Something that I've found regularly disappointing with Lego over recent years is how reliant they've become on cross-branding material. Often at the detriment of their own original IP. Sure, at current there's Ninjago, Monkie Kid, and Dreamzzz, but it definitely feels like a far cry from the Time Twisters, Rock Raiders, and a hefty fistful of other weird things they had going on like Slizers, Robo Riders, or Bionicle. And the annoying part is so many of these crossovers don't even feel like good fits with Lego! At least Star Wars has that model kit market thing to go for, but what does weird stuff like Overwatch or Ghostbusters or the bazinga show really benefit from being in Lego form? Other than like, the novelty of it.
Lego Animal Crossing hardly fixes the first half of my fuss here, but it does feel like a match made in heaven, actually! Animal Crossing is all about using customization features to express yourself in whatever ways you see fit, and that is a fantastic fit for Lego! Better than Mario or Sonic, even. And it certainly helps that none of the sets from this initial wave are outrageously expensive for what they are as cozy little pieces of a town that you're meant to plonk together.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, there. Today I'm looking at the first of these that I got: The One With Isabelle In It. Isabelle's House Visit definitely feels like it's meant to be your very first set to get in this wave, with it being around the mid-size range and featuring mostly the bare Animal Crossing essentials: a couple activities and a house to mess around with. And Isabelle.
And the titular house is quite a quaint little abode! It looks convincingly like an Animal Crossing house, complete with a little cartoon cloud coming from the chimney of a fireplace that isn't even there. Authenticity!
The minifigs included are Isabelle and Fauna, who just so happens to be a couple of my favorite villagers, whoopsie. And this is the first way that Lego feels like a good fit for Animal Crossing.
Not that I have any particular nostalgia or affection for it, but way, way, WAY back in the day, Lego had its own Animal Crossing before Nintendo ever Crossed any Animals. And it's kind of funny how much DNA this new Lego Animal Crossing has with Fabuland here. It's a lot more in line with normal minifigs, clearly; Fabuland figures were their own beasts that required larger assemblies. But they still had a set of molded heads like AC has. And given most of AC's cast are reskins of the same handful of models anyway, that perfectly goes along with Lego's "make pieces as reusable as possible" MO. Assuming this won't be a one-and-done wave.
And the house comes with a load of little sub-assemblies furniture, like the world's tiniest Ikea. But the intention is that you have space in the house to put the furniture wherever you please.
Which is reason 2 why Lego is such a good fit for Animal Crossing! The series is all about self-expression through using the wealth of customization features, and Lego would of course even allow you to engage by making your own furniture if you have the spare pieces. But going off of just what's present here, it's more than plenty to fill out the house. Or the more common Animal Crossing problem: you almost have too much furniture to display here. The tea set table and the stools probably could do with being an outdoors addition.
Speaking of customization, you can basically do your own form of the New Horizons terraforming by mixing and matching the layouts with these customizable base plate assemblies. To my understanding these are base plates of Lego Mario fame? So I guess these are just Nintendo base plates? Either way, the gesture is jesting, cause with nothing but 2x4 tiles to hold the plates in place, I have a hard time moving the set around without them - especially the plate with the apple tree on it - starting to come apart. So you're almost just better off treating them as sub-assemblies that can sit nearby, free-form.
The set also holds a couple of fun Easter Eggs, the easiest to notice of course being the present in the sky floating by on a balloon that you can "shoot down" with the enclosed slingshot off the workbench.
And inside it is a very simple palette with paint brush. Cute that it's there! Though I almost would've liked a furniture leaf to be in there, or even just a tile with a print on it giving the impression of one. But neat!
The less obvious Easter Egg is more reserved for those who happen to build the set, because the tree is built to have a little hollow space inside it, as an obvious reference to how you can have something other than a bee's nest drop out of a tree if you shake it once in a while.
And one last tidbit of note is how even the windows are customizable, built in such a way that they're interchangeable with another pair just included right there in the set, just for whether you prefer square, brown frames or rounded blue ones. But also we can get a better look at that neato door piece! A totally new one to Lego as far as I'm aware? At least a quick googling skim doesn't show anything similar.
This set is a pretty strong first impression to Lego Animal Crossing as a thing! I'll likely be grabbing the others, as there's only four others in existence, at least at the time of writing. But so far, would recommend if you're like me and just happen to have affection for both these things.
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