Random set of the day: Heartlake Hot Air Balloon
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 41097 Heartlake Hot Air Balloon, released during 2015. It's one of 51 Friends sets produced that year. It contains 254 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$29.99/£24.99.
It's owned by 4,775 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $25.70, or eBay.
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Kind of a classic Friends set in my eyes.
The hot air ballon piece is such a cool piece.
I don't know Friends lore, but if this is meant to depict a date, it ultimately didn't pan out for our man Noah here. Based off the minidoll placements in the 42639 box art, Andrea got together with some guy named Ji-Won. Big RIP Noah.
@MCLegoboy said:
"I don't know Friends lore, but if this is meant to depict a date, it ultimately didn't pan out for our man Noah here. Based off the minidoll placements in the 42639 box art, Andrea got together with some guy named Ji-Won. Big RIP Noah."
That's what happens when you go hot air ballooning with a comically undersized balloon. The gondola is almost the same size. Probably had to jump overboard to give her an even shot at making it back alive.
@PurpleDave said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"I don't know Friends lore, but if this is meant to depict a date, it ultimately didn't pan out for our man Noah here. Based off the minidoll placements in the 42639 box art, Andrea got together with some guy named Ji-Won. Big RIP Noah."
That's what happens when you go hot air ballooning with a comically undersized balloon. The gondola is almost the same size. Probably had to jump overboard to give her an even shot at making it back alive."
I'm convinced Mr. Ji-Won was in the picture far far earlier, and Noah figured if he couldn't be with Andrea, no one could.
Fortunately for Andrea, the balloon was made of large ABS plastic shells and therefore could not fly high enough for Noah to let push come to shove.
In retrospect, the amount of terrain and type of details reminds me of Elves. It's a contemporary set to that theme's first year, so maybe there was a designer overlap there. Pretty cool.
I know the focus of the set is the balloon but that’s some really nice scenery in the background there
I loved the baloon, looks beautiful. I thought the sidebuild is needlessly high. This used to belong to my daughter but she grew out of Lego, lucky me.
That reminds me. Better build Santa's Post Office 10339 soon.... Never got around to it last year!
Love this set. Used the design to create a monochrome version for Wednesday. (She loves it!)
I think this was one of the first sets to introduce the hot air balloon pieces... if not, it was my first time getting those pieces. A fun little set with a decent landscape side build. Just another example to not sleep on the Friends theme because they had great sets like this. :)
My daughter owns this set still, it's just parts now but what a great build at the time!
That's right from the time when our daughters both were into Friends. We bought so many sets back then. I'm actually into disassembling all of them right now and putting them into storage for the day when they might be needed again. Perhaps when there's grandkids some day.
If that map-piece is supposed to represent a wind-altitude chart for flightpath-tracking, the designer gets points for doing their homework.
Then again, this balloon isn't going to get airborne any time soon. If the proportions were better, I'd like this set even more - now I just like it fine. I mean, I do like it, it's hard not to.
I can almost hear this song by the 5th Dimension by looking at this set:
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
We could float among the stars together, you and I
For we can fly (we can fly)
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky
For we can fly (we can fly)
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
Suspended under a twilight canopy
We'll search the clouds for a star to guide us
If by some chance you find yourself loving me
We'll find a cloud to hide us
We'll keep the moon beside us
Love is waiting there in my beautiful balloon
Way up in the air in my beautiful balloon
If you'll hold my hand we'll chase your dream across the sky
For we can fly (we can fly)
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
Balloon...
Up, up, and away
Up, up, and away
Up, up, and away...
I have 20 of the Friends sets released in 2015, including this one.
My daughter was 6 back then, and she played with some of the sets, those were the days. Now she doesn't play any Lego at all.
@sjr60 said:
"That reminds me. Better build Santa's Post Office 10339 soon.... Never got around to it last year!"
I still have a 10308 that I bought so I could build with my nephews to display that year, but we didn't do Christmas decorating that year, and haven't since, so it sits unopened.
This was my daughters first Lego set, she was obsessed with hot air balloons!
Not long ago I dream that I died falling out of a hot air balloon and saw my obituary.
@Trigger_ said:
"Not long ago I dream that I died falling out of a hot air balloon and saw my obituary."
So, were you a ghost when you saw it? I'm reminded of musician Tom Lehrer, who outlived the writer of his own New York Times obituary. If you're wondering how that's possible, it wasn't a case of "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Newspapers keep obituaries of prominent people in the files, and when the person actually dies, those are updated with the pertinent details (age at time of death, survivors, etc.) and printed.