Entry posted by xccj
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The Disney Princess theme has reused the Friends Mini-doll design, but while the characters were recognizable, I never really got into the theme last year. But then they released an Alladin set, 41061 Jasmine's Exotic Palace, and since itwas one of my favorite Disney movies, I decided that I should pick this one up.
There are quite a few small builds, and most are fairly unimpressive. There’s a tree, a stand for the lamp, a fountain, the magic carpet, a shopping stand, and a palace entrance. Most of these are small landscape builds, and while they’re not particularly bad, I felt they lacked substance. (But maybe it works for the target audience, of which I am not.) The palace entrance has a somewhat decent build, and I wish some of the other parts had been sacrificed to make that part a little more impressive. However, my favorite part is the magic carpet, which has a basic flat design but some lovely printing. (Stickers are used elsewhere in the set, which I didn’t apply, but the tiles used on the carpet are printed.) The original carpet has the slot for Jasmine to wedge her legs onto, and a stud for the tiger, but I revised it a bit in the image above.
Jasmine is a decent mini-doll figure, although the generic face seems a little off to me. The hairpiece is excellent; it’s rubbery but highly detailed, and looks just as good on a standard fig too. The torso and legs also have printing to really pull off the character’s look. She also comes with her tiger, Rajah, but he is was too small to be the fully grown tiger from the movie. More likely this is the tiger cub version after he got transformed, but since that was not a fun time in the movie for them, let’s just pretend that this predates the events in the movie and he’s only just a cub. (Oh, I think it’s just the same tiger mold used in the friends jungle sets last year.)
The set comes with 143 parts for $19.99. It’s not an amazing value, and there aren’t any spectacular pieces here either that demand such a price, so it must be entirely the licensing cost. There are a fair amount of pieces in tan, medium lavender, and gold. Interesting or unique pieces include the 1x2 foot plate in blue, 2x4 blue printed tile for the carpet, 4x4 plate and 1x2 plate with clips in Keetongu orange, 1x2x5 medium lavender brick, medium azure 4x4 round plate, speckled trans purple 1x1 round cone, gold 3x3 quarter dome, gold cream top, gold lamp (probably not THE lamp, just a replica), and a white inverted dome. So while a fair amount of rare recolors, the set does seem a little costly for what you get. Maybe if they had made it $10 more and made the palace most substantial, it would’ve been nicer. Or, alternatively, get rid of some of the some of the smaller models (or the palace bit entirely) and have Jasmine and the carpet for $10 less.
Overall, I don’t think it’s the best set you could pick up, especially compared to some of what the Friends line has to offer. But the character is recognizable and popular, so that’s what will probably make this set sell. Maybe we can look forward to a larger palace set in the future with maybe Aladdin and the Genie included? Wishful thinking, maybe.
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