Review: 41748 Heartlake City Community Centre
Posted by MeganL,
The first wave of Friends sets was impressive, and the second wave this year looks to be just as much fun. My biggest problem at the outset was deciding which set to build first!
That decision was made for me: 41748 Heartlake City Community Centre arrived in rather beat-up condition with a large hole in the box, so I built it to make sure everything was there. It's the largest set of this wave, and has the added bonus of being designed by Wes Talbott, one of my favourite designers from his Elves days.
Summary
41748 Heartlake City Community Centre, 1,513 pieces.
£129.99 / $139.99 / €149.99 | 8.6p/9.3c/9.9c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A beautiful rainbow coloured centre for the new Friends generation
- Each floor shows a distinct activity for the Friends
- Stephanie returns as mayor!
- Fantastic set on display
- Immense play value
- No stairs!
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Inside the (dented and battered) box there are 12 bags numbered 1-11, two unnumbered bags (one contains five of these plates used for the floors in the centre, the other contains a slide piece, two grey beams, and the largest printed piece I've seen in a Friends set.) There are four instruction books included and a surprisingly small sticker sheet, considering the size of the set.
The box art shows that the set is compatible with 41747 Heartlake City Community Kitchen, which has the potential to add another storey to the building (to be shown in the next review)
Minidolls and animals
There are six minidolls in this set. The first is a familiar face - we see Stephanie from the original five Friends! Stephanie is looking very business-like in her pale blue suit with white shell and tasteful necklace. Her hair is up in a fashionable bun. Stephanie has come a long way from being sporty girl we knew and loved - she's now the mayor of Heartlake City!
The rest of the minidolls are from the core Friends cast. First is Zac, who is ready for gaming. He's dressed in an outfit we've seen before in sleeveless t-shirt with a gaming motif on the front with board shorts. Olly is wearing a shirt that has an artistic design on it that may symbolise the Community Centre. We see this motif a few times throughout the build.
Liann is wearing the same design as Olly, though her shirt has dark blue sleeves to Olly's fuchsia. Paisley is seen wearing a sleeveless blouse with a diamond design, while Nova is wearing a new shirt with a great UFO design. Nova's dog Pickle is along for the fun, and is surprisingly the only cute Friends animal in the set.
Completed model
The Community Centre is impressive, and likely the tallest Friends model to date. Every floor has a different colour scheme, and despite the wide variety of colours, it works well. According to the box art, 41747 provides a ground floor in a lavender colour.
Turning the model around, we see that each floor has great details. The footprint for each of the floor is this L-shaped 8x8 plate. As is not unusual with Friends sets, there's no discernible way to get from floor to floor, save for the slide. Let's take a closer look at each floor.
The ground floor has a blue and white colour scheme.
This is the music level. On one side there's a piano with some sheet music, and a guitar on a stand close by. I expect Paisley spends a lot of time here.
Sure enough, there's a performing stage on the other half of the floor, and here we find Paisley, along with one of her backup singers. There's a splat gear in the base of the stage that, when turned, allows the singer to rotate.
(Note: sloth backup singer not included in this set).
The outside of the community centre has plenty going on! It must be autumn (the season, the minidoll isn't in this set), as there's a tree with full fall foliage on display, with a tire swing hanging from the branches. A lamppost boasts some decorated flags, and finally a street bench is in the midst of a makeover (one of the minidolls comes with a paint roller as an accessory). The bench always attracts uninvited visitors.
(Note: benchwarming sloth not included in this set).
One level up, the colour has shifted to green. This looks like the control centre for a streaming studio! If memory serves, Olly is the one who has the expertise in creating videostreams.
And sure enough, here we find him on set. Today's he's interviewing Stephanie, over a cup of tea. It's so nice that the mayor has found time in her busy schedule to stop by the centre! The setup has all the gear needed, with lights, and Olly's smartphone for recording the session.
After the interview, it's time for post-processing, which Olly takes care of at an impressive workstation with some help. I have to note that the parts usage for the chairs on this level is particularly stellar - wheel rims for chair back? Wonderful.
(Note: post-processing sloth not included in this set)
The outside of this floor boasts some growing ivy, hanging baskets and some very nice detailing around the windows.
Moving up the mini-rainbow, the yellow floor is next. This floor has the distinction of having a pool (because what else would you have on the second floor?) but also some gaming supplies, including some rather large monitors. I'd expect this to be Nova's domain.
Not surprisingly, this is exactly where we find Nova. I would expect to find Zac here as well, but I think we'll find him on another floor. In the meantime, someone else has stepped up to substitute for a gaming partner.
(Note: substitute gaming partner sloth not included in this set)
In one corner there's all the equipment needed for a game of Heroica, including a few microdolls.
A pool is found just outside on the balcony. While the pool can be accessed through the double doors, that's clearly super lame, so a slide is provided for a Friend to make a splash (literally) from one floor up.
The outside affords a better view of the slide and pool, which has a refreshing drink on one side. Like the other floors, the detailing on the outside is very nice.
One level up there's a pinkish colour floor, with the interesting choice of light nougat along with vibrant coral and bright purple. This is a creative floor with paints and a sewing machine, so one would expect to find Liann around these parts.
One side of the floor showcases an enormous sewing machine, which apparently also doubles as an embroidering machine as some stitchwork with the community centre logo is in process. A gear wheel on the side of the table allows the needle to rise and lower, a nice touch of movement in the model.
The other half of the floor shows another t-shirt painting in progress with all necessary supplies on a nearby shelf. Liann is modelling one of the shirts, with her painting assistant close by (who matches the trim on the wall).
(Note: painting assistant sloth not included in this set)
The interesting details on the outside of the building continue on this floor, with a nice arched window, and a large signed mural by Liann. The mural is a printed piece, so it will be interesting to see if it gets reused in another set!
We're at the top of the rainbow, which means the rooftop is left. There's no space wasted here with a rainbarrel and a small greenhouse for growing vegetables, presumably for the community kitchen that can be attached to this set.
It looks like Zac is taking a break from gaming with Nova (based on what I've seen of the series episodes, he was likely losing), so he's getting some fresh air, along with one of the local denizens.
(Note: local denizen sloth not included in this set)
The movable scaffolding shows how Liann was able to accomplish her masterpiece.
Overall thoughts
This is a such a great looking set! The rainbow colours on each floor work so well together, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks once 41747 is added (spoiler alert: it looks great). While all the floors have the same footprint, and you could rearrange the floors based on your liking, I liked the original order so much I didn't change it.
I also like that this is one of the few sets that only has the "regular cast" of Friends in it - no extra characters, so it's a great way of getting five of the Friends at once. I'm counting Stephanie as a regular cast member since she's one of the originals. Kudos to the Friends team for weaving the stories of the original Friends in with this crew, and I love that Stephanie is now the mayor! I hope we learn other similar great details about the other original Friends (and more about Mia other than she's Autumn's mom).
The building experience is fun, and felt to me like a mini-modular with all the floors. I love that there are been small moving functions woven throughout the set. I've noticed that's something that's been featured in several of Wes' sets, and it's put to good use here. In addition to new minidoll torsos and legs, there are a number of recolours. A parts list can be found here.
I'm trying hard to think of a downside to this set, but the only thing I can come up with is that there aren't any stairs between floors. Though that would have taken up precious space, and this is a play set, after all. Every stud on the floors were needed for all the details packed in.
This is the most expensive set of this wave, and it's a lovely set. There are so many opportunities for play, and multiple stories to be told. Originally I thought the price was a little high, but with each floor could easily be a $30 set, and with four floors, the price seems reasonable. If you're going to drop $140 on a set to maximise play value, I don't know that you can do much better than this set.
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36 comments on this article
Great review of one of my favorite recent sets!
The color scheme is simply gorgeous and I love all the interior and exterior detail. I got the community kitchen set too, but I wasn't too fond of the way it recommended combining them—I prefer to leave the kitchen as-is and position it to the right of the community center, which results in less of a stark height difference between the towering community center and neighboring patio (and creates a nice symmetry between the stairs to the patio below and the slide up above). I'm considering modding the set to fully enclose it and add an elevator shaft to the 8x8 corner cutout for access between floors.
Heroica!
Great review! I wonder if the Botanical Garden set is getting a review soon as well? It was the 1st Friends set I ever purchased!
This is a great-looking set, and as a 'Lego City' enthusiast, I'm curious to see how it can be modified into a modular/minifig-accommodating building. The rooms would have to be a bit more functional (i.e. a kitchen and a bathroom), and I'd get rid of the slide (which doesn't really pass health and safety regs). And as MeganL says, it could do with a staircase.
Beautiful set, but I have to admit I still prefer the original Friends characters.
Perhaps it's the nostalgia talking because those were the sets and Friends my daughters grew up playing with.
That's purely a personal opinion of course.
Since you can't seem to come up with something: Here's my one big criticism point: Too much white! ;-) It would have been pretty awesome if the sideways door frames would have matched the colors of the respective level and a few details like knobs or the caps of the paint jars would have been in different colors. I also would have liked to see at least some tiles for carpets/ rugs. Other than that I agree. It's a beautiful set with nice ideas.
Great review! Any plans to review the Community Kitchen and show off how it interacts with this set?
@Mylenium said:
"Since you can't seem to come up with something: Here's my one big criticism point: Too much white! ;-) It would have been pretty awesome if the sideways door frames would have matched the colors of the respective level and a few details like knobs or the caps of the paint jars would have been in different colors. I also would have liked to see at least some tiles for carpets/ rugs. Other than that I agree. It's a beautiful set with nice ideas. "
Personally I feel like the white helps to tie all the floors together into a unified whole—without it the varied colors/styles of each floor might make them feel too much like they all came from different buildings. The white is a little heavier on the back view thanks to the sideways door frames, but I feel like that serves to help them feel less obtrusive since they're really mostly there to provide a supporting structure without getting in the way of the interiors too much (and since the interior floors are white also, the white color of the doors helps them blend in a little better). I do plan on replacing those door frames if I end up modding the set to add full walls around all the sides.
I'm loving the Heroica game turning up
I can't believe there's a Heroica reference!!!!!
That theme needs to return...
I love that tire swing! So simple, but really adds character to the build.
Certainly one of the best looking Friends sets released! I love how cohesive the floors look because of the white bordering. They did a good job unifying an absolutely outrageous color scheme. I also really love that Friends sets are being set in autumm. It makes the trees more visually interesting. I love seeing Heroica get a shout-out as well! That pool concerns me a little bit though.
Good review! I found it very cute and charming that all your sloth photos have the sloths color-coded to match their color-coded surroundings!
It's very cool how this set depicts not just the community center's normal operations but also ones specific to a "grand opening" scenario — putting the finishing touches on the mural and bench outside, producing promotional T-shirts which can presumably be sold for fundraising, and inviting Mayor Stephanie for the ribbon-cutting at the main entrance, and then ushering her inside for a news interview. Set 41749 even shows some of this grand opening footage on one of its computer monitors!
The performance stage in the music room is very neat, and the orange spot in the center sort of makes it look like the lead singer is under a spotlight! The keyboard and a lot of the upstairs furniture alike make great use of 1x2x2 arched castle windows for their narrow legs. The other furniture in the recording studio is outstanding too, with some very clever building techniques used for the coffee table and cozy-looking chairs!
Besides being a surprising throwback, the Heroica game is also a neat way to supply the gaming lounge with some non-digital play options. And it's certainly in keeping with designer Wes Talbott's love of tabletop role-playing games! The slide and pool on this level feel a little more unusual for a community center setting, especially on a higher floor like this, but they are nicely constructed, and I appreciate the drainage grates inside the doors to catch any water that splashes inside.
The sewing machine's mechanism is incredible, especially considering its compact size. I don't think the sewing machine is being used to embroider the shirts — rather, it appears to be sewing on the sleeves! Presumably, Liann painted the pattern on this one while one of her friends was stitching the sleeves onto the shirt she's currently painting. Teamwork!
On the exterior, the sidewalk is brilliantly constructed, and nicely matches the sidewalk from 41747. I hope that in the future, more Heartlake City buildings will be given sidewalks that match either this one or the one from 41732, so that they can be linked together as part of those same "neighborhoods". The tree is very nicely constructed, if a bit angular, and I love the circular bench built around its planter!
The building's architecture is quite stunning in its own right, despite the uniformity of the building's L-shaped structure. In addition the color-coding, Wes also did a lovely job implementing different styles of window and other architectural motifs on every floor while still maintaining a harmonious design language.
Liann's mural and suspended scaffold are also very cool, although the mural lacks the creative play value of the ones from 41711 that used LEGO Dots tiles to allow for customizable patterns. Bit of a shame, since that would also make it easier to show the mural as a "work in progress". That said, this dynamic printed pattern is perhaps better at showcasing the various activities and resources the community center offers!
The rooftop greenhouse is very detailed for its small size, and is even more fitting if you pair this set with the Community Kitchen. The tomato plant and strawberry patches are quite lovely — I always appreciate seeing different sorts of plants and produce in LEGO sets besides just those that have dedicated molds like bananas, cherries, and apples. That said, IMO a decorated 1x1 heart tile would be a better representation of a strawberry than this decorated 1x1 round tile that LEGO has been using since 2014.
The lack of stairs (or better yet, a lift, so as to accommodate Heartlake City's various wheelchair users) is certainly a drawback, but I definitely see how that would have added to the set's already high price. On the plus side, there's certainly room to add a lift or staircase if you so choose — either inside the 8x8 cutout portion as @Lyichir suggested, or on the left side of the building, opposite the slide.
Thanks for the detailed review of this gorgeous set!
@Huw @MeganL I'm getting a "server error 403 Access Denied - You don't have permission to view that link with credentials provided" when I click the first picture at the very top of the article on the main page. I opened the article to comment, and it still does it in here too.
Just a heads up.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @Huw @MeganL I'm getting a "server error 403 Access Denied - You don't have permission to view that link with credentials provided" when I click the first picture at the very top of the article on the main page. I opened the article to comment, and it still does it in here too.
Just a heads up."
Yes, same here. Thought it was my connection but obviously not!
Sorted.
Absolutely love this set. Just charm from top to bottom. And honestly not that out of place in a standard Lego city - it makes total sense that a recreation center would use bright colors on the exterior.
Love the height, too! And the ample floor space on each level to pose figures - too many City sets these days are basically facades with like 2-3 stud depth inside the rooms.
Is the sloth included in this set?
And yes 41747 gets stairs. Go figure. Love the Heroica nod; one if the best *if not *the* best) things to come out of the Games line.
It's really a solid set, but I wish it was like 3 different sets. Then people could buy few of same floors for pieces.
Still this set deserved to be 10 years of friends set :D
I miss heroica.
Love all the different sloth disclaimers!
@TheOtherMike said:
"And yes 41747 gets stairs. Go figure. Love the Heroica nod; one if the best *if not *the* best) things to come out of the Games line."
For gameplay it was the most interesting especially the expension options.
Partwise 3840 3839 3849 were the best if you could get them cheap.
That's lovely. The pool is insane, but cool. I love the tree.
Is it just me, or does it look like Nova is playing Team Sonic Racing, because that's definetly Tails on the screen...
Available for over 2 months and only owned by 138 members.
It's got a bit of catching up to do to overtake the likes of Hulkbuster (708), Black Panther (777), and Table Football (1222) :-)
It's odd that the top floor has windows on both sides, but one side is entirely blocked by the mural and showing the underside of the plate(s) through the windows. Why even put windows there? Should have been a wall.
@rljf311 said:
"Heroica!"
I love it when Lego gets self-referential, like that.
This is a beautiful set. And I love seeing another one of the original Friends.
Nice!
I've recently started getting into Friends (I just bought all of the bedroom sets this afternoon, and I'm loving the show), so I've been looking forward to seeing reviews of more of the recent sets. I've had my eye on this set, and it looks like it's going to be hard to resist getting (especially with the connecting set).
I've been thinking really hard about getting this set in two copies (with maybe the extra purple floor sold separately), and making a full narrow modular out of it (with stairs or something equivalent). If it wasn't 400 euros to attempt doing so, it'd be done already. I love the unusual color scheme, and I think it would fit well near the taller police station and construction sites.
Great review. Nice set.
Lots of fun stuff here with creative interiors, interesting furniture and accessories, inspiring inter-set connectivity, well-finished architecture, and great use of color without relying upon cloying and stereotypical "girl" pink.
What can you say about Friends? It's a theme that is using excellence to break the boundaries of its typical customer group.
My brother saw some of the boxes in my Lego room and scoffed. I had to set him straight. They're doing good things.
Now, can we please get the Friends team to provide a makeover for 75365? SW and City could sure use a little of that Friends attention to detail!
They tease me! Heroica being a full blown D&D-esque castle subtheme would be printing money.
Oh, and the building looks amazing.
You can’t go wrong with a Wes Talbott set
@StyleCounselor said:
"Great review. Nice set.
Lots of fun stuff here with creative interiors, interesting furniture and accessories, inspiring inter-set connectivity, well-finished architecture, and great use of color without relying upon cloying and stereotypical "girl" pink.
What can you say about Friends? It's a theme that is using excellence to break the boundaries of its typical customer group.
My brother saw some of the boxes in my Lego room and scoffed. I had to set him straight. They're doing good things.
Now, can we please get the Friends team to provide a makeover for 75365? SW and City could sure use a little of that Friends attention to detail!"
Yes, I agree! My daughters have some friends sets and I am always in awe of the richness in detail and 'density' in those sets (41395 and 41430 come to mind) plus the sheer variety of diffent buildings.
Friends is to my mind what city should - or used to? - be.
@thom1414 said:
"Great review! I wonder if the Botanical Garden set is getting a review soon as well? It was the 1st Friends set I ever purchased!"
Stay tuned, it's on the list!
That Community Centre looks good enough to eat is a sentence I never thought I’d type, yet here we are.
Great looking colourful set, I cannot wait to see a creator expert moc using 2 sets. Although I would replace all the floors with 16x16 square plates just to give the impression of being larger without having to add any more walls. Then if I can find enough stairs, maybe build a staircase at the back New York apartment style.