Today’s animal in the up-to-date animal articles is the LEGO parrot. While the article is up-to-date, the animal is not. Still, I tried to provide as much information as possible. Parrots are among the oldest LEGO animals. They have many different colors and can be found in various sets. But before moving on, I’d like to mention something else.
While both parrots and horses are among the oldest animals, neither is the first. In 1983, a yellow bird in a white cage appears in Paulette Poodle’s Living Room (3788) from the Fabuland theme. It’s released in three more sets later in 1999, 2000 and 2001; two from Belville, one from Disney’s Mickey Mouse.
As always, the name of the colors used here are the Bricklink colors. To see a better image of the color, please visit this link, search for the color, and click on its name to go to Rylie Howerter’s Flickr page.
If a new parrot figure gets released, or if we get a new color, it will be added here.
LEGO Parrot Figures
Parrots have appeared in more than 100 sets ever since their release in 1989. The mould remains the same until 2016, with many different colors, some with printing. In 2016, a new mould is released. Although it resembles the previous one, you can see the differences when you look closely. Rounder features, a bigger beak and tail, and two feet instead of one. It can be found in 18 sets.
But before that, let’s dive into the first one.
In 1989, two parrot figures are seen in LEGO sets. One of them is yellow, the other red. The red one has printing on its face, beak and wings. It continues to show up in sets until 2002, while the yellow lives until 2016. Different colors are released, and it’s possible to find them in black, brown, dark gray, dark bluish gray, medium blue, medium green, pink and red.
The LEGO Group tries something different with this parrot in 2009. Instead of using one color, they use two. The result is a beautiful marbled parrot. Unlike the printed one, the additional colors here have a longer life, since they don’t come out due to excess playing like the prints.
Until I learned about Bricklink (which happened around 2012-2013), I was unaware of these other colors. After that, I started buying every different color I could get my hands on. While my collection isn’t complete yet, I still have enough to make me smile.
Renewed LEGO Parrot
Like many old animals, the parrot is renewed in 2016, a few changes are made. This new parrot is released in two colors, white and dark bluish gray. There are also three marbled ones; red-green, blue-yellow, and coral-dark turquoise.
There’s something that makes me wonder about these marbled parrots. I only have one of the coral and blue ones, but for some reason I have two red-greens. They are different than each other. It made me think, why would two parrots that are listed the same be different? I figured it was due to the way they are produced. After all, even if you have the same amount of different colored ABS in the mould, you can never know how they will mix with each other. It’s only natural that no two are the same.
It’s just a theory originating from the two parrots I have. I’m thinking about getting more of the marbled ones in the future and testing this theory.
Update: Tried and tested! The three blue-yellow marbled parrots I have look completely different from the front, the back and the side.
The first parrot mould was last seen in 2016, while the second last appeared in 2023. I was relieved to hear that, it means it’s still being used in sets. Who knows, maybe they’ll make a newer mould, or we’ll get new colors.
What the parrot?
In addition to these, I have another parrot of unknown origins. Obviously, it’s not an original LEGO parrot figure, since I couldn’t find anything similar to it anywhere. At first, I thought it was custom printed, but when I looked closely, I realized it’s a fake. Still, it managed to made it into the family so I’ll share its picture here.
LEGO DUPLO Parrot Figure
There’s only one DUPLO bird listed specifically as a parrot, appearing in one set from 2014. It’s Skully from Jake and the Neverland Pirates sets. It has a bright green body, and its beak and feet look like bright light orange. However, it’s a print, not moulded, so it may be a different color. It’s wearing a black bandana with skull patterns.
In the image below, you can see a standard parrot, Skully and the only Friends bird with parrot printing. I wanted to keep the Friends birds together, so more can be found in the birds article, but I wanted to include its picture here, too.
Right, that’s it for today. The color range of parrots are the richest among LEGO birds, and yet, we literally have a handful of them.
See you in the next article!
Image Sources
The first LEGO bird, brown, old dark gray and new bluish gray parrot images are from Bricklink. Last image showing all parrots (except coral) in a line is from New Elementary, black and old marbled parrot images are from Adventure Bricks. The rest belongs to me.
Some girls play with Barbie dolls, while others create small worlds with LEGO minifigures and continue to do so when they grow up. You can probably guess which group I belong to :)
