Another review from Branko today. We asked for a copy of 31158 Sea Animals to look at (Thank you LEGO® Team), and what started as a simple look at a nice looking set got a bit out of hand!

Botanical sets have become an integral part of the Grown-up LEGO® Experience. Since the release of the first life-sized flowers in 2021, they have become such a regular and expected release that LEGO has now decided to explicitly dedicate a theme to it: Botanicals, rather than continue to release them under the generic ‘ICONS’ banner. The theme is expanding in a way that suggests that it is popular (see these newly announced sets and this Botanic garden). But today I would like to look at an alternative to these plants, that may serve a similar purpose: Aquascaping!

An aquarium serves a similar purpose of colourful natural decoration, emphasizing moving living creatures more than plants, so how does this translate to LEGO? Is it possible to create a pleasant natural decoration based on underwater creatures as an alternative to plants?

Read on to see how we explore the comparison “Fish or Flowers” based on the set 31158 Sea Animals (AU$49.99/£24.99/$29.99/€29.99)

Fish box

Let me be blunt, LEGO provided one of the 31158 Sea Animals sets for review but before even cracking open the box I felt a strong need to buy two more of them. So, yes, I like it. A lot. This adorable little set provides excellent value for money with 421 pieces, and it can be found discounted in many stores (at least in Australia). Ironically, the part that convinced me I needed more than one of these sets was the back of the box, and I did not take any photos of the box myself! (photo courtesy of LEGO.com).

The back of the box shows the three alternative builds in a way that hints at hoe well they would go together in a single display. So I was hooked to get more fish.

Turtle, squids and fish

Each of the individual builds by themselves provide neat build techniques, vibrant colours and a great variation of different undersea animals.

I don’t know if I have a preference for any of the alternative builds, but the hero build supposedly is the turtle and friends. This build seems to have strongly been inspired by a Finding Nemo, with a Yellow Tang (Bubbles), a sea turtle (Crush) , a Moorish Idol (Gill), a sea horse (Sheldon) and yellyfish. It is a little surprising this hasn’t been labeled as a Disney Finding Nemo set, much to our benefit (to avoid the Disney Tax).

The second build is a bit more original showing a squid and a cuttlefish with some rocks and plants. The eyes make them cartoonish and adorable and again the colours really pop.

The final builds goes a bit more wild with both plants, rocks and fish design. I think the fish may be a Striped Damselfish (Deb) and an exotic looking Goldfish with the white-pink-red-yellow colour pallet.

Each of these builds by themselves are nice, but when you put them together you are presented with a well populated aquarium:

Of like this if you like your display a bit more consolidated:

You’ll notice that each of the bases of the fish comes with clips to allow you to connect them together in any sequence you like.

More fish!

Inspired by this aquatic stampede, I set out to expand my virtual aquascape with a few more sets, starting with 31128 Dolphin and Turtle because how can we have Crush without one of his offspring, right? And while I was at it, I included the alternative build for an extra sea horse as well: since this has two alternative builds they both needed to be included.

And yet, there is more! How about adding 31136 Exotic Parrot? You might be inclined to think that a bird is the hero of that set, but it turns out the lead character in that set is a Blue Tang (Dory), the great supporting character from Finding Nemo/Dory!

The pieces (before and after building)

These sets come with a considerable variety of pieces (one set shown in the image) and after building all the the instructions quite a few pieces are left.

After seeing all these animals appear in my hands, I was very tempted to build my own creatures to add to the already crowded display, and there was plenty of opportunity to do so with the parts that were left in the end.

I love how this group of sets has stimulated me into a bit of self-building/creativity without any particular objective. As I was playing with these parts, yes playing, it kindled a bit of the joy I remembered from building LEGO as a child.

Combined display

In the end I was presented with a nice full shelf of colourful animals that has a similar presence as the botanicals (flowers) the LEGO has been releasing. Perhaps these fish are not as subtle as the flowers, but they certainly provide me with joy.

Tails moving the wrong way

There is one issue that irked me a bit when building these adorable creatures and it has to do with their tails.

Cetacean tails

Cetaceans (thanks Wikipedia) have evolved from creatures who decided that land-life wasn’t for them and they moved back into the sea. One key element is that their spine and muscular structure is well developed for vertical bending (much like land dwelling creatures such as ourselves). As such, they move their tail up and down to power their swimming.

Fish tails

Fish have developed a spine that is good at sideways movement and their predominantly move their tails sideways.

When we look at these LEGO builds we see that only the goldfish is able to move their tail sideways, where al other scan only move their tail up and down. Ironically the dolphin has the ability to do both (albeit with a preference for vertical movement). Does this mean these fish are actually cetaceans in disguise? Why don’t you leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Conclusion

It has been clear I have loved building these sets. Stimulated by the one seed set provided by LEGO, my opinion is clearly expressed by me purchasing another 4 sets (3 designs) to extend the experience. I didn’t think I had any particular attraction to fish, but I do like animals in general and it turns out that the colourful nature of the undersea world provided me with much joy.

I give this set an arbitrary 4 out of 5 praise units; it is a set that you cannot really go wrong with if you come across it. I hope LEGO will continue to bring out more animals, both above and underwater.

The Set 31158 Sea Animals is available now at LEGO.com for AUD49.99/£24.99/€24.99/USD24.99.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!