Despite having built a lot of Lego over the past few months I have not had any experience with the Friends line of builds at all. Although I have liked the look of a few I just couldn't get past the fact that the figures that come with the theme are dolls rather than minifigures. I'm not a minifigure collector but the dolls just looked odd to me and too large a step away from the traditional minifigure. However, the opprotunity to get a shopping mall to add to my city without even trying to MOC one up was too good an opportunity to pass up and I am thrilled I decided to take the plunge in to this theme.
The figures themselves may look different but they are still legs, torso, head and hair clicked together. Annoyingly for the purist in me the figures actually sit better in chairs than the traditional minifigures because the hip mechanism is slightly different and it just makes it easier to balance them. I was also gratified to find out that the feet all have stud sized openings in them so they fit on the base plates and stand upright in a pleasing manner.
The Shopping Mall itself contains several small stores - music, gaming, milkshakes, sweets, tea shop, sushi, jewellry/fashion and toys. All accessed via an escalator and a separate flight of stairs. There are also two little side shows - one with a turntable for fashion shows and the other is a photo opportunity point with cut outs for your Friends People to pop their faces in. The funnest bit though is the slide into the ball pit to keep your little Friends People happy. There is even a restroom and baby change area (I don't know why but Lego seem to always find somewhere to pop a toilet in on their larger building based builds).
There is a LOT of play value in this set. The shops themselves are small so you need little fingers to easily access them to pop your figures in and out or rearrange your shelves. The best shop is definitely the Toy Store with a tiny dolls house and fire engine builds and then a rabbit figure and, of course, a pull along duck as a nod to the origins of the company. I have to admit once built it definitely makes an impact as it is not small and it does actually look really good on a shelf.
Many thanks to the Amazon Vine Program for a review copy of this product. The opinions expressed in this review are my own and do not reflect the opinions of Lego or Amazon. This is also an honest and unbiased opinion based on my experience with the product and is not influenced by it being a review copy.
Number Of Pieces: 1032
Approximate Price Per Piece: £0.09
Build Time: 3 Hours
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