Review: 41115 Emma's Creative Workshop

The first release of the Friends theme back in 2012 included Emma’s Fashion Design Studio (3936). Now four years on, Emma’s studio has had a renovation (or should that be re-incarnation) as Emma’s Creative Workshop (41115). Let’s see how it stacks up.

This set was provided by the AFOL Relations & Programs team (AR&P) of The LEGO Group for the purpose of sharing set details with fans.
Opinions provided here solely reflect those of our reviewer. 
Photographs are property of Friends Bricks and are not directed by TLG in any fashion.

The front of the box shows Emma’s Creative Workshop, located in the light and airy loft of a building.



The set box carries the familiar purple flanges on the sides and ribbon wave across the top, indicating that this set belong to the base theme and not a sub-theme. The view out the window suggests the workshop is located in a leafy suburb and not the city.  Maybe the attic in her house? 

The back of the box highlights the playing features, focusing on the sewing machine.



The side of the box reminds us that we should not let the 0 to 3 year olds loose on the LEGO.



Inside the box is an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet and three un-numbered parts bags.  




Let’s take a closer look at the instruction booklet:



The front cover of the instruction booklet has the same main image as the set box, zoomed out a little so you can see more of the massive space that houses her workshop. Doesn’t appear to be her house, as the roof space there is tiny! 

The back of the instruction booklet has the exceptionally cute Emma letting us know how we could win a free set. 



The inside back pages include:

• the full parts list
• a new style map highlighting the other new Friends sets
• a page showing the new sets that Stephanie is in
• screenshots of some of the new Friends apps

     

Here’s the collection of parts that come in the box:



One of the first things that I notice is that there are a lot of different colours for such a small set.  The other things that caught my eye were:

• Dark Purple laptop, which is new this year and unique to Friends, being available only in this set and Olivia’s Exploration Car (41116)
• Printed sticky notes (1x1 tiles), which are also new and unique to this set and Olivia’s Exploration Car (41116)
• Lavender bricks including a 1x6 brick, which is new in this colour.  Pity there is only one of them!
• Printed 1x1 round tiles, which have previously only been found in the Heartlake Hot Air Balloon (41097)
• 1x1 round plates with pin in Pearl Gold, which are newish but already widely available.

There are also lots and lots of bows!  The number of bows didn’t really make sense until I read the official set description, which states that “Emma is sewing beautiful hair bows to sell on her e-shop”.  She’s a true entrepreneur.

This brings us to the building part of the review. There are three main subsets - the table for the laptop, the worktable with sewing machine and design whiteboard.



The table for the laptop is set inside a Lavender wall with the large window with the three panes.   This suggests that the workshop probably is in the loft of her house, since that colour and type of window are prominent features in her house.  It must have been renovated since the set was released.  

I think the sewing machine is the stand out feature of this set. Although it is small, you can change the thread colour by changing the Magenta cone for the colour of your choice and you can also lift the top part of the sewing machine to change the bow that you are sewing.



I do wish the desk wasn’t so heavy and so grey - this really seems at odds with the stylishness that I think defines Emma.



Unlike the original design studio, the whiteboard in this set is a sticker, rather than a printed part.

Let’s take a closer look at Emma:



Emma is wearing Sand Blue overalls over a Dark Pink sleeveless top.  The top, which is new and unique to this set, is quite cute with a ruler and pen tucked into the front pocket of the overalls.   Interestingly, though, the overalls pattern does not extend to the back of the torso.  The skirt was first seen in 2014 and has been seen in a number of sets over the last two year.  It appears to be a favourite for Olivia.

There are quite a few spare parts:



20-odd spare parts for a set that requires just over 100 parts to build. That’s not a bad ratio!

Any thoughts on what the sticky note says? I really can’t make out what it is meant to say.

Let’s have another look at the set as a whole:



This shot also shows the floor lamp using the beautiful Medium Azure brick with petals, and the camera.

I couldn’t help but compare this workshop to Emma’s Fashion Design Studio (3936) while I was doing the review.  I also compared how it looked in my Emma’s Place:





When doing the comparison, I thought of a few things I would change on this set:

• Change the main table to a White top with Medium Lavender legs
• Increase the size of the laptop table and change the colour scheme
• Replace the chair with a stool
• Replace the Light Bluish Grey post for the lamp with a White one

It’s not hard to tell where I was heading with this. While I liked the workshop. I guess I would have liked to see the it as an extension of the design studio.

Also, while the walls and window that frame the laptop table tie the workshop in with Emma’s House, I would happily give up those parts for a larger, tiled table (like in the design studio).

Thanks for reading! C&C welcome.

Note: All exclusive parts mentioned in the colours noted were applicable at the time this review was posted. Parts may be available in other colours and sets after the post of this review. Brickset and BrickLink were use to verify this information.