Friends

Pet Day-Care Center

A pastel little pet resort with a dog agility course that genuinely made me grin.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 41718 · 2022

Pieces593

Minifigs3

Year2022

Set number41718

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The verdict

This is one of those Friends sets that looks like a toy first and a display piece second, and I mean that as a compliment.

The skateboarding dog and the agility course are silly in the best way, and the colour palette (soft aqua, turquoise, a hit of trans-pink) is lovely to build with. It is not the sturdiest thing LEGO has ever made, so if you want a set that survives being carried around a lot, keep reading. Best enjoyed by an animal-obsessed kid who wants to actually play, not park it on a shelf.

Best for: Animal-loving kids around 7-10 who want a playset they can actually push and pose

The full review

What it is

The thing that got me about the Pet Day-Care Center is how unabashedly playful it is. This is a little two-storey pet resort in soft aqua and turquoise, and instead of leaning on quiet domestic detail the way some Friends sets do, it hands you a dog agility course, a skateboard, and a set of colourful slides that dump straight into a pool. You get three mini-dolls (Emma, River and Priyanka) plus a tiny micro-doll, Henry, and a proper little menagerie: Rumble the hamster, Twister the rabbit, Chico the cat, and Cookie the Scottish Terrier. Building it feels like assembling a toy that happens to be made of LEGO, and honestly that is exactly the point at this age and price.

The catch

I do have to be straight with you about the trade-offs. The recurring complaint from owners, and it comes up again and again, is that the model is not very sturdy. People report it falling apart at the slightest bump and being awkward to carry, which matters a lot for a set aimed at seven-year-olds who will absolutely be swooshing it around the living room. A few also mention the mini-doll hair pieces working themselves loose. And at the $69.99 recommended price, 593 pieces is not a screaming bargain on a per-brick basis, so if you value engineering and heft over play, this will feel light in the hand.

Who it's for

So who should get it. If there is a kid in your life who is animal-mad and wants to stage stories, walk dogs through obstacle courses, and run a pretend grooming salon, this is a joy and worth hunting down now that it is retired. If you are after a display-grade build, a clever piece of parts engineering, or something that will stay standing while it travels between rooms, this is not the set for you and I would look elsewhere in the Friends range. Buy it for the play, not the pedigree.

The parts story

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

The build itself is quick and friendly, the sort of thing that comes together in an hour or two without ever getting fiddly. It is arranged so a younger builder can follow along solo, and the open two-storey layout means you are placing accessories almost constantly: shampoo, a brush, a treat jar, broccoli, a carrot, all the little bits that make the play space feel lived in. It is light construction rather than deep technique, which is why it plays so well and also why it wobbles if you grab it wrong.

For parts hunters there is a genuinely nice haul of firsts here. The dark turquoise 5x5 round corner plate and the light aqua 6x8 round tile both debuted in this set and were exclusive to it, and the curved 45-degree cylinder tubes arrived in a new trans-dark-pink recolour you would not find anywhere else. There is also a fresh tan 3x3 round tile and, best of the lot, a brand-new Scottish Terrier dog mould for Cookie. The BrickLink part-out value sits comfortably above the retail price, so as a parts donor for pastel builds it is quietly one of the better-value Friends boxes of its year.

Fun facts

01The Scottish Terrier dog, Cookie, uses a mould that was brand new and exclusive to this set when it launched in 2022.
02Two elements debuted here and appeared nowhere else: the dark turquoise 5x5 round corner plate and the light aqua 6x8 round tile.
03The curved cylinder tubes came in a new trans-dark-pink colour created specifically for this set.
04It released on 1 March 2022 at a $69.99 RRP and has since retired, with its BrickLink part-out value climbing past what it cost new.