So, after my finals were over with, I decided to head over to Target to spend some of the money from selling back my textbooks. The Transformer I've been hoping to get for some time apparently STILL isn't out ("Fall release", my foot. It's December, Hasbro!), so LEGOs it was! After some deliberation, I picked out "Glider Escape" from the TLM sets (because I wanted the parts it offered, mainly).. and this set because it offered some lovely elements for fleshing out a town as built. And it has a bicycle, which is something I've been wanting for a while.

Box/Instructions

The box is, as to be expected from the range marketed to girls, pink. It does a good enough job showing the set, and makes nice use of backgrounds. The instructions are very clear (no wonky angles that lead you to putting a part in the wrong spot here!)

Parts

The set comes with a nice assortment of parts, most of them in the pastel palette typical of Friends and its predecessor Paradisa. There's plates, there's tiles, there's plates with grips and plates with bars, there's those click-down flowers that also work as stoppers and as generic ornamentation, there's scoops of ice cream and ice cream cones, there's a mail box, there's medium-size wagon wheels, and of course there's a bicycle.

Minifigures

The minidoll is of Olivia, one of the Friends characters. She's clad in a short denim skirt and a pink tank-top, and has curly brown hair. She's the first minidoll I've ever acquired, so here are some points of interest for those unfamiliar with them: Minidoll heads have a stud on top just like minifigure heads (so the hair pieces are compatible), but the neck hole is narrower, being instead the same size as an accessory grip shaft. Overall, minidolls look well enough, though I think the lack of rotating wrists, the hands being flush with the arms, and the fact that they can't be clicked down when seated put them at a slight disadvantage compared to minifigures.

The build

Since the set is composed of four separate small models, the build is very simple and goes by quickly. It is still enjoyable, however; there's no surprise pain-in-the-arse moments. Everything comes together nicely, and my only complaint is that the postbox and the cart could have benefited from some stickers.

The completed model

There are four different small models built here: A postbox, a decorative fountain, a small table with some benches, and the ice cream cart itself. The postbox is the simplest of all of them, but the extra pieces attached to the basic mail box give it a nice appearance. The fountain is very pretty, and adds plenty of charm to any Lego town. As a nice touch, there's some 1x1 round tiles to serve as coins dropped in it. The table with one-person benches is a cute little affair, and has a brick-built water bottle sitting atop it. Since the benches are designed for Friends minidolls they have tiles for seats rather than plates, but they're nevertheless usable by minifigures as well. Minifigures can actually hold the water bottle, amusingly enough. The ice cream cart is quite charming. It's got a hinged freezer compartment that stores two popsicles (With room left over for the two extra ice cream tops), grips on either side for holding the cones and the umbrella the sign is clipped to, and runs on wagon wheels. The only thing I find iffy is the way it connects to the bicycle. It clips to the front (which I think would make movement awkward with it being as big as it is) rather than being a trailer, but there are actually ice cream carts like that so it doesn't lose points. However, I do confess to planning to use the bike separately anyway. Speaking of the bike, here's where what I said about the minidolls lacking wrist rotation comes into play: Olivia can slide onto the middle of the bike just fine, but since her hands can't rotate she can't grip the handlebars.

Overall opinion.

It's overall a fun little set, and worth the ten dollars I spent. It's made up of some fun elements that add a lot to a town whether it's a Friends one or a regular minifig one, elements that make Friends feel in some ways like a better successor to the old Town themes than City is.