Review: 41427 Emma's Fashion Shop
Posted by MeganL,
After all work and adventure in 41423 Tiger Hot Air Balloon Jungle Rescue, Andrea and Emma need to come back to Heartlake City for a rest. It turns out that this duo is featured in another summer 2020 set, 41427 Emma’s Fashion Shop. It makes sense that Emma and Andrea are the Friends included here, Emma is the Friend who is artistic with an eye for design, and Andrea is the Friend who would have the most interest in fashion with her performing career. In that retrospect, why were they rescuing tiger cubs? But I digress…
I was struck by the box art for this set as it features one of my favourite LEGO colours, cool yellow, and I liked the architecture for this small building. Read on to see if there’s anything more to like about this set.
There are three numbered bags inside the box, a small instruction book, and a loose 8x16 plate in lavender. I was excited for a minute that there were no stickers - but they were still stuck to the inside of the box. At least they stayed flat that way!
Minidolls
As previously mentioned, Andrea and Emma are the minidolls for this set. Both Emma and Andrea have new torsos. Andrea is wearing a black (or dark blue) halter top with a gold lame overlay and fuchsia trim. Her skirt with blue boots and fuchsia soles has been seen only in two sets prior to this, so it's somewhat new. I think Andrea's top is very….Andrea! I can't think of another Friend who would be wearing this, and it's a good example of something that she might get at Emma's Fashion Shop. Emma is wearing a vibrant coral wraparound shirt with a floral design, navy blue piping and side ruching. I'm not sure I'm a fan of that colour with her skin tone, but I do love the addition of the coral colour in minidoll clothes. The short pale blue skirt and navy blue Mary Janes have been seen in several sets before.
Emma has some printing on the back of her torso showing some details, but unfortunately Andrea's torso is just the same solid colour we're used to seeing on Friends minidolls.
Shockingly enough, there are no cute animals included in this set. I'm trying to remember the last time I built a Friends set with no animals…..and failing.
Completed model
There are a few small auxiliary models included - all but one can be included in the final build. First, there are two mannequins who ultimately occupy the bay windows at the front of the store. According to the parts number the torso on the right is new; the one on the left is not included in the parts inventory at the back of the instruction book. However, both look somewhat familiar to me.
There's a stand for holding fabric - in this case, a couple of cloaks. One is a striking dark red colour, and the other is an even more striking shiny gold - it matches Andrea's lame top very well! Another feature is a revolving stand of the different designs that Emma offers - so her customers can choose among all the options to perfect their look.
Finally, there's a sewing table with sewing machine. A drawer in the table contains a sample of the shiny gold cloth. I really like how the designer has created a good resemblance of a sewing machine with just a few parts. I particularly appreciate the use of the black lipstick piece for the sewing machine's needle. It's surprising to me that this is the first time this particular colour lipstick piece has been used in a Friends set.
Andrea arrives to the shop on her scooter - we've seen this scooter only once before, at Andrea's accessory store (41344) two years ago. And because Friends clothes designers seem to be like many clothing designers for women, Andrea has no pockets, so she's forced to carry her money in her bag on the back of her scooter.
The building has two floors - the ground floor is the shop. There's an entrance area and the two mannequins in the windows.
Just inside the door there's a table showing some more of the shop's merchandise - hair bows. So that's where they're all coming from! Other features in the room include a cash register, and the design stand described earlier. One side of the room is taken up with a changing room. The changing room is created by placing a sticker on a curved transparent piece on a turntable, so it can rotate as necessary. The wall behind the changing room has a conveniently placed mirror (also provided by a sticker).
Upstairs (not that there are stairs, how the Friends get upstairs isn't clear), is Emma's workspace. There's a very quaint sitting area here - and it looks like the Friends are just about to sit down for a nice cup of tea. The rest of the room is taken up with Emma's worktable and chair. Even though there's not a cute animal in the set, there is a picture of Chico, Emma's cat, in this room. Off to the side there's a door that leads to a balcony, though in all practicality the door barely opens enough to allow a minidoll to get out.
The building makes for quite a compact build. The second floor can be easily lifted off the first to allow for greater play.
One brick built detail that I really like is the dress, measuring tape and scissors that's attached to the balcony railing to indicate the shop's merchandise. I thought this and the sewing machine were the two nicest building techniques in this set.
Overall thoughts
This set is what I'd call a typical Friends set. It's focused on shopping, which is the case for a lot of Friends sets. It highlights one of the Friends' interests, in this case Emma and design (clothes, for this shop). In that respect, the set doesn't offer much new than what's been provided in other years for similar stores. However, considering the target audience for this set isn't likely to have been familiar with Friends sets from a few years ago, this likely fills that need.
I do like the use of cool yellow for the building, and it appears that some of the pieces are appearing in this colour for the first time. The architecture is nice for a small building with some cool details included, from the flowers at the top, the use of the contrasting dark blue to help the colour pop, to the nice use of 1x1x2 design bricks (I call them scroll bricks). There's not even much pink used for the exterior of this set, with the exception of the front awning.
If you're looking for a new addition of a store for your Friends city or other city, this might be a set to consider as a base. As for value, it's not bad (343 pieces, $29.99, 29.99€, no GBP price yet). It might be a good present for a young Friends fan, or a good set to be a parts pack.
Many thanks to LEGO for providing a copy of this set for review. All opinions expressed are mine.
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26 comments on this article
More sets should have dismembered torsos on sticks.
Thanks for the thorough review! Though describing Andrea's top as "lame" is a bit harsh ;-)
A great set. Will try to get two and combine them for shopping center
"In that retrospect, why were they rescuing tiger cubs?"
I've got some bad news about Emma's next clothing line...
@Ayliffe said:
""In that retrospect, why were they rescuing tiger cubs?"
I've got some bad news about Emma's next clothing line..."
Oh no... oh dear.
It looks nice enough. Nothing special, but some useful parts and an overall nice build. Emma is my favorite of the girls, anyway, so I think I'll buy this eventually once prices drop to more acceptable levels...
@The_Brickster_ said:
"I see shirts come with free arms now.
"
Lego and clothes shops don't go well together.
As someone who is workimg on a clothing store for my future City this will be great as a base.
Aww im definitely getting this one and the Waffle Store, hope you review the Waffle Store soon.
I'm assuming by looking at the pictures this is the same size as Emma's Art Studio from last year.
Interesting that the colour scheme is nearly identical to 41005 Heartlake High, with the same cool yellow and dark blue, and a lighter shade of lavender.
Anything that adds more cool yellow bricks is good in my books. It means I don't have to get that Fiat 500 just for them.
Amused throughout by this review
I have to agree with you on the choice of coral for Emma's top, it just doesn't look right.
Perhaps a slightly darker reddish shade would have been better
I really wish they would’ve included more clothing items to purchase to increase playability and value. Hats, Emily’s necklaces, Andrea’s cloth ballerina skirt, sunglasses etc. would’ve been great choices.
I would guess Lego wants to paint the Friends as being passionate about their hobbies/aspirations, but also conscientious about their global community. Is running a store their day job? Certainly. Does that mean they can’t help out with a wildlife rescue every now and again? Probably not.
I'm gonna grab the opportunity to congrat the Lego group for this fabulous line, Friends.
The theme itself doesn't interest me much, but the parts and colours that came are absolutely amazing and helpful, am glad to see the success that it's having, 8 years of existence now I believe. These small but effective structures are really a charm, playable and easily integrated with each other. The only thing I don't like is the mini dolls but... You know, they are somehow cool too and work perfectly on their universe.
My daughter is only 2 years old, however, my wife and I, we're already purchasing some Friends sets to build her a city.
Smart move Lego!
I love your reviews because they are complete and detailed. But more than this I really appreciate the tone, and humour dispensed here and there. As usual, Friends sets are creative, colourful, and cute. Maybe the curtain could have remained on something else than a big sticker, which are overall too numerous in the theme. Useful for tiny details, I agree, but sometimes a bit on the lazy side when a few parts and a bit of imagination could replace the use of stickers, to give maybe less accurate results but more agreement eventually IMO. And I know, we all know that Lego designers all have great and amazing creativity and imagination, don't we ?
Great review. Love the humor. I also wonder how the Friends get from one floor to another-their buildings never have stairs. ??
UK price seems to be £24.97 at least that's what Asda have it for, they have most of the June 1st sets, except Hidden Side, available already.
I don't mind it, as a City building, but in typical Friends fashion, it's missing an actual roof. What lottery did the Art Studio from last year win, that it's the only building in Heartlake Ceiling that has a ceiling?
I really liked how cute the upstairs room is. It's very "Bold and the Beautiful", Lego-style, and I like it.
We can only assume the Friends have mastered Teleportation technology and employ it exclusively for navigating structures without stairs. It is probably for the best, as other themes would surely use such power for sinister motives.
These torsos are nightmare fuel.
It's such a shame that City and Creator don't get sets like these
@jlskywalker said:
"I'm gonna grab the opportunity to congrat the Lego group for this fabulous line, Friends.
The theme itself doesn't interest me much, but the parts and colours that came are absolutely amazing and helpful, am glad to see the success that it's having, 8 years of existence now I believe. These small but effective structures are really a charm, playable and easily integrated with each other. The only thing I don't like is the mini dolls but... You know, they are somehow cool too and work perfectly on their universe.
My daughter is only 2 years old, however, my wife and I, we're already purchasing some Friends sets to build her a city.
Smart move Lego!"
I completely agree with this theme as an extraordinary part supplier. Elves was so good at this too. It had such a wide range of recolored parts and so many colors as well!
@The_Brickster_ said:
"I see shirts come with free arms now.
"
Didn't they do that yet in America?
@Galaxy12_Import said:
"We can only assume the Friends have mastered Teleportation technology and employ it exclusively for navigating structures without stairs. It is probably for the best, as other themes would surely use such power for sinister motives."
Such as?
@Darth_TNT said:
" @The_Brickster_ said:
"I see shirts come with free arms now.
"
Didn't they do that yet in America? "
No, we have to pay extra for them. ;)
I am very excited about this one. Hopefully Argos will have it on June 1st as they are currently my go to place for Lego. Argos have been my lockdown anti boredom retail heroes.
A Friends set without any cutey animals should be treated as shock-content with big ADVISORY plate and rating. It is not advisable to sell such graphic materials to everyone :-)
I really like this set and will add it to my city.
Dont care about missing stairs - all the classic town buildings were missing stairs, too. I am okay with that. In my opinion the only Lego buildings, that need stairs, are the big ones and the exclusives, like modulars, ghostbusters headquarter or ninjago city.
Thanks for this review!