Review: 41429 Heartlake City Airplane
Posted by MeganL,
With a subtheme set in the jungle this year, the Friends have to make it there somehow. What better way to make the trip than 41429 Heartlake City Airplane. It's been five years since 41100 Heartlake Private Jet and 41109 Heartlake City Airport. The plane used here seems to be a size in between the two planes in those sets, so we should expect plenty of details to allow for Olivia, Stephanie, and their new friend Ashley, to travel in comfort.
Inside the box there are six numbered bags, two unmarked bags with the plane nose and tail pieces, an instruction book and a sticker sheet.
Minidolls
The minidolls in this set are Ashley, Stephanie, and Olivia. While Ashley is a new character to Friends, if she looks somewhat familiar, she is: her head was also used for Dr. Maria from 41394 Heartlake City Hospital earlier this year. She's wearing an easily identifiable pilot's uniform, the printed detailing on the front is impressive with the patch pockets, tie, pilot's wings and epaulettes. Similarly, the hairpiece is also new, and looks fantastic with the pilot's cap. Ashley's hair has been swept up into a bun, also appropriate for when she's wearing her uniform.
Stephanie is wearing the same sleeveless ensemble that she was wearing at 41398 Stephanie's House last year - a sleeveless hoodie over a t-shirt with zippered pockets. Her star necklace still stands out. This time she wears it with a matching blue skirt and fuchsia shoes. Olivia, on the other hand, rocks the same look as she had in 41395 Friendship Bus earlier this year.
Unfortunately, only one of the minidolls has printing on the back - Olivia. It's too bad that Ashley doesn't have addition printing on the back. However, in keeping with the grand tradition of Friends sets, there is a cute animal involved. Dash, Stephanie's dog, is joining them for the trip. Clearly the trip isn't planned to go the U.K. or Australia as he'd have to spend some time in quarantine!
Even though Ashley doesn't have back printing, she is provided with a second hairpiece - this one without the pilot's hat. While this piece is new to Friends sets, it has been used several times before in other themes, including at least two people packs. Stephanie comes with several accessories, and is clearly planning on making the most of her trip! She's outfitted with a helmet with snorkelling mask, a pair of swim fins, and a surfboard. The swim fins are new in the colour in this set.
Though not pictured, all minidolls (and Dash) were provided sunglasses for the trip.
Auxiliary builds
The plane is the main feature of the set, but the Friends do need to check in and get to the plane, so those builds are included here. The first is a checkin counter. It's plainly an open air environment, which leads me to think that the airplane is in a tropical location. There's a palm tree right there at the counter, which is a tipoff. Finally, the departure schedule suggests that the plane is not in Heartlake City, since the first departure listed is HLC. I'm making the assumption that means Heartlake City, and not Hill City, Kansas.
The other airports listed on the schedule are also interesting: GOA - Genoa, Italy, BLL - Billund, Denmark, LCI - Laconia, New Hampshire, and SMF - Sacramento, California. Other than Billund, which is an obvious choice, perhaps the others cities are tied to the design team.
Naturally, as one is wont to do when checking in for a flight, there's a mug and a slice of pie there for snacking. Looking around the back of the checkin counter, we see one of the pieces of luggage working its way through the x-ray machine, with the results of the scan available on the screen.
There's a moving flight of stairs also provided so the Friends can board the plane in a logical manner. There are 10 of the new vibrant coral narrow rims included in this set, and on the stairs here they are used to provide additional colour to an already striking staircase. The snack cart used in the plane is about half the size of the stairs, and includes several kinds of chilled treats.
Finally, the Friends need to have luggage, and each one has a small suitcase and a rollerboard. The mini suitcases have been seen several times before, but bright yellowish green rollerboard are somewhat new. They were introduced in one set in 2018, and are making an appearance in several sets this year. All suitcases open, and I've opened the rollerboards here to show that Stephanie and Olivia have chosen to pack their cell phone and tickets. At least that way they shouldn't get lost!
Completed model
The plane is rather striking, and I was happy to see the main colours were blue and white as opposed to a "girl" colour. The fuchsia accents look good. Thanks to a large sticker there's a stylized sunset/sunrise over the passenger windows on one side of the plane. I like how the stripes of the sticker are integrated with the brick built stripes of the plane.
It would have made for a much larger sticker sheet, but there's no sunset on the other side of the plane.
A really great feature of the set is that all of the inside portions of the plane are readily accessible. The nose piece lifts off easily so you can see Captain Ashley at the helm of the plane.
The pilot's chair can recline or tilt forward, as I've done here to see the beverage station immediately behind the pilot. There's a coffee machine and a smoothie machine there to provide beverages for the passengers. I've never seen a smoothie machine on any planes I've flown. I must be flying the wrong airlines!
Instead of having a removable roof, the designers have created a hinging mechanism to access the main cabin. I really like having this feature - it hasn't been featured on a Friends plane in the past, and it's a welcome addition.
Inside the cabin there's space for four passengers - so apparently Dash gets his own seat! Each seat has its own personal entertainment system. It looks like there's a great assortment of movies. The aisle along the side is wide enough for the snack cart to come through, though there's no evident space as to where it's stored.
I don't remember seeing overhead compartments in a Friends plane before - but we have them here, and I think they're a brilliant addition. You can see that that much like many commercial planes, these compartments are roomy enough to store the larger rollerboard bags.
And, as is the case for most airplanes, the lav is accessed through a door in the back. For play purposes, the top tail section of the plane can be removed.
It's just as tiny as the real thing!
I do have to note that while building the base of the plane, there are some extra details added. This is the section directly underneath the lavatory during construction - it's totally enclosed in the final build. Props to the designers for providing this extra smile during the build experience.
The wings on this plane are brick built, which I appreciate and I think look great. While it's typical for Friends sets to include hearts in as many places as possible, I think the vibrant coral heart pieces are used to good effect.
There are many stickers to provide details to the outside of the plane, including these on the tail rudder.
Overall thoughts
In many ways, I like this set better than either 41100 or 41109. This plane is a nice size, although I think the tail rudder is still on the small side, it's nowhere near as tiny as the tail rudder on 41100 Heartlake Private Jet. My only quibble is that the plane isn't big enough to fit all five Friends (as passengers - if one of them was the pilot, they'd be all set). I like that the stairs included in the set lines up very well with the flipped up opening on the side of the plane. The stickers are something you've come to expect from Friends sets, and I think the larger sticker on the side of the plane is one of the more effective uses for a sticker that I've seen lately. Most of the stickers in this set fall into the category of "nice to have" - the set would be just as effective without them.
I really like the colour scheme for the plane in the blue and white colour with fuchsia accents. The plane itself is very swooshable and not too large for smaller hands (or mine, for that matter). I think having all there areas of the plane be readily accessible by either the hinge mechanism or easily lifting off the top portion was a great idea. This set is 574 pieces, $69.99, 69.99€, £59.99. While the price may be a bit on the high side for the piece count, there are several large plane pieces included, including the tail rudder, and the bottom of the plane pieces all being in new colours for this set. There are a number of recoloured parts in the set, you can find an inventory here.
If your Friends have a flight to take, this airplane is a viable option.
Many thanks to LEGO for providing a copy of this set for review. All opinions expressed are mine.
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21 comments on this article
I wonder why they felt the need to dual mould the minidoll torsos this year? Sure it allows for back printing but that’s only used sparingly. The printing on these new torsos are significantly worse than what they were in not only opacity but application. Compare that Stephanie’s torso to any of the ones featuring the same print in 2019/18. :/
Nice to see some variety regarding the destination airport selection, instead of the traditional Berlin, Moscow, London, New York, must be definitely related to the design team, cool easter egg!
The set looks good, playable with some functions inside, better designed when comparison with the City line one, even this last one being bigger... Curiously both will carry 4 passengers! Love the cabinets and the seats, very accurate!
Just don't like the new cockpit. Makes the aircraft look like a wale. From certain angles... Will have to see one of those in person.
"LCI" could stand for its real-world equivalent, but I think that more likely it stands for "Lego City International".
Altogether this is one of the most impressive plane sets in recent years in my opinion. Opting for lower brick-built wings instead of the large wing plate from City that intersects the cabin allows for a roomy, unbroken interior, and the hinged roof both allows for the overhead storage (a first for Lego planes, I think) as well as a "doll's-eye-view" of the interior. The new nose and tail pieces are used to great effect for better, roomier interiors than previous planes allowed for. Honestly it impresses me even more than the City jet that's releasing at the same time. The only minor drawback I see is the lack of an actual realistic way in and out of the plane (since the hinged cabin and removable nose and tail pieces replace an actual plane door).
The hinged cabin is very 90’s Town Airport, great!
Compared to the polished plane in 41109, this plane looks a bit home made. However, as 41109 is identical to the previous Lego city mini-fig planes, the friends seemed a bit squashed with their heads in the ceiling. The extra height in this plane is welcome for these larger figures, although the shorter length and tiny wings makes it very bulbous looking. The toilet is well done to use the dead space at the end. However, as you could potentially rearrange 41109 to take 6 passengers, and included a passenger terminal, this earlier set will maintain its 2nd hand popularity.
@MeganL , @Lyichir figured it out, we intended it to be LEGO City International.
I have to confess, Bea (the Graphic Designer) and myself (the Designer) never actually checked which real world Airport had the designation LCI!
I thought the pilot hat looked familiar.
With a shield rather than a heart, it's on 71017-6 Barbara Gordon
I don't think the Friends will be flying to LCI or anywhere else anytime soon :-(
Neat set, I like the CITY plane but this is nice too.
I want this set. :) if I then get the other two planes for my kids... We can start a whole airplane family!
Overhead luggage bins! Brick built wings with a carry through structure BELOW the cabin floor! I might have to swallow my pride and buy my first Friends set ... if I can afford it. Stupid pandemic.
The plane doesn’t look very sleek or aerodynamic.
My first thought seeing the plane was "bleh". It's big, not very aerodynamic and kinda ugly.
But then you open it and there's a LOT of play value in there. It's actually pretty great.
@iwybs said:
"Overhead luggage bins! Brick built wings with a carry through structure BELOW the cabin floor! I might have to swallow my pride and buy my first Friends set ... if I can afford it. Stupid pandemic."
If you buy it because you find the build interesting, despite it being outside of your usual style, I will take that as a big compliment and pay it forward to the rest of the Friends Design Team!
Great set but we still need a HLC passenger train. Please Lego!!
Terrible, Terrible, Terrible! Heartlake Airlines allows passengers to fly without COVID-19 face masks! I’ll be flying a safer carrier! ;)
With those piddly engines, stubby wings and totally unaerodynamic shape this thing looks even less likely to fly than a bumblebee. Imagine this trying to take off. It would crash immediately, if it got off the ground at all.
I know we are talking about a toy, but these proportions are more than comical even for a toy. What happened to great LEGO planes of old, even Friends ones like 41109?
@AustinPowers said:
"I know we are talking about a toy, but these proportions are more than comical even for a toy. What happened to great LEGO planes of old, even Friends ones like 41109?"
How did you reach that conclusion?
Take another look please. I've kept it very close to 1:195 scale with common commercial airliners.
Even the light locations are real life accurate.
@Joel_Baker said:
" @MeganL , @Lyichir figured it out, we intended it to be LEGO City International.
I have to confess, Bea (the Graphic Designer) and myself (the Designer) never actually checked which real world Airport had the designation LCI!"
Are GOA and SMF also Lego references?
Real world references to Genoa Italy and Sacramento California- airports near where we grew up!
This is so much better designed than the City plane. Not the first time one can notice this when comparing the themes.
Having said that, the different shades of white can be easily spotted in the pictures. Lego needs to sort this out, literally speaking.