Review: 30106: Friends Ice Cream Stand

[Jareth]

Number: 30106

Name: Ice Cream Stand

Theme: Friends

Subtheme: Holiday

Year: 2013

Minifigs: 1 Minidoll

Pieces: 34

Price: $3.99 (US)

I've allways liked the St. Valentines day polybags. They have interesting pieces, and are great for getting my coworkers daughters addicted to legos, so when I found this, I had to buy three.

How about the parts?

Ok, Tan, awesome. White, Great. Wheels, meh. But you know it's bad when I can't complain about the pink because of the Light Aqua. I despise new colors, mainly because it's hard to collect enough to build anything with it. I'm ok with medium blue, but while researching this I find that Freinds has not just medium blue, but also medium azure and this light aqua. I honestly think this is a mistake. TLG should stick to just one shade of blue in the freinds line to prevent the "Rainbow Warriors" effect. Also, even though I don't like new colors, I Have to say this is the worst color I've ever seen. Fortunatelly they are 2x6 plates, and therefore easy enough to substitute. Ok enough about that. The pink is acceptable. I'd prefer pink and white or even better white and either blue or red, but let's be honest, I'm not the target audience here. Also as I said before the tan and white parts are great, the popsicle is interesting, and the ice cream cone is looking for more attention. (More on that later)

Oh yeah, here are the extra parts. Nothing to get excited about, but usefull if a kid looses a piece.

People

Emma here has appeared in sets before. Even in this exact outfit, but it is a good way to get this minidoll. The shoes and top match, and the skirt goes well with the outfit without it matching too much.

Here is a view of the back of her hair. She has two spots for hair accessories, but I don't have any accessories for her.

Build

This is a large version of "stuff on a 2 by X plate" that you often get with small sets, but it is effective at being unusual (in that it's not a vehicle) and has a lot of detail. The brown and pink can represent two compartments of ice cream. I still don't know where the popsicles are stored, but since they seem to be Ninjago Vemomari flavored, perhaps it's just for display. Also the finished cart looks like something from Mary Poppins or another idealized turn of the century movie.

MVP (Most valued piece)

The Ice cream cone! This was a difficult decision. I've never had this ir the popsicle before, so both are interesting as decorative pieces. The window panels are nice too. In the end the potential of the ice cream cone is what made it stand out over two other worthy pieces.

You might be asking, "but how does it look with the ice cream piece from other sets?"

It looks like this...ok. Now you might be asking, "but can you make a flower from three of them?

Yes, if you use pieces from other sets.

Conclusion

Parts 8/10 Very tricky to rate. Great parts weighed down by bad colors. Without the aqua it would be 9/10

Minifig 9/10 This minidolll is available in another polybag. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing spectacular.

Build 10/10 Any improvements I could make to this set would also make it larger

Playability 9/10 It rolls, Emma can be customer or vendor. I'm sure it works well with other minidolls

Price 8.5/10 Actually this is pretty good for a freinds set. If they go clearance, I'll buy more.

Overall 89%

[Redhead1982]

Icecream cone is one of the new bricks I look forward. And it's definitely worth knowing you can make a 'flower' with three of them.

[lightningtiger]

It's the ice cream cone that makes this polybag worth it.....though where's the ice box to keep them cold ?

Thanks for the review 'Jareth'.....though there was a lot of shadows eh ?

Brick On Review On 'Jareth' !

[daisy]

Well my favorite pieces in this set are the light aqua plates. You don't need a lot of them to add some great subtle details to MOCs. But I guess we all have different styles :)

I am very tempted to pick up several more for the light aqua, ice cream cone and Popsicle. Especially since my girls are quite attached to the one we have staying put together.

The one thing I don't like is the Emma clone. We already have so many copies of her.

BTW So nice of you to pass these on to coworkers!

[Mr Copperhead]

Nice review! I just wish I could ever find these polybags around here, I bought mine on Amazon for around $10 when shipping was added in

[Maya]

It's funny you said the popsicle looked venomari-flavored! Emma has to make sure no one eats it!

I think the ice cream cone looks overwhelmingly big with the ice cream piece on it. I tried it myself, but it doesn't look any better than the simple round pink piece.

Anyway, it's a very nice set for the price. It also goes quite well with the mailbox polybag set from last year.

[Jareth]

@ lightnign tiger: Yeah myphotography needs imrovement, but I prefer natural lighting (and shadows) than the grainyness of artificial light, and I'd rather buy bricks than a lighting system.

@mr copperhead: I got these at a target in the St Valentines section. Happy hunting!

@ daisy: I might go to brickworld this year. Wanna trade the plates for Emmas?

[Aanchir]

Personally, I have no problem with Light Aqua and Medium Azure, since they are bluish-green colors, which the LEGO color palette had previously had an astonishing shortage of. Back in the 90s and early 2000s the LEGO color palette had a fairly complete spectrum of colors, but unfortunately it started to grow cumbersome with the addition of more and more colors, and when colors started to get the axe, the purple and bluish-green parts of the spectrum suffered the most.

I have to say that the color of that popsicle needs to be used less frequently... I can't think of many colors much less appetizing when it comes to ice cream. Reminds me of 7-Up or Mello Yello, some of my least favorite lemon-lime sodas.

[LegoMyMamma]

Last year's Valentine's set (Mailbox) was indeed nice! I wish I would have purchased 4

This year's Ice Cream Cart is nice too, and it gives Friends fans additional pieces they may not have otherwise. I enjoyed building mine yesterday

Thanks for the review.

[Mr Copperhead]

And thanks for the Target Valentine section tip. I found them there!