Image: Lego
Lego will release five customisable Animal Crossing: New Horizons sets in 2024.
Lego has officially revealed its new Animal Crossing: New Horizons sets, which consist of five sets based on characters and locations from the island-set Nintendo game. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Nook’s Cranny is one of these sets, complete with its money-grubbing landlord of an owner Tom Nook - though shopkeepers Timmy and Tommy are suspiciously missing.
All five of the Lego Animal Crossing sets will launch on March 1, 2024. Here’s everything you need to know about them:
Nook’s Cranny and Rosie’s House ($74.99)
Tom Nook and Rosie meeting up with building interiors visible
Nook’s Cranny and Rosie’s House consists of two locations, which explains the set’s high price of $74.99 (a figure typical of modern Lego sets). In the Nintendo Switch game, Nook’s Cranny is where players go to pick up recipe cards and tools for Bells. A slice of that shop's interior is visible, though it isn’t quite wide enough to display the entire building and its furnishings. On the outside however, it looks fairly authentic to the version we see in-game.
This set also comes with Rosie the cat’s house, one of the many villagers players might have recruited while building up their island. Rosie’s house has a few pink-coloured furniture items that are meant to be rearranged to your heart’s content, thereby preserving a little of that Animal Crossing spirit in Lego form. Many of these sets have modular baseplates that can be rearranged to make buildings look however they like. This set comes with minifigures for Tom Nook and Rosie.
Bunnie’s Outdoor Activities ($19.99)
Bunnie using the vaulting pole
Bunnie’s Outdoor Activities comes with a Bunnie minifigure and a buildable tent, leaning on a more outdoors-y vibe than the rest of the sets. This makes sense considering how much time players spend catching tarantulas and chopping down trees in the game’s early hours, and they can recreate all of that with the set’s bug net, shovel, axe and even its vaulting pole. There is a river here, but sadly no fishing pole to make use of it.
Isabelle’s House Visit ($39.99)
This set comes with Isabelle and Fauna minifigures
I don’t remember Isabelle making house visits in New Horizons, but I guess we’re rewriting history a bit for this one. This set comes with minifigures for Animal Crossing's mascot and fearsome Super Smash Bros. fighter Isabelle along with Fauna, whose house is included in the set. The set also comes with some interesting details: a present-carrying balloon is flying in the air, ready to be popped by a slingshot. A garden can be watered, an apple tree can be picked, and a mailbox is ready to be stuffed with letters. A cell phone tile can also be perused for new messages, and there’s even a workbench holding a DIY recipe card. That’s always handy.
Kapp’n’s Island Boat Tour ($29.99)
Kapp'n comes with his boat and map
Kapp’n’s boat tours were a late addition to the game, so you’d be forgiven for not recognising this set if you hopped out before New Horizons’ 2.0 update. This set includes minifigures for Kapp’n the turtle and Marshal the squirrel, as the turtle takes you to a remote island filled with bamboo, Bells and… a fishing rod! At long last!
Julian’s Birthday Party ($14.99)
Julian's Birthday Party comes with lots of birthday treats
This one comes with a minifigure for Julian, who’s celebrating his birthday with a birthday cake, skateboards and more fun party decorations. There’s a gift here with a Bell coin and a microphone, and some nature-themed items like trees and flowers that could fit into other sets too.
It looks like these Animal Crossing sets are meant to be combined together, because fans otherwise lose out on key items like fishing rods, Bells, shovels and minifigures if they stick to just one set. Nintendo and Lego will likely put out more Animal Crossing sets which, like the Lego Super Mario line, might eventually combine to make one big set with multiple modular components. In this case, we’ll eventually be able to build a physical island of our very own if the line expands. I’d like K.K. Slider and a Town Hall, at the very least.