I received 71461 Fantastical Tree House as a gift from someone who bought it on substantial discount, which may indicate lackluster sales. Upon building it, I found that the official photographs hadn’t given me a good sense of what it was to build and play with the set, and unfortunately the entire Dreamzzz corpus has hardly been touched by user reviewers at Brickset.

The Dreamzzz sets trace their lineage to the Time Cruisers sets of the late ’90s in their imagination and eccentricity, although these come with a much more defined story, presumably promulgated through the streaming series advertised on the sets’ packaging. The Time Cruisers sets were notably inchoate, so the story may be an attempt to impart some narrative structure on a body of sets that, although very creative, are not wholly legible. Although perhaps they would be more legible under the influence of the mushrooms that grow underneath the tree.

Experiences of the set

Certainly the building experience leaves something to be desired, since the first two thirds of the process build only the trunk and its branches, which is the least play-oriented aspect of the set. Only after nine bags of pieces does one move to the nightmare antagonists—all in one bag—and then the three colorful rooms mounted on the trunk. This process suggests the set’s emphasis on the tree trunk, which takes up a substantial proportion of the pieces for an aspect of the set that, for me, offers little scope for play. True, the trunk does have to be sturdy to support the other bits of the set, but its reinforcement occupies an astonishing number of pieces: one applies a set of Technic beams and then covers them all up with tiles.

The bottom, interior, and exterior of the tree, meanwhile, feel cluttered by an excess of tiles and plates—sometimes up to three layers thick—, fire extinguishers, and signs plastered with stickers. I have little sense that the more playful aspects of the set have been allotted more pieces. As a result, there’s relatively little space to place even one minifigure by itself, let alone several minifigures interacting with each other. Similarly, the set proves difficult to pick up: no matter where one positions one’s hand around the trunk, the little ladders give way and the furniture falls off. Because of the asymmetrical bottom the tree readily tips over towards the rear.

That said, 71461 does have several redeeming aspects. The silhouette of the resulting tree is impressive, although it depends heavily on the blue leaves. The top part of trunk, with its balcony, telescope, and crow’s nest, looks marvelous and invites play. A delightful brick-built bird perches under one of the platforms. I enjoyed placing the minifigures in the colorful rooms mounted on the tree, although these are cluttered and the possibility of removing and rebuilding them hardly seems to justify the number of pieces required to make them removeable. The toaster that ejects doughnuts works well. (But does anyone toast doughnuts?)

Minifigures

The minifigures—although some of them aren’t really minifigures—are mixed. Izzie’s transparent blue-purple hair is a triumph; the Night Hunter has a great aesthetic and accessories, especially the scarf; the little fellow with the teeth, Shivel, exudes personality. The brick-built winged monster looks ominous, and can adopt a lot of poses. I find Mrs. Castillo, however, to be both grotesque, given her massive backpack and noodley appendages, and less than functional, given that the backpack can’t be removed and that her hands don’t rotate. Her clothes and glasses have a distinctly ’60s vibe consistent with the mushrooms. The other figures lack personality, although I do like Mateo’s hair and soft sawtooth cape.

So I find that 71461 uses its piece allocation in the wrong places, often adding clutter, even if the tree’s silhouette becomes impressive in person. Some of its play features are enjoyable, and the minifigures as a whole elevate the set. Three stars.