41046 Brown Bear's River
Posted by Huw,
Brown Bear's River is one of the three series 5 Friends Animals sets that have just turned up in brand stores in the UK, slightly ahead of their scheduled release date of May.
It consists of a baby brown bear in a small cave, a river and a fish, presumably a salmon, leaping a waterfall to return upstream to its breeding ground. Will the bear swallow it for lunch, or will it make it to its destination?
The bear looks quite content just to watch the fish, I reckon...
The set features some nice parts in 'medium azur' but other than that the rest are fairly ordinary.
A small tree adorns the corner of the 6x7 vignette.
Here's the bear, minus its hideous bow. How on earth do the Friends get close enough to ferocious wild animals such as this -- and its mother -- to attach the bow, I wonder?
There's not much more to say about the set: it's the first appearance of the baby bear which is probably a good enough reason for many kids and AFOLs to buy it. I just wish Friends animals didn't look so cute and cuddly and thus of some use outside of the Friends environment. I suppose this one might just pass for a bear in a minifig-scale zoo...
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Looks like the phantom stream keeper got to the salmon before the bear....
@brix
I was thinking much the same thing! Maybe the salmon is a lure so that the underwater skeleton can catch the bear. :~P
@brix Best comment!
Anyway, this is a very nice set. Lots of action and detail packed into a tight 6x7 space. Medium Azur is a great color for water; I'm glad the LEGO Friends theme uses so much of it.
My boys and I like to build the friends sets every once in a while...it's a welcome change from the ubiquitous grays and blacks of most of the sets we put together...
Wait... no printed mouth? That's look weird!
I think it's a cute set. It would be nice if the part holding up the salmon was clear though. A mouth would nice, too.
Scary robot river.
But secretly the bear is a Terminator, hunting the robot river down. Terminator bear will not be stopped! Bear-1000 will crush robot river!
"I'll be bear"
These are starting to look like 'generic animal shape plus printing' rather than actual, specific animals. The dopey eyes with lash extensions don't help either, even in the context of Friends sets. The Orang-Utan is just a larger chimpanzee, and the Macaw is just the same old bird shape with even less convincing lines under its eyes. You'd think if this bear can manage coloured contacts and false lashes, the macaw could at least slap on some moisturiser...
IMO the best among the three. Can't wait to get this for my younger relatives. I'm alttile surprised that they don't just reuse recolors for pandas.
I don't mind to see it appear in non-Friends sets such as Junior, zoos or forest-related themes. But maybe their shape could be alittle more realistic.
@brix
A transparent stick works better? Or at least give it to Gollum :P
> How on earth do the Friends get close enough
They only appear in wild dangers so they have no choice but be rescued by those possessive human.