The "Interior Designer" Set: A Great Way To Add Some Style To Your Belville Creations!
Written: Apr 15 '06
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Girlie colors, wide variety of elements, great add on for any Belville set.
Cons: It’s strictly for the girls.
The Bottom Line: You say your Belville home or castle is looking a little run down or lacks party power? Do it up right with this very colorful add on set.
|
|
|
| Freak369's Full Review: Belville Interior Designer - LEGO |
It took a while but eventually Annabelle caught the Lego bug. I guess being in a house full of certified Lego lunatics may have had something to do with it. She always had an interest in them and would play with them if they were out but she never went out of her way to sit there and plan something like a castle or complete scene. After learning the basics of building with blocks from Duplo sets and getting some great tips from the boys she started to get into the whole Belville series. This was something that Lego originally released as a fantasy theme with castles, witches and enchanting princesses. There were some reality based sets but most of it revolved around the “good witch, bad witch” scenario. They killed the line off for a while then revamped it to be a little more realistic, sure there are still castles and unicorns but now they have horse stables, houses and the evil ‘pop studio’. One of the biggest differences between the Belville and Lego sets isn’t the sometime obscene amount of color that’s used, it’s the figures. They look a lot different than the blocky ones that you find in most sets and have a lot more detail to them. To some people that’s a good thing but to me, it seems like blasphemy.
Lego Belville Interior Designer
This is a great set to add to smaller Belville sets; you can overhaul a room, add things to creature a dream kitchen or just add some color to dull surroundings. When I say that this is a set for the girls, I really mean it. There’s so much pink and teal in it that it might make most males duck and run for cover. You get some nice ideas of how to use the pieces to build things but to get the most from this set, let your imagination be your guide. On a side note, if you are looking for things to add to the Harry Potter Gryffindor House set to create a room just for Hermione, this is a must have set. Even though there are items that can be used to build a kitchen, those same elements can be used to make things for her room. You only get one figure with this set and as I said, she has a lot more detail to her than the regular Lego figures. She has realistic looking hair [even though it is plastic], stenciled clothing and long legs. These figures still have the same claw type hands but given the amount of detail to the body and facial features, it’s not a big deal.
The set includes 96 pieces that range from the small flowers to the large stove / oven. This can be used for a lot of different things so don’t feel that it has to be used just for that purpose. I really liked the two small clear pink drinking cups, these are pieces that you just don’t come across all that often. Another fun piece is the pink coffee pitcher; I guess it could be considered a tea pot if you wanted to use it for that. There are pieces for a lounge chair, desk and two chairs; the colors used for these are really nice and 100% girlie. The pink, teal and white scheme gives you a lot of design options and if you are using this with other Belville sets, there’s no limit to what you can do with them. I do have to admit that there are a lot of basic pieces in the set; the white 1 x 10’s and 1 x 2’s do eat up some of the total piece count but it’s the cool pieces like the umbrella, stove tile, gemstone and clear blue vase that make up for it. There are a lot of small pieces in this set so please make sure that younger children know the risks of swallowing these or shoving them into body parts [what possesses them to put them in their nose is beyond me].
Price
This set sells for about $9.99; when it was in the Lego Shop At Home catalog that was the going price and it was a good seller. If you can’t find this set in retail stores or at the Lego World Shop you can try your luck at online auctions. The Belville series is a great one to look into for girls that show an interest in building things but aren’t all that thrilled with the ones that are designed for boys. As a stand alone set this might not be a whole lot of fun since it doesn’t come with any type of base plate to build on but it is something that can be used with other Belville sets without color differences or scale / size issues. When I saw this online I wasn’t all that keen on paying ten dollars for it but Annabelle was really excited about it. Since she received it she’s had a blast using it with the other sets and it’s really added a lot of replay value to her Lego collection. Yes, that’s right, her Lego collection.
The Bottom Line
Whether you have the older or newer Belville sets, this is a really nice add on pack to get. There is absolutely no difference in the colors that are used for the pieces and the scale matches up perfectly. I’m still not all that enthused about the way they designed the figures but Annabelle likes them a lot more than the blocky ones that come with regular Lego sets. This one doesn’t have any fabric clothing, just the stenciled on garments although if you invest in other Belville sets that feature clothed figures, you can remove them and use them on any of the Belville people. I just pray that they don’t come out with clothing add on sets; keeping track of the Lego pieces is hard enough without having my little fashion diva holding up things because she has to color coordinate her Belville people. So for ten dollars she got almost a hundred cool and colorful pieces that she really enjoys building things with ... but if I have to step on another one of those flowers in the middle of the night, they may just mysteriously disappear.
The Stats
Set Name: Interior Designer
Family Set: : Belville
Lego Set: 5943
Number of Pieces: 96
Age Recommendation: 5 and older
Ease Of Assembly: Easy
Time Of Assembly: 5 minutes
Cost: $9.99
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2006 Freak369
Other Belville Lego sets ...
Adventurous Puppies
Cottage of the Witch
Belville Pen
Wind Surfer
Royal Crystal Palace
Fairy Tale Accessories
Lego Click-It sets ...
Click-It Cool Room Frames
Click-It Trendy Tote
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): see review
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.