Latest news about Lego animal moulds

[Clone OPatra]

On 7/21/2024 at 8:32 AM, Accio Lego said:

Which is kind of silly because albino rats and rabbits are fairly common pets and it would be ridiculously easy to do either one in a City set. 

They did do the rabbit with red eyes from the Lunar New Year set. Brasso or otherwise remove the extra print, and that's basically an albino rabbit. Not a big deal that the nose is red too, IMO.

[Karalora]

Albino animals have red/pink noses. It's actually accurate.

[RichardGoring]

My Pick a Brick order arrived last week, full of butterflies to add to a spring themed bonsai tree, but I've not had chance to build it, and now I'm going away. It will have to wait. Sigh.

I've checked Bricklink, but just to sanity check, they've never released a butterfly in pink, have they?

[karrit]

No pink yet.

[Accio Lego]

A (very blurry) picture of the upcoming Burrow D2C has leaked. Meaning we have official confirmation of the flying owl coming in a new color for Errol the Great Grey. 

[Roebuck]

10 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

A (very blurry) picture of the upcoming Burrow D2C has leaked. Meaning we have official confirmation of the flying owl coming in a new color for Errol the Great Grey. 

That is nice to get since we haven't gotten a great grey owl print this time. Makes sense that Errol is flying in the set as well Is that the only owl in the set?
I see 2 pigs, but it could be more It would be a great set to include some piglets to keep the mould in rotation..
Do we expect any more animals in the set? Ducks and geese would fit in nicely, but a new mould for them here seems unlikely..

[Accio Lego]

4 hours ago, Roebuck said:

That is nice to get since we haven't gotten a great grey owl print this time. Makes sense that Errol is flying in the set as well Is that the only owl in the set?
I see 2 pigs, but it could be more It would be a great set to include some piglets to keep the mould in rotation..
Do we expect any more animals in the set? Ducks and geese would fit in nicely, but a new mould for them here seems unlikely..

I’d consider chickens more likely than ducks or geese considering the Weasleys canonically have a chicken coop. But no sign of that in the leaked image. 
 

Other than the visible great grey owl and pigs, the smowl in light grey that was introduced in the Owlery set is based off Ron’s pet, Pigwidgeon, so that would be something preexisting that the designers could throw in if they have the budget. Ron’s also described as keeping frog spawn and eventually an actual frog in his room, so given how much some of the designers love that piece…

[Clone OPatra]

The set looks like it's based on Chamber of Secrets so it should come with the rat for Scabbers too, though no telling if it will.

[Roebuck]

19 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

I’d consider chickens more likely than ducks or geese considering the Weasleys canonically have a chicken coop. But no sign of that in the leaked image. 

There are two geese in a small pond and two pigs in the first burrow clip from the movie, so that's why I mentioned that. Not sure the chicken coop ever made it into the movies? However with the price of the chickens/hens piece on PAB I doubt they can afford to include several of those 

[SketchBrick]

On 7/30/2024 at 9:46 AM, RichardGoring said:

My Pick a Brick order arrived last week, full of butterflies to add to a spring themed bonsai tree, but I've not had chance to build it, and now I'm going away. It will have to wait. Sigh.

I've checked Bricklink, but just to sanity check, they've never released a butterfly in pink, have they?

Nice haul! I forgot that they have plain purple butterflies, I need to order some for my collection next time :)

[Accio Lego]

20 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

The set looks like it's based on Chamber of Secrets so it should come with the rat for Scabbers too, though no telling if it will.

The outfits in the set seem to be based off multiple movies – for instance the figure all in black is almost certainly Percy in his ministry worker outfit, and he only graduated after Wormtail was exposed. Harry and Ron also seem to have mid legs instead of short legs, so I personally wouldn’t consider Scabbers likely. 

[JohnTPT17]

The Bricklink Designer Program just released some new rules for set submissions, and there's some interesting tidbits that could speak towards future sets with animals:

Quote

1. Avoid depicting harm to animals (e.g. hunting and trapping; tied-up, caged or dead animals). Fishing is acceptable as well as the usage of any standard element that is used to depict a food element (e.g. part 64648).
2. Avoid depicting wild animals in zoos, circuses, aquariums or other situations that are designed for human entertainment. Please only show wild animals in their natural habitats.

Now, these may not be rules for upcoming Lego sets in the future, but if that is the case, then it could mean that any kind of zoo or aquarium is out of the question. It's also a little ambiguous if farms with animals would be allowed or now (I think it would be okay, but it's not clear). 

[Accio Lego]

23 minutes ago, JohnTPT17 said:

The Bricklink Designer Program just released some new rules for set submissions, and there's some interesting tidbits that could speak towards future sets with animals:

Now, these may not be rules for upcoming Lego sets in the future, but if that is the case, then it could mean that any kind of zoo or aquarium is out of the question. It's also a little ambiguous if farms with animals would be allowed or now (I think it would be okay, but it's not clear). 

The zoo/aquarium thing would be kinda a bummer, but I get it. There are good examples of both out there, which do great things with conservation and educating the public, but the most visible difference between them and bad institutions is the amount of space the animals have. And the way system sets work even minifigures tend to look horribly cramped in interior rooms. It would just take too many pieces to show people the animals they want in humane enclosures. Much better to get sets themed around environmentalists observing them in the wild that will actually be affordable. 
 

The rule cited only mentions wild animals in captivity, so domesticated animals on farms shouldn’t be affected by that bit. 

[lifeinplastic]

As these are Bricklink rules then I assume that doesn't mean those rules necessarily apply to official Lego sets. However, it does seem that Lego will not release a zoo, given that we still haven't had one in City despite the emergence of many new animal moulds in more modern times (although there was a CMF Zookeeper). They don't even sell Duplo Zoo sets any longer. I completely understand this stance not to depict animals in captivity (although I support zoos that promote conservation efforts). I had hoped we would one day see a safari park, which would avoid a depiction of animals in cramped enclosures, but an actual safari theme is still possible I suppose, so we may one day finally see giraffes, zebras, hippos and rhinos!        

Edited August 3, 2024 by lifeinplastic

[hikouki]

Didn't BL have an experimental program that sold instructions primarily? I wonder if the ban on modulars will extend to this (if even that program continues).

I think IDEAS will continue to get modulars on a regular basis and Lego can't really ignore that there is large demand for that theme and one release each year will not make it for fans.

[Roebuck]

11 hours ago, hikouki said:

I think IDEAS will continue to get modulars on a regular basis and Lego can't really ignore that there is large demand for that theme and one release each year will not make it for fans.

This is OT, but I for one is happy that Lego only release 1 modular building a year since I have run out of shelf-space for them and they are rather expensive (not necessarily compared to number of parts). 
They are easy for MOC builders to be inspired by and they get some perks if they hit 10 000 votes on Ideas so no wonder a lot make them. I am pretty sure a lot would stop collecting them if Lego released more than one a year or start getting more picky about which ones they buy

Back on topic:
Another print of this dog comes in the tram-station now, not sure if that is mentioned before? It is the 4th one this year, while I get the point I would have preferred we got the normal new dog mould in 2 different colors instead

[karrit]

12 hours ago, Roebuck said:

This is OT, but I for one is happy that Lego only release 1 modular building a year since I have run out of shelf-space for them and they are rather expensive (not necessarily compared to number of parts). 
They are easy for MOC builders to be inspired by and they get some perks if they hit 10 000 votes on Ideas so no wonder a lot make them. I am pretty sure a lot would stop collecting them if Lego released more than one a year or start getting more picky about which ones they buy

Back on topic:
Another print of this dog comes in the tram-station now, not sure if that is mentioned before? It is the 4th one this year, while I get the point I would have preferred we got the normal new dog mould in 2 different colors instead

I have to agree.  I've nothing against diversity & inclusion but you can't even get the retriever mold in this color without the harness/vest.  Luckily when the regular retriever in brown was briefly available a few years back I did buy a couple of them off PAB.  And they've never bothered to make it in Black yet, I'm still waiting.

[Accio Lego]

7 hours ago, karrit said:

I have to agree.  I've nothing against diversity & inclusion but you can't even get the retriever mold in this color without the harness/vest.  Luckily when the regular retriever in brown was briefly available a few years back I did buy a couple of them off PAB.  And they've never bothered to make it in Black yet, I'm still waiting.

Yes, it would be nice if they did it in black and brought it back in brown. Especially since it’s compatible with the service dog harness too! And since plenty of service dogs don’t actually wear vests it would be better for Lego to continue acknowledging that instead of getting lazy and only using the vested mold. 

[Lyichir]

Personally I quite like the vested dog as an option—not only is it good for things like service dogs, but it's used to excellent effect in this year's City Advent Calendar to give the dog its own Christmas sweater like all the other members of the family.

Yes, it would be nice to get other dogs in more colors, but I don't think it should have to be an either/or thing. There's nothing stopping Lego from continuing to produce other colors of the retriever mold in the future.

[karrit]

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Personally I quite like the vested dog as an option—not only is it good for things like service dogs, but it's used to excellent effect in this year's City Advent Calendar to give the dog its own Christmas sweater like all the other members of the family.

Yes, it would be nice to get other dogs in more colors, but I don't think it should have to be an either/or thing. There's nothing stopping Lego from continuing to produce other colors of the retriever mold in the future.

There's nothing wrong with them making variations of the vested option.  The complaint from my perspective is I want the dog to be available in multiple colors without the vest.  The vested ones have extremely limited usage for me.  I'm more into castle, pirate, viking themed sets.  The current vested ones don’t fit in with those themes especially when they are printed with a star or a flame and wear a fluorescent vest.  Yes LEGO could produce other colors. The issue is they currently don't without the vest.  So as of now it is an either/or thing unfortunately. 

[Roebuck]

11 hours ago, karrit said:

I'm more into castle, pirate,

Hear! hear!

11 hours ago, karrit said:

So as of now it is an either/or thing unfortunately. 

They really went all in on the prints on the dog mould this year so what much more can they do with it So my guess is that we will get a new dog mould next year, if that is something similar to what we got this year or back to a normal dog or maybe a new puppy remains to be seen They could also end up reprinting/recolor an older mould if they need to use the mould budget for something more prioritized, e.g it the rumored F1 sub-wave needs a lot of moulds

Edited August 7, 2024 by Roebuck

[Accio Lego]

4 hours ago, Roebuck said:

They could also end up reprinting/recolor an older mould if they need to use the mould budget for something more prioritized, e.g it the rumored F1 sub-wave needs a lot of moulds

I’m not too worried about that. We still got the vested dog in police/fire and the Tiger, gorilla, baby gorilla, and red panda in the summer jungle subtheme (although that last one might have used Dreamzzz budget), and not a single one of those had anything to do with the overarching space subtheme they did this year. Not to mention Dreamzzz giving us the new raven (and possibly red panda). And the non-themed CMF introduced the Afghan hound and brought back the goat. So, yeah, if this year is anything to go by, we shouldn’t have to worry too much about getting new animals next year. 

[Classic_Spaceman]

The Burrow includes two regular pink pigs and a spread-wing owl in (light?) grey. 
 

[Roebuck]

From Beyond the Brick FB post:

Hand-Molded LEGO Prototype Walrus

The man who owned this piece said it came from his father. He was an engineer who used to teach LEGO designers about machine safety 20+ years ago. He also worked as a journalist where he often was involved with LEGO when it came to "technical" articles.

The walrus and some Aquanauts sets were given to him back in the 90s during a visit to LEGO in Billund.

via Fabian BL


 

[Murdoch17]

@Roebuck that makes sense, as they were trying to release the 2000 Artic line in one form or another since the mid-1980s but didn't really have the manufacturing capacity for it, which is also true for Western, Vikings, and a few others that launched later. (as written in 'The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks' book)