LEGO Set #31048
Wow! This set is a truly incredible one. I’m particularly fond of it because it’s everything I want for myself. The lone minifigure even looks like me! Who wouldn’t want a nice relaxing life living alone in a small cabin somewhere? And you don’t have to be all alone. There’s a moose!
This is one of those 3 in 1 sets, which gives you three separate design options. I chose to build all three of them, even though I could tell from the get go that the best one would be the finished lodge. There were some good parts to the other two, and maybe I’ll work out my own hybrid later on. Still, I wanted to get through each of them just to see what it was like and snap some good pictures. (Check out all the photos in the gallery below.)
The three choices: The Lodge, The Observatory, The Writer’s Cabin.
The Observatory was the first variation I built. It was a simple and quick build, and my guy soon had a home. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to do inside that home. I did like the outer appearance. It looks like a nice quaint home with an inviting wooden porch out front. But when you open it up, all your minifigure has is a little coffee cup on a tiny corner table. The roof is the real prize of this build, because it’s a nice hangout pad that comes equipped with a telescope for keeping an eye on the heavens.
I can see up Zeus’s skirt!
The Writer’s Cabin was up next. This one looks a bit strange to me from the outside. The architecture is too narrow and modern for a wilderness getaway. It’s just too tall! And the three rectangle windows stacked one on two feels too fancy for a real log cabin. The inside is also a bit lacking, but the writer’s desk is really cool. It even has a fish mounted above it! The little feather pen in the ink jar is a must have too. You also have a nice little sandy outside area that comes with a frog. Not terrible, but not as awesome as the full lodge.
Time to hunt frogs!
The Lodge is really the no brainer option here. It uses up all the pieces and has it all, except for the telescope. The finished cabin is very cabiny. It’s shaped right, and is a good size, so it feels luxurious. You’ve got the frog splashing around in the lake and a small pier from which to fish. There’s an outside fire pit for roasting your catch, and you even have a chopping block, presumably for chopping firewood. (Little tree, take note!)
This is the life!
Inside, the lodge is quite spacious with a lot going on. This build option makes use of the awesome quill and ink. They rest on a small corner table, much like the coffee cup in The Observatory. In that same room is the small twin-sized bed. At the entrance is the kitchen, which consists of a small stove where you can make yourself eggs for breakfast (the eggs are yellow flower petals). A small shelf sticks to the wall, holding a coffee cup and an empty jar. All in all, you get the feeling it’s not a bad life for a LEGO.
I definitely think this set is a must-have! If I could, I’d have two of them. Imagine combining two of these babies into one perfect cabin with a telescope in the backyard, a nice room for writing and extending the bedroom to have some more space, maybe a dresser. The entire set reminded me so much of The First Night, a Minecraft set. And both of these sets have a similar appeal, that ideal sense of quaint isolation and a self-sustaining lifestyle.
The moose is also a nice model, and all in all you get a lot of great pieces in this set. Brown pieces, windows and a door…all very useful for making your own custom buildings. You get a pail, a frog, a fish, the awesome quill and ink, an envelope and a nice minifigure. The finished product has a lot of playability and versatility, and you can even pick one of the two smaller build options if you want to save the extra pieces for your own creations.
Pieces: 368
Minifigures: Guy
Time to Complete: 3 hours (to assemble all three options)
Recommended Ages: 7 -12
Released: 2016
Price: $23.99 on Amazon
Click an image to open the gallery
