Review: 71481 Izzie's Dream Animals
Posted by benbacardi,
The next set in our continuing look at some of this year's wave of DREAMZzz sets is 71481 Izzie's Dream Animals, one of the smaller sets with just over 300 pieces. The focus of the set is the recurring character, Izzie, and in keeping with the rest of the theme, we're given three models to choose from when we get part way into the built.
According to the TV series, Izzie has the ability to create anything she can imagine in the dream world, and takes inspiration from her collection of stuffed toys. In 71481 Izzie's Dream Animals, we're given the choice of building either a red panda, a bird, or a sea turtle, in order to help Izzie chase the raven and retrieve the stolen memories whether on land, in the air, or the sea, respectively.
Summary
71481 Izzie's Dream Animals, 328 pieces.
£34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99 | 10.7p / 12.2c / 12.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A fun and colourful set with a nice choice of models, let down a little by the stiffness of the main red panda build.
- Fun, bright colours
- Excellent red panda piece
- Lots of play potential
- Red panda's articulation could be improved
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
Just the two minifigures are included in the set, Izzie the Dream Chaser, and her nightmare equivalent Dizzy. As is usual with these sets, the two minifigures are somewhat mirror versions of each other—Izzie's fantastically bright, vibrant colours opposed by the dark foreboding black of the nightmare clone. Their outfits are new this year, available in this set and 71486 Castle Nocturnia, and both look excellent. There's so much detail on the printing, and I love the multicoloured hair pieces.
Both girls wear dual expressions, a happy grin on one side and a smirk for Izzie and grimace for Dizzy on the other. Dizzy's face is not painted like Izzie's is, instead there's a small smattering of grey spots on her cheeks.
Three sidekicks are included in the set. The first is named along with the minifigures on the side of the box as a dreamling, a small flower- or mushroom-like creature with a big happy grin. Second is an excellent little red panda piece, new this year, and available in two DREAMZzz sets as well as 60424 Jungle Explorer ATV Red Panda Mission. Finally, the Never Witch's raven is included, continuing its evil business of stealing the children's memories to make into nightmares.
Red Panda
The first of the three creatures we can build, and that featured most prominently on the box art, is a red panda. The version in Izzie's dream is significantly bigger than those in real life—in fact, large enough for Izzie to ride on its back!
The panda's body is made from an orange "egg"-shaped build that remains consistent across all three models. The purple spots on its back are stickers, along with the majority of the other design details, with the notable exception of the panda's face, which is a large dedicated piece. It's rather unusual colours for a red panda—the orange is somewhat accurate, but the purple legs and tail stripes are not! We are in a dream, I suppose.
The four legs are articulated at the hips and the wrists/ankles, but other than that are fairly stiff, and it's difficult to pose the panda in anything other than what you see here. The tail doesn't move at all, which is disappointing. A large flower is growing out the end of it, and there are flowers on each of the leg's hip joints too.
A saddle is attached to the panda's back (although it is easily removable). There's room for Izzie to sit, with clips on one side to hold her weapons, and a net on the other from which you can send small projectiles flying at the enemy with a flick, a couple of which are provided.
Bird
To continue the chase for the stolen memories, Izzie can take to the air on the back of a giant bird, instead of her red panda. As above, the main body of the animal consists of the orange egg-shaped build, but the front legs have been replaced by wings, and the panda's head with another dedicated printed part above a pointed beak. The wings make use of the large flower petals that previously adorned the tip of the panda's tail.
The wings can be rotated and positioned as desired around their ball joints, and the legs are similarly articulated at the hips and ankles, although any other position than that shown and the bird will fall over. A short tail is attached to the rear, but it looks rather small compared to the rest of the animal. A more ornate saddle is on the bird's back between the wings, but has no attachment points for weapons this time.
Because fewer parts were used on the bird, there's a large number left over, some of which are used to build a couple of ancillary models of trees. The large macaroni pieces make a tall curved tree topped with a small flower, and a smaller tree incorporates the net that can once again be used to sling projectiles at the raven.
Turtle
Finally, when the chase can continue in the sea with the help of Izzie's last dream animal, a sea turtle. Legs and wings are replaced by flippers, and the bird's head is repurposed, sans-beak, for the turtle's head. I didn't count the parts, but this feels like the smallest of the three models. All four limbs can rotate around their ball joints, as can the neck and tail.
This time, the saddle appears to be flanked by a pair of air tanks or similar, presumably as a way for Izzie to breathe when the turtle dives underwater in pursuit of the stolen memories.
As with the bird, two very similar trees are constructed with some of the spare parts, with just minor changes to their flower arrangements.
Conclusion
I'm really coming to love the quirkiness and vibrant colours of the DREAMZzz sets, and 71481 Izzie's Dream Animals is no exception. The orange, purple, and blue, although unrealistic, look fantastic together, and create some really eye-catching creatures.
The models are generally good, although the articulation is somewhat lacking, especially on the red panda. I was particularly disappointed that the tail doesn't move at all, but my daughter (who is the target age for the set, after all) was quite happy with all three.
There's a bit of a theme running through all the sets from this wave, with the Never Witch's raven stealing the children's memories. If you buy more than one of the sets, you're going to end up with multiple ravens and duplicate memories, but there's a high potential for play here. For example, pairing this set with 71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures would give you a great selection of Dream Chasers and nightmare minions and their creatures to pit against one another!
I like where LEGO has been going with this theme, and I hope it continues.
71481 Izzie's Dream Animals is available at LEGO.com for £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99.
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23 comments on this article
I started watching the Dreamzzz episodes with my nephew, and it turns out they are pretty good.
Hard to top the bunny from the first wave. Figs are nice but the whole package is a little expensive, especially for this line. Definitely a purchase if it gets discounted like the others.
This a very good theme, not in the market for any of the sets but I like the explosion of creativity, just as with the Monkie Kid theme, really stand out sets from Lego's yearly releases.
@johleth said:
"I started watching the Dreamzzz episodes with my nephew, and it turns out they are pretty good."
They seem to target a bit older kids, around 9 or 10 (?). The show feels rather mature or earnest in comparison to the Ninjago, City or Nexo Knights shows.
By now, I'm more interested in the minifigures than in most of the sets (animals aren't really my thing). The Figs' designs are great!
Shame Izzie wasn't dreaming Botanicals.
Oh well... looks like another 6 days wait for the big reveal!
l'm a Dizzy stan, l think Dizzy should win whatever conflict these two have
looks a bit mediocre to me, basic shaping to the animals, the bird and turtle orange body clashes with blue head and limbs. the panda both has orange body and leg, so I guess it works a bit better. bird has really small tail and wings, but I guess you don't need wings to fly in a dream anyway
The red panda is so cute. It's my favourite animal to see at the zoo.
$40 is erring on unreasonable. Especially with all of the stickers! But hey, at least it's not 71455
@johleth said:
"I started watching the Dreamzzz episodes with my nephew, and it turns out they are pretty good."
I watch them by myself, since my kids are way too young, and I agree with this assessment.
And Izzie is an outstanding minifig. Should've been at least a nominee for best of 2023! That hair piece is legendary.
This set is so much worse than the couterpart Evil creatures set its just sad.
Especialy online you can get both for samish price.
Its another set that LOOKS GOOD but does not play well or is even well posable.
ALL builds are weak (turtle is the..."best" one), and I have no idea why they wasted new mold for Panda head.
@jkb said:
" @johleth said:
"I started watching the Dreamzzz episodes with my nephew, and it turns out they are pretty good."
They seem to target a bit older kids, around 9 or 10 (?). The show feels rather mature or earnest in comparison to the Ninjago, City or Nexo Knights shows.
"
Have we watched same show?
SO far Dreamzzz show for me had like 8 good eps for (checks) 40 EPS????
First season is filled with stupid cliches, forced behaviours, and boring fillers, just to cram 3 ending episodes with lore. This is not how you write.
Second season was better, but I still havea feeling they doing same stuff like Chima - Series looks like its for 8+ but characters feel like babling 4-5 year olds.
New Ninjago show( Dragon Rising) is best Ninjago series we have gotten. Amazing choreography, great written twisty villains, and really well made important scenes.
Dreamzzz feels like one of those cheap 80 cartoons that look promising (make kids sleep better and make them fight nightmares in their dreams) but DO NOTHING with its amazing setting.
Maybe it's cause of my obsession with red pandas, but I think this set is perfect in every way :)
This set is nice, but not for me. It's really colorful and fanciful. The animals and figs are really good. It is a bit pricey, but Dreamzzz sets quickly get discounted 20-50%.
As part of the review, it would be nice to get a shot of the alternate builds with all of the extra parts. It is difficult to see this complete set in any photo. What are we actually getting for the price?
For instance, where is the alternate head piece? I don't see the turtle/bird head in the cat build, and I don't cat head in either of the turtle or bird. It's a bit confusing and makes me think there are more pieces in this shuffle game.
@StyleCounselor said:
"This set is nice, but not for me. It's really colorful and fanciful. The animals and figs are really good. It is a bit pricey, but Dreamzzz sets quickly get discounted 20-50%.
As part of the review, it would be nice to get a shot of the alternate builds with all of the extra parts. It is difficult to see this complete set in any photo. What are we actually getting for the price?
For instance, where is the alternate head piece? I don't see the turtle/bird head in the cat build, and I don't cat head in either of the turtle or bird. It's a bit confusing and makes me think there are more pieces in this shuffle game. "
Each of the three builds has many pieces left over, even the main model (though that has fewer than the other two). This is true for all the DREAMZzz "which will you build?" sets. It's quite different to the Creator 3-in-1 line.
Wow, a dreamzzz set with a villain name that isn't entirely ridiculous!
@benbacardi said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
"This set is nice, but not for me. It's really colorful and fanciful. The animals and figs are really good. It is a bit pricey, but Dreamzzz sets quickly get discounted 20-50%.
As part of the review, it would be nice to get a shot of the alternate builds with all of the extra parts. It is difficult to see this complete set in any photo. What are we actually getting for the price?
For instance, where is the alternate head piece? I don't see the turtle/bird head in the cat build, and I don't cat head in either of the turtle or bird. It's a bit confusing and makes me think there are more pieces in this shuffle game. "
Each of the three builds has many pieces left over, even the main model (though that has fewer than the other two). This is true for all the DREAMZzz "which will you build?" sets. It's quite different to the Creator 3-in-1 line."
Thanks for the update. That is what I suspected. It's very difficult to see what you actually get for the money.
Perhaps photos of builds with extra pieces wouldn't be aesthetically pleasing? Then, maybe just provide a supplemental shot of the extra pieces.
You don't necessarily need to do it for all 3 builds. Yet, having at least a supplemental photo of the extra parts left over from the main build would be very helpful to understand what we are purchasing.
@johleth said:
"I started watching the Dreamzzz episodes with my nephew, and it turns out they are pretty good."
It's decent. Certainly not LEGO's best show, but I kinda like it
This is a truly bizarre looking set in a truly bizarre line, and it's not for me personlly - but I love it as a concept. I can imagine how much this could spark kids' creativity and capture the imaginations of those adults who do vibe with it. Lego's own IP is really underrated.
@Ridgeheart
One eye is yellow, the other is blue, and you're worried about her teeth?
@Ridgeheart said:
" @560heliport said:
" @Ridgeheart
One eye is yellow, the other is blue, and you're worried about her teeth?"
I'm not here to shame people for their heterochromia, nor their deathly pallor. Or their choice of haircolour, for that matter.
But bright yellow teeth? Come on, gross. Momma taught you to brush your teeth before you go to bed, just as your handler taught you to brush after you crawl out of the clone-vat. It's common courtesy."
When my sister and I were kids, if we were getting home at bedtime, we would beg to skip brushing our teeth. Our parents would only rarely allow this.
So I imagine the nightmare versions of kids would NEVER brush their teeth.
@lordofdragonss said:
" @jkb said:
" @johleth said:
"I started watching the Dreamzzz episodes with my nephew, and it turns out they are pretty good."
They seem to target a bit older kids, around 9 or 10 (?). The show feels rather mature or earnest in comparison to the Ninjago, City or Nexo Knights shows.
"
Have we watched same show?
SO far Dreamzzz show for me had like 8 good eps for (checks) 40 EPS????
First season is filled with stupid cliches, forced behaviours, and boring fillers, just to cram 3 ending episodes with lore. This is not how you write.
Second season was better, but I still havea feeling they doing same stuff like Chima - Series looks like its for 8+ but characters feel like babling 4-5 year olds.
New Ninjago show( Dragon Rising) is best Ninjago series we have gotten. Amazing choreography, great written twisty villains, and really well made important scenes.
Dreamzzz feels like one of those cheap 80 cartoons that look promising (make kids sleep better and make them fight nightmares in their dreams) but DO NOTHING with its amazing setting.
"
I confess that I tried to watch Dreamzzz season 1, but got bored and gave up halfway through. Most episodes are heavy on filler plot, the writing is poor, and the animation is not very visually interesting. I agree that the setting is underutilized. A fantasy world based on dreams should have had the characters trekking through a new literal dreamscape every night. However, instead, the show reuses only a small rotation of dream environments, presumably to keep animation costs down.
The minifigures are hands down the best part of these Dreamzz season 2 sets.