So I got this for my son when he first made the jump from Duplos to Legos. While it is a “girls” set, he had no reason at the time to know these were girl colors, and quite honestly, yellow is a perfectly normal house color. But one of our favorite things to build with Duplos were houses and there are surprisingly few Lego sets for little ones that are houses.

The set however has one major problem, it is simply too large and too many pieces for a kid at the Juniors level. Not only did this set have the largest piece count of any of his sets at the time, but it contains a single build. Where his Batman Juniors sets had less pieces, they would also contain several separate builds such as a Batcave, a Batmobile, and something else for the bad guy. As a result, he could at least build one or two of the builds within his attention span. But this house, well he couldn’t even build the first floor before his attention span would run out. Yes this set uses lots of larger bricks, but it should not be a Juniors set. Today, nearly 2 years later, my now 5 year old son has no problem building this, but he also has no problem building Ninjago or Star Wars sets designed for 8 or 9 year olds.

My son does like this set now, it is nice to have a house, but perhaps I should have gotten him a more elaborate Creator set at this point, which also wouldn’t have been so girly looking, although I suppose my daughter may appreciate this when she’s older. However, I simply can’t recommend this set because it’s just too difficult for the age range it is designed for, and once your child is old enough to take on a set of this size, they can take on much larger and more complex builds.

Beyond that, let’s dive into the set.

Parts

The set really includes a lot of great parts, especially in terms of minifigure accessories, there are cooking utensils, food, a teddie bear, ball, and a bike - all of which are incredibly useful for play. The rest of the parts are larger including a lot of wall panels as well as three large plates, so as your child’s Lego collection grows, these will be very valuable in building houses of their own creation without needing to have tons of bricks. Plus it has plenty of useful furniture pieces, most impressive is the TV.

Playability

This is why I got the set and it is great. Maybe it isn’t as exciting to have a house as it is to have Batman or Star Wars or Ninjago, but it is nice to have as sometimes you will want to play house and it’s very nice having a normal family in a normal home. I would have liked one more minifigure, a little boy, so that you would have a brother and sister to play with, but that’s easy enough to add on your own. This set is all very useful if you have a firefighter set as you now have a building that can be set on fire.

Overall

Its actually a nice set, but I’m not sure I can recommend it because it’s just too complex for the age range that it’s intended for, and too simple for kids as they get older. I suppose only time will tell if my son still enjoys this set (or any Juniors sets) in a few years, but I’m hoping in another year when his sister makes the jump to Legos that he will be willing to build this for her. It will give the two of them a lot to play with.

Found this set for my 3 year old (who is in the process of "graduating" from Duplo) and it did not disappoint either of us.

Box/Instructions

The instructions were easy enough that she could work out a few things herself.

Parts

A nice variety of parts with the highlight for her being the kitchen appliances & utensils. Must be noted that there are a fair number of small parts which I spirited away to be re-introduced at a later date.

Minifigures

The little girl was received very well, as was the dog.

The build

The structure itself contains mostly larger bricks which made for an easy build that kept her attention. Second storey is modular which I find to be a real positive at her age.

Some smaller pieces are a bit too fiddly for a 3 year old to assemble but that is to be expected.

The completed model

Importantly it is sturdy enough to take the playing. The open area out the back works well by allowing easy access to eager fingers.

Overall opinion

Very pleased with the pickup. High playability for my daughter and although it's not a set the AFOL side of me would be usually drawn too, it actually looks ok in a City.