Review: LEGO 31121 Creator 3-in-1 Crocodile (Guest Review)

Hello and welcome to a guest review by Greg McDonald from the For The Love of Brick podcast. Greg runs a fantastic LEGO podcast, where he interviews plenty of interesting guests from all across the LEGO spectrum. He recently interviewed brick artist Nathan Sawaya and yours truly.

With the release of new 2021 Creator 3-in-1 sets, I asked Greg if he would be interested in collaborating on a guest review, and sent him one of the sets that LEGO had sent over.

The LEGO Creator 3-in-1 Crocodile is now available from LEGO.com if you’re in Australia, Europe or Asia. If you’re in North America, you’ll need to wait till 1 August 2021 for its release date, however you can pre-order the set from LEGO.com.

Please enjoy this guest review!

Special thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review.

31121 Crocodile Set Details

Name: Crocodile
Set Number: 76187
Pieces: 454
Price: AU$44.99 | US$29.99 | £24.99 – Buy from LEGO.com [AUS] [USA] [UK] [Amazon Australia]
Exclusive to: N/A
Theme: Creator 3-in-1
Release Date: 1 June 2021 (Rest of World) / 1 August (North America)

Creator sets are a fairly good way to expand your building experience and techniques, mainly because you get the opportunity to build three times from the one purchase. I would suggest building the two alternate builds first, as you won’t want to break the croc after it is built.

First thing you will notice is it’s chock a block full of green, olive and tan pieces so you will have some great options to add to your brick pit if you decide to break this set down. You also get a fair few cheese slopes in dark green and olive.

The Crocodile 🐊

I started with the crocodile which was a mistake as I didn’t want to pull it apart after, but oh well.

The crocodile has three parts to its build, the large crocodile with two smaller builds to accompany it. The first of the two small builds is a simple yet effective fish skeleton that offers some insight on how you would go about building fossils. The second is a little bird, it’s cute but nothing new.

The Crocodile is bigger than I thought it would be, measuring in at 38cm long (48 studs) and 11cm wide (14 studs). It has some nice details and some very interesting eye placements- it’s an inside joke that will make sense.

The articulation is fairly good and the legs can hold the weight of the croc when it is in walking/running mode. It is also fairly sturdy- this was tested by a toddler who absolutely loved it.

This build’s other positive feature is that it is very photogenic. I took quick shots with my phone out and about, and I was really surprised how well it looks under the lens.

My only gripe with the build, I’m probably nitpicking here, is that I wish the toe ball and socket joints used in the legs came in either a tan or a green because I feel the grey breaks the natural colour scheme. But hey, that’s me really nitpicking.

The Frog 🐸

The frog is a nice but a small build with a simple play feature. The tongue pokes in and out to catch a fly.

It has some nice techniques but it is a side build and I personally wouldn’t display it. But the kids will have some fun with it, my toddler was hoping it around saying “robbert robbert” .

The Snake

The Snake like the frog is a fairly simple build but has a little mouse build that accompanied it which I really liked. The snake has good articulation for the parts it has to work with.

Just like the frog, you have a lot of pieces left over after the build. In saying that when building the snake it is nothing ground-breaking as it feels like you’re repeating the tail of the crocodile, but I will tip my hat to the designers and say the they did a good job with the pieces that I had work with.

Lastly, I couldn’t help myself but MOC with the pieces in this set. I ended up making a sort of Little Shop of Horror style of plant. The lovely earth coloured pieces paying off.

Review Summary:

The builds were enjoyable with some cool techniques, the Crocodile was by far my favourite.
3-in-1 sets are great because you get a lot of pieces for 3 builds and the parts lend themselves to alternate builds.
Some of the techniques in the crocodile were new to me. The frog and snake while good builds, I don’t think they are standouts.
The the croc is cool and the colours are great as well. Not an awesome display piece, unless you have a reptile enclosure and you want to pop a croc in it.
Overall, very good for both playing and photography.

In all honesty I will rebuild the crocodile and keep it for a while because my son loves it and I want to do a few more pics. But when he has played with it to death and I have got all the pictures I need, it will get absorbed into the wall of lego, so no matter what happens, I will be keeping it in some form.

About Greg McDonald and For the Love of Brick

For the Love of Brick is a podcast for people, young and old, who love LEGO. Join Greg McDonald, a fellow LEGO enthusiast, as he interviews people from all over the world about their love of LEGO and explores the different ways it features in people’s lives. We will meet builders, artists, health workers, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between. For the Love of Brick celebrates people and their unique connections with LEGO. Tune in every fortnight for a new episode.

Thanks for the great review, Greg – it was great to get a different perspective on sets, and I hope you enjoyed this guest review. Be sure to go check out the For the Love of Brick podcast!

Would you like to see more guest contributions? Perhaps you’d like to try your hand at reviewing LEGO sets? If you’d like to submit a guest review, please drop me a line at jaysbrickblog@gmail.com!

Special thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review.