The 31031 Rainforest Animals is a new 3-in-1 Creator set, one of the recent wave of brick built animal sets, including for example 31019 Forest Animals and 31021 Furry Creatures.

Box Contents

The box contains:

• 3 x unnumbered bags of parts.
• 3 x instruction booklets (One for each models).

See the full inventory of 215 parts.

Parts

There are two part appearing in new colors for the first time:

• New Color - 98138 Tile Round 1 x 1 is new in Medium Dark Flesh.
• New Color - 50950 Slope Curved 3 x 1 No Studs is new in Green.

Other parts are rare, appearing in two or three sets:

Build

The build starts off with the smallest of the three animals of the main build: a super-cute fly!

Being a lover of micro builds, i found this one really amazing despite its simplicity. The gray hinge is a nice touch, with the finger capturing the insect muzzle very well.

Next up, we build the frog. Here's a couple of intermediate steps:

And the complete model:

Once again we have a very nice model, colorful and full of personality. The 2x2 corner plates are put to good use to represent the little feet, and they do a great job. The head is hinged so it can even be posed a little, and of course it can.. sigh.. eat the fly!

And it's finally the turn of the star of the show, the parrot! (It's a parrot right? I'm not an expert on bird nomenclature). It starts off with the body:

Notice the use of the two white panels to create a conduit inside. This will be used for the incredible play feature of the set (i guess you already read about it :P) The feet are also interesting, featuring three hinges for a great posability. Next up we have the head and the wings:

The head takes advantage of some snot tecniques for the eyes, the "sideburns" and the beak. The wings have a nice intricate design to attach the feathers.

Completed Model

Once again, the dude is colorful and gorgeous. The wings are very posable, as are the feet. If anything, the head is a little too blocky, and the flat eyes basically disappear when seen face on. Hardly a problem anyway, from most angle the bird looks great. I love the curved tummy, it's so cute!

The playfeature

This model have a nice play feature.. You can open his beak (actually you open the whole head, but whatever), and feed him some seeds or berries that are provided, in the form of 1x1 round tiles.

And after you feed it.. well, let's just say that the model feature a *complete* digestive tract. You just lift his tails a little, and behold, the bodily function is completed! Here's an handy diagram to show the Pooping Mechanism (also showing the slightly flat back side):

I guess this is a first for a Lego set but, hey, joking aside is a nice touch, which add a bit of playability to the set.
Here's everybody once again

The alternate models

Before we go any further, let me give you the bad news: i hoped till the last second this wasn't the case, but there's nothing to do: you need to dismount the fly to build the other animals. Yeah, i'm sad too. Despite being like ten pieces, they felt the need to use some of them, so that's it.. You have to give her a farewell.

The chameleon

The first alternate model is a nice chameleon (or similar animal). Here's a recap of the building process

And here's our buddy. Despite being a B-model, i feel like he's another great build. The head shape is correct, with two funny sporgent eyes, and the tongue with what i suppose is a piercing hole. I like the feet, even if they're very squared, they somehow feel right, like the two pinching fingers the real chameleons have.

He also has an elevated number of joints that guarantee great posability.

The fish

The other alternative model is a tropical fish. This is the smallest model, leaving the most parts unused. The building process is simple but reserve one last surprise: at some point you place the eye tiles and get a little confused about the location where they're placed, only to discover some steps later that they're not used as eyes, but like teeth, being covered completely save for the sides.
Building highlights:

Here's the finished fish:

While this is clearly the weakest model of the three, it's still a more than honest c-model. The fish is istantly recognizable, and the face looks ilariously dumb with those two teeth and the nose (cleverly realized with hinges). The model is very squared as seen from the front, with just a couple of curved slopes to save it from being two stud wide all along.

Summary

This is a nice little set. Funny, colorful, fun to build and full of personality. I haven't built the other Animals set but from the pictures it looks like they're not as successuful as these one in capturing the "organical" appearance of the animals.
Like most Creators, it's all made of standard generic Lego pieces, without strange custom parts.
The main model is clearly the best, but the B- and C-models are still more than acceptable builds.

So thumbs up for Rainforest Animals! And now excuse me, i need to rebuild my fly.. And i think i have some of those pieces around.. Yes! :)

* the set only includes one fly. Sadly.

And now.. REVENGE!

You can now buy this set for $14.99, £12.99 or check other store prices and sales history here.