What is art? For the LEGO Group, as with critics, art is hard to pin down. What started as mostly pop culture mosaics has grown to include LEGO-fied replicas of famous gallery works to a mural of the Milky Way Galaxy to… a relief of a Tiger head? LEGO Art 31217 The Fauna Collection: Tiger is the second set in the fauna subtheme after 2024’s Macaw Parrots. Designed to either hang on the wall or sit on a countertop with the built-in stand, the set also incorporates a dash of Botanicals. Containing 744 elements, LEGO Art 31217 The Fauna Collection: Tiger roars in on June 1 for US $64.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99. But is this tiger grrreat?! Join us for a short review and stay to for some spicy thoughts on LEGO labels.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Unboxing the set and contents
The Fauna Collection: Tiger moves the subtheme to use the now-standard Art theme greeble bar, here in lavender. The front of the box shows the model at nearly 1:1 scale, while pictures on the box show the alternate display options, including the option of removing the floral elements.
The build is spread across seven paper bags. The instructions include a single paragraph about the Bengal Tiger and a page explaining how you can rearrange the floral elements or even swap in elements from other Botanical sets.
When LEGO first started adding these pre-build sections to 18+ sets, they offered a fascinating look into the design process. Maybe you learn about inspirations, challenges in adapting the subject, or a personal connection with subject and designer. Not here. The information is about as flavorful and inspiring as the AI overview google throws up above search results. LEGO can do better than this.
The build
The first and largest bag doesn’t contain any tiger orange, but does include a mix of classic LEGO colors that will be quickly be covered up. You’ll be building a “U” shape with a layer of bricks sandwiched between plates with a few connection points for sub-assemblies to snap on later. The first of these is the narrow stand that snaps neatly into the gap, turning our U into a rounded rectangle.
White tiles and slopes are stacked to form the chin whiskers. The side whiskers are assembled as separate builds, then snapped into place, creating the finished silhouette. The whiskers hide technic connectors for the flowers.
The remainder of the tiger build involves layering on ever more plates, slopes, and tiles to sculpt the raised design. At its thickest point, the model is 4 bricks thick. With almost no hollow areas, this is a hefty slab of plastic. Disassembling will not be fun.
The ears snap onto ball joints for a bit of poseability. Now we can pull out the kickstand and move on to the foliage.
The Botanicals line is famously clever for how unlikely parts are turned into floral details. These flowers and leaves are decidedly bricky, assembled from slopes, plates, and clips. The dark lavender flower is a recolor of the flower in last year’s Flower Trellis GWP.
Each floral element connects via a Technic axle, allowing for easy removal and rearranging.
The finished model
The tiger sculpt strikes a pleasing balance between geometric simplicity and shaggy detail. Chunky flowers and visible studs embrace the visual language of classic LEGO, while the subtle colors of the stripes and the newer curved slope elements feel modern. Due to the density of the build, there are effectively no seams like you’d see in a LEGO sculpture using SNOT techniques or hinges to create complex angles. It’s very clean.
Conclusion and recommendation
The finished model looks slick, and if your goal is to get the build done quickly so you can hang it on your wall, you’re in luck. Despite the 18+ label, this is a very simple build, designed for the impact of the finished model more than the process. LEGO’s marketing says of the set, “it makes the ideal housewarming gift for a new home.” I think that sums it up nicely. A safe gift that looks fine and doesn’t ask much of the builder, but probably not something you’d buy for yourself unless you’re really into tigers, or if you’re looking to bolster your collection of orange parts and find it on sale. For $15 less, you could buy the excellent Majestic Tiger Creator 3-in-1 set, which contains about the same amount of parts and offers a much more thrilling build process (down to the last puckered piece).
Editorial – Blurred Lines
I opened this review by asking somewhat facetiously, “What is art?” For LEGO’s Art line, they have an answer: “LEGO Art sets caters to anyone with a passion for classical art masterpieces, pop art, interior design, history and home decor.”
In the case of Fauna Collection: Tiger, “home decor” is the clear answer. But with LEGO’s 18+ sets heavily focused on display pieces, whether that’s a Gotham City Skyline, pixel art Yoshi, a statue of Peely Boone, or a Little Mermaid VHS tape, isn’t it all decor? Oh, but that’s decor for nerds. This is tasteful. Like a the facade of a french cafe, a Zen garden, or a London telephone booth? Tasteful decor you can hang on your wall, then. Unless you’re LOVE. That’s a shelf piece.
LEGO had long produced sets that defy easy categorization. That’s what the Icons label has been there for – display pieces, one-off licenses, nostalgia sets. It also happens to contain some of LEGO’s very finest build experiences, like Modulars, NASA models, and Lord of the Rings. Because of the breadth of topics, Icons doesn’t make sense by any normal branding metric, but for AFOLs, it carries some prestige. They tend to be the sets that greet you at LEGO Store displays.
Botanicals sets started as Icons before becoming their own line. Gardens of the World and Restaurants of the World currently fall under Icons. So is the majestic Kingfisher model. So why isn’t The Fauna Collection: Tiger there?
If I had to guess, it’s because Fauna Collection: Macaw Parrots set a precedent in the previous incarnation of the Art theme. Another decor set designed for the wall, it made sense as art alongside your Warhol mosaic or world map. In the current Art lineup, however, a tasteful tiger feels out of place alongside pop art and classical masterpieces endorsed by galleries and estates. Remove the tiger and LEGO Art feels akin to the Architecture theme – not LEGO’s most complex builds, but there’s an air of sophistication. Architecture sets are consistent in aesthetic with their focus on microscale and blueprint clean lines… except Trevi Fountain is nearly minifig scale, sort of like Gardens of the World, which, come to think of it, are as much Architecture as a Pyramid.
Maybe some at LEGO are hoping The Fauna Collection could become its own line, like Botanicals… except that animals are such a core part of the Creators 3-in-1 line and Ideas sets. The graphic style of Macaw Parrots and Tiger, and the latter’s suggestion of mix-and-match flowers, are more of a kind to some of the DOTs sets, like those picture frames and pencil holders of yore.
As a young builder growing up with the catalogs inserted in sets or stacked at toy stores, each theme was a gateway to a different world of models with a clear identity. As LEGO experiments with ever more diverse subject matter in order to grow its audience of 18+ builders, labels are only getting messier. What the last few years have shown is that labels – whether themes like “Art” or sub-theme like “The Fauna Collection” – are going to remain malleable, ephemeral, and inconsistent, and ultimately less important than the black box, greeble band, and 18+ label that mark ever more of the company’s output as suitable decor and tasteful housewarming gifts.
What are your thoughts on the usefulness of LEGO’s labels? Let us know in the comments.
LEGO Art 31217 The Fauna Collection: Tiger is available on June 1 for US $64.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99. It may also be available from third-party sellers on eBay and Amazon.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
