Review: 41683 Forest Horseback Riding Centre
Posted by MeganL,
One of the subthemes in the second half of the year for Friends is a Forest. While there have been camping themes, this is the first time I remember there being a Forest theme. We checked out the smallest of those sets earlier with 41677 Forest Waterfall. 41683 Forest Horseback Riding Centre is the largest of this theme. While 41677 was a great set in that it was could be used as a general set, 41683 is the latest in the series of horse themed Friends sets. While you may not be interested in the evergreen horse topic of the sets, there's a notable number of pieces in newer colours.
Inside the box there are six numbered bags, one unnumbered bags with two 8x16 plates and the two horses, an instruction book and a small sticker sheet.
Minidolls and animals
There are three characters in this set, two minidolls and a new microdoll. Mia is the Friend featured in the set, which is fitting considering she's the outdoorsy Friend. She's wearing a bright yellowish green sleeveless vest with zippered pockets on top of a blue shell. Her jeans and lace up boots shows she is ready for a day on the trails. I'm particularly pleased to see Savannah in this set as well. She was introduced in 41446 Heartlake City Vet Clinic. After bringing her dog Goldie to the vet, it's time to get out to the Forest and go for a horse ride.
Savannah has brought her little brother, Kevin, for the riding excursion. Kevin is new to this set and is just as adorable as microdolls can be, with a red shirt with a bee pattern. I love that Kevin is a person of colour and that the Friends world continues its diverse population.
Goldie also make a reappearance in this set, going with Savannah everywhere. In this set Goldie gets a house, a dish with a bone, a flower, and a brown swirly. Some clean up equipment is also provided, though there's more than just Goldie to clean up after.
There are two horses in this set (which is good, considering there are two stalls in the stable in the main build). However, while we met Bella inn 41446, the Riding Centre is the home for two other horses, Melody and Rhapsody. It's not clear if one of those horses belongs to Savannah, though they both come with saddles equipped for visually challenged riders. Two bridles are provided in the set, though I've only placed one on a horse.
One horse is a golden palomino with a flowing mane on one side, while the other is a dappled grey. Of course, the spots on the grey resembled hearts.
Because of the nature minidolls, the Friends have to ride the horses standing up - assuming they don't lose their saddle to someone else!
Note: sloths not included in this set
Finally, a pony is included, so Kevin doesn't feel left out. The pony is adorable as you would fully expect, and also has a flowing mane down one side. Microdolls are forced to stand while riding, too.
The completed model
As the title of the set infers, this is a Forest Riding Centre. However, the only "forest" part of this set is a small build that includes a campfire and a tree.
There's also some marshmallows for roasting, and whenever there are snacks around, the Friends will always get visitors.
Note: sloths not included in this set
The main part of the build is the riding centre. It's a very straightforward build. The ground floor is dedicated almost exclusively to the two horse stalls.
Stickers provide details such as grooming supplies, and there's a water trough between the two stalls. Melody and Rhapsody should stay well hydrated. A side area of the ground floor is used for hay storage.
The other side of the building has a small grassy area for the horses, along with a carrot treat.
A stairway in the front of the building leads to a small reception area, that has some details provided by stickers.
After climbing a couple of stairs, there's a sitting area, laid out with a teapot and cups, as well as a kitchenette area.
While there are stairs to the first level over the ground floor, there are none to the next level. Therefore, I'm not sure how the Friends make it up to the loft area, where there are two beds laid out. Maybe they've got energy from the caffeine in their tea?
The building is rather attractive - I like the choice of cool yellow - and has some nice decorative details with the teal green shutters, blue roof, and the lavender horseshoe.
Overall thoughts
The Friends theme typically has a horse-themed sets every other year or so, so I'm guessing this topic must test really well with focus groups. For long time followers of the theme, seeing yet another horse themed set is a little disappointing. However, there are some nice new colours in this set, such as the teal shutters and the lavender fence pieces. Both horses and the pony are new, so those who collect LEGO animals will be pleased. A complete inventory can be found here.
Even though the building is straightforward, there's lots of opportunity for play in this set with the stable, living area, forest scene, and of course, the horses.
Having so many horses is probably what increases the price, which is rather high for this set (511 pieces, $69.99, £59.99, 64.99€). This price may be worth it if you're buying for a child who's crazy about horses, otherwise it may be worth waiting to find it on sale.
Many thanks to LEGO for providing a copy of this set for review. All opinions are my own.
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15 comments on this article
This is like $120 here, the same price as 41369 Mia's House. Who knew adding another horse and a pony would mean a whole 50% less building!
Having said that, given that this is a Forest subtheme, I expect lots of Mia scenarios, or at least lots of Mia screentime.
I just want this set for the columns in that colour so I can build the bridge on the inside cover of the Micro Cities book.
The bridle part is interesting. I was wondering if anyone has tried to see if it would fit on the non-Friends horse? It looks like it might, although the reins may be too long.
Its a very solid set, but I am puzzled why they havent redesign the reigns yet as Minidolls cant handle them.
I also dont like new horses. They are way too big IMO.
same problem here as with most of the friends sets: too much detailing relies on stickers...YUCK!!
Awesome review! Been waiting for more friends reviews but unfortunately very little lego fans care about friends and minidoll themes which is unfortunate but I’m not a big fan of this set it’s overpriced, more expensive that Andrea’s house (here at least), and boring interior and I feel lego friends is moving into a more juniorised style which is sad. All the sets seem to have reduced detail and stickers to show everything. The building are also so shallow now and the box art is now so unattractive. Overall pretty disappointed
Somewhere I missed that the sloths (not included in this set) came in different colors...
In my opinion, it´s about time to see the launch of a wave of farm/countryside sets as a City sub theme, with the spread of the animals range. Praying for the goats comeback. If its mold is lost, what makes it so hard to create a new one? Come on LEGO!
@Darth_Dee said:
"Somewhere I missed that the sloths (not included in this set) came in different colors..."
They're the random surprise animal in Andrea's Jungle Play Cube.
Nice review!
I love the new pony/foal mold with the cutout in the back, especially because I can't stop thinking about its potential as a pegasus foal for Elves MOCs! The new articulated horses also continue to impress, particularly thanks to their varied mane designs and coat patterns.
I do feel like it's a bit unfortunate that this set does not include a nameplate for the pony as it does for Goldie and the two larger horses, since I love being able to identify and refer to LEGO Friends animals by name. Names are the sort of detail that helps to elevate them from accessories for the Friends characters to individualized characters in their own right!
The building and scenery are a nice addition to the other sets from this year's Forest subtheme, even if the trees themselves feel rather small compared to a larger building like this. The architecture and color scheme suit the rustic setting while still having a vibrant and harmonious color scheme, as we've come to expect in the Friends theme. And it's great to see Savannah again in a set that shows us a little bit more about her family and career.
I do wish that the building itself were adapted more clearly for Savannah's blindness. The lack of a railing on the stairs seems rather dangerous for anybody, especially somebody with impaired vision, and it feels odd for her service dog Goldie to reside in their own doghouse outside instead of living in the home! A rack or stand for Savannah's cane would also have been a thoughtful addition. As it is, while the living arrangements are pretty decent on a general level, they feel ill-suited to the home's actual resident, which is a real shame.
One more general feature that is noticeably absent is a bathroom, but that's understandable in light of the space limitations from having the lower level completely dedicated to the stables. I suppose it's possible that Savannah shares use of the "outhouse" from 41679 — though I'd probably prefer to display that set a greater distance from this one due to its contrasting color scheme and the fact that it doesn't appear on the map showing the home's immediate surroundings.
While I do appreciate the scenery elements like the campfire, I feel like the campfire build leaves a bit to be desired. I feel like the one in 41121 Adventure Camp Rafting felt a little better with the logs arranged in a circle and at an incline, rather than awkwardly raised OVER the fire.
That said, the campfire build in this set does have a slight advantage in more closely resembling actual logs, which allows for kids to act out scenes of the characters gathering and laying out the firewood. And in any case, I know from my own experience trying to design MOCs that creating a believable wood fire out of LEGO can be quite the challenge!
Thanks for the review, and looking forward to more reviews of this year's Friends sets! :)
I'm going to keep hoping that the friends venture a bit too far into the forest, find a mysterious portal, unwisely jump through it and then BAM Elves are back
@CCC said:
" @ChromedCat said:
"Awesome review! Been waiting for more friends reviews but unfortunately very little lego fans care about friends and minidoll themes which is unfortunate"
I don't think so. It is regularly a top selling range. Many fans, younger girls especially, love the Friends theme."
Well, you rarely hear about Friends outside of parents, kids and feminine AFOL subcommunities. Not many kids participate in the same kind of discourse we do — at least, not since the LEGO Club forums were discontinued — and Friends subcommunities often exist, and flourish, separately from places like Brickset (most notably Friends Bricks). Over here, many positive comments are along the lines of "eh, not a fan of Friends and its colors and minidolls but this set or its parts look good" or "why do Friends get such good builds and not City" and vanishingly few from people who straight up love the theme such as myself.
Outside of dedicated resources like Friends Bricks, ellieV and some kids' channels, the major review sites and channels publish fewer Friends reviews than others, and JANG himself has said a number of times he's had to forgo many Friends reviews simply because the viewer engagement ROI is so poor and not worth the amount of work he puts into each review. Shout out to AustrianBrickFan for his numerous Friends videos, by the way.
The same is true for LEGO Classic, which gets *nearly zero* coverage in AFOL spaces regardless of gender or other demographic. Someone wrote me just this week to thank me for my self-hosted review of 10703, which itself happens to have more AFOL reviews than the average Classic set (like 2 or 3 including mine, compared to the average of less than 1).
These by no means suggest that LEGO Friends and Classic aren't loved. But... at least in AFOL spaces, they're severely underrated as they get far less coverage and discourse than they deserve. I think most of us share similar criticisms about Classic sets, though (not enough quantity due to too much color and part type variety, even if it's intended for each set to be a complete, self-contained package, not counting the sub-$10 boxes).
@CCC:
To clarify, I also disagree with ChromedCat's use of "lego fans" to refer to male AFOLs, and it certainly isn't isolated, a lot of people use that phrase under the misguided premise that the only fans whose opinions matter are AFOLs, and this attitude seems pervasive across numerous LEGO communities on all sorts of platforms.
I don't really agree that JANG is biased against children's sets, or indeed biased towards any one perspective, considering he reviews tons of 5+ City sets despite the theme getting increasingly juniorized. If nothing else his reviews are usually balanced for, not against, that perspective. For instance he often mocks common AFOL complaints over things that either don't matter to children, or are actually a good thing for children.
As for your last sentence, a similar observation can be made for novelty 18+ sets (Botanical Collection, Ideas, etc). Some (probably not all) of them are selling incredibly well, even to adults who aren't die-hard LEGO fans who proudly wear the AFOL label... who happen to be the very target audience of those novelty 18+ sets. AFOLs can't stand the marketing, and scratch their heads at some of the concepts, and yet they seem to work.
I’m sorry what I meant was fans of lego in the mainstream lego community (females included) don’t see the full joy and wonder in friends and although there are indeed some exceptions the mainstream community has a generally somewhat negative view on friends and some other less popular themes which is strange but I guess that’s just reality
@CCC said:
""saddles equipped for visually challenged riders"
What does this mean? Aren't the saddles the same for all riders?"
I don’t get it either ^_^’
Is it supposed to be a joke?