Tamara Dadswell's MOCs with LEGO® Art 31211 Macaw Parrots

The final contributor to our week of guest builders is Tamara Dadswell from Canberra, Australia. Seeing Tamara's creations at Melbourne's Brickvention show is always thrilling, and her range of LEGO high heels for 2024's event was certainly original!  

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

31211 The Fauna Collection – Macaw Parrots
US$59.99/ £44.99/ €49.99/ AU$79.99
644 parts
Released 1 January 2024

Set 31211 on LEGO.com

I have always enjoyed reading New Elementary for its articles on set reviews, new parts, and ideas for novel parts usage. So, I was honoured when I was asked to be a guest contributor to build whatever I wish from a recent set with new moulds or recolours.

I generally build MOCs with a strong focus on colour, so set 31211 Macaw Parrots from the LEGO® Art line immediately caught my eye. 

At the time of its release, it had 16 new moulds or recolours that didn’t appear anywhere else, and five additional elements that appeared in only one other set. Importantly to me, some of the unique and rare elements were Bright Pink, which is my favourite LEGO colour!

It started with an egg

I was initially intrigued by Brick Curved 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 (Design ID 3573), which appears in three colours in the set: Bright Light Yellow, Bright Pink, and Coral.

My first thought was that the element could be used to make an egg. 

I confirmed this using Brick Curved 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 in Bright Light Yellow (Element ID 6467801 or 6508114).

However, a lone egg is uninteresting, and while I could create more eggs in the other colours, I didn’t think a collection of eggs was an effective use of the parts.

The wilting tulip

To showcase the new curved slope in Coral, my thoughts turned to tulips in bloom, which inspired my second MOC.

This build used several elements unique to set 31211:

• Brick Curved 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 in Coral (6467767 | 3573)
• Wedge Plate 2 x 2 Right in Coral (6467788 | 24307)
• Brick Curved 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 in Bright Light Yellow (6467801 or 6508114 | 3573)
• Brick Curved 1 x 3 x 2 in Bright Light Yellow (6289283 | 33243)
• Slope Inverted 33° 3 x 1 with Internal Stopper and No Front Stud Connection in Bright Light Yellow (6467803 | 4287)

But what other new parts could I use?

The dragon duo

By part count, more than half of the unique elements in set 31211 are Dark Turquoise. And six of the unique elements are inverted slopes. I set myself a challenge to build a MOC using as many of these elements as possible.

• Brick Curved 10 x 1 [Symmetric Inside Ridges] in Dark Turquoise (6467792 | 13731)
• Brick Curved 6 x 1 Inverted in Bright Light Yellow (6467808 | 42023)
• Slope Inverted 33° 3 x 1 with Internal Stopper and No Front Stud Connection in Bright Light Yellow (6467803 | 4287)
• Slope Inverted 33° 3 x 1 with Internal Stopper and No Front Stud Connection in Bright Pink (6467797 | 4287)
• Brick Curved 6 x 1 Inverted in Bright Pink (6468169 | 42023)
• Brick Curved 6 x 1 Inverted in Dark Turquoise (6467790 | 42023)
• Slope Inverted 33° 3 x 1 with Internal Stopper and No Front Stud Connection in Dark Turquoise (6269017 | 4287)

I began with Brick Curved 10 x 1, which I thought looked like the top of a wing. Since this set already relates to birds, I dug through history and folklore to create wings – and then bodies – of chibi-style dragons.

I decided to name them Mack and Cora, given their heritage. 

This MOC is not an alternate build of set 31211. I had to source quite a few parts from my own collection.

And do you remember that unremarkable egg I built to start with? 

Well, I decided it’s a dragon egg and Mack and Cora are waiting to see if a little brother or sister is going to hatch.

To my surprise, this MOC made use of 12 of the 16 unique parts found in set 31211:

• Brick Curved 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 in Bright Light Yellow (6467801 or 6508114 | 3573)
• Brick Curved 6 x 1 Inverted in Bright Light Yellow (6467808 | 42023)
• Brick Special 1 x 2 with Pin - Bottom Stud Holder in Bright Light Yellow (6467805 | 44865)
• Slope Inverted 33° 3 x 1 with Internal Stopper and No Front Stud Connection in Bright Light Yellow (6467803 | 4287)
• Brick Curved 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 in Bright Pink (6467793 or 6508113 | 3573)
• Brick Curved 6 x 1 in Bright Pink (6445416 | 42022)
• Slope Inverted 33° 3 x 1 with Internal Stopper and No Front Stud Connection in Bright Pink (6467797 | 4287)
• Brick Curved 10 x 1 [Symmetric Inside Ridges] in Dark Turquoise (6467792 | 13731)
• Brick Curved 6 x 1 Inverted in Dark Turquoise (6467790 | 42023)
• Slope 33° 3 x 1 in Dark Turquoise (6467787 | 4286)
• Slope Inverted 33° 3 x 1 with Internal Stopper and No Front Stud Connection in Dark Turquoise (6269017 | 4287)
• Plant, Leaf 2 x 6 x 1 with 2 Studs in Light Aqua (6467799 | 3565)

Yellow paper daisy

A quick stocktake of my builds revealed only one of the 16 unique elements remained unused. 

And so it was, that the yellow paper daisy came to be, using Brick Sloped 1 x 6 x 1 with 1 x 2 x 1 / 3 Cutout in Bright Light Yellow (6467804 or 6508008 | 4569).

Set 31211 on LEGO.com

Enjoy more of Tamara's creations on Instagram or Flickr.

SEE MORE MOCs: Moko's MOC with LEGO® DREAMZzz™ 71457 Flying Pegasus Horse

Help New Elementary keep publishing articles like this. Become a Patron!

A huge thank you to all our patrons for your support, especially our 'Vibrant Coral' tier: London AFOLs, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Huw Millington, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Gerald Lasser, Baixo LMmodels, Sue Ann Barber and Trevor Clark, Markus Rollbühler, Elspeth De Montes, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Chuck Hagenbuch, Jf, Wayne R. Tyler, Daniel Church, Lukas Kurth (StoneWars), Timo Luehnen, Chris Wight and our newest patron, Jonathan Breidert! You folks are just the cutest little baby bows.

LEGO® Shop at Home
USA: FREE SHIPPING every day on orders over $35!
UK: Free delivery when you spend £50 or more at LEGO!
Australia: Discover the latest promotions and offers on LEGO.com

All text and images are © New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.

Affiliate links to Premium Bandai; we may earn a small fee if you purchase.