Review: 41235 Wonder Woman Dorm
Posted by Huw,
Three DC Super Hero Girls sets were launched in the USA at the end of November and three more including 41235 Wonder Woman Dorm Room, the subject of this review, are due for release on January 1st.
When I first saw pictures of it, the white, blue, red and gold colour scheme looked particularly appealing, not the mention the transparent motorcycle cowling...
Parts
Before building the set, let's take a look at the new parts in it. The most notable is the transparent cowling (18895 Motorcycle Fairing No. 4, 6157589), which as you can probably appreciate, is difficult to photograph.
The chassis (18896 Motorcycle Frame No. 2) normally comes in black, and is new in white here.
Here's an interesting new piece: a 1x2 brick with 3.18 bar connector on one end (6156663). I'm sure this will be useful although as you will see in below it's not put to any use at all in this set.
There are three printed parts and a sticker sheet, of the transparent variety, which makes the stickers very unforgiving of fluff and fingerprints.
Mini-doll
The Princess Diana of Themyscira (otherwise know as Wonder Woman), mini-doll looks fantastic. She's adorned with the distinctive WW motif on her top, a gold hair-band with a star on her head, and a pair of indestructible silver bracelets on her wrists.
Compared to the classic Lynda Carter manifestation of the character, the Super Hero Girls one is somewhat more modestly attired below the waist, in tights and boots. She is also equipped with the Lasso of Truth.
Her adversary in this set is an orange Kryptomite. He's armed with a mace but won't stand up when holding it.
The completed model
The completed model consists of three parts.
Bike and stand
The bike is perhaps the most interesting part of it. Transparent parts are often coveted by adult fans and I suspect many will buy it for this part alone. Stickers are applied to both sides to jazz up its appearance.
Wonder Woman can sit on and ride the bike although she may have trouble seeing where she's going.
The bike stand consists of a simple Technic mechanism to spin it round, to enable it to be worked on. A couple of spray paint cans are provided along with a silver metallic spanner, which I believe is new in this colour.
Bed
The bed area is the largest section of the set. As somewhere to sleep it looks pretty impractical.
The middle window pane is affixed using Technic pins to enable it to be swivelled open, presumably to facilitate a quick exit.
The front section is hinged to reveal a book case and a drawer containing a control panel.
The control panel can be mounted thus:
You can see the new grey 1x2 brick on the side, serving absolutely no purpose at all, although there's a matching clip on the other side which hints at some sort of expansion capability.
Wardrobe
The wardrobe is adorned with stickers inside and out. The ones on the front are a bit of a nuisance to get aligned with each other.
The doors hinge open to reveal a dress and an award of some sort at the top. The mini-doll can fit inside. I presume that in the TV series she goes in dressed normally and comes out as Wonder Woman but I'm no expert and I've found no evidence to suggest as much. If she doesn't then I would question the inclusion of a wardrobe in the set other than to bulk it out.
Verdict
It's a great little set with an eye-catching colour scheme, and the target audience is likely to get a lot of fun out of it.
The mini-doll is an excellent rendition of the Super Hero Girls character and I would think that it will be one of the more popular ones.
The transparent bike is the icing on the cake!
What's not to like? The price in the UK? It'll be $19.99 in the USA and I believe it'll be £19.99 which, given the current exchange rate, isn't too bad I guess.
Overall then, I can recommend it for the intended audience but the appeal for AFOLs is limited primarily to the transparent bike, I suspect.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review, which contains my own thoughts and opinions.
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15 comments on this article
The color scheme of this set is fantastic, and it incorporates lots of great dorm room features. I love the invisible bike and the inclusion of paint cans and a star stamp to provide it with decorations (even if that might kind of impede its ability to camouflage).
What's impractical about the bed, might I ask? I think it looks pretty comfy. The girl-oriented themes have a very good track record for good bed designs. It'd be neat if the double-drawers on the outside section with the bedside table were functional, but it's great that the hidden drawer is!
The Wonder Woman mini-doll looks great, and I love the all-around printing of her bracelets. That's still something LEGO hasn't managed to do with classic minifigures. The Kryptomite is also really cute! I love its shifty expression!
The brick with a handle is included so you can join it up with http://brickset.com/sets/41232-1/Super-Hero-High-School. That set includes multiple clips so presumably there will be other sets it can join up with in the future. It's a nice new brick even if its function here isn't entirely obvious!
^ Last para -- thank you. That makes sense.
Blech! This line of sets is terrible. Minifigures would have been much better. Down with minidolls!! Thanks for the review though.
That is actually a pretty cool set, and the facial expression on that orange nixel is hilarious.
This so far is probably the only DC Girls set I'll pick up--and it's entirely for the sweet invisible bike. I am disappointed that said bike is not printed, but nonetheless I find it to be one of the most awesome and on the nose things to come out of a Lego superhero line in a while.
Medicore set, great pieces.
Also I love fact is the "GIRL" set that get the wrench in natural color. It was the same thing with Friends and the silver tool sprue!
Great colors and the bike is super cool. Thanks for the review.
I don't get the invisible bike.
I mean the jet I can understand so you can quickly fly to places unseen, but the problem is that the sky doesn't necessarily have traffic like motor vehicles do. How will she get anywhere safely!?
Wonder Woman spins around in the show to change from her pjs (same as the sticker) into her costume. The closet is purely just to beef out the piece count, though I wouldn't complain if it included an extra outfit.
She does has a closet in the show, but it was only briefly shown in a single webisode when she's looking for super hero outfit ideas.
I think the set is quite good, it's a bit wacky, but in a good way. Diana looks absolutely fantastic too!
I can't wait to see who gets a dorm in the summer wave! Let's hope for a new character! :3
Just wanted to let a brickset team member know that US prices for many of the 2017 sets have surfaced on shop @home.
Wasn't the silver wrench used before in the CMF line? The Mechanic?
I try not to be a negative nancy, but the whole DC Super Hero Girls line looks rushed and pumped out to market ASAP without much planning. Oh well...
@freow the series 6 CMF Mechanic's wrench is Light Bluish Gray.
My daughter is getting this one for sure. She loves the mindolls. Great review and thanks Huw!
It does look like the new flat silver wrench will also be in a Star Wars set, so that might be more appeal for some people. Although I don't know of anyone that buys a set for a wrench when bricklink is around.