Review: 31388 Wild Animals: Family of Koalas
Posted by benbacardi,
The largest of this year's current crop of Creator 3-in-1 sets, 31388 Wild Animals: Family of Koalas gives us three unique animals from "down under", and adds to the "wild animals" theme-within-a-theme started earlier in the year by 31386 Wild Animals: Majestic Lion.
With a choice of a pair of koalas, kangaroos, or turtles, each with their own small section of scenery, this bright and colourful set focusses on Australia's distinctive wildlife, and there is one clear winner amongst the three!
Summary
31388 Wild Animals: Family of Koalas, 1,536 pieces.
£99.99 / $129.99 / €119.99 | 6.5p, 8.5c, 7.8c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Three vibrant and colourful display models, with the koalas winning out on accuracy and cuteness over two slightly more awkward animal designs.
- Excellent display models
- Cute and expressive koalas
- Bright and colourful accompanying builds
- Kangaroos and turtles less effective in their design
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Koalas
A quintessentially Australian animal, koalas have not really been represented before in brick-built form, although they have lately appeared as a single piece in a collectable minifigure, an excellent costumed minifigure, and as a Friends-style animal part in 42701 Koala Habitat & Care Centre.
The koala family in this set consists of an adult and a joey. The joey is built first, and is somewhat cute although slightly blocky even at this scale. The head is attached via a ball joint and therefore has a wide range of movement, and each of the hind legs can rotate about their centre on Technic pins. The arms are have fixed elbows at 90 degrees and very square paws! The ears are suitably tufty with a combination of rock and teeth plates.
The adult koala naturally provides a greater opportunity for detail and accuracy, and looks excellent, particularly the head and face. The creature's front legs are once again fixed with a 90 degree elbow, but each has a pair of articulated claws on the hands, and plates and tiles are used to good effect for the fur that hangs off their limbs.
The design of the rear legs makes it hard for the koala to sit on the floor, but as we'll see later this is not their intended pose. The rear ankles are attached with ball joints and therefore have a wider range of motion than the forelegs.
The use of the large 2x2 curved slope for the koala's distinctive nose was a great choice, and combined with the round eyes, pink tongue, and tufty ears makes for an excellent build of the head.
The only thing that lets the design of the head down, in my opinion, is the rather flat rear and four exposed hollow studs. This feels like an easy place to improve with a couple more rock plates or slope tiles, so I am not sure why it was left like this. The four studs on the koala's back, however, do play an important role, as we'll see in a moment.
Internally, the koala is made of a solid core with a small number of SNOT bricks providing attachment points for the body's fur. Unlike the wolf in 31393 Forest Animals: Grey Wolf, this koala has no hidden heart!
It does, however, have a tiny pink brain inside its head.
The adult koala has no pouch for its baby, but the joey is perhaps a bit big to be making use of one anyway.
The two koalas are not the only creatures in the set—three brick-built butterflies are also constructed. Based on a pair of black heart tiles for the wings, they each look excellent in their respective colour schemes of yellow, orange, and blue.
The remainder of the 1,500+ pieces are put towards the koala's eucalyptus tree, which is a thick tan trunk rising at an angle from a small patch of ground. Various macaroni pieces jut out at different angles, topped by leaves and small red flowers. Personally, I don't feel that it looks much like a eucalyptus tree, but I admit they are not my area of expertise!
The interior of the trunk is a solid construction of plates and bricks, hiding many pieces that will be used in the other two models as is common in the 3-in-1 sets. It's a very secure build.
Half of the base of the tree is green, with a variety of brick-built flowers adoring it, which all look great with their bright colours contrasting the green ground and leaves.
Around the other side, the base is brown, with fewer flowers. This is clearly intended to be the rear of the tree. An exposed brown axle has a purpose that we'll see in just a moment.
The branch that projects from the main body of the trunk can be removed, and stored on the rear of the tree using the axle above.
Beneath it, a longer grey axle was holding it in place, but instead becomes the anchor point for attaching the adult koala to the tree.
The axle slides into a hole in the koala's belly, and the creature's arms and legs can be positioned to hug the trunk, just like the real animals do. The space between the lower branch and the leaves above is just the right size for the koala to nestle in comfortably.
The joey can then be placed on the adult's back, attached via those four exposed studs, replicating the way koalas carry their young around the trees until they are old enough to climb for themselves.
Finally, the butterflies can be placed as you wish around the leaves of the tree.
The resulting model looks excellent. It is vibrant and fun, and would look fantastic on display.
Kangaroos
Another stereotypical Australian wild animal is the kangaroo, and the second build also provides two of these marsupials. I'm not completely sold on the design of the adult kangaroo, particularly the hind legs, which have a very abrupt transition from vertical to horizontal.
The kangaroo's body can rotate around its hips, and the front legs and head use ball joints for articulation, but the tail is fixed.
Once again, the creature's head is the most effective part of the design, although the dark grey neck joint is very noticeable. I like the shape of the tail, but it is a shame it has no movement to it, and the rear of the kangaroo looks disjointed, particularly around the hip and thigh area.
The joey does a fairly decent job with such few parts, but the grey joints are rather ugly. The baby has the same articulation points as the parent—fixed tail and elbows, hind legs that can rotate fully, and ball joints for the arms and head. The part used to represent the hands makes it look as if the joey has its fists up ready for a fight!
As a marsupial, kangaroos carry their young in a pouch, and unlike the koala model above, this has been accounted! A space is left open in the abdomen of the adult kangaroo to represent the pouch, with an axle hole at the rear. It looks rather odd when viewing the kangaroo from the front.
To put the joey in the pouch, however, you have to decapitate the poor thing! It looks fairly effective once the head has been connected into the rear of the pouch, but now you're left with a creepy headless baby kangaroo body.
As with many of these 3-in-1 animal sets, a small amount of scenery is provided, both as an appreciated pop of colour and a way to make the display more interesting. This time, it comes in the form of a patch of dirt surrounded by flowers and foliage, and a small rock. I like the way the flowers have been repurposed from the primary build to produce a different style of flora.
A parrot perches on the top of the rock, and another smaller bird sits among the flowers on the other side of the dirt patch. The empty area in the centre is backed by a slightly higher wall at the rear, which has been designed for the adult kangaroo to sit with its hind legs resting at an angle.
The kangaroo's feet nestle beneath the flowers at the front, and it fits well in the gap designed for it. Altogether, the model looks better set up as a diorama than the animals do alone, as the pleasant foliage and scenery draws the eye away from some of the rather unsightly shapes of the kangaroos themselves.
Turtles
Finally, the last antipodean creature offered by the set is a pair of turtles. As before, we have a family consisting of a parent and a baby. The adult turtle's body is built around an octagonal shape, with flippers attached via ball joints at the corners and the head protruding on a thick macaroni piece. I know that real turtles have a somewhat blunt nose, but the head of this LEGO representation doesn't seem to work for me—the grey jaw, large flat tile at the front, and the dark grey bricks exposed at the rear look rather unsightly.
I do like the colouring of the shell, however, and it is cleverly constructed around a central core that fits on top of the base, using clips to hold some parts of the shell at an angle to the other to create the rough shape. It's not as smooth as a real turtle's shell would be, though, with some rather large gaps or differences in height between neighbouring sections.
On the turtle's underbelly, a single axle hole provides a connection point to attach to the scenery.
The baby turtle uses only a handful of parts, and is a little more square than its parent. The head is not articulated, and it has the same large flat nose, but I think it is a little bit cuter. Once again, the grey joints are somewhat out of place.
Being primarily aquatic animals, the scenery provided for our turtle family is a small patch of vibrant coral reef, accompanied by two bright fish. I love the colours and the overall design, particularly the simplicity of the fish, and the pearl hidden in the entrance to a cave in which lurks a hidden creature identified only by its eyes!
The various plants look excellent in their differing tones. The rear of the coral, while still a finished look, is clearly not designed to be visible when on display.
The axle protruding from the top of the red section is used to secure the adult turtle, while the baby perches on top of the yellow coral to the left. The resulting diorama is a bright and colourful display that adds a lot of interest to the bare models of the creatures themselves.
Verdict
With over 1,500 pieces, 31388 Wild Animals: Family of Koalas is a sizeable set, and with that comes a pretty decent amount of detail. The main attraction is clearly the koalas, which are an excellent representation of an Australian classic, and look fantastic on display on their tree with the vibrant flowers and butterflies. While slightly more colourful than the usual flora you'd expect to see in a koala's habitat out in the bush, the bright colours do make the set more attractive as a display model than something more accurate may be.
The kangaroos and the turtles do not have the same level of detail or attention to design as the koalas, and it's unusual for me to come across a 3-in-1 set where I have one clear favourite of the three provided models. That said, they still look good on display, and were still each an enjoyable build. Across all three models, the accompanying scenery is consistently excellent, adding colour and life, and elevating the displays beyond simple animal sculptures.
31388 Wild Animals: Family of Koalas is available at LEGO.com for £99.99 / $129.99 / €119.99.
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28 comments on this article
Making this a Lego exclusive at $200 here in Australia is just rude in my opinion. Thankfully they don’t look good enough to buy 3 sets.
A small correction: Corals are not plants, they're animals (each one is a group of many "polyps" which are tiny invertebrates).
Otherwise, love the review! I thought about getting this for the turtles but I agree they don't look as great as the primary build. The koalas have much more presence on display than the other builds - something about the color of the turtles is a bit "off", even if real loggerhead and hawksbill turtles are pretty close to that.
I choose to believe that at least one of those butterflies is menacing Doctor Thaddeus Venture on a professional basis.
With the four studs on the back of the head i wonder if its meant to be an additional mount for the baby if that would line up cutely.
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/baby-koala-rides-back-adult-s-head-surrounded-greenery-wild-australian-habitat-wilds-australia-perched-338569696.jpg
Good job beauty is in the eye of the beholder cos those animals are hideous
This seems to be a Lego Store exclusive but I don’t think it is that good looking tbh
looks like B and C models use 500 of the 1500 pieces max
The koalas look fantastic, and very cute, much like their real life counterparts. The gumtree acting as the display stand is very nicely detailed too.
Very cute. But the one that works the best for me is the kangaroo.
@Kripps said:
"Making this a Lego exclusive at $200 here in Australia is just rude in my opinion. Thankfully they don’t look good enough to buy 3 sets. "
Agreed, and going on how the pile of sets in my local Lego store have not gone down in the first few weeks. Makes me think that the $200 price is a step too far, especially when so many other sets have been on sale from other retailers. A shame because the models look alright (bar the turtle faces and grey ball socket pieces) and it was nice to see some local animals represented in Lego.
@kingalbino said:
"Good job beauty is in the eye of the beholder cos those animals are hideous "
That's koalaist.
I saw many koalas in my back-yard as a child, and can visit them less than an hour away from home. For what it's worth, the koalas look "right" to me. I bought the set for the koala build. It's great.
The kangaroos are almost right, but real roos don't curl their tail up - typically their tails are flat on the ground when sitting, and don't curl to either side. The heel angle is actually fine, btw. The joey is less convincing, but it honestly looks like an excellent *antechinus*.
The turtle is OK, but the build looks underwhelming and I didn't try it :/
Thank you f @benbacardi for a great review and for covering each model in detail. How many pieces were left over with the alt builds? They seem much more diminutive.
The koalas look very good but I’m not sold on the kangaroo/turtle options. That being said, has there ever been a creator 3-in-1 set this expensive? These have consistently been more “impulse” type purchases for me, especially with an eventual Amazon 20%.Off. The set simply feels too big, though you can’t likely have a Koala set without a requisite eucalyptus tree…
I just built 31154 Red Fox last night and think the designers did a great job, though was surprised at how dense it was.
I’m looking forward to building most of the other recent 3-in-1 animals but I’m not sure I can imagine any scenario outside of being gifted the Koalas that I could envision getting them.
@yellowcastle
Re: more expensive: Only non-animal sets, I think, and not many.
This is cool. Hopefully they do one for New Zealand animals next.
@yellowcastle said:
"Thank you f @benbacardi for a great review and for covering each model in detail. How many pieces were left over with the alt builds? They seem much more diminutive.
...has there ever been a creator 3-in-1 set this expensive?..."
This is the most expensive of the recent run of wild animal sets, but the Horse knight castle and 2020 pirate ship, Viking Ship and main street (which always felt more like a city set) are all more expensive in GBP at least. Though some are equal in other currencies or cheaper in USD!
I think the creator 3-in-1 sets have been one of the most creative themes of recent years, although getting slightly repetitive with these animal sets, though still individually brilliant. I always like when they can manage to switch the colours of the animals around like they've done here, reusing the tree parts.
This feels like they tried to make an Icons set but put it to the Creator theme last minute. By that I mean that it feels a bit excessive and a weird distribution of the budget as a significant part of the parts goes into the display tree.
That said, it does look dynamic and I think the koalas are done well. Especially the head of the adult one.
I love that it's an Australian set (and I'm planning on picking up the Friends Koala Habitat and Care Centre later in the year for that very reason), but I just don't think they look very good. The fluffier an animal is, the harder it is to effectively recreate the animal in Lego pieces, and I think the koalas are, again, another example of this. There's only so much you can do, with Lego pieces, and there's a limit when it comes to soft, furry and organic shapes.
"Unlike the wolf in 31393 Forest Animals: Grey Wolf, this koala has no hidden heart!"
Well, if you understand Australian animals, it's honestly not that surprisingly.
That's not a eucalyptus tree. It doesn't look like any real-life tree...
Disagree that the alternate builds are less effective - all three options are very well designed. I think it's just the eucalyptus that stands out as the most impressive scenery. Nice review!
Disagree that the alternate builds are less effective - all three options are very well designed. I think it's just the eucalyptus that stands out as the most impressive scenery. Nice review!
@Gus_teXeda said:
"That's not a eucalyptus tree. It doesn't look like any real-life tree..."
I initially thought the same but I think its the shaping that is awkward.
It's made out to look like the whole tree as its attached to the ground, but looks more like a typical branch fork/bough that koalas love to sit in.
The colouring it quite close, and the pops of pink work well. Perhaps a different leaf element would have avoided the palmtree feelings I get from it.
200 dollarydoos though, ouch.
@Gus_teXeda said:
"That's not a eucalyptus tree. It doesn't look like any real-life tree..."
In fairness, it is made out of LEGO.
@Crux said:
" @Gus_teXeda said:
"That's not a eucalyptus tree. It doesn't look like any real-life tree..."
In fairness, it is made out of LEGO."
At 200 Euro RRP, fairness is not what LEGO should expect. Ridiculous pricing justifies customer scrutiny.
Don't like it? Make it cheaper and non-exclusive, and no one will care whether it's a perfect replica of a Eucalyptus tree or just some scenery decor.
As for the set on the whole, I have never been a fan of Koalas. And as much as I generally love the Creator 3-in-1 line, this set just doesn't do it for me. Plus I prefer sets from the line in the 20 to 100 Euro (max) price range.
@AustinPowers said:
" @Crux said:
" @Gus_teXeda said:
"That's not a eucalyptus tree. It doesn't look like any real-life tree..."
In fairness, it is made out of LEGO."
At 200 Euro RRP, fairness is not what LEGO should expect. Ridiculous pricing justifies customer scrutiny.
Don't like it? Make it cheaper and non-exclusive, and no one will care whether it's a perfect replica of a Eucalyptus tree or just some scenery decor.
As for the set on the whole, I have never been a fan of Koalas. And as much as I generally love the Creator 3-in-1 line, this set just doesn't do it for me. Plus I prefer sets from the line in the 20 to 100 Euro (max) price range. "
https://www.reddit.com/r/whoosh/
@Maxbricks14 said:
"This is cool. Hopefully they do one for New Zealand animals next."
What would you have in mind?
I'm thinking a 1:1 scale kiwi...
Or a 10x scale giant giant weta!
@AustinPowers said:
" @Crux said:
" @Gus_teXeda said:
"That's not a eucalyptus tree. It doesn't look like any real-life tree..."
In fairness, it is made out of LEGO."
At 200 Euro RRP, fairness is not what LEGO should expect. Ridiculous pricing justifies customer scrutiny.
Don't like it? Make it cheaper and non-exclusive, and no one will care whether it's a perfect replica of a Eucalyptus tree or just some scenery decor.
As for the set on the whole, I have never been a fan of Koalas. And as much as I generally love the Creator 3-in-1 line, this set just doesn't do it for me. Plus I prefer sets from the line in the 20 to 100 Euro (max) price range. "
Just wanted to point out the RRP is 120 Euro, not 200.
@M_Jibril said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Crux said:
" @Gus_teXeda said:
"That's not a eucalyptus tree. It doesn't look like any real-life tree..."
In fairness, it is made out of LEGO."
At 200 Euro RRP, fairness is not what LEGO should expect. Ridiculous pricing justifies customer scrutiny.
Don't like it? Make it cheaper and non-exclusive, and no one will care whether it's a perfect replica of a Eucalyptus tree or just some scenery decor.
As for the set on the whole, I have never been a fan of Koalas. And as much as I generally love the Creator 3-in-1 line, this set just doesn't do it for me. Plus I prefer sets from the line in the 20 to 100 Euro (max) price range. "
Just wanted to point out the RRP is 120 Euro, not 200."
The very first comment mentioned 200 Dollars, and since typically the price is the same in Euro as in Dollar, I assumed it was 200 Euro too.
Only after rereading it now I see that the commenter was referring to Australian Dollars. My bad.
Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if TLG charged as much for it. Especially for a store exclusive that typically doesn't get discounted.