Random set of the day: Apple Tree House
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 5891 Apple Tree House, released during 2010. It's one of 12 Creator sets produced that year. It contains 539 pieces, and its retail price was US$44.99/£40.99.
It's owned by 11,223 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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57 comments on this article
Such an early Creator house it's not 3-in-1 nor does it have any minifigs.
It's a wonderful, great, simple set and wouldn't look out of place next to Lego houses from the early '80s
Someone stick this set in an actual Apple Tree so that its name is more accurate. That tiny tree with its rough apples should not be the defining factor of this suburban dwelling.
This was an old favorite of mine. I managed to snag it a couple years after I thought they'd discontinued it, sometime around the last two years of HERO Factory. I had been surprised that it was still on a retail store shelf, and was proud I had found it. Stepmom took it when she and dad divorced.
Topical, with the 31139 Cozy House releasing soon. This does seem nice and understated, but something I'd pick up if I saw it in the store even today.
@GSR_MataNui said:
"This was an old favorite of mine. I managed to snag it a couple years after I thought they'd discontinued it, sometime around the last two years of HERO Factory. I had been surprised that it was still on a retail store shelf, and was proud I had found it. Stepmom took it when she and dad divorced. " Okay wait, shouldn't it be yours? How come she got it if you bought it?
@guachi said:
"Such an early Creator house it's not 3-in-1 nor does it have any minifigs.
It's a wonderful, great, simple set and wouldn't look out of place next to Lego houses from the early '80s"
Love the sentiment but this is very much 3 in 1.
@guachi said:
"Such an early Creator house it's not 3-in-1 nor does it have any minifigs.
It's a wonderful, great, simple set and wouldn't look out of place next to Lego houses from the early '80s"
It is a 3-in-1, I got this for my then girlfriend now wife back in the day. Just last year we found the pieces to build a secondary build with our daughter, it's astonishing how time flies.
@GSR_MataNui said:
"This was an old favorite of mine. I managed to snag it a couple years after I thought they'd discontinued it, sometime around the last two years of HERO Factory. I had been surprised that it was still on a retail store shelf, and was proud I had found it. Stepmom took it when she and dad divorced. "
That sucks man... Sorry to hear that.
Love this set. One of the first I picked up 2nd hand after ending my dark age. A very natural progression from the Legoland houses I had in the 60s, like 346-2 & 345-1.
One of the best houses, in my opinion, with the contrast of white and dark blue.
One of the best creator houses. I wanted this set since it came out and only got it in 2019 and I still have it built. Todays also my birthday so it’s cool that such a nostalgic set for me personally happens to be set of the day.
Can't believe it's been this long since the last proper, fully enclosed LEGO house. If they produced an 'Icons' grade enclosed LEGO house I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
I just bought this off a local classified to put into the suburban area of our city layout. My children had me write to LEGO some three years ago to ask why they don't make single detached family houses for their people to live in? Now this year, we get 31139, Cozy House. My daughter wanted me to buy five of them.
No clue why I never bought this set. I had 5771 hillside house, 6754 family home, and the 4996 beach house. Missed out on the 4954 town home though.
Thisi is a beautiful town house that reminds me of the ones from 1908's. Although it lacks detail inside, it has plenty on the outside. For example, I built the lawnmower from this set for one of my houses.
I do love the house, but I find it interesting that every round-shaped detail is represented by one of those 1x1 round plates. I mean, at this point in the Lego general inventory, I'm sure they had an actual apple piece, and a basketball piece for that matter.
@guachi:
There are still a few sets that sneak out that are just "Creator". Not 3-in-1, and certainly not Creator Expert. The minifigs being added to these sets was a huge controversy, of the same type as using faces other than classic smileys in the Modular series. And then both of them blew over, and people went back to buying the sets anyways.
@MCLegoboy:
Crabapple tree. We had one growing in our front yard when I was a kid. One of the neighbor kids had one growing in his back yard. Neither grew much larger than the tree depicted in this set would represent.
@MCLegoboy:
Minors can't legally own property. Their parents own it on their behalf. As such, everything in the house was up for grabs. Taking kids' clothing would probably be frowned upon, since only rarely would either parent be able to actually wear any of it.
@Zordboy:
It's Creator. It took a long time before they were allowed to put minifigs in the sets. Minifig accessories may still be taboo, and molded animals are one thing that has never been allowed. You had to build a cow for the Viking ship.
@lotographia said:
"Can't believe it's been this long since the last proper, fully enclosed LEGO house. If they produced an 'Icons' grade enclosed LEGO house I'd buy it in a heartbeat."
I see a lot of recent fully enclosed houses in the "House" tag. Granted, many of them are Minecraft, but there's the Treehouse (ok, that doesn't count) ... and the A-Frame Cabin. That's an Icons-grade enclosed Lego house, coming out in just a week or two! Then there's a Creator 3-in-1 house that's fully enclosed, just this year. And the Home Alone house.
@PurpleDave said:
"Minors can't legally own property. Their parents own it on their behalf. As such, everything in the house was up for grabs. Taking kids' clothing would probably be frowned upon, since only rarely would either parent be able to actually wear any of it."
Minors can and do own property (both personal and real estate). They cannot enter into binding contracts.
Man, the size of those apples, they're as big as basketbals.
One of the secondary builds for this set was used for a Halloween promo handout/advert where the white parts were replaced by the Sand Green parts...
This series of Creator sets with houses were great! Sure, there were no interiors and sure they lacked windows on the opposite side, but those were easy fixes if they really bugged you. Also, I actually LIKED that this came without minifigs so that it could be a house for existing minifigs.
I wish there were modern versions of regular houses like this.
@GSR_MataNui said:
"This was an old favorite of mine. I managed to snag it a couple years after I thought they'd discontinued it, sometime around the last two years of HERO Factory. I had been surprised that it was still on a retail store shelf, and was proud I had found it. Stepmom took it when she and dad divorced. "
Why would your ex-stepmom took your lego?
Picked this one up quite recently. The grey stripe under all the ridge tiles seems strange.
We bought this for my son for Christmas when he was (I think) four. It was the first 'big' set he had. And while he needed some supervision, and though it took him a reasonably long time, he built it pretty much by himself with no problems. One of the alternative builds is still on one of his shelves (covered in a layer of dust, but still . . .).
A modern day Bag End
@iwybs said:
" @lotographia said:
"Can't believe it's been this long since the last proper, fully enclosed LEGO house. If they produced an 'Icons' grade enclosed LEGO house I'd buy it in a heartbeat."
I see a lot of recent fully enclosed houses in the "House" tag. Granted, many of them are Minecraft, but there's the Treehouse (ok, that doesn't count) ... and the A-Frame Cabin. That's an Icons-grade enclosed Lego house, coming out in just a week or two! Then there's a Creator 3-in-1 house that's fully enclosed, just this year. And the Home Alone house."
This is true, I guess I'm thinking of a specific kind of enclosed LEGO house that uses traditional 'roof' bricks instead of sloping plates, and isn't based on a licensed theme... it's a particular kind of LEGO house style that seems to have been abandoned
It's good. Period. LEGO must bring residential buildings back more often.
This was, in fact, the last year Creator was entirely without minifigs.
Could have sworn I blew this up in one of those Star Wars video game bonus worlds, but it came out long after they did…
Yeah, not what I was expecting. I was thinking something along the lines of, I dunno, a tree-house in an apple-tree. Is it too late to sue for false advertising?
@GSR_MataNui said:
"This was an old favorite of mine. I managed to snag it a couple years after I thought they'd discontinued it, sometime around the last two years of HERO Factory. I had been surprised that it was still on a retail store shelf, and was proud I had found it. Stepmom took it when she and dad divorced. "
On the other hand, it shouldn't be too difficult to Bricklink this. At first glance, I'm not seeing any rare or discontinued parts.
This set and 5867 were my first Lego sets as an adult. I couldn't think of anything I really wanted that Christmas and just (semi-jokingly) said to my mam I might want Lego. Really enjoyed them anyway and thought I might buy some more myself but vowed never to get a set with minifigures since I thought that made it more of a children's toy.
Now over 1000 sets and 2500 minifigures later, I think I might have broken that promise to myself.
I found the lack of mini-figs reminded me of a post apocalyptic world where everyone suddenly disappeared while mowing the lawn. From childhood I always liked building the sloped brick roofs, as usually an interesting puzzle with the corner angles, dormer windows etc. whereas now usually just angled plates. I did found it strange that they didn't use the usual slide up garage from City fire stations, but guess the red pieces were useful for alternative builds. Seems they used two 16x32 baseplates instead of one more useful 32x32 baseplate so they could fit in the rectangular box rather than having a square box?
I wonder if the A-Frame cottage alternate build inspired Huwbot's 'random' pick!
Man, I miss these. A complete house without interior or minifigs to keep the price down. Not overly detailed but with detail well distributed so it's not noticeable. And not too large or too small. Just right for someone's first house set.
@Zordboy said:
"I do love the house, but I find it interesting that every round-shaped detail is represented by one of those 1x1 round plates. I mean, at this point in the Lego general inventory, I'm sure they had an actual apple piece, and a basketball piece for that matter."
Today the line has shifted a bit, but Creator used to be all about brick-building everything. The parts were generic enough to allow them to be re-used for anything related to the general theme of the set, be it houses, road vehicles, air vehicles etc.
Apples have existed since Scala in the late 90s and basketballs since Sports in 2003. But that's not what creator was about.
Nowadays that's still mostly the goal, but it's clear sets are designed mainly as a good looking main model. The viking ship is a good example. Just look at the alternate builds. The reason for this is that SNOT building and specialized parts like the oriental roof tiles and prints in the Chinese Takeaway from last year are now expected in all sets.
A set I really wanted back in the day, despite the lack of minifigures. Wouldn't look too out of place today.
I own a couple of this set and it's still, one of the best (if not the best) in my opinion from the houses made with Lego.
@ambr said:
"Seems they used two 16x32 baseplates instead of one more useful 32x32 baseplate so they could fit in the rectangular box rather than having a square box?"
Or they used 16x32 baseplates because both alternate builds use only one of the baseplates.
@PurpleDave said:
"Minors can't legally own property. Their parents own it on their behalf. As such, everything in the house was up for grabs. Taking kids' clothing would probably be frowned upon, since only rarely would either parent be able to actually wear any of it."
That seems... suspicious. Maybe it's something that varies state to state. It seems to me like she took stuff that was yours when she never really had any sensible right to, even if it was legally allowed. You mentioning that it was a stepmother makes me think that she was trying to get away with what she could because nobody with any loyalty to a child would take stuff from them without good reason. Had it been your biological mother, that would make some sense, there's a chance you'd still see your stuff, but stepmother, no.
@StyleCounselor said:
"Minors can and do own property (both personal and real estate). They cannot enter into binding contracts."
I'm with you on this. Perhaps it varies state to state, but something's wrong here.
Do we track this woman down and pull a Robin Hood? PurpleDave deserves his stuff back, I don't care how long ago it was. At the very least, he's owed the monetary value back. Are we a go for Operation: Two Wrongs Make a Right?
@lotographia:
The problem with making houses with a slope-brick roof is, unless you slope it down on all four sides, the eaves end up stair-stepped in a way that I don’t think you’d ever see in real life.
@MCLegoboy said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Minors can't legally own property. Their parents own it on their behalf. As such, everything in the house was up for grabs. Taking kids' clothing would probably be frowned upon, since only rarely would either parent be able to actually wear any of it."
That seems... suspicious. Maybe it's something that varies state to state. It seems to me like she took stuff that was yours when she never really had any sensible right to, even if it was legally allowed. You mentioning that it was a stepmother makes me think that she was trying to get away with what she could because nobody with any loyalty to a child would take stuff from them without good reason. Had it been your biological mother, that would make some sense, there's a chance you'd still see your stuff, but stepmother, no.
@StyleCounselor said:
"Minors can and do own property (both personal and real estate). They cannot enter into binding contracts."
I'm with you on this. Perhaps it varies state to state, but something's wrong here.
Do we track this woman down and pull a Robin Hood? PurpleDave deserves his stuff back, I don't care how long ago it was. At the very least, he's owed the monetary value back. Are we a go for Operation: Two Wrongs Make a Right?"
It was @GSR_MataNui who had it stolen, not Purpledave. See further up the thread. But yes, we should do it!
@Murdoch17 said:
"It was @GSR_MataNui who had it stolen, not Purpledave. See further up the thread. But yes, we should do it! "
Eh, PurpleDave's cool, too, we'll pick him up a pizza. XD
@MCLegoboy said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"It was @GSR_MataNui who had it stolen, not Purpledave. See further up the thread. But yes, we should do it! "
Eh, PurpleDave's cool, too, we'll pick him up a pizza. XD
"
agreed! :-)
So, it has no interior?
all three builds are really pleasant.
@Bornin1980something said:
"So, it has no interior?"
correct: removable roof yes, but no inside details.
I loved these creator houses. I used to buy them all back in the day.
The best was definitely 4954 : Model Town House
This set is phenomenal for any Town/City fan and it integrates well into Modular displays as well. Admittedly, there's not much of an interior, but it still has plenty of play value from all the outdoor detail.
@PurpleDave said:
"
@Zordboy :
It's Creator. It took a long time before they were allowed to put minifigs in the sets. Minifig accessories may still be taboo, and molded animals are one thing that has never been allowed. You had to build a cow for the Viking ship."
Beside very common use of fish/crabs , in long-time used colors , the only real exception so far seems to be the white parrot statues for 31097 : Townhouse Pet Shop & Café, which was only in 1 set before used in that 3-in-1.
21058 : The Great Pyramid of Giza probably has the most slopes relative to size/price out of any available set currently, of course there's Home Alone which is much larger and has some inverted corners as well, also comes at a much bigger cost if the goal is mainly slopes.
This set is very special to me. I remember asking my dad to buy it on Toys 'R' Us in 2010.
This set is so fun to have, it is a great display piece and also great as a model to use in stop-motion! Too bad newer Creator house models aren't like this one anymore. They served as a great cheaper alternative to the modular buildings line. And they also complimented them very well next to each other!
This was "the one" for us... the first set we purchased and that my son fell in love with LEGO over. We must have built it, torn it down, and rebuilt it a dozen times or more. I always am happy to see it and be reminded of how our LEGO story started. It was this, the Willis Tower, and the City Garage 4207, which was the big Christmas gift after we had enjoyed the Apple Tree House. Thanks.
I love this set! Got it cheap from Facebook Marketplace! I have a lot of the houses/stores from around this time frame. I believe I saw a new one coming up? It's about time if so! I love them!
@MCLegoboy:
@Murdoch17:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/worlds-largest-pizza-delivery-michigan
I was going to ask for this at my last milestone anniversary dinner at work, but the world was still in full lockdown.
@PurpleDave said:
" @MCLegoboy:
@Murdoch17:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/worlds-largest-pizza-delivery-michigan
I was going to ask for this at my last milestone anniversary dinner at work, but the world was still in full lockdown."
I'll chip in $20. The rest is on Murdoch, he's good for it.
As so many have said, this is a great set: the Creator houses of the late '00s were really good without being too much. This might be the best of the lot with that absolutely fire colour-scheme: the dark roof takes this beyond a '70s set into the 21st century all by itself.
@Formendacil said:
"As so many have said, this is a great set: the Creator houses of the late '00s were really good without being too much. This might be the best of the lot with that absolutely fire colour-scheme: the dark roof takes this beyond a '70s set into the 21st century all by itself."
Agreed the color scheme is really good, and was even continued in the House build for 31052: Vacation Getaways
@MCLegoboy said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @MCLegoboy:
@Murdoch17:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/worlds-largest-pizza-delivery-michigan
I was going to ask for this at my last milestone anniversary dinner at work, but the world was still in full lockdown."
I'll chip in $20. The rest is on Murdoch, he's good for it."
Ha! (no)