A wonderful set hindered by its colour-vomit colour scheme.
I should start off with a preface that acknowledges this set is not designed for me and my age range. Any critiques that I share of this set come fully in the knowledge that I am critiquing designers for not pandering to my 22-year-old male AFOL perspective when the target demographic is far from that. However, I purchased this set with my own money for full retail value of £59.99 and therefore will be weighing up it's value to me and people who may feel alike to me.
I guess a further preface would be why I bought this set, I am not its target market and therefore, to many consumers, it is unlikely I would enjoy what this set has to offer. Truthfully, I have been enjoying buying Friends sets for the past few years. I am an avid city-builder without the imagination of an expert lego builder so having models to jump start my creativity is a great starting place. And what better theme to jump start creativity than Friends? It has Farms, Resorts, Shopping Malls etc. All things I want to include in my own city. So circling back; why did I purchase this set? Well I loved the organic farm set from Friends last year and thought this would be an excellent choice to pair with that set.
Unfortunately, having completed this set and placing this next to the organic farm in the city, its colour scheme stuck out like a sore thumb. The garish colour combinations of the light aqua, white and lime look extremely crude, and I can not justify including this in my city as it is. The building looks fantastic, but the colour scheme really lets this building down. I know Friends sets can be slightly brutal on the eyes of people wanting to build accurate Lego cities, but I rather enjoy the pop of colour that these sets often provide. Had this set been in the same colour scheme of the organic farm I would have given it 5 stars all around. The interior is absolutely fantastic and is crammed with detail after detail. Considering the target market, I do think this set is an absolute win, but god knows which colour theorist decided on these colours.
To summarise, if you are like me, an avid city builder who wants a farmhouse in their city, then I would look no further than this set. However, be prepared to place many bricklink orders to substitute some of the unpleasant colour choices that the designer made.
2 out of 3 people thought this review was helpful.