Today’s article is brought to you by four builders: Nathan (woomy_world), Michael (crash.or.build), Stan (bigbrickstan), and Ben (anderson_builder), who had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they attended a mysterious frog-themed event at Brickworld…
Introductions
Ribbit to meet—I mean, it’s nice to meet you! We are four friends and MOC builders from the LEGO constraction community where we primarily build characters and creatures. As MOC builders, you might be wondering how we got ourselves tasked with writing a set review for BrickNerd. Well, it all started after the opening ceremonies of Brickworld Chicago 2025…
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A face only a collector could love.
Game of Frogs
A mysterious invitation…
Having received a peculiar invite from Simon Liu (si_mocs) at the convention, we followed the flyer’s instructions and met at the advertised location for the annual BrickNerd Games. What are the BrickNerd Games, you ask? It’s an electric evening early in the con, where builders from all over come together, form teams, and compete in somewhat dubious but always fun LEGO-related challenges. It is an invite-only event, though 60 people started gathering in the back of the hall, ready for whatever the games had in store for them.
For this year’s BrickNerd games, the activities were all frog-themed! It was called “In Frog We Trust,” and the provided snacks were even frog-themed. The goal of the games was to collect as many Frog Bucks as possible, which could be used to bid on various LEGO prizes during an auction at the end of the games.
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Teams ready to build without their thumbs… (Images via Dave)
However, the games weren’t just limited to your typical build challenges. There were several side events (some official, some non-official) occurring in tandem to gain Frog Bucks. Some of the official events included a speed build with Froggy Finger puppets, playing Frogger with the new collectible F1 racecar series, and creating a Frog Launcher to aim at lily pads. Each event had various prizes of Frog Bucks attached, and there were numerous ways to earn them—“allowances” for having a clear building area, matching certain hidden frogs in the brick pit, wearing glasses, earning Pity Frogs if you lost a game, or even a money gun shooting bills high into the air!
An excited team launching frogs onto lily pads to earn Frog Bucks. (IMage via Bethany)
Another official side event featured the Frog Casino, where players could gamble away their hard-earned Frog Bucks for a chance to further increase their wealth by rolling a 20-sided die. Stan played the part of a gambling man with luck on his side—he used all four available rolls, betting 30 Frog Bucks in total. In the end, every roll was a win! He doubled his money and left the casino with a massive 64 Frog Bucks.
Both those were just the official events. The attendees on the side created their own Frog Buck economy, trading frogs and favors. Unofficial games such as Best-of-One Rock-Paper-Scissors saw some players winning big and others crashing out. Our good friend and LEGO Masters reality-TV star, Ben Grayson (ben_brickson), made the unfortunate choice to battle everyone he could in this manner. Following multiple encounters with Micah Beideman (hacimbricks), he lost nearly his entire Frog Buck allowance (and was stuck shouting “32!” at every item on auction, since that was all he had left).
The bank at the frog casino. (Image via Dave)
After a few hours of gathering Frog Bucks, it was time for the auction. The table was covered with interesting prizes—LEGO sets of all sorts, various GWPs, a few MOCs, an alluring frog statue, a space kitty plushie, and more. There were also a few rare items like the most recent LEGO House Fabuland exclusive, red ABS pellets from a LEGO factory, and even a Vidyo blue dragon minifigure!
As the auction began, the four of us decided to pool our frog currency together as this would give us greater purchasing power. Since all of us would be contributing, we wanted to win a big set that could be drafted out for parts. After viewing the selection of prizes, we decided to bid on the new LEGO Art 31217 Tiger due to its wealth of new slope pieces.
BrickNerd-in-Chief Dave auctioning off some prizes while others carefully counted their Frog Bucks. (IMage via Bethany)
We watched and waited as the smaller prizes were auctioned away first. Near the end of the auction, it came time for the Tiger. With our 1,200 Frog Bucks laid out on the table, we were ready to bid, expecting the set to have a high price tag. Then came the bombshell announcement before bidding began. This particular set came with some strings attached: whoever won would have to write an article using the set in some way for BrickNerd. As this was one of the last set prizes, we decided to bid on it anyway and won with a meager 250 Frog Bucks.
Luckily, there were a few more prizes, and we used our remaining 950 to win a UCS FrogPod #39/150 designed by the one and only Simon Liu. After the games ended and the gambling euphoria wore off, reality began to settle in. What exactly did we just sign ourselves up for with this tiger?
Our loot from the BrickNerd Games.
The BrickNerd Distinction
If you’re a regular reader of BrickNerd, you probably know that BrickNerd does not publish traditional LEGO set reviews. Instead, they go for a deep dive on the subject matter, alt-builds or mods, or some other crazy take on the set.
Sure, we built the 31217 Tiger set to familiarize ourselves with the parts (and it was also a requirement of winning the auction since the set was provided by LEGO), but as MOC builders, our interests lie in what can be built outside of the instructions. Thus, we decided to do an alt-build of the Tiger!
However, since we did build the set, here are some of our thoughts on the initial model.
Following the Instructions
We begin our very comprehensive review with, well, the build process. Though this set only has one instruction booklet, we were able to somewhat divide the build between the four of us. Ben and Nathan tackled bags 1-5, which were for the main model—the tiger face. Meanwhile, Michael and Stan took on bags 6-7, which contained all the floral decorations. All in all, the build took about 30 minutes; of course, this will likely be longer if you are building solo.
Are those paper bags?!?!
The majority of the tiger build process is stacking plates. Some people may find this therapeutic, but we found it quite boring.
Stacking plates…
Sure, it can be argued that not all builds require innovative techniques, but for the building experience, some sort of SNOT work or offsetting—something interesting to break up the monotony of stacking parts—would have been appreciated.
The foliage sections provide a scintilla of build variety by introducing a few clip connections to the build, including a fantastic recolor of part 3484 (the bar with clip) in green! Additional recolors that caught our attention include newer slopes 5841 and 3573, also in green.
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Floral assemblies featuring part recolors in green.
Being the amateurs we are, we forgot to take pictures of one of the more interesting features of the set: the kickstand! So here are some of the official pictures. It’s a very simple build using bars and clips, but the locking mechanism was sort of interesting. Instead of studs, it locks in via friction, taking advantage of the slight difference between the diagonal length across a part versus its side length.
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Kickstand in action!
While we found the build process mundane, the completed model is a nice display piece. The color choices for the flora in particular feel purposeful, with the inclusion of larger areas of medium lavender and green to harmonize with the tiger’s orange. Similarly, a primary triad is formed with magenta, keetorange, and light blue for some of the smaller floral pieces. These help provide more visual variety to the display piece, but the careful selection of hues and smaller size of these flowers do not distract from the centerpiece.
There is a kickstand behind the face—trust us.
Furthermore, it was interesting to see the design opt for brick-built plants rather than utilizing newer elements found in Botanical sets. While the individual assemblies were effective, we felt that this portion could have been easily achieved with the existing Botanical pieces.
The completed build.
It may be likely that the designer had additional budget after completing the tiger portion of the set, which was then devoted to the foliage, but personally, we would have liked to see that additional budget allocated to making the tiger build experience more interesting (i.e., adding in SNOT work, offsetting, etc.).
The remaining extra pieces include a nice smattering of tiles and rounded studs.
As character and creature builders, we tend to spend a lot of time on the facial design of our builds, particularly the eyes. Eye expressions are tantamount to conveying a character’s emotion, and the slight concealing of the pupil via the cutout plates (35044) really gives the tiger life. For instance, here is a picture during the process without the plates—the difference in expression is night and day.
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A difference in expression.
From Tiger to Fwog
After completing the build and capturing some photos, it was time for the real fun to begin. With our tiger reduced to a pile of parts, we decided pretty quickly on what to make… a frog!
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(1) Somewhere in this picture is a frog to be assembled. (2) Cartoon by Sarah Morrissette
The next morning, Nathan had some time to kill before some events and decided to work on the face. Utilizing the hollow spaces of the new slope pieces (3573), he created a grumpy/mean-looking expression for the frog’s eyes.
The face of someone who has been bestowed the gift of life.
After this quick building session, none of us revisited the pile of parts until later that evening. While Michael was making final preparations on his MOC display, Stan and Nathan went over to his area and commandeered a section. Building off of the head WIP (work-in-progress) from earlier in the day, we began creating the body.
It was here that we quickly realized there were no SNOT bricks or brackets provided in the set, and very little Technic, which would make it difficult to build anything off-plane and in different directions. Our only way to change angles and utilize SNOT would be through the bar and clip pieces; therefore, we had to be particular about what and when bar/clip elements were used, as we needed to save them for joints as well.
Frogs sure do grow up fast!
Struggling with the limited number of connections available, Stan and Nathan took a break and went to find some treasures at the Brickworld garage sale. Meanwhile, Ben and Michael began refining the build by strengthening the legs and introducing a more stable internal structure. Additionally, ideas were floated about adding a head crest and jacket to circumvent the limited number of green pieces, which Ben and Michael began to explore before heading to the garage sale as well.
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Reworking the back and mid-build WIP shot.
We reconvened around 10 pm or so and began to really dive into the model, passing off sections when we were stumped or needed a break. Ben and Michael had laid the groundwork for the jacket and posing of the character, with Michael working through the actual design of the jacket and arms. Ben made an initial draft of the head crest, which was then handed off to Nathan to incorporate into the original head design.
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Ben and Michael taking the helm, and clip-SNOT tech.
Realizing we would probably need a support structure for the character, Ben and Nathan began working on different components of the stand. Nathan reworked the torso internals to free up the two Technic axles without stoppers which allowed Ben to create a Technic support with those axles. Meanwhile, Stan worked on an accessory for our frog—a sword! Ben later figured out the attachments for the shoulders to incorporate this awesome accessory.
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Finishing touches and a back shot of the build.
After about three hours of this musical-chairs style building (and having to listen to a kind builder’s Frozen MOC looping the same 10-second segment of “Let it Go” for those three hours), we had our finished build.
“El Tigre Anuro”
We wanted the character to display a sense of swagger, which we attempted to convey through the posing and expression. Articulation in the head allowed for a slight head tilt, and when combined with details built into the face (such as the partial concealment of the donut tile eyes (15535), the character gives off a tough, mean-spirited expression.
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Our completed MOC—No one knows his real name, so they call him “El Tigre Anuro.”
Sometimes, for ‘tough’ characters—particularly cartoonish ones—they may follow a downward triangular shape language and emphasize certain characteristics, such as the shoulders. With the inclusion of the jacket, we captured this shape to help further convey our character’s attributes. Lastly, the jacket allowed us to have one hand in a pocket, which can be associated with ‘cool’ characters.
Our character’s shaping most closely follows the second character in the above picture. Source
On the color scheme, we decided to take a page out of the designer’s book and continue the tri-color harmony with green, orange, and splashes of lavender. Once again, it was pretty convenient that the original set had such a purposeful selection of colors that we could include accents such as the complementary dark pink for our frog’s cheeks and the light blue for the sword’s hilt.
Photography and editing by Benjamin Anderson (anderson_builder).
Lastly, although we were limited by parts, we were pleased with some of the textures we were able to incorporate into the build, particularly the head crest. There was a very limited number of brown tiles in the set, but the pairing of the double arrow tile (3396) and quarter circle tiles (25269) in a diagonal orientation makes for an interesting texture.
The Seal of Fwogenticity
With our completed MOC, we marched on over to OrphanLUG to present it to Nerd-in-Chief Dave and Simon. Needless to say, they were both ecstatic, especially as what we accomplished with the lack of any SNOT elements.
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Dave inspecting our finished build, and Simon’s giving a thumbs up of approval.
Our model was inducted into the Frog Nation (Simon Liu’s collab) and stood beside the other amazing creations for the rest of the convention. The public had no idea this frog was built during the convention from a single LEGO set!
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Our frog standing with Frog Nation and next to a nomination trophy (not ours).
And To Parts You Shall Return…
Remember when we initially spent our hard-earned Frog Bucks on this set so that we could draft it? Well, that was still the plan. After the public hours ended, it was time to say goodbye to our frog.
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Sad Simon ????
Luckily, we ended up not using quite a bit of parts from the original set, so the disassembly process wasn’t long. We each picked our lots, and with that, our BrickNerd task was complete (besides writing up this article).
A chaotic parts draft.
Closing Thoughts
First, since this is still a review, it would be remiss of us to not give our final thoughts on the set. Overall, you get exactly what you see on the box, no more, no less. If you’re looking for a display piece of a tiger’s face, 31217 The Fauna Collection – Tiger is the set for you. As mentioned in our build process, it is clear that care was taken in the color selection and overall composition of the build, ensuring it would display well.
Now, if you’re looking for an interesting building experience or trying to find neat techniques? This might not be the build for you (unless you enjoy stacking plates). As far as part selection goes, it had enough neat and new parts for us to draft it, but the lack of SNOT bricks or brackets made this a challenging set to do an alt-build.
Though we made the decision to bid on it during the games knowing full well it came with a review, we’d like to thank the BrickNerd team for providing and entrusting us with this opportunity! It was a blast working as a group of four builders (and friends), combining our building styles into an unexpected LEGO MOC with a limited time and part selection.
We hope our unorthodox review will be informative to anyone on the fence about this set, and we hope you enjoyed reading about our Brickworld experience!
LEGO Art 31217 The Fauna Collection – Tiger is available for around US $65 | EU €60 | CA $80 | UK £55 | AU $100.
DISCLAIMER: This set was provided to BrickNerd by LEGO. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Could you build a MOC from a set with no SNOT pieces? Let us know in the comments below!
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