31025 3-in-1 Mountain Hut LEGO Review - Creator, 2014

Basic but also inspiring.

TL;DR:

• Original Price:  $39.99
• Pieces: 550
• Minifigure(s): Male with plain red torso
• Sticker Sheet: No
  
• Pros: Creative use of simple parts, variety brick-built birds & trees
• Cons: Simple parts, basic techniques

Assembly: 

Build #1 - Mountain Hut

• Interesting Pieces:
• The 1x4 with bar down is a simple way to hide a crystal within the mountain. This piece always makes me feel like I found an antique relic of a former age...which isn't surprising, given that (according to BrickLink) it was released in sets from 1996 through 2026.

• Interesting Steps:
• 43: I appreciate the simplicity of the brick-built log pile (though it would have been better with a grey bracket piece), which—like most details in 3-in-1 sets—makes good use of basic parts that can be re-used in other ways for the other builds.

•  55: Another simple-but-effective sub-build is the cow skull over the fireplace (and it's worth comparing against the vehicle handles used as antlers mounted over the window in the Mountaintop Lookout build).

• 76: Pine tree

• 77: Bald eagle

• Interesting Techniques:
• Two of the builds in this set make use of bar and clip connections—both front and back—to lock the dollhouse-style halves together. They would have looked better in light blueish grey like the rest of the stonework, but it's possible that there weren't molds in those colors back in 2014.
  
  
• My Modifications:  
• This was the main build I used as the basis for my "I Like Trains House." I switched which plate was under which side of the house, expanded the house itself, added the "French doors" and the lift-off roof, and various other minor aesthetic and structural changes.

Build #2 - Mountaintop Lookout

• Interesting Steps:
• 44: The little ladder is cute and effective, if not exactly functional (I suppose you could lift up a minifig leg and plant it on one of the rungs' studs).

• 46: The bed is much smaller than I've seen elsewhere, and could benefit from a white tile or ingot as a pillow. It's also interesting that it uses jumper plates instead of tiles for the striped blanket (because the other parts of the other builds needed jumper plates, like the ATV in the Mountain Hut build).

• 57: Deciduous tree & woodpecker

• 58: Another bird

• 59: Log boat

Build #3- Small Lodge

• Interesting Steps:
• 52: Duck
  
• 54: Pine tree, with a slightly different arrangement from the one in the Mountain Hut build

• Interesting Techniques:
• As in the Mountain Hut build, this has clip and bar pairs both in the front and back of the lodge, allowing it to stay in place whether you want it open or closed.

• Pain Points:
• The interior space is cramped and tiny, but you can tell that effort was put into making it feel like a complete space.

 Leftover Pieces

• Overall:  3-in-1 Creator sets always put the focus on basic pieces—the better to be re-used in as many different ways as possible—and that's even more true of older sets like this one. I've noticed that the older a set is, the more likely it will be to rely on basic LEGOS. The most "specialty" pieces in this set are the LURPs (Little Ugly Rock Pieces, or "light bluish gray rock panel 3x8x7 triangular"); most of the rest are standard bricks and plates in basic colors; even the minifigure is simplistic. As cool as it is to get new and elaborate molds in more recent sets, it's also refreshing to see what can be done with fundamental ingredients.

Sets like these are also great for doing your own builds, following the instructions with bricks you have in your existing collections 

These old 3-in-1 sets are excellent case studies in using what you have: sometimes the colors aren't quite right, or you have to get creative to make the parts on hand work in different ways, but that's the beauty of LEGOs. Creativity is underlying principle and nowhere is that more evident than here. I really like how there are two different trees, two different vehicles (three if you count the log boat), and a flock of birds, all drawn from the same catalogue of parts.

While there's nothing super exciting in this set as far as pieces, minifigures, or techniques, it is a great starter set, and a good bit of practice in different building techniques. I'd definitely recommend picking it up—used, as I did, or even just getting copies of the instructions).

Score (out of 5 🧱):

• Price: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Process: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Play: 🧱🧱🧱
• Pieces: 🧱🧱

• Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱

Lego Instructions: here