Random set of the day: Sand Dollar Café
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6411 Sand Dollar Café, released during 1992. It's one of 27 Town sets produced that year. It contains 168 pieces and 5 minifigs, and its retail price was US$29.75.
It's owned by 2,437 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 $250.80, or eBay.
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33 comments on this article
what i wouldn't give for a Paradisa remake!!!
A sand dollar cafe? what is this? A Japanese seafood restaurant.
At least the baseplate is nice. And the luxury, tropical feel of the Paradisa sets.
Gotta love that baseplate.
Whenever I think of Paradisa I think of that powder or dusty pastel pink it had (in this set, chairs and mugs). I like it better than the bright pink that was made later.
Seeing this name got me thinking: Wouldn't a 1x1 round tile with a sand dollar print be cool? Be great for sets along the lines of this.
@snaii: I've said before that I'd love to see Friends do a Paradisa homage.
One of the original and best Paradisa sets.
"Sorry, we don't accept real dollars here. Only sand dollars. It's right in the name."
@TheOtherMike:
So far, the only sand dollar element they appear to have done is a necklace on Sina, a minidoll in a Moana set that came out last year. No wonder Paradisa isn't around anymore.
The cafe has that very nice bank of windows, but otherwise, it's mostly a baseplate. I wish I'd gotten 6416 Poolside Paradise back in the day, but I can't say I'm sorry this one got away.
The 1992 US Shop at Home catalog lists this as $27.50, which means the retail price was even lower (Shop at Home prices included shipping & handling at the time). I don't remember what it was, but I don't think it was a particularly good deal—this is the same price as 6071 in the catalog, which has a smaller baseplate but a bigger structure. 6380 was $29.75.
Great start to a year. I copied the cafe from this set for my own beach cafe and it looks beautiful. Chef outfit is a bit much but other than that the set is very lovely.
This is funny, bought this set just couple days ago, found a good price on local ads :-)
I had this set! Absolutely lovely baseplate and I love the little glassed-in cafe area.
Still would love some kind of Paradisa revival set. The Cullen house from Twilight could work as a beach mansion, but you’d have to add wayyy more tropical vibes.
I love everything about this. The baseplate, the old female face with the eyelashes and big lips, the pastel, the beach setting, the old palm tree (!). The list goes on.
Did someone say baseplate?
Such a chill vibe. You can practically hear the gentle calypso music in the background
Yep. I can confirm: It's good.
Does the name suggest that the beachgoers dropped their money in the sand?
I do have that baseplate, strangely enough, since I never owned this set, and I can't remember buying it separately either. Must have been part of a job lot I bought sometime.
Anyway, happy about the fact since it's highly unlikely that we will ever see such baseplates from LEGO again.
Real Housewives of Paradisa
I like to think that a LEGO Sand Dollar would be a white 1x2 with $100 printed on it. I suppose it could also be a 10/20/30/40 coin in white, too, but I think it's pretty well accepted that those are cent values, and they're not called Sand Cents, are they? No, LEGO's Sand Dollars are Sand Hundred Dollars. Too bad none can be found here.
As much as I love the idea of this baseplate, the mint ice cream colored grass ruins it for me. I have never seen grass that color and I find it very ugly. It would have been much better in regular green so as to fit in with all of the other green baseplates at the time. As for the set, pretty good for the period, but what’s with that wall of glass?
As for an homage to this subtheme, 853921 Xtra Brick Stickers has a sticker for a road sign that points to Paradisa Beach.
I am somehow 2/2 on owning 2024 sets of the day so far!
One of those sets, which I really wanted into my collection. It's curious, that while a Paradisa, this cafe actually includes a logo of the Rescue team, like the one in 6338 Hurricane Harbor or 6387 Coastal Rescue Base. I like this crossover between the two.
@Librarian1976:
The window helps refract sunlight into concentrated areas where it will set stuff on fire.
I have this in my collection since I was a kid. It's a nice set. I really love the base plate.
I have this set. I have no clue why, most of then sets I have that old are space or pirates themed. Guess my sister wanted a set to build with me? Either way, awesome baseplate.
LEGO does like to use curved windows again , especially in the Friends theme, so at least new MOC parts to remake such a set should be easier to find.
As well as new window parts and curved windows introduced recently as well.
I love me some Paradisa. This set in particular has such a nice summer-y vibe to it. I love the bicycle at the fence. Stuff like that just makes this such a vibe.
My cousin had this along with a few other Paradisa sets and they were all so cool. I always thought it was odd that they made the beaches standalone though, since this plate's color shading does not pair well side-to-side with itself or to the baseplate on 6410 Cabana Beach. It wasn't like any kids had a dozen of these to make a mega beach with but still...
Paradisa, a great example of what I'd like to see. I wanted so many of them, but didn't afford, when I was young. Friends should continue with its awesome sets, but drop the minidoll and return to minifigs (as is proper).
This isn't peak Paradisa, but it's still good Paradisa. This is absolutely the kind of I want to talk about getting a $200 remake. It'd cost that too, because they'd want to do a brick-built beach.
Unfortunately, I think a Paradisa remake wouldn't work with the current colour palette: LEGO would try to use the Friends palette, but Friends is more vibrant where Paradisa is pastel, and I think that difference matters more than the analogous difference in, say, the Pirate remakes between old brown and new.
something that anchors this in Town is that the sign next to the lifeguard is the symbol of the Coastguard that was in use at the time. It's also of note that Town included some non-pastel beach sets too, really getting use out of especially the windsurf mast and sail in eg 6351 , 6534 , 1958 , 6342 and especially 6595
@WemWem said:
"I had this set! Absolutely lovely baseplate and I love the little glassed-in cafe area."
Sooo! That's where my cool baseplate comes from!
Huwbot teaches new lessons all the time.
Friends is really good. Paradisa was the best girls' Lego line.