Friends

Olivia's Space Academy

The little Friends set that quietly out-engineers its own theme.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 41713 · 2022

Pieces757

Minifigs4

Year2022

Set number41713

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The verdict

I did not expect a mid-size Friends box to hand me a working orrery, a spinning multi-axis trainer, and a shuttle with an opening payload bay, but here we are.

Olivia's Space Academy packs an astonishing amount of function into 757 pieces, and the play value genuinely holds up for adults who just like clever little mechanisms. The shuttle proportions are a bit stubby if you stare too hard, and it's retired now so you'll pay a touch more than you'd like. If you love play features and gentle engineering over display shelf drama, this one earns its keep.

Best for: Space-obsessed kids and adults who love working mechanisms over shelf pieces

The full review

What it is

I keep a soft spot for the Friends sets that don't just look pretty on a Heartlake street, and Olivia's Space Academy is one of those. It's a 757 piece build from 2022 that splits into a proper little campus: a space shuttle, a mission control centre, a classroom with a whiteboard covered in real orbital equations, a swiveling telescope, an observatory, and a training area. The first thing that got me was the orrery, a tiny working model of the sun, earth and moon that revolves off a mechanism with only two gears. In a set aimed at eight-year-olds, that is a lovely, quietly ambitious touch, and it tells you the designers actually cared.

The catch

I'll be honest about where it wobbles. The shuttle is the star of the box, and while it opens up beautifully with a payload bay and a poseable Canadarm, the proportions are on the stubby side. LEGO has never been famous for nailing shuttle geometry, and if you're the sort who lines things up against a photo, you'll notice. The other thing to know going in is that this set leans hard on stickers, and it's a big sparkly sheet. They happen to be genuinely nice stickers, with fun easter eggs like the LEGO City space station tucked onto the mission control screens, but if you dread applying decals this is a set that will ask a lot of you. And since it retired in December 2023, the friendly 69.99 dollar price tag is now a memory, so you're shopping the aftermarket.

Who it's for

Who should reach for it? Any kid who is deep in a space phase will get enormous mileage here, because nearly every build does something you can play with rather than just look at. Adult fans who love mechanisms and don't mind minidolls will find a genuinely satisfying afternoon in the orrery and the trainer. I'd steer past it if you only build for display, or if you want a screen-accurate shuttle model, because the charm here is function and fun, not scale realism.

The parts story

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

Building this is a steady, cheerful few hours rather than a marathon, split across six numbered bags plus a bag of larger parts. It never gets fiddly enough to frustrate a younger builder, but the mechanisms keep an adult engaged, especially when the orrery gearing and the spinning trainer ring click into life. The pace is well judged: you get a satisfying little function completed in most of the bags, so momentum never sags.

The standout part for me is the newly recolored white 11x11 Technic circle beam used for the multi-axis trainer, a chunky ring element that gives the whole training rig its motion. There's a purple splat gear you flick to set it spinning, coral accents on the astronaut suits, and the observatory core that seats into its shell for a full 360-degree rotation. This is also the first LEGO set to mark its spare stickers with little printed stars in the corner of the sheet, a small quality-of-life change I wish every set had. For 757 pieces you're getting a lot of moving mechanism, which is where the Friends value reputation is well earned.

Fun facts

01The multi-axis trainer uses a newly recolored white 11x11 Technic circle beam, a part that debuted in a fresh color here.
02This was the first LEGO sticker sheet to mark its spare stickers with little printed stars so you know which ones are extras.
03The mission control screens hide an easter egg sticker showing the LEGO City space station.