Review: LEGO 42649 Heartlake City Candy Store

February 15, 2025 | 2

Editor-in-Chief

Jay Ong

Heartlake City has always had incredible living standards with plenty of amenities such as cute cafes, shopping strips and more. For the January 2025 Friends release, Heartlake City minidolls who have a sweet tooth are in luck as the city is adding 42649 Heartlake City Candy Store, a new sweet shop filled with all sorts of treats and lollies.

At US$29.99 / AU$49.99, it’s on the lower end of the spectrum, making this a great set for budget-conscious looking to add a colourful Candy Store to add to your collection or LEGO City!

Let’s sink our teeth into the 2025 LEGO Friends Candy Store!

Special thanks to LEGO for sending this set over for review.

42649 Heartlake City Candy Store Set Details

Here’s a look at the sticker sheet included in the set. The graphics are bright, colourful and very playful thanks to the anthropomorphic candy faces.

There are 3 minifigures included in the set, the Candy Store owner Gigi, and one of the main Friends characters, Leo and his little sister Alba. who he is taking to the Candy Store for some sweet treats.

Gigi is the star of the set thanks to her awesome new wig, which comes in this mesmerising blend of orange, pink and yellow. It has an pearlescent sheen to it, and just looks brilliant.

If her wig looks familiar, it’s because you’ve likely seen it used for Izzie in LEGO DreamZzz, but this is a brand new colour, and it’s such a great showcase of the interesting colours that LEGO’s element department can come up with.

You also get Pluto, an adorable black cat with just a bit of tongue sticking out. The all-black fur makes his huge bright yellow eyes look adorable as well, and I’m not going to lie, this is one of the cutest LEGO Cats that they’ve ever designed.

Here’s a look at the completed model, which is just bursting at the seams with colour, as a Candy Store should be designed. LEGO Friends sets are usually very colourful on their own, but this one takes it to a whole new level.

Two more LEGO Friends food mascots are introduced in this set, a chocolate bar and a sweet. I’m not exactly sure what these mascots are… I guess they’re minidolls, as the sweet’s legs are a dead giveaway that there are minidolls on the inside… but I don’t know – these could be sentient beings?

Anyway, they look super cute and I especially like their very expressive facial expressions.

Here’s what they look like from the back. See what I mean that I’m not entirely convinced these are minidolls…

I really like this new collection of food mascots that are slowly popping up in Heartlake City sets! Here’s they are next to the Croissant from 42606 Mobile Bakery Food Cart. I also know that there’s a Bubble Tea Mascot and a Cotton Candy Mascot that I need to hunt down as well for a proper group shot, but these are great designs, even if they’re somewhat unnerving because they don’t seem to be human!

Here’s a look at the facade of the store, which has plenty of inviting display windows to lure sweet lovers in.

I particularly like the gumball machine out the front, and fans of in-universe LEGO bubblegum brand Guble Bubble will be delighted by this large display, with an oversized Guble Bubble face on it.

The interiors are relatively small, but not entirely uncommon for a small Friends set like this. The falls can fold outwards to expand the size of the interiors, to make it easy to transition between play and display mode.

Here is the pick and mix section, with sweets of all kinds in the acrylic compartments that you can enjoy to your heart’s content. I really like the design of the red scoops that are hanging on each wall!

In the middle, we have some crystal-shaped rocky candy in the windows, as well as some large chunks of chocolate on the other display.

And last but not least, on the right side, we have a cash register, as well as an area where Gigi cooks and prepares candy! While it’s quite small and compact, there’s a lot of nice details, such as a pot where the candy is being boiled and in liquid form, before being poured out onto the counter, where the liquid takes different shapes before its cut into pieces while it hardens.

It’s quite clever design, as it not only facilitates roleplay, but also ties in some educational storytelling into the set, which is quite a nice bonus especially if you’re a parent wanting to teach your kids about how their favourite sweets or lollies are made.

What I liked:

• Colourful set that introduces a new store to Heartlake City
• More food-themed mascot creatures
• Compact design that doesn’t compromise on play

What I didn’t like:

• Nothing at all!

Final Thoughts

42649 Heartlake City Candy Store is one of my favourite small sets from the January 2025 LEGO Friends wave, as it packs a lot of value into a reasonably-priced set.

Heartlake City finally gets a Candy Store, and it doesn’t disappoint with its vibrant colour scheme, and fun characters like Gigi and her gorgeous pearlescent wig. The mascots are also a lot of fun, and add a lot of playability to the set without necessarily having to add more minidolls, which LEGO is loathe to do at sets in this price range.

The set in itself is a fun addition to Heartlake City, and fits in with the other similar-sized structures, so its worth picking up if you or your kids collect LEGO Friends sets. It’s pretty good value for the price, especially if you can pick it up on sale.

Final Score

3

Build

An easy-enough build for younger Heartlake City fans with plenty of colours

3

Minidolls

A decent number of minidolls, and you get some great parts such as Gigi’s pearlescent hair

4

Real Value

Feels fairly priced at RRP, but will be great value when on sale

3

Innovation

Fun new store added to Heartlake City

4

Keepability

It’s bright and vibrant, and one of the more interesting looking stores.

Audience rating

How would you rate this set?

1 2 3 4 5

Thanks for reading! 42649 Heartlake City Candy Store is available from LEGO.com, Amazon, Amazon Australia or your local LEGO toy retailer.

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