Review: 41042 Tiger's Beautiful Temple

[Etzel]

We finally have a LEGO tiger, how about that?!

I can't believe that for so long time we have missed out on any of the great cats in the LEGO universe, no tigers, no lions, no panthers, leopards, cheetahs or jaguars. But now we have one, read on to find out if you think it's worth getting or not.

Tiger's Beautiful Temple

Set number: 41042

Theme: Friends

Year: 2014

Pieces: 42 + 5 extra pieces

Minifigs: 0

Animals: 1

Price: EUR 3.99, GBP 2.99, USD 3.99, SEK 39.00 (From €3.49 on Bricklink)

Set on Brickset, Bricklink, S@H.

All right, I might not have been entirely honest when I said this was the first LEGO tiger ever. We have several tigers from the Duplo theme and also a sort of anthropomorphic tiger from the Orient Expedition theme, Tygurah. However, I believe this would be the tiger that is the most compatible with LEGO System so far. Besides, it comes with quite a few nice pieces too which was a big reason for me to buy it.

The set comes in the typical bag for these collectible Friends animal sets

(Yeah, I had already opened it when I decided to take some photos). The other animals in Series 4 are featured with the girls in the painting in the lower left corner, while the tiger gets a prominent position in the top right one. I think the background painting on the bag gives a really nice jungle feel for the set and gives some inspiration for what you might want to add to the scene by yourself.

The back with warnings and other informations, including a 1:1 scale picture with the star of the set.

The instructions are clear and easy to follow. No piece call out on a set this small. There were some ads for the new Friends and Disney Princess sets at the back of the instructions, but surprisingly none for the other animals in Series 4.

Here are the pieces laid out, 42 in total divided in 12 different colours and 18 different types. A good number for the price I think, even though many of the pieces are just 1x1 round plates.

These are the most interesting parts in the set in my opinion. We get 2 brand new pieces, the golden swirly tops and the Bright Green plants, and 3 pieces in new colours, 1x2 log bricks and oriental arches in Lavender and a 1x2 plate in Medium Azure. The 1x3x2 arches in this colour are exclusive to this set as far as I know, but the other pieces are available in other 2014 sets as well.

It's not often we get new plant pieces (even if they have increased in later years) so here is a closer look at this one. To me it mostly reassemble some kind of unsprung fern or maybe a reed. Anyhow, it makes a great jungle plant and would also fit well close to the shorelines of a lake or marsh I imagine. It's worth noting that it comes in olive green as well in one of the new Star Wars sets, 75037 Battle at Saleucami.

The hole fits a normal bar, and even though I can't come up with a good use for this immediately I'm sure someone will soon and it's always good to see pieces that are "in system" as much as possible.

The golden swirly top is a nice new decoration piece. I believe it is used as ice cream and cupcakes in other 2014 Friends sets but here and in the Disney Princess theme it can be seen on top of fancy buildings and similar. I really like it and will happily make use of it whenever I see it fit.

Here is the complete set. The temple is not more than an archway with a waterfall behind and some decorations and vegetation around a pond. The tiger has been equipped with a bow and has a yummy chicken leg to feast upon. The set does capture some sort of oriental/Indian feel but with so few pieces it's hard to make something that stands out. I would like to try and make a bigger temple in the same style and colour scheme, but I'm not sure if I have the time of right pieces right now. Hopefully any kid that gets the set will do a try, I do think it's a great starting set to get some inspiration for building in new types of architecture.

The back doesn't really show much else than the front.

Close up on the tiger's face. As all Friends animals it has these really big and colourful eyes which makes it a little less suitable for uses in other themes. I do wish that we could get all these cool animals that Friends has introduced in more "neutral" and realistic variants, but as it is now I'll be okay with what we get too. An overly cute tiger is still better than no tiger at all in my world.

Another distinguishing trait of the Friends animals are their rounded shapes with big heads and feet as can be seen here in the side view. The tail is as wide as normal bar and can hold by a minifig hand, but I wouldn't recommend tugging a tiger in it's tail no matter how small and cute it is.

These are the extra pieces. Really nice to get an extra golden swirly top.

I wanted to show of the size of the tiger compared to a Friends minifig and here it is. I also got rid of the tiger's bow.

Some concluding thoughts:

I think this is one of the best sets from the Friends animal series. It has a new animal of a type we have never seen before, 2 new types of pieces and 3 more types of pieces in new colours of which 1 is exclusive to this set and an over all good value for your money. The build itself is not that much to be amazed about but it gives inspiration and ideas which is more important when it is such a small set I believe. As always with these animal sets, it all comes down to if you like the animal or not, because if you don't there is normally no reason for you to buy the set. I would say though, that this is the animal set with the best piece selection so far. I've only bought one set from each of the previous series (the Squirrel, the Hedgehog and the Fawn) but of those I must say that I like this one the most and that is because of its superior pieces.

Rating:

Design: 7/10 - With few pieces it still gives a lot of inspiring ideas and the little scene work well on its own too.

Parts: 9/10 - 2 new parts, 3 parts in new colours with one exclusive to the set + that the rest ain't bad either.

Animal: 6/10 - A bit to "Friends-ified" to me, but it's still a tiger and tigers are grrrrreat, right!?

Price: 7/10 - A fair price for a small set. It would make a great gift to a birthday party or similar I believe. I can also imagine that it would be a good set for a small parts draft with a few AFOLs.

Overall: 7/10 - A good buy, especially if you are a fan of the tiger, but even if you are not it's still interesting thanks to its pieces.

Thanks for reading this review of mine and please leave comments on your thoughts of the set!

Bonus picture:

Cats love boxes!

[TheLazyChicken]

Oh my minifigs are so getting the tiger to tug on it!

Nice review, and I might consider getting this set!

[Lyichir]

Good review! One quibble: those parts you listed in Medium Lavender are actually the rarer "Lavender". Medium Lavender is the darker variety.

Any new part in Lavender is good in my opinion, but I hope that more basic bricks are made in both that color and Cool Yellow in the future.

[Etzel]

Good review! One quibble: those parts you listed in Medium Lavender are actually the rarer "Lavender". Medium Lavender is the darker variety.

Any new part in Lavender is good in my opinion, but I hope that more basic bricks are made in both that color and Cool Yellow in the future.

Really? Wow, I had no idea. All the "medium" colours is usually lighter than it's normal counterpart so I believed this to be the "medium lavender". I'll change that, thanks for the heads up.

[Aanchir]

Really? Wow, I had no idea. All the "medium" colours is usually lighter than it's normal counterpart so I believed this to be the "medium lavender". I'll change that, thanks for the heads up.

Part of the reason for the confusion is that in TLG's official color naming system, most colors don't have a de facto "normal" counterpart. It's typical for even the "classic" LEGO colors to have a modifier in front, so classic LEGO red is Bright Red, classic LEGO green is Dark Green, classic LEGO brown is Earth Orange, etcetera. Bricklink's Dark Turquoise is Bright Bluish Violet, Bricklink's Magenta is Bright Reddish Violet, and Bricklink's Dark Green is Earth Green. Confused yet? Here's a chart I whipped up back in the day.

This mainly applies for this basic spectrum of twelve hues, many shades, tints, and tones of which are discontinued. Outside that spectrum, all bets are off. And that's where you get a lot of color names without modifiers in front, like Nougat (Flesh), Lavender, and Lilac — which more often than not are lighter than the "medium" variants like Medium Nougat (Medium Dark Flesh), Medium Lavender, and Medium Lilac (Dark Purple). Very confusing.

So generally you can think of the value range in five main levels: Light, Medium, Bright, Dark, and Earth. But any color without one of these terms in front of it isn't necessarily going to play by the same rules.

[Ajax]

Oh No, the Tiger is terrible! Love Friends sets but this is a miss for me.

[mordatre]

Thanks for the review.

Agreed that there´s a problem with Friends animals being overly cute or disfigured. Olivia´s foal is actually useable in other themes but Stephanies lamb looks like it belongs on Naboo or some weird episode of "Adventure time". This tiger at least looks like a tiger, so I´ll probably buy it and use it in some overly cute Friends MOC. :)

[Cirkit]

Aww!

Who's a cute little jungle cat? Who's a cute little jungle cat?

I'm going to pet you- Hey, ouch that hurts, no, No-no, OH GOD, NOOO-

That's a seriously cute tiger. I'm amazed LEGO hasn't made a physical tiger for the Minifig line (I think there's one for the Duplo range now, not too sure, but size-wize it wouldn't cut it for Minifigs or Friends dolls) but now that there is I'm glad, as I'm sure others are too.

Looks a little cutsy but this is Friends we're talking about here. Probably isn't a good idea to be near one after going to or working at a LEGO butcher's shop no matter how small it is, but I digress.

I like it's little house-thing, and I agree that it does have a certain Oriental feel to it. Very fitting.

And she (i assume) has a little chicken leg. Yum!

Cat in a box. The perfect cat trap.

Looks neat! Thanks for the review. :)