Remember Porgs? Those little bird-things from The Last Jedi? I’m sure some people might remember them but with Mandalorian being so big right now and most Star Wars fans obsessed with how cute and adorable Grogu/Baby Yoda is I won’t be surprised if there are those out there who need a refresher what Porgs are.

Porgs made their first appearance in The Last Jedi, where they were animals native to the island on Ahch-To that Luke had exiled himself to. When Rey and Chewbacca were hanging out with Luke you got to see Porgs run around them.

The first time Porgs were revealed to the world was in the trailer for The Last Jedi and I remember how they were met with mixed reactions. Some people were thinking “oh, what’s that cute little creature?” Others were a little annoyed and thought it was Porgs were just another cash grab and something else that they could merchandise. Others thought we could potentially be looking at the next Jar Jar Binks.

Thankfully, the focus on Porgs in The Last Jedi was pretty minimal. They were just background dressing and occasional comedic relief.

Just check out this Porg compilation video I found and don’t tell me you didn’t a laugh a little at it.

Supposedly the existence of Porgs was because Skellig Islands, the location which served as Ahch-To, was home to this native species of bird called a Puffin. Due to conservation laws the filmmakers couldn’t do anything to keep the Puffins from popping up in the backgrounds and screwing up shots, so they had to remove them digitally, but it was easier and cheaper to change them into something else rather than try to paint them out.

The Lego Porg is something I actually built and photographed a while ago, I was just too preoccupied with things to do the write up until now. This thing almost flew under the radar for me. I’ve never really been that into Star Wars and at the time this was released I didn’t pay that much attention to Lego’s announcements to see what they were cranking out. It was only a chance trip to the mall plus a curious trip to the Lego Store to see what they had that allowed me to discover it. Now even back then, I’ve been pretty selective about what Lego sets to buy but when I saw this thing on the shelf I honestly thought it was too cute so I decided to buy it.

Here’s the front and back of the box showing off the front and back of the Lego Porg. You have to admit this thing looks pretty accurate. The Lego designers really did a good job recreating the Porg in Lego form, it’s a far cry from the recreations I saw Lego crank out when I was a kid, back when most of the stuff they came up with was so blocky they looked like something out of an NES videogame.

Another reason why I bought this was the number of pieces. Most of my Lego collection consists of some huge sets, many of which are like 2000-2500+ pieces—each. Most of the ones I’ve been able to knockout have taken me weeks weeks to work on. I really thought it would have been nice to build a nice small, under 1000 piece set that would only take me a day or 2 to finish.

Contents were divided up into 6 small bags. A somewhat reasonable number of bags but I think they probably could have gotten away if they consolidated it into maybe 3 or 4 bags.

Here’s the sticker for the Porg’s information placard

The instruction manual. I really should have tried to flatten it and put something next to it for a scale-reference of how thick it is. Honestly, when I put this together it was at a time where I was still thinking up my things for my site and I was so preoccupied with just getting a picture I didn’t take the time to actually take the proper amount of time to set things up or just make sure it was a usable picture.

Here’s how much progress you can expect to get done after each bag. Like I said earlier, judging by the progress I’m pretty sure they could have consolidated down from 6 little bags to maybe 3 or 4 little bags, or maybe even 1 bag.

Bag 1, you build the feet, and the basic internal frame for the Porg, complete with the mechanism that will make him open his mouth and flap his wings when you move his tail.

Compared to the mechanism that was in the Lego BB-8 this is pretty simple. The black thing is supposed to be the tail and it’s a lever that when you hit it moves the other pieces-basically the same way a step trash can operates.

The only thing that really made me hate this bag was the number of pegs that were needed.

Looking at this thing which is basically the Porg’s guts, it reminds me of I want to say that episode of Simpsons with the Funzo dolls and Bart and Lisa see one walking around without its covering and it just look like a horrifying monster, like a little Terminator.

I know there are other examples from other movies that are way scarier and more traumatizing but honestly is the only specific example I can think of off of the top of my head.

Bag 2, you’re pretty much building the Porg’s back/spine. No pegs here, just a lot of part stacking.

Here’s the Porg’s back.

This part is I guess the Porg’s butt.

Here it is all put together.

And here it is attached to the contents of bag 1.

Bag 3: Building the Porg’s chest, piece and mouth…

Honestly, I didn’t realize this the first time through but after taking this photo it looks like the Lego pieces are flipping me the bird.

Here’s the completed chest piece…

And here it is mounted on the Porg.

Bag 4: With this bag you’re basically building the Porg’s sides.

Here’s the completed side of the Porg finished and mounted. Note the note. I really like they chose to make it look uneven, rather than flat and smooth. Just like how a real life creature.

Here’s the other side piece.

Bag 5: This bag you’re finishing the Porg’s sides and building his wings. This bag I’m pretty sure they could have consolidated with Bag 4.

Here’s the side piece for the Porg.

Here are the side pieces mounted to the Porg.

Here’s the wings assembled.

And here’s the wings mounted.

Bag 6, at this point all that’s left to do is finish up the head.

Saying that the final step is forming the head it reminds me of Voltron when they did the form Voltron sequence and the leader would always be narrating the whole thing saying “Form feet and legs…” before ending it by saying “And I’ll form the head.” You would think that because the Porg is so small his head is small and made up of only a few pieces, but no. There’s actually a lot to the Porg’s head.

Here’s the eyes, top of the head, and top of the mouth put together. The top of the mouth looks like a huge mustache.

And here’s all that put on the Porg. At this point the sun had gone down. Since this was before I had invested in speedlites, I had to experiment lighting the Porg with an LED light I use for light painting to get it lit properly. I’m actually glad I was working on this when the sun went down because it gave me a really good chance to work on my lighting.

Here are the sides of the Porg’s head.

With these built and mounted the Porg itself is done.

All that’s left to do now is build the information card…

And this little guy. I’m really not quite sure why Lego threw this guy in there. He doesn’t seem that necessary.

I have to say to say the detail on this set is pretty amazing.

The use of studs on the front to represent feathers was a good touch.

The back I thought was really good. Instead of making it smoother and more homogenous looking, they stacked the pieces and used some that ended with tines to make an uneven surface, just like on a living creature.

Not a bad job in recreating the Porg’s webbed feet.

Close up on the head. I know when using lighting it’s a good idea to try to avoid reflections, and glare but I thought the light reflecting off of his eyes made a cool effect, almost like the eyes on a real live animal.

Mouth open and wings up–at least as high up as they’ll go. I wish they made it so the wings would go higher..

And here’s the Porg, information card, Mini-Porg and the box all together. I really thought the lighting on this came out really well. I showed this to a coworker who said I need to eliminate the shadows but I thought they added more personality to it.

That’s it for the Lego Porg. Thanks for checking this out and don’t forget to stop by for more.