Review: 71488 Bunchu's Creative Animal Adventures

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71488 Bunchu's Creative Animal Adventures is not a set that I would normally consider reviewing, but it caught my eye in the box of sets CapnRex101 recently sent to me for onward distribution to reviewers.

I was intrigued by the '20-in-1' label on the top corner of the box...

Summary

71488 Bunchu's Creative Animal Adventures, 143 pieces.
£8.99 / $9.99 / €9.99 | 6.3p/7.0c/7.0c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »

Pocket-money priced and packed with creative potential

  • 20-in-1
  • Good selection of clips and ball joints for making creatures
  • None

The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.

It contains 143 pieces, mostly small ones, from which 20 different animals -- some weird and wonderful, some more realistic -- can be made.

It also comes with a minifigure of Izzie, who I believe is the main female protagonist in the Dreamzzz stories. Her torso is wonderfully bright and colourful and her hair more so! BrickLink calls the colour 'Marbled Satin Trans-Dark Pink'. According to the set's description, the thing she's carrying is a 'plushie toy accessory'.

The main model, which uses all but seven of the pieces, is the rabbit Bunchu. The printed face looks at odds with the rest of the model; I would have preferred a brick-built solution.

Limbs and neck are all jointed, so it can be posed in a multitude of ways.

The included printed booklet contains instructions for Bunchu and nine other animals. Those for the other ten can be downloaded as a PDF from LEGO.com. They are all much smaller than the rabbit and often somewhat abstract. I built a few of them:

Horse/deer, and butterfly

Bird

Elephant and snail

The great thing about the set is that it fosters creativity, encourages rebuilding, and demonstrates that you don't need thousands of parts to make different models.

I think it's a shame when kids build a set then put it on the shelf to gather dust. Hopefully the manifold instructions included here will discourage that.

At £8.99/$9.99/€9.99 it's pocket-money-priced, so perfect for kids to pick up next time they're in a LEGO store.

43 comments on this article

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By in United Kingdom,

The 'horse?' looks more like a deer to me- maybe the leavers are antlers?

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By in France,

€10 for this set is an insane value. What great move from Lego.

I can see this set a a good activity for a birthday party.

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By in United Kingdom,

This is LEGO in its purest form.

Bring back B-models.

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By in United Kingdom,

Some of those alt builds are really impressive! Makes me nostalgic for the back-of-the-box pictures of yesteryear. I was always as excited for those as the set itself.

I feel called out with my dusty display shelves though!

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By in Netherlands,

Dreamzzz? That rabbit face rather is the stuff of nightmares...makes the Rabbit of Caerbannog look like a sweet little pet...

That aside a pretty decent set especially considering the price, even when it is kinda disappointing that all of the alternate builds are that much smaller. But hey, at least there are alternate builds, apart from the Creator 3-in-1 sets that's pretty rare nowadays. Hope they'll do more like this with other themes....

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By in United States,

This is great for kids. In fact, the Dreamzzz sets for this wave are geared towards the proper demographic.

Nevertheless, I feel selfishly disappointed that we're not getting Sharkships, Raven houses, or Grimkeeper type sets.

Bring on the big nightmares!

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By in United Kingdom,


Excellent news that the alternative builds are available as a standard PDF and not just via the crappy Lego Builder app.

Countless complaints on Lego.com about the lack of standard PDF for the Batman 8-in-1 builds appear to have been initially acknowledged but ultimately ignored!

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By in United Kingdom,

For the kids it's a great little creative adventure set.
For the adults it's a great parts pack with interesting colours... who will definitely also build a couple of animals as well!
I hope this takes off because it would be great to see this for other themes. Lego City Space could have some mech/robot building parts, or space-scooter parts.
City could have some form of animal mascots or park accessories.
There are lots of options to potentially be exploited.

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By in United Kingdom,

Hello! This is my favorite set! It's captivated me so much just lately that 10497 Galaxy Explorer fell to second place. Something you didn't point out is that it comes with a brick separator - this and 71487 are the cheapest retail sets ever to do so!

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By in United Kingdom,

@umptybagger said:
"Hello! This is my favorite set! It's captivated me so much just lately that 10497 Galaxy Explorer fell to second place. Something you didn't point out is that it comes with a brick separator - this and 71487 are the cheapest retail sets ever to do so!"

Yes it does, and yes, you're probably right!

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By in United States,

This is like the Tribe Packs from Chima. These sets fit the Deeamzzz brand so perfectly that I don't understand why it took LEGO so long to make this

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By in France,

@lost_scotsman said:
"For the kids it's a great little creative adventure set.
For the adults it's a great parts pack with interesting colours... who will definitely also build a couple of animals as well!
I hope this takes off because it would be great to see this for other themes. Lego City Space could have some mech/robot building parts, or space-scooter parts.
City could have some form of animal mascots or park accessories.
There are lots of options to potentially be exploited."


Well, they did 40715 and 40716 for free build part packs in the Space category, those are great.

Definitely getting this set and its partner sooner than later.

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By in Australia,

@alLEGOry_HJB2810 said: "The 'horse?' looks more like a deer to me- maybe the leavers are antlers?"

I initially thought the butterfly was a teddy bear, reaching out to hug me with its puffy yellow arms.

My one issue with the set is that the original Bunchu model doesn't hugely look like a rabbit to me, more some eldritch thing trying to be what it thought a rabbit should look like. Which, I guess fits the theme of odd dream imagery.

Also, this is the third large-sized Bunchu, with another one coming out in the same line-up.

So I'm not sure about this one, but I imagine I'll be picking up Matteo's counterpart set (with Z-blob as a small mech) as soon as I see it.

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By in United Kingdom,

Cracking idea, reminds me of 10023 and the fun I had building or creating creatures from that

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By in Germany,

That set can keep a kid busy for days and for the price you can't go wrong. The only complaint would again be that the ball joints haven't been colored in a matching blue tone. The grey blobs really stand out with the models being so tiny.

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By in United States,

Ultra-combination buildability. Something that should be in a lot more sets (the z-blob one is great for it!).

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By in United States,

Is 20-in-1 a record, at least in terms of instructions provided?

Even if not, I wonder what the record is in terms of instructions provided on paper/ with the set.

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By in United States,

Nice review! This is a really creative set, and the colorful parts make it more appealing to me than the similar Z-blob set. I love Izzie's outfit in this set too—it's so fun.

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By in United States,

Someone above said good activity for a birthday party. I raise the stakes and say this could be a fun activity for a LUG meeting. We did that once with a winter set that was about this size. You had a time limit and everyone in the meeting that had the set had to build something different than what it was intended. It was really fun. And sadly I don't think my LUG has done it since. This set might be a good one to suggest that with.

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By in United States,

We will be getting 2.

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By in United Kingdom,

@umptybagger said:
"this and 71487 are the cheapest retail sets ever to do so!"

Quick correction - being pedantic for fun really, but I checked the database again and I'd forgotten *standard* retail is a necessary qualifier, to discount brick separators sold separately and odd little 40256 Create the World, both of which have had limited retail availability.

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By in United States,

We used 30435 Harry Potter Build Your Own Hogwarts Castle for a party and had a blast with the multiple options and diversity of creativity. Lego should really look toward these types of creative builds more.

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By in Canada,

@Huw: But there IS a 'negative' IMHO; Bunchu's face is far too 'flat'...I mean look at the first one (71453: Izzie and Bunchu the Bunny) and even the more recent one (71490: Izzie and Bunchurro the Gaming Bunny...or is that a 'different character'...at any rate?). Heck, I not expecting 31162: Cute Bunny levels of 'detail', but...

Also @alLEGOry_HJB2810: Moreover the 'deer' looks like a 'shrunken' version of the one from 71459: Stable of Dream Creatures, so at least TLG are consistent there.:)

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By in United Kingdom,

@Lance_McCormick said:
"Is 20-in-1 a record, at least in terms of instructions provided? "

Depends if you class advent calendars as a 24-in-1 set or not.

I do like those eye prints.

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By in United Kingdom,

@TheOriginalSimonB said:
" @Lance_McCormick said:
"Is 20-in-1 a record, at least in terms of instructions provided? "

Depends if you class advent calendars as a 24-in-1 set or not.

I do like those eye prints. "


Though you could say advent calenders are 24 steps for a larger set.

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By in New Zealand,

How much longer will dreamzzz be going for?

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By in United States,

20-in-1?
died 2003
resurrected 2025
welcome back inventor

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By in United States,

@EtudeTheBadger said:
"This is LEGO in its purest form.

Bring back B-models."


Agreed! Makes me think of the small early minifigure sets. A ton of potential here.

I’ll be buying a few of these for my youngest son and I.

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By in Poland,

Good set but Z Blob one is SO MUCH BETTER.
STill Sets like this should be in every theme.

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By in Norway,

@Lance_McCormick said: "Is 20-in-1 a record, at least in terms of instructions provided?"

There was two "Christmas Build-Up 24-in-1" GWP sets, 40222 from 2016 and 40253 from 2017. I had the first one and found it a little frustrating as it didn't seem possible to even build two of the models at the same time. It would been nice if you could build three or four models using all (or most) of the parts.

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By in United Kingdom,

I've been really enjoying the Z-blob version, and this is a guaranteed pickup at some point.

I hope they do well enough that lego makes more like these across different themes, at this cheap price.

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By in Netherlands,

I'm looking forward to pick up this one or the Z-Blob version sometime later this year. They look fun :)

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By in United States,

@Lance_McCormick said:
"Is 20-in-1 a record, at least in terms of instructions provided?

Even if not, I wonder what the record is in terms of instructions provided on paper/ with the set.
"


I believe 10183 counts as 30-in-1, though I don't know how many instructions were provided with that so I'm not sure if it beats this one or not.

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By in Netherlands,

@HuskyDynamics said:
" @Lance_McCormick said:
"Is 20-in-1 a record, at least in terms of instructions provided?

Even if not, I wonder what the record is in terms of instructions provided on paper/ with the set.
"


I believe 10183 counts as 30-in-1, though I don't know how many instructions were provided with that so I'm not sure if it beats this one or not."


4101 Wild Collection has 63 alt models. Most are small and multiple can be built at once as collections of multiple creatures. Most don't have instructions though.

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By in United States,

@umptybagger said:
" @umptybagger said:
"this and 71487 are the cheapest retail sets ever to do so!"

Quick correction - being pedantic for fun really, but I checked the database again and I'd forgotten *standard* retail is a necessary qualifier, to discount brick separators sold separately and odd little 40256 Create the World, both of which have had limited retail availability."


Hey?!! Replying to your own comment is my move.

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By in Australia,

The rabbit thing is the stuff of nightmares and I’m so sick of Izzie. But those little builds look fun for a kid. Good value too.

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By in United States,

So I see from the comments that 71487 has the same thing going on? Makes me want it even more!

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By in United States,

“Plushie toy accessory”? We all know it’s an unlicensed Squishmallow.

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By in Germany,

I really don't understand why LEGO thinks they need all those licenses when it comes to kids' sets, when they clearly show that they can come up with great ideas like the Dreamzzz range on their own.
This set reminds me of many sets from the Eighties, when the packaging showed plenty of alternate builds. Granted we didn't get instructions for them back in the day and had to figure it out ourselves, but this is so much like it.
Love these kinds of sets which have become so rare nowadays.

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By in United Kingdom,

@B_Space_Man said:
"“Plushie toy accessory”? We all know it’s an unlicensed Squishmallow. "

Squishmallows didn't invent the format of collectable round plushies. That's been a thing for a very long time. They're just a popular brand, with distinctive flat little dot eyes and a total lack of limbs, two things these LEGO ones don't have. If anything they remind me more of Beanie Ballz, which debuted in 2011 - 6 years before Squishmallows.

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By in United States,

@Maxbricks14 said:
"How much longer will dreamzzz be going for?"

As long as it remains successful, most likely.

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By in United Kingdom,

@sjr60 said:
"
Excellent news that the alternative builds are available as a standard PDF and not just via the crappy Lego Builder app.

Countless complaints on Lego.com about the lack of standard PDF for the Batman 8-in-1 builds appear to have been initially acknowledged but ultimately ignored!"

I see today the pdfs have finally been released!
https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/lego-40748-batman-brickheadz-8-in-1-pdf-instructions-now-available/
Only took 5 months and should, of course, be on the Lego.com instruction page, not just via 'ambassadors' but hey ho!

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