Review: 40077 Geoffrey the Giraffe
Posted by Huw,
Geoffrey the Giraffe was first spotted in captivity in the LEGO vault at Billund during the inside tour in May. He's now made it out into the wild and can be obtained for free with purchases of £15 at Toys R Us in the UK, or for £4.99. My local branches didn't have them until Friday, so I headed down yesterday to grab a couple.
For those that aren't aware, the 400xx number series is used for 'store exclusives'. They are usually LEGO brand store or LEGOLAND exclusives, and I think this is the first number from that series to be allocated to a set that's available elsewhere.
The set was designed by AFOL turned LEGO designer Mel Caddick, who I believe works on a lot of 'special projects' like this.
It contains 90-pieces and is built in two stages: the neck and nose, and then the top of the head.
The neck is made from orange and yellow 1 x 1 bricks which give him his distinctive spots. A tall 1 x 2 x 5 brick has been added to the back to provide some strength.
The leaves at the bottom give the impression that he's poking his head out of the top of the trees. The green 'Tile, Round 8 x 8' used for the base is unique to this set.
While researching for this review I came across a page at the UK Toys R Us site that gives some background and history of Geoffrey the Giraffe.
I think Mel has done an excellent job of capturing the look of his current incarnation, which is very comic-like. A smile would have been nice, but difficult to achieve, I suspect :-)
I've no idea if this will be available in Toys R Us in other countries but I suspect it will be in due course. Looking at BrickLink, the only people selling it are in the UK and Austria. I can't see any mention of it at ToysRUs.at though.
So, be patient, I'm sure you'll find Geoffrey grazing in your neck of the woods soon!
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14 comments on this article
I am not sure I have ever seen so many puns in one sentence as are in 'grazing in your neck of the woods.' There is a place for you as a stand-up comic I have no doubt Huw!
Anyway, great review. I picked up a couple of these yesterday and look forward to displaying him.
I'm glad you like my turn of phrase :)
Another great review! I find the shape of Geoffrey quite well achieved with fairly simple bricks, but it does seem like a lot of pieces for a promotional set, not a problem to me though
5 pounds for a 90-pieces polybag? I've got to put this set on my want list when going to London.
Are they in-stock online also? When I placed two qualifying orders last when the website was advertising the promo, I was told they were out of stock, as in, all gone. This is a bit annoying, if I just shopped during a stockless 'window'.
D'oh. :o(
This really is a fun and good-looking build; well worth the £4.99 asking price. The base disc alone has a plethora of additional possibilities...
Well what a day, I've been checking my local TRU stock for a while, and Today they had them back in. When I arrived at TRU I was amazed to find them selling the (I had assumed Exclusive) Back to the Future model, so I now have BTF, with no wait, or minimum £50 Lego.com order and a free Geoffrey.
On a negative note, was it just mine that proves Lego can't make Yellow pieces for toffee....... The main slopes, 2x4 and inv 2x3 as well as the plate mod single stud are a completely different Yellow to the rest.
Hopefully this shows up in Canada sometime soon. Great looking set.
@Lego34s I've unfortunately seen that in a few sets recently.....
If this offer come to the US, then I'll definitely get $15-$20 of LEGO for this set, excellent deal!
^ Not if you're paying inflated TRU prices in order to get it. :-/
There's something about it that scares me...
Going to TRU Friday so i am going to pick him up for sure!
-Connor
Got mine today - he's wonderful! I especially loved making him up to the nose and then making the rest of the head as a separate build - the moment you put him all together is special! He's so goofy it's hilarious!
It really is a nice little set this, I picked one up a couple of weeks ago and this morning I also picked up the Back to the Future set, as TRU are still doing the deal I now have two of them, it's a very good freebie for only having to spend £15 on Lego at TRU.