LEGO explains how it chose the Kingfisher: ‘We're not always sure how to approach something new'

The LEGO designer behind 10331 Kingfisher Bird has explained how and why the LEGO Group landed on the colourful creature for its first animal Icons set.

Swooping on to shelves on February 1, 10331 Kingfisher Bird is the inaugural Icons set in the Fauna Collection, which kicked off earlier this month with 31211 Macaw Parrots. It’s also the first time the 18+ range has tackled a buildable animal – most recently the domain of Creator 3-in-1 – of any kind. But figuring out where to begin what may be a new series wasn’t easy.

“We've had an ambition to make animals before; we're just not always sure how to approach something new for the first time,” Sven Franic, the lead designer behind 10331 Kingfisher Bird, tells Brick Fanatics and other LEGO Fan Media. “It's much easier with collections where you have cars and modular buildings every year. When you start something new, it's always a question: ‘Which is the one that we should do?’

“Of course, Creator 3-in-1 is making very realistic animals now. So it was also, ‘How do we make it more of a display piece and more of the adult interpretation, and less of a play model?’ The botanicals were an inspiration. That's the type of thing that would fit the brief most closely, also using a lot of current elements and a lot of bright colours.”

That reference to the Botanical Collection isn’t surprising: Sven has already cited the Fauna Collection as an extension of the LEGO Group’s buildable plants and flowers, and just as the company appears to be testing the waters with 10331 Kingfisher Bird, so too did that subtheme start small with 10280 Flower Bouquet and 10281 Bonsai Tree. It’s since blossomed into one of the LEGO Group’s most consistent Icons ranges.

The same fate could await the Fauna Collection, and specifically buildable birds, because the Kingfisher wasn’t the only one on the table – but it did tick every box required for its first Icons set.

“We had several birds, and I would love to tell you what they are, but because we might actually decide to make some in the future, I would rather not,” Sven says. “But the Kingfisher basically fit the brief in terms of colours and size, and also something that would be fairly iconic and loved universally. Bird lovers who know a lot about birds appreciate the Kingfisher a lot, but it's also not super specific, where a casual consumer wouldn't know what it is.

“One of the challenges we would have is that it is an old-world bird, so you would see a different type of Kingfisher in the US, which is also a very important market for us. But we decided that the Kingfisher just really fit a very narrow brief that we needed for a new [range].”

10331 Kingfisher Bird will join shelves exactly one month after 31211 Macaw Parrots, the LEGO Art set specifically branded under the Fauna Collection. That same branding is missing from the Kingfisher’s box – Sven says he isn’t sure why – but the LEGO Group has already marketed the two aviary models under the same banner. And while they’re two very different expressions of LEGO birds, the parrots did play a part in the direction the Icons team took with the Kingfisher.

“The parrots and the Kingfisher were developed around the same time,” Sven confirms. “We chose to make the marketing campaign together and also release them around the same time, but they are completely different interpretations. LEGO Art products are meant to be displayed on the wall, whereas we have three-dimensional sets. And they chose to make tropical birds, so that influenced the choice for us not to make a tropical bird.”

31211 Macaw Parrots is available now, while 10331 Kingfisher Bird will launch February 1, 2024.

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