Review + MOCs: 31170 Pink Flamingo from LEGO® Creator

LEGO® Creator has been around for 25 years. I think that for most of this time, it has been a bit of a sleeper theme. There have been good sets every now and then, and some absolute classics during my childhood – 4508 Titan XP of 2004, for example. However, the coherence of design has bloomed during the last three or so years. Concurrently, the colour schemes of the sets have become bolder, resulting in more sweet recolours for us parts aficionados and MOC builders. 

31170 Pink Flamingo is one of those sets. Therefore, I'm taking a look at not one but two copies of this set, running through its parts of interest and presenting two character MOCs inspired by its pieces.

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.

31170 Pink Flamingo

• Release date: 1 March 2025
• Pieces: 288

Price: 

• US$ 24.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 29.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 19.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 39.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 44.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 24,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 24,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ 24,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLN 109.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 349,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 219.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

View all pieces from Pink Flamingo available on LEGO Pick a Brick

Interesting parts

Recolours

• 5x Brick Round 2 x 2 D. Tube with 45° Elbow and Axle Holes (Crossholes) at Each End [LONG] in Coral (6540130 | 5489)

This coral Big Mac is the eyecatcher of this set. Beautiful! 

• 5x Slope Curved 4 x 2 No Studs in Coral (6540129 | 93606)
• 4x Slope Curved 3 x 1 No Studs in Light Aqua (6540137 | 50950)

Everyone likes curved slopes! We've had several new moulds in this category this year, but it's also pleasant to see missing colours of old moulds appearing.

• 5x Wedge Plate 2 x 2 Left in Coral (6540131 | 24299)
• Plate Special 2 x 2 with Double Inverted Curve, 1 Stud in Black (6511014 | 4190)

I would have imagined that black would have been the first colour for this pagoda roof tile, but here we are; it premieres as a flamingo's flipper. 

The matching right coral wedge plate has appeared before. It is irritating when mirrored pairs of asymmetrical parts are not released at the same time. Fortunately, the issue has been fixed for this coral wedge plate. 

• Wedge Plate 6 x 4 Left in Bright Pink (6540139 | 48208)
• Wedge Plate 6 x 4 Right in Bright Pink (6540138 | 48205)
• 4x Plate Special 2 x 3 with Rocks in Bright Pink (6540133 | 27261)

The rock plate – or is it a slope? – seems to be a successful part as it gains new colour every now and then. Bright pink is unfitting for most rocks, but I found a use for it, nevertheless.

Rare parts

• 3x Slope Curved 2 x 1 with Stud Notch Right in Bright Pink (6486887 | 29119) – also in 43247 The Lion King (see my review of 43247 with MOC)
• 3x Slope Curved 2 x 1 with Stud Notch Left in Bright Pink (6460839 | 29120) – in 2 other sets
• 2x Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 1 with Curved Top in Bright Pink (6526031 | 5841) – new in 2025, also in 31169 Typewriter with Flowers
• 4x Brick Round Corner, Curved 3 x 3 x 1 Quarter Circle in Coral (6438420 | 76797) – also in 41753 Pancake Shop

These are all bright, promising MOC parts.

• 5x Wedge Plate 2 x 2 Right in Coral (6467788 | 24307) – also in 31211 Macaw Parrots (see MOCs by Tamara Dadswell)
• Plant, Leaves, Round 2 x 2 x 2/3 with + Axle Hole and 4 Leaf Extensions in Bright Light Orange (6525787 | 15469) – also in 2 other 2025 sets
• Brick Arch 1 x 3 x 1 2/3 Curved Top in White (6519990 | 5843) – also in 2 other 2025 sets

Also, I was surprised to see that the petal round plate has been around already for 11 years. Great piece.

Buy pieces from Pink Flamingo from Pick a Brick

The set

This article was going to be a MOC article instead of a review. However, I threw a party with some friends before opening the sets, which I had two copies of; they were sat alluringly on my windowsill and some of my guests wanted to build the models. They made the flamingo and the axolotl.

Consequently I can't say anything about the building process, but the finished model looks perfect, is sturdy, and has great colours. It also features some interesting angles.

The axolotl is much simpler, but cute as well! The model is accompanied by a piece of coral (the creature, not the colour, but featuring the colour), which is unfitting as axolotls are strictly freshwater creatures while corals exist only in sea water. Oops! To correct this mistake, the party guests repurposed the pieces…

…ending up with these two, who look like indie game characters…

…and finally I made this bizarre, head-swapped pair that I fancied.

MOC 1: The Athlete

Coral is an ideal colour for sportswear. Many of my character builds are loosely inspired by random people seen on the streets; and making an athletic character with coral clothing has crossed my mind many times. Thus, the seed parts here were the newly recoloured 2x4 curved slope (6540129 | 93606), accompanied by rare 3x3 quarter round curved slope (6438420 | 76797), introduced in 41753 Pancake Shop two years earlier. In total, the array of curved pieces in this colour is now surprisingly good!

Flamingo parts aside, neon/vibrant yellow pieces matched the sporty aesthetic, so I added some details in it as a complimentary colour touch. In fact, I designed the shoe already 2 or 3 years ago for another project that ended up being Supersonic Soaring Suit and needing trainers no more. 

Another fun piece I wanted to use in this athletic context was Gravity Games plastic flag piece, from LEGO® Sports 3535 Skateboard Street Park of 2003. I never had those sets, but I remember them from the catalogue quite well.

Finally, this MOC includes a small New Elementary Easter egg. My debut on this site was in a Parts Festival of 2019, utilising the pieces Tim gave me after the workshop he ran at Skærbæk Fan Weekend. I used all the seed parts except [checks notes] Technic Wire Clips (49283) and Minifigure, Hair Smooth Mop Top (55532), freshly released in LEGO® Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down (see our review of 75810 by Elspeth). 

Its inclusion in the parts fest baffled me back then. All I was able to think to make with it was coconuts, and I didn't need coconuts in any of my models. But here, they "premiere" as the many buns of dark brown hair. For practical reasons, athletes tend to wear their hair tied up with braids or similar, and whereas they're rare as elaborate as this, if felt fitting. 

This has 10 mop-top hairs in total. Checkmate!

MOC 2: Lyn Satz

The second MOC is a character as well, and also uses coral pieces to make up the body wear. However, I wanted to use some other colour from the set, too; in the end, I dropped lime altogether, and the bright light yellow and bright light orange pieces are not from the set! Sometimes the seed DNA goes through a metamorphosis.  

At least, the bright pink faux-fur collar is based upon the recolours, and the striking satin trans-pink fern pieces form the mohawk. The hair somehow defined this character and its colourful Road Warrior Punk aesthetic that ultimately I completed with a bright light orange/trans-clear Flying V, based on a design I made already in 2018. The amplifier uses LEGO® Fabuland car roofs (4086) which have some fantastically weird curves.

In the end, this MOC doesn't have much in common with 31170 Pink Flamingo. I surprised even myself by not using the coral big macs, despite them being the parts that excited me the most. But in my case that's the nature of the creative process, and it can't be forced. Now it seems that Lyn Satz skinned the flamingo and went on rocking.

Conclusion

31170 Pink Flamingo is a great parts pack and a delightful, well-designed model. The numerical value of £19.99/US$24.99/€24.99/AU$ 39.99 for 288 pieces (and no minifigures) is good but not especially good for LEGO Creator; however, the colours are striking and there are plenty of new recolours. I hope they'll make more sets like this.

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READ MORE: Review: 42215 Volvo EC500 Hybrid Excavator from LEGO® Technic

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