Review: 42604 Heartlake City Shopping Mall
Posted by MeganL,
Shops are a staple in the Friends universe, so it's not surprisingly that Heartlake City has had its fair share of shopping malls. The last was 41450 Heartlake City Shopping Mall in 2020, and the first was 41058 Heartlake Shopping Mall in 2014.
With the new generation of Friends, it makes sense that there has to be a mall for them to hang out, and so we have 42604 Heartlake City Shopping Mall. The first mall was fine, the second featured a working escalator and it looks like this version has not one, but two escalators, and a few more stores.
How does this shopping mall fit in the new Heartlake City?
Summary
42604 Heartlake City Shopping Mall, 1,237 pieces.
£104.99 / $119.99 / €119.99 | 8.5p/9.7c/9.7c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
The most realistic Friends shopping mall yet
- First minidoll with prosthetic leg
- Seven minidolls
- Working escalators
- Escalators not quite practical
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Inside the box there are 11 numbered bags, a 8x16 plate, a canoe, three sizeable instruction books and a suitably large sticker sheet. I rather expected a mall set to be rather sticker heavy.
Minidolls
There are seven minidolls in this set. Three of the core cast are included - is it a coincidence that they're all female? None of the male Friends go shopping?
In any event, we have Aliya, Liann, and Nova in this set. Aliya is wearing a plaid sleeveless shirt with pocket patch over some red capris and blue tennies. Liann has an eye-catching shirt with mismatching panels over lime green trousers. Nova completes the trio wearing an outfit we've seen before, with her layered shirt featuring a gaming controller design and a pair of shorts. All three are ready for some quality shopping!
The minidolls are rounded out with some supporting characters. Most notable among these is Petch, who is the first Friends minidoll to have a prosthetic leg. He comes with a cross-body bag that matches his leg. Next is Irene, who is quite distinctive with her bright blue hair! She's wearing a lilac smock and what could be a name tag, so she may be an employee in one of the stores.
Next is Liann's mother, MIchelle. Apparently, lilac is the accent colour for the supporting minidolls, and Michelle has a lilac cardigan over a brown polka-dotted shirt and a long beige skirt. Finally, there's Victoria, Liann's little sister. Victoria is as adorable as all microdolls are with a striped shirt with a bow and a pleated skirt.
The completed model
There's a side build that starts things off. I used to be quite annoyed by the side builds, but upon reading the explanation from poshhammer in this article, it makes a lot of sense! In any event, the side build is an ice cream shop, under the shade of a rather nice tree.
The mall is built in three sections, and we'll take a look at each in turn. Looking from the front of the mall, the left side features a cosmetics shop, a toy store and a noodle shop. A brightly coloured escalator finishes this area.
The side of the escalator has some lovely greenery, and there's a garbage can at the base. Apparently someone didn't like their ice cream, and someone else missed the mark when disposing of a banana peel.
A gear in the back of the building can be turned to move the escalator stairs, which can go up or down. There's just enough space for a minidoll to get on the stairs, but I'm not sure what they'd do if they were carrying a shopping bag.
Based on the sticker posters on the some of the walls, it looks like the rumours of an outdoor theme for the Friends later this year might come to fruition.
The escalator functions works quite smoothly, but at the base there's a bit of a problem. Moving any further down from this point will cause a minidoll to pitch forward, doing a face plant at the base. Or alternatively, they could jump off the escalator at this point, which is quite a leap.
Looking at the back view of the shops in this section, we see some of the merchandise in the toy shop and the cosmetics store.
The side view of the cosmetics store (I think of it as Heartlake City's version of ULTA) shows an array of cosmetic, a large poster, and a rather expensive lipstick being purchased at the register.
The toy store doesn't have quite the same collection, but does have a bunny rabbit, a wand and a skateboard on display. It's also the only store to have an actual cash register.
A toy train is also on offer, as well as an array of toys portrayed on a sticker.
Upstairs is the noodle shop! I'm guessing Liann, the perpetual snacker, would head up here. The kiosk has an Asian architectural flair with the curved roof pieces.
The back view shows that this is another vendor that takes payment through mobile devices only.
Moving to the centre section, the predominant feature is a waterfall. A close look at the pool at the base of the waterfall shows that there are koi fish here, and a rather unlikely frog. Heartlake City aficionados will be relieved (no pun intended) to see that the all-important bathroom is close by, with the entrance off to one side of the waterfall.
The rearview shows some of the details of the centre section.
The designer has done well to maximize use of space by putting the ATM in the dark spot right behind the waterfall.
One floor up, and there's the video game emporium, of which I imagine Nova is a frequent customer. A variety of games and appropriate accessories are found here.
The top level is the open air seating, clearly for the noodle shop, as a bottle of soy sauce and pairs of chopsticks are at the ready for the hungry Friends.
The last portion of the mall shows an outdoor store (I think it's the LEGO equivalent of REI), a plant store, and another escalator.
The outdoor store has a stand-up paddleboard next to the double entrance doors.
The escalator is almost identical to the escalator on the other side of the mall, with the same pretty greenery.
Taking a look at the rearview, the plant store is quite tiny, as it shares space on this floor with the escalator. Still, many of the necessities to care for fauna (as well as the fauna itself) can be found here.
The bathroom is on the ground floor, and has the basics, though nothing fancy. There's a puddle of water on the floor, and I like the touch of the more industrial-looking sink.
A close-up shows a sticker portraying some of the flowers on sale.
The REI (outdoor store) has a canoe mounted to the ceiling! All the accessories needed for outdoor adventures can be found here. A turnstile in the middle of the store stores many accessories - camera, caps, and a spare life jacket that went rogue and landed by the front door.
I'm not sure that Guble Bubble is an accessory, but it can be found again in this set - it's located in the drawer at the check-out desk.
More accessories are found against the wall, though I don't think I want to see an open flame quite that high in a store!
Looking at the end cap of this section, there's a mall map, and an ad for a karaoke place, likely referring to 42610 Karaoke Music Party.
Finally, the top of the escalator leads to the last table on the top floor, also equipped with soy sauce and chopsticks.
Liann isn't the only one who's a fan of the snacks....
(Note: snacking sloths not included in this set)
Put all together, this makes for an impressive build.
Overall thoughts
This is the most expensive mall to date in Heartlake City (1237 pieces, £104.99/$119.99/€119.99), and it's a suitably impressive build. I really like that there are so many minidolls! Unlike other Friends builds, there are discernible ways to get from floor to floor. Though - as could only work in Heartlake City - these must be reversible escalators. I like the escalators, even if a minidoll needs to risk life and limb to get off one! I think this is definitely an improvement from the last mall, which only had one escalator. Kudos as well to the instructional designers who make building a relatively complex mechanism such as the elevator easy to follow for younger builders.
Shopping is a core experience for kids, and this set provides a great way for them to recreate that experience, and make new stores of their own. I expect this will do well with the target demographic. Even though this is more expensive than previous versions, the details really stand out, particularly with all the merchandise for sale in the outdoor and cosmetics stores. There are some interesting parts in new colours in the set. A full parts list can be found here.
With all the excellent sets this year, this one might be easy to overlook, but I think this is a worthy contender for those looking for a satisfying build, but don't quite have the budget for 42639 Andrea's Modern Mansion.
82 likes
19 comments on this article
Another great Friends set.
£100+ is probably a bit too rich for me, but if I saw it for 20% off, I would snap it up.
At first glance I thought those lavender headphones were... uh... something else. As in something you'd be less likely to find in a game store and more likely to find in Victoria's Secret.
I dunno... I feel like the last iteration of the Friends mall 41450 was more vibrant and fun. It had better shops with more space and details in them. As well as being easily accessible. That one still has my vote.
As a Brit I had to google the references to ULTA and REI, in a world of AFOL acronyms I thought they were something I wasn't uptodate on.
It's great that there's so many different shops, though that escalator feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen (though I'm sure kids will love face-planting customers at the bottom).
On the escalator issue: the problems don't even start at the base, more like 2/3rds the way through. It seems to me that a new rubber belt with 45-degree angled standing bases and either short protruding leg-holders or single studs on alternating sides (I mean if they are going to make new parts for this, anyway), using one of the conveyor systems would have served this purpose. The flat conveyor was once common, found in 60036 60104 and 10764 not that long ago.
@AverageChimaEnjoyer said:
"At first glance I thought those lavender headphones were... uh... something else. As in something you'd be less likely to find in a game store and more likely to find in Victoria's Secret."
Dirty mind -_-
@classicstylecastle said:
"As a Brit I had to google the references to ULTA and REI, in a world of AFOL acronyms I thought they were something I wasn't uptodate on.
It's great that there's so many different shops, though that escalator feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen (though I'm sure kids will love face-planting customers at the bottom)."
'Tennies,' ULTA, and REI. The Americanization of Megan is well underway.
I feel this could be combined very well with 41450 for an even more immersive mall experience. The similar escalator mechanisms also support this.
One of the stickers (sticker 9) has the Classic Space spaceship flying around a D20 die. I must know more. D&D + Space? Is this referencing something specific?
Also, I like how sticker 18 references 42605.
Only one employee for whole mall, I bet she's overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid.
Thanks for the detailed review.
I'm quite guilty of shopping at home and looking for discounts and such, so the figure selection might not be so strange? Although I don't mind shopping/browsing when on holiday.
I like how the shops have similar signs. In Amsterdam there is a shopping street where the small businesses have their signs done in the same style.
I also like the bits of greenery spread around the set.
Is the escalator of 41450 a better working build?
@AgentKallus said:
"Only one employee for whole mall, I bet she's overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid."
This comment just hits differently on International Workers' Day. ;)
Oh hey they snuck in a Lewa sticker. Fun.
Solid set, besides the stairs, they add nothing and look awful.
@classicstylecastle said:
"As a Brit I had to google the references to ULTA and REI, in a world of AFOL acronyms I thought they were something I wasn't uptodate on.
It's great that there's so many different shops, though that escalator feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen (though I'm sure kids will love face-planting customers at the bottom)."
Me too :-)
Since I absolutely despise minidolls I would use this feature constantly. Interesting that they actually approved that design.
I also hadn't heard of the mentioned acronyms, but I didn't bother to google them since I don't really care what they mean. And if a review requires you to google something in order to understand what is meant then there's something amiss anyway imho.
Also "Tennies"? I know tennis and I know teenies, whatever.
And @AverageChimaEnjoyer: why would you expect to find headphones at Victoria's Secret? I thought they sell lingerie, and in my world headphones don't really fit that description, no matter what colour there are.
I'm confused.
Little surprised they didn't build a platform up around the base of the escalators. And I can't be the only one who went into this review wondering, "What shop will the sloths be shopping at?"
@AustinPowers said:
"And @AverageChimaEnjoyer: why would you expect to find headphones at Victoria's Secret? I thought they sell lingerie, and in my world headphones don't really fit that description, no matter what colour there are.
I'm confused. "
ACE (Hey, I'd never noticed that acronym before; was that intentional?) said they mistook them for something that you'd find at Victoria's Secret; my guess is a bra.
@TheOtherMike said:
"Little surprised they didn't build a platform up around the base of the escalators. And I can't be the only one who went into this review wondering, "What shop will the sloths be shopping at?"
@AustinPowers said:
"And @AverageChimaEnjoyer: why would you expect to find headphones at Victoria's Secret? I thought they sell lingerie, and in my world headphones don't really fit that description, no matter what colour there are.
I'm confused. "
ACE (Hey, I'd never noticed that acronym before; was that intentional?) said they mistook them for something that you'd find at Victoria's Secret; my guess is a bra."
Wearing a bra over one's head?
Sounds like pretty weird science to me ;-)
@AustinPowers said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Little surprised they didn't build a platform up around the base of the escalators. And I can't be the only one who went into this review wondering, "What shop will the sloths be shopping at?"
@AustinPowers said:
"And @AverageChimaEnjoyer: why would you expect to find headphones at Victoria's Secret? I thought they sell lingerie, and in my world headphones don't really fit that description, no matter what colour there are.
I'm confused. "
ACE (Hey, I'd never noticed that acronym before; was that intentional?) said they mistook them for something that you'd find at Victoria's Secret; my guess is a bra."
Wearing a bra over one's head?
Sounds like pretty weird science to me ;-) "
Assuming that @AverageChimaEnjoyer was referring to this picture: https://images.brickset.com/news/107507_IMG_4700.JPG then the headphones do sort of look like a bra or bikini top hanging there.
£$19 for a lipstick seems about right for a decent quality one. MAC ones are around £25
They should have tried a bit harder on the escalator, even to having a tiny slide