LEGO Friends Poodle's Little Palace - Review

By LFX

LEGO Friends Poodle's Little Palace - Review
#41021

Quick Summary:
Pros

• 46 excellent pieces in some "Friend-ly" colors
• Alternate and combined building instructions available
• Economical means to attain this rare pet
• New Poodle pet with new collar print and eye color
• Lots of accessories
• Lots of good extra pieces left over

Cons

• Not too many rare pieces like in the Hedgehog's Hideaway set

Detailed Review:
This is the set my daughter was wanting to open first.  It's her personal favorite and mine too.  The Poodle is a rare pet in the Friends world, so it was nice to see one released in the Series 2 Animal packs.

What's not to love about this set.  There are 46 pieces (compared to 34 in the Hedgehog's Hideaway), most of which are in the colors that any Friends collector appreciates.

The build itself is well constructed.  The use of arches is a good touch.  Although there are more parts, the parts are fairly common but that is not really a negative to me.  I was happy to see they gave us metallic silver 1x1 round plates instead if the typical light bley.

I'll mention again, one thing I really like about this year's Animal packs is the instruction booklets provide a picture of an alternate build and a combined build (all three Series 2 sets together). For last year's Series 1 sets, we didn't find out until well after they were released.  This year it's hard to miss.  Building instructions for the alternate and combined builds are also available here: lego.com/friends/animals

One of the fun things about reviewing these sets is discovering things I never knew.  Turns out, I was not aware of another feature of the new Poodle.  Of course we all knew of the new collar print, but the eyes are a new color: green.  The original Poodle has blue eyes (found in Heartlake Pet Salon set).  I think it's great that LEGO is not just recycling the exact same pets in each set.  At least if they use the same pet moulds, they are changing up the prints.

And finally, when the set was built, my daughter showed me the extra pieces left over.  Normally LEGO will add some extra pieces, usually little accessories or 1x1 rounds or slopes.  To my pleasant surprise, they included 3 extra 1x2 bricks, an extra 1x2 tile and a metallic silver 1x1 round plate.  I've purchased lots of LEGO over the years and to get this many good extra pieces for such a small set is unheard of in my experience.

This set delivers on every aspect, especially on value for money.  I'd rate this set 9.5 out of 10.  My daughter and I are very happy indeed.  She's already combining it with the Hedgehog's Hideaway.  Nice job LEGO!

 
Brick's bag inside pack & instruction booklet

 
How to find instructions for alternate build

 
 Showing the combined build

 
Bricks inventory sheet


Bricks & pieces in this set

 
 The build


Palace without Poodle


Side view


Back view


Poodle

 
 This set's Poodle (left) and Poodle from Pet Salon (right)


Extra pieces found in this set
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LFX's Bunny's Hutch review
LFX's Hedgehog's Hideaway review