Best of BrickNerd: Weekend Highlight (in celebration of our “pi-RATS & BUG-aneers” contest)— Article originally published May 13, 2021.

Seeing all the recent excitement over LEGO animals, whether it’s the exhilaration of the pink frogs in the Bonsai Tree, the disappointment in the lack of goats in the Blacksmith’s Shop, or the enjoyment my fellow contributors have over their own creature collections, I was reminded of one of my favorites, the parrot.

This got me thinking back on my love for the bird. So I did what any BrickNerd would do: dive into their storied history. But know that much of my appreciation for the charming avian element comes from a knock-off version I received in a bulk lot some years ago.

So prepare yourselves for a deep exploration into why this little guy has become one of LEGO’s most common, versatile, and popular animals—and I’ll share my story as to why a fake parrot is one of the few knock-off parts I keep in my collection.

Treasure Hunting

This story begins many years ago with any LEGO fan’s dream: a huge, dirt cheap box of amazing-looking parts purchased at a garage sale. Now, it was clear there was going to be some great stuff in this lot from the beginning, with tons of your iconic 1990’s LEGO-style pieces and sets. We hadn’t even returned home and my brother and I were already excitedly pulling out wonders such as chrome parts, pirate flags, and Bull Knights (something we were both thrilled about due to LEGO Island 2).

While most of the parts were definitely LEGO, like any good haul we started finding a couple of things we didn’t recognize which were almost all destined straight for the “Mega Bloks Bin” where knock-offs go to die. And then we came across this little guy:

Lovingly refered to as “Mohawk Parrot” by my brother and I.

Now being young and naïve, we weren’t sure what this was—but it felt like finding a golden statue in a trunk of pirate treasure. We figured it probably wasn’t something LEGO, but we had to at least check as there were a lot of very clear similarities. So we headed to BrickLink to see if it could possibly be a different mold than we were used to. But, you can guess it wasn’t that easy (since the article doesn’t end here). Instead, we got sidetracked and obsessed with the real LEGO parrots.

No mohawk, but lots of other exciting options.

Avian Origins

Now things have changed a lot since I originally looked, but nowadays, searching “Parrot” in BrickLink’s “Animals, Air” category brings up a multitude of options, given the ever-changing nature of the LEGO molds and different marbling injections.

The OG molded parrot is the iconic printed pattern variation from all the way back in 1989, appearing as one of the new specialty parts with the original (now Classic) Pirate sets. With brightly colored printing, the coloring and shaping resemble that of the Macaws, which surprisingly is very accurate to the “Blackbeard” era of historical pirates—the same era that has inspired much of our pop culture understanding as well as much of LEGO’s inspiration for the look of the classic sets.

Vintage illustration (circa the 1700s?) of a sailor with a tropical bird. Via Swordplay & Swashbucklers

photograph (circa 2021) of LEGO’s 1989 rendition of Redbeard and Popsy. Via my collection of pirates.

LEGO’s version is often seen with the notorious Captain Rodger Redbeard, the fearsome pirate captain decked out in all your stereotypical pirate trappings: the peg leg, the hook hand, skull and crossbones adorning his hat, and a fashionable coat—so of course he needs a parrot to complete the look!

This clearly was a well-thought-out addition, especially to justify the new mold at the time. Digging through some of the vast amounts of media surrounding LEGO Pirates, there are a variety of names assigned to his feathered companion, most commonly either Popsy or Squawks, though this depends greatly on the language, region, and time period.

The Small Beaks

My brother and I first experienced the LEGO parrot when we got a copy of 6260 Shipwreck Island as kids, so we were very familiar with the brightly colored bird. (We realize now that this was one of the original four sets that came with the printed parrot!) Nowadays, our printed feathered friend appears that it has retired as a LEGO element since 2002, making two last appearances in the short lived “Legends,” re-releases of 10037 Breezeway Cafe and a final Pirates set, 10040 Black Seas Barracuda. Not bad after flying into a whopping 46 different sets. This retirement snapped a streak of appearing in at least one new set every year for 14 years.

While Pirates may have been the most common LEGO theme where a parrot appeared with 22 unique appearances, Popsy was a frequent addition to a multitude of LEGO Town sets (17 different sets, including a lot from the Paradisa subtheme), the occasional Belville visit (3 different occurrences), a single showing in the Adventurers Jungle subtheme in 5976 River Expedition, and an appearance in one of each of a Universal Building Set, First LEGO League, and LEGO Education. However, this didn’t help us figure out our mohawk parrot so we would have to look elsewhere.

1989 ad for the new line of LEGO Pirates featuring our favorite parrot. Both Forbidden Island and Black Seas Barracuda would include a printed parrot. Caribbean Clipper would include a solid yellow parrot.

But not all parrots come with printed feathers. Thankfully, there’s the unprinted parrot as well! While this is still not the right mohawked mold we were looking for, it may provide some insight into what other sets provided solid-color parrots. (Today, we have two variations of the standard parrot mold, the unprinted version of the printed variation which would continue being used until 2016. The new updated version of the mold includes a larger beak that has been used since 2016 through today, but I’m getting ahead of myself.) These are both entirely solid color parrots, no printing, no marbling, just a single color. A lot less personality than Popsy, but a lot more versatility.

It becomes pretty clear that LEGO has put this versatility to use in sets, as the original unprinted version comes in a whopping 50 sets and three gear items in an amazing nine different colors! My brother and I were thrilled with the few we had—we had a few dark gray ones from some of my first “big” LEGO sets, 6497 Twisted Time Train and 6766 Rapid River Village—both scored at LEGOLAND California on clearance—but we had never taken the time to see quite how many other versions had been created. And now we needed them!

6766 Rapid River Villiage. Note the gray parrots on the bush and totem pole. Image Via Brickset.

6497 Twisted Time Train. The gray parrot rides along on the last car. Image via BrickLink.

Dark gray parrots were easily the most common, especially when you account for the switch to dark bluish gray, with 29 sets in classic and another eight in dark bluish. Now unlike Popsy, dark gray was featured heavily in different “historical” themes, popping up in a plethora of Castle, Western, Adventurers, and Outback sets, with an occasional appearance in Town, Time Twisters, and Xtreme Team. A-parrot-ly, bird statues were all the rage.

Dark bluish gray parrots took off and appeared in a number of flagship sets. Starting in two Harry Potter sets, it then shifted over to some highly specific big-ticket sets, specifically 10176 Royal King’s Castle and then one of the most iconic “recent” sets, 10182 Cafe Corner. It came back in 2014 to adorn two LEGO Movie sets, one of which was 70810 Metalbeard’s Sea Cow—the only “Pirate” set a grey parrot would appear in. (The Sea Cow also contains the amazing portrait “Pirate with Parrot” representing what appears to be Captain Redbeard and Popsy).

The final two sets would be the 76052 Classic Batcave and in some copies of the 10251 Brick Bank. Dark bluish gray would be the only parrot color to survive all the way up to, and then change into, the new mold.

Redbeard and Popsy from 70810 Metalbeard’s Sea Cow. Still together after all these years.

Dark gray parrots appearing as… gargoyles I guess in 4753 Sirius Black’s Escape. Image Via BrickLink.

Birds of a Feather

However, there are a lot of other fun colors, as short-lived as they may have been. The only other color that appeared in 1989 with the origin of the mold is the rare yellow parrot, understandably not printed as it adorns the bow of the 6274 Caribbean Clipper as the ship’s figurehead. The only other sets that would contain yellow parrots would be 3722 Treasure Tomb and 5919 The Valley of the Kings in the Egyptian subtheme of Adventurers, conveniently paired with dark gray parrots as well, adorning the structures. The yellow mohawk was still missing though.

The following year we would see an even rarer color, the only appearance of the black “parrot” in 6081 Kings Mountain Fortress. Both of these raise the question if all these birds are still supposed to be parrots or not—it seems that they shifted to being LEGO’s token “bird”—but they still provide wonderful additional colors to the line-up, nonetheless.

The majestic black parrot residing in our simple castle layout. Also, #goatflexing!

The original, and only set containing the black Parrot. Image via BrickLink.

It wouldn’t be until 1996 that we received another color of parrot—however, it was simply red minus the colorful printing. Solid red came in just three sets and one gear item, first the original release of 6769 Fort Legoredo (and the later re-release as set 6762), a 4 Junior Pirate set, and an Adventurers picture frame. If you were particularly daring, you could have potentially removed the printing from an earlier parrot, but now it was now officially appearing in just red in official LEGO sets.

The red parrots guard the entrance of the fort.

The year 2000 brought us another very useful solid color, original brown, appearing in King Leo’s Castle (both the 6091 and 6098 variations). While not specifically identified as anything other than a bird or parrot (and sadly not labeled as a chocolate macaw), solid brown makes for a great generic bird, appearing closer to a hawk or falcon. Both black and brown parrots have been personal favorites largely due to their versatility of looking like more generic birds.

Falconry seems like a Forester hobby. Don’t think it would make as much sense with a macaw.

Other than the LEGO-wide update from dark gray to dark bluish gray in 2004, the final additions to the small beaked parrot rainbow would come in 2003 with a whopping three new colors! Unsurprisingly, medium blue, medium green, and pink would all originate from the wonderfully colorful Belville line—specifically in the Golden Land subtheme. This subtheme is loosely based on Aladdin and is full of exotic animals, lavish goods, and buildings such as the palace and bazaar. All three new colors could be found in the largest of these sets, 5858 The Golden Palace, with multiple colors appearing in a few of the sets.

5858 The Golden Palace, from the Golden Land subtheme of Belville. Can you find all three new colors of parrots in the photo? Image via BrickLink.

Parrots would continue to appear in a few more sets, with these three colors appearing a final time the next year all together in a rerelease of the Golden Palace. Medium green and solid red would appear in one more theme in the 4 Juniors Pirate line, a throwback to the origins of the parrot, in three unique sets (and an additional limited edition release of 7075 Captain Redbeard’s Pirate Ship) and a clock.

Prismatic Plastic Plumage

That’s a lot of colors! And a lot of colors that surprised my brother and me. We definitely had our work cut out for us in obtaining all these wonderful variations. As mentioned, the black and brown were wonderful for MOCs and adding more “realistic” environmental elements to our early 2000’s style builds—but we also wanted (nay, needed!) the amazingly cool bright colors.

Well look at that, we’ve collected all the original colors! A childhood dream come true. But there’s more to collect than just the original colors. Keep reading to find out more about those. (Sadly white did not make the photo).

But no parrot collection is complete without talking about marbling. The red and green marbled version was pretty cool. Obviously, the detailing of the printed version is more “realistic” in as much as a LEGO parrot can be, but the nice marbling of the green and red colors was a very appealing process.

LEGO has an interesting history with producing marbled parts, with modern marbling getting a start in the early 2000s with (shockingly!) another bird, the original Fawkes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (as well as the beginnings of Bionicle). While these parts are similar to what would be done with the parrot mold, LEGO has a much older history of marbled bricks.

According to user LEGO historian Gary Istok on the Brickset forums, marbled bricks date all the way back to the origin of the plastic brick. They were reportedly the unintentional result of changing the color of the plastic being injected into the mold or were the intentional process of combining different colors into the same mold. Some of the most iconic versions of this were produced at a time where 2x4 bricks were sold individually as a way to make cheaper bricks to sell off extra plastic! The entire history of marbled bricks could easily be the topic of multiple other articles (where our BrickNerd contributor Francesco might be the better expert), so I won’t go deeper here, but it’s interesting to note that marbling was nothing new.

The parrot clearly features an intentional marbled design, and it adds wonderful color variation to make the bird stand out within the sets. This parrot would be a staple of the second and third reiteration of LEGO Pirates as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Overall we would see this little guy pop up in 10 different sets and two gear items before being retired in 2015 along with the small beak. But that would not be the end for the marbled birds, as this new style seems to have found success and popularity.

The original marbled parrot along with the original marbled bird, Fawkes from the Harry Potter line.

The Large Beaks

In continuing with the marbling style, we would see two new color combos show up in 2017. These versions all started with a new parrot mold, with a larger beak, a rounder appearance, and a wider tail. The first of these colors is largely similar to the last marbled variation, using red and green again. This variation is very close to the previous, but the newer mold seems to have a bit more random marbling and darker overall coloring.

This variation only ever appeared in two sets, fittingly in 60153 Fun at the Beach and the 10405 Mission To Mars parts pack. While it is possible this version will make a return at some point, we have not seen a new set featuring the red and green marbled parrot since 2018.

The two variations of the red and green marbled parrots. Note the differeces in the mold in the wider tail, changes to the feet, and larger beak on the one on the newer mold (left).

The other variation from 2017 is a really nice addition, as we have the first bird with standard blue marbled here with yellow. This seems to be the new commonly used parrot, as it has so far made its way into six unique sets (including being the “featured parrot” in 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay). While it is slightly disappointing we did not receive a rendition of a parrot with beautifully painted wings again for the return of “Classic” Pirates, the blue stands out and pops as a fantastic tropical bird for the shipwrecked island.

The blue and yellow marbled parrot had also been featured in two different modular buildings and a LEGOLAND exclusive set—as well as in a less expensive accessory pack and a smaller town set (fittingly 60267 Safari Off-Roader) to make it more easily available.

Redbeard and Popsy from 1989 and Captain Redbeard (LEGO Ideas variation) with his bird from 2020.

The final marbled parrot again comes in a lovely dark turquoise and coral combination and has been touted as an exclusive for the 40344 Summer Celebration minifigure set. This combination of two completely new colors to the parrot lineup is much welcomed and shows that LEGO knows that we like birds! This 2019 set harkens back to multiple pieces that exude nostalgia with the inclusion of not only the parrot but the newly updated variation to the iconic sailboat shirt as well.

While we may end up seeing this teal and coral version somewhere else, the set clearly labels the parrot as an exclusive, so you may want to secure one of these before too long if you’re after the complete parrot collection.

Classic “surfboard on ocean” figure and macaw from Paradisa set 6148 Country Club and a “Beach Tourist” with coral and turquoise marbled parrot. 23 years of difference.

The last of the official parrots come in the less common solid colors made from the newer mold. While the original version came in nine colors, we have only received two variations of the new mold in dark bluish gray and the more exciting, brand new color, white! Dark bluish gray is actually a fairly difficult parrot to come by with the updated mold, because as of now, the only set release it has seen is the later runs of 10251 Brick Bank. The earlier production runs had the older mold.

White is far more interesting, now appearing to be used as the new “common” architectural parrot, being featured on building tops in the two sets it has shown up in so far, 10760 Underminer Bank Heist and 31097 Townhouse Pet Shop & Café.

10760 Underminer Bank Heist is one of two sets so far to feature a white parrot using the new mold. Image via BrickLink.

The Odd Ones

But wait! Before you jump into the comments to say I missed a few birds, there are other instances of the parrot popping up in various forms. Minecraft has a Minifigure scale brick-built version in 21152 The Pirate Ship Adventure and a large scale brick-built one in 21148 Minecraft Steve BigFig With Parrot. A number of the late 1970s and 1980s Basic sets had brick-built birds that may be considered parrots, but are not specifically labeled as such, along with a number of more modern Creator and brick-built sets featuring a version.

The year 1982 saw the release of a parrot minifigure in the Fabuland line in 3782 Photographer Patrick Parrot. In 1993, LEGO released a new version of their Brick Vac this time including a print on the side making the vacuum appear as a parrot. And there is a wide range of Duplo parts printed with parrot iconography and even a molded parrot named Skully from Disney’s Jake and the Never Land Pirates theme. Andrea from the Friends line has a singing and dancing pet parakeet named Pepper that appears in both the show and a number of sets.

There’s even the recent BrickHeadz Pets set 40443 Chick and Budgie. But still nothing close to a mohawk.

A selection of odd parrots. Top: Left: LEGOLAND Pirate with Parrot, middle: Brick Vac with Parrot Pattern, Right: Minecraft Parrot (Brick Built), Bottom: Left: 3782 Patrick Parrot, Right: DUPLO, Bird (Skully). All images Via BrickLink.

And with those odd ones, that’s pretty much the entirety of the standard LEGO parrot. We searched through both mold variations, all the different marbling, all the unique colors, and the standard printed version, but alas, no mohawk variations! It was a long shot, but we finally confirmed this treasure was not a LEGO parrot. However, I promise I won’t leave you hanging. We have figured out where our spiky-haired friend is from due to a bit of deeper internet sleuthing, and along the way discovered another equally fantastic phony parrot as well.

A Phony Parrot-y

We all know there are a lot of “fake LEGO” sets available these days. Sadly they are more knock-offs than parody (or parrot-y?). They range from simply a competing plastic building block company to a completely blatant copy of a real LEGO set. LEGO Pirates haven’t avoided being directly copied but also have served as “inspiration” for many of these clone brands to base their own pirate lines off of. The first unique knock-off parrot I found out about was actually from one of these directly copied sets and was one of the very few that featured changes from the official LEGO build.

Wow, some of these look really familiar… and this is just one of many knock-off companies. They’ve even stolen an Orient Expedition set design. Image Via Worthpoint. — Wow, some of these look really familiar… and this is just one of many knock-off companies. They’ve even stolen an Orient Expedition set design. Image via Worthpoint.

The Eurobricks forums have a fascination with these fake pirate sets. One of the best examples highlighting these sets is actually a review from 2007 by user Mister Phes with “COMPARISON REVIEW: 6237 Pirates’ Plunder.” This review features clear photos of the different parts and the similarities of the set to the fake “Brick” (a real original name for a company) set. With close-ups of the parrot in comparison to an actual LEGO parrot, it’s no wonder this easily comes up when looking for a fake LEGO parrot.

Now it is nice that this yellow parrot is uniquely printed and as the review says, is usable alongside the official for more variety. LEGO has not made this style of printing before, and the bright colors on top of the yellow look really good. It’s not surprising that it looks nice though, as the mold is almost identical to the standard LEGO one. However, that means this knock-off is not the same company that made the mohawk parrot. Where to next?

Another imposter. I have to say though, I like the coloring. From a fake version of 6237 Pirates Plunder. Image via Mister Phes on the EuroBricks forums.

Well, it turns out searching “fake LEGO pirates sets” provides a substantial amount of results—with the consequence that many of the photos are grainy and small due to these sets not being that well documented. I would peruse many of the photos, try to find more info, and then move on. Lots of the companies seemed to not even bother with producing a parrot leading to dead end after dead end.

And then suddenly, in a 2004 article from miniland.nl in the Netherlands, I had finally found it! I needed to use Google Translate to read it myself. I had started looking into the Coko brand sets as they had released a line of pirate ships that were clearly “inspired” by the official LEGO sets, such as Skulls Eye Schooner, Caribbean Clipper and Black Seas Barracuda, but with a few differences. Finding decent photos proved difficult, but the article finally showed proof of a mohawk—a side-by-side comparison of the yellow mohawk parrot with the official LEGO parrot, plus a picture of it on the mast of one of the Coko pirate ships! Success!

This explained why it was so similar to the real one—the brand was definitely trying to copy what LEGO had already done. As all knock-off companies risk, Coko was one of the companies done in by a successful lawsuit from LEGO, so we will likely never see a new mohawk parrot produced. Their molds were ordered to be destroyed as a result of the lawsuit.

A comparison used to show how similar Coko was making their bricks to official LEGO bricks. Interesting to note they used a Scala flower to compare. But more importantly, there’s mohawk parrot! Image via miniland.nl.

Well there you have it. I found my parrot! And along the way, I found some interesting knock-offs, some amazing colors, and a whole range of themes I would have never guessed would include a parrot—and I discovered how the LEGO parrot has changed over the years.

A Coko pirate ship, with mohawk parrot riding high. Again, the ship looks surprisingly similar… at least some of the colors have been changed from the LEGO original. Image via miniland.nl.

Other People Like the Parrot?

I’m far from the only one in the LEGO community that loves this guy though. There are countless MOCs featuring the parrot or even paying tribute to it, such as this wonderful upscaled Popsy and Captain Redbeard by fellow BrickNerd contributor Miro Dudas. (Surprisingly similar to the new Harry Potter giga-figs!)

Mark Erickson (aka Mark of Falworth on Flickr and an upcoming contestant on LEGO Masters USA) also recently created a larger scale brick-built parrot, though his features the small beak and no tail plumage.

Upscaling the parrot seems to be a common practice, because if you don’t want to brick build it, there are multiple versions of 3D printer files to create a variety of different birds, including the Human Scale Working LEGO Parrot designed by agepbiz—which you can add a speaker to! I wonder if I can create a mohawk version…

Human Scale 3D Printed parrot. Some assembly required. Fits the electronics to “speak” to you. While not a LEGO build, some assembly still required. This amazing recreation is from agepbiz on pinshape.

A Final Parting Parrot

So that’s where my love for the parrot came from, and the mystery of the mohawk parrot is now solved. The parrot is an icon in the community and throughout LEGO sets (if it weren’t, I wouldn’t have been able to write a 4,500-word treatise about it!).

Though I try to stay relatively purist when it comes to building and collecting LEGO, I can’t help but be attached to my strange, punk-looking mohawk parrot I’ve held onto for so long now. And I can’t wait to see what variations will appear in the future to add to my parrot lineup!

While not the traditional parrot piece, one final parrot, or should I say Caribbean Cracker Cruncher, you can build yourself, courtesy of Lego Magazine 1.04.

What do you think about the LEGO parrot? Do you have a collection, a MOC, or a favorite set that features the bird or a different knock-off variation? Share in the comments below!

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