Set #41043 Penguin’s Playground: The best part of animals sets from this Friends line is that they’ve introduced many new animal pieces. They may not be what some fans of LEGO prefer, since they are rather cutesy and made more to be with Friends Mini-Dolls instead of classic LEGO Minifigures.

Still I’d have to say that a lot of these animal pieces are great for anyone because they are great looking sculpts. Anyway let’s move on to the pros and cons of this set.

Pros:

• The model in this set is a very cute looking animal habitat built mostly with white pieces and some transparent blue parts for ice effects. There are two ice bricks made with transparent blue 1x1 bricks, which is a nice part that we don’t see in that colour very often.

• Fun enjoyable little build to play with the penguin, has a slide, a small hiding place for the penguin, or her fishy meal.

• Penguin is a great new animal sculpt, DC Super Heroes fans might prefer regular penguins to the brick-built penguin minions in DC sets.

Cons:

• Like most animal sculpts from Friends the animal looks stupid wearing a bow, the bow is too large for her and doesn’t scale very well.

• Fish food piece is a bit large for the penguin, a minor complaint really, but it would have been nice to see LEGO sculpt a different type of fish for the penguin to enjoy. New food pieces are always a welcome addition to LEGO parts lists.

• Penguin beak paint job appears a bit sloppy, could be a problem with such a small area for the print detailing from set to set.

Overall opinion

In my opinion this is a pretty great looking little set and fits in nicely with the LEGO Friends line. It offers a unique new animal sculpt and is a cheap pack for army building little penguins. Also the trans clear blue 1x1 bricks are some great parts to get multiples of in this set for water or ice MOCs. I wholeheartedly recommend this set to everybody.