Review: 41104 Pop Star Dressing Room
Posted by Huw,
The latest sets to be added to the Friends line are centered on the five protagonist's pop star friend Livi. Guest reviewer MeganL takes a look at one of the mid-priced ones, 41104 Pop Star Dressing Room. Read on to find out what she thinks of it.
The packaging for these sets is similar to the typical Friends packaging, though using a deeper purple as the base colour, and accented with gold lights simulating the glow from spotlights and other stage lighting. The picture of all the Friends on the front and back has been altered to include Livi, the pop star Friend.
When I was at the Inside Tour in May, I commented to one of the Friends designers how much I liked the look of the Pop Star sets, especially the colour scheme which has a lot of magenta contrasting with black. The designer shared with me that LEGO was hoping to attract a slighter older girl with these sets. They may have succeeded. I suspect the 12-year old me would have loved this colour scheme.
Inside the box are two bags of parts, one bent instruction book and a crumpled sticker sheet. The sticker sheet is on reflective material, which is not surprising considering the mirrors shown on the box art.
First is Livi, she comes in a metallic bustier and short gold skirt. The skirt comes with three outer skirts; one each of fuschia, purple and blue. Similarly Livi comes with two hair colours, fuchsia and blue. I’ve taken pictures with the purple and blue skirt with coordinating hair. Livi comes with an adorable looking Dalmation pup, as well as an assortment of the usual Friends hair accessories, this time in a deep purple.
The rest of the first bag is dedicated to the start of the dressing room, with a dog bed and bone box and then a dressing table area with a large swivel chair, a drawer for accessories and a make-up palette (some detail provided by a sticker), plus a large mirror (also a sticker). Other details include lipsticks, other hair accessories and a bouquet of flowers. I love the magenta bricks contrasted with the black and the deep lavender façade above the mirror (again, decorated with a sticker).
The second bag starts off with meeting Emma, then building out a couple of other spaces that finish out the dressing room. One is a chaise lounge area with a small fridge stocked with bottled water, plus posters for Livi (yet more stickers). This area is finished with a door (decorated with another sticker) that has a small seating area outside.
The final portion of the second bag is the last part of the room, which is a large walk in closet, complete with hangers for Livi’s extra skirts, a shoebox and a full length mirror. The dog bed and bone box finish the area on the outside of the dressing room wall, which also is outfitted with a mailbox. I find it a bit puzzling that while there’s a mailbox, there’s no desk included where Livi might read and respond to her fan mail.
The overall build is very straightforward and unremarkable, with the exception of the different areas of the dressing room being hinged together. As a result the finished product can be configured into a few different ways, including being closed into a self contained room with the mailbox and the door facing outward. That version isn’t pictured on the box, so I’ve included it here.
Overall thoughts
At $29.99 US for 279-pieces, I didn’t find this a particularly satisfying build. I love the colour scheme with the magenta offset with black, and look forward to seeing this in other sets.
This is definitely a “girly” set. There’s not much to do with the build other than dress Livi, have her put on makeup and play with accessories. I know there are some girls who would love this, but I find it a very static set. The stickers, while used to good effect, I also find to be a bit onerous. To that end, based on a comment here, I didn’t apply stickers while building, so all the “in process” pictures are without stickers. I applied them all at the end for the final couple of shots. While it makes a difference in the overall visual appeal, I think the mirror in the main changing area makes the most impact.
Despite my mixed emotions about this set, I’m looking forward to building the Tour Bus, which I also picked up in my early August LEGO shopping.
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12 comments on this article
I wonder how good are 7 years old girls with putting stickers on lego.
BTW. The white piece on the door is not even same color.
I wasn't planning to get this set originally, but I think I'll bite the bullet now. I'm always looking for Magenta elements, and the review has made this set look very tempting...
@Stelario: Not brilliant, I'd say. I can imagine how crooked and peeling the stickers would be. It's not a nice thought.
I read a comment somewhere that Olivia and Livi are actually the same person ("Livi" is, of course, a shortened version of "Olivia.") Is there anything official on this? Olivia so far hasn't been known for any musical talents.
Then again, Lego Club magazine had a faux-interview with Livi where she said her real name was "Moonbeam Blossom." I'm not making that up.
They are not the same person as I know- especialy when they meet eachother!
I love bright pink and dark pink bricks, but I'm just not a huge fan of the magenta and black color scheme they've gone with. My 4 year old daughter had been waiting for this set for months so she could get the pink and blue hair. She drives me crazy by constantly pulling apart all the minifigs and rebuilding them - but then I guess that's what Lego is for. Recently she told me that one of her minidolls was Ariel. I pointed out that Arial was a mermaid with a green tail, bikini top and red hair - she doesn't have legs, a stripy top and blond plaits. Her response was "but it's Arial's face". No arguing with that. I'm just gutted that I've lost Firestar's hair to the Friends girls as well.
@ResIpsaLoquitur Olivia and Livi both appear together in at least one set. I'd also assumed that Livi would have been Olivia's stage name, so it's odd that Lego didn't go with a slightly less confusing name.
Well, I had an old set that once came with both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, so it's conceivable that we could get minidolls of both a character and her alter ego. But, yes, you're probably right--they're likely different people.
(I do wish there was more consistency in Friends continuity. The first Friends sticker book said that Mia and Stephanie are cousins, but it's never been mentioned anywhere else. The new DK Friends book says that the minidoll in that set--I forget her name--is also Mia's cousin, but doesn't mention Stephanie.)
Love the color schemes of both these new "Pop Star" sets and their boxes! They definitely have a lot of personality and really stand out from previous LEGO Friends sub-themes. It's very cool how this dressing room folds up, and I love some of the details, especially that clothing rack! The new outfits are great too.
However, this set might be one of the "Pop Star" sets that interests me the least from a personal standpoint. I much prefer the show stage, recording studio, and tour bus. I guess girls who really love fashion and dress-up play will really enjoy this set, though.
My 7 year old daughter is AMAZING at putting stickers on... she's better then me and I let her do all the ones she wants...
We have this set and she loves to play dress up with the characters using the room... and adjusting the room into it's different configurations.
I guess my little sister might like this. But even though the Wyldstyle-esque color scheme is cool, this set is kind of bland.
I look forward to reading the Tour Bus review, though!
Putting the minidolls to one side these sets are pretty cool. They work really well as stages for the CMF musicians and the black/purple colour schemes excellent. My guitarists make good use of the recording studio and I'm sure would love to perform on the big stage.
> I read a comment somewhere that Olivia and Livi are actually the same person
Uh at least the official TV special and webisode can prove that. Though Olivia participated in her friends' band, she has no actual talent for that.
> Putting the minidolls to one side
Uhmm well.... if we follow the storywise route it's more a pity to not playing with the actual characters, especially when Livi is the featured superstar for the whole series. I might wonder if we can hear Livi again in other themes if LEGO seriously treats her as a star. (as you say, the "minifigure" version Pop Star would be Gwen from CMF series 2).
Back to the set, uhmmm well.... Livi's series is indeed something LEGO haven't done before (though other competitors have done some idol-themed brick sets). As for this set, my concern is that it;s an upgraded version of decoration room rather than a useful building place in a Town setting. However the silhouette does allow kids to MOC it into a full room so maybe we can redo it as a part of TV studio.