Whilst enjoying this year’s visit to LEGO House as part of my trip to Skaerbaek Fan Weekend, I played in an area that I hadn’t really taken part in before; the Creative Lab in the Red Experience Zone. The content here changes more frequently than some other areas and at the time it was concentrated on the ‘Build the Change’ campaign to ‘Help the sea turtles.’

Help the Sea Turtles

Staff explained that climate change is affecting sea turtles because the sand where they make their nests is both disappearing and getting too warm. A turtle’s sex at birth is determined by how hot the sand around their nest was whilst they were an egg. This means that as global temperatures rise, the proportion of turtle eggs hatching as females is growing, making it harder for them to find male mates.

Visitors are asked to build their ideas, on a 16x16 plate, for ways to help reduce the temperature of the nests from tables of curated parts. They can label and explain their idea on cards that can be attached to their design using the clever photo/paper holder modified brick (37452) that originated in Dots. My friend Gordon and I built an idea and added it to the island diorama in the centre of the room.

There’s so much to enjoy in LEGO House that a day is never enough, and so I somehow managed to fail to take any good pics of the space or our build. But thankfully our Nerd-in-Chief Dave was on hand and could pop in and rectify that for me and build his own idea.

LEGO has also produced free educational resources to take the campaign into the classroom.

“Free Learning through Play materials designed to engage children in sustainability and the environment. Designed for use in classrooms, with lesson plans, presentations, and printables.”

— LEGO.com | Sustainability | Build the Change Courses

LEGO’s Teaching Resources to support the campaign (click to access)

LEGO Turtles

LEGO has produced quite a few turtles in its history across several themes and building systems. You’ll probably be familiar with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, those from Friends and Elves sets, Duplo, the system ones introduced in 2020 and the brick-built Minecraft version, but today I thought I would share a few that you may not be so familiar with, from the downright bizarre to the beautifully crafted, and some new ones I’m excited about.

Inflturtle

In 1950—a full eight years before the 2x4 brick patent—LEGO produced a series of inflatable swimming aids. LEGO’s earliest turtle the Inflturtle! was one of these somewhat scary-looking items. I’m not 100% I would have trusted any of these to help little ones swim, but I would love to add one to my collection someday!

Primo Storage Turtle Wagon

I have a particular love for the somewhat weird Primo/Baby storage tubs. And this one is no exception: the ‘Turtle Wagon’ sits happily alongside my Amy and Edward Elephants (yes, I am now the proud owner of one of each type!) Similarly to the Elephants, it has wheels and *could* be a ride-on, although those four primo studs on the top of its shell will make it a less than comfortable ride.

It is definitely a push-along, and it has space to store the largest quantity of Primo bricks of any of the storage tub options. I’ve been lucky enough to find several of these tubs on non-LEGO specific marketplaces this year and I’ll be doing an article on those soon.

Duplo Bath Toy

Part of my shopping wish list for my Denmark trip was the Water Park 10989 set - the August-release addition to the 2022 Duplo Bath Time Fun sets to add the turtle to my collection. Just look at his happy face!

I love these cutesy animals, enough to forgoe my normal rule of ‘no brick-built creatures’ in my collection.

Floating Animal Train, 10965. Image courtesy of Brickset

Floating Animal Island, 10966. Image courtesy of Brickset

Primo Animal Turtle Base with Centre Stud and Yellow Body

I’m staying with water for this next one. This turtle is part of a Primo range of functional bath toys that included a fish-shaped fishing net to scoop them out of the water at the end of your bath. (As much as I love collecting and knowing about these more outlandish items, it’s not surprising that LEGO struggled somewhat with its identity in these years.)

Corey the Water Guardian

The Elves theme gave us creature collectors a huge range of new creatures, both moulded and brick-built. Alongside the dragons, the Elemental Guardians were beautiful creations that the Elves could ride into battle against Noctura. Corey the Water Guardian (Turtle) is made from many shades of blue, including Light Aqua and is really pretty.

Naida & the Water Turtle Ambush set, 41191

Looking to this year and new Turtles on the block…

Turtle Minister

My knowledge of Monkie Kid lore is non-existent, but there are some very beautiful sets in the theme. Looking through BrickLink for this article, this piece sprang out to me (4740pb023). It is the shell of the Turtle Minister who looks fairly determined that no one is going to deter him from going about his business.

Aside from always searching out creatures for my Beastiary, my abiding passion is for MOCing gardens, and by default my brain looks at all new pieces as potential garden infrastructure or plants. I don’t know exactly how yet, but I’m determined to get this 2x2 dish into a garden soon.

Mrs Castillo’s Turtle Van

For me, LEGO Dreamzzz is a really exciting new theme. I love the colours, the vibrancy and the whole look and feel of these sets. I’ll probably end up with most of them at some point, but my no-brainer first purchase was Mrs. Castillo’s Turtle Van (71456). The idea that this Turtle Van can walk – with a carrot for encouragement no less! – and then transform into a flying machine with a rocket up its bum is just brilliant!

Squirt

In my research, I also came across this beautifully decorated large figure piece 21560pb14 as the shell for Squirt in the Disney 100 Disney Duos set (43226-1), and now I really want to build him! I loved Finding Nemo and I can just hear Squirt shouting ‘Grab shell dude!’ so that is exactly what I am going to do. To BrickLink!

That concludes our journey into the big blue with turtles, but where will the LEGO animals take us next?

Who are your favourite turtles? Are there any outstanding turtle-based MOCs you’ve come across?

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