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As part of Revember, I'm taking a look at a set from a line that hardly anyone seems to talk and/or care about here on Eurobricks (this one's obviously not for the stats). Some people somewhere must care about these sets though, since LEGO is in the money-making business, not the "niche products nobody wants" business. Join me as I dive into... SET INFORMATION Number: 43181 Name: Raya and the Heart Palace Theme: Disney Released: 2021 Part Count: 610 Minifiguresdolls: 2 Set Price (RRP): 79.99 - 89.99 EUR / 74.99 GBP / 119.99 AUD / 79.99 USD / 99.99 CAD Links: Brickset, Bricklink INTRODUCTION As I mentioned up top, the Disney Minidoll line (and most Minidoll sets, honestly) go oft-overlooked in our slice of the internet AFOL community, though I don't see a tremendous amount of coverage or discussion of them on the other AFOL sites I read either. But for me, a lover of eye-catching, colourful designs and unique parts, the Disney sets based on recent films provide some of the most displayable and special location-based playsets that LEGO puts out. All that makes it sound like I'm a voracious purchaser of LEGO Disney, but to be totally honest this is only the second set from the line that I own - the first being the previous time I requested to review one, 41068 Arendelle Castle Celebration way back in 2015. That's partially because the playsets they make that are NOT based on new films haven't been all that impressive to me, nothing in the intervening years based on Moana or Frozen II truly caught my eye, and my LEGO budget is still more concentrated on Harry Potter, Star Wars, and buying parts and minifigures. Still, I requested to review this set for the same reason as I requested the Frozen one six years ago: a unique, impressive-looking location set, cool parts, and bright colours. THE FILM At the time of writing this review, I have not seen Raya and the Last Dragon, nor watched any trailers, so I really know next to nothing about the story, location, or characters presented in this set. Through that lens, I will see if the details make sense or if there's anything I feel like I'm obviously missing, which might provide some fun. It also means I'll be judging the set just as a set, and not against the source material. I intend to watch the film after writing this review, and make a follow-up section or post on how the set achieves whatever it's going for. THE BOX The box doesn't let an uninitiated consumer like me in on any plot secrets. Namaari seems to be waving some swords, while looking at her (magical?) purple pet fox, as Raya arrives to the Heart Palace on a giant slug-armadillo - let's call it a slugadillo, coining it now. The back provides a tour through the set's moveable parts, features and hiding spaces. I especially appreciate the LEGO-fication of the same Raya picture as the front of the box. THE PARTS & THE BUILD Five colour-filled numbered bags greet us out of the box, along with an un-numbered bag containing the big parts used on the dome, the slugadillo, and the grey disc part which is no bigger than some of the parts that do come in the numbered bags. The instructions and sticker sheet come nicely packed in their own bag to avoid crumpleage (coining that word now too). This set has the fewest black or grey parts I can recall seeing in a set of this size - just five black and one grey - and it shows here. Pretty much every single patterned detail, besides the dome and randomly one 2x3 tile, uses a sticker. There's no use crying about it. There IS use crying about the sticker that goes on the 8x8 round tile though. I was used to that part being printed when it has a pattern, but Bricklink proves me wrong. I'm still annoyed that's not a print anyway, but at least it isn't four independent stickers applied to the one part. 1996 was a weird time. BAG 1 The first bag contains a lot of basic bricks and plates to kick off the base of the palace, plus the parts to make the saddle for Raya's slugadillo. In contrast to the trend of sprinkling figures throughout the build in minifigure sets, both minidolls come in this bag, along with the purple fox. The basic bricks in medium azure turn out to be a lot more common than I thought they would be, but the hinge parts are exclusive to this set in that colour. They remind me of Alien Conquest, though only the minifigures in that theme used medium azure. Upon completion, we get a long base hinged into multiple section plus the figures which I'll look at closely later. BAG 2 Bag 2 brings a lot more large parts, including the 4x5 panels with window exclusively in blue, and the cylinders with handle in teal that come in just three sets. You can also see the printed tile, which again I'll talk more about later. The palace now has some rooms and an elaborate throne, but is still looking more like a wall than a palace. Note the low number of leftover parts. BAG 3 More medium azure and teal here, including those 4x4 dishes that were created for the Vidiyo Beat Boxes. RIP. Our wall has some minarets now! I noticed the window sandwiched by double-cheese slopes is the same build used in the recent Chamber of Secrets, though the Vidiyo dish caps it off much more nicely than the weird thing with clips that the Chamber designer went for. They have different looks trying to be achieved though, of course. BAG 4 Woah, this is different! Suddenly lots more colours, and lots of tiny parts. One of those big Mario plates has crept out of the Mario theme for the second time (a reddish brown example did it first last year), which is nice to see, plus we get the classic Adventurers crate in dark red for only the second time. You could call this bag the detailing bag, because it has put a lot of life into the palace by way of small details. Look how many spare parts there are! BAG 5 Bag 5 feels much lighter, with parts to finish things off on the front of the palace. Notable parts include the 4x4 Mario plate in white that's been in just four sets, and the opalescent fishbowl helmet, also in four sets currently. Voila, our palace is complete - annoying sticker on 8x8 tile and all (minus one pearl gold spike I must have knocked off). I should note that those four lanterns are an intriguing build - I haven't seen an official build before requiring plates stacked at a particular angle from each other. THE MINIDOLLS Much like fleshies, stickers, the changes to the greys and brown, etc. etc., minidolls are here to stay, so there's no use raging about them if you don't like them. I'm happy to complain about the quantity of them included in sets, though. Now again I haven't seen the film, so I can't say for sure if the Heart Palace is a lively, thriving place, or a desolate palace in a remote location that only Raya and Namaari visit, but just two figures feels like not enough for an $80 USD set. From LEGO's perspective, I get it - minidolls have a lot of work put into them, and are surely more expensive to produce than minifigures, but from the consumer side it's more fun to have more figures and we don't necessarily "feel" LEGO's costs. Let's talk about how deluxe these figures are, though. Both have unique headgear designed for them, extremely fine detail, and a fair bit of personality, especially Namaari (the one without the hat, if you didn't know). Raya's face looks a bit more bland. Both figures use the same pants part, but it looks totally different given Namaari's "hips" being a different colour and her having silver boots painted on. Her foxy friend looks a bit strange though, with all that gold and tusks. Is the fox actually a boar in disguise, or vice versa? I've removed the headgear and cape for a better look at the details. Namaari has asymmetrically printed shaved hair on her head, to work in conjunction with her hair piece. Raya's torso looks exceptionally good, and this is the only set where she wears a cape and brown shoes. She's got bare feet in the other sets, for some reason. Perhaps her booting up to get serious is a big sequence in the film, I don't know. More excellent detail from the back. While Raya's hat/hair includes a pin hole for accessorizing as is standard with minidoll hairpieces, it's thankfully inobtrusive. Unlike most minidoll sets which eschew direct conflict, this set contains a few *gasp* weapons! Raya's unique sword looks nice in shaping, but is reminiscent of those creepy old Ewoks and Gungans and original Dobby that lacked painted detail and desperately needed them. Look at the front of the box and you'll see that only the handle should be green, while the blade should be metallic. It's odd because the sword already seems dual-moulded, with a solid handle and more flexible blade, so they could've at least gone with a sand green handle and flat silver blade, if not printing for the inlaid gem as well. They almost got there, but stopped short. In case you're wondering, the hairpieces work perfectly well on minifigures. I've seen plenty of people using Namaari's hair for Cara Dune from The Mandalorian, although I don't know where all those people are getting the hair piece, because I haven't seen it on Bricks & Pieces and it hasn't been very available on Bricklink (though somebody sold 93 in one go, what the heck!). And if you ever wanted to see a whole lot of Raya's cone hat on minifigures, check out Megbricks' picture. Good stuff. THE SLUGADILLO The Raya sets really include a lot of unique moulded elements. I have counted nine in total across the three sets (two hairpieces, three Ongi monkey things, this slugadillo, Raya's sword, and two parts for the Sisu dragon's head and mouth), which strikes me as a lot for a line of three sets. This guy is no small fry either. It's moulded with lots of excellent detail, while not being too detailed to the point of feeling out of place with LEGO. The face printing and little toes are exceptionally cute. All in all it bodes well for a LEGO Appa, if they ever get another shot at Avatar: The Last Airbender (please, LEGO!). The little build for Raya's saddle also looks quite cute, with perhaps a sort of rolled up blanket and a sack of food. The parts down the side represent a bridle, I suppose? And just for the heck of it, one more picture of everything in the set besides the palace itself. These are some truly fun things to play around with, and all done to a very high level of quality besides the somewhat lacking sword. THE PALACE OVERVIEW With the side dishes out of the way, let's move on to the main course: the eponymous Heart Palace. At a glance, it looks stunning. The various blues, white and gold coalesce into a model with a lot of shelf appeal. The bulbous dome stands out (the second use of that part, after Trolls World Tour), towering over the rest of the set. You can also glimpse a click hinge at the front, underneath the stickered dish. That's for adding an entranceway, included in 43184 Raya and the Sisu Dragon. Does that mean that this courtyard is technically inside the Heart Palace, and enclosed all around? Not sure, but as it is without that set the whole palace feels light and airy with no true exterior to enclose it. Like we saw in the build, the "interior" side also has a fair bit of detail and looks good as well. Let's take a tour... THE GRAND TOUR We begin in the central courtyard. I whinged about this being a sticker, but regardless it looks great. I also appreciate any set that takes up a larger footprint than its physical LEGO parts, because more space feels like more value for play and display than a densely packed but smaller model. Before I take you "inside" around the semicircle, we'll look at the sections most visible from the outside. In the centre we have an exquisite throne, which you might think is only playable from the courtyard side but in fact folds down into a relaxing daybed. What luxury. Moving over we have a section with a revolving platform, that includes the2x3 tile with a printed map that resembles the Sisu Dragon with a bunch of yellow labels. So is the Heart Palace where Raya goes for a map to find the Last Dragon? Honestly, I have no idea why this part is printed. I guess LEGO has a habit of printing maps. One last stop before the "internal" rooms: the front most rounded panels open up for spots to store Namaari and Raya's weapons while they're grabbing a bite to eat in the banquet hall. Now working our way around from left to right, the first room contains just enough space for the decorative crate, which contains a whole lot of diamonds. I'm getting more Adventurers vibes from those. Next is the banquet hall, which contains some fun micro builds like those wooden cups of water and built up food. It all looks very healthy. A couple of slight problems with this room bug me, but probably wouldn't bug a kid playing with it. For one, given the table's construction and minidoll proportions, the figures sit so low that the table winds up at chest height and the stuff on the table towers above them. Second, since minidoll feet take up more space than just two studs and can't separate, they can only be placed abutting with the table. All in all a great looking room that doesn't interact with figures as well as I'd like. Flipping past the throne room we come to the other larger room, which contains the rotating platform and some kind of zen tree with a tea-preparation station? The tree cleverly makes use of the new-ish coral piece in the coral colour. That looks fantastical, but then again the whole set looks like fantasy. Usable floor space becomes an issue once again in this room: you actually can't place minidolls ANYWHERE if you want the platform to turn. It looks like there should be plenty of space for figures, but I tried, and no dice. If you leave the platform static it's fine, but you'd assume you could both pose figures and turn the platform without issue. The final room has what looks like an apothecary, and only has studs for figures to stand on one side of the table. It's... fine. We have the dome section left to explore, containing a very spacious bedroom making great use of the Mario plate as a base. There's loads of space on the bed, a cute little reading lamp and one more of those decorative three-toned paper lanterns hanging above. Cute stickered portraits adorn the walls, though they intriguingly look like actual cartoon characters and aren't LEGO-fied. One shows the three Ongi from 43185 Boun's (Extremely Overpriced) Boat with a character I don't recognise, while the other shows Boun himself with Slugadillo. So, who lives here? Are these Raya's pictures, showing past adventures? To show just how much space there is on the bed, I've positioned Namaari and her fox-boar friend comfortably, with Raya climbing up by way of those bar pieces that serve no other purpose. The whole dome spins loosely, which can be taken as a play feature. If you wanted to see what the Heart Palace looks like with the bedroom facing out, here you go. For display this doesn't make much sense, but could be fun for a kid playing around. Show up to the Heart Palace and jump straight into the bedroom, why not. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION As a disclaimer upon disclaimers, though I requested to review this set because it looked cool to me, and there's the suspected subconscious bias that receiving a set for free will colour one's opinions, I really would've had no qualms lambasting it had I found it extremely lacking. Just look at my review of 76387 Hogwarts: Fluffy Encounter - I received that set for free to review and thoroughly walloped it. If you've managed to read through my whole review, you'll be able to tell that I feel pretty warmly towards this set. It looks great, it takes up a good amount of space once built because it has plenty of larger panels and creates empty space within itself, and it has lots to offer in the way of unique or rare colours of parts, including the slugadillo which is unlikely to ever be seen again. The design isn't perfect: most of the interior rooms are limited, including the larger ones, and even without having seen the film it's kind of obvious that the Heart Palace has been miniaturized, given the unusable windows especially. Still, for kids I think it would be a fun set to play with, and for adults it's either a unique model to display or a good parts pack. Bring on an Agrabah Palace done to this level, I say! SCORE How do I rate this set? 8 MINIDOLLS The two included are fantastic, some of the best I've ever seen, but there should have been at least one more for a set this size. 10 PIECES Amazing selection and lots of exclusive or rare parts. 9 DESIGN The Heart Palace looks great, with a good mixture of big parts to build it up and small ones for fine detail. Only the interior rooms have some design faults, which are not detrimental. 8 PLAYABILITY Overall there's a fair amount of space for play, and a couple of built-in features like the spinning platform and dome. Less figures make for less playability though, and the problems in the banquet hall and rotating platform room could annoy some other people. 7 PRICE Given there are only 610 pieces for $80 USD, the set doesn't feel as overpriced as one might expect. The palace is relatively large thanks to the larger pieces used and the shape employing empty space in the courtyard, and our friend slugadillo adds value. Still, ten units of currency less wherever you are would sit better. 8.4 OVERALL - An excellent set with a few flaws, and an easy buy at a slight discount. Until next time...

Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday, an AFOL lived in California all by himself under the username of Oky, which means that he had the username over the door in gold letters and lived under it. One day, his friend Winnie-the-Pooh came over from Disneyland where he lived. "Good morning, Oky," he said. "Good morning, Winnie-ther-Pooh," said Oky. "I wonder if you've got such a thing as a camera about you?" "A camera?" "Yes, I just said to myself coming along: 'I wonder if Oky has such a thing as a camera about him?'” "What do you want a camera for?" Oky said. Winnie-the-Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening, put his paw to his mouth, and said in a deep whisper: "Honey!" "But you don't get honey with a camera!" said Oky. "I do," said Pooh. “How?” "It's like this, " he said. "When you go after honey, the great thing is not to let the bees see you. Now, if they had an interesting review to read, they would be distracted and wouldn’t see me take their honey, so I figured I’d make a review of my house for the bees to read." "Wouldn't they look up from the review and notice you?" Oky asked. "They might or they might not," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "You never can tell with bees." "Then you had better make sure it’s a really good review," Oky said. “Yes,” said Pooh. He thought for a moment and said: "The thing is, I don’t really know how to take pictures… or write for that matter. Will you help me take pictures of my house and write a review about it, Oky?” "Silly old Bear!" Oky laughed to himself. “Sure, I will help you.” And so he did. Set Number: 21326 Name: Winnie the Pooh Theme: Ideas Year of Release: 2021 Ages: 18+ Pieces: 1265 Price: £89.99 / $99.99 / 99.99€ The Box As you may know, I’m about as enthusiastic about the boring black boxes that LEGO uses for 18+ sets as Eeyore is about anything. They look depressing and usually don’t suit the subject matter, and this set is no exception. It just doesn’t fit the bright and colorful world of Winnie the Pooh, although I’m glad that in this case they at least hinted at a more fitting background by having some illustrations of flowers, fences, and bees showing from behind the set. If only the whole box looked more like that. Oh bother. The back side of the box looks a bit more interesting as it features a large picture of the interior of Pooh’s house, a couple of close-up scenes, and a blueprint drawing of the set with dimensions, along with a brief explanation of how the LEGO Ideas process works. The top of the box shows a nice lineup of the minifigs along with the 100 Acre Wood sign, a few logos, and a “Hunny” pot fittingly serving as the size reference. The bottom only has some info about the packaging and trademarks. As always with these “Adults Welcome” boxes, there is a strip of various LEGO pieces going around the whole bottom part of the box and all over the bottom. The strip is colored honey-yellow in this case which does fit the set very well. There are several pieces in there that have not been released in yellow yet. Could this be a hint of things to come? Probably not, but one can hope. The right side of the box has a lovely illustration of Pooh Bear holding on to a balloon as he is known to do drawn in the style of E. H. Shepard’s art from the original book. The other side has some more legal jargon along with the French version of the Winnie the Pooh logo. It reads “Winnie l’ourson” which translates to Winnie the teddy bear. Not very imaginative, and I’m not sure why they felt the need to change the name in France, but c’est la vie. Like many Ideas sets, this one has an opening lid. I really like this type of boxes as they can be reused for storage. The bags are stacked neatly inside and are even almost in chronological order. The instructions and stickers lay freely in the box, with the stickers placed between the bags, but fortunately none of them were damaged. Contents Inside the box there are seven numbered bags, two sticker sheets (one reflective, one not), and one instruction booklet. The cover of the instructions features the same picture of the minifigs walking in a line, but this one has nice watercolor background like you would see in a Winne the Pooh book. This is exactly what the boxart should have looked like in my opinion, but I digress. Instructions The instructions book is full of nice illustrations of Pooh and his friends like the one that is on the side of the box as well as a map of the 100 Acre Wood. The first few pages of the booklet feature background info on the characters, stories, and fan designer Ben Alder, along with a few words from Ben and the LEGO designers about the creation the set. The instructions themselves are pretty clear and easy to follow. The colorful build really pops against the light gray background. There is another lovely illustration of Pooh with Christopher Robin heading off into the sunset which is a perfect image to end the build on. It is accompanied by that oddly ordinary French title. Notable Parts As is the norm for Ideas sets, there are now new molds in this set (besides those on the minifigs), but here are still a few notable parts. This set sees the debut of the large macaroni part in medium nougat, the coral piece in bright green, that Technic piece with 4 clips in reddish brown, and an unprinted minifig head in dark orange. Santa’s sack also appears for the first time in an official set in white. Another piece that is new to me even though it has appeared in a few sets already is the 2x4 double jumper plate. There are a few other parts in rare colors that have only appeared in one or two other sets which you can see here, and several more which have only appeared in four other sets which aren’t included in this picture. Also, while most of the graphics are stickered in this set, some of the parts are printed. Aside from the large and small tree stump tiles and ladybug tile which have been in several sets before, there is a new bee tile, the Mr. Sanders sign, and the honeypot with the “Hunny” label. It’s hard to see in these pictures, but there is a slight metallic gold shine to the “MR SANDERS” letters. Minifigs While Ben’s original submission was comprised of a mix of minifigs with preexisting headpieces and brick-built characters, LEGO apparently decided to go all out on this set and created minifigs with new molds for all the characters, something that is unprecedented in an Ideas set and is much appreciated. Unfortunately they omitted Owl and Christopher Robin from the lineup, but they kind of out of scale, so I can see why they did it. Kanga and Roo are missing as well, but they were not in the original submission either, so that’s fair. We do get 5 excellent figs of the most important characters from the 100 Acre Woods though. Let’s take a closer look at them, Starting with Pooh himself, his BFF Piglet, and Rabbit. Pooh bear’s belly and part of his chin are printed onto his torso which looks a tad odd, especially since the yellow on the print looks darker than that of his head and limbs, so I wish they would have put a bit more quality into the printing, but otherwise he looks great, especially his dual-molded arms. Piglet also looks spot-on and just as adorable as he should, but he is way too large in my opinion. He is nearly as tall as all the other characters and therefore feels out of scale with the rest of the set. Being a small animal who is afraid of anything bigger than him is, like, his whole thing, so I think he should have been a trophy-sized microfig, but Piglet fans will probably be happy to get a full minifig of him. Rabbit looks nearly perfect. His torso printing features dark hip curves that are usually reserved for female minifigs. I guess having Pooh constantly eat all his honey and living off his vegetable garden helps him maintain a girlish figure. The only thing that looks a bit off are his somewhat derpy eyes. This rabbit looks like he has seen some stuff. If I’m not mistaken, he is the first minifig to come with light yellow arms, legs, and hands, so between him and the dark orange minifig heads, this set should make monochrome fig collectors happy. All three have back printing which in Pooh’s case is just as off-color as his front unfortunately. Next, we have the two long-tailed characters, Tigger and Eeyore. Both look outstanding, especially Tigger whose body suits the minifig proportions perfectly. It seems that being a minifig is what Tiggers do best! His top isn’t made out of rubber and his bottom isn’t made out of spring, but he is just as bouncey-trouncey-ouncey-pouncey-fun-fun-fun-fun-fun as the real thing! But the most wonderful thing about Tigger is, he’s the only one with arm and leg printing, heeee’s the only one! (Let me know if you read all that in his voice) Tigger has the same feline tail as other cat-like minifigs and back printing, both with scribbly tiger stripes on them. Eeyore’s tail is sadly not detachable, although the bow on it is. Which is probably a good thing since he is quite “attached” to his tail. Winnie the Pooh and accessories too! Each character comes with a fitting item: Pooh has a red balloon for getting honey, Piglet comes with a scarf and an umbrella for cold, rainy autumn days, Tigger has a cleverly built bindle for when the gang goes on one of their “expotitions”, and Rabbit has one of his beloved carrots. Yes, every character comes with an accessory. Well, all except poor Eeyore (unless you count his bow). The Build The first thing you build is a small patch of grass with some leaves, a honeypot, and a sign for the 100 Acre Wood on it. It’s a quick and simple build, but it makes a nice addition to the set and the use of the 3x3 heart plate as a base gives it a nice organic look. The build is pretty straight-forward, starting from the bottom of the tree and going up to the top, but it involves several interesting SNOT techniques, such as the hills with slopes pointing in all directions and leaves attached to their corners. The fact that the designers chose to make most of the filler bricks bright yellowish orange like honey is a nice touch. Here is the build after the first two bags. After bag 3, Pooh’s house starts to take shape. At this stage, you can get a good look at what the interior of the house looks like when it is closed. Once you finish the walls of the house, it’s on to the tree. The lower branches of the tree are sandwiched between the front and back of the trunk and angled slightly upward using an interesting Technic connection which also strengthens the stability of the tree. The top is built on a turntable which held in place at an angle by four offset studs under the round plate which is an interesting technique I didn’t know about until now. Bag 7 includes all the parts for the treetop, beehives and front yard details. Building the treetop involves building six of the same branch section which means that you need to attach 3 leaf pieces to each of the 24 green coral pieces in the set. Needless to say, this is a bit repetitive. Rabbit may enjoy such tedious plant work, but me not so much. The Complete Set Here it is all put together! It looks abso-posi-tutely terrific! It's unlike any other set and all the bright colors make it look very friendly. The house looks pretty accurate when compared to the source material, aside from maybe the missing hills around the back of the house. There are lots of nice details around the front door such as the door knocker and bell, the little mushrooms built out of red Porg heads, and the big log where Pooh can sit by the fire and think. However, my favorite detail has to be the tiny 3-piece snail on the side of the house that uses a swirl piece as the shell, even though red is an odd color for a snail. I also really like how the tree is made out of a mix of nougat and dark tan parts. It looks really nice and I hope to see more trees in this color in other sets. The use of corals for the tree branches is also NPU. The shingles on the roof of Pooh’s house are made of cheese slopes which is not a new technique, but always looks nice, especially with those leaves scattered over them. It’s clever how they built the chimney out of hinges, a BB-8 head, and an ice cream cone. The only thing that bugs me a bit is how there is a small gap between the roof and the dark red bars in the back of the house, although I’m not sure how that could have been avoided. Also, it’s interesting that they chose to use modified tiles instead of actual shutters on the windows. I think it would have been better if they would have used shutters that you can actually close instead, especially since we haven’t gotten them in dark red yet. The back of the tree and house is a bit bare. I think they could have added a bit more foliage to fix that. However, I like how they hid they gray parts that hold the house closed with a wooden board and plants. As you probably saw on the back of the box, Pooh’s house can split open in the back to allow you to play inside. The house is held together by a single clip that inserts into a click-hinge which works pretty well while also making it easy to open the two halves without much force. The interior is stuffed full of detail! On the left there is a furnace, a picture of honeybees, a comfy-looking chair, and a table with a teacup and a honeypot. Next to the front door, there is also a sideboard with another teacup and a teapot as well as a map of the 100 Acre Wood on the wall. I especially like how they made the brick-built curtains. The chair is only connected by one stud, so it can easily be removed to seat a minifig in it or move it elsewhere. On the right is Pooh’s bed which cleverly uses roller skates as detailing on the bed ends along with a small table with a candle. In the rafters above the bed are various honeypots just in case Pooh wakes up at night and is hungry for a smackerel of honey (i.e. the entire pot) which I imagine happens every night. On the wall next to the bed hangs his Pooh-coo clock which tells him when it’s time for his stoutness exercise. The standing mirror in front of which he does said exercise is to the right of the front door along with a brown Technic pin connector that serves as an umbrella stand. It works surprisingly well as such, although the umbrella tends to get a little stuck in it. While I really like how the Pooh-coo clock is constructed, I think it could use a clock face, even if it was a sticker. Pooh’s house is filled with references and easter eggs! The rafters on the left side of the house carry a box of Poohsticks, the game that Pooh invented in one of the stories where two or more players drop a stick from one side of a water bridge and see whose stick comes out first on the other side of the bridge. The back of the box has the initials C.R. which presumably stands for Christopher Robin. Next to the box is a pearl-gold heart-shaped tile which represents the locket that Tigger found in The Tigger Movie and hoped to find his family with. The book on the bed is meant to represent a Winnie the Pooh book which is pretty meta. Inside the book, there is a nice Lego-fied silhouette of Pooh holding onto a red balloon. LEGO Graphic Designer Ashwin Visser added Ben Alder’s name on the inside of the cover which is a lovely shoutout to the fan designer of the set who enjoys reading these books to his children. Another detail that’s worth noting is that the honeypot on the kitchen table and the one above the bed have a stack of trans-yellow pieces to represent honey, a detail which Pooh much appreciates. There are some play features as well. Do you hear that noise? That buzzing-noise means something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that without it meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee. That’s right, there are two identical beehives in the tree, each with four bees around it. The bees are mounted on a frictionless Technic pin, so you can make them fly around their hive like a mobile. Of course, a new bee mold would have been more realistic than printed tiles, but then again, maybe these really are just pictures of bees hanging from the hive. You never can tell with bees. Since each of the six treetop sections are mounted on ball joints and each of the branches is attached by a clip, the tree is surprisingly posable, so you can adjust it however you want or make it look like there is a lot of wind. Happy Winds-day everybody! Spare Parts Aside from the teal brick separator, there are many little parts left over after the build, including the small printed tiles, an extra Poohstick for a third player, an extra teacup in case clumsy Pooh breaks one, a pile of Pooh poo, and some extra trans-yellow honey pieces which should make Pooh bear very happy. Ratings Design: The tree and house look unique and colorful, and it’s faithful to the source material. Lots of great details. Build: An enjoyable build various interesting SNOT techniques, but with some repetition. Playability: There aren’t really many play features, but there are enough characters and accessories to play out many scenarios. Figures: All 5 look spot-on, feature new molds, and are new and exclusive to the set. Aside from Piglet’s scale, Rabbit’s derpy eyes and some quality issues on Pooh, they’re great. Parts: No new molds, but several parts in new or rare colors. Price: $100 for 1265 pieces including 5 new minifigs is a pretty good deal. Overall: Nine honeypots out of ten! This is a nearly flawless set. Disney/Pooh fans will love the minifigs and all the easter eggs while Lego fans will appreciate the unique, detailed, and fun-looking build and rare, useful parts. It's more of a display piece than a playset, but it has enough features to have plenty of fun with it too. While Winnie the Pooh was never my favorite Disney franchise, it was my sister’s and we both grew up watching The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh along with the other Disney Afternoon shows. Besides, I am a Disney fan in general and a huge fan of Jim Cummings who voices both Pooh and Tigger these days, so when I saw Ben’s excellent LEGO Ideas project, I supported it immediately, and I am very happy that it was turned into such a good set. Thanks for taking a look back at this 2021 set with me and thanks to LEGO for sending it to me for review. What do you think of the set? Let me know in the comments and the poll. And don't forget to check out some of the other Revember reviews! TTFN - Ta-ta for now! PS: You didn’t really think I would end the review without a Tuxedo Pooh meme, did you?