Review: 41325 Heartlake City Playground

Earlier this year, Sienna’s playground was announced as the winner of the LEGO Friends Designer contest. Let’s take a closer look as to why this was a well deserved win for Sienna.

This set was provided by The LEGO Group in recognition of our involvement in the judging for 

the LEGO Friends Designer competition.
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 the components of the playground and the two mini-dolls - Sienna and Mia - featured in the set.



The set box came in a post satchel instead of the normal sturdy cardboard box, which explains why it looks a little like it was put through the dryer.  

The set box has the same features as the boxes from the main theme, but with confetti on the flanges. It also highlights that Sienna is the winner of the LEGO Designer Contest. 

The back of the box shows the back of the treehouse and highlights the numerous play features packed into this set. 



The side of the box gives us the usual warnings and indicates the size of the pieces by giving us a 1:1 image of Sienna. 
 

One of the short sides reminds us that Sienna was the winner of the contest in a number of languages. Imagine how excited Sienna must be with her name on the set box and a mini-doll named after her!

Inside the box are:

• one instruction booklet
• one sticker sheet
• three numbered parts bags (with a further three inner baggies)
• two 8 x16 Bright Green plates
• one 16 x 16 Bright Green plate
• Yellow slide.

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, minus the two insets and the splash that announces Sienna as the winner of the LEGO Designer contest. 

The instructions are laid out well and easy to follow.



The inside back pages of the instruction booklet feature:

• Full parts list (two pages)
• Sets from the Snow Resort sub-theme
• Two sets from the main theme - the Sunshine Catamaran (41317) and the Heartlake Hospital (41318).

     

    

The back cover has the gorgeous Emma letting us know how we can win a cool LEGO prize.. 



How many times have I seen that page, but forgotten to actually register for the competition!

Here’s the parts that are found in Bag 1:



There are no parts that are unique to this set, but there were nevertheless a few parts that caught my eye:

• Printed umbrella
• Printed coins
• Icy-pole and chocolate ice-cream swirls
• Magenta 2x2 inverted slope, which was released in that colour for the first time this year in the Heartlake Pizzeria (41311).

The first bag builds swings, fountain and ice-cream cart:



We’ll have a closer look at the puppy and the mini-dolls shortly.



I don’t really understand the use of the jumper plates for the seats on the swings. I imagine you’d have a sore bottom after using the swing set, assuming you managed to hold on with the one hand! Fortunately, the mini-dolls have good clutch power and are generally fairly resilient.



The fountain and ice-cream cart are both simple, but effective designs. I like how it’s easy to see what’s in the cart and, more importantly, how the large lid makes it easy to get the ice-cream out.

This brings us to Bag 2:



The Reddish Brown rock pieces are quite common, but not often seen in Friends sets. The Medium Dark Flesh chest and the Lavender pieces also caught my eye, although none are unique to this set.

These parts build the tree house , including the slide to get down:



The tree house is open at the back to give easy access to the inside and the chest, which holds the walkie talkies. I like the use of the rock pieces to make the which tree trunk - it looks good and makes for a sturdy base for the tree house.

There are two White 2x2 tiles hiding inside the tree trunk which seem to serve no purpose, so I suggest you don’t bother putting those in (see page 30 of the instruction booklet).  

This brings us to Bag 3, the final bag:



The thing that struck me immediately was the range of colours in this lot. These parts would make no sense at all if you didn’t know what it was you were about to build!

The Orange inverted arch is new in that colour this year and is only available in one other set - the Batcave Break-In (70909). I also had a look at closer look at the Yellow ladders as I haven’t seen them in that colour before. Interestingly, Yellow ones were used in a few sets in the late 1990s and then nothing for 15 years until they made a comeback in Yellow in 2014! 

These parts finish the playground equipment:





The see-saw also uses the 2x2 jumper plates for seats. It’s been a while since I’ve been on one of those, but I recall a fair bit of bouncing. Ouch!

This brings us to the mini-dolls and puppy:



From left to right, we have Sienna, Mia and Pippa.  

Let’s take a closer look at Sienna first.



Sienna has Bright Light Blue eyes and thick lashes and a Reddish Brown bob, which is the same hairstyle as Ms Stevens. She is wearing a sleeveless Magenta top over a Medium Azure skirt with Dark Blue and Medium Azure loafers. The top has been worn previously by a few of the Friends. The skirt and loafers combination is also common in Heartlake City, having been worn previously by Olivia, Mia and Stephanie.



Mia, with her usual gorgeous freckles and Dark Red hair, is wearing her favourite outfit, consisting of the Medium Blue halter top with butterfly and paw print pattern over the Lime cropped pants, also with butterflies. Olivia and Stephanie have also worn these cropped pants.



Pippa is a Medium Dark Flesh puppy, which was first seen in Heartlake City in 2012.

There were fewer spare parts that we normally have in a Friends set:



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



I love that the LEGO designers stayed very true to Sienna’s winning entry. You can readily see the original design in the final product.



Overall this is a great set in terms of both the variety of pieces and the playability. There are so many activities packed into this set - see saw, rock climbing wall, monkey bars, spinning thingie that always made me super dizzy, swings, tree house and slide. This was my daughter's first impression - that there was so much to do with the playground.

To finish, I took some shots of Sienna having fun at the playground!



Hold on!



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.