Lego 21319 is the Friends TV Series set, focused around Central Perk coffee shop and features 7 Minifigures and a strong 1070 pieces. Its release is also to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the show that was hugely successful and one of the most iconic TV shows in history, but it also pat of the Lego Ideas range, where people design and submit their ideas, it gets voted on and if it succeeds gets made and released by Lego

Boo and I are huge fans of the Friends Tv series, we are from that era so appreciate the show and the Anniversary, Roo has recently begun to watch the series and is about halfway. Due to the age of the set and that Tigger has no interest in this at all lol, he’s was not part of the build.

the box is in that familiar Lego Ideas style and different to the rest, far more artwork and design, along with the instructions inside these are also much better than an average set. The instructions talk about the show, the characters, the original Fan designers, and then the Lego designers who brought it to the finish.

The Build…

In Bag 1 comes the first minifigure, Gunther, though he’s not one of the main cast, he has been in it for practically the whole series and due to this set being located in Central Perk, he is an absolute must and I’m glad he’s in it. He looks great and with the lime green colour shit and his multi-coloured tie, this shows off his character fantastically, he also has a broom as his accessory.

The rest of the bag shows to initial floor of the whole set, which includes 3 drop holes (for later), and the side floor at an angle which will be come, the slightly raised area near the windows.

Bag 2 see the first major character and central perk work, Rachel Green, in the series she does leave here etc..but for this set she’s back to her original job. She’s wearing a waitress style clothes in blue, with her hairstyle that it’s extremely similar to her famous style, this was the hairstyle at the time lol, Rachels accessory is a tray with a coffee on it.

Bag 2 really focuses on the main wall of the coffee shop, this looks great and sets the standard of detail for the rest to come, the cupboards are made with a worktop and fantastic bespoke coffee machine.,several accessories including coffee cups and quirky bits look great. The chalkboard with the different drinks to the show looks also great with the right colour chalks.

Lastly, the studio lights holder on this wall is constructed, it’s very odd for Lego to do this, treating it like a TV set but that gives it a unique look.

Bag 3 has the next mini-figure in the form of Joey, his look with black trousers, white shirt and the red open shirt looks to suit him, but he has his man Bag on him! from his series which is a neat touch, along with his traditional Pizza box and slice.

The rest of the bag has the back wall with Wooden door in the distance, a seating Bench, another chalkboard but this time advertising Phoebe singing, some flowers and great mugs next to the wooden door. On the outside of the window wall near where the door will be has a Poster of joey advertising his Lipstick for men! which is another little Easter egg of fun for people to find.

In Bag 4 has Chandler bing, he’s dressed is smart attire, not a suit which I thought they might have chosen but still smart, however, his accessory is a laptop (a big thing in those days lol) he looks fine, probably the least interesting figure in the set.

A multicolour curtain is made to look like it has been pulled back from the wooden door at the back much like the series, this is another nice touch. the area in the back is now being completed with a counter desk for the coffee part, not quite to scale to the series but its fine, this holds a Till and Biscuit jar with space for more coffee cups.

In front of this is the first hole section, there are three, but this one will hold a table and 2 small chairs. but these sit on a carpet as such, this technique of building a wall like design there laying it down to show the pattern does work and been used in other Building type sets before.

This also allows you to take that placement out for play or display. Lastly a Service Sign, it sticks out from the wall, I’m not sold on it, the actual design of it is fine pretty good, but perhaps if it was shorter then maybe.

Bag 5 oddly sees two minifigures, Phoebe and Ross, Phoebe has a colourful top on and comes with the iconic guitar, she’s ready to sing smelly cat. Ross has a tie, shirt jacket and trousers, which seems to be more of his teacher look in later years His facial design is one of the better ones, his accessory is the largest, it’s his keyboard!

The construction now swings round to the more visible parts of the Series, the double door at the font which is made up of two doors and a window flanking it from the other side where the umbrella stand is flanking it.

The large window with the iconic Central Perk branding looks great and it built, I don’t understand perhaps why the image isn’t both sides of the window, it’s symmetrical so it would have been fine, the picture does show you can pop it out and turn it but a bit weird. another mini window flanks this along with a brick wall, similar to the main coffee wall and uses the design from big Bang Theory and other Creator sets design.

The second Carpet set is made to fill the hole at the stage area. Same build technique as the previous, some decorative plants and Couch to be placed in front of the window completes the look, but again as part of the design, you could lift this all out. Another table to the side and Lastly the Microphone stand is made ready for Phoebe, you could swap this out for ross and his keyboard if you wanted to, I’m choosing Phoebe in my display. The other Studio lights stand is made opposite to the first.

The final Bag has Monica, she has Dungarees and her white shirt, again very early Monica. Her accessory is a chocolate cake/muffin, I think this is a little lame in her choice, I appreciate her past about being overweight, and she often bakes, but I thought they would go the chef route. The final part of the main build sees the green lamposts, which again I think is a very nice touch to the design and adds to effect massively.

The final drop floor paces the third carpet area, again made like a wall and laid down, on here sits the famous couch, its orange much like the original, my first thought it feels too bright but its grown on me and stands out, right side of this is an armchair, both made using multiple pieces.

In the middle of this area is a table, looks like a pool table at first lol, but it isn’t, on here sits more cups flowers and a reserved sign. To the left of this is two small chairs but has an orange cheetah style pattern, which surrounds the table, this all gets slotted in and again can be taken out for play and display. The final two pieces are those studio lights that are built and placed into the holders.

Overall…

Overall this set is fantastic, for fans they would enjoy it anyway, just for the design, the characters and all the quirky things they have done to represent various Friends related items. Take that aside its RRP is around £64.99, which for a license set, 7 mini-figures, and over 1000 pieces is a great value for money. From the design aspect, its another good example of inside buildings that are rarely done outside the expert creator sets so for some this is here the first example.

The studio lights add some difference to the set, the characters, on the whole, are very good, a couple of improvements could be made but that’s the same for most sets. The outside is a slight let down as its only the poster at the doorway that’s really taken any designs to it, but ultimately this is a TV set, so there wouldn’t be lol. But ultimately this is a great set and Lego ideas set done well.