LEGO Bear, Panda and Koala Figures

And yet another up-to-date animal article! Today, we scale up. Our guests are LEGO bear, panda and koala figures. Since there aren’t many, I thought it would be better to put them all in one article.

Like the others in the series, this article will be updated as new animals are released. 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.

First LEGO Bear Figures

The first bear figures are made for Belville sets in 1994. Used as a teddy bear, they continue to appear in sets until 2010. They’re mostly found in Belville sets, but manage to jump to a few Scala and one System set, too. This teddy has 9 different colors: Yellow (1994), light violet (1994), brown (1997), light turquoise (1998), aqua (2001), dark pink (2001), medium orange (2001), pink (2003) and bright light orange (2007).

You can see them all below. There’s also a red one on Bricklink, but it’s never seen in sets. I think it’s a prototype color.

Two new bears arrive in 2000. One is made for Scala, the other for System. The Scala bear has three different colors; dark orange, brown and white. White is added in 2002.

Thanks to Elspeth Demontes, we now know how these bears look like next to a standard minifigure.

LEGO System Bear Figures

The first bear made for System sets is white. Appearing in 5 sets, it manages to be the only LEGO bear for a long time. In 2012, the mould is renewed and the bear is finalized (at least for now). This bear is released in dark brown (2012), white (2014) and black (2018). The black and the brown ones appear in two sets each, the white in four.

There are similarities between the first and the second bear mould. Both can move their heads. Both have open mouths, able to hold something with a bar-width. The most important feature of the new mould is the hinge, like the horses. It can now try to climb a tree, or touch a minifigure’s shoulders. Of course, the renewed design is more detailed than the old one. It has eye and nose printing, and the stance is changed as well. Unlike the old design, the new one has two studs on its back, so a minifigure can sit on its back, or a saddle-like accessory can be built. However, the tail is smaller than the first one.

A teddy bear arrives with the LEGO CMF 6 series in 2012. Starting its journey with medium nougat, it’s seen in 12 different colors and prints in the following years. Some are torn, some are shining (have a metallic print). There’s also one with panda colors.

The newest bear is the polar bear cub arriving in 2023. For now, there’s only one color in only one set. Do you think we’ll get more in the future?

LEGO Friends Bear Figures

A bear shows up in LEGO Friends sets in 2014. Designed as a bear cub, it comes in dark brown, sand blue, white and dark azure. After 5 years of not being seen, a black one comes with June 2024 sets.

The dark azure bear is called Blubeary, comes with the Elves sets. It has a cub, too, using the hamster mould. Lil’ Blu is bright light blue.

Bear figures using different moulds don’t stop there. There’s another one coming with the Sonic the Hedgehog sets, using the puppy mould. This medium nougat bear is called Becky, released in 2023 in only one set.

LEGO Panda and Koala Figures

A panda cub appears in 2014, in Friends sets, of course. A few more join in 2020. Some differ in color, some in print. The standard-colored pandas use black & white, while the crazy-colored ones are in bright light yellow, coral, dark turquoise and light aqua, all combined with white.

We only have one koala so far, a cub as its size clearly indicates. Coming in 2023 with the CMF 24 series, it has a light bluish gray color and can hold an object with a bar-width.

Special Characters

There are two bears that fit here. One is Lotso from Toy Story. It has two different versions (same mould, different print). The others are Merida’s brothers, from Brave, turned into cubs. Lotso comes out in 2010, using a color combination of magenta and white. The clean one comes with one, the dirty one comes with two sets. The cubs are released in 2014 in dark bluish gray and can only be found in one set.

LEGO DUPLO Bear Figures

The first DUPLO bears are from 1990. There are two adults and two cubs, all white. The only difference is their eye prints. Like other smaller DUPLO animals released during the time, the cubs come with a plate, probably fixed. There’s also a cub using the same mould but without a plate, released in 1991. I’m not sure about this last one, because the set it comes in (2660) shows it with a plate, and I wasn’t able to find much about it.

A brown bear and cub join in 1998. The cub uses the same mould as the white, but the adult has a different one. The main difference seems to be its larger ears. Honestly, it looks more like a pig than a bear :)

The bear cub from 2005 has the most recent mould so far. It comes in white, reddish brown and black. The only difference between the reddish browns is the eye print.

Likewise, the adult released in 2009 has the most recent mould. It also comes in white, reddish brown and black.

LEGO DUPLO bear figures include teddy bears, too. The first one is made in 2013, in bright light orange. Reddish brown is added in 2017.

In 2020 the mould changes, and three teddy bears are released using this mould, in dark orange, reddish brown and white.

The newest teddy bear is from 2024. Coming with one Peppa Pig set, it’s in bright light orange.

LEGO DUPLO Panda and Koala Figures

Pandas were first released in 1990. The three cubs don’t seem to have a lot of differences, mould-wise. Two of them come with a plate, with different eye prints, one without a plate, sharing the same eye print with one of the others. Unlike the bear cubs, I came across this panda more. I think the plate-less version was made as an alternate; some sets contain that one and some sets the other.

The adult panda takes its sweet time, joins the family in 2012. It uses the same eye print until 2016, changes it in 2019, and that’s the most recent version. In 2019, a new panda cub arrives, too. The panda shares the mould of the teddy bears from 2020.

Like its System sibling, there is only one DUPLO koala. It’s released in 2022 and can be found in one set. It has a color combination of light bluish gray and white.

And that’s it for LEGO bear, panda and koalas. Let’s have a little comparison before we wrap up, see how they look next to each other.

 

Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the bear-costumed minifigures. I don’t have the magenta bear released for Valentine’s Day, so the custom chocolate bear will have to do :)

 

Let me know if there are any I missed. See you in the next article!

 

Image sources

I borrowed the images of figures I don’t have from Brickset, Bricklink, New Elementary, Brickipedia, Decotoys, Steinpalast, and eBay. The screen appearances of special characters are from their respective Wiki pages.