Lego story #078: But it's Animal Crossing! (Part 3)

77054 Leif's Caravan and Garden Shop.

Leif the sloth is my favorite shopkeeper in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

 

His Japanese name, Reiji, seems to be a katakana version of the English word "lazy." He doesn't strike me as lazy, though. (And I suspect most players of ACNH don't laze around their supposed "vacation islands." We work pretty hard to get out of debt to Tom Nook.)

One of Leif's lines is "You gotta do what makes you happy." 

What does Leif think will make a person happy? Getting acquainted with his little friends, of course! Hydrangeas and azaleas, roses and lilies, even carrots and potatoes.

I always look forward to seeing Leif appear in my town plaza with his market stall. Unfortunately, we don't have a market stall in this set. (If you'd like to build one, MOC designer Kalinas on Rebrickable.com has a nice design for Leif's cart.)

Instead, we have a small garden and Leif's yellow caravan, pulled by a blue car. The caravan doesn't appear in the player's town plaza -- it's found on Harv's Island. The blue car is new to me; I don't recall seeing it in-game.

While the minifigs, garden, and car are very cute and detailed, I felt the caravan left something to be desired. 

The caravan's exterior is plain, and the interior is bare minimum. But I appreciate that you can easily remove the roof and swing open a whole caravan wall.

At USD 30 (at the time 4,680 yen), I thought the price was a little too much. So I waited for 30% off on Amazon Japan. 

You gotta do what makes you happy. Sometimes that means splurging, and sometimes that means waiting for a decent price drop.

That yellow caravan and bright blue car stand out nicely from a distance. There's a fair bit of yellow in this set, and I noticed that the most cheerful sets I've displayed had yellow in them (such as the Hufflepuff dormitory). 

 

Overall, Leif's Caravan and Garden Shop further brightens an already cheerful theme.