Time to get another Creator 3-in1 review out. While the majority of sets in the current wave are creature builds, a couple are based on real-world objects.
Lets take a look at the 31380 Retro Video Game Console.
This set is one of 2 sets in the current wave that tie into real-world objects, with the hero model setting out to mirror handheld consoles of the nineties and early noughties. The set is aimed at audiences from age 8 and up, has 268 pieces and is priced at $AUD29.99 / $USD19.99 / £17.99 / 19.99€
The 2026 Creator 3in1 sets are due for release on January 1 2026, and I have the full range to review, thanks to the LEGO Group. (All opinions are my own) Among the nine sets due for release, seven depict fish animals or birds in some shape or form, and only only 3 have more than 300 parts. Hopefully, we can get them reviewed in a timely fashion. Today, we will start with 31376 Cute Hamster with Flower.
BUT THAT’S not all. On my recent trip to Denmark, I had the chance to visit the LEGO Campus and catch up with Lennart DuPont Cort, one of the Creator 3in1 designers.
Richard on the left; Lennart Dupont Cort – Creator 3in1 designer on the right.
We had a chat about all sorts of aspects of the Creator 3in1 process, and I will include these details through the 3in1 reviews. We rarely get the chance to talk to members of the Creator 3in1 team, so this was a really exciting opportunity. Special thanks to the Community Engagement team at the LEGO Group for making this happen.
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).
Do you know the feeling of having too much cake with icing and a soft drink? Perhaps you’ve seen the effect such a combination at a children’s party? That is the feeling I got from this set.
The highlight of this set would obviously be the unicorn. As it turns out, this singular unicorn shares its habitat with two pegasi! Although, is this really a habitat? Or something else? I felt confused when building this set, and perhaps that is a good thing.
The ‘due-to-license-issues-officially-not-my-little-pony‘ set, 31175 Unicorn Castle is retailing for AU$59.99/£34.99/$44.99/€39.99 and contains 390 parts and three tiny horse-adjacent creatures. The creatures are probably the main selling point, but there’s quite a bit more in the box; perhaps a bit too much. Read on to see what this set has to offer, and find out if this is for you.
I have a theory: Creator 3in1 sets and Collectable minifigures are the last bastion of the classic themes that we would love to see the LEGO Group bring back. Some of the August release Creator 3in1 sets – 31167 Haunted Mansion and 31168 The Medieval Horse Knight Castle – both seem to serve my point to a certain extent, calling back to Monster Fighters and Classic Castle, respectively.
In this review, we will look at the new Creator 3in1 31167 Haunted Mansion. This was released on August 1, and comes with 736 pieces and five unique minifigures. It is priced at $AUD149.99/ $USD89.99 / €89.99 / £79.99.
As I set out to review this set, I may have become distracted and started looking at other ‘Haunted Themes’ that we have seen across the years…
This has been a bumper year for Creator 3in1: Over the past decade, we have seen between 13 and 17 sets (including polybags) released over the course of the year. Here we are at the beginning of March, and that count is already up to 12. We typically see a few sets released around midyear, so I wonder if we will be edging a little higher than average this year.
One thing that has characterised the sets that we have looked at so far this year (31162, 31163,61165) has been the emphasis on organic-looking creature builds, with a limited primary colour palette: we have seen quarter circle curved slope elements emphasised in medium stone grey, tan, and black.
The 31170 Wild Animals Pink Flamingo broadens this palette further with the addition of these curved elements in vibrant coral and a great collection of light purple elements.The box demonstrates 3 models: the titular Flamingo, an axolotl and a galah – a pink parrot renowned for wreaking havoc on both the local landscape and soundscapes here in Australia.
Continuing our look at some of the upcoming creator sets, today we look at 31163 Playful Cat. This set has 407 pieces and is priced at AUD39.99/USD24.99/€24.99/£19.99. It goes on sale on January 1 2024. This set comes with 3 builds: the playful cat, the puppy, and the pigeon. Let’s take a closer look.
LEGO® Creator 3 in1 is going in for creature modeling in a big way in 2025, with six of the nine new sets featuring creatures, real or imagined. The LEGO Group have sent a few of these sets over for review. (all opinions are my own)
Today, I’d like to look at 31165 Wild Animals: Panda Family. With 626 pieces, and priced at $AUD59.99 / $USD39.99/ €39.99/ £34.99. the set brings us builds with the theme of animal families – featuring an adult and its young. Here the builds include Pandas; Orca and Penguins. Lets take a closer look.
[Words: Ramblingbrick; Pictures: BrankoTheFather] Since we posted Branko’s review of the Lunar Rover a couple of days ago, I have been asked several questions, including “What is the Scale?” and “Will the 31152 Creator 3in1 Astronaut fit in it?” Branko didn’t really address this in his original review, so today, we thought we should take a closer look.
Dinosaurs are a perennial favourite of the LEGO® Creator range, with no fewer than 18 sets released since 2004, and the latest 31151 T.Rex brings us several alternatives: new brick-built T.Rex, Triceratops and Pteranodon models to put together. But wait. This combination of dinosaurs has appeared in the same box before: in 2017’s 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs – (and its colour-swapped alternatives77940 and 77941), a 174-piece Creator 3in1 set that has been diligently moving off the shelves since 2017. If nothing else, this demonstrates the popularity of Brick-Built dinosaurs, even in the setting of great-looking (but expensive)moulded models from the Jurassic World saga.
This model is part of the latest(June 2024) wave of LEGO Creator 3in1 sets and has 626 pieces. It has a recommended retail price of $AUD89.99/$USD59.99/€59.99/£54.99. Thanks to the LEGO Group for sending this set for an early review.
But perhaps the most intriguing matchup with the options in this set released in recent years is 21320 Dinosaur Fossils – a LEGO Ideas set from 2019 that features skeletons for each of the dinosaurs depicted in this new set. Let’s take a closer look at the models in this set and compare them against the models present in 21320 and what is involved in putting them together.
