With a much more pleasant spring this year with a lot more rain and colder temperatures compared to the hot droughts we had the last three years, even the birds are taking notice and there’s a lot more activity everywhere. Even the annual bird counting a few weeks ago confirmed that. So it’s kind of fitting that the latest LEGO Explorer for July 2021 also focuses on this topic.
With such a broad subject it’s inevitable that you can only cover a very, very limited section of it at all, and therefore the issue focuses on some basics and presenting a bunch of interesting brick-built examples of birds, some of which have even appeared in sets. Additionally, the mag takes the time to explain the relation of today’s birds to the dinosaurs on another info spread.
The poster picks up on that in a comparison of the fastest animals on the planet and puts a bald eagle at the center of the show.
The buildable extra is a small parrot, apparently inspired by the Scarlet Macaw. It’s done nicely and captures the overall appearance well enough. Funny enough, it exposes the limitations of LEGO not producing certain structural pieces in custom colors as explained in my recent review of the various Mega Construx Pokémon sets. Wouldn’t the little creature have looked even more nice if the joints were fully blue or red as well, don’t you think?
Overall this is a good issue, in particular thanks to the nice macaw build. Other than that of course my point I made in one of my older reviews for LEGO Explorer remains: It would be beneficial if they were more selective and didn’t overstuff the mag so much by being all too generic. Limiting this to “exotic colorful birds” already would have given this a totally different scope and meaning…
Mylenium's Brick Corner 
At least the build looks good. After that skull (which is the NEXT issue in the UK), I was a bit concerned. It’s the first issue where mini-G has expressed no excitement in receiving it.
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I’m sure he’s going to like this one and there’s several other good ones coming up this year. Probably can’t avoid one or the other stinker, but as long as things balance out and half the models are good, I think that’s okay.
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