Friends

Heartlake City Preschool

A sweet little school with a big price tag for what's inside.

Brick Rated Score

3.4/5

Set 42636 · 2024

Pieces239

Minifigs6

Year2024

Set number42636

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The verdict

This is the set where LEGO finally gave Heartlake City its own preschool, and I love that the youngest members of the Friends universe get a building of their own instead of just tagging along on someone else's adventure.

The garden with its frogs and birds and the little tree house tacked onto the side are genuinely charming touches. Where I start to hedge is the price against what actually lands in the box, 239 pieces at close to fifty dollars is a rate that stings even for a licensed theme. Get it if you or your kid are building out the Heartlake map piece by piece, skip it if you're shopping for a standalone build that needs to hold its own.

Best for: Friends collectors filling out the Heartlake City street rather than first time buyers

The full review

What it is

I'll be honest, the first thing that got me about Heartlake City Preschool was the idea itself. Friends sets usually hand the youngest kids a cameo in someone else's shop or salon, so seeing a building built entirely around them, complete with tiny scaled down micro dolls sized for their age group, felt like LEGO paying attention to a corner of the story that usually gets skipped. Six minifigures come packed in here, two full size mini dolls running the show and four of those new micro dolls as the preschoolers, and that alone makes it feel like a genuine slice of Heartlake life rather than a spare parts box.

The catch

Then there's the price, and I have to be straight with you here. At just under fifty dollars for 239 pieces, you're paying around 21 cents a piece, which is on the high side even by LEGO's own standards and noticeably steeper than what Friends sets usually ask. Community pricing trackers flagged the same thing, calling it out as the set's one real weak spot even while praising the design. And the build itself won't test anyone, this is a straightforward, fast assembly aimed squarely at younger builders rather than anyone chasing a technical challenge.

Who it's for

So who actually wants this. Parents building a Heartlake City street scene for a preschooler will find a lot to love, the garden with its little frogs and birds, the tree house tacked onto the side, the classroom details, they all read as thoughtful rather than filler. If you're an adult collector shopping for a standalone display piece or a satisfying build session, I'd point you toward one of the bigger Heartlake buildings instead and let this one round out the collection later, once you've already fallen for the neighborhood.

The parts story

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

Building this one moves fast, there's no getting around that. It reads as an entry level construction meant for a preschooler and a parent working through it together rather than anyone hunting for clever engineering, so don't expect the kind of build tension that comes from a tricky roof or a fiddly interior. What it does well is pacing the story as you go, the classroom takes shape, then the garden gets added on, then the tree and its little house, so a young builder gets a sense of progress and payoff at every stage rather than one long slog to a finished shell.

The real interest here is in the new micro doll figures, four of them scaled down specifically to represent the preschool age children, which is a first for how Friends handles its youngest characters and worth a look even if you never plan to build the set. The garden add ons, tiny frogs, birds, and produce pieces, punch above their size for play value, and the brick built tree with its attached tree house is a nice bit of greenery that keeps the whole thing from reading as just four classroom walls. At 239 pieces for the price, the piece count itself is on the thin side, so the appeal here is really about the figures and the scene rather than raw brick volume.

Fun facts

01The set introduces new micro doll figures scaled down specifically for preschool aged Friends characters, four of them alongside two standard mini dolls, a first for how the theme represents its youngest cast.
02Named characters in the set include Alba, Basem, Colette, Liann, Peter, and Victoria.
03Unusually for a retired LEGO set, its secondary market value has slipped rather than risen, down close to 14 percent from retail according to price trackers, a sign demand never really caught fire.
04The garden section packs in tiny produce, insect, bird, and frog elements, giving a small classroom set a surprising amount of outdoor detail.