Here at the Domain, we cover a handful of pop culture topics. While most of my articles are about cinema reviews, I enjoy a video game or two in my spare time. One of the series I keep returning to is Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, especially with Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch being the latest release back in 2020. I have also loved LEGO bricks and building kits since I was very young, so when I heard that there would be a collaboration of both, I knew that I would spare no expense to get at least one kit to own.
Animal Crossing, or Doubutsu no Mori (translated literally to “animal forest”), started on the Nintendo Gamecube with a simple premise: start a new life in a village with animals as your neighbors. This was a bit more structured than something like The Sims and the designs of your animal friends’ designs were cute and fun to learn more about their lives as you made the town better for them through tasks and celebrating unique holidays on a full-year calendar. Since its humble beginnings on the Gamecube, the game has evolved to give the player control of their town, city or island, depending on which title you’re playing, and expanded to mobile apps, concerts, spinoffs and even an animated movie in Japan.
With Animal Crossing’s popularity booming, it was a natural fit to continue the line of collaborations with the LEGO group for some easy-to-build and customized kits for kids and adults. Now, there aren’t many differences internationally when it comes to LEGO, but Animal Crossing’s logo, which is primarily in English in English-speaking countries, got a unique variant when it came to the Japanese release of the LEGO kits, displaying the Japanese title, Doubutsu no Mori instead. That makes getting the kits from the region of Japan very rare compared to the ones on the shelf in your local store or LEGO shop.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to take a vacation to Japan for a two-week cruise around the islands. One of the things I did on the first few days into the trip was to find a LEGO store in the local mall for one of these exclusive Japanese LEGO Animal Crossing kits. I went with the Kapp’n Island Boat Tour for something around the mid-price range, compared to the large-scale Nook’s Cranny or the smaller birthday-themed set, at roughly 4,680 yen. All things considered, it wasn’t hard to find the set itself once I knew where to look for it. Of course, I couldn’t wait until the cruise was over to build it, so on one of our days at sea, I broke it open and started documenting the build.
The kit includes two Animal Crossing character minifigs, one being Kapp’n, the sea turtle and boat captain from the title of the build. The other is Marshal, a reasonably popular squirrel with a smug personality. Kapp’n holds a strong place in my heart with Animal Crossing, coming from the GameCube version with the exclusive Animal Island mini-expansion using your Game Boy Advance to connect to the Nintendo console. Meanwhile, Marshal first appeared in Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS and is a favorite among the community for his cute appearance. Two great choices for the kit given their popularity among old and new fans of the series.
The build isn’t too difficult to appeal to the younger side of the LEGO target audience and the kids that play the Animal Crossing games, focusing on decorating Kapp’n’s boat and making modular sections of the “island” that Marshal is relaxing on. The modular sections mimic the terraforming aspect of the latest entry in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch. Still, there are some fun easter eggs like in most themed LEGO kits that are a pleasure to build into the model.
Overall, it was a very fun and easy-going model to build. The authenticity of the kit being bought in Japan adds to the value and I don’t think it’ll be the last LEGO Animal Crossing kit that I buy and build.
And here’s a full gallery of the build for the full experience of LEGO building, brick by brick.
