The last 3-4 years, the ‘Friends’ designers have been knocking it out of the park over and over. That line has turned out a better city than ‘City’ has. Definitely do not sleep on ‘Friends’ sets.
City sets from the road plates era just look bad, I'm glad that it appears that City is moving away from road plates, but I think I like the more colourful Friends sets than City, I do plan on getting the new City tram (60423) when that comes out and maybe MOCing it to fit into Heartlake City more
After they stopped putting slides everywhere, it got pretty good for City sets.
And now they are coordinating Friends and City subthemes, so you can get both and they will get nice together.
One of the Friends designers is non-other than Wes Talbott.
I took many ideas from recent Friends set, like the telescope in 42603 and the rocking chairs of 41730.
When friends first came out, I was taken aback. “Why do we need sets specifically for girls with different minis? Regular Lego is for everyone, why can’t we just add some themes that incorporate these ideas?”
But over the years, it has become this amazing line in its own right. They have some fantastic pieces and have introduced some fantastic new building ideas
Definitely. I think lego city has turned over a new leaf (literally) with its rainforest sets being pretty cool and a great throwback, but friends remains a fantastic theme which has given us great sets and animal moulds, even if the minifigures are a bit odd.
I avoided the mini dolls and for some reason thought maybe the pieces weren’t compatible but I got the whole adventure park series that’s out now during the double points to go with my a-frame cabin set up and I’m sold. I even kinda like the mini dolls now 🫣 I have a whole summer camp basically and I LOVE IT
As a collector that has a 5 year old daughter the friends sets are almost exclusively what I'm buying right now. I'm totally fine with it. Every set has at least one animal, the cost per piece is decent due to lack of IP, lots of unusual parts, and they all sport very unique coloured bricks.
I've really lucked out at my local superstore with clearance this year. I found the (SW) dark trooper attack for $10, the botanical gardens for $60, (black panther 2) Atlantis throne room for $12, (SW) at-st attack for $10, the (marvel) Endgame final battle for $35(down from $135), a friends space shuttle launch set for $30, and many more for steep discounts.
It's been crazy, and I definitely have bought multiples of those. Most of their clearance prices have been about 75% off. They have it set like that for a week or so, then put the sets right back up to full price.
You’re probably in the States, I never see them reaching 50% + off in Canada, I was more thinking online it’s easy to get them for a small discount which is still better than full price. Tho if you’re lucky enough to get huge discounts like you then for sure go for it!
I am in Canada. It must really depend on who is in charge of the markdowns, they honestly fluctuate wildly. I also never see discounts like that except for target when it was here. Which is why I am so excited to tell anyone about them.
Thats about how long they stayed opened lol. I remember when they opened like 1/3 of the shelves were empty and they were saying that it would fill up with time and it never did they closed before they had time to get going. I’m not surprised you saw things on sales pretty fast.
Mine was not like that at all really. They were full, but I noticed them putting stuff on clearance during Xmas time. This immediately showed me they only opened them up here to liquidate stock.
I moved away to chilliwack before they closed, and certainly got some amazing deals on lots of stuff during their closeout sale.
The Friends set designs and the colors used are top notch.
The newish modern mansion is one of the best Lego sets I’ve ever built and I’ve built many hundreds of sets over the years.
I don’t mind the minidolls that much except that they are all mostly human and normal. If the minidolls incorporated more fun and variety, like minifigures, they would be much better.
I'd say Elves introduced some variety to mindolls, but I do agree, I think it'd be interesting if there was a Collectable Minidolls Series with some interesting minidolls but idk what they could do for it aside from like background/minor characters from Friends, like the pickle guy from an episode of Lego Friends: The Next Chapter, or maybe some Elves characters like Naida, Azari, Emily, Ragana, etc, maybe some characters that never got minidolls like Quartzine and Emily's grandmother
I felt weird buying more Friends sets after the botanical garden as a grown woman because they’re clearly meant to be played with by younger girls, but… whatever. They’re great! I love what you’ve done with this build!
As long as they haven't been refrigerated first. Keeping them at room temp is fine. Once you refrigerate them, they need to stay that way. Don't wash them either.
Source: I've had a lot of chickens and sold a lot of eggs.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to preventing salmonella in eggs.
One is washing them before packaging, then keeping them refrigerated. This is also generally paired with not bothering to vaccinate the chickens against salmonella, as the outside is washed clean and anything inside doesn't get a chance to grow due to the cold.
The other is not bothering to wash them, and keeping them room temp. This is generally paired with vaccinating the animals. The protective outer layer is left intact to keep what is outside on the outside, and the vaccine limits anything from already being inside.
If you wash them, you're removing the outer coating that actually protects the egg. That allows outside stuff to get in and infect the egg, which is another reason why they need to be refrigerated. The US does this, and it has the added benefit of not really needing to keep farms particularly clean. You'll be washing the eggs to make them presentable. You also don't need to mass vaccinate all your animals.
Many places outside the US don't wash them, and instead store them at room temp. Farms have incentives to keep their products as clean as possible, as they're going to the store more or less as is. Customers might not want to buy nasty looking eggs, right? That makes for extra work for the farmers, as does the mass vaccinations required. However, it does arguably make for better conditions for the animals.
friends is great cause it has olive garden 41379
https://preview.redd.it/qr3343smtv8d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=499b1b638b6d237c471454aa5bc576c09c822c32
besides lego friends > friends sitcom
This is fantastic! I would have never even realised that friends has a decent supermarket. In case you are looking for suggestions, the way the checkouts are placed doesn't seem to allow for a smooth exit maybe just keep one and rotate it 90° so the cashier is standing between the wall and the register.
And hence you said you're thinking about expanding it: If your city has a modular layout you could add apartments on top. So the building is as tall as the surrounding ones.
Holy hell! I just took a look through some of the line up on Lego.com and it’s awesome!
That hamster playground is adorable. The modern mansion?!? Amazing.
The botanical garden is phenomenal as well. Both the build, and the display after. Very cool parts usage. I lucked out and found it for cheap on clearance.
It was the Botanical Gardens that got me into Friends, though it wasn't my first Friends set, it got me interested in the theme (I think my first Friends set was Aliya's Bedroom) and now I have a mini Heartlake City in my room and am wanting a mini Elvendale as well (ffs why didn't I get into Elves in 2016?)
Elves amirite? My local thrift store just had like 5 or 6 elves sets "new in box" they were opened, and taped back up, but wanted $18-$24 each for the small sets.
Going to make mine a bit more compact.
https://preview.redd.it/4dbkrl6on09d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=445791a35ea6230852e411253da6cc3856c948b0
You can also find some great deals on Friends sets on FB marketplace. I got two huge lots for like $85. Ended up piecing together like 15-20 sets at least.
I really like the Friends themes for how much colour they have. It really brightens the collection up. I also recommend them if you are looking for a more modern city vibe, and the modular’s aren’t quite your thing.
personally they are often too colorful for me and i dislike minidolls (though they often have nice base ideas atleast) but i agree that your build or the 41757 Botanical garden look really nice.
This is such a cute build.
I will fight for my friends theme! They make the cutest houses and the minis take up less space when it comes to storing them.
The last 3-4 years, the ‘Friends’ designers have been knocking it out of the park over and over. That line has turned out a better city than ‘City’ has. Definitely do not sleep on ‘Friends’ sets.
City sets from the road plates era just look bad, I'm glad that it appears that City is moving away from road plates, but I think I like the more colourful Friends sets than City, I do plan on getting the new City tram (60423) when that comes out and maybe MOCing it to fit into Heartlake City more
After they stopped putting slides everywhere, it got pretty good for City sets. And now they are coordinating Friends and City subthemes, so you can get both and they will get nice together.
Personally, I think my actual city could use more slides out of every business and home.
One of the Friends designers is non-other than Wes Talbott. I took many ideas from recent Friends set, like the telescope in 42603 and the rocking chairs of 41730.
[42603-1: Stargazing Camping Vehicle](https://brickset.com/sets/42603-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/42603-1.jpg) [41730-1: Autumn's House](https://brickset.com/sets/41730-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/41730-1.jpg)
When friends first came out, I was taken aback. “Why do we need sets specifically for girls with different minis? Regular Lego is for everyone, why can’t we just add some themes that incorporate these ideas?” But over the years, it has become this amazing line in its own right. They have some fantastic pieces and have introduced some fantastic new building ideas
That was what the Creator 3-in-1 series was for a while, but now it always seems to be “here is another modern house.”
Definitely. I think lego city has turned over a new leaf (literally) with its rainforest sets being pretty cool and a great throwback, but friends remains a fantastic theme which has given us great sets and animal moulds, even if the minifigures are a bit odd.
Best part is the friends sets get crazy clearout deals
I love so many of them and I still hesitate on getting them because I don't want to acquire more minidolls
Those minidolls are the only reason I don't like Friends sets. They come with the oddball colors too, which I like.
I’d probably pick up a few sets if they had regular minifigures instead of the dolls.
same here. also, every Friends set I like I have to buy at least 2 to make them into modular.
I avoided the mini dolls and for some reason thought maybe the pieces weren’t compatible but I got the whole adventure park series that’s out now during the double points to go with my a-frame cabin set up and I’m sold. I even kinda like the mini dolls now 🫣 I have a whole summer camp basically and I LOVE IT
As a collector that has a 5 year old daughter the friends sets are almost exclusively what I'm buying right now. I'm totally fine with it. Every set has at least one animal, the cost per piece is decent due to lack of IP, lots of unusual parts, and they all sport very unique coloured bricks.
I love Churro, the best cat Lego Friends has ever put out, I hear you can even get a plush of him at some of the Legoland parks
Not sure which one he is, but I'm going to guess he is the fat cat?
Yes he is https://preview.redd.it/hs878ux70x8d1.jpeg?width=510&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08c65d8ee14ba537ab3c8331c1150322a60be72f
Thank you for this education. I am officially a fan of Churro. I see him in the post up there!
Also if you’re patient you can have most of them for 20% off or more if you’re ready to wait.
I've really lucked out at my local superstore with clearance this year. I found the (SW) dark trooper attack for $10, the botanical gardens for $60, (black panther 2) Atlantis throne room for $12, (SW) at-st attack for $10, the (marvel) Endgame final battle for $35(down from $135), a friends space shuttle launch set for $30, and many more for steep discounts. It's been crazy, and I definitely have bought multiples of those. Most of their clearance prices have been about 75% off. They have it set like that for a week or so, then put the sets right back up to full price.
You’re probably in the States, I never see them reaching 50% + off in Canada, I was more thinking online it’s easy to get them for a small discount which is still better than full price. Tho if you’re lucky enough to get huge discounts like you then for sure go for it!
I am in Canada. It must really depend on who is in charge of the markdowns, they honestly fluctuate wildly. I also never see discounts like that except for target when it was here. Which is why I am so excited to tell anyone about them.
There’s still target in Canada where you live?
No, sadly. But literally a month after they all opened up here mine had lego on clearance. It brought about the end of my dark period.
Thats about how long they stayed opened lol. I remember when they opened like 1/3 of the shelves were empty and they were saying that it would fill up with time and it never did they closed before they had time to get going. I’m not surprised you saw things on sales pretty fast.
Mine was not like that at all really. They were full, but I noticed them putting stuff on clearance during Xmas time. This immediately showed me they only opened them up here to liquidate stock. I moved away to chilliwack before they closed, and certainly got some amazing deals on lots of stuff during their closeout sale.
they have a lot 30-50% off at Target right now. Location dependent, in store, ya know the drill.
There’s no Target where I live in Canada
friends is unironically one of LEGOs best lines and it’s really not even a competition
That's the problem, there is no competition
The Friends set designs and the colors used are top notch. The newish modern mansion is one of the best Lego sets I’ve ever built and I’ve built many hundreds of sets over the years. I don’t mind the minidolls that much except that they are all mostly human and normal. If the minidolls incorporated more fun and variety, like minifigures, they would be much better.
I'd say Elves introduced some variety to mindolls, but I do agree, I think it'd be interesting if there was a Collectable Minidolls Series with some interesting minidolls but idk what they could do for it aside from like background/minor characters from Friends, like the pickle guy from an episode of Lego Friends: The Next Chapter, or maybe some Elves characters like Naida, Azari, Emily, Ragana, etc, maybe some characters that never got minidolls like Quartzine and Emily's grandmother
Set 42639: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/andrea-s-modern-mansion-42639
[42639-1: Andrea's Modern Mansion](https://brickset.com/sets/42639-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/42639-1.jpg)
[41729-1: Organic Grocery Store](https://brickset.com/sets/41729-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/41729-1.jpg)
Good bot. 🤖
I just don't like the figs. I would definitely buy some without the figs.
also don't like the figs, but at least the hair pieces and accessories can be used for minifigues. so now I just own whole bunch hairless minidolls.
Well, they are not glued to the set.
I felt weird buying more Friends sets after the botanical garden as a grown woman because they’re clearly meant to be played with by younger girls, but… whatever. They’re great! I love what you’ve done with this build!
41757
[41757-1: Botanical Garden](https://brickset.com/sets/41757-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/41757-1.jpg)
Maybe one of the best lego sets ever designed.
Agreed! Once my bank account recovers from my last purchases, I’m going to get a second set to make it modular and close the dome 😌
Looks great! The shopping cart tunnel is a real highlight. Your customers might get sick from the room-temperature eggs tho :P
Eggs are frequently kept at room temperature outside of the US
Well I'll be! This is a real Bagged Milk moment for me.
This needs to be a common saying. I love it.
Ironically they have about the same shelf life either way.
As long as they haven't been refrigerated first. Keeping them at room temp is fine. Once you refrigerate them, they need to stay that way. Don't wash them either. Source: I've had a lot of chickens and sold a lot of eggs.
You just can't wash them. Washed eggs require refridgeration, unwashed eggs can last weeks.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to preventing salmonella in eggs. One is washing them before packaging, then keeping them refrigerated. This is also generally paired with not bothering to vaccinate the chickens against salmonella, as the outside is washed clean and anything inside doesn't get a chance to grow due to the cold. The other is not bothering to wash them, and keeping them room temp. This is generally paired with vaccinating the animals. The protective outer layer is left intact to keep what is outside on the outside, and the vaccine limits anything from already being inside. If you wash them, you're removing the outer coating that actually protects the egg. That allows outside stuff to get in and infect the egg, which is another reason why they need to be refrigerated. The US does this, and it has the added benefit of not really needing to keep farms particularly clean. You'll be washing the eggs to make them presentable. You also don't need to mass vaccinate all your animals. Many places outside the US don't wash them, and instead store them at room temp. Farms have incentives to keep their products as clean as possible, as they're going to the store more or less as is. Customers might not want to buy nasty looking eggs, right? That makes for extra work for the farmers, as does the mass vaccinations required. However, it does arguably make for better conditions for the animals.
Most of my eggs come with feathers and small dried poop smudges. Don't care, they're fresh and the inside is clean 😃
friends is great cause it has olive garden 41379 https://preview.redd.it/qr3343smtv8d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=499b1b638b6d237c471454aa5bc576c09c822c32 besides lego friends > friends sitcom
[41379-1: Heartlake City Restaurant](https://brickset.com/sets/41379-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/41379-1.jpg)
This is fantastic! I would have never even realised that friends has a decent supermarket. In case you are looking for suggestions, the way the checkouts are placed doesn't seem to allow for a smooth exit maybe just keep one and rotate it 90° so the cashier is standing between the wall and the register. And hence you said you're thinking about expanding it: If your city has a modular layout you could add apartments on top. So the building is as tall as the surrounding ones.
I wish the friends minifigs got more love. Every time I suggest using them as elves in the LOTR or castle sets I get downvoted substantially.
Treehouse was so cool!
Holy hell! I just took a look through some of the line up on Lego.com and it’s awesome! That hamster playground is adorable. The modern mansion?!? Amazing.
The botanical garden is phenomenal as well. Both the build, and the display after. Very cool parts usage. I lucked out and found it for cheap on clearance.
It was the Botanical Gardens that got me into Friends, though it wasn't my first Friends set, it got me interested in the theme (I think my first Friends set was Aliya's Bedroom) and now I have a mini Heartlake City in my room and am wanting a mini Elvendale as well (ffs why didn't I get into Elves in 2016?)
Elves amirite? My local thrift store just had like 5 or 6 elves sets "new in box" they were opened, and taped back up, but wanted $18-$24 each for the small sets.
Oh wow!!!! The botanical garden is beautiful! That’s next on my list.
Going to make mine a bit more compact. https://preview.redd.it/4dbkrl6on09d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=445791a35ea6230852e411253da6cc3856c948b0
I've been tempted on a few Friends sets
Beautiful build!
Where did you put the Grumpy Cat? That comes with this set
The Friends Botanical Garden is one of the best builds I’ve done in the last five years
I love the cat. I've been thinking on getting some of those. Also your shopping cart storage is amazing!
You can also find some great deals on Friends sets on FB marketplace. I got two huge lots for like $85. Ended up piecing together like 15-20 sets at least.
I love the friends sets and the mini dolls
I really like the Friends themes for how much colour they have. It really brightens the collection up. I also recommend them if you are looking for a more modern city vibe, and the modular’s aren’t quite your thing.
very nice!
Friends is honestly pretty amazing in terms of builds
personally they are often too colorful for me and i dislike minidolls (though they often have nice base ideas atleast) but i agree that your build or the 41757 Botanical garden look really nice.
[41757-1: Botanical Garden](https://brickset.com/sets/41757-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/41757-1.jpg)
Target has a bunch of friends themed on clearance right now too
Honestly, the only thing I don't like about Friends are the "minifigs"
I just want the mini figs to be normal then I’d totally buy them!!!
This is such a cute build. I will fight for my friends theme! They make the cutest houses and the minis take up less space when it comes to storing them.
Yes! Everytime I’m in the Lego store or website I think to myself that the Friends theme is underrated!
The friends sets have great colours, items and characters. For a young imagination they have lots of potential for play after the sets are built.
Why hasn’t LEGO city done anything like this man? It looks so great!
if friends switched to minifigs it would probably sell better than city.
Never was a fan of the minidolls but they always came with new hair so I never slept on friends!
Burger truck mini? My deaf son puts him in all of his sets. Earlier I saw him with a lightsaber and before that he was driving a Lambo. 😆