As a gift with purchase set for October 2024, this was a delight to receive and build. The only real issue is buying enough LEGO sets to get this set or getting to a LEGO Store/ordering on-line early enough to get one.

You get a good number of pieces and it's a sizeable build, think along the size of the mini pumpkins you can get from a grocery store.

There is a light brick with this set, that when you press on the stem, lights up the jack-o-lantern face. That feature really makes this set shine and stand out for being another LEGO pumpkin build.

The main build for the pumpkin is engaging in creating the illusion of a round pumpkin. There are enough pieces to create two variations for the face. The side build of the ghost is simple and amusing enough. The shape and flatness make me think of the ghosts from Pacman.

There's not a lot of playability with the set as it is meant more for build and display, which is perfect. Find a shelf or table and display it in a main room for the Halloween season.

Such a fun theme! This is easily one of the best sets from this series and an absolute must-have as the Scooby gang travels from one local to another on their mystery capers and adventures.

You get four minifigures with this set. The "standard" Shaggy and Scooby who appear in every set. Fred, who only appears and comes in this set and a zombie. Overall, this is a good assortment of figures.

The main build is, of course, The Mystery Machine Van with room for a driver and passenger, and when Daphne and Velma are gotten from other sets, room for them to sit in the back.

A secondary, smaller build is that of a spooky, animated tree.

There's plenty here for many children to have a scene and mystery to solve. Older collectors have a fantastic build design with the Mystery Machine to set out for display.

I received this set as a gift, so I'm a bit biased on the price because if relatives felt they could purchase it and then send it to me from overseas, it's got a good value that way.

For those on a budget, this is a perfect, small scale model of the Big Ben clock tower. It's just fantastic to build. It even breaks down easily to store away in the box it comes with and if you pull it apart correctly, it's easy to rebuild each time.

The instructions were easy to follow as always with LEGO, including history on Big Ben as well. One of those models you build and have setting somewhere for conversation starters where people can see you're into LEGO.

Just a beautiful model with right level of details for its size that people know what it is.

Comparing this to the Padawan Menace DVD that came out last year, I feel this video is better, it feels more spontaneous in it's humor and presentation overall is better. But, it also doesn't have the extra features that Padawan Menace does, it's just the video and short advertisement commercial for the first LEGO Star Wars movie.

Like the first DVD out, there is a free minifigure of Darth Vader with a medal which is rather neat to have, especially for those who collect minifigures.

Pricewise though, this DVD seems to vary, I picked up mine from Wal-Mart for $7.50 which I think was very good and I've read and seen other places list this for as high as $15. $15 is clearly the high end of what I would find acceptable for this DVD. So obviously shop around if you're looking to pick this up for a collection.

I rather enjoyed it and found it better than the first dvd.

This set was gotten for my daughter at her 6th birthday and at the time it represented the largest set in her collection of LEGO Friends. So much of my reviews will be based upon her response and reactions to this set.

Box/Instructions

The box of course is brightly colored for the Friends theme and has concave ends along with clear pictures and illustrations of just what all is to be found in the set.

The instruction booklet follows LEGO's clear step-by-step illustrations for each stage of building. Along with towards the end that there's a catalog listing of all the parts in the set and Customer Service Number for any problems with the set.

Parts

In all there's 222 pieces along with some extras and a sheet of stickers for placing on certain bricks during building.

The most notable and exciting pieces are the accessories in the way of 3 sets of knives and forks, spatula, plates and cupcake holders. Those really make the Cafe seem to have more depth in what you can pose the minidolls doing. There is also a pie piece previously only available with the Collectible Minifigure clown.

Minifigures

There are two minidolls that come with this set. Andrea and Stephanie. My daughter likes them well enough like the other minidolls though it took her awhile to warm up to the idea that these were more like dolls and not minifigures.

The build and completed model

Luckilly when building this set the first time, all the parts come in numbered bags that you don't need to open until you reach different stages of construction. There is also the fact that many features of the Cafe are "mini builds" and can break down the long process of building the entire set.

Because this was a first for my daughter, she was getting easily frustrated at many points with missing steps, needing my help with stickers while at the same time upset that I'd point out she'd miss something.

But she did get it built and she was happy with her success at building the Cafe and playing with it for hours.

Summary

Overall my daughter loves this set and I'm happy for her at her accomplishment at building what for her was one of the largest sets she's built at the time. Following in her Mom's footsteps, she's kept all the pieces together and displays it on her dresser when she's not playing with it. It's a good set and my daughter declares she wants to get more stores like this to build a LEGO city with her Friends sets. I didn't make any promises to her but told her we'd look into it and try.