Review: Summer Caravan #41034

   Drive the Summer Caravan to a lovely spot on Clear Spring Mountain, overlooking 
Heartlake City!
   There you can help Olivia and Joanna set up camp. Enjoy the flora & fauna, then set up your
picnic table to cook lunch.
   Let's see how well-equipped this new car and camper are for Summer 2014!

The FriendsBricks community would like to thank TLG's CEE Team generous support of this set to review and share with fans.



Box front - A view of Heart Lake from atop Clear Spring Mountain



Box back - take a look inside this fun camper!



Box contents: 2 bags, 2 instruction booklets, sticker sheet; back of booklet #2 shows screencaps of LEGO Friends video game.



Inside instructions shows what each bag builds.



Bag 1:

LEGO Friends have been fortunate to have several cars already. The new part
in this car build is the Medium Azure Slope, 45-degree 3x1 Inverted Double.

The Hinge Train Gate 2 x 4 Locking in dark stone (found in LEGO Train sets) is new to Friends.




Building the car, we have the red 1x2 plate as the 'hot' engine. The new Medium Azure
Slope bricks (45-degree, 3x1 Inverted Double) are very useful in car design.
I wish these had come in pink when I was creating a Cadillac in 2012.



Car and picnic furniture are built next - the rest of bag 1 bricks start the camper chassis.



Bag 1 complete: Car, picnic, Olivia in Summer top, and the beginnings of a super cute camper!



Let's take a look at the additions to the Heartlake City map for Summer 2014
(found in back inside cover of instructions #2 booklet). It's always nice to see where each set is meant to be!



Bag 2:

The yellow camper door is new to Friends, yet not a new piece -- it comes in many
LEGO Train sets. The white window pieces are also very common in trains.

Lots of other nice medium azure, magenta and yellow parts.



Page six of instructions has an error: the pieces illustrated that the builder should
gather are not the pieces intended to add at this step. Notice the 1x1 white brick
in top left illustration; it should show the 2 medium azure panels (look like seats) there.
It seems that page 6 and page 8 instructions have swapped pieces that should be added.
Luckily, they aren't in a different layer, so it's easy to fix.



Page 8 instructions have illustration for gathering 2 medium azure panels, when it should
depict the white 1x1 brick. This and page six seem to have been swapped. It's an easy fix,
since they are both still on top at this point.



Joanna in front of the colorful camper! I love the trans-orange hanging Lantern, flower-box for the window with striped awning, and the Peace flags hung on the door.



Panel side of camper - here we see where the Hinge Train Gate 2 x 4 Locking in dark stone piece, which serves as a 'lock' to this side panel.

The Yellow bar holders with clips connect under the camper by the trailer ball hitch (plate 1x2 with long towball) and are to be deployed for stability when it's un-hooked from the car -- so camper remains level.

You can see in this image how the Picnic table and benches neatly stow on top of the camper.



Opening the side panel and you can see the Shower area and the additional use of the Hinge Train Gate 2 x 4 Locking in dark stone.
The shower has a sticker for soap and shampoo. There's a sink and a blender (for making smoothies).

You can also see the storage area (for plates and stuff) under where the camper beds will rest. The storage pit even has built-in lights - nice!



Inside the camper Olivia is sitting on the sleeping area and Joanna entered through the yellow door, near the sink.



Interior camper with beds and Lamp (matching the exterior hanging Lamp) and a 1x2 yellow tile that gets a cute bird sticker (I think it's a book -- see the sticker on the Box contents image).  Hedgehog waits for the scent of yummy food.



Another image showing the storage under the camper beds, overall interior, and the camper roof without the Picnic table stowed.
The 1x2 red plate up there may be the electric battery for lights and water heater.  The 1x2x3 white brick just above the foot of the bed is meant to have a sticker that depicts a TV screen; I left it off for the sake of serenity in the outdoors.
The set of red pan, dishes, plates and utensils have cute 'food' stickers placed inside of them.



Storing camp gear in the hatch behind the hinge gate (shower floor, side panel lock) and the car's cute front grill (sticker).

Always turn off your propane camp stove before stowing ;-)



Goodbye camping spot! Time to "caravan" back down the mountain. The "Peace" flags will be fluttering in the wind (even if they are stickers).



Olivia in the car; the seat cushion is a paisley motif sticker -- I would totally love some printed tiles with that design!



Mini-dolls Joanna and Olivia: I like the purple hibiscus flower on Joanna's pants and the green striped top for Olivia, although Stephanie wore it in the Beach House, her Sand Blue skirt is new for Summer 2014.
As always, the intricate designs of the clothing really set Friends apart. I know adult 'girls' who would wear these, if available.



Extra parts for 41034: Since smaller pieces can be easily lost, The LEGO Group kindly provides a few extra, just in case - because some times it's the small detail that finishes the model.



Joanna and Olivia in the car -- a view of back trailer towball hitch socket.

Journey home after a fun camping trip!

I would enjoy their camping style and I think loads of LEGO Friends fans will too. Even though we already had the Adventure Camper set Summer 2012, surely not every fan owns it, and this is a bit smaller set. A chance to get another cute car and some great Friends bricks will be appreciated by many fans.
For me, I can't wait to Mod (re-build modifying it with my own style) this set!

This set was fun to build, while thinking of camping myself -- summer is almost here! I have a Lantern in a color similar to medium azure, so that camper burner is very appealing to me. It's a simple, yet succinct design that LEGO Friends is known for now.

Peeron and BrickLink were used to verify some parts information and were accurate as of time of this review.

Thanks for reading!
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