Hi, my name is Kitty Elsmore and I’m both a MOCer and a LEGO collector. I’m really honoured to have been asked to join the BrickNerd team, and I’m excited to start sharing some of my LEGO nerdiness with you!

The MOCs I’m probably best known for are my series of Gardens (which you can find here on Flickr), and I’ll certainly be sharing some articles about those later on. But today I want to introduce my other LEGO passion: collecting LEGO creatures. Yes, creatures, not animals. There are so many things that are not animals that it feels like a better catch-all term for me; this article will be one place online where trolls are actively invited!

My Collection, My Rules

The LEGO hobby is expressed in many different ways. Some people enjoy building sets, some have to get every single one of their preferred theme, or others just want loose parts to build MOCs with. There is no wrong way to LEGO if that is what makes you happy. As a collector, I follow the guide “My Collection, My Rules.” I’m not a driven completist—I honestly don’t know how many creatures LEGO has produced in total to date, (I’d love to know if anyone does since BrickLink can be a bit finicky on the subject); my goal is not to collect them all, but to collect the ones that appeal to me.

Having said that, for themes or moulds which are not current, I do like collecting the full set. For example, I am waiting for my ninth Scala/Belville teddy bear (Bricklink part 6186) to arrive. It’s in pink, and it will make me “known-colour complete” for that part. I know that there are red versions of it in existence, and if I came across one in reasonable condition and at a decent price I would definitely buy it, but I’m not going to go out of my way to find it. Equally, I collect printed and decorated elements with creatures on them and also some “gear” elements such as keyrings and storage tubs. I do get asked “Really? You consider those to be creatures?” quite a bit, and to answer it, yes… yes I do. Remember, my collection, my rules!

ALMOST “known-colour” COMPLETE Collection!

Cataloguing

I’m not sure what it was that got me started collecting creatures—it’s lost to the mists of time—but it was almost as soon as I came out of my dark ages in 2005. I’ve since amassed a total of 1,159 creatures (which doesn’t include the half dozen or so which have recently arrived, but not yet been catalogued).

Despite collecting printed and decorated items (which some fans would argue don’t count), the vast majority of my collection are physical creatures. The vast, vast majority of those are essentially single element creatures, not brick-built ones. There are some notable exceptions; Unikitty in all her forms, dragons and some minifigure/big fig items and such.

If you are curious, my current creature totals sit at 957 physical, 119 decorated and 83 other (which includes things like costume character minifigs and some other functional items like Primo playmats).

(And, yes, my collection does include a goat! #goatflexing)

Creature Collection by Category

As is often the case with individuals’ collections, mine was not well cared for in terms of sorting, storage or knowing exactly what I had until recently. In the summer of 2019, I started to gather the hoard from its various hiding places and catalogue it. I decided that AirTable was the best option for me, so I picked up the first creature off the pile and set to it. (Full disclosure: I use AirTable for work, so I have paid licenses for it which gives me some premium features including a graphing function—but the free version is pretty good.)

I call my catalogue “The LEGO Beastiary.” It seems an apt name to convey its coverage of both real-world and mythical/fictional creatures, (without the moral undertones of medieval bestiaries!) and it reminds me of growing up listening to Flanders and Swann’s “The Elephant” among their other Bestiary songs with my Dad, who never let a good pun pass him by.

Building Systems and Type

I find it interesting to see how my collection is distributed across building systems, themes, colours, and how moulds are distributed across the decades. There’s no way my collection is complete, but I think it is probably broad enough to be fairly representative.

Creature Collection by Building System

Of all the creatures in my menagerie, horses top out (73) with dogs (67) a close second.

Creature Collection Top Ten Types

There is an incredible number of types of creatures represented! Beyond the top ten in my collection, there are also the following types, presented from A to Z:

Anglerfish, Angry Birds, Animagus, Ant, Asogian
Badger, Baryonyx, Basilisk, Bat, Bear, Bee, Bloodhound, Bluebird, Brachiosaurus, Bull Terrier, Bulldog, Butterfly
Camarasaurus, Camel, Canary, Carnotaurus, Caterpillar, Centaur, Centrosaurus, Chameleon, Cheetah, Chicken, Chihuahua, Chipmunk, Clam, Coelophysis, Corellian Hound, Cougar, Cow, Crab, Crocodile, Crow
Dachshund, Dalmatian, Deer, Dewback, Dilophosaurus, Dinosaur, Diplodocus, Dolphin, Donkey, Duck
Eagle, Ectoplasm
Flamingo, Floral Colossus, Fox, Frog
Gallimimus, Genie, German Shepherd, Giraffe, Goat, Goblin, Golden Retriever, Gorilla, Great Dane, Gremlin, Greyhound, Grouch, Gungan
Hammerhead Shark, Hamster, Hare, Hedgehog, Hermit Crab, Hippogriff, Hippopotamus, Hutt
Indoraptor
Jellyfish
Koi, Kowakian monkey-lizard
Labrador, Ladybird, Leopard, Lion, Lion-Dog, Lizard, Llama, Lobster
Maledictus, Mammoth, Manta Ray, Mermaid, Minion, Mogwai, Monkey, Mosasaurus, Mouse
Narwhal, Niffler
Octopus, Orangutan, Orca, Ostrich, Otter, Owl
Panda, Panther, Parrot, Patronus, Penguin, Phoenix, Plateosaurus, Polar Bear, Poodle, Pteranodon, Puffer Fish, Pug, Python
Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi*
Rabbit, Raccoon, Rancor, Rat, Raven, Reindeer, Rhino, Rock Monster, Rocking Horse
Sabre-toothed Tiger, Sawfish, Scallop, Scorpion, Scotty Dog, Seahorse, Seal, Shadow Bat, Shark, Sheep, Shrimp, Skunk, Snail, Snake, Spider, Squid, Squirrel, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Starfish, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Stegosaurus, Stygimoloch, Styracosaurus
Tauntaun, Terrier, Thestral, Tiger, Tigger, T-Rex, Triceratops, Troll, Turkey, Turtle
Unicorn
Varactyl, Velociraptor
Walrus, Wampa, Warg, Werewolf, Westie, Whale, Winnie the Pooh, Wolf, Worm
Xeme**
Yeti
Zebra

*Yes, Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi is brick-built, but to me, she sums up the spirit of MOCing and I would feel wrong not to have her in the collection.

**My dad, who was very knowledgeable about the local birdlife, always got annoyed that people called some of the birds you find near the sea “seagulls.” He would always say that "there is no such thing as a seagull!” and so, in his memory, I classify LEGO seagulls as a Xeme which is the Arctic fork-tailed gull. (And yes, it also gives me an excuse to have a creature starting with the letter ‘X’ thereby completing the alphabet, but again, my collection, my rules! #sorrynotsorry)

Colours and Moulds

Creature Collection Top Ten Colours

White is the most common colour of all my creatures at approx. 12%. As with types of creatures, the range of colours goes right across the spectrum; outside the top ten listed above, all of these colours are represented in my collection:

Aqua
Blue, Bright Green, Bright Light Blue, Bright Light Orange, Bright Light Yellow, Bright Pink, Brown
Coral
Dark Azure, Dark Blue, Dark Bluish Grey, Dark Brown, Dark Green, Dark Grey, Dark Orange, Dark Pink, Dark Purple, Dark Red, Dark Tan, Dark Turquoise
Earth Orange
Fabuland Brown, Flat Silver
Glitter Trans Clear, Glitter Trans Light Blue, Glow in Dark White, Green
Lavender, Light Aqua, Light Blue, Light Nougat, Light Green, Light Grey, Light Purple, Light Turquoise, Light Violet, Lime
Magenta, Medium Azure, Medium Blue, Medium Nougat, Medium Green, Medium Lavender, Medium Orange, Medium Violet
Olive Green, Orange
Pearl Dark Grey, Pearl Gold, Pearl Light Grey, Pink, Purple
Red, Reddish Brown, Rust
Sand Blue, Sand Green
Tan, Trans Bright Green, Trans Clear, Trans Dark Blue, Trans Dark Pink, Trans Green, Trans Light Blue, Trans Light Purple, Trans Neon Green, Trans Neon Orange, Trans Orange, Trans Purple, Trans Red, Trans Very Light Blue, Trans Yellow
Very Light Bluish Grey, Very Light Grey
White
Yellow, Yellowish Green

One day I’ll have to take a picture of them all in rainbow order!

Creature Moulds by Decade

The 2010s had the most new moulds (538) which makes perfect sense when you think of LEGO’s resurgence in that decade, but this figure is also undoubtedly skewed by the fact that anything pre-1999 is both harder to find and less well-documented. The apparent drop-off in the 2020s is obviously artificial in that we’re only in the second year, but I’ll be watching with interest to see how it compares to the previous decade. (It certainly seems like LEGO has been animal happy the last few waves of sets released!)

The oldest moulds I have represented are these Duplo cockerel and hen pair, which were only available from 1979-1982. I love their smooth and comfortably-rounded shape; they are incredibly tactile. My copies are not in good condition (they were originally white), but they have obviously been well-loved, and that’s a great feeling.

Creature Examples. Hen and Cockeral.jpeg

Lockdown has been good for letting me catalogue the backlog of my beastiary, and I am now up to date—well, aside from a few very recent orders! I’m currently expanding the data to include what themes creature/colour combination appears in. I’m not finished with that yet, but it’s already proving interesting to see how they’re distributed.

Storage

Once catalogued, the next question was creature storage—and the closely linked question of how to display them. I have found that the storage needs to be suitable for transporting sections of it for use at LEGO shows without having to dig through too many layers or separate things out too much.

I recently changed the storage of my LEGO Dimensions characters, so it was an easy choice to use those flat storage boxes to start with. These proved far more effective and capacious than I expected, and I’ve now expanded my stock of these enough to hold the majority of my smaller animals. They benefit from being partially transparent for easy viewing without opening, and the in-built compartments are surprisingly good in size and shape.

STORAGE: CREATURES IN A LEGO DIMENSIONS BOX (Can you spot the narwhal?)

Larger creatures pose more of a challenge; they come is such a variety of sizes and shapes and they really don’t pack very efficiently at all. This is especially true for dinosaurs and dragons, but it also for some Scala, Primo, and other smaller-quantity-but-bulky items such as plush soft toys.

STORAGE: CROCODILES IN a LEGO STORAGE SUITCASE

I had hoped that a stack of LEGO’s storage suitcases might be the answer and there was a chance that I could get a hold of a bulk lot. But then COVID-19 hit and, as with everything else, those sort of plans were suddenly luxuries we couldn’t afford. I’m hoping this effort can pick up once the world is a little safer again, as I think it might be a good mid-size answer.

Beyond that, as with most people I guess, I have a stack of larger plastic storage bins, which hold the bigger items. Some of the really big items live permanently on shelves. (The biggest single item deserves an article all of her own as there is quite a story attached to how she came into my collection, so I’ll leave that for a later installment!)

Weird and Wacky

To round out this introductory article, I thought I’d share a couple of the weird and wacky items in my collection. Some of which you would be easily forgiven for discarding if you found them in a bulk buy or attic find. Strangely, some of these are also among my favourite pieces!

PRIMO STORAGE TUB, BIRD DESIGN. THESE CAME COMPLETE WITH A DUPLO -> PRIMO BRICK CONVERTER

BELVILLE SEAHORSE. THIS WAS ONLY EVER IN ONE SET, PART OF THE HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSeN BELVILLE FAIRY-TALE SERIES. IT PULLED THE MERMAIDS’ CHARIOT.

SCALA HORSE. THIS IS ONE OF THREE HORSES, IDENTICAL EXCEPT FOR THEIR COLOURINGS. THIS ONE IS CALLED INDIE, THE OTHERS ARE PEPPER (BLACK WITH WHITE SOCKS) AND CHILI (CHESTNUT WITH WHITE SOCKS). EACH HORSE ONLY CAME IN ONE SET

The Zoo is Now Open

So now you’ve gotten a brief overview of my creature collection, I will start to feature specific sub-sections in the coming months. There are so many aspects of this that I could write articles on, but I’d be really interested learning what you would like to hear about. I have some thoughts, but only really as conversation starters:

Evolution of Duplo animal design and decoration over the decades?
Which creatures have appeared in the most themes
Which moulds have been around the longest
A round-up of all the horses/pigs/dogs/insert-your-creature-of-choice-here that I have and don’t have
What colours do creatures come in and what colours have never been used for them

I would also love to connect with others who collect creatures; does anyone else have a menagerie in their LEGO space? Hit me up, let’s compare collections and let me know what rabbit holes I should explore!

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