Review: 41106 Pop Star Tour Bus
Posted by Huw,
Regular guest Friends reviewer MeganL casts her eye over 41106 Pop Star Tour Bus:
Originally, I thought $59.99 was rather pricey for “just a bus” even though there are 682 pieces. However, once I'd built it I soon changed my mind: it's a great set!
The packaging is similar to the other Pop Star sets, with Livi included with the Friends, and gold lighting on the front and back. The front shows a couple scenes of the tour bus with a stage and lounging area complete with some of the moving parts on the bus. The back of the package shows lots of different features of the set, always a promising sign for me.
Inside are four numbered bags, a small loose baseplate, and two instruction booklets, one small and one large, and one almost completely curled up sticker sheet. The stickers look to be the same reflective material as the Dressing Room.
The minidolls are Livi, Mia and Stephanie. I quite like the torsos on all of them, they're very nicely detailed. Livi's and Mia's are each found in only other Pop Star set. Stephanie’s top is unique to this set. Livi comes with a flower for her hair while Mia is rocking a pair of sunglasses and Stephanie has a bow in her hair.
The first bag and most of the small instruction booklet is dedicated to the smaller parts of the set: three colourful chaise lounges, a table with drinks for the thirsty Friends, a bowl of fruit (I am very impressed with these Friends. They always snack so healthily!), and a bag with a couple magazines, requiring the first of this set’s stickers. Happily in this set the stickers are numbered as they were in the Skate Park set.
The DJ booth fortunately has the control panel and gold records both as printed parts; the gold record look to be a relatively new part being found only in this most recent wave of Friends sets. The accompanying amplifiers/lights finish the sound system. These look to accompany the stage that the tour bus accommodates later. The last part of the first bag is the start of the chassis for the tour bus.
The second bag continues the build, plus some neat use of Technic parts. I don’t have any Technic sets, so I found this part of the build rather fun. The results at the end of the bag has one part of the chassis slide into the other, which while shown on the box I hadn’t really appreciated until the build.
The third bag starts the detailing of the bus, with the first addition being that of a small bathroom in the back, complete with gold accessories. There are two large white panels are where the large star stickers are attached. I had originally intended to build the set without stickers and then add stickers, but I had thought the white panels were clear.
Without the stickers outside I can imagine the bus would look rather dull. Also, one of the stickers was for the inside of one of the white panels, and I couldn’t imagine being able to apply that easily at the end of the build. Builder’s note: when applying the star stickers on the white panels you have to be very careful about the orientation of the star on the panel.
Since there is another sticker that goes on an immediately adjacent panel you will need to make sure that the pattern lines up, otherwise the star will look rather odd. (Not that I can say this from experience, ahem.)
Next comes a small bed sitting area intended to be right next to the bathroom door when the bus is condensed and next to the stage when stretched. The third bag finishes with constructing the large hatchback window for the rear of the bus.
The fourth bag continues with the details in the living area, as well as the driving area and windshield. There’s also a desk and chair for Livi to answer her fan mail (maybe she picks it up from the mailbox in her dressing room?). This extra chair allows for the set to have all three minidolls seated in the bus at the same time. The application of the final few stickers (and stars for the hub caps!) completes the set.
Overall thoughts
Originally, I thought $59.99 was rather pricey for “just a bus” even though there are 682 pieces. However, I found this to be a very satisfying build and a great set, particularly from the point of building the chassis to allow for the functionality of stretching the bus out – while it’s something that’s featured on the box, I didn’t get a full appreciation for it until building. This feature makes the set particularly fun, not to mention allowing for a lot of play scenarios as Livi can give concerts or entertain friends while the bus is the elongated position.
The speakers can also be positioned so they are in the bus in the stage area, as shown in this picture.
I love the colour scheme of the set. While originally I thought of the Pop Star sets as having a lot of magenta, that isn’t the case with the Tour Bus set. It does have very striking magenta accents which play off great with the black as well as those lovely large windows on either side of the bus. I also think the stickers are quite complimentary to the set; I didn’t find many of them to be all that gratuitous.
In keeping with my City criteria, I think the Tour Bus would work well in a City or Modular scenario. I can almost see the Tour Bus pulling up outside my Palace Cinema as Livi attends her acting premiere (assuming she has one).
The one thing that would be a “nice to have” in this set is the ability to store the smaller parts of the set somewhere on the Tour Bus. If Livi and friends are on tour, it would make sense that the DJ booth, speakers, chaise lounges, etc, would pack up along with them. Right now there is no space available for that. That could have been remedied by adding a small trailer to pull behind, which would have increased the price point. As it is, it would be a great way to customize either elongating the bus to add some storage for the smaller items or adding a trailer.
In any case, I think it’s a great set. It will appeal to those who love the building as well as having lots of play features. It might be my favourite of the Pop Star sets.
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8 comments on this article
Aren't those "magazines" rather LPs?
Great review! This set is one of the most interesting to me of the Pop Star range, and understandably so since it is the largest! The extending function is brilliant and unlike anything I've seen in any other theme! Obviously it's not an especially realistic set, since all that glass certainly doesn't offer much privacy from the paparazzi (the glass on a real tour bus like this would almost certainly be tinted), but it certainly makes a statement! The color scheme is very bold, a far cry from the delicate, sun-bleached pastels of a theme like Paradisa. The flashy colors and patterns of the box graphics are very fitting.
It amuses me to see that the LEGO Friends promotional tour in the UK used a bus with graphics modeled after this set! http://i1.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/article9602545.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/JS67657266.jpg
Wow. Just... wow. That function is really clever, and the color scheme is about as unsubtle as a rampaging Hulk. I love it.
They've come a long way from beauty salons....
A great set in just about every way possible: parts selection, playability, color scheme/aesthetics, and price. It's not often that we see high quality sets for such low prices these days.
The stage feature is darn brilliant. Whoever designed that deserves a cookie.
I have all of the friends sets, but the pop star range did not really interest me. I do think that the tour bus is quite impressive and I will probably get them all when they are discounted though. Does anyone have any thoughts about the new friends sets next year? I just can't think of any themes that they haven't covered. The City range always seem to do re-releases (police, fire, airport etc) so maybe that's what will happen with friends, we may see re-releases of some of the 2012 sets. I would have thought that one of the larger sets for next year will be a house, because we've only had Emma's and Olivia's house so far. The only theme I can think of is maybe an underwater/ beach theme.
^Heartlake Hospital. I'd love to see it especially since Olivia's mother is a doctor.
Thanks for the review HUW, I might just have to pick this up. /u/TLaabs over on Reddit did an "Imperial Stormtrooper" MOD of this bus, and its amazing. http://imgur.com/a/uiYlE
I sometimes wish that the City designers could put in this much effort.