Now I don’t think I’m in the target audience for LEGO® Disney Princess sets. However I do enjoy checking out sets which feature new elements, unique builds and different concepts. So when the new Disney Storybooks sets were revealed, I thought they ticked all those boxes. These new Disney Princess sets are based on four different Disney classics, including Frozen, Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Mulan. They feature a book style ‘case’, in which you can build and store, minibuilds and new Micro-dolls. Read on to see what this new LEGO concept is like as I review the Disney’s Frozen Anna and Elsa’s Storybook Adventure set.
Product Description
Kids can play out life in Arendelle Castle with this unique LEGO® ǀ Disney Anna and Elsa’s Storybook Adventures (43175) set. This toy playset features a customizable, opening book with 2 areas, the outside of Arendelle Castle with a bridge, the castle itself with a folding roof and the inside of the castle, with grand piano and bedroom, plus 2 sticker sheets to decorate the book with. On-the-go role-play fun and excitement Kids will stretch their imaginative role-play skills with this portable playset. It can be experienced on its own or combined with other LEGO ǀ Disney sets for even more creative play options. Plus, it makes a great Christmas gift or birthday present for a young Disney’s Frozen 2 fan. Favorite characters and scenes offer effortless play This creative Disney gift comes with 3 detailed micro-doll figures, Disney Princess Elsa, Anna and Kristoff, plus an Olaf LEGO figure for Disney. These will get kids playing quickly, as will the areas made to inspire children’s imagination in this well-known world.
- Set Name: Anna and Elsa’s Storybook Adventure
- Set Number: 43175
- Pieces: 133
- RRP: £17.99/$19.99/19.99€
- Measurements: measures over 23cm wide, 12cm deep and 8cm high
- Microdolls: 4
- Availability: December 26th
The Build
Disney characters have a provided us with plenty of great LEGO sets over the years including a line dedicated to Disney Princess. Many of their adventures are based on classic fairy tales. Making books a key part of their story and a fitting device to use as a storage case and play area. These new Storybook Adventures use a number of new elements to create a book-like outer shell, which doubles as a storage case, play surface and somewhere to build where upon. The case features two new pieces a ‘spine’ section, which is 16 studs long and 6 wide, although it isn’t fully covered with studs. The cover sections are around 10 studs wide and 3 deep but again they aren’t covered in studs, instead there are a couple of clusters of studs on the inside and outer surface of the pieces.
Each of the these new pieces are connected together with a few Technic pins and once connected it has the appearance of a book and opens like one too. There is minimal building to do on the actual cover of the book. There is a simple ‘lock’ which secures the book’s cover and the cover has an incredible locket-type element, which is printed and features a stylised image of the books characters, so here it’s Anna and Elsa. Talking of printed pieces, the sets features an odd mix of printed elements and quite a lot of stickers. There is a sheet which need to be added to certain parts of the set and another which can be used to place wherever you want. One of my favourite printed pieces is the set specific locket, which connect to the cover of the book.
There are various buildable sections, these aren’t overly complex. In fact the instructions are just a sheet of paper, similar to what you’ll find in a polybag set. The Frozen set has a small section of Arendelle Castle, there are three sections which combine and are place on the inner section of the spine. What is quite clever is that parts of the castle can be folded down so the buildable section can remain in the book when closed down. There is also room for the micro-dolls and other elements like the sleigh.
The Micro-dolls
The Disney Princess line began as a sort of spin off from the Friends theme, which uses Mini-dolls in place of Minifigures. These are stylized characters which are made from a pair of legs, torso, head and hair. There is a strong opinion among LEGO fans about Mini-dolls, but they work well for the themes they are part of. These new sets feature a unique version of the Minidolls, officially called micro characters, but micro-dolls seems a better fit. They have the same heads as Mini-dolls with bigger eyes, but they are on a new smaller body. They look quite cool and odd in the same breath. Olaf looks the most iffy, as his head is much bigger than a Mini-doll head and his body is a standard Minifigure head.
Overall
LEGO have been experimenting with various enclosed sets for a couple of years now, these have included the small Pods and buildable thing like the Friends Heart Boxes. This year the concept has been expanded to include these Storybooks, NINJAGO Arcade Cabinets and Play Pods. Despite all the different build styles, the basis of each set is the same, a set within a case, which can be used to store the bricks and act as a play area. The Storybook Adventure sets are a fun way to recreate magical Disney moments. It’s smaller than I expected, but that kind of adds to the charm of the set. The new elements used to create them are intersting. I really like the printed locket on the cover. The stickers add an level of detail but the ones which are placed in specific areas of the set, are very tricky to get correctly in place. I really like how the set can be folded up and enclosed within the book, when it is also closed. Which leaves the new Micro-dolls, their smaller size is needed to fit within the rest of the set. Despite using the same heads as Mini-dolls, they work really well, apart from the scary looking Olaf, who to be fair has always looked scary in LEGO form.
Coming December 26th: UKIrelandUSCanadaGermanyDenmarkAustraliaNew Zealand
Please note this set was purchased from a retailer and not provided by the LEGO Group for review, therefore BricksFanz is not tied to any embargo which may be enforce for sets.
