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2015 LEGO Friends sets reviews

by Thita (admin) on February 4, 2015

LEGO released a really nice wave of LEGO Friends sets at the beginning of January that I thought are worth to take a closer look. LEGO Friends has been a very popular theme both with the target audience of little girls, and also adult LEGO fans who appreciate the unique colors and never-before-seen minifigure accessories for their own LEGO creations. The color-scheme of this wave of LEGO Friends sets is lavender, dark-pink and dark-blue with a dash of light-pink, light-blue and white sprinkled in the mix – a beautiful combination for sure. 🙂

➡ #41093 LEGO FRIENDS HEARLAKE HAIR SALON: Create all kinds of cool new looks at the stylish Heartlake Hair Salon! Give Emma a hair makeover at the Heartlake Hair Salon, the new place to be in Heartlake City! Meet Natasha the stylist with her cool colored hair. Sit Emma down at the washing station to wash her hair using the latest hair products. How would she like her hair today? Then give her a magazine and a coffee while you get creative with her hair, using all the tools in Natasha’s trolley. Choose the perfect accessory to complement Emma’s new hairstyle before showing her the new look in the mirrors. Get ready to be busy – Emma will be sure to tell her friends all about the hot new Hair Salon! Includes 2 mini-doll figures: Emma and Natasha the stylist. 318 pieces. Price: $29.99 – BUY HERE

I know some people don’t like LEGO Friends sets that are too girly, but even if you are not into beauty and hair salons it is worth looking at this set just for the pieces and accessories; scissors, mirrors, magazines, four different kinds of hair-styles, and some very useful new pieces in the form of the 2×2 round tile with stud and hole in the middle, and those bowl looking pieces (used as planters here at the front) in a new color. Below is the full review of the set by JANGBRiCKS where he will show you all the nice little details:

➡ #41094 LEGO FRIENDS HEARTLAKE LIGHTHOUSE: Enjoy a day of ice cream and adventure at the Heartlake Lighthouse! Enjoy a perfect afternoon by the sea at the iconic Heartlake Lighthouse! Stephanie is going to visit her friend Kate in the ice cream shop there. Help her pick an ice cream – there are so many flavors to choose from – and enjoy it on the pier in the sunshine. Head to the bathroom to freshen up and discover the ladder. Where does it lead to? Go exploring with Stephanie and find the secret room with a treasure map to start more adventures! Look out from the top of the lighthouse with the binoculars and spot the friendly seal sitting on a rock. Then climb into the row boat and head out to take pictures of it. After a day of fun with her friend, have a rest with Kate in the attic bedroom by lantern light. Which friends will come to visit for an ice cream tomorrow? Combine with the #41097 Heartlake Air Balloon for a sightseeing tour of Heartlake City. Includes 2 mini-doll figures: Kate and Stephanie, plus a seal. 473 pieces. Price: $39.99 – BUY HERE

This set is such a winner. I know I have said this before, but it is worth repeating here; if I would be a kid today very likely I would be focusing on LEGO Friends exclusively – and that’s because of sets like this. The color combination is so pleasing, and the layout is so nice. I also like all the little nooks and corners; like the sleeping area upstairs, the bathroom, the crawlspace in the lighthouse-tower and of course all the pieces to make delicious ice-cream combinations! See the full video-review below:

➡ #41095 LEGO FRIENDS EMMA’S HOUSE: Personalize Emma’s amazing designer home and hang out with all her friends! Build and customize your dream family home with a modern edge! LEGO Friends Emma’s House shows off all the creative skills of Emma’s family. Prepare a tasty meal in their state-of-the-art kitchen, using vegetables grown in their own garden and fresh ingredients from the opening fridge. Then sit the family down in the living room to watch a movie together on the flat-screen TV. Emma loves having her friends over to hang out in her bedroom, which she designed herself, and admire the view from her balcony. Help her practice with her make-up in front of the big vanity mirror after a nice long bubble bath in the bathroom. Do some painting in the beautiful zen garden, which has a birdhouse for her pet bird, or host a barbecue with friends on the relaxing roof terrace. Combine with #41090 Olivia’s Garden Pool for even more fun in the garden. Includes 3 mini-doll figures: Emma, mom Charlotte and dad Luis, plus her pet bird. 706 pieces. Price: $69.99 – BUY HERE

I very much like all of the LEGO Friends family homes and other large buildings. My favorite’s are: the #3315 LEGO Friends Olivia’s House from 2012, the #41005 LEGO Friends Heartlake High from 2013, the #41037 LEGO Friends Stephanie’s Beach House from 2014, and this most recent set. With their airy, modern look, and comfortable interiors they look so nice I would love to move into them myself! The front-view of this set is particularly pleasing, although I do find it interesting that they didn’t give any space for the parents to sleep. I guess they just supposed to work all the time to pay for the mortgage on this lovely home. See the full video-review below:

➡ #41097 LEGO FRIENDS HEARTLAKE HOT AIR BALLOON: Take a trip in the Heartlake Hot Air Balloon to find the perfect picnic spot! Go up, up and away in the Heartlake Hot Air Balloon for an amazing view of Heartlake City. Fly up to the clouds with Andrea and Noah as they try to find a quiet spot for a picnic. Use the map and binoculars to find the perfect place, then carefully land the Hot Air Balloon beside the waterfall. Now set up a picnic blanket and enjoy a croissant and cherries in the sunshine or toast marshmallows by the campfire. Then it’s time for some exploring – who know what treasures you’ll find! Combine with the #41094 Heartlake Lighthouse for more sightseeing fun in Heartlake City. Includes 2 mini-doll figures: Andrea and Noah. 254 pieces. Price: $29.99 – BUY HERE

The main attraction in this set of course if the new pieces to make the hot air balloon. As you will see in the video below, they are hard plastic pieces with clips at both ends. I’m really looking forward to see what amazing creations LEGO fans will do with these. The small natural setting is also nice, and it is always great to get another male LEGO Friends figure as they are quite rare. See the full video-review below:

Besides the above mentioned LEGO Friends sets there are many other smaller ones that were released at the beginning of January that are also really sweet. Here I just wanted to show you the largest and most interesting ones. You can check out all the new 2015 LEGO Friends sets, along with previous releases, at the Online LEGO Shop.

So what do you think? How do you like the 2015 LEGO Friends sets? Did you get any of them already? Or are you planning to? Which one is your favorite? Feel free to share in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the LEGO Friends section for more news, reviews and discussions, or select from the following related posts:

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New LEGO elements in 2015 – Part 4

by Thita (admin) on February 3, 2015

in Community Articles

(Written by BLProductions)

On January 2nd 2015, LEGO Customer Service updated their replacement parts pages for all the 2015 sets released on January 1st in Great Britain. At the time, I had about 39 totally new LEGO elements recorded, but when I had finished combing through all the newly released sets’ inventories, and documenting all the new parts, the total number of parts had increased to 72 (13 are “minifig parts”). In this final part to this series, I will cover the most interesting of the new parts in detail. And you can also find previous sessions of this series at the end of this post. 🙂

Before I start, remember that my count only includes new part molds LEGO made. According to the Brickset.com database, there are currently 1053 “new” parts this year, but as almost all of these are just new printings and colors, they do not qualify as new elements. The 18 elements listed below are indeed 100% new, so let’s take a look.

➡ LEGO Technic Parts: We have covered all of these before (see links at the end of this post), but there is more information and better pictures for them now. Beam 1X1 (Design ID 18654) is a very nice piece worth mentioning again, and it comes in dark-stone-grey in ten sets, which you can view here: Brickset.com/sets/containing-part-6100030 and the part itself is shown on the below left. Another part is Cross Axle 2M W. Snap W. Friction (Design ID 18651), which comes in black in nine sets, which you can see here: Brickset.com/sets/containing-part-6089119 – the part on the below right. These two pieces look really useful, and I look forward to getting some.

There are three more new LEGO Technic parts I have mentioned before that a number of people (myself included) believe will greatly improve the functionality of Technic creations. These are Gear Wheel Z16 W. Ø4.85 (Design ID 18946; comes in bright-red), Gear Shifter Ring 3M (Design ID 18947; comes in dark-stone-grey), and Gear Shifter Connector 3M (Design ID 18948; comes in white). So how do they improve Technic models? Well, the older versions of Technic gearboxes used 2M shifters, which made it difficult to build gearboxes. However, these three new parts can form a Technic gearbox in odd-numbered lengths (since they are 3M), which fits perfectly with the LEGO Technic system. These pieces appear together in #42038 LEGO Technic Arctic Truck and #42039 LEGO Technic 24 Hour Race Car, and the Gear Wheel Z16 also appears in #70170 LEGO Ultra Agents UltraCopter vs. AntiMatter. See these excellent elements below.

➡ LEGO Plates & Bricks: I’m not going to go over all the new plates this year, but they all can be found here: Brickset.com/parts/year-2015/category-Plates. However, I would like to point out two particular pieces. The first is Plate 1X2 W. Horizontal Hole Ø4.85 Rev. (Design ID 18677), which comes in medium-stone-grey in ten sets (see here: Brickset.com/sets/containing-part-6089147). I didn’t think this would be too useful when I first saw them, but it seems LEGO has found ample use for it. The other piece is Brick 1X1 W/Stud\U0026 Design (Design ID 15411), otherwise known as an App Brick. This is made from a different kind of plastic than regular LEGO bricks, hence the color name of conductive-black. This material allows the Ultra Agents app to scan the bricks, which unlocks something in the LEGO Ultra Agents game. As you may have guessed, App Bricks can be found in all five of the 2015 LEGO Ultra Agents sets.

➡ LEGO Functional Elements: As I just went over these in Part 3 of this series (see link at the end of this post), I will be brief. First, the Rapid Shooter is technically two pieces: the first is called Six Shooter Housing (Design ID 18588), which comes in dark-stone-grey, and the second is Six Shooter Trigger (Design ID 18587), which comes in both medium-stone-grey and yellow. Rapid Shooters have so far appeared in nine sets. The other element I want to touch on is the Super Jumper (Design ID 18663), which is transparent, and apparently harmful to minifigures. I heard that in the effort of attaching and removing minifigs from the Jumper, the amount of friction could damage the minifig’s legs. So, be careful with your Super Jumpers! 🙄

➡ LEGO Assorted Elements: Of the 23 parts in this category, I want to point out only three. The first one is the popularly noted mirror piece from the #10246 LEGO Creator Detective’s Office, which is oddly named Indskyde 4/6 M/Spejl Nr.1 (Design ID 20193) and given the unrealistic technical color of white. The other two pieces are Motorcycle Frame No. 2 (Design ID 18896) and Motorcycle Fairing No. 4, which are the main pieces for the new motorcycle seen in #60084 LEGO City Racing Bike Transporter. The frame is black as usual, and the top piece is bright-red. The top piece also comes in black in the #76032 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Avengers Quinjet Chase, which will be released later this year.

➡ LEGO Notable Minifig Parts: There are more than 15 pieces in this category, but I will briefly cover just four. Pe Foil Wings, Sh. Mini Figur, 2 Pcs (Design ID 20273) and Foil Wings, Sh. Mini Figur, 2 Pcs, No. 2 (Design ID 20286) are related, but of different shapes. Both are prints on shaped transparent plastic, and they come in larger squares of the same material. I believe this strategy is a first for LEGO, although something similar may have appeared in the past. The next piece is Scissors W. 3.2 Shaft (Design ID 18920), which comes in silver-metallic in three sets: #10246 LEGO Detective’s Office, #41093 LEGO Friends Heartlake Hair Salon, and the #41071 LEGO Elves Aira’s Creative Workshop. Finally, I want to mention Creature No. 15, Ass. “Deco 1” (Design ID 19539), which is the sand-yellow Tusken Raider headpiece that appears in the #75081 LEGO Star Wars T-16 Skyhopper. I mention this because I find it a huge improvement over the old Tusken Raider head. 😀

Overall, there are some great pieces this year, and many of them are improvements over earlier versions. Although I’m not sure LEGO needs this many new pieces, it seems they have found uses for all of them, which is very good. Also, all the pieces I mentioned above can be found in 2015 sets currently available at the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? Do you like the new parts LEGO is coming out with? Do you think these parts are improving the sets LEGO is producing? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉

And you may like to check out the previous articles in this series:

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2015 LEGO Friends sets reviews

New LEGO elements in 2015 – Part 4

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