Review: 41103 Pop Star Recording Studio

Hi, today I will be reviewing something different, a medium or ordinary sized friends set. Friends sets started since 2012. The sets were targeted for girls and the mini-dolls are mainly female characters. The sets include pieces in pink and purple color schemes and depict scenes from suburban life set in the fictional town of Heartlake City. The main characters are Stephanie, Olivia, Emma, Mia and Andrea. But if you are to collect all variants of them, there would be tons to collect. As this is my first few sets of friends, let's start looking at it.

Introduction

This set was launched in 2015 and it was included in 66256 value pack. It featured Olivia who needs to get ready the studio for Livi the pop star to record her latest album. 

  Quote

Get ready to lay down some new tracks! Help Olivia get all the technical equipment in the production room ready for Livi the pop star to come in and record her next big hit album. Now it’s time to head into the recording booth to test out all the settings. Put Olivia’s headset on then grab the guitar, step up to the microphone and have fun recording a demo. At the end of the song, press the button to eject the CD and have a rest on the sofa with a drink and a magazine. You are all set for a great hit! Includes Olivia mini-doll figure.

Includes Olivia mini-doll figure

Features a 2-sided Recording Studio with a recording booth, seating area and a production room with brick-built speakers, control panels, computer screen and CD player with eject function

Accessory elements include a microphone and stand, guitar, headset, sheet music, video camera, CD, glass and a magazine

Play the star and sing your favorite songs in the recording booth

Help Olivia adjust all the technical equipment to record some great songs

Push the button at the end of the session to eject the CD

Pop Star Recording Studio measures over 2” (7cm) high, 5” (15cm) wide and 1” (3cm) deep

Overview

Name: 41103 Pop Star Recording Studio
Theme:  Friends
Year: 2015
Pieces: 172
Minifigures: 1 minidoll
Price: £12.99 / $14.99 / 14.99€
Resources: Brickset

The Box

As usual, the box has the striking look of purple and pink color scheme which you will know this is a friends set at first glance. At the back of the box you can see Olivia is test running all the musical equipment for the superstar's arrival. At the side you can see Olivia's picture in the 1:1 actual size column.

In this set you get one instruction booklet, one sticker sheet, and three unnumbered bags. Small, medium and large bags catering for their respective part sizes. I am quite fond of the parts distribution like this which makes it easier to find the parts even though they are unnumbered.

There are three stickers in this set but I'm not complaining as the amount of printed parts are way more satisfying than the stickered parts. The instruction manual is a normal booklet and I suppose the one holding the mic at the top right corner is Livi the pop star.

The Parts.

These are the special and printed parts in this set. I loved them so much! You get a smart phone in azure blue 1x2 tile, a CD, a Cassette, purple Guitar, two keyboards, two glittering golden microphone, Mozart's notes, a newspaper in heartlake city and a normal looking panel. Wow! So much printed fun in such a small set!

The Build.

You get to build six small 'furniture' sized builds first before building the wall. These are the music note holder with a gold stand, video recorder on an octagonal base, and a mic stand. All of them are held by a pink flower at the base. These three minibuilds are great for modular interiors decorations.

Then you get a controller with a keyboard, a pink sofa with a cup and the newspaper and a couch. These furniture are very nice especially if you are taking photos for your LEGO photographs.  These are very nice household decorations as well! Let's start building the wall.

First we build the CD player at the base of the wall with these grooved bricks.

Then the CD ejector with a purplish black colored build.

This is the sliding mechanism of the CD player. Its quite an interesting build here and I liked it.

When we view from the top, this is how it works. Push the gold button and the CD will be ejected.

After a few steps, you get the whole wall of the recording studio. It is quite well equipped with those smart phone controlled console, two speakers and a large music note signboard. There is a poster sticker at the trans clear door but the sticker on the right is actually a cupboard with musical certificate and trophies.

The back of the wall is quite dull with a guitar hangar. Note that the cupboard screen is actually pure white instead of trans clear in color.

A close up view of the controlling panels. Here you can see the music equalizer in a studio, a CD player, a smart phone and buttons. It does look like a recording studio.

Tada! Completed build of the studio. I actually liked it very much after building the set. 

Now Olivia is ready for anyone to come for a musical recording!

The extra parts are quite a number of 1x1 round plates and headphones.

The Mini-doll.

Olivia is the only Mini-doll in this set with a nicely printer torso and legs. The hairpiece is large compared to normal minifigure hair. Please don't put minifigure hairpiece on minidoll's head or else you will have a very hard time removing it. As with the headphone, its rubbery but it can't really stay on Olivia's hair and keep bouncing off. So I considered that as an 'extra' part. The legs are limited to bend forward, no other movements permitted. 

Here you can see the comparison between a mini-doll and a minifigure. Olivia is taller than C3PO while standing but the height is quite similar while sitting. The wrist of the mini-dolls are not movable so it makes them can only hold things in one direction but it was brilliantly put at an angle in which the accessories are held quite nicely.

*C3PO is not included in this set.

And Olivia invited all her friends for a jam in her newly set up studio!

*Only Olivia is included in this set.

Review summary 
Playability: 6/10 - The only thing to play is the CD ejector.
Design / Building Experience: 9/10 - The design is very close to the real studio and the mini builds are very fun to build.
Mini-doll:  9/10 -  Olivia is a very nice figure in this set. The only downside is the headphone's weak clutch power to the hair.
Price / Value for money: 9/10 - This set is quite worth the price with all those printed parts.
Overall: 9/10 -  For the first few sets of friends set, this one is quite fun and nice to build with very nice pink and purple color scheme. 

Conclusion

This is my first few friends set and it amazed me of the design and mini builds. I thought I wouldn't like this set that much but it turned out differently. This is a very recommended set to have especially if you are building a modular building with a recording studio in it. I hope you like the review and thoughts and comments are welcome!

Some karaoke session?