LEGO Snake, Spider, Scorpion Figures and Other Critters

Another up-to-date article? Right, let’s finish this, then! Besides, it’s almost over. Water animals, dinosaurs, fantastic creatures… and we’re done! Today, we’ll take a closer look at LEGO snake, frog, chameleon, lizard, spider, insect and scorpion figures. DUPLO figures and guest Belville accessories included!

If you have read the previous articles, you realize that I categorize animals differently than Bricklink. They have “land, water, air, dinosaur”, but I have a few (!) more categories. When I was organizing my files, I named the folder for this article “critter”. What can I say, I like the word. Besides, how else am I supposed to name a category that includes reptiles, amphibians and arachnids??

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.

LEGO Snake Figures

The oldest of our cute (!) animals is the snake, released in 1997. Starting its life in black, it changes its color into red, green, lime, light bluish gray, dark green and dark blue in the following years. It’s possible to find it in both licensed and unlicensed sets, the newest one being from 2023.

Although it’s not easy to spot at first, when you look closely you can see how detailed this first LEGO snake is. Yes, I know, we’re used to getting super-detailed, double-moulded animals with incredible prints these days. But think about it, this was released in 1997 and is still being used. It has eyes, a nose, a mouth and a tongue, along with having two different textures on its back and stomach, finishing up with a rattle. It’s a perfect representation!

Since it has no studs or anti-studs, it’s not easy to fix it on a model. A minifigure can hold it, which means parts with clips can be used to make it look like it’s walking on a wall. However, the texture it has doesn’t give that “click” sound of a smooth surface, and doesn’t feel as stable. I think this snake is one of the few animals with so few connections on it. It’s made of a material with a little flexibility.

A different snake arrives with the LEGO Ninjago theme in 2012. Its head is raised, and it can both sit on a stud or used as a staff. It has appeared between 2012-2014 in 18 sets, in 8 different colors: White, red, lime, dark blue, trans-orange, trans-dark blue, trans-purple and pearl gold. This one’s pretty detailed too, although not as much as the other. It has eyes, fangs and a rattle, and made from standard ABS.

A cobra arrives with the CMF 13 series in 2015. It has a dark green color, and never been seen since then. It uses a softer plastic and has printing both in front and in back. Part of its body is coiled and its tongue is out like the first one. Thanks to the anti-studs below, it can be held in hand or sit on a surface.

Nagini

A special snake arrives with the LEGO Harry Potter CMF series in 2018: Nagini. While she should belong in the fantastic creatures article, her look is no different than a regular snake, so she stays. Apparently, the LEGO Group thinks so too, because we see the same mould appear in a City set in 2021, this time with back printing.

The mould Nagini uses made in two colors, olive green and sand green. The sand green has no printing, the olive green has three variations; unprinted, with eye printing, with eye and back printing. It was last seen in 2023. While I’m not 100% sure, the softness of its material feels somewhere between the first two and the cobra.

There are no studs or anti-studs. A small part on its tail is thinner than its body, so it’s possible for clip pieces to grab it.

 

That’s it for snakes! Here are a few comparison images, so you get an idea of their sizes.

LEGO Scorpion Figures

Snakes are followed by scorpions, and we get our first scorpion in 1998 with the Adventurers (and Scala) sets. Like the snake, the scorpion starts its journey in black, too. Later dark bluish gray, red, dark red, tan, lime, dark blue, trans-neon orange, trans-neon green and pearl gold follow, appearing in a total of 76 sets. It’s last seen in 2023.

As the animals get smaller, it gets harder to create models that represent them well. The scorpion is among these animals. Of course, there are some bigger species, but the ones we are likely to encounter in our daily lives aren’t among them. On the other hand, there are certain requirements so the part can be a part of the model, like the anti-stud below. It needs to be recognizable. This leads to having animals that look weird next to others, scale-wise. But in the end, it’s a toy, and a little exaggeration doesn’t hurt.

The scorpions have every feature you want from a scorpion (there’s something you don’t hear every day :) ). They have a tail, ready to strike, along with pincers. There’s a stud on top and an anti-stud on the bottom, making it possible to place on a plate, or a hand. This anti-stud raises the part a plate high, but keeps the overall balance. If needed, the tail can be attached to a clip part.

LEGO Spider Figures

The first spider is released in 1999. Starting with black and light gray, it moves on to red, orange, blue, trans-red, trans-dark blue, trans-neon yellow, trans-neon green, flat silver and glow in dark white in the following years. It appears in 124 until 2018, in both in licensed and unlicensed themes.

Along comes a new spider in 2017, with the Jungle theme. It has a more detailed body than the first, and the leg structure is different. It’s made in red first, black, medium nougat, bright light yellow and glow in dark white follows.

Both spiders can sit on studs without needing an extra part. The first one has a clip for a head, so it can hold something with a bar-width.

LEGO Frog Figures

Frogs first arrive with a Belville set in 2000. They jump to Harry Potter in 2001, Star Wars in 2003, Castle in 2004, and soon enough, they’re everywhere! They aren’t always used as animals; it’s possible to find them as ornaments, statues, or even plants (like in 10281 Bonsai Tree). They have appeared in a total of 233 sets, and can still be found today.

Since their usage varies widely, they have a fantastic range of colors – maybe even the only animal with so many! They are produced in 16 colors so far: White, dark bluish gray, red, coral, reddish brown, tan, yellow, neon yellow, lime, olive green, green, magenta, bright pink, trans-green, pearl silver and pearl gold.

Honestly, I’m not very fond of these figures. Because of their size, it’s not easy to hold and make it part of the game. And in my opinion, they don’t look much like frogs, either. However, after learning their wide range of colors (and starting my own color project) I decided to get as many as I can!

A special frog

We have a special guest, listed as a minifigure: Throg. Appearing for a second in Marvel’s Loki, this frog accompanies him in the Marvel CMF series released in 2021. Simply said, it’s a frogified version of Thor.

Apparently, there was a longer scene in the series, but it was removed later. I found it for you :)

 

LEGO Snail Figures

There are two snails released under Belville in 2003. They are made of two parts, shell and body. The one with the light pink body is called Sally Slow, the dark pink one is Lazy Loui. As far as I understand from the images, they are three bricks tall. They didn’t last long, and only brick-built snails were released after.

LEGO Ant Figures

The ant appears in a total of three sets; two Indiana Jones and one Marvel. The ones in the Indiana Jones sets have a marbled trans-brown color. The one in the Marvel set is dark blue. There’s an anti-stud below, suitable to hold in hand or place on a plate.

LEGO Chameleon Figures

Chameleons enter our lives with the Friends theme in 2014. They are first released in bright green with marbled green and bright green with marbled medium lavender colors. One of them represents Pascal from Tangled, the other is a regular chameleon. The same mould changes its color to lime-magenta marbled and appears in Elves sets in 2017. Finally, they come with the Friends play cubes as mystery animals. These are colored bright light yellow, coral, dark turquoise and light aqua, all marbled with magenta.

Pascal is renewed in 2018 and starts sitting on his hind feet. It’s bright green, appearing in one set. It’s possible to find him in five more sets with the print update in 2020.

We get our first System chameleon in 2019, with the Jungle Explorer (aka Johnny Thunder) from the CMF 19 series. This little guy is bright green, too. The Creator Expert Bookshop (10270) has a dark turquoise version of it. Neither have appeared in any other set.

You can see how they look next to each other below.

LEGO Salamander Figures

A tiny salamander arrives in 2022 with the Frozen sets. This medium blue salamander represents Bruni from the movies and can be found in three sets. He also has a buildable character set, released before the figure in 2021.

Limiting such a cute animal to just one theme wouldn’t be fair. The same mould is released in bright light orange in 2023, in Friends sets. Since then, it has appeared in 5 sets.

LEGO Butterfly Figures

We start 2021 with butterflies. They first appear in Encanto sets in bright light orange and bright light yellow, jump to other licensed and unlicensed sets in the following years. There’s also a dark purple one, appearing in only one set (Tiny Plants, 10329).

In 2023, not only a new color is added to the butterfly family (black), but now they are printed! Three butterflies with different prints are released in 2023, two in 2024 (so far).

There’s something that needs to be mentioned at this point. 2021 is not the year butterflies were first released, but rather when they started to be listed as animals. They have been in Scala/Belville (1997), Clikits (2005) and Friends (2012) sets as accessories before that. While some of these butterflies have pins under them, the others have anti-studs, allowing them to be attached to a stud. Since I don’t have any of these butterflies, I tried to find some explanatory images.

These butterflies are mostly found in packs, called accessory packs, which include other small parts as well. There’s another animal included in them, but like the butterfly, it’s not listed as an animal. Bricklink calls it beetle/ladybug. It has two variations, one that comes with Scala/Belville sets, the other with Friends sets.

Speaking of bugs… we have two more that are not listed as animals. The first one is the bee, first released with Winnie the Pooh set from 2021, and shows up in 15 more sets afterwards. The other is the ladybug from the CMF 21 series, accompanying the Ladybug Girl. The ladybug has a more realistic print released in 2023. The first version appears in 25, the second in 3 sets.

As you can see, all these three are basically 1×1 round tiles with printing on them. That’s why they’re not listed as animals (but still cute enough to be included here :) ).

There are a few more butterflies I decided to include as guests of honor. Five butterflies were released with Belville sets in 2001. These are listed as accessories, and as far as I understand, they were designed as hair clips. I don’t have them, so no comparison images, but I did learn they’re about 3 x 4 cm big (approximately 1.2 x 1.5 inches). They are in pink, dark pink, medium orange, light blue and medium green colors.

LEGO DUPLO Spider, Ladybug, Bee, Butterfly and Snail

There’s a DUPLO subtheme released between 1999-2000, called Little Forest Friends. There are a total of 10 sets, 8 of which including one or two animals. There’s also an educational set, in which you can find all of them, called Little Forest Friends (9129).

The animals included are a spider, a ladybug, a bee, a butterfly and a snail. All of them are made of two parts; a body and either legs, wings or a shell. The spider is medium violet with black legs; the ladybug has red wings, black head and legs; the bee has a yellow body, glitter trans-clear wings; the butterfly has a yellow body, yellow wings (the colors on the wings are printed); the snail has a bright green body, glitter trans-clear shell.

A new bee arrives in 2024. Unlike the first one, this one is made of a single piece, and at the time of writing appears in only one set. It has a yellow body, black antennae, and white wings.

LEGO DUPLO Salamander

Bruni also has a big brother, coming with a DUPLO Frozen set in 2024. I find this version really funny, a chubby salamander :) It has a medium blue body with white chin and chest print, and medium lavender patterns on its back.

Who-what-how?

For those who are curious about the sizes of these animals, here’s a few images showing them next to the frog – an animal most of us are likely to have.

Wrapping up another one…

And that’s it for today. Let me know if there are any I missed, and I’ll add them here. Oh, and let’s not forget the minifigure siblings of some of these animals. Here they are.

 

See you in the next article!

 

I borrowed images of the animals I don’t have from Bricklink, Brickowl, Brick Nerd, Steinpalast, Decotoys, Bricks & Minifigs Anaheim, Baustein Jaeger and eBay. The images showing different colors of snakes, spiders, scorpions and frogs are partially rendered in Bricklink Studio. Throg’s image from comics is from Marvel Fandom.