Review Review: Friends 41005 Heartlake High

[Rick]

Thanks for another in-depth review. The school's colour scheme is great; the dark blue contrasts really nicely with the bright light yellow (you sure love that colour, don't you? ). The attention to detail is amazing and I'm surprised they managed to add so much interior detailing to those 8 x 16 modules.

There are a lot of stickers here, and they go in a lot of places.

I wish the theme relied less on stickers, but I guess some of them really are necessary to add the required detail, and it's really not unlike any other theme. However, this set also once again proves they use brick-built items wherever possible, like in the cafeteria.

The left side of the room is the music section, complete with a new printed light aqua guitar , attached to the wall so high that the minidolls need the pink-topped stools just to reach it to play it. If they succeed then there’s a nicely angled music stand with a printed music tile for them to use while they practice strumming.

... except that the minidolls can't actually play it because of their fixed hands. It was already pointed out as a problem with minidolls riding minifig bikes, but at least they can be posed as if they're riding the bikes. They can't really do much more than hold the guitar.

Now if only I had a red paintbrush for those cherries.

[Aanchir]

... except that the minidolls can't actually play it because of their fixed hands. It was already pointed out as a problem with minidolls riding minifig bikes, but at least they can be posed as if they're riding the bikes. They can't really do much more than hold the guitar.

Actually, they can. There's an anti-stud on the back of the guitar, and that can attach to one of a mini-doll's hand-studs while the other hand is held above the neck of the guitar. In this respect, it's even better than the guitar from the Collectible Minifigures, on which the neck of the guitar was the only attachment point, and around as good as Jimi Stringer's guitar-cannon in this set (which likewise only attaches to the hand by the back of the guitar because Hero Factory "fists" lack open or articulated fingers).

Edited June 13, 2013 by Aanchir

[1974]

Nice review, very good design. Now, is this fancy new yellow the same as the old cool/bright yellow? Has anybody compared parts? I really do not trust TLG on this matter

[Aanchir]

Nice review, very good design. Now, is this fancy new yellow the same as the old cool/bright yellow? Has anybody compared parts? I really do not trust TLG on this matter

There was an older color called Light Yellow which appeared in sets prior to around 2004, which was used extensively in Belville, the LEGO Island Extreme Stunts theme, and the Duplo Bob the Builder sets. That is slightly different than Cool Yellow, which replaced it. There's a reason Bricklink calls the classic color "Light Yellow" and the newer color "Bright Light Yellow" (though Bricklink also does a shoddy job differentiating between the two in certain instances... ah, well).

Neither should be confused with Bright Yellow (classic yellow, which has some quite noticeable variability in recent years but has never technically been replaced with a new color) or Brick Yellow (tan).

Edited June 14, 2013 by Aanchir

[Rick]

Actually, they can. There's an anti-stud on the back of the guitar, and that can attach to one of a mini-doll's hand-studs while the other hand is held above the neck of the guitar. In this respect, it's even better than the guitar from the Collectible Minifigures, on which the neck of the guitar was the only attachment point, and around as good as Jimi Stringer's guitar-cannon in this set (which likewise only attaches to the hand by the back of the guitar because Hero Factory "fists" lack open or articulated fingers).

Thanks for pointing that out Aanchir. I see the short bar sticking out the back of the guitar in one of the pictures now. It'd still look a bit odd for a minidoll to hold a guitar at the back though, but I guess it's best they could do given the minidoll's fixed hands.

[Aanchir]

Thanks for pointing that out Aanchir. I see the short bar sticking out the back of the guitar in one of the pictures now. It'd still look a bit odd for a minidoll to hold a guitar at the back though, but I guess it's best they could do given the minidoll's fixed hands.

Oh, right, it was a bar, not an anti-stud. I was confusing it with the Brickforge electric guitar, which my younger brother got at Brickfair one year.

On the whole I think it's a bit disappointing that mini-dolls' hands can't rotate, but having seen the concepts for mini-doll arms with rotating hands during a presentation at last year's Brickfair, I can sort of see why a lot of girls might prefer arms without rotating hands, just from an aesthetic point-of-view. The finalized arms work equally well for sleeveless or sleeved outfits, whereas sleeveless outfits with rotating hands would look somewhat out-of-place compared to the sleek, naturalistic look of other mini-doll parts.

I do kind of wonder what other changes we might see in mini-dolls in the future, though. Even the classic minifigure, which has not changed much since its debut, has had new variant parts introduced such as the shorter legs used for Yoda and other smaller characters. Now, creating "child" figures compatible with mini-dolls could require more molds, again, because the mini-doll has a more naturalistic appearance rather than the exaggerated proportions of minifigures. Just a shorter legs piece would not suffice because the arms would look terribly out-of-proportion.

I'm not sure whether we might ever see significant improvements in mini-doll articulation, and if so how long it might be until then. Separately-articulated legs would be a great improvement, but I think because of the decision to include molded skirts this might be ineffective in practice. Articulated hands would be great but of course they run into the issue mentioned above. The only easy solution I can think of would be to make the hands and arms out of a more rubbery material, and even that would only be practical for play, not display. One of my personal disappointments about the mini-doll was that they could not twist horizontally at the waist, which I thought would have been an easy articulation point to incorporate (just use a standard minifig bar instead of the current connection point between the upper and lower body). However, the improvements this would make for play and display would likely be minor, so I don't anticipate this change ever taking place.

But anyway, back on-topic, I'm glad we're at least seeing more body types in LEGO Friends (with the boy figures in this set and the Dolphin Cruiser adding a fourth torso style). And since LEGO Friends has been popular, I anticipate at least seeing a greater variety of outfits in the future.

[paostmo]

I just can't stay away any longer. It's time for me to dive head-first into the Friends theme. Lucky I still have time to get my hands on Olivia's House!

[Stinky]

My almost 8yr old daughter just built this set without any help from me...

She really loves this school and I'm pleasantly surprised by all the fun details like

the microscope and telescope. Cool set!

[pixie]

Thanks for your work! Personally, i don't like this set.