LEGO Ideas Floating Sea Otters revealed!
Posted by CapnRex101,
It is a busy day, as the delightful 21366 Floating Sea Otters has been unveiled as the latest LEGO Ideas set! The press release follows:
21366 Floating Sea Otters
Rated 18+, 1,234 pieces
$119.99 / £99.99 / €109.99
Available at LEGO.com from 1st March
Max out the cuteness of your home decor with the LEGO Ideas Floating Sea Otters craft kit (21366) for adults. Create an adorable brick-built model of a mother sea otter relaxing in water with her pup.
Place the little pup figure on its mum’s belly. Pose mum’s head, mouth, flippers and claws, or change up your sea animal showpiece by giving mum the buildable clam. The original design for this set was created by a fan designer and voted for by LEGO fans. It offers a joyful, immersive activity for adults, whether you’re new to LEGO sets or a more experienced builder.
The image below shows two sets linked together, recreating how otters are known to hold hands to avoid drifting apart.
While the format has remained the same, the original Ideas submission by HisBrickMaterials is quite different to the final model, looking a little more animated.
Which do you prefer and what do you think of this set? Let us know in the comments.
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40 comments on this article
It looks okay, but I’d be more interested in buying it if they had kept the original design. Without the baby otter, it feels flat and almost like roadkill.
You know, I didn't love it with the baby otter, but that final photo with the two otters holding hands started to win me over. Not one I'll buy, but still pretty cute.
I absolutely adore the outcome of the set! The "Idea" version was a little more comedic, where the final design looks life-like.
With the inclusion of the baby and even the possibility of adding a second set, this is just stunning! Never new I could be so excited over an Otter in brick-build.
I guess this is supposed to look more realistic.....but the end result looks rather confusing. Lost all of the charm of the original submission. And it took me a while to recognize the pup for what it is, it looks more like some kind of brown machine....
Pull the head off and you have a decent start for a base of a castle on an island.
From some angles it looks terrible. The original was much more whimsical and toy looking, which is what I would expect for a LEGO set. It think if I wanted a realistic 3D model, I'd buy one rather than make one out of LEGO.
This may not be everyone's cup of tea.
But on the otter hand, it's kinda cute...
Somebody needs to do a mod for a South American giant otter.
Google it and I'm sorry for what you're about to see.
Well, they seem to have gone from the roadkill look of the original to more of a dropped chocolate cake look ... which I guess is an improvement.
Maybe it looks better in reality but it looks like a bit of a confused mess from the pictures.
I find it a difficult to distinguish the features of this at times, the face from the body in particular.
Interesting that you can change the depth of submergence.
I'm not really that fussed about it.
Remember when every set was designed around the "conflict in a box" play pattern? We've been denied Battle Otters!
The initial image looks terrible, and when it was leaked I was crestfallen. This is a set I’ve loved since it very first came unto Ideas. However, the other pictures do it justice. I feel like this is a set that will look much better in-person. I look forward to picking this up!
Look terrible in comparrison with the original submission. Heck, It took me a few moments to realise that the baby was meant to be a baby otter rather then a rock pile.
Not for me. Its a shame really... plenty of people have proven that Lego can make great organic creatures with their MOC, yet somehow LEGO themselves always seem to drop the ball on them.
Maybe it looks better in person, but I didn't realize that was a baby; it just looked strange.
@JurgenBrickheadz said:
"It looks okay, but I’d be more interested in buying it if they had kept the original design. Without the baby otter, it feels flat and almost like roadkill."
Roadkill LOL LOL so funny. I agree.
Is it 'weird Lego set' release day??
The holding hands thing is definitely cute; but all told, I think I preferred the original submission. I liked its slightly cartoonier vibe, whereas I don't feel like the attempt to make the final version look realistic has quite succeeded. I like parts of it, but on the whole it's not quite clicking with me the way the submission did.
...I also liked that the original submission looked like something that could turn out to be the rare example of a cheaper Ideas set, but seems like Lego had other ideas. I'd hoped to perhaps get it sometime for my fiancee and me to build together, since she loves otters; £100 puts it a bit out of my present budget range, though.
New cherries and Opera Viking horns?
@Rimefang said:
"Remember when every set was designed around the "conflict in a box" play pattern? We've been denied Battle Otters!"
60394.
Terrible adaptation... the original was great this one is ugly!
I prefer the final version. It looks more rounded and accurate, and the pup is just too cute!
Cute? I find otters quite disgusting, just like beavers or any other water dwelling mammal to be honest.
Birds? Yeah. Butterflies? Great. Land mammals? Sure.
But all that wet fur which always looks oily or greasy, yuck.
Why is the last lifestyle picture of the sea otter next to a brown change purse? That seems a little sinister to me - its the same flat shape as the otter.. what are you hinting at Lego?
@AustinPowers said:
"Cute? I find otters quite disgusting, just like beavers or any other water dwelling mammal to be honest.
Birds? Yeah. Butterflies? Great. Land mammals? Sure.
But all that wet fur which always looks oily or greasy, yuck. "
You shall be cast out!
The official model is too flat in the middle. Too bad. I also don’t find the price to be very tempting; $100 USD and I might have bitten.
My first thought was that it was a sunken Sandcrawler in Dagobah Swamp. :D
We finally get the 3X4 branch piece in dark green! YYEEEEEESSS!!!
Well, regardless of whether you prefer this version over the Ideas submission, or the submission over the final result, at least they didn’t make a model of that extremely NSFW zoo otter that passed away a while back.
@AustinPowers said:
"Cute? I find otters quite disgusting, just like beavers or any other water dwelling mammal to be honest.
Birds? Yeah. Butterflies? Great. Land mammals? Sure.
But all that wet fur which always looks oily or greasy, yuck. "
It looks oily because it _is_ oily. Otters and beavers spend a lot of time each day carefully grooming their fur to spread oil on it so it’ll repel water when they’re swimming, and keep them from losing body heat to the surrounding water.
I think the model is hard to read on some of the pictures
I like it! I think the flatness of the belly (with the body mostly submerged) looks pretty accurate to how these look when floating on the surface in real life, and I think the face looks a lot cuter in the final version than the original submission, which had a more exaggerated, cartoony expression.
I love the simple but effective technique for the front paws of both the adult and baby. The use of the pagoda roof plates for tiny waves on the water surface also looks great.
Clearance speedrun
(In Ewan Mcgregor Voice)
"We're looking at sea otters!"
https://youtu.be/o6xTwpIyN14
What a cute thing.
Chocolate bunny roadkill floating in a puddle.
The Creator 3-in-1 team could've made a much better version for $39.99
Dreadful redesign.
Looks like the ideas submission had substantial fewer pieces.
I wonder if the design team was forced to use more pieces thus making the set more expensive?
I'll probably get one eventually, but I have to admit that I much preferred the original design. If they'd kept with that it'd have been a day one purchase.
Cute set for the right person. Would look great next to 10331 Kingfisher I bet.
@PurpleDave said:
"Well, regardless of whether you prefer this version over the Ideas submission, or the submission over the final result, at least they didn’t make a model of that extremely NSFW zoo otter that passed away a while back.
@AustinPowers said:
"Cute? I find otters quite disgusting, just like beavers or any other water dwelling mammal to be honest.
Birds? Yeah. Butterflies? Great. Land mammals? Sure.
But all that wet fur which always looks oily or greasy, yuck. "
It looks oily because it _is_ oily. Otters and beavers spend a lot of time each day carefully grooming their fur to spread oil on it so it’ll repel water when they’re swimming, and keep them from losing body heat to the surrounding water."
I know the reason. I just don't like the look at all.
Just like this set which to me looks like a total mess. At least the original submission had a certain comic book style charm to it. The final version imho is a contender for one of the ugliest LEGO sets ever. Looks like an enormous turd that someone has stepped into.
Total fail on every level imho.
It’s very cute, and certainly if someone handed it to me for free I’d be delighted, but one cannot buy everything one likes and I’m not sure my wishlist needs another kit that costs a hundred quid, really. Still, I’m sure it will make a lot of people very happy. Otters are popular!
@brickwich
I think you’re right. That would be a lovely pairing.
No smartbrick?