Pamper Your Princess With Lego’s Belville “Royal Crystal Palace”!
Written: Jun 11 '04
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Pros: A great system for little girls, tons of great pieces, high replay value.
Cons: Not to scale with other standard Lego sets.
The Bottom Line: Be the queen of the castle or the princess of the palace with this nifty Belville set!
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO Belville The Royal Crystal Palace 5850 |
When Lego decided to branch out and try to capture some of the girls toy market, the Belville series seemed like a great idea. There were beach themes with dolphins, castles with princesses … sadly the series didn’t go over with the girls. The figures used in the sets were large and clunky and virtually none of the pieces could be used with the standard sized Lego sets. Seeing as how I have all boys, buying the castle just to get a few collectable pieces seemed like a complete waste of money – that is until Annabelle, my neighbors daughter, started to express an real interest in the Belville sets that I picked up on clearance. For a long time she’s played with the boys Star Wars sets and put up with them saying “don’t touch that” or “you are too young for those pieces”. I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone by buying some of the larger sets – I finally had a valid excuse for spending the cash and I knew Annabelle would be beside herself when she saw them. As luck would have it, I came across a Lego collector that was getting rid of all his Belville stock to make room for the Bionicles he’d been collecting. The suggested retail price for this set was in the $40.00 to $50.00 range but he was willing to cut me a great deal - $34.99 for two of them. When I ordered them I thought I was getting one of the retired sets and when I received them I was a little let down that I got ones that were still in production but my buyers remorse quickly fled when I saw some of the cool pieces that came with the set, after that I had one thing on my mind, the pink crystal tower sections!!!
Belville Crystal Palace 5850
One of the first things you’ll notice about this set is the massive size of it – the entire base of the castle spans the length and width of a standard baseplate and the detailing of it is excellent. The detail added to the small side ice section is something that you just have to see in person to really appreciate, of course this can also double as a waterfall or skating rink, what ever your little princess desires. The three large towers are detailed on the outside but hallow on the inside, the small tiers that are created with the small plates provide a nice place to show off crystals, gems and treasure as well as a great place for the kitty cat to hide out and keep an eye on things. A really nice touch to the scene – the small but highly detailed snowflakes that can be attached to the top of the towers. Annabelle argues that it is a dog, I say it’s a cat so we compromise and call it a “dat”, part dog, part cat. Hey, it’s better than calling it a “cog” right? These towers do require some firm and steady pressure to get them seated properly and it’s best to work it upside down so you don’t crack the baseplate when you apply pressure to it.
Without a doubt my favorite pieces in the set are the clear ones, something that is pretty rare in Lego sets. Even though these are “girlie” colors, they do have a lot of uses in other sets. The section used for the back wall with the ivy design is really rare and if I’m not mistake, it’s an exclusive to the Belville series. I snagged one of them to use in the Diagon Alley Shops shop set up that the boys made and it adds a little color to it but it did take them a little while to warm up to the idea of having a “girlie” piece in the scene. The three figures that come with the set are nice, but they really don’t have the imagery of other Lego mini figures or even those from the Jack Stone series. For the most part all of the figures can interact with the provided accessories and pieces of furniture but again, the scale of these items really become evident when you start to have the figures interact with the pieces.
Building & Instructions
If your child has never had any building experience with Lego sets you may want to sit down and help however it isn’t something that is impossible for them to figure out on their own. The instructions are basic but give you a walk through of how to build that castle and some alternative designs are provided on the box. It should take about twenty minutes from start to finish to build this, a little longer for those who aren’t familiar with it and a little less for advanced builders. Since there are some pretty small pieces with this set, you should make sure that everyone involved knows that these can be choking hazards and everything needs to be accounted for when play time is over. Just like almost all other Lego instruction booklets, this one has no text, just photos – some people might see this as a distracter but it’s geared for kids to build and seeing the assembly step by step through a series of photos is a lot easier than text.
The Downside …
Did you really think you’d be able to get through an entire review without me adding a few more peas to the pot? The scale of the scene is massively out of line – since when are bunk beds larger than an outdoor gazebo? And the trees that are included with it are those that are generally seen in the standard sized Lego sets – completely dwarfed by almost every other piece of furniture as well as the three figures that come with the set. While there is a high replay value within this set and the Belville series, a majority of the pieces can’t be combined with other Lego pieces since the scale is different. The baby blue baseplate that the castle is affixed to is beautiful and impressive to look at but there are no pegs at the edge so you can attach other Belville scenes to it. This means that if you are going to add any of the other pieces to it you are going to have to use strong tape under the plates to keep them from sliding around. As I said, when I ordered this I thought I was getting one of the older castles that are no longer made and even though I got the “newer” one, there are still some nice pieces to be had in the set – but make sure that this is something that your child is going to play with since it is a pretty big chunk of change to drop.
The Bottom Line
For the money this set was well worth it but now that I’ve had it for a while and Annabelle and I have really given it the hands on test I can safely say that there’s no way I’d ever for out the suggested retail price for it. The set is nice and fairy easy to assemble but the scale really kills it in two ways – the first being that you can use standard Lego pieces with it and second that the various pieces within this set are grossly unproportional. If you have some Belville sets and are looking to pick up one of the largest in the series, this is a great pick if you or your child is into the whole faerie princess kind of thing – otherwise stick with the basic Belville sets and save yourself some cash. This is pretty hard to find in retail stores so the only places that you’ll be able to readily find it is at the Lego website or at sites that deal with Belville sets.
The Stats
Set Name: Royal Crystal Palace
Family Set: Belville
Lego Set: 5850
Number of Pieces: 151
Age Recommendation: 5 - 10
Ease Of Assembly: Easy to moderate
Time Of Assembly: 20 - 25 minutes
Cost: $ 34.99 SRP - $49.99
As always, thanks for the visit …
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2004 Freak369
Related reviews …
• Belville Adventurous Puppies • Belville Pen •
• Belville Cottage of the Witch • Belville Wind Surfer •
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): See review
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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