Review: LEGO 42618 Heartlake City Cafe
5
The new wave of June 2024 LEGO Friends set have hit the shelves worldwide, and amidst the flurry of new releases, as always, I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on some of the new sets!
One of the sets that caught my eye was 42618 Heartlake City Cafe, mostly because it had a cool colour scheme, and as someone who has a sweet tooth and adores all sorts of cakes and pastries, I couldn’t resist.
42618 Heartlake City Cafe is a corner building, and I also wanted to test out a theory on whether it could be combined with 41748 Heartlake City Community Center, and spoiler warning, yes it can!
Read on for a quick review of the 42618 Heartlake City Cafe!
42618 Heartlake City Cafe Set Details
42618 Heartlake City Cafe
42618
Heartlake City Cafe
3
426
US$29.99 / AU$49.99 / £24.99 / €29.99 / CAD$39.99
1 June 2024
TBD
The Heartlake City Cafe comes with 3 minidolls, which is a pretty decent amount for a 400+-piece Friends set, and one in the US$29.99 / AU$49.99 price range.
You get two main characters, the BFFs and creative collaborators Olly and Paisley, as well as a new character Beatriz who works at the Heartlake City Cafe.
Olly is his usual stylish self, and I love his loud patterned shirt, and pink suspenders, paired with blue trousers and classy white sneakers. Paisley has a striped shirt on and her signature flaired pants.
Olly comes with a very cool pink Beanie, which I believe is a new accessory, and I like how well the hair is integrated into the piece.
Beatriz the baker sports a yellow apron, with the Cafe’s logo printed on it and a Coffee Mug pin. My torso’s printing was a little smudgy, which is disappointing, and I’ll definitely be reaching out to LEGO’s Customer Service to get a new one which will hopefully be in better condition.
One really interesting thing about Beatriz is that she has a gap in her teeth, which is something that you don’t see very often depicted in LEGO, and I believe this is the first in a minidoll!
LEGO has previously included a Reindeer Costume minifigure in Series 23 which featured someone with a tooth gap (also known as Diastema), and this depiction in a LEGO Friends minidoll is in line with the theme’s focus on showcasing different human features to normalise them!
A cute little dog with a patchy grey pattern across its face is included as well, and her name is Juno!
Here’s a look at the completed model, which is a corner LEGO Friends building, and a great addition to Heartlake City to serve the minidolls with a sweet tooth.
What attracted me to the model was the great use of colours for the facade, which blends Yellowish Green pillars, with a dash of medium blue, contrasty black and white awnings, and Bright Light Yellow and Pink as accents.
There’s plenty of outside seating where minidolls can catch up over some pastries.
And there’s even a parking sport for scooters.
Here’s a look at the Heartlake City Cafe signboard, and the Croissant logo which you might remember from 42606 Mobile Bakery Food Cart and various other LEGO Friends sets with pastries in them.
There’s a really cool Easter Egg hidden here, which is the “Since 1932” date, which is of course, the year that LEGO was founded in Billund, Denmark.
Here’s a look at the interiors feels quite large, with plenty of space for customers to browse, balancing that with space for Beatriz to prepare her baked goods.
On the Bright Light Yellow counters, we have a stand mixer, and an espresso machine as well.
Beneath them are shelves for storage, which are cleverly made out of window frames. In it, are some baking necessities like a stick of butter, eggs, and some cocoa powder.
There is a large double oven situated at the front. The placement of the oven is a little unrealistic, as I’m sure the heat radiating from it probably wouldn’t be the most comfortable for customers walking in, so some suspension of real-world bakery norms needs to happen here.
There are baking trays inside with baked goods, and I also found it quite funny that the pastries on the bottom tray are completely burnt to a crisp. Woops!
Here’s a look at the cash registers, where it looks like they accept tap card payments, and I also like the illustrations of the croissant and an iced coffee on the oven. There’s a delicious red velvet cake (my favourite cake) on a stand as well to lure people inside.
On the shelves are also plenty of colourful macarons on display. We love macarons and so happened to have some at home when I took the photos, so I thought they’d look pretty good next to each other!
There’s also a menu and pricelist on a chalkboard on the wall, flanked by a decadent chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake, tempting patrons in from the outside.
And right above the entrance, there’s a small trophy hidden up here, which means that this cafe has plenty of pedigree and is an award-winning patisserie!
If you were wondering, yes, the LEGO Heartlake City Cafe set goes amazingly well with the smaller 42606 Mobile Bakery Food Cart, which released in the first half of 2024.
The Croissant Tuk Tuk also shares a similar colour scheme, and logo with the Cafe which is a really nice touch. That and the Croissant Mascot also goes super well with the Cafe, and I like seeing small, inexpensive sets like these combine to create a shared play experience.
Speaking of combined sets, one of the main reasons I bought this on launch day in June, was to test a theory, on whether it could be combined with 41748 Heartlake City Community Center, as the shape of the Cafe seemed oddly similar to 41747 Heartlake City Community Kitchen, and as it turns out, they both work!
I had to remove quite bit of roof section (including the Croissant logo), but it does fit in really well, and you can now add a trendy pastry cafe to the Heartlake Community Center as a new ground floor!
What I liked:
- Fresh colour scheme with some interesting complementary colour choices
- Decent number of minidolls
- Combines with the Mobile Bakery Food Cart or Community Center
What I didn’t like:
- Not much to dislike here!
Final Thoughts:
There’s a lot to like with 42618 Heartlake City Cafe, especially as it feels like you get quite a lot of LEGO for a US$29.99 / AU$49.99 set.
At 426 pieces, with 3 minidolls and a dog, the value here is quite staggering, making this one of the best sets in the Summer 2024 Friends wave, and that doesn’t factor in additional discounts that you may get on the set!
Compare this with the very first LEGO Friends cafe, 3061 City Park Cafe, a 12-year old set with 222 pieces, only 2 minidolls which was priced at US$29.99 in 2012, and you have yourself a really good deal.
This charming Patisserie-themed cafe has a lot going for it, and I love all the little pastries and how it serves as a great hangout spot for Heartlake City minidolls, and also the fact that it combines really well with 42606 Mobile Bakery Food Cart and even 41748 Heartlake City Community Center, expanding play opportunities.
Most of all, with there being so many overpriced and straight up expensive LEGO sets these days, it just feels good to have a decently-priced LEGO set that’s especially great for younger builders, that won’t break the bank.
Final Score
Audience rating
Thanks for reading this short review of 42618 Heartlake City Cafe! I’ll leave you with this shot of some celebrities hanging out at the cafe enjoying some fine croissants.
42618 Heartlake City Cafe is available from LEGO.com, Amazon or your local toy store
If you plan on purchasing 42618 Heartlake City Cafe please consider using the affiliate links found in the post to support the blog, as I may receive a small commission with each purchase.
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