Before this set was released, already having the matching 6927 pony stable, I was sure that I was going to buy this. But I didn't. When I saw the price, I thought that it was too expensive for what it was. Last weekend, however, I saw it on special offer ... and I liked that lower price.
Actually, though, I do think now that it is worth its
full price, especially for kids - there's a lot of play value there, if they are into creating scenes and stories involving horses.
Incidentally, the hinged box surprised me, because it opened in an unconventional way!
Building the set requires time and patience. Despite having previously built the pony stable, this set took me nearly
three hours to put together. OK, it didn't help that I was certain that I knew what I was doing, so I put some pieces together wrongly, and then had to take them apart again and actually follow the instructions the next time; and probably a large proportion of those three hours was spent actually trying to find the parts I was looking for. I should have emptied out the multiple bags first, instead of having to hunt around in
all of them every time I needed something. But some things
were fiddly. It took me fifteen minutes just to thread a rather bulky piece of cord through the narrow holes of a headcollar, for example. And the fences need a good hard push to properly snap together.
One of the best parts of this set is that FINALLY there is a neat way to hang up horses' bridles. Though it is worth noting that the bridle holders only fit in these narrow shelf walls, not the usual size.
And I'm really happy with this shelf wall too:
I was so excited to see it slotted into those type of posts. I absolutely cannot imagine that I'd suddenly
need a shelf in the middle of some playground equipment or some sort of fence, but you never know!
Back to the play value for children - there are so many choices amongst the accessories: four types of hat; three saddles; three saddlecloths (good luck with those - this is the first time I've actually managed to get one on OK ... well, OK on one side ... you don't need to see the other side); three bridles; three different headcollars and lead ropes (plus one for the foal); rosettes and ribbons; and a variety of birds and animals. One of the birds has obviously been taking straw to build her nest.
There are also three colours of grooming tools, and boxes. My set came with a missing dark green hoof oil brush, however.
Something to watch out for: this wasn't noticed until it was too late. It doesn't show very well on the photo, but there was a lump where the flag was attached to the mould, and it causes a protrusion in the flag sticker. I hope it doesn't rip through there later. If it had noticed it before the sticker was put on, it could have been filed down, of course.
I wanted to add on the pony stable, plus the 6934 and 6935 extension stables that I'd previously bought. It's big when all together!
The pony stable doesn't actually join on to the rest of it, but one can create the illusion that it is joined by just standing it right up against a gate post.
There's more that can be added to this, including more (6533) extension stables, and the 6929 horse washing station. I'm thinking I need those too. Well, I did get this at a Sale price, so it's kind of like not
really spending much more money.... isn't it?
