Review: 40821 Love Bears
Posted by Huw,
Valentine's Day sets have been a fixture in the annual release calendar since 2010, and looking at them in the database you'll see that many are a bit twee.
That's certainly the case with one of this year's offerings, 40821 Love Bears, which comprises two standing bears with a heart between them.
Summary
40821 Love Bears, 287 pieces.
£12.99 / $14.99 / €14.99 | 4.5p/5.2c/5.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A cute set for couples
- Not as nightmarish as previous Valentine's bears
- One instruction manual, so concurrent building not easy
- Paws are a bit chunky
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Bears are a recurring theme among sets celebrating the patron saint of love's day in February, and some are the stuff of nightmares rather than of romance. Thankfully, this duo are not too bad in that regard.
The brown bear and panda are largely identical other than the shape of their abdomens and detail on their faces, and I guess they look quite cute, especially with their heart-shaped noses. The brown bear is holding a bouquet, the Asian one a bar of chocolate.
The set looks to be ideal to build as a couple, but unfortunately LEGO has missed a trick here because there's only one instruction manual, so you'd need to resort to online instructions or the Build app to do so concurrently.
The mammals stand on their hind legs a small base decorated with flower heads and a heart. It's functional, but rather plain and rudimentary compared to some of those found in previous seasonal sets.
Overall, it's a pleasant enough model that might appeal to couples who want to build it together, or gift to their partner. Maybe kids will find it cute too.
It certainly won't break the bank. The 287-piece set costs $14.99, £12.99, €14.99, so about 5c/4.5p per piece, which is pretty good nowadays.
Like all previous Valentine's Day sets it's a LEGO exclusive, so available only at LEGO.com and in brand stores.
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20 comments on this article
> One instruction manual, so concurrent building not easy
And there is nothing like a competitive building race for Valentine's day!
The builds don't look too bad for their size, although the front paws look a bit clunky.
Not bad, definitely a bargain price
It is cute, but I agree that it's not at the level of previous years' V day sets.
The curved-in legs are kind of cute, in a chibi manga sort of way, but the skinny arms and disproportionally huge flat paws are quite bizarre, like part of a bear costume is missing, or for some reason they're wearing toy fake 'Hulk-Hands' sized bear paws over their real paws.
It's like there's some unwritten rule at LEGO about bears: Head, Body, Arms, Legs - you have 24 hours to design 3 parts or fewer, the rest will come from tHe NiGhtmARe B0x.
If you took the big heart in the middle away, they'd just be bears.
I don't need two bears. I only need one Kumamon!
I had never seen the other bear set until now, and now I won't be able to sleep tonight! Thanks, @Huw!
Considering what "bears" means as a slang term... this set might have an unintended interpretation.
Bears and pandas cannot mate.
@Alia_of_AGL said:
"Considering what "bears" means as a slang term... this set might have an unintended interpretation."
LMAO glad to see I wasn't the only one with this interpretation... "Love Bears? It's not even June yet!"
They're for sure cute, but this might be the first brown bear/panda romance I've ever heard of.
Learned a new word today: twee.
I spent10 yrs in the UK (London) and thought I had heard most of the idioms, but this one was new to me. Not a bad one to know either.
Hmmm...'Ice Bear' is 'Missing in Action'...:D
Valentine's Day aside, Total. Missed. Opportunity. I mean, yes "We Bare Bears" has been done for awhile, not sure if "We Baby Bears" is still going, but...Did TLG sever all ties to 'the Cartoon Network' after 'the Powerpuff Girls' fiasco?
@MegaBlocks said:
"Bears and pandas cannot mate."
But, they can have fun trying.
@MegaBlocks said:
"Bears and pandas cannot mate."
Yeah.
I don't think that's what they're *trying* to do.
I think this set is cute, slang usage of the word "bear" or not.
I see what you did there, 'look shiny new set to comment on'.
I like the base and heart, just not the bears.
‘One instruction manual, so concurrent building not easy’
If you don’t have online access, you can take pictures on your phone or use a scanner/camera app to capture the instructions for one of the builds.
“Not as nightmarish as previous Valentine's bears.” LOL! XP
I’ll probably buy it anyway because I love panda bears.
@Zander said:
"‘One instruction manual, so concurrent building not easy’
If you don’t have online access, you can take pictures on your phone or use a scanner/camera app to capture the instructions for one of the builds."
If you are going to take photos of all the pages necessary to build one of them using a phone, then you might as well download the instruction booklet when in the store buying the set.
I wasn't aware of the existence of 40085
I wish I had never known it existed
@MegaBlocks said:
"Bears and pandas cannot mate."
Maybe they’re celebrating Galentine’s Day…or Palentine’s Day.