Review: 41744 Sports Centre
Posted by MeganL,
After looking at the winter sets, it's time to turn our attention to the warmer weather. Ever wonder how those Friends keep those svelte figures? Well, we have the answer with 41744 Sports Centre.
There's only been one other Friends gym, 41312 Heartlake Sports Centre. An interview with the designer of 41312 revealed that the colouring for that set was dedicated to Los Angeles Lakers colours as they hailed from Los Angeles. The colouring of 41744 is decidedly different, so I think it's safe to say that the designer is not a Lakers fan.
Summary
41744 Sports Centre, 832 pieces.
£84.99 / $94.99 / €94.99 | 10.2p/11.4c/11.4c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
An action packed athletics center, but at a high scost
- First minidoll with an insulin pump
- Lots of sports activities
- Expensive
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Inside the box there are six numbered bags, one 8x16 tile, a piece used to string lights, two instruction books and a relatively large sticker sheet. Based on the stickers alone it appears there are few more activities offered in this generation of the Sports Centre.
Minidolls
There are four mindolls in this set, with just one of them being one of the regular Friends cast. They have been separated into two teams, the red/blue team and a blue/green team. Hanna's outfit designates her in the blue team, wearing a blue sleeveless vest over a red t-shirt with blue pants. Next up is Niko, who I remember from one of the early episodes of Friends. Niko is on the opposing team and has a very intense look on his face.
Joining Niko on the green team is Ivana, show shares the same outfit. Finally, we have Leo, who has a similar outfit as Hanna.
Hanna carries a blood sugar monitor, and has an insulin pump printed on her arm. Score another one for the Friends team expanding their diverse cast of characters. There's some nice backprinting shown on the reverse side of the torsos, too.
Both Hanna and Niko have alternate heads provided - the ones pictured above look quite focused, while happier faces are shown here.
The completed model
As opposed to being just a building, this sports centre is a complex; there's a multi-sports field included in the set. The first use for the sports field is a soccer pitch. The minidolls can be placed on some 1x2 bricks, and moved around the field thanks to two long cross axle pieces.
Add a net, and the minidolls can play tennis.
Or, some visitors might want to try their paws at soccer.
(Note: soccer playing sloths not included in this set.)
Remove the net and add the catapult and a hoop, and you have either an interesting version of basketball or some fun target practice.
Accompanying the multi-sports field is a scoreboard. Stickers provide the number, and obviously the score never goes above 5!
The main focus is of course, the main sports centre building. From the front, it looks like there's plenty to do.
We see some more of the details in back, including the locker room.
Four lockers are provided for the four Friends - I guess there's an occupancy limit? - with two of the lockers decidedly larger. I wonder who gets those?
Opening the lockers, we see that they're not empty. You can't quite see the printing, but the top right locker does indeed include Guble Bubble. Guble Bubble seems to be making cameo appearances in quite a few Friends sets this year (I just checked the database and it looks like it's just six, but feels like more!).
There are two trophies on the top of the lockers.
One of the eye-catching part of the set is the rock climbing wall. It stretches for two storeys, and has a number of handholds to allow the Friends to practice their skills. A rope extends around the length to provide some additional holds. A very nice feature is that the entire rock wall rotates.
The top floor of the centre is given over to the exercise equipment. On the right, there's an exercise bike with a monitor to show a scenic path to help spend the time. In the middle there's a treadmill that incorporate some nice building techniques. The monitor on the treadmill shows coverage of some sporting event.
Further to the left, there are some dumbbells as well as a punching bag. Some handwraps are stored nearby in a box - a nice repurposing of some cast pieces. Now we know why Niko was wearing a headband - it's undoubtedly for his martial arts practice.
Moving to the bottom floor, there's a check in desk with monitor and some water bottles. There's always a water cooler at a gym, and this gym is no exception, as it's located right beside the check in desk.
The lockers fold out to show the dressing rooms. A sticker shows the fogged up mirror, with a brush and hair dryer at the ready. I particularly liked the parts usage for the air dryer.
Behind the double doors, we find the shower. There's a sizeable shower head, and a soap dispenser on the wall. I like the sticker in the back that has the tiled effect of two Friends playing soccer.
Moving to the front of the centre, we see a welcome bench along with different flyers promoting the various activities. It looks like there's a gecko on a skateboard - that probably beats a sloth on a soccer field.
The revolving rock wall is showcased in the front through clear round panels.
The entrance to the centre is highlighted in very striking coral. A tree to the side of the door completes the look in the front.
I really liked the eye-catching sign for the roof, showing that several sports are available at the location (naturally), so here's a closer look.
Overall thoughts
There's a lot of play value in this set, especially for the sports-inclined. I like that the sports field can be converted to play several sports. It's also good that enough minidolls have been included so that sports can actually be played! The team uniforms look great, and I like that two of the minidolls have alternate expressions available. Kudos to the Friends team for expanding their diverse population by including Hanna.
This sports centre definitely has more variety of activities available than the earlier 41312 Sports Centre. However, that's understandable - it was less than half the price! The price is my main complaint with this set. After building, I was surprised to see that it's $95! I was even more surprised to see that using the price per piece metric, 41312 was even more expensive (12.2c/piece for 41312 vs. 11.4c/piece for 41744). I guess sports centres are a luxury hobby in Heartlake City.
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20 comments on this article
Sports centers are a luxury everywhere, but we still pay the registration for our kids so they have something fun to do! ;-)
Missed the boat on having a pickleball court. =-)
Co-worker with diabetes just informed me it's not an insulin pump but a sensor that conncts to th emonitor app.
@Ridgeheart said:
"Not Niko. Look at that face, Niko is an Enemy. Niko metes out vengeance without pity."
Niko is just glad his cousin Roman isn't in this set, so they won't go bowling in 41708 : Roller Disco Arcade
(GTA 4 reference)
There's quite a lot of interesting ideas and nice parts usage. Anyone put off by the price, Smyths currently have it for €50, nearly half off.
Very modern. I'm a bit sad the sporting field isn't sold as a smaller set. Lego keeps putting lots of smaller cool builds in big sets.
The colors on this though. I'm not sure if I should applaud the designer for balancing the extremely bright coral and eye-searing (and cheap-looking) highlighter neon green with white and dark azure. They made it work. Almost.
But those other two colors are also still painful to look at. My eyes!!!!
To me it's nearing the line of gaudy, but it certainly is eye-catching at least...
@Huw 40561 is now a GFP in the Netherlands.
Threshold €65, not theme restricted and not mentioned on the sale page.
Also gifted in other regions?
Good design.
Horrible colour scheme.
Horrible figures.
Standard Friends really.
@watcher21 said:
" @Huw 40561 is now a GFP in the Netherlands.
Threshold €65, not theme restricted and not mentioned on the sale page.
Also gifted in other regions?"
Yes UK too. Lego seem embarrassed to advertise the fact though! (Not much danger of it selling out as quickly as the Gringotts Vault!)
Great set, hate the colors. The punching bag, treadmill, and exercise bike are awesome. I love the rocking climbing wall.
@MeganL I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of sloths on the climbing wall. Definitely a missed opportunity :D
I wonder how much these reviews have increased the price of friends sloths on Bricklink
@jkb said:
"Co-worker with diabetes just informed me it's not an insulin pump but a sensor that conncts to th emonitor app."
Yep. They're an alternative/supplement to the devices where you prick a finger and test your blood. Used to use similar sensors myself for a while, until my insurance randomly decided I wasn't diabetic *enough* to *really* need them.
Personally I love the colors of this set. Maybe a little garish for your typical building, but for something like a sports center I feel like this energetic color scheme is appropriate.
Anyway, I love all the features packed into this set! A field that can be used for three different sports, locker room, showers, treadmill, exercise bike, rock wall... the list goes on and on. It may be pricy but the end result is a set that feels like it almost comprehensively covers its subject matter.
The yellow truck from 60395: Combo Race Pack would be today's modern 6 wide variant.
But bonus points for the trucks in 60295: Stunt Show Arena , much bigger, but the suspension works very well as a toy.
No photos of the left... What's that yellow thing sticking out supposed to be? It has a round ground part underneath it too.
(Another set that'd be great if it came with minifigs x.x)
Side note, I wish those minifig hand weight/barbell parts stuck around. This is the second time I’ve seen those wheels used as weights (the City theme Apartment has them too), and while they’re okay for that use, I do like the specialised piece.
(my post was meant for the random set of today : 6675 , oops)
https://brickset.com/article/100077/random-set-of-the-day-road-trail-4-x-4
I am suprised Friends gets all sport sets like these. Hope city will get one as well nd it will be as good as this!
The multi-sports field is a great idea and fairly well executed, it could easily be a $20 set on its own and give kids a lot of play value, always great to see lego not condescend to girls and integrating technic elements and functions into friends. The emphasis on diversity makes antiquated stereotypes like the only Asian male in the cast a headband-wearing martial artist either funny or sad, depending on your perspective.
@sjr60 said:
" @watcher21 said:
" @Huw 40561 is now a GFP in the Netherlands.
Threshold €65, not theme restricted and not mentioned on the sale page.
Also gifted in other regions?"
Yes UK too. Lego seem embarrassed to advertise the fact though! (Not much danger of it selling out as quickly as the Gringotts Vault!)"
Sold out allready lmao
@watcher21 said:
" @sjr60 said:
" @watcher21 said:
" @Huw 40561 is now a GFP in the Netherlands.
Threshold €65, not theme restricted and not mentioned on the sale page.
Also gifted in other regions?"
Yes UK too. Lego seem embarrassed to advertise the fact though! (Not much danger of it selling out as quickly as the Gringotts Vault!)"
Sold out allready lmao"
That's good... a few less Dots sets for landfill then!