Review: 77052 K.K.'s Concert at the Plaza
Posted by SetToBuild,We’ve worked hard setting up island life with the earlier wave of Animal Crossing sets, so our beautiful island has caught the attention of the famous K.K. Slider—now he’s here to play a concert for our villagers! This set packs in lots of different activities around the Resident Services building and the central Plaza, but they don’t all quite make sense together.
Summary
77052 K.K.'s Concert at the Plaza, 550 pieces.
£69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 | 12.7p/14.5c/14.5c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
K.K. Slider finally comes to the island, but in a costly set.
- K.K. Slider Minifigure
- First wolf villager
- Great prints
- Disjointed activities
- Costly
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
Three unique minifigures, two of which bear new moulded heads, add to the array of Animal Crossing characters realised in LEGO form. We’re finally seeing one of the most iconic characters: K.K. Slider. The head mould is excellent, with the folds of his ears represented beautifully, and crisp face printing. The rest of his torso and medium length legs are entirely white, save for a printed tail.
K.K. Slider is actually his stage name: his name is Totakeke, after the game’s sound designer Totaka Kazumi. It’s therefore fitting that he’s a musician, and of course here he carries his LEGO guitar.
Audie gives us the first wolf villager head mould. The minifigure is easily recognisable, but the lack of light yellow tips to her tail or feet is a shame, as it makes her colouring overall a lot darker than her in-game appearance. This was however a great use of the new reddish-orange colour.
She wears her usual ‘Tropical muumuu (Mint)’, for which I’m not sure dark turquoise is quite the right torso background colour—medium azure or light aqua might have captured her summery vibe slightly better.
We get a new version of Isabelle in this set, wearing her ‘group stretching’ exercise outfit. The lack of dual moulded legs is the obvious deficiency here since the foot printing doesn’t quite convey the idea of her cropped trousers.
Although more new characters would always be welcome, I can’t fault the repeated Isabelle here as she’s in a relevant outfit, and a third new moulded head piece would presumably have driven up the price of the set.
Completed Model
The completed model consists of the Resident Services building, a patch of the plaza set up for K.K.’s concert, a small food stall and K.K.’s RV/camper van. There are lots of activities and opportunities for play, but it’s not the most cohesive of scenes among the sets in this theme so far.
The main building is Resident Services, which was known as the Town Hall in previous versions of the game. Medium nougat would have been more suitable than orange for the walls in my opinion, as the game aesthetic is overall more pastel-shaded. Adjacent to the building are the noticeboard and island flag.
The clock is a unique print, which I’m surprised by—I might have expected re-use of one of LEGO’s more common clock pieces, so a unique print adds to the overall accuracy and the fact that it’s on a 3x3 round tile perfects the scaling. The fender piece offers more detailing, although the clock tower could have been a little wider.
The noticeboard displays some typical notices such as announcing someone’s birthday and K.K’s upcoming concert. It’s complete with a perching bird. There are always a few small yellow birds atop the noticeboard to indicate that there’s a new announcement for the player to read, so more than one would have been nice.
In keeping with Isabelle’s activewear outfit, the yellow crate holding the tape deck for Group Stretching is positioned next to the Resident Services Building, ready for the player to begin the group workout.
Like in 77051 Fly with Dodo Airlines, the flag is customisable and a variety of tiles are provided for this purpose.
The interior of the building contains the Nook Stop, service desk and recycle box.
Just as we saw in 77050 Nook's Cranny & Rosie's House, the interior details are a little light—in particular, Tom and Isabelle’s desk is only four studs wide, rather than the entire width of the building. I’m disappointed that there’s nowhere for them to sit, as Isabelle’s greetings from her desk are a daily feature in the game, and interacting with Tom Nook here to expand our home is also a major feature.
The Recycle Box collects lost property and rubbish from across the island, which the player can then claim. Today, it contains a couple of spare pieces of headgear.
On the other side is the Nook Stop, a terminal that allows the user to mail order items such as special tools, furniture or Nook Miles Tickets, and also acts as an ATM (or ABD Automatic Bell Dispenser) for players to access their money. The printed slope is a typical cash register piece.
A patch of the main plaza in front of Resident Services is set up for K.K.’s concert, complete with his seat, microphone and amplifier. The green benches are a little odd since individual stools are actually used for concerts. I’m happy with the choice, however, because the benches look good and they do sometimes appear in the plaza at other times.
Villagers can gather around to listen to K.K. play.
The majority of the references in the LEGO Animal Crossing sets have been to New Horizons, so it’s interesting to see a vehicle that didn’t appear in that game, instead featuring in Animal Crossing: New Leaf among many other character’s camper vans. K.K.’s RV is reasonably faithfully recreated here.
I like the idea that K.K. drives over in his RV to play music for us in the Plaza, but one has to wonder how he gets it to the island—certainly not via Dodo Airlines! There is a limited interior to the camper van which leaves just enough space for him to lie down and sleep.
There’s even room inside the roof to store his treasured guitar and any other accessories.
The little café or food stall is pleasing, but unless I’m missing something, it doesn't actually appear in the game. Vendors like Kicks, Label or Leif usually set up shop on the Plaza, and I’d have liked to have had one of those. Let’s assume the best: that these folks aren’t included because they’re all going to get their own sets like 77054 Leif's Caravan & Garden Shop!
The orange tree with reddish-orange leaves represents the autumn foliage colour scheme. Like its green equivalents in preceding sets, the tree opens to reveal a hidden branch which, in the game, the player can discover by shaking the trunk.
The decorations are all printed, as usual for this theme. We’ve already seen this K.K. album in 77049 Isabelle's House Visit, so it’s a shame that the set bearing his name doesn’t include another from his enormous and diverse discography.
Lots of spare parts are on offer, including various foodstuffs and decorations. The new pizza slice is mildly interesting—it seems someone didn’t like the peppers, mushrooms and olives on the previous version, and introduced the basil and mozzarella version last year in the Jazz Club! Mrs. SetToBuild is more of a Hawaiian pizza fan, but I’m sure LEGO wouldn’t print something so divisive.
Conclusion
As an adult fan of LEGO and Animal Crossing (and LEGO Animal Crossing), this set is an essential purchase despite it clearly being aimed at much younger fans of the game. I would have preferred more detail on the interior of the Resident Services building with space for Isabelle and Tom Nook to sit at their respective desks, but I appreciate that those aren’t the most thrilling play activities.
I expect that children will enjoy the range of play in the busy plaza. For the target age range, the variety provided by the vehicle and café’s inclusion has won out over my irritation over the lower accuracy and the presumably amphibious RV.
Priced at £5 more than 77050 Nook's Cranny & Rosie's House, there is definitely more going on here. But just as it was hard to justify the £65 price tag there, I can’t say I feel like there is £70 value of toy in this box. Have you picked up this set, or will you be waiting for a discount?
79 likes
40 comments on this article
80 bucks for a facade this is killing me
Edit: it's not just that it is overpriced, we all know lego is overpriced. But it's also just bad set design
Currently for € 60,- on Amazon.de; seems still expensive =/
The shoddy printwork on Audie's eyes makes it look like she's stoned out of her bonce. Is she drinking opium tea? Is Tom Nook branching out? Think of the children, Nook.
It's funny they make these sets for kids when the biggest fan base for AC are adults
I know nothing of this game, and the "Resident Services building" sounds positively Kafka-esque.
The only thing that's gonna sell this set is K.K Slider, I hope we get him in a better set in the future since this is a hard pass for me, $80 is way too much for this, the builds are okay at best and Audie and Isabelle aren't all that good looking here for them to justify the price tag.
@mediAFOL said:
"I know nothing of this game, and the "Resident Services building" sounds positively Kafka-esque."
my thought too!
The Lego K.K.belle shippers rejoice!
I question the intelligence of anyone who buys the Animal Crossing sets at RRP, rather than waiting a couple of months for a 30% discount on Amazon. They are crazy overpriced.
This is pretty much the worst "house" in the Theme. Even the 40€ set had more happening inside with a more substantial facade.
They could honestly have skipped on the KK Van (i dont remember it being in any of maingames anyways) and have put more of the budget towards the townhall.
Pizza is divided, not divisive. Hawaiian style isn't my favorite but would love the parts.
I really want Audie because she's the closest thing to a purist Diane Foxington I can find. But of course, her aftermarket value is insane, and I'm not buying an $80 set from a videogame I've never played for a single minifigure.
Damn you, Bricklink sellers!
The roof storage is so underwhelming for its piece count. It sort of symbolises the rest of the set - superficial with little depth.
Not sure if this review is delayed or not, but the set is already receiving discounts.
Could never get into animal crossing, despite trying serveral times. Nice looking set, though.
This shares a lot of the charm of other Animal Crossing sets but unfortunately seems like the worst value of all of them. One shallow building, a small camper van, and a handful of side builds does not add up to $80 of value. Still looking forward to picking this up eventually though, just on sale.
The Town Hall / Resudent Services building being only 4-6 studs deep depending on the specific section is the biggest problem with the set's value. I know this is partly because Animal Crossing buildings operate on TARDIS logic where they're cute and compact from the outside but spacious on the inside, and preserving that compact façade is crucial, but the recycle bin and the Nook Stop are the only aspects fully realized; that poor excuse for a desk hardly provides the visual presence or role-playing capability of their desks in the building. As it is, the shallow suggestion of the building is lacking for the centerpiece nature of this set.
A suggestion to @SetToBuild: could you provide photos of the in-game exterior and interior before their sections for the sake of reference for people less familiar with the game, like what's done typically with some Star Wars set reviews on this site?
Nice review!
To be honest nothing about the subjects of this set felt "disjointed" to me, in part because in my game I actually had coincidentally set up little stalls like this one in front of the Resident Services building (along with some other "town square" sorts of features like a fountain).
The small size of the desk is indeed inaccurate, but I feel like that's a consequence of having an open-backed, dollhouse-style building when in the game itself you only approach the desk from the front.
I think the inclusion of the camper van here is genius—even though it doesn't actually appear in the same game as the other New Horizons-based contents of the set, vehicle play is a natural fit for Lego and its inclusion here provides nice role-play story starters (K.K. can drive up, unload his gear for the concert, play a few songs, and then pack up and drive away to his next gig).
Overall I've been very impressed with the Animal Crossing theme and am eager to see it continue!
@GusG said:
"It's funny they make these sets for kids when the biggest fan base for AC are adults"
Well, all children will eventually gro... reach legal age.
I'd like to love this set, given how much it reminds me of Fabuland--but I'm afraid it reminds me of Duplo even more. I don't feel that the charm of the minifigures is reflected in any of the builds. Sigh...
I'm a grown adult that had never heard of Animal Crossing until Lego announced their sets, much less never played the game. This set has some interesting pieces and colors. It's terribly overpriced.
HOWEVER, I love that KK Slider minifigure! Maybe because I'm a dog person? (I have both dogs and cats, I just prefer the K9 companionship - don't flame me.) Maybe because he's cute? I really hope they include him in some more reasonably priced sets in the future.
@graymattr said:
"I'm a grown adult that had never heard of Animal Crossing until Lego announced their sets, much less never played the game. This set has some interesting pieces and colors. It's terribly overpriced.
HOWEVER, I love that KK Slider minifigure! Maybe because I'm a dog person? (I have both dogs and cats, I just prefer the K9 companionship - don't flame me.) Maybe because he's cute? I really hope they include him in some more reasonably priced sets in the future."
Well, this looks like the perfect set for you--a K9 battlepack!
On topic, I've also never played an Animal Crossing game, but find there's a definite charm to these sets. Yes, they're a tad expensive at RRP, but I could see picking them up at the usual Target/Walmart/Amazon 20% off.
@Alia_of_AGL said:
"A suggestion to @SetToBuild: could you provide photos of the in-game exterior and interior before their sections for the sake of reference for people less familiar with the game, like what's done typically with some Star Wars set reviews on this site?"
I tend to lean on external links to that kind of imagery/information instead of having reference photos throughout the article. One for Resident Services might not have hurt though. Thanks for the suggestion!
I love AC and I am amazed how well Lego designers created the sets. Yes builds are facades but they are easily swapable and have tons of new printed parts!
I got all my AC sets on sales, so I am not complaining :D
I see animal crossing as being a furrie's favourite Leo theme...
I have some song requests:
Bubblegum K.K.
K.K. Chorale
K.K. Flamenco
K.K. Milonga
Go K.K. Rider
K.K. Oasis
K.K. Étude
King K.K.
K.K. Song
K.K. Gumbo
Surfin' K.K.
Welcome Horizons
And of course, Stale Cupcakes.
@jkb said:
" @GusG said:
"It's funny they make these sets for kids when the biggest fan base for AC are adults"
Well, all children will eventually gro... reach legal age."
: l
@GusG said:
"It's funny they make these sets for kids when the biggest fan base for AC are adults"
Is that true or is it just an assumption based on the kinds of Animal Crossing fans who are widely visible to other adults (largely adults on social media or streaming sites)?
I think Animal Crossing is plenty popular with kids.
Lovin’ the kk slider. But if they just gave the building a bit more depth, less open from the sides and a bit more complex build (instead of a 4+ set) it would have been so much better.
I mean the camper didn’t have to be there. In fact it’s weird because how did it get there? Kids will say that too, because if you played new leaf you are barely a kid anymore, so they don’t even have memories of that camper.
I’d rather see one extra tree and maybe something like a statue or something instead of the market stall. Animal crossing doesn’t need to be cute all the time. I’ve got a big cemetery on my island where i burry the animals that dare to move out (and gave me their photos)
@graymattr said:"Don't flame me"
Oh, so don't do this?
https://brickset.com/parts/6314353/feather
https://brickset.com/parts/6357747/flame-no-1
https://brickset.com/parts/6172283/flame-7m-shaft-%C3%B83-2
https://brickset.com/parts/4261397/dragon-s-fire
I probably shouldn't have been so mean...
@Lyichir said:
" @GusG said:
"It's funny they make these sets for kids when the biggest fan base for AC are adults"
Is that true or is it just an assumption based on the kinds of Animal Crossing fans who are widely visible to other adults (largely adults on social media or streaming sites)?
I think Animal Crossing is plenty popular with kids."
I think what you said. Much like AFOL’s here, we tend just see what’s around us. I can assure everyone there is a large child and teen crowd that plays AC.
The market stall does look like an actual item from New Horizons, and like the "fake" vendor stalls that many people set up on their islands, but it is surprising to see a set component based on that sort of thing, instead of an "actual" vendor presented by the game.
I agree that I'm not interested at all in the camper van, but I expect to see more examples of that in later sets. It seems like part of the design process for LEGO is to see where they can mine the IP for things that tend to "work" for LEGO - vehicles, market stalls, fairground rides, mechs, and dollhouse buildings, for example - and if any of those things CAN make it to a set, they will, even though they're not always the top things you'd think of if you were an adult that wanted a display model (or a kid that wanted your favorite stuff from the show/movie/game). The camper van here could have been a Resident Services desk area / interior, or could have been Redd's stall, or Gracie's car, or even just a random assortment of island decorations and plantlife, but LEGO plays it safe sometimes and finds ways to sneak in a truck :-D
This set was at Costco for $49.97 (the .97 indicating that Costco really didn't like that stock anymore), and only like 1 person had bought it. Even a $30 discount is not enough for this set.
@Ridgeheart: Nook IS thinking about the children...or at least his own...think this needs a replay (Not really 'worksafe', but still really fun/'informative' about the game lore:D):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haz5aFiJ9Io
:D
@oukexergon said:
"Pizza is divided, not divisive. Hawaiian style isn't my favorite but would love the parts."
In case you are thinking of visiting Italy some day, don't ever ask for Pizza Hawaii. Unless you want to end up six feet under. Or at the bottom of the ocean with cement blocks tied to your ankles.
;-)
Sure. Italians don't like pineapple on pizza. But then, the greater parts of Eurasia might also take umbrage at everything even remotely 'oriental' just being labeled as 'Chinese food' in the whiter parts of the world. The French aren't too happy about Russian 'champagne'. India might take offense at the crime against culture that is the German 'curry-sausage'. The only reason people don't steal Dutch cuisine, is because we don't really HAVE any.
Maybe we shouldn't judge other people's adaptations of food too harshly. Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to call it cultural appropriation. It's just food - it's a pleasant way of not dying, using the ingredients at hand. Nobody cares about your grandmother's secret pasta-recipe, your granny didn't invent the concept of heating stuff to the point where it's edible.
Interesting trivia: Hawaiian pizza was invented by a Greek-born Canadian who was inspired by the way Chionese dishes mix sweet and savory flavors. It truly is an international food! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_pizza
I've never played the Animal Crossing game but am addicted to how cute these sets are. I'm definitely grabbing this set.
This makes me sad. Not from the design or the price, but seeing this reminds me of when my daughter and I played this game 2020-2022. We built an island together and tracked down certain villagers. It was a good memory to have. I haven't played the game in a few years now thanks to certain life events and she's growing up so barely touches it either.
Part of me wants to get the sets for nostalgia, but it's just another thing to waste money on. Wah wah wah...
Otherwise, neat to have it in LEGO form. Hopefully the theme will stick around for a bit.
The biggest crime of this set appart from the price is not including an exclusive print for a K. K. song.