Review: 41312 Heartlake Sports Centre
Posted by MeganL,
Scene in my LEGO building room (aka the family room), earlier this week:
"What is THAT?"asked my husband, looking at the latest LEGO build on the table.
"(41312 Heartlake) The Sports Centre," I replied.
"The what?"
"Here, let me show you. There's several things to do, as you can see on the box…."
The front of the box shows the set from the front with the standard Friends design. We can see there are several features in the gym, including an enormous basketball hoop, a soccer pitch, a bicycle and other accessories. A small inset in the lower left shows the view of the set from the back. The back of the box shows that same view of the back of the set along with a large selection of activities that the Friends can enjoy while getting their workout in: weight training, treadmill, rock climbing and boxing among others.
Inside the box there are three numbered bags, two instruction booklets, two base plates in nougat (16x16 and 6x16), plus a small sticker sheet on a mirrored background. It looks like at least one mirror is in the set, which makes sense considering it's a sports centre.
The two minidolls with the set are Mia and Robert. Both are dressed appropriately for a day at the sports centre. Robert has only been seen once before, and his torso and legs are similarly rare - both have only been in one or two sets previously. Robert has a long pair of shorts on with a neon orange shirt with sleeveless blue vest and is wearing an appropriate pair of running shoes. Mia has an attractive shorts and top on but isn't wearing athletic shoes - perhaps they're in the gym bag she's holding? These workouts may be a little challenging otherwise.
As with many sets, the build starts with the peripheral portions first. There's a bike in red and that comes with a helmet - safety first! Next is a small soccer pitch with a ball, though the soccer ball doesn't have the appropriate colouring on it. A boom box to provide music for the workout is provided (not pictured).
Then we're on to building the gym, with an exercise area for free weights including a barre with mirror. It's unclear to me whether these are barbells or dumbbells provided - they look more like barbells to me, but one of the pictures on the box has Mia working out with them like dumbbells. A mat is provided for the Friends to use. In the window there are a couple trophies that have been won by the sports centre's members. Outside the window there's a bike rack.
The building continues with the some lovely large bay windows as well as some other large windows that serve as a sliding door to the gym. Like many Friends sets, the building is mostly a façade for the front - the top of the front is finished but there aren't back walls and no roof. This does allow plenty of access to all the play features inside, which is a good thing because there are a lot of features!
One of the best features in the gym is the treadmill. I really like the simple but inventive building techniques to put together a treadmill that actually rolls. In this case it's a shame that minidolls don't have movable legs like minifigs do in order to be able to pose a minidoll accurately on the treadmill. This is a very nice treadmill, too, one of those with a personalized TV screen, thanks to the sticker on the flag piece that attaches to the front of the treadmill.
There are plenty of features to be accessed yet. The Friends have someplace to store all their gear with a couple of lockers located by the door.
Much sporting gear (tennis racket, more balls, etc.) is found by the front door in a box with a sign (using another sticker), as well as a cash register, since apparently it's not a Friends set without some element of shopping attached (though there are shops n many gyms). The aforementioned enormous basketball hoop is added, though it's big enough that one of the Friends could jump through it.
Also inside the gym is a sink with a small bottle of water and a fruit flavoured water dispenser. It's important to stay hydrated! Near the lockers there's a bench as well as a punching bag that swivels, so the Friends can vent all of their frustrations, as well as some gymnastic rings that also rotate for that upper body strength workout.
A nice use of maximizing the space in the set, there's even an activity on one of the outside walls, where we find a rock climbing wall. I much prefer this rock climbing wall to the one that we saw last year in 41121 Adventure Camp Rafting.
Overall thoughts
I really like that the Friends theme is starting to go places other than eating and shopping! Having a gym is a perfect example, and this set has a great assortment of activities for the Friends to enjoy.
There's a lot of play possibilities with this set with all the activities represented. I particularly like the diversity of the activities - from rock climbing to boxing to the treadmill - they're not just "girl" sports. In particular I really like the treadmill, an appropriate addition to the gym but something I ddn't quite expect with some nice building involved.
So, back to that scene in my family room:
"….and at this end there's some rings, a punching bag, and on the outside a rock climbing wall," I finishing explaining to my husband.
He takes it all in for a moment.
"Looks a lot nicer than the gym we go to."
Indeed. Would that our regular gym be as nice as Heartlake Sports Centre.
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13 comments on this article
Great review! The set indeed looks very nice. Also, I like the way you formatted the review.
The Lego City line could benefit from adding the variety that the Friends line has.
I enjoy the way you wrote the review with the story. This set has lots of features and it's great it focuses on fitness and sports. I agree that the City theme should have variety instead of always police and fire trucks. The City line ought to add a similar set such as this.
Regarding the city line - wouldn't the ideal solution be to buy this set, then dump the minidolls? And populate with appropriate CMFs (they need somewhere to be!).
^awesome idea, I am going to buy the Friends supermarket eventually but I will leave the figures to diversify my City population.
Great review! I really like the creativity of this set. I also appreciate that it focuses on fitness training and physical activity as a healthy hobby, without including anything like a scale that would make it too much about body image (i.e. "shedding pounds"). Sadly in American society, exercise for men is often imagined as an intense physical workout, whereas for women it's thought of more in terms of weight loss. But this sports center gives both male and female mini-dolls equal opportunities to exercise using a wide variety of fun equipment.
The colors of this set are great. They stand out and remind me of the colors of some popular gym chains like Planet Fitness. The curvy architecture is also very fun, modern, and distinctive. Some might be reminded of early 2000s sets like http://brickset.com/sets/4513-1/Grand-Central-Station, but here it certainly doesn't reduce the set's sense of detail.
If I have one pet peeve about this set, it's that the glass windows behind the basketball backboard don't have any sort of wall built up over top of them. This is especially apparent in the front view picture of the set in this review, where the glass windows and the empty space above them are almost indistinguishable. Some 4x4 macaroni bricks could have been very useful there, and I wonder if they might have been considered but omitted to meet a price point.
The lack of a ceiling and side or back walls doesn't bother me so much, because it IS a playset, and reducing visibility and accessibility of some of the exercise equipment might have detracted from its playability.
I ditto the sentiment on the great review! I'm going to try a Jedi mind trick on my daughter to convince her she needs it for her Friends city. Also the opening dialog cracked me up because it sounded like a familiar conversation I often have with my wife, except she's usually saying something like "No more Lego's for awhile!" or "You've reached your limit!" or "Where are you going to put that one?... Not up here (anywhere near a living area)!" Etc., etc.
Love this set, the colors blend nicely, and the curves of it is very very nice. Nice job LEGO with the design.
Good features, horrible color choice :D
Thank you for the review. I like the way you framed the review and you showed the many details well. However, I sometimes was left in confusion as you sometimes describe whole parts (such as the barbell/dumbell thing), but don't have a photograph alongside it until further up in the review. I was also confused by where we are on the set.
This is not meant to be taken as a mean remark, as I always enjoy your reviews and don't want to be negative or anything These were just some things I experienced this time.
Also, what do you think of the outside? Do you like the colour scheme? Personally, I find the basketball hoop part a bit strange, as it seemingly breaks up the outside wall. Are there glass panels behind it or something?
I was going to comment what @Binnekamp said, but he got it already! More images would be nice, since if felt a little confuzzling at times. Just some constructive criticism for the future! :)
Anyways, the set looks neat, and very unique. Also, it looks like a Planet Fitness, lol
@binnekamp and @101DALEK: Thanks! Constructive criticism always welcome :-) I didn't add more pictures since I thought it might be too redundant.
Now that I think of it, it does look like a Planet Fitness! I do like the colour scheme anyway. The basketball hoop has clear windows behind it which is rather unusual as Aanchir has noted.
I guess it's rather hard to lift a barbell if you can't rotate your wrists in-line!
(I noticed in the Wonder-Woman set the motorbike chassis has now been modified with a clip so that, like the scooter, either minifig or mini-doll handlebars can be attached).