Review: 31044 Park Animals
Posted by Huw,
Creator sets are, for those who prefer to eschew the latest LEGO fads, one of the highlights of the company's retail assortment. The brick-built animal sets, that have been a near-permanent fixture in the Creator range since first introduced in 2003, are often the pinnacle of the theme.
At first the emphasis was on exciting: fierce animals like dinosaurs, dragons and other predators but in recent years it's changed to cute: cats, monkeys and parrots. This year's offering builds a cute duck and an even cuter puppy as well as two other animals found in parks.
As with all recent Creator sets this is a '3-in-1' set which means it contains instructions for making three different models from the same set of parts, two of which are designed, usually with compromises, around the parts selection required for the main model.
In this case, a squirrel and an owl can be made using the dog and duck's parts.
Squirrel
Perhaps the least impressive of the three is the squirrel although it still manages to capture the creature's character, in particular the pointy ears and fluffy tail.
The ball joints provide plenty of scope for posing the animal.
Owl
The owl is simply awesome and every bit as good as the main model in my opinion. The shape of the head, the big beady eyes and the feathers sticking out above them really capture the look of an Eagle Owl or similar. Yes, the eyes are too big but that's part of its appeal.
The wings can be splayed by virtue of multiple ball joints. The head would probably look better if the double-slope piece at the bottom was brown or dark orange, but as I said, compromises are made in the secondary models: that piece is used for the puppy's underside so is white for that reason.
Puppy and ducks
The main model comprises a duck with three ducklings and a brown and white puppy.
Going by the colour scheme this is presumably a male Mallard duck. The yellow piece used for the beak is perfect. The eyes are too big again but do make it look adorable.
Its brood of three ducklings couldn't be any simpler but are very effective.
Like the owl, its wings are attached using ball joints so can be positioned in a variety of poses.
Now onto the star of the set, the puppy. In common with the other animals, the recently introduced selection of curved pieces have enabled the designers to capture the organic shape of the animal effectively.
Ball-joints provide a lot of articulation which enable a variety of poses to be struck.
Having said that, its paws can't be moved forward beyond a right-angle which prevents the legs from being positioned in a natural looking walking pose.
In this view you can see the rarest parts in the set, four 13547, 'Slope, Curved 4 x 1 Inverted' which for some reason are not shown in the official inventory.
The dark orange 1x1 cheese slopes are also new this year.
I do like the use of 2x2 boat studs on the bottom of its paws to represent paw pads.
Overall
This is a delightful set that should not be overlooked. It's not full of minifigures or based on the latest licensed property but it's all the better for it.
Like the cat, monkey and parrot before it, it will be a hit with boys, girls, young and old alike. It encapsulates everything that's good and wholesome about LEGO: fun to build, fun to play with, great to look at, and a nice selection of parts to boot.
Plus, at £12.99 / $14.99 (6.4p / 7.4c per piece) for 200-pieces, it's great value and is the ideal set for gifting.
JANGBRiCKS' Video Review
36 likes
26 comments on this article
Already grabbed one copy...but that owl is awesome. I may actually need a another one now... I just can't choose between the dog and the owl!
The dog is SOOO cute... and what a bargain. Wow.
Don't care for the alt models, however.
I like the Creator sets, but I think the theme is well overdue for another large set- it's been years since we've had a set over $30.
Does anybody else think of Duck Hunt when looking at the main model?
My daughter came over and asked to build something. I gave her this set and she immediately set out to build the owl as she has a whole collection of owl things. I may need to go get another set for myself so I can build the dog. I do really think the dog and the owl both make excellent models.
@Okay Duck Hunt is the first thing I thought of too when I saw this set.
Actually , the 1x1 cheese slopes in dark orange appeared last year in the geonosis troopers battle pack. Just a minor correction.
Cool set. I do think the duck's legs should move, but it's pretty good.
Yeah, there's no way this set is *not* inspired by Duck Hunt. The animals' design is off, but the color scheme is right.
Makes me wonder how many Brickset posters are either too young to know what Duck Hunt is without looking it up, or else grew up somewhere that didn't have the game.
I had to pick this set up in the store as soon as I saw because, well, puppy. Can't wait to build it, and like the others I might need to get a second so I can have the owl too. I like that the dog is three different colors (not including the grey connectors) and they all work well together.
Absolutely adorable, with three really solid builds too (which can't be said for most Creator sets, to be honest).
Yes Duck Hunt came to mind first. LOL
@SprinkleOtter: Last year's Blue Power Jet was $70... unless you were only referring to Creator animals?
^^About 70% of all comments on YT on a video for this set are that.
^They was only referring to animals.
@ Lyichir.
Yeah, I was referring to animals.
Yay for Duck Hunt!
The color scheme is so ugly in this set. Dog looks the best out of them, but still is very aweful. Very far from http://brickset.com/sets/31021-1/Furry-Creatures
Given the contents are a puppy and a family of ducks, and given what the alternate builds are, I can't think what other colors would be better! It's a very cute set...but then, I generally do like Lego sets. Trouble is, I can't afford them all!
There should be a Nintendo license on this one xD
I adore these sets - and I really like both the owl and the dog !
@SprinkleOtter: You do mean animals? Oh, good. Well, you're not wrong... the last big animal set was the 2010 dragon set IIRC.
Yeah, I really like these animal sets, but I also miss the big animal/dinosaur/dragon/robot sets we used to get. Sets like 4507, 4884, 4894, 4892, and 4998 come to mind. It would be nice if they could do a large set with a different core color for once, like navy or purple. Sick of the usual blue, green, red and yellow for most sets.
"Yeah, there's no way this set is *not* inspired by Duck Hunt. The animals' design is off, but the color scheme is right."
Exactly, this is 100% inspired directly from the old NES game. I don't usually pick up animal type sets, but will buy this just for the fact that it's "Duck Hunt".
My first thought was "Duck Hunt" :-)
If this set is inspired by duck hunt, I think it was the modern re-design seen in super smash brothers rather than the original 8-bit version that inspired the model. kids are probably more familiar with the SSB version anyway
By far the best Lego Puppy! Super cute and pose-able, despite my bias of having two Boxers that look just like this set. The Puppy in Furry Creatures was also cute and pose-able but quite front heavy and cartoonish. Need more! Owl is lovely! Nobody likes squirrels...