Article: LEGO and Animals

[Bonaparte]

ARTICLE: LEGO and Animals

In 1984 the Classic LEGO Horse was released and it remained the most interesting LEGO animal for many years. It was (and is) liked and loved by fans over a range of themes from Castle, City, Paradisa, Prince of Persia to Pirates and Wild West. Later in the 80's we got some more animals like Parrots, Monkeys and Sharks when the first Pirates line was released in 1989. However during the 90's the LEGO fans didn't see many new animals, except for a cat and few others but nothing spectacular, and non of those even came close to the popularity of the classic LEGO Horse from the 80's. The 90's could be seen as the 'dark ages' for LEGO animals.

After the Millennium things finally started to improve with the release of some new interesting animals like the amazing Elephant (Adventurers theme), Owls with Harry Potter, and a Dog in 2004. But it was in the year 2009 when LEGO finally released an animal which could compete in terms of popularity with the good old LEGO Horse: No, it's not the Fish but the breathtaking LEGO Cow! There were 2 versions, one with the well known back & white pattern and another one in reddish brown. The removable horns being the icing on the cake! The fans had to wait 25 years after the release of the Horse for getting their long requested Cow. It's hard to grasp why it took LEGO so long as it was very easy to predict the Cow would become an instant classic.

The next 'big thing' for LEGO animals came in 2010 with the release of a fleshy Pig. The Pig immediately entered my top 3 of LEGO animals, with the Horse on a firm 1st place and the Cow on a 2nd position. Thinking of it, some of the most important animals (for food production) in our real world are a Cow, Pig, Horse ... and of course Chicken which finally entered the LEGO universe in the year 2011. LEGO by now had understood the fans wanted more animals which was evident from the release of a detailed Goat together with the Chickens in the Kingdoms series. Let's not forget the year before there was a Camel and Ostrich as part of the Prince of Persia theme (2010) allowing fans to explore the deserts of the world. In our current year (2012) we already got the instant popular Bear (certainly so judging from the Bricklink prices), which is very high on my own shopping list. To be complete, this year there were also the Dino's which I consider 'special animals' being extinct and having limited usefulness for most themes.

While LEGO is clearly catching up, there are still a lot of animals missing which I'm hoping to see in future sets. I'd love some LEGO Lions, Tigers and Sheep, but also wouldn't mind some Deer, Moose, Cheetahs, Gorilla's, Giraffes and Panthers. Not to forget the Bird segment which has a lot of untapped potential (Falcons anyone?). In an ideal world LEGO would make a Zoo set or better an entire Zoo subtheme, not in Duplo, but a regular subtheme that's complementary with LEGO City just like the Forest Police subtheme. Doing this LEGO would speed up their 'Animal catch up efforts' and spoil us fans with a nice variety of LEGO Animals just like we have nowadays with the minifigures.

A few days ago I stumbled upon some designs by our member Wrinkledog which show the potential of some of the animals that are mentioned in my wish list.

This is what a LEGO Cheetah family could look like:

And a family of LEGO Deer:

And maybe some LEGO Lions?

To give the project of Wrinkledog a push in the right direction and make LEGO aware that 'we want more', go here on CUUSOO to cast your vote. You can discuss Wrinkledog's designs here in our forums where you find some of his other designs like Elk, Kangaroos and Moose.

We'd love to hear about your top 5 of 'missing animals', so share it with us in this forum topic.

I will summarize all your feedback and provide LEGO a top 10 of most wanted animals based on this survey.

[Rudders]

Of course there's also the bat, rat, spider, scorpion & snake

[captain kaos2]

Elephant, giraffe, whale, lion, penguin!

It would be nice a set, name Noah's Ark. :D

Edited June 12, 2012 by captain kaos2

[deskp]

I think a sheep would be a great addition!

Also penguins could be fun.

Lions and tigers seems like soemthing lego should have already, but I guess there havent been any proper africa/india themes.

1 Sheep

2 moose

3 Lion

4 Tiger

5 penguin

Edited June 14, 2012 by deskp

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Dearest Bonaparte,

here are my top 5 missing animals.

5) Rabbit. A small rabbit to place on a 1x1 stud. I believe we need it.

4) Wolf (proper not the dog mold). Ok, we can assume the dog mold as a wolf... but what if they did a proper mold?

3) Boar. Come on, it would be fantastic.

2) Dear. Absolutely needed, if possible one mold for adults and one for little dears.

1) Tutle. A small nice green turtle for the joy of all of us.

Thanks

[Vicmackey80]

For me, the top five of lost animal by Lego are:

1 Tigers

2 Lions

3 Alternative dog (bulldog or/and Chiwawa)

4 Giraffe

5 iguana (lizard/reptile)

Furthermore, with a theme "zoo" in addition to recovering the chimps,ostrichs, camel, bear, parrots and various elefants, could paint horses as zebras without wasting Lego molds.

My best animal for me is Chiken, very great, dog (grim version, new dog is very little Lego) and cat!!

[Bonaparte]

Lions and tigers seems like soemthing lego should have already, but I guess there havent been any proper africa/india themes.

Only Duplo might have those (I'm not much of Duplo expert), but nothing minifig scale.

[Wardancer]

The article does not include fantasy creatures, which is a fully valid perspective but neglects for example the adorable Harry Potter griffin, a very horselike animal.

Anyway, here are my wishes:

1. Stag (normal and albino)

2. Wolf (bigger than the one that is also used as a dog)

3. Eagle owl (the biggest owl, often with a wingspan of 1,7 meters or more, sort of the stealth bombers of the German forest) not sitting as the HP owls, but in flight

4. Moose

5. Tiger

(6. Wild boar (the kind that eats you if you don't eat it first))

Come to think of it, my selection seems focused on forest animals (except 5) which might be due to my current focus on elves and my identity as a German.

[-GZ-]

Many years ago I tried to build a minifig-scale LEGO pig, and now there's a great mold; we even have the bear. This time I want to get a LEGO donkey! Probably like one in POTC videogame, or smaller one, like goats or pigs...

A lion would be great, too, but I think they can produce it only for a specifiс african theme, or maybe for a Zoo set...

And maybe we need a re-edition of an Elephant? We have only old OldGray ones, and they are very expensive on BL now. What's about a new mold, or only a new colour? Hope we'll get one as Oliphaunt for future LOTR sets...

So there is my list:

1. A Donkey!

2. A Lion

3. A new Elephant

4. A wild boar

5. Well, maybe a wolf.

Edited June 12, 2012 by -GZ-

[Legonardo]

1 deer

2 wolf

3 sheep

4 eagle/hawk

5 dolphin/shark (without the ridiculous eyes)

not in my top 5 but things like an alternate crab and more birds would be cool

[takuto20]

I miss these animals:

Hehehe.

No, more seriously now, my top five are:

1. Giraffe (With this and the many molds they have now we need a zoo theme in which there is a set for each type of animal. Long overdue, Lego!)

2. New polar bear (Easy, just paint the new bear mold) for the eskimo family I made.

3. Reindeer for my Winter Village (A single mold can be used with or without antlers, with or without Rudolph's nose...)

4. Sheep for my farm (Which already has pigs, cows, goats, chicken...)

5. New dolphin (Please, no cartoonish eyes like that awful new shark!)

Edited June 12, 2012 by takuto20

[Calanon]

Here are my top five:

1. Sheep

2. Deer

3. Rabbit

4. Donkey

5. cabybara

But because a capybara is unlikely...

6. wolf

[XimenaPaulina]

1. Lion

2. Tiger

3. Eagle

4. Wolf

5. Deer

[JackJonespaw]

Hm....how about:

1.) Shark (a realistic mold)

2.) Sheep

3.) Donkey

4.) Squid (I know that there's an octopus mold, and some people call it a squid, but I want a mold like this. Yes, it's obviously fake, but you see my idea.)

5.) Hawk

[Iron-Man]

1) WHALE!

2) Wolf

3) Hawk

4) Iguana or some kind of cool lizard!

5) Brown Bear

Hopefully we can see some of our animals in real LEGO form one day

[Aanchir]

5 dolphin/shark (without the ridiculous eyes)

5. New dolphin (Please, no cartoonish eyes like that awful new shark!)

I don't understand why there's so much hate for the newer shark. Personally, I love it in most respects. The only possible "improvement" I could think of would be to remove the angry expression and give it more of a blank stare the way fish tend to have. This would presumably not be any major expense, at least no more than any other alternate print of an already-printed piece.

In general the new shark embodies some of the things I love best about newer LEGO animals. He keeps a certain level of angularity, but has far more connection points than his predecessor, can now swallow a variety of things, and features printed eyes to make him more compatible with classic LEGO minifigures. In fact, since minifigures are so inherently cartoony on their own, I'm even perfectly willing to forgive the angry eyes.

Animals I'd like to see most are:

1. Lion or other big cat

2. Deer (great for Christmas models, even if real reindeer don't actually look like deer from temperate climates)

3. Falcon/Hawk (like the one in the Ninjago TV series, aesthetically based on the newest version of the LEGO owl)

4. Sheep

5. Rabbit (could probably be managed with a new, less animesque face print on the one from the Friends theme-- as seen here the scale is not too bad)

[just2good]

Top 5 missing animals:

5) A lizard (like the rat mold)

4) An ostrich A flamingo

3) A turtle

2) A crow

1) Different dog molds (this one is kinda cheap, but I would love to see a Beagle, Dachshund, and a Golden Retriever in scale with the German Shepherd piece).

Edited June 12, 2012 by just2good

[Dhivael]

1. Sheep

2. Deer

3. Elk

4. Tiger

5. Lion

Honorable mentions: Wolf or Boar.

[Combee]

I love the push LEGO has been making recently with all the wonderful new animal molds (I had to pick up the Robber's Hideout just for that bear as soon as I saw it!). Here's my list:

1) Sheep (great farm animal addition to round out the essentials)

2) Wolf (bigger than the dog, really hoping for wargs in the hobbit sets)

3) Boar (bigger mold than the pig!)

4) Rhino

5) Penguin (hopefully we'll see one in the upcoming arctic theme)

Edited June 23, 2012 by Combee

[frogstudio]

My Top 5:

Sheep

Donkey

Deer

Boar

Fox

[purpleparadox]

Boar, sheep, bluebird, penguin, raven. I guess birds and animals that'd work in a medieval setting are what I want.

Edited June 12, 2012 by purpleparadox

[Cecilie]

More animals! :wub:

My top 5:

1. Penguin!

2. Tiger (and/or other big cat. Actually, I want all the big cats! Tiger, Lion, Lynx, Cheetax, Leopard...)

3. Moose

4. Sea turtle (why not? )

5. Wolf (not just the dog mold!)

[Athos]

Love the deer. I think the gorilla guy from the collectable figures is a great stand-in for a real gorilla (just don't look at his back). And don't forget the chimp from the CMFs too.

Here's my top five:

1. Sheep

2. Deer/Elk

3. Lion

4. Boar

5. Beaver/Fox/Some smaller mammal

Steve

[Pietsmurf]

i totaly gone buy it :sweet: :laugh: :tongue: :classic: :thumbup:

[Nightshroud99]

I would want:

Sheep

Deer

Wolf

Panda

Lion