Review - 41112 Party Cakes

[makoy]

Pugs! Aren't they cute? Even if you disagree, the Friends subtheme Party has a lot to offer. In my first EuroBricks review I will cover 41112 Party Cakes so without further ado, let's begin.

Overview

Name: 41112 Party Cakes
Theme: LEGO System / Friends
Year: 2016 (1H)
Pieces: 50
Minidolls: 0
Price: USD 4.99 / EUR 4.99 / GBP 3.99 / SGD 7.90 / MYR 19.90
Resources: Brickset, Bricklink

Quote

Make a birthday cake with the Pug dog!

Toffee the Pug has been invited to a birthday party. Get into the kitchen and help make a cake for him to take along! There’s everything you need in the fridge and cupboard. Then pop on a party hat and you’re ready to go, but first give Toffee a bone to make sure he doesn’t eat the cake before you get there!

• Includes Toffee the Pug.
• Features a kitchen counter with opening fridge and cupboard, and a table with stool.
• Accessory elements include a party invitation, gift, balloon, party hat, cake, plate, mixing bowl, cookies, cherries, bottle, baking ingredients, marmalade and a bone.
• Open the fridge to find all sorts of cake ingredients inside.
• Use the food brick elements to build the perfect birthday cake.
• This set offers an age-appropriate building experience for ages 5-12.
• This set includes over 50 bricks.
• Kitchen counter measures over 1” (3cm) high, 1” (4cm) wide and 1” (4cm) deep.
• Table measures over 1” (4cm) wide and under 1” (1cm) high and 1” (1cm) deep.
• Combine with the 41110 Birthday Party so that Toffee the Pug can join in the birthday fun.

Introduction

This is my very first EuroBricks review and I would like to start with a very small set that caught my attention due to its numerous appealing factors. Apart from cuteness this set offers common elements found in Friends Party subtheme such as gifts, confectionaries, balloons and pets. There are several new prints and mould colours which makes this set very valuable to collectors and MOCers alike. The main attraction here is the new pug but there is more to this set than just the dog. To know more about this set continue reading on.

Front view of the box

It is a very small set so only the front of the box has something interesting to show.

Box content

You get an instruction booklet, 2 plastic bags without numbers and 1 plate round corner 6 x 6 which appears in bright yellowish green (BL: lime) for the first time in 2016.

Instruction booklet

Let's jump immediately at the back to see the parts listing and see other Friends Party subtheme sets. 41112 is the smallest in this wave with only 50 pieces.

At the back of the instruction booklet there is a list of other Friends set currently available in the market, too

Let's Build

The Pug

 

The star of this set is the pug named Toffee. It is a new mould exclusive to this set at the time of this review and it also sports a new party hat colour in medium azure.

Its face is not very cartoonish when compared to the other LEGO Friends dogs or puppies that came out previously. It helps that in real life pugs do have large heads so when you put them next to other LEGO system dogs like the German Shepherd and Chihuahua it does not look far from the actual scale.

Small build #1 (gift)

This tiny gift box has a new colour of wall double corner / panel 1 x 2 x 1 part. Previously it only appeared in medium azure colour but in 2016 it debut in a number of sets, including 41122, in bright reddish violet (BL: magenta). The gift box cover is also a new printed inverted tile 2 x 2 in new colour - flame yellowish orange (BL: bright light orange).

One might complain that the inverted tile 2 x 2 is very loose because the panels do not give any clutch power whatsoever to the inverted tile. However, I would think this is intentional because this kind of build is repeated across multiple Friends sets released this year so far.

 

Small build #2 (table)

As the subtheme is about party and the name of this set is Party Cakes it is expected that you are immediately presented with a table with a plateful of cake, pastry, strawberry flavour beverage and party invite.

The new invitation printed tile in aqua (BL: light aqua) is a welcome addition and I appreciate the fact that it did not specify any event because it makes this part more reusable for other purposes.

 

Small build #3 (baking area)

A lot of details are included in this vignette using Plate Round Corner 6 x 6 that appears in bright yellowish green (BL: lime) for the first time.

This vignette appears to be a small area with oven for making more party cakes. We get a milk carton 1x1 printed brick and what appears to be a sugar/sweetener in a cone container.

There is also a platform where you can put Toffee the pug to guard whatever is currently baking so that no naughty boy or girl can spoil it before the party.

Lastly, we also have a balloon in medium azure! To me, the highlight of this small build is the new colour of round 2 x 2 dome bottom. Yes, yet another new coloured part and that's why I am so happy getting this little set. The balloon build is rounder using this bottom piece and I personally prefer this compared with the old construction using 2 dome tops because the older balloons look elongated.

 

New balloon (top and bottom dome) vs old balloon build (2x top domes)

Definitely rounder and with less distracting holes at the sides.

 

New parts summary

Here is the recap of the new parts / new parts colours.

Extra pieces

For a small set it has a lot of extra pieces. You can make another cupcake out of these extra pieces if you want to.

Conclusion

Finally, let's take a look at the final build with all the small builds combined:

To conclude, I had fun building this little set because not only you get a new pug mould but also because you get a lot of new parts and extra pieces. Apart from the pug, the medium azure balloon parts also contributed to its appeal because it is not common. I don't mind not having a minidoll in this little set because the pug is the star of this set. However, kids may need a minidoll to enjoy the play features if they want someone operating the oven.

Overall, it is a great value and one more reason why you should look at Friends theme even if you don't have interest in minidolls.

 

Summary review

Playability: 7/10 - fun little set but kids may want a minidoll to organise the party
Design / Building Experience: 8/10 - I appreciate the little details and new parts and new prints
Price / Value for money: 9/10 - great deal to get a new dog mould in a cheap set; new parts are just bonus
Overall: 8/10 - I would prefer less 'sweets' and 1 more balloon to make this set even better

Thank you very much and I hope you like this small set review. :)

 

Note: The original review was written on 14 February 2016 in EB Reviewers Academy. Some of the statements written here could be outdated already.