Friends

Heartlake City Fashion Show

A runway with a turning stage, three minidolls, and more outfits than a school dance closet.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 42685 · 2026

Pieces410

Minifigs3

Year2026

Set number42685

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The verdict

I love that the Friends team keeps finding new formats to hang a playset on, and a fashion show with a rotating splat-gear stage is genuinely a fun idea.

Paisley, Liann, and Nova each get a dressing table's worth of accessories, and spinning the reveal platform to unveil an outfit is the kind of small mechanical trick that makes a play session feel like a show. Where it loses me a little is value. At fifty dollars for 410 pieces, most of the drama here is packed into fabric and printed accessories rather than new building, so the fun is real but it is not cheap fun. If your kid stages actual fashion shows with their dolls already, this is a direct hit. If they mostly want to build, I would look elsewhere in the line first.

Best for: kids who love dress up and staging little performances more than building

The full review

What it is

I will admit the fashion show concept won me over before I even opened the box. It is a box-style building split into four cubbies, each one a little styling station, with the stage as the centerpiece downstairs, complete with colored lights, a working camera prop, and that splat gear mechanism that rotates the middle of the stage. Watching a minidoll's outfit turn into view like a real runway reveal is a small moment, but it is the kind of small moment that makes this set click as a toy rather than just a model.

The catch

Here is the part I will be straight with you about. Fifty dollars for 410 pieces is a steep ratio, and the Brickset reviewers flagged the same thing I noticed: most of the clothing and accessories that make this set fun are recolors and reused molds, not new parts. The build itself is not complicated either, so if your kid is after a satisfying construction challenge, this will not be it. The magic here is entirely in the dress up and staging, not in the bricks going together.

Who it's for

I would put this in the cart for a kid who already plays fashion show or dress up with their toys, the type who wants three distinct minidolls and a wardrobe to mix and match rather than a big build to sink an afternoon into. If your child measures a set by how satisfying the build is or how many pieces they get per dollar, I would wait for this one to hit a discount, because the Friends team nailed the concept but priced it like the accessories are rarer than they actually are.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this one goes fast. You are mostly snapping together the four-cubby dressing area and the stage platform, then the real work is sorting and matching outfits to each minidoll. It is less a construction project and more a styling session, which is exactly the point for the kid this is aimed at, but adult builders looking for an engaging build will be done in well under an hour.

The standout pieces are on the accessory side. New Elementary called out four printed trans-clear window glass pieces as the best thing in the set, plus a new dark purple skirt piece with a silvery iridescent finish and a soft fur cape in bright light blue. Most of the rest of the wardrobe, though, including wigs, handbags, sunglasses, and the little Stanley-style cups each minidoll carries, are pulled from existing Friends molds, so parts collectors will recognize a lot of it even if kids will not care one bit.

Fun facts

01The three minidolls in this set, Paisley, Liann, and Nova, are all unique to 42685.
02New Elementary singled out the set's four printed trans-clear window glass pieces as its best new part.
03Each minidoll comes with her own tiny Stanley-style tumbler cup, a detail Friends fans have been collecting across recent waves.
04BrickEconomy projects the set to retire in mid to late 2027.