Review: 40273 Turkey
Posted by Huw,
Tomorrow is just another day for us here in the UK but my understanding is that it's a big deal for those of you in the USA, right?
How better to celebrate, then, than by constructing this cute BrickHeadz before tucking into your roast Turkey with all the trimmings...
The turkey itself adheres to the standard BrickHeadz dimensions and standards which, to be honest, are not ideal for replicating a large chubby bird with a red neck and small head.
Nevertheless, it's recognisable as one, thanks mostly to the red caruncles below its beak.
The back and sides of the head are plain and, frankly, somewhat boring. Something to represent feathers might have worked although given the proportions are so unlike that of the real bird, probably not.
Its tail feathers -- two 4x4 quarter circle plates attached using a clip hinge -- look much better.
As with all seasonal BrickHeadz, this one comes with embellishments to its base. in this case patches of soil with flowers, a pumpkin and carrots growing, bordered by a picket fence.
The 2x4 tile is printed to identify this as a seasonal BrickHeadz.
Despite the difficulty of anthromorphising a turkey so it's suitable for the BrickHeadz treatment, it's a reasonable model and one I'm happy to have in my collection.
40273 Turkey is still available from shop.LEGO.com:
USA ($9.99) | Canada ($12.99) | UK (£9.99) | Germany (€9.99) | France (€9.99)
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22 comments on this article
Be nice if it was ever in stock..
Not for me, too basic and boring
@Virgilnz - As in a stock cube? With some roast veg & potatoes. Mmmmmm!
Any ideas at what the stalk piece in the turkey's "hand" is?
^^He means the store has them lol.
@mooslug Turkey wishbone perhaps?? Kinda disturbing when you really think about it. LOL.
I think the turkey's tail could use a little more color like several 1x1 tiles or slopes just to add a little pop.
It's so horrible it's almost funny how bad it is except for the poor designer who LEGO forced to design something so bad.
If you want a turkey just bricklink 40091, only 11 more pieces and so much better.
I give it this, it sure is a turkey set :)
Looks pretty good! I got a pilgrim set (which isn't nearly as good) from a few years ago though, so I don't need to buy this.
Yay. Another Brickhead.
Gobble, gobble, garbage...
But Happy Thanksgiving anyway everyone!
This set is truly awful. I got one for cheap, removed the feather pieces, and put it in the oven, ready to serve it tomorrow alongside good-sized portions of apple pie, muffins, and stuffing.
And now I need a new stove.
Even Americans don't really care about Thanksgiving
@psychic tempest zero
I don’t even like turkey.
@Huw, to answer your question at the beginning of the article, yes, Thanksgiving is a big deal for us Americans. ;-) Nice review, as always!
This is my favorite of the holiday Brickheadz so far. I love it, and I shall miss it once it leaves my desk until next november.
@Psychic Tempest Zero
I care greatly about Thanksgiving!
It's almost the only time of year I get to eat cranberry pretzel salad...
I love turkey and Thanksgiving and LEGO. I'm not a huge fan of BrickHeadz in general and this turkey does not help.
"The turkey itself adheres to the standard BrickHeadz dimensions and standards which, to be honest, are not ideal for replicating a large chubby bird with a red neck and small head." That's putting it nicely. I was surprised this was a buyable LEGO set. I'm sorry for not being nicer, but I was sure this was a MOC or something Huw put together at the last minute to mock the silly Americans.
And carrots wouldn't be in many people's top 5 Thanksgiving vegetables. Maybe LEGO needs to send some folks to some Thanksgiving dinners to get a better feel for this holiday. I love carrots, but I won't be eating any today!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
It's a good set. And I love the fact that for the seasonal sets like Easter and thanksgiving that there using brickheadz.. great job team..!
It's so cute! Probably one of the cutest Thanksgiving seasonal sets ever. It reminds be a bit of a Beanie Baby or other stuffed toy. I like the part choices for the wattle and feet. Even with BrickHeadz proportions it is very recognizable as a turkey.
A part of me does wonder whether the beak might look better as a 1x2 half pyramid than a 1x2x2/3 slope, but it's certainly cute enough as is that I don't mind. The little bits of autumn harvest season scenery are nice as well.
I'm not quite sure what the piece the turkey is holding is meant to represent, but if I had to guess I'd imagine it's a sprig of wheat. It doesn't have much specific meaning as an icon or symbol of American Thanksgiving, but it is a symbol that appears often in Thanksgiving decorations and images due to its general role as part of the autumn harvest season. As a bonus, it's something that the turkey might itself eat for dinner, rather than something like bread or pumpkin pie that people would be more likely to serve as a dessert or side dish with the turkey. :P
It's kind of a bummer to see so much negativity in the comments, but of course a lot of it is from people who were not much fonder of other brick-built seasonal figures. Overall I've seen a lot more positive feedback from AFOLs about these seasonal BrickHeadz than for the 2014 or 2016 seasonal sets.
Re: whether Americans care about Thanksgiving, it's a bit divisive. On the one hand, it's a huge tradition to come together with one's family to celebrate Thanksgiving in various ways, most significantly a big Thanksgiving dinner. But of course, there's a lot of people who associate that more with the stress of entertaining guests and/or the kind of combative drama that can erupt when people from different generations backgrounds who don't see each other come together.
There's also a lot of controversy over the holiday for various reasons, such as its themes of harmonious cooperation between Native Americans and European settlers heavily sugar-coating the much more common historical patterns of oppression, theft, and genocide of Native Americans and their lands by European settlers and their descendants.
Also, the origins of the federally recognized date (the 4th Thursday in November) were meant to extend the post-Thanksgiving Christmas shopping season during the Great Depression. That and the sensationalized reputation of Black Friday as an unmatched shopping opportunity that brings out the worst in shoppers have led to a lot of cynicism about how commercialized Thanksgiving is.
Overall, though, Thanksgiving is a very big deal for Americans as a whole. But it is not a holiday with a major gift-giving tradition like Christmas presents or Easter baskets associated with it, so it's safe to say this year's Christmas BrickHeadz and other Christmas seasonal sets will be much more highly sought after.
Ironically, that might also boost the popularity of this set outside the United States, since many of the things Americans associate with Thanksgiving dinner like turkey, cranberry sauce, and seasonal vegetables are often more closely associated with Christmas dinner in countries like the United Kingdom that do not have autumn Thanksgiving holidays.
Good thing it says Turkey because I couldn't have guessed. Maybe that's not a good thing after all.