Gta San Andreas Modern Mod V2 Download Torrent
Genciana Haggins
In addition to receiving a preview copy, I was invited on behalf of New Elementary to a roundtable discussion with the set's designer Wes Talbott and the creative lead for LEGO Friends, Fenella Charity. We discussed the design process, the completed set, and its new elements and some insights from them are included throughout this article.
After the 10th anniversary of the theme, the LEGO Friends Universe got a reboot. The first children to play with the theme have grown up; so too have the characters. The original group of 5 friends have become adults, and a new generation have taken their place. But the reboot is not limited to just the characters.
When we relaunched the brand, we really took a look inside; what are we about? How do we want to represent children and people around the world? By doing that, we've become much clearer on our purpose, and also what makes us unique within The LEGO Group amongst other themes.
Before, we were sort of targeting one audience. Now, we want to welcome anyone that wants to get to know LEGO Friends and to build the sets. I think that resonates with people from different walks of life, and all sorts of diversity and ages.
From left to right we get: Andrea, Mia, Emma, Stephanie and Olivia, all in adult form. Adult Mia has been seen before as the mother of Autumn in the reboot, and in the summer of 2023, Stephanie was introduced as the mayor of Heartlake City. Andrea is returning in 2024 as a judge in 42616 Heartlake City Music Talent Show, sparking the inspiration for the mansion.
A car needs a garage, and here we move from LEGO Speed Champions to LEGO Technic: a clever mechanism opens the door and tilts the floor to roll out the car. The mechanism works great once all parts are in place, but I did notice the front of the car tends to scrape the floor.
The next floor features a terrace with a jacuzzi. I read some comments online that the jacuzzi has quite a few holes in it, but that is just the outside decoration. The inside is glass, created with the new Panel 3 x 3 x 2 (more details on that part here).
On the table we find Trans-Clear saucers, a recent recolor found in 10321 Corvette, as well as the recently revived sundae glasses which came back in 2 sets in 2023 after a single initial appearance in 2020.
On the outside of the room a black frame gives a modern look to the mansion, with the Reddish Orange fitting in with the color gradient wonderfully. The garage door sections use as window louvres look great as well, providing shade to the room as well as complimenting the gradient on the frame. The pins on the garage door sections stick out a bit, requiring some creative solutions to make them fit inside the frame.
On the roof we find another terrace, as well as a tranquil area for yoga and meditation. I love the waterfall pouring over the side of the mansion. I just hope the koi know to keep clear, otherwise they are in for a thrilling ride.
The final touches are added by the palm trees, which introduce the new Plant, Fern 3 x 4 x 3 in Lime (6460334 5151). The notch in the base plate allows for the addition of an axle to make the tree more sturdy.
The color scheme looks beautiful with that gradient prominently featured on the front. The rooms are decorated nicely as well, with enough personal details to make it feel like a home, despite my dislike of modern architecture in general.
For the perspective on new elements, be sure to check my parts review of this set if you haven't already. If you're buying this once it's released on 1 January 2024, please consider buying set 42639 on LEGO.com using our affiliate link. We may earn a small fee which really helps us continue our work!
A huge thank you to all our patrons for your support, especially our 'Vibrant Coral' tier: London AFOLs, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Huw Millington, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Gerald Lasser, Baixo LMmodels, Sue Ann Barber and Trevor Clark, Markus Rollbhler, Elspeth De Montes, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Chuck Hagenbuch, Jf, Wayne R. Tyler, Daniel Church, Lukas Kurth (StoneWars) and Timo Luehnen! You folks are just the cutest little baby bows.
Factors that LEGO consider when deciding an age category include: complexity of building process, level of cognitive development required to complete the set, the size of the model and expected time to complete. These age categories are curated from years of product testing with differing age groups.
After 10 years of the LEGO Friends themes, The LEGO Group continues to shape the sets to reflect changing social norms and expectations from their customers. The re-imagined Friends characters are more representative of the real-world, with a focus on the neurodivergence, mental health, physical conditions, gender, culture and ethnicity that is representative of diverse worlds that children find themselves in. While I am not deeply familiar with the Friends line and characters, they included a couple of pages of the evolution of the characters over the years in the instruction manual. (To learn more about how LEGO used real-world feelings of children to influence set design you can read this press release.)
Keeping the intended audience in mind it was important to look at this set both from the lens of an AFOL and that of a child, although an older child given this is a 14+ set. Comparatively sets such as those in the Ninjago City line are 16+ and Modular line are 18+. The immediate draw as I opened the bags was the rainbow color palette and the scale of the box. I knew that this was going to be a big build and leverage a large number of diverse building techniques. In the build process section we will explore some of the techniques that were used and the reasons designers picked the elements they did to achieve the details of the section. This set is split across 17 bags, however some of the bags have been combined in this review based on what they intend to build. A set that was normally split across 4-5 builds nowadays is covered in 15-20 bags, providing for a very different build experience.
As we begin to build up the mansion we start with the garagte. One of the first observations is the inclusion of a unique frame piece. Although this frame is not exclusive to this set this frame allows for rigidity that a brick built frame could not achieve. From a build perspective this section utilizes a lot of technic pieces to build the garage door mechanism play feature. Technic also comes with a secondary benefit of being a useful structural piece, something that is crucial for this build as the height and size needs to be built in a way to ensure it does not break apart. While 1White is the predominant color in this section the gradient accent at the front of the garage is very appealing. The designers make use of 21Bright RedRed, 106Bright OrangeOrange, 24Bright YellowYellow and the new color Reddish Orange to capture this gradual transition. A transition we will see elsewhere in this set as well as LEGO wants to highlight its new elements wherever possible.
On the other side of the garage we see the earthen tones of 312Medium NougatMedium Dark Flesh and 138Sand YellowDark Tan come through as this mansion is built into a rocky hill. Through use of varied slope pieces spaced at sharp angles we get the natural geometry protude along the base of the set. As highlighted earlier the garage door is built using a technic mechanism that allows the car we previously built to enter and leave the garage. While at first glance it may look like this mechanism just opens and closes the door there is an interesting sloping mechanism built into the ground that lifts the floor allowing the car to roll out when the door is opened. When the door is closed the foundation lays flat ensuring the car does not slide around in the set or apply pressure on the door itself.
When we turn the set around we start to see all the colors come to life. In the basement we build a room that doubles as a recording studio and a guest bedroom. The bed itself is built such that it slides under the pool and can be hidden out of sight. This simple technique takes advantage of the smooth surface of tiles to slide the bed in and out, with a brick at the head of the bed board locking it into place ensuring it only slides out so far. The floor is colored brightly with 42Bright Reddish VioletMagenta and 322Bright PurpleDark Pink which reinforces the contrasting colors in this set allowing it to pop right out to the builder.
Creating a body of water that figures can be submerged in is tricky in LEGO due to the solid nature of its pieces but in this set the designers captured a pool spectacularly. Rather than having the water be the interior of the pool the designers used 42Transparent Light BlueTrans-Light Blue to simulate a glass pool with water inside it. From the side this illusion works as the partially cloudy pattern of layered transparent pieces helps give off the wavy water texture. Moving to the left of the building we see the second layer of the retaining wall be built up, this time utilizing the new 33 curved piece to great effect. This slightly smaller curve enables a layering texture while allowing for curvature which adds elegance to the build. This modern look albeit simple really accentuates the wealth of this mansion. Contrasting this 1White are the modern 26Black steps. The steps are built in a layered pattern that ensures that each step is only 2 tiles height difference as the traditional LEGO brick is too tall. This height difference follows the same height differential that traditional LEGO step pieces use for consistency across builds. All the small elements start to come together as we build up the structure, from the shapes to colors, helping accentuate the grand look that the mansion strives to project.
As the first floor comes to a close we can see all the details put together. The foundation itself is 48 studs wide making it larger than the traditional 36 stud wide base plate that modular sets come on but due to its irregular shape this set feels larger. The rainbow of colors begin to come together and harmoniously blend together. While building this and comparing it to my other sets I noticed that unlike traditional LEGO structures the designers went all out to incorporate as many different colors together. Something that in your mind may not come out looking aesthetic but works for this build. Although a very minor detail, the mailbox sitting at the top of the steps is built indented into the wall to ensure that the 22 frame does not jut out. This subtle inlay makes ensures that the mailbox is built directly into the structure allowing it to blend in with the flat surface surrounding it.
b1e95dc632