Review: 3144 Horse Stable

I know this is off topic, but why can’t I find today’s random set?

Crazy tiny Danish Lego competing with such similar dolls and horses as the huge US Mattel group, wonder if the lawyers become involved?

@Johnny__Thunder97 said:
"I for one want to see more Scala pieces used in MOCs...
I use Studio, but does anyone know if Scala pieces are available on any of the other digital designer type programs? I just want to have a play around really, and see if any of the parts could actually be useful!"

I'm in the middle of designing a MOC in Studio and would really like the 5x5 dish (6942) from Scala. A 6x6 dish is just too big and the 4x4 too small, but the 5x5 is perfect. Unfortunately to get one in red on Bricklink will cost me at least £25 for a single dish. Instead, might have to go with orange for ~40p.

Printed hoofs. They went all out!
The dolls were they buildable? Like, could there be a minifighead on the doll? That would be cool

Wow, that's a massive horse. I figured it would be relatively big, but that's about twice the size I was thinking.

With that min mind, I am curious about how the dolls scale to other toys like barbies. With the horse as big as it is, it seems like they may be more comparible than I though.

The poor minifig looks like she's being attacked by a Godzilla-sized horse.

Great article @Huw, looking forward to more

… and I've just found 3144 in a 2001 UK catalogue for £16.99.
The larger stable set, 3124 was £39.99.

Fascinating, look forward to more of these articles @Huw!

My, thats a big horse.

I wonder how many Scala 'LEGO' parts I've unknowingly thrown away over the years - or, at best - thought it was Playmobil and tossed it in the corresponding box? Those flowers and tools seem like prime examples of the latter category...

@Huw said:
" @jgadget said:
"… and I've just found 3144 in a 2001 UK catalogue for £16.99.
The larger stable set, 3124 was £39.99."

Thanks. I fondly remember you delivering the large dolls' house that you'd acquired cheaply somewhere to my workplace in Gatwick :-)"

Yes, picked up at my fairly local Asda.
I bought one for my daughter too.

If we can ever meet up again, I'd be happy to lend you all my old Shop at Home catalogs, if you fancied scanning them or simply looking through them.
I enjoyed having a quick skim through them just now.

Interesting article, I don't know a huge amount about Scala other than its existence so it's neat to see where some parts like the carrots originated.

Was this theme considered successful at all? I wonder if this might have influenced LEGO's decision to make Galidor, given that the moulds would be of a similar size/design.

I am glad to finally see Scala get some positive comments, after years of it being completely off the radar for most people. I already own a few Scala parts and dolls myself, and I have to say, I quite like them (and I'm not even in the target demographic!) All the unique parts we got from this line are excellent for MOCing, I can tell you that.
Great article, @Huw! I am looking forward to seeing more Scala reviews!

I recently parted out a couple of my sealed Scala collection for my BO store, and with regard to the play houses, it's amazing how it's all still in excellent condition considering most of the larger elements were just loose in the box. It was well packed though, much like you see these days with Ikea flat-pack furniture - not a single bit of space was wasted.

Having only seen pictures of Scala sets, I never realised how very big they are! Very interesting article indeed and quite funny that the same veggies are used in minifig-scale sets now.

My interest is extra piqued, I would love more articles about this. I just saw my sister and absorbed the last of her belville and clickits pieces. One was a white belville horse that was smaller than this, but way larger than minifigs

It would be great if you could review my dad.

"Scala was introduced in 1997 and was LEGO's answer to Barbie dolls."

No it was not, SCALA was introduced in 1979!

@Huw said:
" @Kostur said:
"Thanks for the pleasant trip down the memory lane!
I agree, quality was on par with System sets, and designers still use this specific carrot model for today's sets. "

You're right -- I hadn't realised that the carrot was first seen in this, and the other Scala sets released in 1999.

There are a few other Scala pieces that transitioned to normal use, most notably the 1x1 plate/flower head which has recently been replaced with a smaller version. I believe Scala flower pots were later used for spaceship engines at one point, too."

not only the carrot, most of the food-items. Its the reason why they look so oversized compared to minifigs...

I was promised a “My Dad” review, let’s hope he is coming soon.

"No it was not, SCALA was introduced in 1979!"

Well if you want to be precise:
1979 was Scala in cursive
1997 was ScAla
looks... weird.

Yes, a My Dad review please!
I was surprised there is only a few comments wanting this.

Does anyone know where the "Scala" name comes from? Is it similar to "Lego" in being some combination of Danish words or could it be from some other language? It's interesting that it would be used for such different product lines, surely there must be some reason!

This actually looks like a good toy, and not disturbing like My Dad was. Though I'm not sure of the wisdom of a toy company that specialises in construction toys attempting to compete in the dolls market. I also think it is halfway to saying to girls that they should keep their pretty little heads out of construction and stick to playing make believe.

Whatever you might say about minidolls and the themes and colours used for Friends sets, they have got much more to do with the core LEGO brand than this does.

I would be interested to see more reviews of Scala, especially the more buildable aspects. And those non-System flower studs (which only add to the feeling I get that they were trying to appeal to girls by being not-LEGO).

I have the 2 storey house 3290 which is freakin’ enormous with it’s mega spiral staircase. Even flat packed, the box is huge and weighs a ton. My favourite part though is the raised 3D baseplate from 3117 “Flashy Pool”. I picked this up in a second hand store in Germany. Oh, the trans blue dolphin with it cute too

I find it interesting that the Scala name was used for two completely different themes that were nearly twenty years apart.
When I was small I remember seeing Scala gear in the catalogue that resembled some of today's Dots line to some extent.
The second iteration of the Scala name happened during my dark ages.
Therfore thanks for the informative review. Looking forward to hearing more about it.
These horses and figures look like they might work well with Schleich figures, animals and accessories too.

This is pure speculation, but I would be very surprised if the Lego name "Scala" was not inspired by the famous Milanese opera house:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala

It’s a pretty good set isn’t it. It’s aged well.

I think if I had been aged about 9 when this was released I would have really wanted it. I had Sindy and her horse (of course.... what British child of the 80s didn't) and I had the Judy dolls and horse (sold in Zodiac Toys if anyone else remembers them).
When this was released though I was much older than 9 and working in Woolworths. I don't remember us selling this range though (we did sell Znap !). I don't remember seeing it in other toy shops either. It completely passed me by until I became an AFOL and discovered places like Brickset.
This Scala set actually looks really good quality. One of my moans about Barbie is although the dolls and clothes are fairly good quality the accessories and furniture are not that great. Considering they are made by a major toy company their quality is not that different from a cheap 'own brand' fashion doll.
Scala isn't 'Lego' we can all agree that. I wonder if it been released under a different brand name and people weren't really aware it was the same company as Lego it would have been more popular? Clickits had that same problem because it had the Lego logo on the box but people would be "but this isn't Lego".
We will never know.

I didn't realize the horse was actually that big!

Whenever I look at these Schala sets, I always wonder what sort of Lego pieces I've tossed into the junk bin in the past while sorting through random mixed lots of Lego bought off of ebay, thinking that they were actually non-Lego.

The scorpions become to-scale in the Scala sets.

Yes please, I’d personally love to see more of this!

Very nice set, it is in a box in the attic here. My daughter was the right age when this appeared.
Quality of the sets was very high, like all lego.

She ownes more than half of all the sets released.
She could build a very large dollhouse with all the parts, from the floor to the ceiling in her room.

It's wild how Scala are great toys, but not really great LEGO. They've got excellent mold quality and detail, but the figures don't interact with bricks as well as minifigs, minidolls, or constraction ones do.

"if there's sufficient interest I will review more in the coming weeks"

Please don't. There is a gazillion of old (and new) sets worth reviewing.

I've been into Breyer horses off and on since I was 10. The problem despite the fact people give Breyer horses to really young (and often way too young IMHO) kids, they're made of a very fragile plastic. Fragile parts, like legs on Stablemates, and ears on bigger scale horses like to break. I've lost a couple Stablemates due to just falling off a shelf (broken legs). Honestly, I think the Scala horses are a good solution. They're not as ugly as Barbie horses, nor as chintzy looking as the flocked horses dollar stores often sell, and they have an articulated neck. But, still, too stylized and doll-like for me.

These are scaled exactly the same as Traditionals. The best done, but too big to really collect many of. I have 4; and one is a miniature horse, and he is barely bigger than a Classics foal despite being a fully grown horse.

@CDM:
Poor horse knows what it's supposed to look like, but it doesn't have any hands!

@MCLegoboy:
Somewhat like Duplo, these specifically work with 2x2 bricks and plates. They might also allow a 1x1 round part to nestle in the center. They're less versatile than regular studs, being scaled up 2x, but the resulting surface is quite a bit smoother, and I'd guess the dolls and animals were less prone to experiencing random bouts of gravity sickness.

@Paperdaisy:
The original LEGO System was marketed to both boys and girls, but over time the market share skewed decidedly male. Scala I, Scala II, Belville, and Clikits were all attempts to tap into the girls market, and they all basically fell flat. Only with Friends did they finally succeed. A keynote speech at Brickworld leads me to suspect that most/all of the people involved in those earlier attempts had moved on, been let go, or been assigned to other themes when it came time to assemble the Friends design team.

Of all these girl-targeted themes, only Friends doesn't attempt to hide its LEGO DNA. The only previous attempt to loop in girls that I know of that's so obviously part of the LEGO System is Paradisa. That might have been more successful if it had been moved into the pink aisles and away from the LEGO section. Any girls who had written off LEGO sets as being for boys weren't likely to go browsing the selection to see if they were wrong, and most boys weren't going to buy anything girly no matter where they ran across it. Friends shifted aisles (taking anything minidoll-related with it), and that may have been all it took to succeed after so many years.

I'm pretty sure a few of the smaller Scala sets were sporadically available through the Shop @Home catalog in the US. It was never available in stores.

@MCLegoboy said:
"How about the flowery studs? How well can you integrate stuff with standard system? I know they are the same width as 2 studs, but I only have https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=33089&in=S in Dark Gray to experiment with, so that's all I have to see what Scala can do. Also, why were there flowery studs? What benefits did they provide as opposed to normal studs?"

2x2 bricks will attach to the flowery studs and 1x1 round bricks and plates will sit in the middle.

I remember finding Scala sets in the late 1990's at Army & Navy, here in Canada, though as a male in my teens back then, never paid much attention to them. While SkAla was during my dark ages with Lego, when I look back at what Lego was producing for Lego sets back then, I am not surprised. It just wasn't Lego! Znap!

Ps - my dark ages for Lego also happened to be Legos dark ages, where they almost went bankrupt and disappear forever