November 2012 – Bill Ward's Brickpile

Friends Second Wave #7: Heartlake Stables

Today we examine LEGO Friends 3189 Heartlake Stables

This set is the most complex I’ve built so far in this wave. You get two stables and a barn, two horses, and some equestrian accessories. It’s all pretty basic construction, but I imagine girls will be able to have a ton of fun playing with it once built. A few observations I have about the build:

Dark pink hand truck? that’s new. But each new part/color combination costs LEGO a slot in their pallette. Is it really worth it to produce this in dark pink instead of red? Do you really think it matters to kids to have this part in pink? I’d much rather have some basic bricks and plates in dark pink.
Use of sliding garage doors held in place by clips is a clever surprise and nice parts usage (the red equestrian hurdle).
Still annoyed that minidolls can’t sit in the horses. They have to stand in the saddles, which looks strange. Nice to have more colors of horses though.
8×16 tiles in dark red!
2×4 roof peak slopes in pink!
Yet another treasure chest sans lid. What’s up with that?
More stickers. :-(
I like the helmets with hair coming out the back.
The well is simple, but cute.
Another new Friends character, Katharina.

Friends Second Wave #6: Adventure Camper

Today’s set is LEGO Friends 3184 Adventure Camper.

This set features a motorhome, trailer, two bicycles (including one in dark teal, a new color for bikes), and some campsite details. Our old friend Olivia is back, and a new friend Nicole joins her.

Unlike some of the other models in this wave of Friends, this is not a recolor of an existing LEGO model. It’s pretty much a complete redesign. It bears a passing resemblance to the motorhome in LEGO City Camper (7639) but if you look closer you’ll see that aside from the windscreen and the curved piece above the front seats, there’s not much similarity at all. Like that other motorhome it hinges open in a way that real motorhomes don’t, but the mechanism here is quite different – in camper 7639 both sides of the back portion of the vehicle swing open to the sides; here only one side opens, and it is hinged in the back, not the front. Also here, the roof hinges open. Like all the Friends sets the build is pretty easy, and it contains a lot of new part/color combinations. The RV includes two 1×10 pink bricks, which is a nice addition to the range of parts available in pink, and the 1×4 curved parts in the roof are nice to have in pink as well. There are also three light orange 2×4 tiles, which I haven’t seen before in that color. But the finished model is kind of funny looking, and I don’t like the asymmetry of the roof – the left side is curved pink pieces which is really nice, but the right side is lime green tiles and hinges. They should have at least used pink tiles so the color is symmetrical if nothing else!

The inclusion of bicycles is a nice touch, and I experimented with how to best have a minidoll ride them. Since they’re designed for minifigs, the dolls don’t quite fit perfectly, but I found two good ways to pose them: one with straight legs, similar to a minfig, and one with the hips bent and the feet forward. In both cases the hands can touch the handlebars, but lacking rotatable wrists the dolls can’t grasp the handlebars. That’s better at least than the RV, where their hands don’t go anywhere near the steering wheel – well, the one in the passenger seat can come fairly close! When you sit the two dolls in the front of the RV their arms overlap quite a bit due to the wide position they are in.

Like many of the Friends sets, this one comes with a large assortment of accessory parts – this time, the cooking set in red. The meal that the dolls are preparing to eat is a little strange – two cupcakes (one chocolate, one vanilla) and a carton of orange juice. Meanwhile while they eat dessert a turkey leg is cooking over the fire. I guess when two teenagers go camping without adult supervision, this is the kind of dietary hijinks one should expect.

Friends Second Wave #5: Emma’s Horse Trailer

Today we take a look at LEGO Friends Emmas Horse Trailer 3186.

The car and trailer are almost a perfect copy of Lego City Limited Edition Set #7635 4WD With Horse Trailer which came out a couple of years ago (sold by LEGO from 2008 through 2011, but you can still get it on Amazon at that link). The trailer is pretty much identical except for the color, and the truck is very similar but without the roof. But I love the new colors! The dark aqua for the walls of the trailer has got to prove useful somehow, and all the pink and dark red parts on both trailer and truck are great too. And as seen in Fortnight of Friends â€“ Day 8: Stephanieâ€™s Cool Convertible we get those cool panel pieces that can fit a minidoll’s feet and hold her in position for driving, since minidolls can’t sit on studs. The truck comes with the base for a treasure chest in tan, but there’s no corresponding lid, making it somewhat less than useful…

This set also includes one of the new Friends horses, previously seen in Heartlake Vet, only this time the horse is white instead of brown. But it’s still not possible for a minidoll to sit or stand in the horse’s cutout. At least now we get a saddle piece, which can fit into the cutout and can accommodate a minidoll rider. As with some of the first wave sets, there is an assortment of ribbons and bows and grooming equipment included in this set. There’s also a little hurdle for equestrian jumping and some extra haybales to raise it up for higher jumping.

Finally there is a little tack station, with an apple and carrot to feed the horse and a place to store the saddle. It has a flower which uses the regular LEGO green flower stem, but instead of the usual sprue with four tear-off flowers it comes with the 1×1 round plate with petals. I don’t recall having seen that combination used in a LEGO set before…?

Overall it seems like a really good playable set for kids … not having kids myself, I can’t really speak too much to that. I’m disappointed that instead of printed parts, this set includes stickers – but by mistake it seems I got two copies of the sticker sheet! I’m more interested in the parts, and we get some lime green 6×6 plates, a yellow box for the food in the tack station, dark tan tall slopes, and a bunch of dark red and pink pieces. I’m sure that the curved panels in dark aqua on the trailer will be useful for something too…

Friends Second Wave #4: Heartlake Flying Club

Having dispensed with the smaller sets we now tackle the medium-sized ones, starting with LEGO Friends Heartlake Flying Club #3063.

This is the first one in this series that comes in numbered bags. First we build the airplane, which is a really sweet design, very swooshable. It uses the new style handlebars first seen in Stephanie’s Pet Patrol, which are similar to the ones minifigs have been griping for years but with the ends upturned for minidoll compatibility. Here it works really well as the yoke of an airplane, flown by … Stephanie! The color scheme of the plane, with white wings and an aqua and dark aqua body, is really nice and I’m looking forward to the day when I have enough of these colors to do more MOCs with. This set comes with no fewer than six 1×4 curved slopes in light aqua, which is sure to be good for something. In addition to the plane we also get a cute yellow duckie, a dock with a cute crab and a fairly basic parts assortment, and the clubhouse for the flying club with life ring and some signs (stickers, sadly).

Since you build the plane first, it’s kind of a gradual process in disappointment – the plane has a lot of cool parts and is really swooshable, but the rest of the set is pretty forgettable in terms of parts or building techniques.

Friends Second Wave #3: Mia’s Bedroom

The third in my “Friends Second Wave” reviews is LEGO Friends 3939 Mia’s Bedroom.

This set consists of bedroom furnishings – a bed, table with a radio on it, a cabinet of some kind, and the drum set that Mia uses to keep her parents and neighbors awake at all hours of the day and night. I particularly liked the drums and the dark aqua tiles and 2×2 tile with center stud are nice parts to have in that new color. The drums themselves are well designed as well, using black telescope pieces for the cymbals and smaller drums, and a black R2D2 body for the bass drum. The furniture isn’t that exciting, though the macaroni in dark aqua could prove useful. The drum set comes with two printed tiles – one with Mia’s name and one with some sheet music.

Friends Second Wave #2: Andrea’s Bunny House

Last week I posted “Friends Second Wave: Oliviaâ€™s Speedboat” and I was going to post more reviews of the second wave of Friends sets, but the weekend got away from me … I posted all the photos on Flickr for several sets but didn’t get around to writing the reviews. But this week I’m determined to catch up. So here goes with review #2, #3938, Andrea’s Bunny House:

This is another simple, small set, featuring Andrea (previoulsy seen in Fortnight of Friends â€“ Day 3: Andreaâ€™s Stage and Fortnight of Friends â€“ Day 12: City Park CafÃ©) and an adorable little bunny rabbit. It’s a pretty simple set, but it’s nice to get some light orange bricks and pink plates. As a general rule I’m not sure it includes enough special parts to really be worth much, but the bunny is adorable!

Friends Second Wave: Olivia’s Speedboat

This past January, LEGO came out with its new “Friends” line of toys aimed mainly at girls. Since there were 14 sets in the first wave, and I’d just finished a review of the Advent Calendar sets the previous month, I ran a series of blog posts I called “Fortnight of Friends.” This summer/fall, a new second wave of 8 new Friends sets came out, and I’m finally getting around to reviewing them. No guarantees that I’ll keep this up with future sets though…

This is Friends set 3937 Olivia’s Speedboat. You get Olivia with a shovel and bucket, a really clever little sand castle, a beach towel, and of course the eponymous boat (No, there’s nothing wrong with the bow of the boat, I just didn’t snap it together very well and didn’t notice it until I’d already posted the picture, and I’m too lazy to reshoot it, sorry). I like the printed life ring round 2×2 tile on the bow. The boat is made from the same new curved parts as seen in LEGO City Speed Boat 4641. I have mixed feelings about those parts, since they’re not all that useful for other kinds of models, but maybe I’ll find a clever use for them… My favorite thing in this set is the sand castle, I think it’s a really clever little model.

Book review: The LEGO Adventure Book

The latest LEGO book I’ve read is The LEGO Adventure Book, Vol. 1: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs & More! by Megan H Rothrock
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very easy book to read… I finished it in well under an hour. It’s mostly pictures, with comic-book style speech bubbles, so there’s not a lot to read, but I really enjoyed it.

The basic idea is that the author, represented by a LEGO minifig, first builds her “Idea Lab,” complete with a robotic assistant Brickbot and a levitating platform called the “Transport-o-lux” and then Brickbot sends her traveling through time and space to visit various builders and see what they’ve built. Each chapter features a different adult LEGO builder and his/her creations, and throughout the book there are instructions on how to build each of the models. The book shows a whimsical and light style which is entertaining throughout.

I really enjoyed the variety of models chosen, and the excellent photography showing the construction techniques used. In many cases however, there isn’t quite the level of detail you’d expect in a LEGO set, and it might be frustrating to try to build… but I think that’s part of the point of an idea book like this, because it challenges the imagination to come up with a solution rather than just spoon-feeding it to you.

I also really like that it is written by and starring a woman, and although all but one of the builders visited are men, the models featured throughout the book include many things that should be of interest to both boys and girls.

I think this book is absolutely perfect for what it is trying to be, a source of ideas and inspiration for creative younger LEGO builders.

Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of this book to review.

I posted this review on Goodreads. Feel free to friend me there to see the rest of my book reviews (not just on LEGO subjects).

Book review: A Million Little Bricks

I recently read this book, A Million Little Bricks: The Unofficial Illustrated History of the Lego Phenomenon by Sarah Herman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was a little disappointed with this book to be honest. It started out all right, giving the story of the origins of the LEGO company, spelling out the trials and tribulations of the nascent toy company. But the bulk of the book is really just a list of all the different sets LEGO has produced over the years. There was only a small bit at the very end about the LEGO fan community, talking about a few of the conventions and Web sites, but I would have really preferred to see some MOC builders featured and more about the adult community.

Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of this book to review.

I posted this review on Goodreads. Feel free to friend me there to see the rest of my book reviews (not just on LEGO subjects).