Review: Cats, cockatiels and hamsters
Posted by Huw,
Pets were a surprise introduction to the BrickHeadz theme at the start of the year. So far we've had grey cats, two breeds of dog, goldfish and budgies.
Three more, which I think will probably be the last in the series, are set to be released on August 1st: 40480 Ginger cats, 40481 Cockatiels, and 40482 Hamsters.
Let's open the cages and take a quick look...
40480 Ginger Cats
Orange and bright orange parts combine to give the ginger cats a very vibrant and attractive coat.
The teal scarves contrast really well with the oranges and make the models pop. It's not usual to put one around a cat's neck, of course, for safety reasons. Perhaps A Street Cat Named Bob provided the inspiration for adding them.
Like all the pets, the animals are provided with a 'bed', consisting of a colourful border around two conventional black BrickHeadz bases which allows them to be displayed in the same way as the other blocky characters should you wish.
They share the same body design as the felines in 40441 Shorthair Cats, but the heads, particularly the ears, are quite different, and I think I prefer them.
40481 Cockatiels
Cockatiels are native to Australia but are popular pets around the world. The adult specimen here, with bright yellow feathers on its cheeks, is most likely to be a male. Both he and the chick have the distinctive 'erectile crest' head feathers, and an orange patch on the sides of their faces, printed onto 2x2 curved slopes and 1x2 tiles, which are the only printed pieces in the three new sets, other than the eyes.
Again, their bodies are much the same as those of their predecessors, in 40443 Budgie, although of course the colour of the plumage differs.
40482 Hamsters
These are the first brick-built hamsters, and they are very cute indeed! The rodents' round cheek-pouches have been very effectively reproduced here to make them unmistakably hamsters and not some other small furry animal.
The majority of four-legged animals that have been given the BrickHeadz treatment are posed in a sitting position, but that's not the case with the juvenile here, and as a result I think it looks a bit too anthropomorphised.
Best viewed from the front!
I am sure that a certain LEGO reviewer on YouTube will love them...
Verdict
The eight sets make an attractive, unusual, and colourful collection. If I had to choose a favourite it would be the ginger cats, closely followed by the hamsters. However, your opinion will probably differ and will of course be influenced by your own choice of pet.
The three I've reviewed today will be available from August 1st, priced at $14.99, £13.49, 14.99€. The other five are still available at LEGO.com for the same price.
I'd be surprised if we see more released next year, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong, because I have a soft spot for them!
You can check out my reviews of the other five in the news archive.
Thanks to my wife and Alice tor building the sets, and to LEGO for providing them for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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25 comments on this article
some very cute little builds once again, i probably won’t be adding them to my collection because i have higher priorities, but any of these would be very welcome
Sariel will go nuts for the hamsters...Just you wait...
"These are the first ever LEGO hamsters, and they are very cute indeed!"
LEGO Friends and Overwatch: Are we a joke to you?
In all seriousness (I'm guessing you meant *brick-built* hamsters), I wasn't expecting hamsters! I love them, so it'll be really hard to resist getting these. Pity they don't come with a physical part representing a sunflower seed considering they appear on a sticker. I'm still having a hard time justifying getting 40442 Goldfish!
My kids really enjoy these Pets Brickheadz. It actually got them into the rest of the series, which is interesting because my children are all very young (oldest is 6).
I agree the ears of the ginger cat are a Huge improvement on the grey cat’s ears, those were too far back for my liking but they can be modified thankfully.
"These are the first ever LEGO hamsters, and they are very cute indeed!"
Unless you count the Friends ones: https://brickset.com/parts?query=hamster!
@LegoTiger72376 said:
"Sariel will go nuts for the hamsters...Just you wait..."
But what will his Hamster think of its LEGO doppelgänger?
Apart from the weird standing position of the baby hamster these are pretty good
Thank you all for informing me about other LEGO hamsters. Text now corrected :-)
The baby hamster is just the cutest little thing!! I hope the parts for the Cockatiels are common enough to be able to change the colours. While they have depicted the most common colour, my sister has about 20 and the first two she got where a fully yellow one named Sunny and a fully white one named Albi (she had just got out of having about 20 pet rats, so had run out of imaginative names at the time!!). Those two where her favourite Cockatiels and unfortunately are no longer with us, would be nice to Bricklink her copies in those colours.
Thanks for the review, looking forward to adding these to the growing collection. I hope they don't get more out this year, it's getting expensive as my sister is not only an animal lover, she's a Veterinary Nurse and I've been getting her copies of animal built things for years for her desk, it's made for a very expensive year with Brickheadz going the fray!
I wonder who will be the first to combine 50 hampster sets and some gears to automate them?
“Da de ba didi dou dou, Di ba didi dou,…”
The hamsters look cute, but overall I feel that the builds are a bit too similar each time to really bring something new to the table.
@LegoTiger72376 said:
"Sariel will go nuts for the hamsters...Just you wait..."
beat me to it, lol. If LEGO didn't send these to him he's gonna be so mad for not being the first to share them. They're definitely the best of this line so far though! I'm hoping we'll get a black and white cat soon enough so I can have one that resembles my own feline pet. I also think a go-brick-me styled pet set would sell like hot cakes, perhaps even multiple (one for dogs, one for cats, one for birds etc.). Still disappointed that the original GBM was so short-lived and I never got it.
I like the improved cat ears on the orange tabby. I'll be adding it to my German Shepard set.
"What about dogs, what about cats, what about chickeeeenns?"
Oh my goodness! Hamsters! I always wanted a hamster! Now we can get married, have three kids, and have a hamster named…
I think you can feel pretty confident that there will be more Petz in 2022.
It's funny, I never liked BrickHeadz of characters, except for Boba Fett and Lady Liberty.
But these animals are so cute, even the BrickHeadz treatment can't make me not want them :-)
After seeing the Cockatiels, I think I've finally found the perfect LEGO gift for my wife (she isn't really into LEGO, but we used to have two Cockatiels that she loved very much).
Love these and definitely hope there are more in the future!
Must get the Cockatiels, but the Hamsters and even the Marmalade Cats are very tempting. Very tempting...and I hope there will be more BrickPetz, because I like them much more than the humanoid versions!
My daughter and I definitely agree : they're all absolutely cute ! Cats and hamsters have a non negligible chance to end up being brought back home with us :)
I will resist, but I can't deny that a part of me wants to be a completist when it comes to these.
I have always liked the non-human Brickheadz, but the pet ones have just been a great addition to the line!
As a SW collector and not really interested in Brikheadz, I cant deny that those cats are super cute! They might just "accidentally" get placed in along with another order when theyre available.