Ingenious Toys - Ausini Villa Mansion House with family play set rooms friends city creator NEW #B5704

Good need more buildings to build ready for xmas

Best value for money

As usual I will begin my review of the Ausini Villa with a one-sentence summary before I give a detailed view of the set.But before I do so let me say that, if you have read my review of Ausini 25001, the City House, you will probably be positively surprised by this one because, even though both houses look relatively similar from the outside this one offers so much more.But now for the one-sentence version of my review: “Ausini 25704 is a very nice looking house made of good quality bricks that is filled with nice, brick-built furniture, which makes it a really good doll's house for the four, somewhat generic looking minifigs that come with it.“Rating: 4 starsAnd now let us go into detail and have an in-depth look at the Ausini City House.Introduction:Ausini sets are always a bit of a surprise package. You don't really know if they are good or not until you build them. That is unless you read a review of course, heheh.In this case Ausini surprised me with a lot of details and a very well thought out set, which is something I really didn't expect after the last house set I have build from them (25001).But this time they actually did it right and included everything a nice doll's house needs.But first things first.Let us go through this review step after step.Packaging: 4 starsThe packaging of this set is fine.As usual it is a sturdy cardboard box which shows a picture of the set and contains other boxes which contain the sealed bags with the pieces inside.It is pretty much the standard I expect from most companies.And as usual with Ausini this set also comes with a sticker that is pretty much unprotected.It was in good condition but since it does not come packed protected in any way the potential for damage is theoretically there.Instructions: 3 starsAusini instructions are depicting each necessary step clearly enough to follow them easily.There should be no problems with building the set.The problems I keep having with some of these instructions, and this one is no exception, is that there are colour differences between the instructions and the pieces in the box.That makes it sometimes a bit harder to identify the colour of the piece needed, in this case particularly brown and grey.And of course the printed pieces, of which this set has a few, are not depicted as such.None of this is a dealbreaker for the set in general, but nevertheless it should be mentioned.Quality of the Bricks: 4 starsThe quality of the bricks of this set is fine.Everything is easily usable and stays together nicely.Also the prints are ok.All in all the material is quite good. Not as good as for example the bricks Enlighten produces, but of high quality nonetheless.Only the sticker sheet could be way better, but in this case it really doesn't matter.Seriously, I still have no idea where the sticker this set comes with should actually be applied.The instructions don't show it and it is also not visible on the box.The complete set definitely doesn't look as if something was missing, so... I actually don't think this sticker is necessary at all.The minifigs: 3 starsAusini seems to like to use the same minifigs over and over again.In this case the set comes with four of them.The colour choice is ok, not good but acceptable, the prints on the bodies look a bit old-fashioned but also acceptable, and the faces have the usual, a bit dull expression most Ausini minifigs seem to have.There is really not that much to say about them.They are there and they do their job.They are not really bad so “The minifigs are ok.“ is really all I can say about them.The minifigs are fine but it shows that Ausini rather concentrates on the sets themselves.The villa: 4 starsThis Ausini house is mostly done right.From the outside it looks very nice and pretty detailed.It could make a really nice background piece on a city display.What it lacks is a front yard or a piece of road, but I actually don't think that this house really needs something like this.Cause if you turn it around you will immediatelly see that this is supposed to be a real doll's house.The two storeys are filled with very detailed, brick build furniture.There is a bed, and oven, several chairs etc.Considering the fact that this house is not too big the space is used as well as possible.This is a set that is build to play with it.And I like it.It may not be a perfect representation of a realistic house, but it doesn't have to be.As I said before, this is first and foremost, a playset.The only little problem I have with it is part of the roof.It does have the same little design flaw as 25001, which could have been corrected easily while designing the set. It has to do with the roof windows, so it is nothing serious or too important.It doesn't unfluence the playability in any way.So, all in all I can honestly say that I think that this Ausini house is well done and a good set.Final Verdict: 4 starsIf you want a nice doll's house to play around with this is a good set for you.Building it is nice and the quality of the material is good, too.The set as such is nicely detailed and has many little things to discover.Is it flawless? No, but nevertheless it does a good job at what it is supposed to do.Of course the minifigs could be a bit better, but they don't hurt the set as such.So, yes, all in all I recommend this set.I was really positively surprised when I built it.It has everything I would expect from a nice looking doll's house.