LEGO Friends 41013: Emma's Sports Car Review.

In today's review, we are continuing with our friends theme. My Daughter wanted to add more to her Heartlake City, which is taking up our dinning room table at ATM. We haven't found a spot for the Heartlake City School yet that we reviewed recently. You can see in the upper right corner that my Sons Dino force are about to invade Heartlake City. I can just hear the kids screaming at each other now!
Lets go take a look at this little set...

LEGO Friends 41013: Emma's Sports Car. 

 The set contains 159 pieces and retails for $24.99.

 Comes with 1 Mini-doll: Sports Car, a Cat, Picnic Table, Road Sign and City Map

Note: All photo's can be clicked on for a larger view.

I was in the back seat watching while Chloe built this set so I only got my hands on it when taking the photos.

The front of the box shows a slick looking Sports car parked at what appears to be a lookout point with a park bench.

The back box art shows Emma having some quality time her kitty cat ie: Taking photos, cruising in the sports car and having some lunch at the park.

 Opening the box we get 3 unnumbered bags, loose in the box are the instructions and a small sticker sheet.

A close up of the sticker sheet. There are 7 stickers in total to apply.

  A quick run down of all the parts in the set. Some really interesting colors in this set, almost like candy. I have to thank Chloe for being so patient when I was photographing and setting up the pieces.

The Emma Mini-doll is exclusive to this set with the printed torso but the legs are available in 6 other sets. 

This is the first time we see this cat, at this moment it is exclusive to this set. It looks so cuddly!

The same goes with this backpack... Exclusive to this set at the time of writing this review.

First thing to be built is the street sign... really not much involved but still does the job. 2 stickers were applied during this step.

The town map "stand" was built next. A nice background feature to any city. 1 sticker was applied during this step.

The park bench and table will finish off all the background features of the set. The role play features include a camera, mobile phone, book, lettuce and tomato sandwich and a bottle of water.

 A quick step by step image of the construction of the sports car. At-least there is a steering wheel in this set :-)

 One thing I spotted while Chloe was building the car. in step 18 the windscreen is already on the car and on step 19 the part call out is asking to get the windscreen.

The sports car is ready for speeding* around Heartlake City. The car can hold 2 Mini-dolls. 4 stickers were applied during this stage.

* Oz Brick Nation does not condone speeding.

 All angles of the sports car.

 Spares for the set. I am really liking that LEGO are now adding 1X1 square plate to the spares.

 Final couple of photos of the completed set.

Chloe thanks you for watching the building process of her Sports Car. Emma Thanks you too :-)

Although I didn't build the set I found it to be another cute set. LEGO have really nailed the feel for the Friends theme. From my observations this reminds me a bit like the car from 76002: Superman: Metropolis Showdown.  To me the added role play features give real play value in terms of imagination and creativity. A nice change really from the flick missiles we so often see in the "boys" action sets. Chloe is very happy with this set, then so am I. If you want to get it, wait for a 20% off sale you wont be sorry.

Thanks again for reading!

As always and if you want too, let us know in the comments below, what you think of the set. I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Until next time this is Tan Tile... Wizards and Dragons for the next review.

LEGO Friends 41005: Heartlake High Review.

Continuing With My Daughters Friends LEGO theme. This week we will take a look at the newly released 41005: Heartlake High. Some interesting colors in this set.

LEGO Friends 41005: Heartlake High 

 The set contains 487 pieces and retails for $69.99.

 Comes with 3 Mini-dolls: Heartlake High Entrance with lockers, deli, art classroom, science classroom, bathroom, Basketball hoop and a picnic table.
  

Note: All photo's can be clicked on for a larger view.

The front of the box shows that you get 3 Mini-dolls. The friends line finally gets a second male Mini-doll.

On the back of the box it details all the accessory's that come with this set. Things to note are a printed guitar, printed Owl, a printed roof slope cash register,  a couple of books, basketball and an apple. There are also a lot of role playing features.

When opening the box we find 4 numbered bags to build each structure. Loose in the box there are 2x instruction manuals 2x  8 X 16 Tan plates, 1x  16 X 16 Tan plate and a sticker sheet.

A close up of the sticker sheet shows that there are 15 stickers in total to apply in this set..

The contents of bag 1. This will build the restroom, park bench and basketball hoop as well as the cool Medium Azur color Bicycle.

In this set we get Matthew, Stephanie's school buddy. This is the second time that a male Mini-doll has been produced in the friends line. The first time was in 3315: Olivia’s House named Peter (I believe that is her father?) There is also a third male Mini-doll that was released in 41015: Dolphin Cruiser named Andrew.

Stephanie has been in many sets through out the friends line but the print on her is exclusive to this set at this time...

A close up of this awesome Medium Azur colored bicycle. I don't know way but I love this color and want more! for the kids of course.... ;-P

With bag 1 complete this is what it builds. The restroom, park bench and basketball hoop. Matthew gets a laptop and Stephanie gets the bicycle and a Magenta handbag/school bag. 3 stickers was applied during this stage..

Bag 2 will construct the main entrance to the school and the inside will feature a lunch room/cafeteria and some lockers. An awesome 16X16 Tan Plate!

Another new member to the LEGO Friends world is the teacher Ms. Stevens. I totally dig the hair do! Very stylish for a teacher.

A Step by Step build of the inside and outside of the lunch room/cafeteria. Here we get some more printed bricks in the form of an "orange juice bottle" and a "milk carton" and a roof slope brick with a printed cash register on it. There are also some brick build sandwiches, a "tomato and lettuce on white bread" and a "cheese and lettuce on wholegrain bread"... Very healthy! 7 stickers were applied during this stage.

With bag 3 we will build the science room. Interesting pieces to note are the Reddish Brown window frames, the printed Owl, a Trans-Bright Green fluid chemistry bottle, 1x Reddish Brown book and 1x Magenta book.

A close up of the Owl and it's printing.

A step by step build of the science room. Some of the role playing features in the room are the brick built microscope, telescope, a couple of books and 2 desks facing a blackboard. 4 stickers were applied during this stage.

Bag 3's contents will construct the music room/art room. Pieces to note are the Bright Green apple, printed guitar, printed music sheet tile and the paint brush piece with a Dark Green tip.

The first part of building bag 3 is to finish off the roof over the science room that has a clock, to make sure the children get to class on time.

Constructing the music room/art room is exactly the same as the science room except for the interior.  Inside the room there are some "paint bottles", drawers, a brick built easel, 2 seats, flowers and an apple. 1 sticker was applied in this step.

Spares left over... some handy pieces!

Here are some pics of the completed model...

Overall this was a particularly fun build with many great accessories and brick built features to role play with. I wish that regular LEGO such as City incorporated the same amount of role play/accessories as the friends line seems to be doing. If you not a fan of this line I would still recommend getting this set. The bright colors are easily changeable to better suit a city layout. The fact that this set is built like a modular, it can be added onto with multiple sets, that is a winner in my eyes. By adding a second set you could comfortably split the art/music rooms in two and create any number of rooms like a library or home ed... since there are a couple of food store sets out already to use the parts for. My daughter is in her second year of school and she is loving it. Now that she has this to play with she can come home and reply what she has learned over the course of the day. It goes without saying, but I will say it... She loves it!

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review!

As always and if you want too, let us know in the comments below, what you think of the set. I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Until next time this is Tan Tile... I've been Edumacated, till the next review.

LEGO Friends 41010: Olivia’s Beach Buggy Review.

Today's review was at the request of my Daughter. She wanted to know why I haven't taken any photos of her LEGO sets yet. To be fair she is right, that Friends sets needs to be covered too. So with that, we picked this little set "Olivia’s Beach Buggy" from our pile of LEGO sets that are waiting to be built. We need to cater for all genders yes? Let take a look shall we.

LEGO Friends 41010: Olivia’s Beach Buggy 

 The set contains 94 pieces and retails for $15.99.

 Comes with 1 Mini-doll: Beach Buggy, Surf Board, Beach Stand and Coconut tree

  

Note: All photo's can be clicked on for a larger view.

The reason we chose this set first was because of all the interesting pieces I saw on the front of the box. Lots of cool looking pieces!

On the back of the box we see Olivia surfing the waves, cruising in her Beach Buggy and having a refreshment from the Beach Stand.

What we get when we open the box are 2 unnumbered bags, with the instructions folded loose in the box. 

Now for the parts... First thing I notice are the print-less Minifig heads, 3 x reddish brown and 1x yellow head piece. The 3 x palm leaves (why Lego didn't give us the 4th leaf I will never understand to use with the 2 X 2 Round Plate With Vertical Shafts) I Don't have any Popsicle pieces yet, so that's pretty cool. The Medium Azure Surf board looks really nice in the hand and we also get 3 x Tan 2 X 2 round brick with grill profile!

A lot of people don't like the Mini-dolls but I kinda like them... I will never add them to my City but they do look colorful, eye catching even. My little girl Chloe loves them and that's all that matters to me. Oliver looks the part for the beach scene. She comes with a single face print (not that you could ever give the double prints with the shape of the heads.) and a printed torso an legs.

The first thing we build is a fruit stand that contains a Yellow banana and a lime green and a orange stud to represent an apple and orange.

The Beach Stand is simple. The Yellow minifig head becomes a pineapple when the 2 x green 1X1 bracelet studs are placed on top. Plus we get the cool looking little Popsicle piece I mention earlier.

A step by step build of the coconut tree... It's great to see that they added a technic piece to support it all together. A 4th leaf would have been nice to finish off the tree... but knowing me I will most likely buy another set to complete it.

Building the buggy was pretty cool. Only thing to point out... there is no steering wheel! This would fit in nicely into a LEGO City scene by changing out the pinks, the foot holder and adding in a steering wheel that it's sorely lacking. A step by step build of the beach buggy.

The left over spares for the set. When ever I see the 1X1 bracelet plates I cant help but smile, I really like them for some reason. Maybe because they can be used with the little carrot top pieces we get as spares from other sets that are pretty much useless.

 I will leave you with a few pics of the competed set and my overall thoughts on the set.

 

At the end of the build and setting up the shots, I actually found myself smiling at how much I enjoyed building this with Chloe. The details are simple but yet, they fill out the set. By that I mean, all the intended parts to create specific things like the pineapple, the coconuts on the brick built tree, the apple and orange, all these things stand out and help inspire your imagination (and that's from an adults point of view) imagine what a child is imagining when they build and play with this set. Apart from having no steering wheel and 3/4 of a coconut tree :-P this a pretty solid set and my daughter totally enjoyed building this with me, that's the important thing. Spending time with your children and playing LEGO... What more can a Dad ask for?

Thanks again for reading!

As always and if you want too, let us know in the comments below, what you think of the set. I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Until next time this is Tan Tile... Pinking out for the next review.