Review: 41907 Desk Organiser
Posted by Alice,
In addition to pretty bracelets and decorative items, the DOTS range includes some practical storage items too, whether it be for organising your jewellery or tidying your desk.
For the latter, we had 41906 Pineapple Pencil Holder earlier in the year and now 41907 Desk Organiser has just been released, so our desks are nice and tidy here at Brickset HQ!
With some of the other DOTS sets I've initially been unsure on the colour scheme but I love the colours in this set. I think the vibrant coral fits in nicely here and I like the combination of pink and orange with the dark azure.
The set comes in another nice plastic tray which you get with all larger DOTS sets, so I'm starting to build up a collection of these now!
The tiles come bagged individually. The 1/4 circle tiles are bagged by colour, and then we have two mixes of square and circle tiles.
The small tiles can be emptied into each compartment and the large bricks into the centre area. I used the small ridges at the top and bottom for the small pieces. And I'm pleased this one comes with a brick separator, handy for straightening the tiles, and an orange one fits nicely with the colour scheme of the set!
Construction
The build is nice and straightforward. It's built studs-up with SNOT pieces which will be used to clad it in plates.
The organiser is divided into two sections and includes a small functioning drawer. Here's what it looks like before it's decorated:
The completed model
I had lots of fun decorating this one and there's plenty of pretty patterns in the instruction to recreate. You can take the plates off to decorate them which makes it easier and it also allows more than one person to participate in decorating, so I let my mum have a go too!
You could do different designs on each plate or make the pattern continue across to match, but you have to make room in your design for the drawer handle.
I did one continuous pattern across the front and my mum did a different one for the sides. We used plenty of the 1/4 circle tiles and no square ones, but we still had enough to do two different designs.
It's a shame that the back is bare, it would've been better if you could decorate it all the way around but I suppose no one's going to see that side.
There is also a photo holder piece at the back, which only appears in this set and 41904 Animal Picture Holders, so you can display a photo.
To put it to the test I added pens, scissors and post-it notes like the box art suggests. Only small post-it notes would fit though, but you could use that area for something else. Not much really fits in the drawer, only a small rubber (eraser) or something of a similar size.
It's not very practical for holding 'normal' sized pens and pencils, they just sort of slide forward and splay out or fall over the side, so it needs to be much taller. If you put a lot in though, like I have below, they might just about stand up as there's no room for them to slide forward. I'm not sure how LEGO got them to stand up so well in their set images...
It works OK for these small colouring pencils I found, but I think 41906 Pineapple Pencil Holder is definitely better for holding tall pencils, as the name suggests!
Overall thoughts
I think it looks great. It was fun to decorate, it's colourful and I like that you can display a photo on it too!
However, it doesn't seem very practical for actually organising your desk. It doesn't hold tall pens or pencils very well and you can only fit a few small things in and not much else. So if your desk needs a lot of organising, this probably isn't for you!
Still, I think it makes a nice colourful addition to anyone's desk, whether it's a child's homework space or your desk at work or at home.
£17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99 for 405 pieces doesn't seem too bad for a DOTS set, but I think you could probably get a more practical desk organiser for less, albeit not a fun, colourful one.
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22 comments on this article
We call them erasers and not rubbers here in the U.S. I was initially concerned with what Brickset was suggesting!
Oh yeah rubbers has a totally different meaning here that isn't exactly Lego appropriate! :P
@GSR_MataNui said:
"We call them erasers and not rubbers here in the U.S. I was initially concerned with what Brickset was suggesting!"
We call them gum. Not for consumption.
A pretty good design, I just wish they had changed up the colors a little more from the previous wave. I’m practically overflowing with pink and coral tiles!
Language considerations and the shallowness aside, I was most disappointed with the limited design options. For my own review (https://myleniumsbrickcorner.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/more-dots-lego-dots-round-two/) simply created a stripe design. It would be nice if LEGO would consider a broader approach to this instead of making everything about those 1x1 tiles. That and of course consistent color usage. That backside would look half as barren if at least it would also be Dark Azure.
Our kids have several LEGO organizer sets and while they do look nice, all of them are pretty tiny and not very usable even for small kids' desk accessories.
Very nice review. I agree completely: the finished set, while cute, is not at all practical for holding pens or pencils or anything else. Which was most disappointing! I much prefer the new jewelry box and the pineapple pencil holder, both of which actually can be used for what they say they are for!
Definitely getting this for all the white, orange, coral, and dark azure!
As for my pens and pencils, 40154 continues to serve me well while simultaneously being a proper part of my LEGO layout.
It's nice as a craft project, but it doesn't seem to work very well for its intended purpose. And considering you can get a conventional desk tidy for like £2, I'd struggle to justify this as a parent.
Thanks for the review, Alice. It may not be very useful but I think I'll still get it cause it just looks kind of fun. Nice that you and your Mom still enjoy doing Lego together!
Not a fan of the colors, but all that surprising functionality looks really neat.
Huwbot really does love those Clikits.
If it doesn't come with a Huwbot photo, I won't buy it.
Maybe instead of pencils or pens it could be a paper lip receptacle? I know at my work we always end up with a never ending bucket of paper clips.
Huwbot is on vacation at Alice’s house ? However will Huw manage without his favorite bot sidekick ?!:)
I have Lego organiser on the table, actully. The other one, that's made to resemble a house.
While I like the idea behind these DOTS items I'm getting a bit put off by the excessive use of colors like Vibrant Coral, Aqua, Pink, and every other pale color. With the exception of the first photo frames & the Pineapple Pencil holder the palette has been quite boring to me. Give me some darker or more vibrant colors please Lego! Actually the colors of the Animal picture frames is a bit drab but at least it was a totally different color scheme from most of these sets.
Love the colors! Thinking of moving to Heartlake City
Awww! Huwbot is cute as ever! :)
@Alice , how did you connect drawer handle parts, round tubes?
I remember that it was Lego's turning point after they had promo set Audi TT in 2002 with two round tube parts 25214 connected with pin 2780 and result was that pin was permanently "destroyed". That change some rules at Lego.
https://scontent.fzag3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/42278394_685469918488111_4322418588062318592_o.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=-0yY1frSD4UAX-EajF0&_nc_ht=scontent.fzag3-1.fna&oh=1618fcab616370220c8a8b62ac2dfeaf&oe=5F236549
@gsom7 said:
"Love the colors! Thinking of moving to Heartlake City
Awww! Huwbot is cute as ever! :)
@Alice , how did you connect drawer handle parts, round tubes?
I remember that it was Lego's turning point after they had promo set Audi TT in 2002 with two round tube parts 25214 connected with pin 2780 and result was that pin was permanently "destroyed". That change some rules at Lego.
https://scontent.fzag3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/42278394_685469918488111_4322418588062318592_o.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=-0yY1frSD4UAX-EajF0&_nc_ht=scontent.fzag3-1.fna&oh=1618fcab616370220c8a8b62ac2dfeaf&oe=5F236549 "
It's a new element https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=25214&idColor=5T=C&C=5
Huh, I would of thought TLG to use LEGO brand pens and pencils on the set box and marketing photos to cross-promote integration of their own product lines.
Nice to see that you included one on your photos Alice!
Firstly, thanks Alice for the review! I'm really enjoying all of your reviews so keep up the good work! At least you now have a spare brick separator, you won't need to borrow any more from your old man. :)
On a serious note, anybody using the drawer (or the tray for that matter) to store a rubber (eraser, etc) for any length of time be aware that the materials used in their construction may 'melt' into the LEGO making them difficult to separate, and/or deforming the LEGO. When I retrieved a number of my childhood parts after about 20 years of storage, , I noticed a couple of rubbers thrown into the box which had melted into road baseplates, deforming them. Not a pretty sight!
Maybe buy a few Dots sets and MOC-up a totally new larger desk combination? Maybe a project for the next lockdown? I’ll add it to my list!
@darkstonegrey
There are 2 LEGO pens in the set up by Alice. The LEGO pens out now with the studs AND a pink Clikits pen.
Which brings me to this question @Alice
Does the Clikits pen still work?