Quick look: 42692 Ice Cream and Balloon Stand

I’ve seen them sold together in B&M stores, but I’m not sure that includes theme parks. We do a week-long display where we share a building with a guy who owns a restored 1969 Ford F-250 Good Humor ice cream truck, and the year I was finally able to show him the MOC I made based on it, he’d also brought in a Good Humor bicycle cart. I know the freezer box on the truck has a brine solution inside the walls, and plugging it in overnight will get it cold enough to keep ice cream frozen for two days. I’d think the bicycle version would work in a similar manner, since there’s not even a power source you could tap into like the truck. Then for the balloons, I’d expect to see at least one helium cylinder that’s the size of a standard minidoll (maybe larger). I suppose, if she’s working in an amusement park of some sort, she’d be close enough to a place to restock that it wouldn’t be as inefficient to go out with a very small stock of wares, which is what you’d have to do if you wanted to actually move a combo rig with foot power alone. And she’ll have thighs the size of a minifig’s by the end of the summer.

These kinds of sets are always an immediate purchase for me to put into my city - well, once I've swapped in some minifigs and donated the minidolls to a colleague's daughter! The City designers at Lego need to take notes from the Friends designers.

I'll never get over those huge ugly gaps that LEGO balloons have. Seriously, if they couldn't start using the CMF balloon piece in regular sets, they should at least make an element that works better for balloons.

And yes, sometimes they use the inverted dome with the regular dome to achieve a slightly better look, but even that isn't optimal.

It is a little surprising with how common both specialized elements and sets centered around balloons are these days that the specialized balloon element never caught on. I guess it was dual-molded, but I could easily see just a balloon piece working well with an attachment point for a standard bar.

While these do look a little misshapen, I don’t mind the current solutions. And it’s nice to see brick-built objects rather than special one-off elements. I just find it odd because they went through all the trouble of designing the special one-off element and have had ample opportunities to reuse it.

I mean, that same CMF series introduced a specialized “balloon dog” element that is arguably much less versatile and yet is still around today. It’s just odd.

Big minus: No new posicle mold colors.
Also once again weird they dont use Ballon half of the baloons.

@TransNeonOrangeSpaceman said:
"I'll never get over those huge ugly gaps that LEGO balloons have. Seriously, if they couldn't start using the CMF balloon piece in regular sets, they should at least make an element that works better for balloons.

And yes, sometimes they use the inverted dome with the regular dome to achieve a slightly better look, but even that isn't optimal."

The thing is they even made a more generic element that serves as a balloon bottom in 2016 (then mostly stopped in 2023, despite it still being in circulation for Make-and-Takes). Element 24947 is unnecessarily rare for the amount of balloons that appear in sets, and can still be used in other contexts. The only reason I can think of is they'd prefer not to introduce a recolour for every new balloon colour... like the Trans Bright Green and Opal Pink in this set (Magenta already exists)

Cannibal ice cream raids Heartlake City!
I don’t know why they went with that build for the ice “cream”. Perhaps it’s meant to be a popsicle, which would indicate false advertising on Liann’s part. And if it is, why don’t they use the standard popsicle element, which looks much more appropriately sized.

Cannibal ice cream raids Heartlake City!
I don’t know why they went with that build for the ice “cream”. Perhaps it’s meant to be a popsicle, which would indicate false advertising on Liann’s part. And if it is, why don’t they use the standard popsicle element, which looks much more appropriately sized.

@Rolyat24:
I suspect that having the string molded into the balloon may have proved fragile enough that they don’t want to revisit the mold. That balloon is pretty much useless if the string breaks, unless you want to drill a bar-sized hole to salvage it.

@Nuclearxpotato said:
" @TransNeonOrangeSpaceman said:
"I'll never get over those huge ugly gaps that LEGO balloons have. Seriously, if they couldn't start using the CMF balloon piece in regular sets, they should at least make an element that works better for balloons.

And yes, sometimes they use the inverted dome with the regular dome to achieve a slightly better look, but even that isn't optimal."

The thing is they even made a more generic element that serves as a balloon bottom in 2016 (then mostly stopped in 2023, despite it still being in circulation for Make-and-Takes). Element 24947 is unnecessarily rare for the amount of balloons that appear in sets, and can still be used in other contexts. The only reason I can think of is they'd prefer not to introduce a recolour for every new balloon colour... like the Trans Bright Green and Opal Pink in this set (Magenta already exists)"

The recolors don’t help, but it may also cost more of your parts budget than the Artoo head, just because you need two different parts instead of two of the same. 7784 needed both regular and Technic 1x1 bricks, but it only includes the Technic ones, presumably because it’s more efficient to use large quantities of a small range of sets instead of small quantities of a large range.

As mentioned strange missing the standard popsicle and ice-cream dessert pieces. Anyway prefer a Candyfloss or popcorn machine kart like 30364.

I would have preferred it if they had introduced a new color or two for the Ice Popsicles or just given us the usual ones. The brick built ones look strange and way too big.

@karrit said:
"I would have preferred it if they had introduced a new color or two for the Ice Popsicles or just given us the usual ones. The brick built ones look strange and way too big. "

All the children say, "Way too big? You old people are nuts!"

@560heliport said:
" @karrit said:
"I would have preferred it if they had introduced a new color or two for the Ice Popsicles or just given us the usual ones. The brick built ones look strange and way too big. "

All the children say, "Way too big? You old people are nuts!""

Please. You know minidolls don’t have the physique to actually lift those things. That’s why they’re clipped to the side of the cart! They just have to stand there and gnaw at them until they’re small enough to lift.

@PurpleDave said:
" @560heliport said:
" @karrit said:
"I would have preferred it if they had introduced a new color or two for the Ice Popsicles or just given us the usual ones. The brick built ones look strange and way too big. "

All the children say, "Way too big? You old people are nuts!""

Please. You know minidolls don’t have the physique to actually lift those things. That’s why they’re clipped to the side of the cart! They just have to stand there and gnaw at them until they’re small enough to lift."

Of course, that may change when Friends finally introduces bigdolls in the upcoming "Major Stephanie's Saturday Night Slam Masters"-set.

@Crux said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @560heliport said:
" @karrit said:
"I would have preferred it if they had introduced a new color or two for the Ice Popsicles or just given us the usual ones. The brick built ones look strange and way too big. "

All the children say, "Way too big? You old people are nuts!""

Please. You know minidolls don’t have the physique to actually lift those things. That’s why they’re clipped to the side of the cart! They just have to stand there and gnaw at them until they’re small enough to lift."

Of course, that may change when Friends finally introduces bigdolls in the upcoming "Major Stephanie's Saturday Night Slam Masters"-set."

I mean, technically Maui would qualify, wouldn’t he?

@PurpleDave said:
" @Crux said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @560heliport said:
" @karrit said:
"I would have preferred it if they had introduced a new color or two for the Ice Popsicles or just given us the usual ones. The brick built ones look strange and way too big. "

All the children say, "Way too big? You old people are nuts!""

Please. You know minidolls don’t have the physique to actually lift those things. That’s why they’re clipped to the side of the cart! They just have to stand there and gnaw at them until they’re small enough to lift."

Of course, that may change when Friends finally introduces bigdolls in the upcoming "Major Stephanie's Saturday Night Slam Masters"-set."

I mean, technically Maui would qualify, wouldn’t he?"

I was about to say.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @Crux said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @560heliport said:
" @karrit said:
"I would have preferred it if they had introduced a new color or two for the Ice Popsicles or just given us the usual ones. The brick built ones look strange and way too big. "

All the children say, "Way too big? You old people are nuts!""

Please. You know minidolls don’t have the physique to actually lift those things. That’s why they’re clipped to the side of the cart! They just have to stand there and gnaw at them until they’re small enough to lift."

Of course, that may change when Friends finally introduces bigdolls in the upcoming "Major Stephanie's Saturday Night Slam Masters"-set."

I mean, technically Maui would qualify, wouldn’t he?"

I was about to say."

"Bigdoll". I know what I'm about, son. Although in fairness, I did absolutely forget about Maui.

And also, Dre.

It occurs to me that the sloths could actually hold onto a pair of the balloons from 71021-6 and 71021-16, and go flying above a layout.

I was trying to work out what the sticks are, as I thought they might be something new. But I'm guessing they're the same double-ended pipe-joiners the balloons are clipped onto, with a 1x1 round polo plate slid half-way down?