15 things we love about the LEGO Friends summer 2023 sets

From spinning insects and super slides to laid-back otters and twirling rides, there’s a lot to love across the latest wave of LEGO Friends sets.

With dozens (if not hundreds) of LEGO sets launching every summer, themes like Friends can easily be overlooked by collectors gunning for Icons, Star Wars, Ideas and Marvel. But there’s increasingly more to this theme than first meets the eye, and especially in 2023, when the LEGO Group has rebooted the decade-old line-up with brand new characters and a more approachable aesthetic.

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A total of 14 brand new LEGO Friends sets debuted on June 1, and among them are plenty of things to love. Having put together every single one of those sets – keep an eye out for our reviews soon – here are just a few highlights we’ve picked out…

15 – The 41759 Heartlake City Bus ramp

The accessible ramp is a simple and wholly manual feature built into the base of 41759 Heartlake City Bus, but one that is so nicely realised that it’s as satisfying playing with the 12th time as it was the first.

14 – The spinning butterflies in 41757 Botanical Garden

We love smart, interesting and new ways of building with LEGO as much as anyone, but we also love things that spin around. Wheeee!

13 – 41757 Botanical Garden’s Koi pond

There are layers to this Koi pond – literally. Using a combination of colour, stickers, plates and sideways-placed windows and bricks, this Koi pond in 41757 Botanical Garden so nicely comes together and looks the part too.

12 – The ridiculous parts usage in 41757 Botanical Garden

Look at all those different plants, all based on real plants as referenced in the instructions book. Then look again at all those weird pieces in different colours used to build them. Amazing creativity throughout 41757 Botanical Garden.

11 – Everything working together in 41737 Beach Amusement Park

41737 Beach Amusement Park includes three separate functions: a twirling spinner ride, a wave-surfing machine, and an arcade stall with moving targets. But there’s just the one crank to control them all, because thanks to some clever Technic-led design in the base, all three of these functions are connected in one seamless movement. You will never get tired of turning that crank.

10 – The palm tree in 41737 Beach Amusement Park

While it’s easy to get caught up in the functionality of 41737 Beach Amusement Park, you shouldn’t overlook the many ways in which it sells its tropical aesthetic, the best of which is easily the brand new and unique palm tree. It’s a great use for the new-for-2023 fern pieces, first introduced in 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell.

9 – 41749 Newsroom Van’s epic narrative

41749 Newsroom Van brings journalism back to Heartlake City, and with it a breaking news story for Aliya to report. This is pretty epic stuff, too: Darrel (perhaps a literal child, or perhaps just a shorter person – the Friends lore is vast and vague in parts) has planted himself between a tree and a chainsaw, in order to save an owl and its nest from the diabolical Peter the lumberjack. It doesn’t come harder-hitting than this.

8 – A diabetic character in 41744 Sports Center

Friends continues to lead the way in diversity, this time in including the first-ever LEGO character with diabetes. Hanna is designed with a glucose monitor printed on her arm and comes with a blood-sugar monitor, while some reports suggest an insulin pump is also included, but it could just be one of four listed water bottles in the set. Either way, inclusivity like this matters and is to be celebrated, for helping to highlight and educate younger minds around the differences that exist in the world.

7 – The three-in-one outdoor court in 41744 Sports Center 

A three-in-one play function that genuinely finds three interesting, fun and very-much-hands-on LEGO versions of different sports, all for the one outdoor court, is one of the many strengths to 41744 Sports Center. Football, basketball and tennis are all excellently captured in play form across the single, transforming court in ways that respectively make use of the characters as well as encourage plenty of hands-on play. 

6 ­– 41734 Sea Rescue Boat’s slide

41734 Sea Rescue Boat finds that perfect work-life balance to remind us that activities such as taking a responsible trip out to sea can also be very fun. From the various play opportunities across the quite sizeable vessel to the mini-sub(marine) and large sub (sandwich), there’s a lot to be said for helping the dolphins clean up the ocean. Plus, there’s a giant slide installed on the boat. Wheeee!

5 – 41748 Heartlake City Community Center’s slide

If you’ve already got a slide on your boat, where do you go from here? The answer is three storeys up a building, of course. That’s where you’ll find the slide in 41748 Heartlake City Community Center, and while no health and safety official would ever sign off on this in the real world, this is Heartlake City: a lawless place where anything goes. Also: wheeee!

4 – The detachable sub in 41734 Sea Rescue Boat

We’ve just mentioned this little submarine, but it’s worthy of its own entry in this list for just how simple yet fun it is to build and play with. A mini-doll can sit perfectly inside and be awkwardly winched up and down by the included crane, before playing around with its own poseable arms, and also the dolphins.

3 – 41748 Heartlake City Community Center’s Mario Kart-alike

The gaming floor of 41748 Heartlake City Community Center includes a big-screen TV, complete with one of several awesome stickers in the towering set, which depicts a head-to-head racer inspired by Mario Kart. Or maybe Crash Team Racing, depending on your console affiliation in the ‘90s. Either way, we’ll be borrowing this for plenty of other builds.

2 – The sewing machine in 41748 Heartlake City Community Center

The summer LEGO Friends wave is packed with interesting mini-builds the likes of which you’ll rarely come across in City, and one of the most imaginative is squirrelled away in 41748 Heartlake City Community Center. The artistic floor includes a ‘working’ sewing machine, with a needle that can genuinely move up and down. (It’s not controlled by the pedal though, unfortunately – that’s maybe a step too far.)

1 – Super-chill sea otters in 41736 Sea Rescue Center

Just as LEGO Friends has its own mini-doll counterparts to the rest of the portfolio’s minifigures, it also has its own unique selection of animals – and 41736 Sea Rescue Center is packed to the hilt with sea creatures, from a baby turtle and seahorse to what may just be the world’s laziest sea otters. The pose these little guys are pulling is hilarious, but helps them to go down that slide really nicely. Did we mention slide? Wheeee!

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