Friends

Olly's and Paisley's Family Homes

Two little houses with more heart packed in than sets three times the size.

Brick Rated Score

4.1/5

Set 42620 · 2024

Pieces1,126

Minifigs6

Year2024

Set number42620

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The verdict

This one won me over slowly, and it was the storytelling that did it.

Two small homes for two different families, and the reason they're small is the whole point: designer Wes Talbott didn't want a world where everyone lives in a mansion. If you love Heartlake City and you care about the details more than the square footage, you'll adore it. If you want a big fold-open dollhouse with every room stuffed in, the honesty here might feel a bit modest.

Best for: Friends fans who love character and storytelling over sheer size

The full review

What it is

Some LEGO® sets grab you with scale, and then there's this one, which grabbed me with a reason. Olly's and Paisley's Family Homes is a 1,126-piece Friends set with two separate two-storey houses and a little tree hideout tucked between them. What makes it special is that the two homes belong to two different families, and they feel completely different from each other. Olly's is cool blue and greys with an artistic, slightly moody personality. Paisley's is warm and busy in bright yellow and dark turquoise. Put them side by side and they still read as houses on the same street, which is a genuinely clever bit of design. Six mini-dolls come in the box, all exclusive to this set, plus a micro-doll and two pets, so both families feel properly lived in.

The catch

Here's where I'll be straight with you. These houses are small, and that's on purpose. The designer said outright that he didn't want to build a world where every kid lives in a giant house, so the homes leave rooms out. Olly's place has no kitchen. Paisley's has no living room, though there's a fireplace in the kitchen. Neither one has a parents' bedroom. If you're used to the big fold-out Friends houses, this can feel like less at first glance, and I won't pretend the price didn't sting a little at the launch RRP of around 100 dollars. There are also two sticker sheets to work through, which some builders love (you can build both houses at once with a friend) and some find fiddly. And the colours are loud. Paisley's yellow-and-turquoise mix runs hot, and a few of the light grey wall panels on Olly's side can look a bit bare.

Who it's for

So who's this really for? If you collect Friends, love Heartlake City, and you're the kind of person who notices the tiny hidden drawer under a bed or a framed photo that quietly tells you a character's backstory, this set is a small joy. It rewards you for paying attention. Kids get two homes and two family stories to play across, which is honestly more open-ended than one big house. If what you want is maximum room count and the biggest possible build for your money, you might feel a little short-changed, and that's fair. Me, I came in skeptical about the size and left charmed by how much feeling the team fit into such a compact footprint. It's not the flashiest Friends set on the shelf, but it might be one of the warmest.

The parts story

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

The build splits cleanly into two houses, which is part of the fun, because two people can each take a home and a sticker sheet and race. Each house is a compact two-storey affair, and the signature move is the asymmetrical slanted roof (New Elementary nicknamed it the school-desk roof) that gives both buildings their attitude. It's a quick, satisfying build rather than a marathon, with the interiors doing most of the storytelling work. You spend your time on small furnished vignettes rather than big repetitive walls, so the pacing stays lively the whole way through. The little tree spot between the houses ties the scene together.

For parts nerds there's real interest here. The set introduced a new Bunch of Leaves element in medium lavender that was exclusive at launch, plus a new 2x2 plate with a horizontal T-bar underneath in dark grey. Beyond the new molds, you get useful recolours: door and window frames in bright purple, plant stems in lavender, and curved bricks in bright bluish green that show up rarely elsewhere. With 1,126 pieces for roughly 100 dollars at RRP, it lands around the usual Friends price per part, and the exclusive mini-dolls (all six unique to this set) sweeten the value if you care about characters. The set has since sold out at retail and now trades above its original price, so it's one that got harder to find.

Fun facts

01Set designer Wes Talbott deliberately left out rooms like kitchens and adult bedrooms, saying LEGO didn't want to represent a world where everyone lives in a giant house, so the homes would feel relatable to kids from different backgrounds.
02It comes with two separate sticker sheets on purpose, so two people can build the houses side by side at the same time.
03Olly's house hides an artist's drawer tucked underneath the bed, and Paisley's home includes small keepsakes referencing her late mother, quiet backstory details built right into the furniture.
04The medium lavender Bunch of Leaves element made its debut in this set, exclusive at launch before appearing anywhere else.