Set Review - Cat's Playground 41018

As previously noted I love me some polybags.  When LEGO released their first series of Friends animal themed polybags, I had to get all three.  This is the second in the series, Cat's Playground.  It delivers what it promises; a cat, and a playground.

This set has a bit to offer.  There are quite a few bits new to bright light orange (I refer to colors by the Bricklink standard, by the way).  Also, of utter importance to collectors, is the new medium lavender 2x4 brick.  This brick is apparently so special that some sucker paid over $20 for one and seriously wonked up the price guide.  This also falsifies the part out value of the set at over $15.  And yet the brand new pretty kitty hasn't even sold for $3.  Something tells me that if kitty finds out you spent 7 times as much on a brick as her, that she'll make it up to you with a nice present in your Italian loafers.

For this build I had my 4 and 6 year old daughters draft parts from the pile.  We then went through the instructions, each one building with the parts they had in front of them.  There were complaints that one was getting to do all the building until we turned the page.  Then the other complained of the same thing, forgetting that moments earlier she got to build 2.5 pages worth.  The 19 month old boy just spent his time trying to grab what parts he could when no one was looking.  Fun for everyone.  Especially dad.  Where's mom anyway?

LEGO, again with the extra parts.  This time an extra 2x2 dish (radar, not eating) and 2 each of the tan and pink round plates means that spoiled little kitty gets a second scratching post.  And still she chooses the French divan upon which to get her manicure.  At least there's two extra magenta ribbons to try to entice her with.

I was impressed with the build and again it is solid and captures the hearts of the young girls.  With two under our belts there was less fighting and more "Let's play Squirrel and Cat friends".  Friends?  Well I guess that's what the theme is about anyway, right?  Despite the extra instructions to be found online, these two sets became dismantled and intermingled fairly quickly.

Definitely get this one, if for nothing else than to say you have a medium lavender 2x4 brick for under $5.  Not like some other schmuck I know of.