Review: 42669 Beekeepers' House and Flower Garden
Posted by MeganL,
One of the most intriguing sets of the early wave of Friends is 42669 Beekeepers' House and Flower Garden. This is another example of the charming boutique type of businesses that we see in the Friends world that we don't see in some of the more legacy themes.
While beekeeping has been a theme in previous sets, (notably 41703 Friendship Tree House), this is the first set that has beekeeping as the featured activity.
Summary
42669 Beekeepers' House and Flower Garden, 1,161 pieces.
£89.99 / $89.99 / €99.99 | 7.8p/7.8c/8.6c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A fun, environmentally conscious business addition to the Friends world
- Grandparent minidolls
- Nice flower builds
- Nice environmental message
- None
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Inside the box there are eight numbered bags, two 16x16 plates, one 6x14 plate, three instruction books and two sticker sheets.
Minidolls and animals
There are four minidolls included in the set. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the summary picture for the set only includes three minidolls. That's because one minidoll torso was missing from the copy that I was sent; it took LEGO almost a month to get me the part. I was in the middle of a move, so I had to take the set pictures before packing everything away, with the minidolls pictures taken when the part came.
Featured in this set are Paisley's grandparents, Terence and Orla. Terence is dressed in quite a kaleidoscope of colours with an orange shirt, a purple overshirt with burgundy suspenders and bright red trousers and boots. Paisley and Aliya are dressed in clothes that we've seen before.
Orla, Paisley's grandmother, is dressed in a traditional beekeeper's outfit, complete with a protective helmet, which is new to this set.
Of course, there are two adorable Friends animals in the set. The first is Peri the cat, who we originally met in 42670 Heartlake City Apartments and Shops. It's clear from that set that Petch is Peri's human, so I'm not sure how Peri found themselves here at the Garden store.
The second cute animal is Amos the bunny, who we previously met in 42650 Pet Accessories Shop. I love that Amos has two different coloured eyes! However, from 42650 I thought Amos belonged to Matilde, but he does seem more at home here. After all, he does bear a certain resemblance to Terence, if you believe in the trend that pet owners tend to look like their pets (or vice versa).
The completed model
The model is a cozy little cottage, with gardens on either side. I love the purple colouring of the cottage, but those who despair of typical Friends colours may not like it.
There's a picnic table found at the front of the house, with accoutrements for tea and honey. Someone in the set is a knitter, and has their supplies in a bag on the table. The detailing on the storefront is quite nice, and Peri looks at home on their perch in the window.
Some guests came by the table, which will fit several comfortably, for tea.
(Note: tea-drinking sloths not included in this set.)
The back of the set shows the details of the cottage.
The front of the house has good detailing. While the sign and door details are provided by stickers, there are some brick built details, including floral decorations on the roof.
The cottage has two floors - the ground floor is the shop, while Terence and Orla live upstairs. Like many Friends sets, there are no clear ways to get from one floor to another.
Honeycombs and candles are featured in the centre of the store.
Stickers on one side of the store show the different flowers that benefit from pollinators, and there is a nice pictures of Terence, Orla, and Paisley over the hearth.
The other side of the store shows an assortment of seeds available.
Upstairs, Terence and Orla's room includes all the necessities, including a clock, a four leaf clover, and a typewriter.
Outside the house there are two gardens. Both gardens are stand-alone builds and can be easily attached/detached from the house. On one side, vegetables are featured, including carrots and cabbage. It's not surprising Amos is visiting this side of the house!
The other garden features flowers to attract pollinating bees, amid several beehives.
Plenty of flowers attract plenty of bees!
Several honeycombs can be found in the beehives. These are printed pieces, and there are several included in the set.
Overall thoughts
I love seeing new additions to Heartlake City. The Friends team doesn't disappoint in bringing new and diverse businesses to the town, and this beekeepers' house and store is no exception. Seeing the older generation is always welcome, and I like that we see a bit more of Paisley's family. The Friends team continues to include broader social messages in their sets - this time being the importance of pollinators in our ecosystem.
The build itself is fun, and I like the white and purple colouring of the cottage. I love the gardens on either side of the house, and that they detach from the mail building. That feature does lend itself to customisation, or combining with another set, similar to what our friends at Tips & Bricks did with 41757 Botanical Garden.
This is a more reasonably priced set in this wave, and with all the play value included here, I think it is worth the money.
101 likes
27 comments on this article
Love seeing the ‘not included’ sloths each time :)
I love the Friends line but I feel that many of these reviews with supposedly no cons go easy on some valid aspects. This set, for example, feels massively overpriced for its size, despite the good PPP ratio. The build is simply not substantial enough for 90 USD / 100 EUR, not to mention the inexplicable price increase for European markets.
On another note, love the environmentally conscious theme of this one. Bees FTW.
This is indeed another good friends set. The beehives are simple but great, and the birdhouse too!
@whiteghost said:
"I love the Friends line but I feel that many of these reviews with supposedly no cons go easy on some valid aspects. This set, for example, feels massively overpriced for its size, despite the good PPP ratio. The build is simply not substantial enough for 90 USD / 100 EUR, not to mention the inexplicable price increase for European markets.
On another note, love the environmentally conscious theme of this one. Bees FTW."
NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!
But yeah, very much agree. While I do like that this is kinda an oldschool, proper build for the house, it is indeed rather small. And indeed a good example why PPP never is the bee-all and end-all. And while Friends used to be one of the best value themes of Lego just a few years ago, now it seems much more in line with City.
Also...at first I was a bit confused about the grandparent*s*........guess time has been very kind to granma...
Or one could buy Funwholes Bee Farm with slightly more bricks, integrated lovely lighting, tons of prints und better brick quality for half the price. The houses even have walls on all sides and a full roof.
Couple of things that usually prevent me from getting friends sets. Lack of back and you usually need two of each set to get the back.
Looks absolutely delightful. I do somewhat wish the house were not COMPLETELY lavender as I think this makes it look a bit fever-dreamish. Replacing some of the trim with white bricks would help, I think.
But the garden is lovely and the beehives are super cute. This could relatively easily be incorporated into a park area of a LEGO city - just pretend the house is the beekeeper's maintenance shed or somesuch.
Still not at all my thing, but IMHO another great Friends set. The designs, from the house to the beehive to the trees to the mini-builds (furniture and so on) are all great! Also, for non-Friends folks, this is another Friends set that would be really easy to adapt and convert for minifigures - in fact, the one issue I see here is that the interiors are a bit cramped, and so for example reducing the bed size and maybe the height of some items to better suit minifigures would remedy that.
I also have to respectfully disagree with those who are critiquing the price here. All the parts necessary to build the trees, planters, nicely sculpted furniture and so on are still parts - "PPP isn't the be-all end-all" - fair enough, but by the same token "are there enough bricks and windows to enclose the back" isn't the be-all end-all either. This isn't a poor value - $90 for an 1100+ piece set with multiple figures is a good value, and IMHO claims to the contrary are really about folks' personal preferences for which KINDS of parts they want in their sets. Nothing wrong with that of course; we all are entitled to our preferences. But they are personal preferences.
Good review! It's fun to meet more of the new Friends' family members, and Terence and Orla look very charming (especially with the amusing resemblance to their pets)! In his bright colors and V-neck tee, Terence strikes me as the sort of guy who might've been a hippie in his youth, which would certainly be in keeping with the nature-loving vibes of this set.
Orla's helmet isn't a new mold, having previously appeared in 41703 and 71029-7, but it is a new recolor, since those sets featured a Transparent Brown visor instead of the new Transparent Black. It's nice that she has a full beekeeping outfit, and one that can be easily worn by any character due to the lack of exposed skin tone. But I am curious when we might get a set with her in a more casual outfit to get a better sense of her personal style.
I quite like the new printed bee and ladybug tiles — they're considerably less cartoony than those used in previous Friends sets, more closely matching the style of the beetle from last year's Adventure Camp sets. I feel like these would be a good fit for the realistic insects you can collect in the Animal Crossing games, especially if LEGO ever decided to make an Animal Crossing set focused on stuff like the museum or "Bug-Off".
The purple half-timbering and rusticated stone foundations of the house utilize some clever techniques, and definitely give it a very quaint country cottage vibe. While the roof is a much more traditional build, I appreciate the extra effort to attach SNOTted eaves at a 45-degree angle to avoid the "staggered" appearance that the underside of roofs built with slope bricks like this would traditionally have.
The dormer window both makes a great visual focal point and creates more interior space for a nice big bed. I also appreciate the other cozy details that help characterize the interior like the compact bookshelf and cabinet in the upstairs living area, the fireplaces on both floors, and a fantastic variety of products sourced from the garden and beehives in the shop downstairs.The resulting space may be too compact for a staircase, let alone features like a bathroom or kitchen we would typically expect in "family house" sets at this price, but the designers put the space they had to very good use.
Meanwhile, the house itself is more than balanced out by the large and impressively detailed garden! The technique used for the hexagonal flowerbeds is one I'm definitely going to have to keep in mind for my own builds in the future! The angular paving stones and the SNOT-heavy construction of the beehives and birdhouse are also very impressive.
The picnic table is a simpler build, but looks great and adds some good play value as a spot for the four mini-dolls to take a break from gardening work and sample some of the products of their labor! And the water pump reminds me of techniques I've experimented with for manual water pumps in my own time. It's always a rewarding feeling when the best approach you could figure out for building a particular subject is also the solution the official LEGO designers arrived at!
Overall it's a beautiful set that does a great job showcasing many different facets of apiculture. The contents feel very generous for the price and really stand out from anything we've seen in past Friends houses. Not expecting to pick this one up myself, but I'm really glad that the Friends theme keeps finding new ways to impress! Thanks again for the review!
@tmtomh said:
"I also have to respectfully disagree with those who are critiquing the price here. All the parts necessary to build the trees, planters, nicely sculpted furniture and so on are still parts - "PPP isn't the be-all end-all" - fair enough, but by the same token "are there enough bricks and windows to enclose the back" isn't the be-all end-all either. This isn't a poor value - $90 for an 1100+ piece set with multiple figures is a good value, and IMHO claims to the contrary are really about folks' personal preferences for which KINDS of parts they want in their sets. Nothing wrong with that of course; we all are entitled to our preferences. But they are personal preferences."
Considering the size of the build, and also looking at the parts inventory, it just means there are a lot of small pieces in this set. And is it really "personal preference" that I value a 1x1 plate or flower piece less than bigger pieces? Also, it's an unlicensed set and there aren't many prints either. And over here in Europe, it's not $90, but it's more like $114.....Seems like Lego real estate prices are following the real world.
There is no absolute metric to measure value, but I generally consider myself in the "price to volume of stuff" camp, an obviously quite subjective metric often mentioned by Jang.
And this is by no means the most terrible value set ever, but compared to Friends sets from just a few years ago, I'm not impressed either.
@WizardOfOss said:
" @whiteghost said:
"I love the Friends line but I feel that many of these reviews with supposedly no cons go easy on some valid aspects. This set, for example, feels massively overpriced for its size, despite the good PPP ratio. The build is simply not substantial enough for 90 USD / 100 EUR, not to mention the inexplicable price increase for European markets.
On another note, love the environmentally conscious theme of this one. Bees FTW."
NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!
But yeah, very much agree. While I do like that this is kinda an oldschool, proper build for the house, it is indeed rather small. And indeed a good example why PPP never is the bee-all and end-all. And while Friends used to be one of the best value themes of Lego just a few years ago, now it seems much more in line with City.
Also...at first I was a bit confused about the grandparent*s*........guess time has been very kind to granma..."
Do we count the Ghost Rider figures as Nicolas Cage minifigures? If not there is a severe lack of Nicolas Cage in Lego form, and I demand that this is addressed.
@Jackthenipper said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @whiteghost said:
"I love the Friends line but I feel that many of these reviews with supposedly no cons go easy on some valid aspects. This set, for example, feels massively overpriced for its size, despite the good PPP ratio. The build is simply not substantial enough for 90 USD / 100 EUR, not to mention the inexplicable price increase for European markets.
On another note, love the environmentally conscious theme of this one. Bees FTW."
NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!
But yeah, very much agree. While I do like that this is kinda an oldschool, proper build for the house, it is indeed rather small. And indeed a good example why PPP never is the bee-all and end-all. And while Friends used to be one of the best value themes of Lego just a few years ago, now it seems much more in line with City.
Also...at first I was a bit confused about the grandparent*s*........guess time has been very kind to granma..."
Do we count the Ghost Rider figures as Nicolas Cage minifigures? If not there is a severe lack of Nicolas Cage in Lego form, and I demand that this is addressed.
"
Agreed! Imagine a Con Air set, with not only Nic Cage, but so many other great actors! I'd buy that!
I like the new tulips but they are an odd choise to use in trees
Review is in need of tea-drinking bears
NPU in the beehive
@WizardOfOss said:
" @tmtomh said:
"I also have to respectfully disagree with those who are critiquing the price here. All the parts necessary to build the trees, planters, nicely sculpted furniture and so on are still parts - "PPP isn't the be-all end-all" - fair enough, but by the same token "are there enough bricks and windows to enclose the back" isn't the be-all end-all either. This isn't a poor value - $90 for an 1100+ piece set with multiple figures is a good value, and IMHO claims to the contrary are really about folks' personal preferences for which KINDS of parts they want in their sets. Nothing wrong with that of course; we all are entitled to our preferences. But they are personal preferences."
Considering the size of the build, and also looking at the parts inventory, it just means there are a lot of small pieces in this set. And is it really "personal preference" that I value a 1x1 plate or flower piece less than bigger pieces? Also, it's an unlicensed set and there aren't many prints either. And over here in Europe, it's not $90, but it's more like $114.....Seems like Lego real estate prices are following the real world.
There is no absolute metric to measure value, but I generally consider myself in the "price to volume of stuff" camp, an obviously quite subjective metric often mentioned by Jang.
And this is by no means the most terrible value set ever, but compared to Friends sets from just a few years ago, I'm not impressed either."
In europe retailers you can get this -30proc off since start
@lordofdragonss said:
"In europe retailers you can get this -30proc off since start"
Often true, but when that is neccessary for a set to be decently priced, I still consider the RRP overpriced. Also, only big retailers like an Amazon can continuously do those discounts, smaller shops would just be giving away their entire margin.
That printed typewriter is pretty cool.
The beehives make nice use of the hole in the bottom of the Unixhinny tile.
@WizardOfOsssaid:"NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!"
Bees. My god.
I find myself agreeing with the crowd who think this set is overpriced, for what you get.
I remember seeing the images and thinking it was a lovely set, and -- like a few of the larger Friends sets, these past years -- I'd like to pick it up, at some point.
Then I saw how much it cost, and that became an emphatic "no".
This is my favourite of this year’s Friends sets, but only seems to be available thru Lego / certified stores here so no discounts except via points. Totally worth it for the garden bed and hive builds and the stonework on the chimney in my opinion, and very translatable to other builds. I traded in a bunch of points to get a copy for my niece’s 10th B’day - she is an avid free-builder with her Friends sets .
@lordofdragonss said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @tmtomh said:
"I also have to respectfully disagree with those who are critiquing the price here. All the parts necessary to build the trees, planters, nicely sculpted furniture and so on are still parts - "PPP isn't the be-all end-all" - fair enough, but by the same token "are there enough bricks and windows to enclose the back" isn't the be-all end-all either. This isn't a poor value - $90 for an 1100+ piece set with multiple figures is a good value, and IMHO claims to the contrary are really about folks' personal preferences for which KINDS of parts they want in their sets. Nothing wrong with that of course; we all are entitled to our preferences. But they are personal preferences."
Considering the size of the build, and also looking at the parts inventory, it just means there are a lot of small pieces in this set. And is it really "personal preference" that I value a 1x1 plate or flower piece less than bigger pieces? Also, it's an unlicensed set and there aren't many prints either. And over here in Europe, it's not $90, but it's more like $114.....Seems like Lego real estate prices are following the real world.
There is no absolute metric to measure value, but I generally consider myself in the "price to volume of stuff" camp, an obviously quite subjective metric often mentioned by Jang.
And this is by no means the most terrible value set ever, but compared to Friends sets from just a few years ago, I'm not impressed either."
In europe retailers you can get this -30proc off since start"
Thats nothing new. Thats just TLC marketing.
Retail price means nothing when sets are designed to go on sales.
@WizardOfOss said:
" @Jackthenipper said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @whiteghost said:
"I love the Friends line but I feel that many of these reviews with supposedly no cons go easy on some valid aspects. This set, for example, feels massively overpriced for its size, despite the good PPP ratio. The build is simply not substantial enough for 90 USD / 100 EUR, not to mention the inexplicable price increase for European markets.
On another note, love the environmentally conscious theme of this one. Bees FTW."
NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!
But yeah, very much agree. While I do like that this is kinda an oldschool, proper build for the house, it is indeed rather small. And indeed a good example why PPP never is the bee-all and end-all. And while Friends used to be one of the best value themes of Lego just a few years ago, now it seems much more in line with City.
Also...at first I was a bit confused about the grandparent*s*........guess time has been very kind to granma..."
Do we count the Ghost Rider figures as Nicolas Cage minifigures? If not there is a severe lack of Nicolas Cage in Lego form, and I demand that this is addressed.
"
Agreed! Imagine a Con Air set, with not only Nic Cage, but so many other great actors! I'd buy that!"
How 'bout a Leaving Las Vegas set?
@StyleCounselor said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @Jackthenipper said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @whiteghost said:
"I love the Friends line but I feel that many of these reviews with supposedly no cons go easy on some valid aspects. This set, for example, feels massively overpriced for its size, despite the good PPP ratio. The build is simply not substantial enough for 90 USD / 100 EUR, not to mention the inexplicable price increase for European markets.
On another note, love the environmentally conscious theme of this one. Bees FTW."
NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!
But yeah, very much agree. While I do like that this is kinda an oldschool, proper build for the house, it is indeed rather small. And indeed a good example why PPP never is the bee-all and end-all. And while Friends used to be one of the best value themes of Lego just a few years ago, now it seems much more in line with City.
Also...at first I was a bit confused about the grandparent*s*........guess time has been very kind to granma..."
Do we count the Ghost Rider figures as Nicolas Cage minifigures? If not there is a severe lack of Nicolas Cage in Lego form, and I demand that this is addressed.
"
Agreed! Imagine a Con Air set, with not only Nic Cage, but so many other great actors! I'd buy that!"
How 'bout a Leaving Las Vegas set?"
Sounds like a nice combo: Con Air for entering Las Vegas in an unconventional way, and Leaving Las Vegas for leaving in an unconventional way.....too bad he wasn't in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to make it a trilogy....
Come on Lego, what's stopping you?
In the meantime me, a casual Lego Friends review commenter, is getting all the reply notifications... about Con Air and Nicolas Cage? :D
@whiteghost said:
"In the meantime me, a casual Lego Friends review commenter, is getting all the reply notifications... about Con Air and Nicolas Cage? :D"
Sorry!
But hey, what's your favorite Nic Cage movie? ;-)
@WizardOfOss said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @Jackthenipper said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
" @whiteghost said:
"I love the Friends line but I feel that many of these reviews with supposedly no cons go easy on some valid aspects. This set, for example, feels massively overpriced for its size, despite the good PPP ratio. The build is simply not substantial enough for 90 USD / 100 EUR, not to mention the inexplicable price increase for European markets.
On another note, love the environmentally conscious theme of this one. Bees FTW."
NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!
But yeah, very much agree. While I do like that this is kinda an oldschool, proper build for the house, it is indeed rather small. And indeed a good example why PPP never is the bee-all and end-all. And while Friends used to be one of the best value themes of Lego just a few years ago, now it seems much more in line with City.
Also...at first I was a bit confused about the grandparent*s*........guess time has been very kind to granma..."
Do we count the Ghost Rider figures as Nicolas Cage minifigures? If not there is a severe lack of Nicolas Cage in Lego form, and I demand that this is addressed.
"
Agreed! Imagine a Con Air set, with not only Nic Cage, but so many other great actors! I'd buy that!"
How 'bout a Leaving Las Vegas set?"
Sounds like a nice combo: Con Air for entering Las Vegas in an unconventional way, and Leaving Las Vegas for leaving in an unconventional way.....too bad he wasn't in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to make it a trilogy....
Come on Lego, what's stopping you?"
A Hunter S. Thompson Lego set?! That'd be incredible. Maybe they could do the Woody Creek canon.
I am glad that my kids are not into Friends anymore, because then I would have had to buy this set at some point.
And while I like the set per se, the price is absolutely atrocious. In the days when my kids were playing with Friends big time this would have been a 70 Euro set max.
There are so many tiny pieces that the PPP metric is meaningless here imho.
When I compare a set that my kids played with, like 3185 for example, same price and similar number of pieces, but auch a lot more than this one.
Very expensive add-on for a cool animal crossing house without animal crossing minifigs. But it would look absolutely cool in an AC set-up