Giraffes are my favourite animals (that explains my username). When I first saw this set, I fell in love with it immediately.
Looking at the images, I have high expectations for this set. It’s one of those 3-in-1s where every build looks fantastic. Interestingly, this is the first time the designer, Aaron Newman, has worked on a Creator set.

I've taken a leaf out of Brickset's book with this next bit:

Summary

31150 Wild Safari Animals, 780 pieces.

£59.99 / $64.99 / €64.99 | 7.7p/8.3c/8.3c per piece.

Buy at LEGO.com »

As well as displaying the beauty of the real animals, this set also highlights the versatility of LEGO

+ Three excellent build options

+ Realistic appearance

+ Main models are larger than expected

- Out of place green angle connectors

Packaging

Unfortunately, I couldn't include images of the box as Bricksafe.com cropped the edges out, so I've linked to the images tab on Brickset.

I love the box art on this one. Personally I would prefer tape over thumb tabs. I opened it top-first because it made more sense, though I accidentally snagged the corner of Bag 1 in opening!

The back of the smallest model's instructions feature, funnily enough, a giraffe…

Gazelle Family

This smallest build is far from small! It assembles a pair of sizeable gazelles and some greenery (I'm unsure what plants exactly) beside a water source.

The gazelle normally gives birth to one calf (check) and they feed on grass, bushes and shrubs (also check).

They are highly detailed (especially the adult’s head), which helps draw the eye away from the grey ball joints.

For some reason, the calf reminds me of Bambi (wrong mammal!).

4/5, an excellent start in my opinion. Gazelles are natural prey for lions, so…

Lion

Our next build is a lion, an acacia tree and a butterfly so large that it belongs in the Guinness World Records.

The body is covered in sideways-facing studs, which usually signifies a good resulting build.

At this early stage, the mane looks rather like a rusty spaceship…

The lion is 16.5 cm minus tail and the tail is 11 cm long. It has hefty legs and enormous feet like the genuine article and a large and highly detailed mane.

It can easily be posed as if running towards its prey.

The face looks excellent, with a mouth line formed with the gaps between pieces and gold handled bar holders forming the eyes, although the latter can look a bit strange depending on how you look at them. A lot of thought has gone into this end of the build.

The butterfly makes good use of the eye tiles and is an accurate shape, though the size is far from realistic, a similar size to the lion’s mane.

The acacia tree is surrounded by bullrush-like plants and grows by water out of a mound of earth. A good little tree spoiled only by the green technic angle connector. The colour is incongruous and seems unnecessary, as in the larger acacia it also forms parts of branches.

Aside from the minor quip regarding the tree, another worthy build. This could easily stand on its own as a main build, scoring 4/5.

Just 63 stretches to go and I've done my workout for the day…

Giraffe and Flamingo

Next, the giraffe itself, the build I am most anticipating!

This build once again starts with a solid studded core, built up in Bag 1.

Bag 2 begins to clad the body and adds the tail. Parts not needed for this build, like the second pair of eyes, are hidden by the "cladding". Be warned, those tail patches easily get disorientated.

Bag 3 builds up the neck and head. Most of this is built horizontally. The anti-studs on the neck are covered up with parts representing neck hair.

Black microphones are used for the giraffe’s eyes, while the relatively new inverted bow bricks are an absolute boon in capturing the shape of the giraffe’s curved head. The set includes five (inverted bows, not heads!).

The neck is snapped onto the body. Some more “cladding” conceals the join. Next come those spindly legs and the feet, and the giraffe is complete, standing at a height of 40 cm (I expected 30 cm). The legs are each 19 cm tall and the neck 16 cm long.

It is an absolute masterpiece; it stunningly encapsulates the giraffe with great accuracy, aside from a few oversized spots, which are necessary to cover up the thigh and neck joints. The head looks best positioned at a slight angle.

The neck can bend almost to knee level, though it looks a tad awkward/disturbing in that position.

The flamingo (which is larger than it looks) makes use of the newish 1x1x2/3 curved brick with side stud to angle the left leg. A pink space blaster is used for the head. I'd like to see that recolour used elsewhere!

The acacia’s trunk, completing the scene, uses a pleasing combination of brown and dark orange.

The finished result is very organic, save for the bright green angle connectors. The completed tree is 27 cm tall.

The ball joint attaching the giraffe’s head enables it to be posed munching on the acacia’s leaves.

This model scores a straight 5/5.

Extras?

For some reason, after finishing this set, I was left with two extra 1x2 half circle tiles. A few sets recently have included unexpected extras; 76903 had an additional printed parasol dish, for example, so I wonder whether this was intentional.

Verdict

This set is LEGO creativity at its best. Unlike some Creator sets, every model is all but flawless, and the models are larger than the images would have you believe. Even LEGO’s description understated the height of the giraffe! And the flamingo is also bigger than it looks!

This set also contains many recently-introduced parts, such as the 2x4 tile with curved ends, the inverted 2x2 round tile, the 1x2 half circle tile, the 1x1x2/3 plate and the 1x1 curved brick with side stud. This set is also a good source of dark orange 1x1 quarter round tiles and 1x2 plates with curved ends.

All things considered, and even just looking at this set in front of me as I write this review, I would say this set presents superb value for money (initially, I thought it was slightly overpriced). This is quite possibly the Creator set to beat all other Creator sets. I would highly recommend this set to anyone who loves animals or enjoys an engaging build.