LEGO® Friends review: 42620 Olly and Paisley's Family Houses

Houses of the main characters have always been prominent in the LEGO® Friends line. The theme was rebooted last year, and the new style has been generally acclaimed. 42620 Olly and Paisley's Family Houses is the first LEGO Friends main cast set to feature two different houses, both in unusual colour schemes, yet feeling architecturally coherent.

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42620 Olly and Paisley's Family Houses
US$99.99/ £89.99/ 99.99€/ AU$149.99
1126 parts
Released 1 January 2024

Set 42620 on LEGO.com

Parts of interest 

New moulds

• 7x Bunch of leaves in Medium Lavender (6466045 | 5058) – exclusive to this set at time of launch and now also available in 43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' Cottage

The new leaf piece has an interesting texture. Medium Lavender isn't a traditional plant colour, but I believe these will be useful in MOCs anyway. It could make a nice scaled armour.

•  8x Plate Special 2 x 2 with Horizontal T-Bar Underneath in Dark Stone Grey/ Dark Bluish Grey (6457961 | 5066) – in 3 other sets

The new 'rocker plate' was introduced this year to replace the Minifig Shield Rectangular with 4 Studs (30166) in structural purposes. 

Read more information about new moulds in LEGO Friends 2024.

Recolours

Here are the elements that received colour changes at the time of this set's release.

• 1x Door 4 x 6 with Pet Door in Bright Purple/ Dark Pink (6466037 | 79730) – unique to this set
• 4x Window Frame 1 x 3 x 3 in Bright Purple/ Dark Pink (6466039 | 51239) – unique
• 11x Plant, Stem with 3 Leaves and Bottom Pin in Lavender (6466042 | 37695) – unique
• 3x Plant, Flower, Minifig Accessory with 7 Thick Petals and Pin, Center Ring in Flame Yellowish Orange/ Bright Light Orange (6452531 | 4367) – the updated version of mould 32606 now with a small hole. This colour is also present in four other sets.
• 2x Slope 25° 1 x 8 x 3 in Light Royal Blue/ Bright Light Blue (6466036 | 49618) – unique

Bright Light Blue is one of those colours that are still relatively limited, and so new sets featuring prominent Bright Light Blue structures usually introduce a recolour or two.

•  24x Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 2/3 Double Curved Top, No Studs in Bright Bluish Green/ Dark Turquoise (6466044 | 3563) – in 2 other sets

•  1x Minifig Neckwear Headphones in Lavender (6466050 | 66913) – in 2 other sets

Rare parts

The rarity of these parts is not entirely coherent, as it was measured before the inventories of 2024 were available. As a general rule, these parts appeared in 1 or 2 sets before the January 2024 wave.  

• 17x Brick Curved 1 x 1 x 2/3 Double Curved Top, No Studs in Dark Orange (6439726 | 49307) – in 2 other sets
• 12x Brick Curved 1 x 1 x 2/3 Double Curved Top, No Studs in Earth Blue/ Dark Blue (6403899 | 49307) – in 3 other sets

• 2x Plate 8 x 16 in Bright Bluish Green/ Dark Turquoise (6424332 | 92438) – in 3 other sets
• 1x Plate 8 x 16 in Bright Reddish Violet/ Magenta (6350731 | 92438) – in 2 other sets

• 2x Slope Inverted 45° 6 x 1 Double with 1 x 4 Cutout in Medium Nougat (6466240 | 52501) – in 3 other sets
• 1x Brick Round 3 x 3 x 2 with Recessed Center with 2 x 2 Studs and Axle Hole in Bright Yellowish Green/ Lime (6399755 | 73111) – in 2 other sets
  
• 1x Plate Round Corner 5 x 5 with 4 x 4 Round Cutout in Light Royal Blue/ Bright Light Blue (6383092 | 80015) – in 2 other sets
• 4x Slope Inverted 75° 2 x 1 x 3 in Light Royal Blue/ Bright Light Blue (6285268 | 2449) – also in 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage: Arrival at Hogwarts
• 1x Brick Special 1 x 2 with Studs on 2 Sides in Bright Blue/ Blue (6431331 | 52107) – in 5 other sets
• 2x Door 1 x 4 x 6 Smooth with Chamfered Handle Plinth in Lavender (6344038 | 35291, but more commonly listed under the previous mould variant 60616) – in 5 other sets
• 2x Slope Inverted 45° 2 x 2 in Light Royal Blue/ Bright Light Blue (6383073 | 3660) – in 4 other sets
• 1x Tile Round 3 x 3 in Earth Blue/ Dark Blue (6389684 | 67095) – in 4 other sets
• 1x Animal, Cat, Sitting with Dark Bluish Grey Face, Bright Light Blue Eyes, Collar print (Gertrude) in Medium Stone Grey (6416450 | 101115) – in 2 other sets
• 3x Brick Special 1 x 1 x 1 2/3 with Studs on 1 Side in Cool Yellow/ Bright Light Yellow (6430416 | 32952) – in 3 other sets
• 1x Wedge Plate 8 x 3, 22° Left in TLG Dark Green/ BL Green (6190040 | 50305) – in 3 other sets
• 1x Wedge Plate 8 x 3, 22° Right in TLG Dark Green/ BL Green (6425442 | 50304) – in 3 other sets

• 4x Equipment Telescope / Torch / Spyglass in Dark Orange (6070517 | 64644) – in 3 other sets
• 4x Panel 1 x 2 x 2 [Side Supports / Hollow Studs] in Dark Orange (6397874 | 87552) – in 2 other sets
• 3x 60592 Window 1 x 2 x 2 Flat Front in Bright Purple/ Dark Pink (6466040 | 79128. previously 60592) – in 2 other sets
• 2x Slope Curved 2 x 1 No Studs [1/2 Bow] in Transparent Yellow (6508250 | 3593) – in 4 other sets

Sticker sheets

This set includes two separate sticker sheets, one for each of the houses. This helps if the houses are built simultaneously by two builders.

Paisley's sheet features graphic elements that would have been hard or impossible to represent as built objects; I think they're fine as stickers. I especially like the elf book cover, the cute kid prints and memorabilia of Paisley's mother who has passed away. Only the grey mirror feels lacklustre. 

I didn't apply all of the stickers, as some of them are more useful on other pieces; for example, the singing-in-the-rain elephant is applied on a Light Aqua tile but would be more useful on Lime. I want to use it on a MOC, badly. But on the other hand, I did apply more stickers than I usually do, and so I declare this sheet above average.

Olly's sheet is smaller. The round rug is fantastic, and the cat print and the "Love" carpet are great. I applied almost all of them. I'm always happy to see stickers that are useful in MOCs; and this is a very good sheet.

Mini-dolls

 

In the blue house, we have Gwen, Olly and Martin. 

The parents are unique to this set:

• 1x Hair Mid-Length Swept Sideways in Brick Yellow/Tan (6466049 | 20877) – new recolour
• 1x Mini-doll Head Gwen in Warm Tan (6465605 | 105835) – new print
• 1x Mini-doll Torso, Woman, With Lime Vest and Sand Blue Arms in White (6469806 | 73152) – new print
• 1x Mini-doll Head, Martin in Light Nougat (6465610 | 105840) – new print
• 1x Mini-doll Torso, Boy, with Orange Smart Casual Shirt in Light Nougat (6469514 | 73161) – new print

Martin must be one of the coolest mini-dolls, what with his large moustache and orange shirt. 

In the yellow house we find Jonathan, Ella and Paisley. 

Ella's torso is the only unique part:

• 1x Microdoll Body with Turquoise Cat Print in Cool Yellow and Light Nougat (6465574 | 105804)

The houses

I start this part of the review with a quote from set designer Wes Talbott, from when Toby Mac interviewed Wes for his excellent review of 42639 Andrea's Modern Mansion:

"Traditionally we have character houses that are one big house, because it's really appealing to get the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room – all those different things – into one structure. But we did think, we don't want to represent a world where everyone lives in a giant house. That's why we decided to split it into two smaller houses that are more part of a suburb, which also brings a lot of awesome play opportunities for those two characters to grow up really closely.  So we have the biggest mansion we've ever done, and we also consciously made the smallest character houses we have ever done."

– Wes Talbott

Andrea's 18+ mansion indeed implies that Heartlake City has its share of income inequality. Success comes with more cubic metres of warm (or possibly air-conditioned) space than anyone would need. But it seems to be integral in LEGO Friends to have themes that kids can relate to, and very few of them live in a Malibu mansion. (If they do, they're probably the only ones who can get a 200€ LEGO Friends family house set to play with). So, these friends and their families live in the smallest houses of the theme.

As Wes notes, this means that some spaces have been left out. Olly's house lacks a kitchen, Paisley's doesn't have a living room (although there is a fireplace in the kitchen) and neither home includes an adult's bedroom. Both have toilets – they're LEGO Friends sets, after all – but lack a shower or tub. So officially these can't be "full" houses: they have been cut to size, and some rooms exist only in the imagination. They don't actually represent little houses without showers and stairs, they're mental images of houses which have the spaces that are essential to play, and meaningful to kids. 

At being decently sized detached houses compressed into a smaller size, they are largely successful. Despite omitting some spaces, the buildings nonetheless form architectural integrities. 

I have to reflect back to my review of 41449 Andrea's Family House in 2021; it was one of the first sets I reviewed for New Elementary. Back then I criticized it for lack of integrity; it had too many motifs and no real roofs that bind everything together. I think that critique still holds. So it's very nice to note that these issues have been fixed on these rebooted LEGO Friends family homes; the architecture is coherent and all spaces, save the small triangular one over the bathroom on Olly's home, have good, honest roofs. Actually, I think that the asymmetrical "school desk" roofs are the main architectural theme here.

Going back to Wes' comment, these detached homes are still firmly in the world of the middle classes, and I wonder if we'll ever see some LEGO Friends family apartments in row houses or suburban housing blocks. That would be very interesting, although the size of those buildings create some challenges of set design. We still haven't got Zac's, Leo's, Aliya's, Nova's nor Liann's family homes, so who knows?

Olly's Family Home

Olly lives with his mom and dad in a blue house that represents the "object" way of design - or so it was called in my architectural design courses. The house is shaped like a monolith, an irregular boulder left around by the ancient ice sheets. The sloped wall on the left side gives this building a unique shape. I like how the darker blues of the roof crop the lighter blue walls.

The cat flap door fits nicely with its six small windows. However, I must express my disdain of cat flaps: freely roaming cats can be disastrous to the local wildlife, and traffic can be disastrous to freely roaming cats. Keep your cats on leash.

The home is, well, homely, but also tells of an appreciation of modern design and thought-out details. I also think this is a home of a well-educated family, but this might also be due to Martin's smart looks.

The shaping is great, and I like the garden with its gnome, frog and Dark Orange stones. There is a major shortcoming, though; the Light Bluish Grey pieces in the walls. They're partly obscured by the creeper, but still give an impression of falling paint. The two on the ground floor are 1x2 SNOT bricks that have appeared in Bright Light Blue this year, so why not here? Shadows in the paradise.

The Dark Pink floor is very vibrant – not the best option! The big sofa looks good though, the cat poster is cute, and the shelf with tea accessories is a decent kitchen replacement.

Olly's room has a bed, a small working table and a comfy nest for his cat. However, there is a secret play feature.

Removing the bed reveals a proper artist's drawer, featuring some apparel plans on some mysterious pop idol. Who could it be? This feature is well designed, and cleverly, uses the space under the sub-roof of the living room.

The toilet is compact and cozy with a high-quality tiled floor and everything. It offers a completely private experience, albeit a somewhat dark one.

Paisley's Family Home

Paisley's home is as modern as Olly's but less contemporary in design; it evokes a certain resemblance of Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto homes. The brick chimney gives it some down-to-earthness, which is also reflected in Jonathan's blue-collar attire and Paisley's large tree house.

The shaping of the house is balanced and flows very well. I like the horizontal windows on the second floor – this is something that I liked about 42621 Heartlake City Hospital, where they sadly faded into the plurality of motifs. The effect is even more powerful here.

My largest gripe is the colour scheme. All of these hues work independently, but Bright Light Yellow and Dark Turquoise are a bit too vibrant together. It's not a huge issue and it's good to have pieces in those colours, but I think probably something like Tan walls with a Dark Tan and Medium Nougat chimney would've been better.

This building is slightly larger than Olly's home, featuring a kitchen/dining room, a bathroom, a hall and the girls' room.

The set of dining furniture can be removed easily; the spoon holders look a bit ridiculous, but at least they keep the cutlery from flying around. The TV set in the kitchen makes me wonder if the house is actually quite small and lacks a living room. The sticker features the mysterious pop idol. I wonder if Jonathan knows what his older daughter does in the evenings? Can they soon afford a house with a living room? Or are streaming revenues too small?

The angled fireplace is well designed, but sadly obscured by the furniture. However, Ella's chair next to it gives me warm memories; in my childhood home, my place at the table was next to the masonry oven's hatch and the large wood box.

There is also a kitchen set, featuring a fridge, electric oven and a cooktop. It can be removed for play. This compliments the lack of kitchen in the Olly's home, as there isn't really a need for two.

The toilet and the hall are quite bare. I don't think that tiling up every surface in sets is essential, but the Medium Nougat studded floor on the toilet looks a bit... dirty? Or at least unfinished. I think tiles would be good in rooms that generally are tiled in real life. This probably represents a plastic mat.

The main roof is not tiled, which I think is an understandable way to keep the budget and the set price at bay.

Paisley and Ella share a bedroom. Their dead mother appears on the sticker featuring mementos and a 7' single. This room is cozy despite its relatively small size, and Ella's Ladybug Car is rather cute. I wonder if it refers to an old wooden LEGO ladybug toy? 

Conclusion

Set 42620 Olly and Paisley's Family Houses achieves something that I've been missing in many previous LEGO Friends houses: they are coherent architectural entities with thought-out design, substantial roofs and essential functions for playing. They look like real buildings, which means a lot to me. They don't feel too small; on the contrary, quality is often hard to achieve in compact size, so the outcome feels even more fortunate.

There are some shortcomings, of course: Paisley's home's colour scheme is a tad too vibrant to my liking, and its bathroom needs a bit of polishing. Olly's home has some eyesore Light Bluish Grey parts in its walls. But these are small things, and probably won't trouble the target audience. 

As a parts pack, it's good both in terms of numbers (US$99.99/ £89.99/ 99.99€/ AU$149.99 for 1126 parts including 6 mini-dolls) and the noteworthy pieces; it's also a good introduction to two new 2024 moulds. 

LEGO Friends has shown its prowess once again, proving to be one of the best LEGO playthemes of today.

Set 42620 on LEGO.com

READ MORE: LEGO® Pick a Brick: new elements added in March 2024

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