Review: Brickheadz Pets
Posted by Huw,
LEGO continues to push the boundaries of the BrickHeadz format, and I'm sure when Austin Carlson designed them he had no idea that fish and birds would be among the subjects to be turned into the blocky characters.
40442 Goldfish and 40443 Budgie swim and land on the shelves in March to join 40440 German Shepherd and 40441 Shorthair Cats in this year's range of pets.
40442 Goldfish
Like the cats and dogs before them, the new pets sets include a large combined stand on which to display the pair of animals. The dark azure surround of the display base in this one provides pleasing contrast with the orange of the aquatic creatures.
When viewed from the front, as pictured on the box, the goldfish look like nothing more than cubes, but when examined from other angles it's immediately evident that there is more to them because, of course, they have tails at the back.
Their 4x4x4 and 3x3x3 square bodies are decorated with trans-orange 1x1 semi-circular tiles to give the impression of scales, and they are fairly effective at doing so.
These are not the first BrickHeadz that don't have legs: that accolade goes to 40351 Halloween Ghost.
40443 Budgie
Budgies used to be popular pets in the UK in the 1970s but not so much now. I believe they are called parakeets in the USA.
The adult bird and chick stand on individual perches, which utilise 1x1 round tiles with sawn timber print at the ends.
Like the fish, they look plain and boring from the front, but viewing from other angles reveals some beautiful plumage on the adult bird.
The distinctive yellow and black pattern of the real bird's head feathers has been recreated as well as could be expected here, and its tail feathers provide a welcome splash of colour. The chick is a bit plain but nevertheless looks cute enough.
As you've probably noticed I'm a big BrickHeadz fan and I welcome innovations like those introduced with the pets range to keep the theme fresh and interesting.
These two sets are certainly better than I thought they'd be when I first saw pictures on the boxes, which don't do them justice at all.
They'll be available from LEGO.com from 1st March priced the same as the cats and dogs, which is $14.99, £13.49, 14.99€.
I wonder which pets are next in line for the BrickHeadz treatment: Tortoises? Stick insects? Guinea Pigs? Sea monkeys?
Thanks to LEGO for providing the sets for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Thanks to my wife and Alice for building them. Any construction errors are theirs :)
112 likes
38 comments on this article
I just like the trans-clear 2x2 bricks and the other noteworthy colors in 40442. I dig the light yellow of 40443 too.
"Thanks to my wife and Alice... All construction efforts are theirs." You might want to get the couch ready.
I thought only the Norwegian Blue had 'beautiful plumage'.
Don’t really think the babies were necessary here. The parts could have gone towards a little brick-built fishbowl for the goldfish and a little cage for the budgie. I think that would have looked very cute in both instances.
@TerryWright said:
"
I thought only the Norwegian Blue had 'beautiful plumage'."
It’s an ex-parrot. It has ceased to be.
@Lightbrick said:
" @TerryWright said:
"
I thought only the Norwegian Blue had 'beautiful plumage'."
It’s an ex-parrot. It has ceased to be. "
I'm glad my turn of phrase was not lost on you :-)
No-one will ever convince me that Brickheadz are anything other than TLG's attempt to gouge those customers who have a collecting addiction. "What other rubbish can we release as Brickheadz?" A steaming pile of reddish-brown crap, with a bone sticking out. It'd probably sell.
What's worse is Brickheadz has changed from a premium licensed product with printed pieces to a generic one with stickers, and people are falling over themselves to applaud the continued creativity.
Creator sets with goldfish and budgies would be great.
Big question though—do they still have the pink brain bricks inside??
@Lordmoral said:
""Thanks to my wife and Alice... All construction efforts are theirs." You might want to get the couch ready."
Alice is Huw's daughter. She's written some reviews for Dots here in the past, and is involved in various other aspects of Brickset, I believe.
"These are not the first BrickHeadz that don't have legs: that accolade goes to 40351 Halloween Ghost."
The Slimer, Ursula, Little Mermaid and Olaf Brickheadz came before the Ghost I think? I know the character Olaf does have legs but does that count?
These are creepy. Especially the budgies, which look like they are trying to stare into my soul with their dead eyes.
...goatz?
@aleydita said:
"No-one will ever convince me that Brickheadz are anything other than TLG's attempt to gouge those customers who have a collecting addiction. "What other rubbish can we release as Brickheadz?" A steaming pile of reddish-brown crap, with a bone sticking out. It'd probably sell.
What's worse is Brickheadz has changed from a premium licensed product with printed pieces to a generic one with stickers, and people are falling over themselves to applaud the continued creativity.
Creator sets with goldfish and budgies would be great."
The Pets series are the first BrickHeadz to feature stickers. Each set includes one sticker. Every other decoration is a print.
Maybe goats are next?
A pair of iguanas would be great!
@Mr__Thrawn said:
"The Pets series are the first BrickHeadz to feature stickers. Each set includes one sticker. Every other decoration is a print."
The 41597 Go Brick Me set had a few optional stickers to add to custom Brickheadz. I suppose it doesn't really count since it wasn't a specified character or animal or anything like that.
@benbacardi said:
"Big question though—do they still have the pink brain bricks inside??
@Lordmoral said:
""Thanks to my wife and Alice... All construction efforts are theirs." You might want to get the couch ready."
Alice is Huw's daughter. She's written some reviews for Dots here in the past, and is involved in various other aspects of Brickset, I believe."
Yeah but he is also listing his wife as another reason for the problems, so he might as well get that couch ready.
Shouldn't the semi-circular trans-orange tiles be backwards to truly represent scales?
I always get a kick out of the people who get so angry about BrickHeadz and how terrible they are. They've been around for 5 years, much longer than most in-house themes, so clearly that's not the consensus. Take a chill pill, the Goldfish isn't going to bite you
It's not even like a Galidor thing, as BHz constantly come with entirely System pieces in new colors and often unique prints at a very good price. Even if you don't like how they look, they are good for opening up the available palette of elements. There is no reason to complain.
@Lordmoral said:
" @benbacardi said:
"Big question though—do they still have the pink brain bricks inside??
@Lordmoral said:
""Thanks to my wife and Alice... All construction efforts are theirs." You might want to get the couch ready."
Alice is Huw's daughter. She's written some reviews for Dots here in the past, and is involved in various other aspects of Brickset, I believe."
Yeah but he is also listing his wife as another reason for the problems, so he might as well get that couch ready. "
It was a disclaimer not an accusation!
I add it in case there are any construction anomalies that come to light that I've not noticed when photo'ing the models.
Parrots look horrible, those back on adult one is just... ugh
The fish on other hand looks cute and fun, but its weird they are not covered in trans orange tiles. They look unfinished
I've never heard the word "budgie". It is a parrot to me. :)
@Yooha said:
"I've never heard the word "budgie". It is a parrot to me. :)"
It’s short for budgerigar. @Huw is correct that they are known as parakeets in the US (and Canada?). In the UK, budgerigars or budgies are classified as a number of species within the parakeet group.
I think they are cracking sets. I’ve already got the cat set for my daughter for her birthday, these look like great additions. Very nice little builds :-)
Color me excited. I think these are clever additions to the Brickheadz family. I don’t know why but I’m so happy to own (almost) all the BHz. Heck, even my wife is happy to see new ones come out.
@vizzitor said:
" @Mr__Thrawn said:
"The Pets series are the first BrickHeadz to feature stickers. Each set includes one sticker. Every other decoration is a print."
The 41597 Go Brick Me set had a few optional stickers to add to custom Brickheadz. I suppose it doesn't really count since it wasn't a specified character or animal or anything like that."
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. You are correct that those serve a different purpose, adding versatility to the designs. The Pets also include stickers for the same reason- they actually include two stickers, not just the one as I said before, so that you can choose which design you want on the base.
@Huw said:
" @Lightbrick said:
" @TerryWright said:
"
I thought only the Norwegian Blue had 'beautiful plumage'."
It’s an ex-parrot. It has ceased to be. "
I'm glad my turn of phrase was not lost on you :-)"
Nor on me ;-)
Love any kind of Monty Python reference.
I'm asking myself whether these two budgies are also pining for the fjords...
We used to have a budgie like that when I was very little, we inherited him from my grandma: my mum and my uncle had bought him for her to keep her company, on the condition that we'd take the bird in when grandma became to old to look after him. I want to say he was brighter yellow than this example, but... it's been a long time, I legitimately can't remember, because I was only five when he died. I do remember him, though.
In any case, the design seems pretty accurate, especially around the tail. In fact, I might say that's the best-looking part of the model, they really capture the shaping. The varying shades of green are effective, and the feathery texture around the head is quite nice, too.
Still. Nice designs, but I've no inclination to own them for myself, even when fond memories are taken into account. Brickheadz have yet to sway me into buying any of them, still xD
Is there enough clutch power to attach the budgies to their perches, or did you have to use any illegal techniques?
@Kynareth said:
"Is there enough clutch power to attach the budgies to their perches, or did you have to use any illegal techniques?"
Not at all - they are affixed as you'd expect them to be.
@Huw said:
" @Lightbrick said:
" @TerryWright said:
"
I thought only the Norwegian Blue had 'beautiful plumage'."
It’s an ex-parrot. It has ceased to be. "
I'm glad my turn of phrase was not lost on you :-)"
Coming soon.... the Nexo Knights who say “Ni!”
Have never bought a Brickheadz anything, but I think the goldfish are super cute and would grab them at the right price. I don't think I've seen any Brickheadz on shelves in Ukraine, now that I think about it.
These lot are adorable. I've always loved Brickheadz (imma sucker for chibi) and this Pets line might be their best series yet!
And all these years I thought "budgie" just meant "pet bird," regardless of species. Learn something new every day, I guess.
These should be called Brickpedz
@chrichrichri said:
"These should be called Brickpedz"
Punny.
@Mr__Thrawn said:
The Pets series are the first BrickHeadz to feature stickers. Each set includes one sticker. Every other decoration is a print.]]
Actually, they’re not. 40348 Birthday Clown included a multilingual sticker sheet. 40353 included stickers to distinguish between miles and kilometers on the signpost. COLOGNE (while very rare and exclusive) used a sticker for the shirt. Finally, 41597 included a sticker sheet.
That said, I’m not sure why the BrickHeadz Pets include one since they also include a spare bow part so they could have printed the two parts like most other BrickHeadz have done. That part has been printed numerous times before - even for other BrickHeadz.
@Huw said:
"I add it in case there are any construction anomalies that come to light that I've not noticed when photo'ing the models."
No, we really can't have any construction anomalies in our Lego sets. :-D
This review needs to be added to 40443: Budgie. Also, https://brickset.com/article/57540/review-brickheadz-pets (comments closed) needs to be added to 40440: German Shepherd.