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"The Newsroom Van earns a BrickScore of 73.3 — a confident recommend for fans of the Friends theme, driven by its environmental storytelling, clever play features, and strong value at around $30, though one reviewer found the execution too rough around the edges to fully win them over."
The LEGO Friends Newsroom Van (41749) earns a solid BrickScore of 73.3 across 3 reviews, with two reviewers enthusiastically recommending it and one offering a more lukewarm, mixed take. The majority praise the set's environmentally themed narrative, clever interior workspace, tilting tree mechanism, and engaging SNOT techniques for its modest price point. The dissenting voice from Zusammengebaut finds the overall execution somewhat unpolished — citing unattractive purple wheel hubs, a minimal tree design, and narrative inconsistencies — but even they acknowledge it could delight kids with a passion for journalism.
Where they split: Two reviewers (Brickset Reviews and Bouwsteentjes) rate the set highly and recommend buying, praising the narrative depth, build techniques, and play features. Zusammengebaut is notably cooler, rating it at 55 and recommending a skip — calling out unpolished design choices, a sparse tree build, and a story that doesn't fully hold together. The owl is the one element all three agree on as a highlight.
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"This is a great set. The first Heartlake News Van was somewhat underwhelming. It was a nice, small set, but much like many Friends sets at the time, the focus of the set was on something quite superficial, like a birthda…"
Brickset Reviews"It is a set that positively surprised me. First of all, the set has a nice price. For that price you get a really nice set with plenty of fun challenges."
Bouwsteentjes"This is a great set. The first Heartlake News Van was somewhat underwhelming. It was a nice, small set, but much like many Friends sets at the time, the focus of the set was on something quite superficial, like a birthday. This news van is far superior, and I love the swing operation to expand the work space, which is crammed with details."
"It is a set that positively surprised me. First of all, the set has a nice price. For that price you get a really nice set with plenty of fun challenges."
Amazon4.7Walmart5.0LEGO.com4.8
