Review: 41048 Lion Cub's Savannah
Posted by Huw,
The second of the three Friends Animals series 6 sets features a lion cub in a tree.
The lion cub part is not new though, having first appeared as an orange-brown tiger in series 4's 41042 Tiger's Beautiful Temple. An identical lion cub to this one is included in full-size Friends 41059 Jungle Tree Sanctuary.
Nevertheless, if like me, the only Friends sets you buy are these Animals bags, then it will be a welcome addition to your collection of species.
The 'savannah' consists of a rock and a small tree along with a small splash of water underneath, all mounted on tan plates.
There's not much in the way of useful 'Friends colours' parts in this one, just the light royal blue 2x2-with-one-stud tiles.
The tree, which features a platform for the lion to sit on, is fairly interestingly constructed for its size. The lion has a chicken leg and a bone to chew on, along with the seemingly mandatory bow on its head.
The lion is cute but far too anthropomorphised to be of much use outside a Friends environment.
Like all the other Friends Animals sets, it's a set that'll go down well with the target audience.
The three sets are available at shop.LEGO.com in the UK but haven't appeared in our product feed yet. Apparently LEGO has changed some back-end systems on the shop and it's caused a number of problems, including this.
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8 comments on this article
This was my favourite of the three, actually. I thought they did a really good job at creating a slice of African savannah, particularly with the odd-angled tree, the platform for not-Simba to stand on, and the little waterhole.
But yeah, these animal sets are the only Friends sets I ever buy (except for the smaller polybags, which I just think are pretty cute), and I really like 'em. I normally leave the bows *off* their heads, but the little lion cub was too cute not to, so eh.
^This looks more like a not-Nala than a not-Simba.
I mostly only get the animals sets, as my son like the animals ("There are no horrible dolls in them" as he puts it)... I have also got a few of the other smaller friends sets, such as the karate dojo, which was mainly for the window, and also to bring back to China where it was not available; or the football set as it has some useful bricks (and ideas such as the water cooler).
As he wanted his own animals, and plays with them along with his other Lego figures, be they City, Chima or others, I have been getting 2 of the ones he wanted, and 1 of the others, so I had 1 of each for teaching with... The idea was to start using some of the animals for a farm lesson, but with the last few sets, I have been getting a couple, so I can create a zoo for the minifigures (Duplo animals look a tad out of place due to their size)...
Any ideas what else is likely to be coming out in the future, as most of the "cute" animals are already gone...??
So the seal is a sea lion and the tiger is a lion...
Love getting these sets for my 4 year old.
Whatever it takes to get her building!
@Woodywood
I'm looking foward calf, donkey, hamster, Guinea pig, piglett, rat, fish, ferret new dog breeds like husky, pug, scotish terriers
For no new molds: black/gray sheep, chameleon, leopard, ocelot, Ara parrot,
I'd like to see snow leopard, jaguar, and cougar (from the same big cat mold) plus otter and raccoon. Plus maybe a gray squirrel.
That's actually fairly nice. At first sight I thought that was some sort of hinge-feature in the tree, but apparently girls don't like those...