glego73

There is a lot of talk in the thread about size / price / piece count, so rather than respond to anyone in particular, I thought I would just throw my two cents worth in. Firstly, the size of the buildings – or rather the height. Yes, the the apartment in particular is “short” compared to other modulars, but you have to remember that unlike an MOC, these things are built to a budget – and therefore built to a piece count. The biggest aspect that affects the piece count in this set is the fact that we have two independent buildings. Two buildings means two dividing walls, which means that there are less pieces available for other things. With this limitation in place, you have two options: smaller or less detail. The apartment has compromised a bit on both of these – the basement is pretty empty and it is reduced to a crawl space. Personally, though, I prefer this to the way that the other split modular got around this – the Pet Shop, which had the completely bare apartment “under renovation” in order to not have to put in interior detail. Detail versus size has also been compromised in other sets. Everybody loves the Parisian Restaurant now for its detail, but at the time it was well noted that this detail came at the cost of building volume – it was a clearly smaller than those that came before it. The Corner Garage was criticised for the empty ground floor and the rather plain exterior (even though it actually took a lot of tiles and other parts to achieve the look). Look back further and you’ll see that the Palace Cinema was pretty empty and that interiors were not even important enough to include on the first modulars. Every set put out is a compromise between competing wants. You want a big, impressive building that looks good on display? Fine, but don’t expect hundreds of small parts chewed up in creating detailed facades, or forget about the interior (which most people won’t even get to see on your shelf). You want intricate builds with all the new pieces (most of which are small), then don’t expect it to be big. This set will not please everybody. No set can. So if you don’t like it, then it’s probably because one of the compromises goes too far for your taste. Personally, I really like it. Is it perfect? Of course not. Do I appreciate it for what it is? Yes. Will I be getting my kids to build it from the instructions before learning from it, completely modifying it and then using it as a parts pack for other things. Definitely.

Really interesting to see how this thread evolved over time...had to laugh at the 2013 prediction that there would never be a friends set with an ambulance. For a local lego show, I put together some black, pink, purple and lavender starwars ships (including the UCS y-wing) and created a scene inspired by the work of Bricksky. Due to my own lack of available figures, and the desire to put in some other characters in there, it ended up a real mix of minifigs and minidolls. Things to note: - the main issue with integrating them is they inability of the minidolls to sit on studs. If you want something that both a minifig and minidoll can sit on, you need to use the special part 93095. It is interesting that a lot of the SW sets are using this now for minifigs - it saves on the old problem of pulling your pilot out and leaving the legs behind. - you need to plan out who is going to drive vehicles. Due to the leg lengths, it is not necessarily easily to go from a SW to a friends pilot What was really interesting was the reaction to the people. Nobody cared that there were minidolls and minifigs together. This simply wasn't an issue, just like it isn't an issue for my 7yo son when he plays with the friends stuff and mixes them in with Ninjago. The only kid who criticised the figures was one who wanted to know why Iron Man was in the star-wars universe. My conclusion to the whole minifig / minidoll question is the same as the whole flesh versus yellow minifig issue. Whether you can mix them up depends upon what you are going for. If you want a display piece with every detail correct, then you want consistency - either all friends, or all flesh figs or all yellow figs. If you want something that is a bit fun, then such consistency goes out the window, and if you are wanting something for the kids to play with then they really don't care. As for what TLG will do, I can't see them putting minidolls in city sets (just like they don't put flesh people into city either) but I would not be surprised to see them to pop up in SW or other lines. The new movie is probably the ice breaker for this process.