Pretty in Pink: Flamingos A-go-go
Your mileage may vary depending on your location, but after the Arctic chill of my last article, I thought I’d warm things up a bit! As I’m heading to Florida on holiday later this month, flamingos seemed an appropriate creature to evoke sunnier climes.
A Collectible Flamingo
First up we have companion creature to the Collectible Minifigure Series 19 Gardener. I’ve always read her as a good ol’ Florida woman living in her trailer, tending her patch and enjoying a margarita.
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The Flamingo is the first moulded one to grace the LEGOverse, which is quite a late addition, only arriving in 2019. Sadly, it has only ever been released in this set, but I am 100% sure it has shown up in many AFOLs’ zoo and botanical gardens MOCs.
The only thing that confuses me about this mostly life-like, system-scale beauty is that its legs are black rather than a pale pink; but maybe that was too complicated to incorporate when the feet are indeed meant to be black. Or maybe it was supposed to be a plastic lawn ornament. Either way it’s lovely to see it added to the increasing range of recognisable species of birds.
Friendly Flamingos
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Yellowish Green
Next up we have the moulded and decorated flamingo in the Friends/Elves style (67430pb*). This debuted in the third wave of the Friends Play Cubes - Summer in 2020. As with all the creatures that came in these cubes, they were blind-packed in one of four different colours. In this instance, coral, lavender, yellow and yellowish green.
This edition was decorated with a gold beak and was associated with Stephanie. She is a swimmer and lifeguard, so it makes sense that she was paired with a water-loving creature.
The Play Cubes were fun in a Polly Pocket-esque way, but retailing at £7.99/$9.99/€9.99 each (I’m so grateful to Brickset for holding all the pricing info!), it was much too expensive a way to collect all the colours of all the creatures. Thank goodness for the secondary market.
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The same Flamingo mould was used again in the fifth wave of the Play Cubes - Animals, this time in Olivia’s Flamingo Cube (41662-1). This version had a metallic pink beak and was bedecked in Bright Light Orange, Dark Pink, Dark Turquiose and Medium Lavender plumage.
These cuties have light nougat coloured legs which is closer to that of real flamingos.
I think this is my favourite of wave of the Play Cubes because the cubes themselves got to join in the fun. The Flamingo cube’s head plumage is so pretty, made from two pieces of soft-ish fabric and held in place with some technic pieces, and a bright pink plate. I also really like the eye decoration, but I do think that the beak looks a little like it ran into a wall!
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Olivia's Flamingo Cube (41662-1) View fullsize
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Other cubes in this wave really pushed the boat out and had a new element (Bracket 3 x 2 - 2 x 2, 69906) which conformed to the cubes outer corners and allowed a variety of creatures’ ears to be built on them.
Following their release in January of 2021, the same bracket was used in Q4 of that year in the Classic TV Series Batman Cowl (76238). Since then, they have shown up in an impressive nine colours and across several themes, including Harry Potter's Hogwart's Express (76405-1), Star Wars’ X-wing Starfighter - UCS (3rd edition) (75355-1), and most recently LEGO Ideas in the Orient Express (21344-1). All in all, a reasonably powerful legacy piece for a pocket money set.
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67430pb* was really popular in 2020 with another differently decorated version (67430pb01) appearing in an additional three Friends sets that year. One of which (Party Boat, 41433-1) also came with a sweet brick-built flamingo inflatable.
The decoration on this flamingo, in an archetypal dark pink, gives it a black beak and a slightly more realistic leg colour but leaves the feet the same colour as the legs. Friends/Elves style creatures are not known for their realism, so we can’t complain, and it’s very pretty in its own cutesy way.
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Decorative Flamingo
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Now we come to one of the most incredible creatures the LEGOverse: the Clickits Flamingo. This absolute beauty arrived in 2006 and appeared in Fun Flamingo Frames ‘n' More (7548-1). Yup, The LEGO Group designed and created a mould and decoration plan for this piece… for it to be in just one set! (Those crazy early 2000s at work again.)
It has two of the traditional Clickits connections on it. I’m lucky enough to have secured one of these for my Beasitary, but I don’t think I could ever bring myself to connect it to anything for fear of snapping it when trying to detach it again.
Clickits dabbled in other creatures but only as more traditional Clickits Icons shaped variously as butterflies, clams and starfish. This is the only out-and-out moulded Clickits creature that I know of.
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Fun Flamingo Frames 'n' More (7548)
Duplo Flamingo
Duplo gets in on the act, too, with a couple of fun and funky decorated and/or brick-built flamingos. First up is My First Fun Puzzle (10885) from 2019. As with most Duplo sets, it’s aimed at building fine motor skills as well as imagination and creativity.
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My First Fun Puzzle (10885)
I love the Mix-and-Match style, and that even carried through into some apparel gear too in the form of this funky backpack. This item doesn’t seem to be available on LEGO.com anymore, but the other colourway is still available in the UK at least.
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Moving on, the cute and cuddly creatures from the Bath Time Fun sub-theme come up roses again with this lovely brick-built and decorated flamingo as part of set 10966. It can sit in its life ring or stand on the floating desert island which also doubles as a handy storage tub.
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Thanks to Brick Architect for letting us borrow this hero shot!
A Brick-Built Birdie
Finally and most recently, we have this beautiful flamingo from the new Creator 3-in-1 31150 Wild Safari Animals that just released yesterday. If you caught BrickNerd’s live build on Instagram, you saw this comes in addition to a few o ther wild creatures, but the flamingo adds a splash of colour that the set desperately needed. And it is fun to see how the designers used or hid the pink in alternate builds.
On that fun note, it’s time for me to head away and enjoy the last few days of the festive season before returning to work. However you celebrate at this time of year, I hope you have had a good one, and I’ll wish you all a Happy New Year from Florida!
What other LEGO animals fo you collect? Let us know in the comments below.
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