Review: Furry Creatures
Posted by Huw,
If you've been reading Brickset for any length of time, you will know I have a soft spot for Creator animals, and if you've examined many of my photos closely, you'll know from the number of white cat hairs that seem to find their way into them, that I have cats. The new Creator set 31021 Furry Creatures, then, would seem to be a match made in heaven for me...
Like most Creator sets these days, it's a '3-in-1' set which provides instructions for three models, in this case a cat and mouse, a dog and a rabbit. I'm only reviewing the cat and mouse here, I haven't built the others yet.
The mouse is very cute but clearly the design inspiration has come from cartoons rather than real mice, which isn't a bad thing as a realistic one at this scale would be nigh-on impossible.
The cat too looks very cartoon-ish. There's a lot of SNOT building techniques used in its head. I'm not sure whether I find it cute or scary-looking.
The body is way too small for the head, but it is a cartoon cat after all, so it probably doesn't matter. There's a good amount of movement in the legs and paws allowing for it to be posed easily.
The kitten does not come in the set, it's 30188 Cute Kitten which has started to appear in some European shops.
Its face is even scarier than its mothers!
I know I'm stating the obvious here: due to their organic nature, animals are obviously going to be a challenge to replicate at this scale using square LEGO bricks, although the recent increase in small curved and sloped pieces, and compact SNOT brackets, which have been used profusely in this model, have made it much easier.
I'm not totally convinced that the model has successfully captured the personality of a cat, although it is a valiant effort to do so, but it hasn't quite hit the mark, in my opinion. One thing's for sure though, I could certainly do no better so perhaps I shouldn't criticise and just be thankful that LEGO is making Creator sets like this and not just churning out more cars, planes, helicopters and houses every year.
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14 comments on this article
Scary. I find it scary. Like the monkey, there's just something unsettling about it.
But thanks for the review!
This set really stood out for me as a fun Creator set that it likely to encourage a broader range of builders beyond the vehicles/robots contingent. I don't mind the cartoon look and would enjoy playing around with the eye plates.
I think this set is much better than the monkey one (although I think the toucan looks good).
Like you, I appreciate that LEGO is branching out in the Creator theme, though looking back in the Brickset database, I'm sad I wasn't a builder in the earlier Creator days with some of the great variety animal sets.
Thanks for the review. I really should pick up a few of these Creator sets, they look very nice to build. Something like the joy I experienced while building the ships of the SW Planets series.
With regard to your soft spot: I too have a soft spot for cats but since I have 5 finches.. erm.
Thank you for the review. I like these sets like you do, they provide something new to the line. Bought both the cat and the monkey today and looking forward to build them with my wife and/or kids tomorrow. The monkey are going on my fourth kid`s shelf. He`s a "monkeyboy" ;) (ref. the litte one in my avatarpic)
I love this model. So often in the past, LEGO Creator creature sets have depicted extremely "hardcore" types of animals, such as lions, dinosaurs, sharks, dragons, spiders, and crocodiles. It's fantastic to see some cute, warm, and fuzzy subject matter for a change. Between this and Cloud Cuckoo Palace, it seems like the LEGO Group is starting to realize they don't have to push the edgy "boy angle" so hard to maintain a strong core audience.
I'm not the kind of person who thinks that gendered marketing is evil, of course. In my mind, the LEGO brand has room for all sorts of themes, from things that are extremely girly by traditional definitions to themes that are extremely rugged and boyish, as well as everything in between. This set is definitely one of those wonderful "in between" sets. It's cute– and cuddly-looking, but not explicitly gendered.
I love these sets, and agree with the comments above. I like how small adjustments of the eyebrows can change the model from cute kitty to evil kitty. Fingers crossed the Cussoo birds project gets the go ahead.
Thanks for reviewing a Creator set!
^ @MrD, Yes, hopefully we can get a bird for the cat to watch. You could make some pretty funny pictures with the two.
@Trandoshan
It could be the handle-bar eyebrows...
I just finished building this set (Cat and mouse) about 30 minutes ago and immediately quarantine the cat due to "pressure" from the woman of the house. .. something to do with Asian folklore regarding black cat as jinx . This is the second time it happened though, the last being Ninjago's
9447: Lasha's Bite Cycle (she's afraid of reptiles ,except shelled ones). LOL.
Back to serious review: I'm impressed by the number of parts offered in this set, especially the overwhelming number of 2x1 and 2x2 curved parts. The set actually "scream" .... MOC me MOC me!! YES I WILL!
I think the pink slope should be flipped for the kitten. Looks like someone kicked it in the face.
I got 3 of these sets so my wife could have each animal on display at the same time and while they look a little strange compared to real animals I find that they are still a nice representation of the animal.
I got 3 of these sets so my wife could have each animal on display at the same time and while they look a little strange compared to real animals I find that they are still a nice representation of the animal.
Bought this set over the weekend. I love the look fo them. For someone who grew up on Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, and the Muppets they're great characters. And that's the thing--they're meant to be cartoonish. I'm perplexed by the negativity of the comments.
I went into a Lego store last week with the intention to buy something else originally. But then I saw this set and thought it to be incredibly cool and cute. So I ended up buying this (among others).
So far, I've only built the alternative models (bunny and dog). I agree with alanyap that there is a whole bunch of interesting parts in there. For all models it seems that the focus is clearly on the head. It is quite big compared to the body and also more detailed (takes comparatively more steps in the instructions).
The dog is indeed very nice; you can recreate a whole lot of dog-like expressions. It stands reasonably well but often seems to end up with one leg not quite touching the ground.
I don't like the bunny. The head is way too big and at least mine wasn't standing properly. The head is too heavy and too much to the front of the model, so it tends to fall on its nose (poor bunny). The easter bunny ( http://brickset.com/sets/40086-1/LEGO-Easter ) that I bought at the same time is a much nicer rendition of a bunny.