you’re there, just hit that support button.

We would like to wish Tarlinator the best of luck in gaining the required 10k support. If you like the look of this idea and would like to give your support, please use the links below. Registration is free to LEGO Ideas and only takes a minute, so head over there now and do your part!

Official LEGO Ideas page:

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/1e75f575-7104-407a-8280-f3b702e10a25

Woodland Wildlife is the first project on Ideas from Brickicist. It contains these animals:

• Red deer stag (Cervus elaphus)
• Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)
• European badger (Meles meles)
• Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
• Tawny owl (Strix aluco)
• Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
• Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

There’s also a few bonus animals like a frog, snail, ladybug and butterflies.

The central eyecatcher is of course the red deer. This looks really well shaped with some interesting part choises. For example: are those bananas in the middle of the stag? But also other animals like the badger or squirrels are so well done. Without relying on prints or stickers and just some parts like slopes a very recognizable result is achieved. If LEGO stays faithful to the fan design this could be such an amazing set!

To have a nice display piece the animals are incorporated in a woodland display with 2 bigger trees and some smaller plants.

No piece count is mentioned which makes it harder to estimate the estimated price etc. But no license will definitely help keep it reasonable.

We would like to wish Brickicist the best of luck in gaining the required 10k support. If you like the look of this ideas and would like to give your support, please use the links below. Registration is free to LEGO Ideas and only takes a minute, so head over there now and do your part!

Woodland Wildlife project page:

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/1d14442e-f15f-430c-8dd2-01ed8e7f9a48

Everybody loves LEGO animals so the team over at Minifigs.me have combined them with everyday wearable items such as Jewellery and Keychains. Inspired by some of the most adorable LEGO critters, these new designs have been stylised in a fun and creative way. There are three different types of item to choose from that truly express your LEGO animal side. Pick from Keyrings, earrings and pin badges, or why not grab them all and have a collection?

The animals the team chose are based on some of the most popular ones from LEGO‘s repertoire, including a piglet, shark, dog and squirrel. These look absolutely stunning and a fun way to express yourself and love of LEGO, you can learn more and view the whole range at Minifigs.me.

The above links will apply a 10% discount automatically to your basket and usually grants us a small commission, thank you.

It’s a small and inexpensive set with 70 pieces and a RRP of £8.99/€9.99. At first glance that might look like a terrible price per part, but take into account this set has 2 Seals, both adult and baby and a Minifigure with an extra hairpiece things might be a bit different than the numbers show.

So what’s it all about? The set consists of 3 builds: the snowmobile, a camera and an icy environment for the Seals. None of these builds are very technical. That’s also not what I was expecting from a 5+ set. None of the builds rely on big parts like Ugly Rock Pieces, big panels or big bricks. In other words the parts aren’t really specific and allow for many different purposes. For me that’s a big advantage buying this set mostly for the seals and adding the parts to my bins for MOC building. Another big positive is the absence of stickers. The only decorated slope has a print. The minifigure is nice. It has a newly recolored backpack and hairpiece and a torso that’s exclusive to this years Arctic sets. Also included is a helmet that can be alternated with the hairpiece.

Parts: 9/10

The builds are really simple, most AFOLs will complete this set within a few minutes. There’s some interesting choices though. Instead of just adding a camera piece the designers included one that’s a nice little build. Also the L-shaped Technic Liftarm that’s used for tracks is a clever choice. It allows for movement for play, but is also a kind of rare and rather new element so it adds value for AFOLs.

Building techniques: 7/10

Playability 10/10

In conclusion:

You get a few cute new animals with a few small builds. It’s a perfect gift for LEGO fans of all ages. Whether used as a parts pack or play set there isn’t really much to argue against this set. For the price and age range you basically get what you can expect. Maybe even a bit more than that.

This is a great inexpensive set. However if you have a bit more patience than me, and wait a few months, you’ll probably see some discounts on sets like this.

Value for money: 9/10

How do you like this cute Seal Battle Pack? Are you Crazy about it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Luckily a lot of talented builders share their designs on sites like Rebrickable. Some of these instructions, others are sold by the creators. This way you can build interesting designs using the parts you have or just ordering the parts you’re missing. Recently I tried a few of these, in this blog I will ‘review’ one of those. Of course it’s rather unfair to judge these builds in a similar fashion to commercially available sets, therefore I won’t grade this build. 

For this build, I had to make a few (color) changes because some rare parts are used which I didn’t have. But most of the parts used are rather common which meant it was rather easy to find the needed parts in my collection.

The build is very similar to most Brickheadz, although the hinges for the hind legs are a small detail that gives it some uniqueness. Also there’s an adjustment in the way the head is structured so the horns can be connected. This makes the connection of the plate on the side a bit more fragile though. The new 1×1 SNOT (studs no on top) plate introduced in the recent Speed Champions sets might prove a good way to strengthen the build. Unfortunately I don’t have this part yet so I couldn’t test this. The goat is full of texture and both the goatee and cheeks are done in a way that gives the model a rather cute appearance. 

The head is completed using plates, cheese slopes and quarter tiles to give some variation and detail. Once completed there’s a choice how to finish the mouth. Options are a plain closed one or open mouth chewing on greens. Those greens depicted are a rather fun detail. Instead of grass this goat is chewing money tiles, no doubt in reference to how expensive original LEGO goats are. The parts for the closed mouth were not included in the parts list. When I ran out of parts there were some pages in the instructions left, which turned out to be this alternate option. So if you want to build this goat you might want to check this when you’re getting your parts together. 

Conclusion:

 I really like this build. It has really interesting textures and looks really nice once completed. I appreciate the sense of humor the creator put into the chewing goat and building something different from my regular builds was a lot of fun as well. Being able to build this from my own parts collection is a nice bonus but even if you don’t have all the parts, I’d still recommend any goat loving AFOL to have a look at this creation and get the missing parts together via your preferred bricks service. Happy building!

You can find the part list and download the instructions for free here:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-109905/MonstarJDC/goat/#details

It’s still far from complete, but a few hundred parts have now been added including animals like ‘Grumpy Cat‘ from Friends and the Otter from City, prints from the Jazz Club modular and many more are now available.

If past experiences are a good indication, some of these parts are likely to sell out fast, taking a few weeks for them to be restocked. Also, delivery times for standard PaB parts are already a month. With the many orders that can be expected with the new parts, some patience might be required until orders arrive.

You can find the online PAB here: https://www.lego.com/en-gb/pick-and-build/pick-a-brick

Are you ordering any of these new parts? What are your favourites from these new additions? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Are are numerous new and exciting things found within these new sets but the most notable are the Animals, which includes a Lion, Elephants, Monkies, and a new printed Snake.

With the popularity of LEGO Animals these sets will no doubt sell fast and be sought-after by the intended audience and us AFOLs! 

Pop below to take a look at teach set, then head to the comments and let us know which one(s) you’ll pick up.

City Wildlife – Animal Rescue ATV 60300

City Wildlife – Animal Rescue Off-Road Vehicle 60301

City Wildlife – Animal Rescue Operation 60302