Birds are dinosaurs. This is no longer a weird statement but well established; birds are the only dinosaur species still alive today. It’s no accident that Jurassic Park III starts with an opening shot of a raptor-like claw that turns out to belong to a bird, but I digress.
If you look carefully at birds you can see the connection to dinosaurs, but you also see that these are beautiful animals that see almost alien compared to ourselves with a range and variety that make my heart sing. The pattern of feathers with intricate colour patterns, the ability to puff up and move these feather jackets and then the ability to fly (for most of them)! If dinosaurs have manage to stay around this long and develop such beautiful variation, then there is hope yet.
A few years ago I built the beautiful rainbow lorikeet from Gabriel Thomson at which time I came to appreciate my love for our feathered neighbours. I also discovered that rainbow lorikeets are not entirely comfortable around a brick-built rendition of one of their brethren.
Out of all the brick-built LEGO animals I seem to fairly consistently be attracted to birds, and this 31173 Tropical Toucan is no different. With 225 parts it is quite a small set but it captures the shape of this striking bird very nicely and (spoiler) it is very nicely priced.
LEGO generously provided this set for review, but I present my own opinions. Please read on if you want to read a bit more about the other two models that are offered in the box, and what on earth a Toucan has to do with hotels/restaurants in the Netherlands (no Toucans are a tropical species, NOT native to the Netherlands).
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