Set #41054 Rapunzel’s Creativity Tower: The second largest set from the first year of LEGO Disney Princess focuses on Tangled and features Rapunzel, Flynn and the tower Mother Gothel kept her trapped in for so many years. It’s a fairly impressive set piece and looks great on the shelf next to all the other sets, and it is loaded with fun things to do and experience as we’ll soon discuss. A really great set and here’s why.

Box/Instructions

Box: A great looking shot of the tower stands out on the front of the box, in the corner you get to see a shimmering Rapunzel whose dress is full of sparkles which really stands out on the shelf. And on the back you get a very detailed look of all the features of the set, and you can see that the tower looks really impressive.

Instructions: You get two manuals which break up the build between the three numbered bags. These are fairly large and you unfortunately don’t get any cardboard protections for the manuals or the massive sticker sheet included in this set for all of the necessary details.

The first manual has 55 pages and shows you everything you need to know for building the first two numbered bags. The second shorter manual features everything to build bag 3 and the typical cross-promotional items for the theme. Everything is easy to follow along with, your standard LEGO instruction design.

Parts

This set features a huge dark purple roof piece, a purple set of stairs (the kind that sit on a central beam and rotate out to form the stairs) and a lot of other impressive parts. It’s really great for the unique colours, though most of the parts are in grey, or so it would seem when looking at the front of the tower.

Minidolls

Rapunzel: This mini-doll looks great, the dress design features a print on the bottom of stars and her top has a print indicating the laces she’s done up in the front. Her hair piece is the same as what came in the polybag set, however this time she has two bows on the back and a gold tiara on top, she comes with her little friend Pasqual the chameleon.

Flynn Rider: Being one of only three male Mini-Dolls from this line so far, Flynn is dressed in the standard Male lower torso, while his top has a detailed print of the outfit he wears in the film, with buckles and a belt to flesh out said details. He also has facial hair printed on his chin to match the on-screen appearance. Flynn’s hair piece appears to be a re-use of Prince Dastan’s hair from the Prince of Persia Theme, though I could be slightly mistaken here as that hair piece has seen wide use since being introduced.

Flynn unfortunately does not come with any accessories and LEGO did not include Maximus for him to ride on in this set.

The build

Bag 1: This build starts off with the bottom of the tower, the entire first floor and the mini-dolls are built as you go through the manual. There isn’t any terrible tricky parts here aside from placing stickers on pieces, especially the sticker meant for a LEGO book piece. I would recommend building this on a solid surface though, you don’t want to suffer any problems with stability as you push the bricks together to build the set.

Bag 2: The second floor of the tower is built here and it again should be quick and easy to build, there are a good number of stickers being applied on both the inside and outside of large wall pieces so pay very close attention to how each one is placed so there won’t be any mistakes because there can be.

Bag 3: The final top of the tower gets built in this bag and once again I caution you as to the use of numerous stickers inside and outside on LEGO cylindrical wall pieces. It’s a quick and easy build and the roof section is even faster to build, I would estimate that each bag should take no more than twenty-eight minutes or around that long for experienced builders. Those who require more help may want to take longer and be more careful, especially with all the stickers being used.

The completed model

The tower is extremely impressive for a model in LEGO Disney Princess. Compared to some of the smaller sets this one is a really great design showcasing all of the elements of the film perfectly.

The first floor is devoted exclusively to a staircase and a huge empty space behind the stairs. There isn’t much to do here except open and close the spiral staircase. The second floor features more details with a fireplace and a lot of stickers for details as seen in the film Tangled, specifically this floor has the hidden picture of the floating lights and the curtains pulled back to see them.

Other features on this floor is a goblet to hold a paintbrush, a set of paints and a canister of blue paint that Rapunzel has made herself. The stairs do not go to the third floor, so you’ll have to just use your imagination, on the third floor you’ll find a chair for Rapunzel to sit in, a small vanity with mirrored sticker for her to look in and brush her hair using the teal comb included with the set, the book (which is a cookbook) and an open balcony allowing you to have Rapunzel step out and call down for help from Flynn.

The roof conceals a small hiding place for a purple treasure chest with the rest of the canisters full of paints for Rapunzel to use when she’s in an artistic mood. Everything about this tower is just great, featuring a ton of options for play scenarios and great visual design cues taken straight out of the movie.

You also get to build a small oven, this doesn’t have anywhere to go in the tower itself, so Rapunzel will have to bake the cookies that are included in the set away from the tower. Overall an impressive model.

Overall opinion

When I think of LEGO Disney Princess this is the level of detail I expect and welcome, not only does it capture the feel of the film, but the set in general has a lot going for it. The one flaw in an otherwise perfect design is the overreliance on stickers for all of the impressive details. Please don’t let that deter you from an excellent set though, there’s a lot to see and do for the younger fans and as a display set this one works quite well compared to all the others. Highly recommended.

Ce set est un bon compromis entre la construction et la jouabilité.

Côté construction, j'ai accompagné ma fille de cinq ans pour le montage. Lorsque je dis "accompagner", c'est juste lui donner les pièces nécessaires au bon moment ! La construction est plutôt facile malgré l'âge de six ans recommandé. Je ne l'ai aidée que lors de la pose des murs et des sols car la manipulation est plus difficile.

Il lui aura fallu une bonne matinée pour monter l'ensemble de la tour ; on prendre donc plaisir à passer du temps dessus. De plus, les nombreuses petites pièces permettent à l'enfant, une fois le set démonté, de les réutiliser à de nombreuses reprises, dans la limite de leur imagination.

Côté jouabilité, on a pas mal d'accessoires et quelques petits meubles sympathiques à monter. Notez la présence de la poêle afin de rejouer la fameuse scène de la rencontre entre Flynn et Raiponce !

Au passage, hélas, seulement ces deux figurines. C'est malheureusement toujours le cas dans cette gamme Disney Princesses dont la moitié des sets n'ont qu'une seule figurine. Un peu trop centrée sur les princesses et pas trop sur les autres personnages ! Pour nous consoler, il y a aussi Pascal...

Néanmoins, reste un défaut, de mon point de vue d'adulte (peut-être moins sous l’œil de l'enfant). La tour est coupée en deux, logique si on veut jouer dedans. Mais la profondeur est beaucoup trop faible ! Une fois que les meubles sont insérés, il n'y a plus de place pour faire jouer les personnages !

I'll admit it, I'm one of the two people in the world who have yet to see Disney's Tangled, the other being my fiance:)

That said, I enjoy this set for the most part, but there are some issues to consider.

Box/Instructions

The box features the tower in the background of an animated picture from the movie of Rapunzel with a lot of pink swooshes and sparkles around the perimeter as is the norm for the Disney Princess theme/subtheme. It's defintely eye-catching, and if you have small children into lego you've probably been drawn into the displays that include Rapunzel and the other Princesses. It does the job! I do like the rounded folds that some of the Friends' boxes have, which is included in this set as well.

The instructions are basic and just what you'd expect, though separated into two booklets. Given the number of pieces this isn't entirely necessary as I'm quite sure a 6-12 year old could manage a few hundred pieces, especially ones as large as this.

Parts

To the nitty gritty!

I really like the assortment of parts included in this set. When you buy a castle set your going for the pieces themselves. Lots of light grey structural elements, and 6 large curves that make up the walls of the tower. I liked the touch of using a couple microfigures as carved stone touches as well!

Lots of flowers and a few branch type elements, but the coolest parts for me are Rapunzels art supplies, being a Creativity Tower afterall! Included is a painter's palette and two paintbrushes, which are only included in one other set (though I seem to recall once in the Minifigure Theme as well), and are really quite nice to look at. There are also a few round tube elements that are used as pots of paint, and are in a nice collection of bright colours that are a little rare.

A final few things to note is that this set includes a treasure chest in a light purple which I believe is a first, and I'll gladly take it. She uses it to store some of her paints. The last thing is that there is a set of circular stairs, popularized originally in the Harry Potter line of lego. These are becoming a bit more common, also appearing in the Monster Fighters, though still considered (by me) rare.

Minifigures

Rapunzel's mini doll is nicely done, and I'm glad that instead of splitting her legs to accommodate for sitting they only split the back, leaving her dress from the front as it should be. Her hair is nicely done, a bit longer than the usual mini dolls (as it should be!), and it has three holes to allow a tiara and bows to be used.

Flynn looks... a little off as a mini doll. I guess it's because they only have the one mould for heads, but with the cheekbones he looks a little misshapen. Not the best looking male mini doll. I do like his eyebrows though, caught in an apprehensive expression.

I usually include any animal friends in the minifigure section, and I saved my favourite for the last. I really like how they did Pascal, Rapunzel's chameleon buddy. A bright green colour was used, and his curly tail is probably my fav part. He is compact yet small enough to not look out of place perched on the windowsill. He has a little hole in his head to allow a bow or other element with small pint o be used (crow from the Minifigures' Scarecrow anyone!)

The build

The build didn't take much time, it is a small number of pieces and most of which are larger castle elements.

Honestly the hardest part that I found was the stickers. This could potentially throw someone off the desire to grab this set (ok, who am I kidding, I got this on sale and jumped for it... stickers and all). There are two rather extensive pages, and not only are the applied to the outside of the tower on the curved elements, but they are also present on the inside of the tower on the opposing side of said curves. It is tight to get them squared off properly and esthetically pleasingly. Parents, be prepared for some upsets, AFOLs.... likewise :)

The completed model

The model stands tall, probably twice as much as the Lego Friends cafes (I'm sitting with them lined up across the room). The outside looks really nice with vies and flowers growing up on all sides, and the tower roof looks reeeeeally beautiful, it's a nice colour to top it off. It looks very similar to the movie images (I've googled... le sigh).

Overall opinion

I like this set primarily for amount of hardtocomeby pieces, something that the entire Friends/Disney Princess line does exceedingly well. Lots of bright colours, a good selection of elements, and it wasn't a tedious model to build at all.

That said, the price is quite a lot for the number of pieces, though most are quite a bit bigger than your normal 2x2 bricks. And there are a lot of stickers, which by the second sheet are grumble inducing.

I picked it up on sale (in another city at that), rather early in the line's life which was a nice surprise. I think it's one that is better left on a wishlist, though realize that if a Frozen set is ever released (which is inevitable, I haven't seen either, though would be amazingsauce), Rapunzel's Creativity Tower will be in high demand.