LEGO 71030 Looney Tunes Collectible Minifigures [Review]

In its unstoppable quest to bring every piece of your childhood memories under its umbrella, LEGO has added another venerable IP to its stable with the 71030 Looney Tunes Collectible Minifigures. Although LEGO has collaborated with Warner Brothers many times previously (The LEGO Movie was a WB production, after all, to say nothing of DC) Warner Brothers’ famous cartoon characters had not yet graced the LEGO aisle of your local toy store. The new series of 12 unique figures targets some of the best-known characters from the animated shorts with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Roadrunner, and others. And although the series is not explicitly marketed as such (there’s no reference on the packaging) it’s conveniently timed to coincide with this summer’s upcoming movie Space Jam: A New Legacy with LeBron James, and Lola Bunny with a basketball is included in the series. The new minifigures will be available for US $4.99 | CAN $4.99 | UK £3.49 starting April 26, although some readers report already seeing them pop up in stores now.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.


The case and packaging

Like Collectible Minifigures Series 21, the Looney Tunes minifigures arrive in retail stores in a case of 36, down from the original case sizes of 60 that were present on most previous series. With just 12 unique characters, that means that each case contains exactly three complete sets with no leftovers. Well, almost. It seems that LEGO screwed up in the production somewhere, because our case, along with those of most other reviewers we’ve talked to, contained an extra three Roadrunners, while Roadrunner’s nemesis Wile E. Coyote was nowhere to be found at all. This means our case contained only 11 of the 12 characters and we were unable to complete even a single full set. It’s unclear how widespread this issue is, but definitely it wasn’t unique to just our one case. When the issue came to light several weeks before we published this review, we asked LEGO to comment on it, but as yet LEGO has not provided a response except to say they are aware of the issue.

The individual Looney Tunes bags are packaged in white with a LEGO-ized cartoon motif with comic-style BOOMs and POWs across the packaging, along with the iconic Looney Tunes logo. The 3×4 minifigure stand included with the Looney Tunes figs is the standard black variety, with no add-on printing.


Lola Bunny

The series kicks off ironically with the one character that’s not from classic Looney Tunes shorts, Lola Bunny. Lola first appeared in 1996’s Space Jam movie and will be a leading role (voiced by Zendaya) in this summer’s sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy, and she’s also a regular in The Looney Tunes Show. Lola gets a custom head that’s dual-molded in white and nougat, with her light yellow shock of hair painted on along with printed facial details. The paint quality on the yellow hair is a little splotchy and has some overspray, as is often the case with lighter colors painted over darker. It would have looked better if the hair were also molded in light yellow. Her basketball uniform is quite nicely detailed. The torso is light yellow and printed front and back, while the printed legs are dual molded with medium lavender hips and uppers, and bright pink lowers.

Her only accessory is an orange Technic ball joint “basketball.” It’s been used for this purpose in regular sets twice before and works well enough, but in an expensive Collectible Minifigure set where it’s the lone accessory, the lack of printing feels like a bit of a disappointment. Altogether, the minifigure looks the part well, even if it doesn’t exactly feel like $5 well spent.


Bugs Bunny

Everyone has a favorite character from Looney Tunes, but there’s no denying that Bugs Bunny has the most celebrity cred, and there was no way LEGO could produce a Looney Tunes series without Bugs. Like most of the other characters, Bugs has a custom-molded head which is rendered in white and light grey, with printed with facial details and the inside of his tall ears. Bugs’ torso is light grey with a big white patch on the front and a white bunny tail on the back.

The bunny tail ought to have been a new element designed for the purpose; if ducks (like Daffy) get a special duck tail, then Bugs deserves a special rabbit tail. The legs are light grey and printed only on the toes. Bugs’ sole accessory is a standard orange carrot (naturally) for which you’ll get an extra stem.


Wile E. Coyote

Wile E. Coyote comes with a small, brick-built anvil. Because we didn’t get a Wile E. Coyote in our case, we cannot provide a fair review of this figure.


Roadrunner

Roadrunner, the cheeky southwestern bird who always manages to give his nemesis the slip, makes probably the least successful translation to minifigure form. Roadrunner is a gangly, tall figure, and transposed to the squat, dumpy proportions of a minifigure form loses much of his character and ends up looking more like a bluer Woody Woodpecker to me. The Roadrunner minifigure uses a uniquely molded head with a tall neck, along with blue bird wings (they’ve appeared before on other figures, such as the Chicken Suit from Series 9, but this is the first appearance in blue). The medium blue torso and dark orange legs are almost entirely unprinted, save a single line on each foot for the toes.

Roadrunner also comes with two new elements: the blue comb on top is a new plume piece, as is the spindly, flexible medium blue tail which connects around the hips. I can already see a multitude of uses for them both as water splashes. Despite the odd proportions overall, the head is pretty good, and it’s a marvel of LEGO molding, as it seems to be molded from four colors of plastic (blue, medium blue, white, and flame-yellowish orange), with only the black pupils being printed. Whatever else you think about the character, that’s impressive from a technical standpoint alone. Roadrunner comes with a bowl of birdseed, probably courtesy of Wile E. The bowl is a sand green 2×2 dome bottom, which has only appeared in a few sets before. The “birdseed” is an ice cream scoops piece, which gets its first-ever appearance in yellow here. A red 1×1 round plate sits beneath it in the bowl to give it height, and an extra is included.


Tweety

The snarky little yellow bird Tweety is up next, equipped with an oversized mallet to smash poor Sylvester to smithereens (Looney Tunes sure were violent, weren’t they?). Like the rest, Tweety has a uniquely molded head, though it’s pure yellow with the facial details printed on. Tweety gets a solid yellow body and flame-yellowish orange short legs, each of which have just a tiny amount of printing on the front. The torso also has a little tail printed on the back.

The mallet is a very simple construction, though it’s so huge that it’s difficult to balance Tweety standing up unless the mallet is directly overhead. The mallet really ought to have had LEGO’s existing tree ring 2×2 round tile over the exposed studs—or better yet, on both sides with a better design. It feels like a throwaway design as it is.


Sylvester

Tweety’s nemesis Sylvester the puddy tat completes the domestic feuding duo. The unique head is dual-molded in white and black with the facial details and red nose printed on, while Sylvester gets a black torso and dual-molded legs with fur printing. The torso ought to have been double-printed, as the white fur on his chest is more of a grey and looks quite lackluster compared to the white on his feet, hands, and head. Sylvester also gets a soft-rubber cat tail, which is not a new element, though it is a new print with a white fringe painted on the tip. The white paint doesn’t do a perfect job of covering the black base layer here either, but it’s more successful than the torso.

Sylvester’s lone accessory is a baseball bat, which is molded in white and then dipped in medium nougat paint on each end, identical to the one that’s appeared in a few sets before. Sylvester looks the part but suffers the same affliction as many others in this series of simply being underwhelming.

One issue comes to light, however, when you pair up Sylvester and Tweety. Although each looks good enough on their own, together it’s clear that Tweety is far too large. Tweety’s oversized hammer is far less funny without it being wielded by a teeny-tiny yellow bird. Tweety would have been better off as a custom-molded character the size of a LEGO infant and included with Sylvester.


Daffy Duck

Inimitable frenemy of Bugs, the sarcastic Daffy Duck stands out with his bright orange bill and feet. Daffy’s custom head is a triple-molded affair with orange, black, and white plastic, with only the pupils printed on. This works great to capture the white ring around Daffy’s neck, and Daffy translates well to minifigure proportions. Daffy’s black torso is unprinted except for a tiny lightning bolt-shaped highlight on his chest, which is fairly accurate. Daffy also gets a duck tail courtesy of a black tail piece. It’s a new color for it, since it’s previously only appeared in white on Donald Duck and co.

Daffy’s single accessory is a hand-held sign that reads Rabbit Season–a reference to the long-running gag between Daffy and Bugs where each tries to convince Elmer that it’s open season on the other. Sadly, however, none of the rest of the gag is present–there’s no counter “Duck Season” sign, nor is Elmer available at all.


Speedy Gonzales

First up, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Before my review case arrived (or pictures were available) I was speculating with other TBB staff on which characters would be included. Some were obvious–Bugs Bunny was always a given. But I thought some were obvious exclusions as well. Pepé Le Pew’s ethnic stereotypes and sexual harassment antics have aged poorly, for instance. Another character I was sure wouldn’t be included was Speedy Gonzales, given the ethnic stereotypes infused into the sombrero-wearing mouse. In fact, the Cartoon Network stopped airing Speedy Gonzales cartoons for a period in the early 2000s, citing concerns over negative stereotypes. However, some voices in the Latin American community have embraced the character as a portrayal of a Hispanic hero in a space where that’s rare, including comedian Gabriel Inglesias, who voices the character in Space Jam: A New Legacy. In this light, whether or not LEGO should have made this minifigure is perhaps a dissertation-worthy topic with no clear answer, so I’ll set that aside for now. As a minifigure, Speedy looks great. Although Speedy was small like Tweety, he doesn’t seem quite as outlandishly oversized next to Sylvester. Speedy’s head and sombrero are a single element molded in flame-yellowish orange and medium nougat with the rest of the details printed on. Speedy gets a white body and double-molded short legs. The torso is printed with a red bandana and the legs have a few printed lines for toes. Speedy also gets a new element for his thin tail.

And while it’s silly, perhaps the most exciting thing is the cheese included as his accessories. LEGO fans have long called the 1x1x2/3 slope “cheese slopes” due to their resemblance to a wedge of cheese, and they’ve even appeared in multiple official sets as part of a banquet layout. However, they’ve very rarely been printed (by my count, only three times before) and never with a cheese pattern. So now, 17 years after it was introduced, you can finally have a true cheese slope. Best yet, there are four included here (one is extra).


Tasmanian Devil

Wild and chaotic and munching on anything in his way, the Tasmanian Devil was never one of my favorite characters as a kid, perhaps because he didn’t appear in many of the original Looney Tunes shorts. But he’s gained a lot of popularity since the 90s, and most people would probably name this whirlwind of chaos as one of the core Looney Tunes characters. Taz comes to LEGO form with a huge molded head that brings his gaping mouth halfway down his torso, a design that also means the head cannot move or turn at all. The head is double molded in tan and brown, with the rest of the details printed on. His brown torso is almost entirely hidden by the mouth in front and tail in back, so it’s unprinted, while his jointed short legs get the same treatment as most other characters with just the toes printed. Around back Taz has a brown raccoon tail.

He carries a turkey leg and a pie, neither of which are new. Taz is a standout for Collectible Minifigures in that he has an alternative base (plus the regular one). He’s got a 4×4 round minifigure stand that’s printed with a whirling tornado design, and the bottom has a boat stud so that he rocks and spins. It’s a passable solution, but a much better one would have been the minifigure tornado element from Ninjago.


Marvin the Martian

Like Taz, Marvin the Martian didn’t appear in many of the OG Looney Tunes shorts, but he’s beloved nonetheless. Marvin is the lone character in this series to not have a custom-molded head. Instead, he gets a custom-molded helment to plunk overtop his standard minifigure head. The helmet is dual molded in bright green and flame yellowish orange, with the tan broom bristles (the suspicious Martian version of a Roman galea) painted overtop the orange. I do wish the helmet had more flexibility–at the very least, the broom top ought to be removable. Marvin accurately has a plain red shirt with no printing, and short red jointed legs, printed around the toes with his white chucks. His bright green skirt is a cloth piece that intentionally sticks straight out in all directions, in tune with Marvin’s alien take on Roman armor.

Marvin’s single accessory is a lime green ray gun, which is a new color for it. Marvin is one of the more successful characters to make the transition to minifigure form, and looks right at home as a blocky brick figure.


Petunia Pig

Although Petunia Pig is one of the early Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cast, she’s less well known to modern audiences. She’s a solid inclusion in the series, however, not just because of her old-school history but also becomes she’s one of the few prominent female characters in the male-dominated Looney Tunes universe. Along with her boyfriend Porky, Petunia’s antics were mostly relegated to domestic shenanigans.

Petunia’s head is a large custom-molded piece that includes her long pigtails. Molded in light nougat and black, the facial details are printed on the head, along with the red bowties on the braids. Because Petunia’s mouth overhangs the torso a little, her range of movement is limited, able to look side to side only a little. Her yellow torso has double-molded arms for short sleeves, and is printed with a simple collar design on the front, and is plain in back. She’s wearing a red hard plastic skirt overtop light nougat legs with white hips, which are printed with white bloomers, as well as black hooves. Petunia’s accessories are a teapot and teacup, and an extra cup is included. Neither are unique to this set.


Porky Pig

One of the oldest Looney Tunes characters, Porky first graced the screen 86 years ago. Although he’s undergone some appearance makeovers since that first appearance, no other character except Bug Bunny is as classic. Porky has a similar custom-molded head to Petunia’s, though without the pigtails of course. Consequently, it’s just molded in light nougat with printed details. Porky’s blue torso is printed with his vest and red bowtie, along with a big swath of light nougat for his bare chest. Like Sylvester’s chest printing, though, this is an area where LEGO hasn’t quite got it down, as the result is muddy and washed out, rather than matching the skin color of Porky’s legs and head.

In back, the torso is printed with a tiny pig tail. The legs are solid light nougat with just the black hooves printed on the toes. Porky carries a sign with his signature tagline printed on a 2×4 tile.


Conclusion and recommendation

When we review LEGO sets here at TBB, we consider them from a few perspectives, and we attempt to bring you the information you need to decide if you should spend your hard-earned money on them or not. Of course, we start with looking at the set and its design, and how successful it was at its intended purpose. But we’re also builders, and we write for builders, so we also look at the sets as potential sources of parts for doing your own custom things. And while Collectible Minifigures are primarily meant to be collected, they’re often a great source of new and unique elements. So with this in mind, let’s take a look at the Looney Tunes series as a whole. As interpretations of Looney Tunes, they’re mostly successful, though there are a few misses. It’s baffling that Elmer Fudd doesn’t make an appearance, and some of the characters like Roadrunner and Tweety don’t translate to minifigure form as well. Others like Daffy, Sylvester, and Marvin, look excellent with minifigure proportions. So if you’re a Looney Tunes fan and are looking to add your favorite characters to your minifigure collection, this series is a success.

However, if you’re a LEGO fan but not a Looney Tunes fan specifically, there’s almost nothing here to draw you in. With special molds for every character, there are very few pieces that are useful outside their original purpose, and the accessory selection (often the highpoint of CMF series) is lackluster at best, especially given their $5 per fig price. The cheese slopes, yellow ice cream, and Roadrunner’s plumes are about the only pieces of interest in the whole series–and you only need to buy Speedy and Roadrunner to get those. This was the case for some previous series, such as 2014’s The Simpsons, but they arguably had more useful accessories, in addition to being 20% cheaper (a lower price even accounting for inflation). So unless you’re a diehard Looney Tunes fan, grab the one or two you want and skip the rest. It also remains to be seen how widespread the issue with the missing Wile E. Coyotes is. Presumably, LEGO manufactured each of the characters in equal numbers, so errors in some cases would be met with a different error in other cases: perhaps some cases shipped without Roadrunners. We know that some people who have bought the figs already in the USA did find Coyotes, so they’re not missing everywhere.

71030 Looney Tunes Collectible Minifigures will be available for US $4.99 | CAN $4.99 | UK £3.49 starting April 26. They may also be available on Amazon and eBay.


The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

10 comments on “LEGO 71030 Looney Tunes Collectible Minifigures [Review]

  1. André Beverage

    These almost all look like a hard pass for me! Except as you mentioned Road Runner, and Speedy. I might get Wile E and Taz just cause…

  2. Matt

    Assuming Wile E. isn’t missing all together, do the bags come in the same order within the box to make it easier to pick one of each character? I’m assuming there are no printed codes or pressed bumps still like earlier CMF series but just about every other blind box/bag toy still uses today…

  3. Håkan

    @JakeRF
    Not sure if that’s irony or sarcasm, but…

    Someone mentioned that Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam would be problematic due to their guns, but there would probably be ways to get around it, such as giving Elmer Fudd a butterfly catching net and Yosemite Sam a pickaxe or something. Pepe Le Pew, on the other hand, is more inherently problematic, due to his inability to accept a rejection and being a stereotype on the French, that the French themselves find cringeworthy… Also, my impression isn’t that Pepe Le Pew is one of WB’s top-tier characters, anyway…

  4. winstonheard

    I know there’s some eyebrow-raising around Speedy Gonzalez’s entry, but I think that Slowpoke is the more stereotypical character (slow, lazy, unemployed, etc…).

    Back to a more Lego-centric discussion, I think there’s just enough available with that kinda awful roadrunner figure to build a good custom that’s still in scale. I also would’ve swapped out the Tasmanian Devil for Yosemite Sam or Fudd (Yosemite could’ve looked great).

  5. Håkan

    @winstonheard

    Speedy Gonzales is obviously a reversed take on the “lazy mexican” stereotype. However, as noted in the article, it seems that many in the Mexican-American (and possibly in Mexico as well) community actually has embraced the character as a cute and positive role model.

  6. WemWem

    Yeah, Speedy is actually fairly popular with the Latinx community. I’m sure some people don’t like him, but he’s generally seen as OK.

    Pepe doesn’t fly in the Me Too era. For good reason, I think.

    As for Fudd and Sam and their guns, am I nuts or have there not been other CMFs with guns? Is it a Warner Bros thing or have the politics around toy guns shifted? I really don’t have any stake in this game, I am just curious.

  7. Håkan

    @WemWem

    It’s a rumor/ analysis in the Lego community. Also, the current LooneyTunes series on HBO Max have replaced Fudd’s and Sam’s guns with more cartoony weapons such as dynamite sticks and anvils…

  8. Melissa Chew

    No. Tweety SHOULD NOT have been an accessory to Sylvester / Granny just to make the size realistic. If he was merely made as an accessory then it would not make sense because Tweety is more of a main character, being the protagonist, than Sylvester is. Fans of Tweety would have been sorely disappointed if there was no full fledged minifigures of Tweety. When you translate characters to minfigures of course the proportions change to fit lego standards and that’s expected and no size is realistic. Tweety Bird is an A List popular character in Looney Tunes and deserves a minifigure of his own so this representation is fine even if the size is not super small next to Sylvester.

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