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15 September 2024

Review: 40694 River Camping Adventure GwP from LEGO® Friends

Posted by tobymac

From tomorrow Monday 16 September, set 40694 River Camping Adventure is the gift with purchase with select LEGO® themes. Here’s your early look at what this cute LEGO® Friends set contains!

Completed set 40694 River Camping Adventure from Lego Friends

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

40694 River Camping Adventure GwP

40694 River Camping Adventure on LEGO.com
Lego Friends 40694 River Camping Adventure GWP (social only)

The built model



closeup of the lego tent from set 40694 River Camping Adventure from Lego Friends

They sleep in a brick-built tent that uses Slope 8x5x⅔ with 2x6 Studs (6338339 | 75539). 


the lego tent splayed open, from set 40694 River Camping Adventure

It can fold open to reveal two sleeping bags and a crate with supplies. 

I never realized it is possible to put different-sized parts on top of crates. In hindsight this seems logical, so I assume this is not news to most of you!



closeup of the stream and beaver form set 40694 River Camping Adventure from Lego Friends

They picked the perfect spot to camp right in the middle of nature, on the banks of a small stream. 


Lego beaver eating a tree from set 40694 River Camping Adventure from Lego Friends

They should be careful of falling trees though, as the beaver seems set on damming the stream.


two alternate view of the tree form set 40694 River Camping Adventure: one has green leaves and the other orangey yellow

This might be the final camping trip of the summer, as autumn is right around the corner. To make the switch, the set comes with extra leaves in appropriate colors.

Parts

There are no new elements to be found among the 182 parts in the set, but we do get some beautiful pieces that have appeared in only a few sets before.

3 different lego parts
  • 3x 5058 Plant, Leaves Stacked 4 x 5 x 1 2/3 in Flame Yellowish Orange/ Bright Light Orange (6475766, 6507839 | 5058)
  • 2x Brick Round 1.5 x 1.5 Dome Top [Plain] in Brick Yellow/ Tan (6487883 | 20952, 37840)
  • 4x Brick Curved 1 x 2 x 2/3 Double Curved Top, No Studs in Bright Bluish Green/ Dark Turquoise (6466044 | 3563)

Other elements worthy of mention are some returning pieces from the Adventure Camp sets, including several animals:

theree ptinted lego parts representing animals
  • Tile Round 1 x 1 with Dark Turquoise Beetle print in Transparent/ Trans-Clear (6490892, 6532094 | 98138pr0405)
  • Animal, Beaver, Sitting with White Teeth. Nougat Nose, Eyes print in Reddish Brown (6480961 | 5553pr0001)
  • Minifig Head with Fire Flies, Sticks, Leaves print in Transparent/ Trans-Clear (6515613, 6490996 | 28621pr9950)

two view of a lego traingular flag piece, showing how its diagonals match other wedge shaped lego parts

There's also 1x Flag 2 x 4 Triangle in Brick Yellow/ Tan (6475813 | 5555), the exciting new pennant which will be a very useful piece in your own builds. Read more analysis of it and the other Adventure Camp new moulds in my review.

Mini-dolls

lego minidolls paisley and nova as seen in set 40694 River Camping Adventure from Lego Friends

Out camping are Paisley and Nova. This version of Paisley also appeared in set 42624, while most of Nova's parts appeared in set 42622 but with different shorts.

Sticker sheet

small lego sticker sheet from set 40694 River Camping Adventure from Lego Friends

The small sticker sheet offers decoration for the pennant, tent windows, and stream. 

Conclusion

This cute little set feels “almost too good” to be just a GwP! 

set 40694 River Camping Adventure with the minidolls toasting marshmallows as the leaves turn for the autumn

The summer-to-autumn transition is well timed for the northern hemisphere, but maybe it would have made more sense to offer this GwP at the time of the release of the other Adventure Camp sets?


If you're looking to pick up LEGO.com purchases to secure this cute GwP, check our recent reviews of sets from LEGO Friends, LEGO City and LEGO DREAMZzz.

Or simply head straight to LEGO.com to see what's available:

 

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2 comments:

  1. Nice review! Looking forward to picking this up—I've got plenty of Dreamzzz and Ninjago sets still on my wishlist so this'll be a great opportunity to get some of them.

    The use of the slope/ramp from the Stuntz sets for the peak of the tent here is cool—because of their introduction for nice smooth ramps, that piece has a finer edge than typical slopes, allowing the tent to come to more of a point than normal slopes or plates would.

    The crates being able to connect other-sized parts is kind of essential, seeing as they came out more than a decade before the 3x4 "minifigure base" that's sometimes used with them nowadays. Back in the Adventurers theme where it debuted 2x3 plates were typically used (this being before even 1x3 or 2x3 tiles were introduced).

    Slight typo correction—you mistyped Nova's name as Nora in the mini-doll section.

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  2. I love it! Really great how Friends has embraced the adventure/camping/outdoorsey theme activities. Another in a long list of sets that once I get it I'll swap in some typical minifigs.

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