I decided I could use a treat so I went to get the new hotel 5265 and some related sets today.
For a while I had been in doubt wether or not to buy them, because of all the pink and fuschia colours. The front of the box, showing the inside of the hotel, reminded me of a Barbie dream house. But then I took a good look at the front of the building (with the balcony and palm trees, resembling a Californian hotel) and I was sold
I went to toystore
Bart Smit (Belgium) and payed 99 euros for the hotel - it has a similar price in the Belgian PM webshop: 101 euros. That's expensive but it's a pretty big building with some nice details and it comes with lots of accessories.
This is my haul
I could choose four clickies to take home with my purchases, because of some special deal in the store. That was a nice bonus. I got a Roman soldier for Dimitris, a gardener with plant, a pirate with one leg and what looks like a hobo with a cool hat (it has wholes in it).
The bell-boy has a very nice cart that would fit with the Victorian theme as well IMO
The cleaning lady has a pretty uniform and I like all the accessories (vacuum cleaner, iron, foldable ironing board, a device to unplug the toilet
)
The hotel shop (5268) is my favourite set: so many trinkets! I've never seen these postcards before and the deck of cards is a very useful item. It comes with a enormous amount of coins (must be a lucrative business
). I forgot to take pictures of all the items inside, but I'll post some photos later of the hotel fully furnished.
And then the huge system-X building... The box says it takes 90 minutes to assemble it, and that is a lie. It took me over two hours and my fingers are still a bit sore from pushing a hundred white plastic pieces into a hundred tiny little holes. Such fun, such fun!
Luckily it looks amazing, especially from the outside.
And then there was another floor to assemble
I couldn't resist taking the extra floor. My clicky town is now ready to accommodate the rich and famous. Don't you just love the bottle of champagne and the golf clubs? Don't like the rock star clicky, though.
A very nice touch: if you'd want to add even more stories to the building, you could use the extra stickers with room numbers reaching up to 501.
And this is what it looks like in full:
I'm very happy with my purchases and the hotel will fit in perfectly with a beach or holiday diorama. The only negative things is the colour: I don't like the pink walls, beds and carpets. Has anyone ever stayed in a hotel with Barbie-pink beds?
And I didn't use some of the stickers: no pink logo, to keep the counter and reception desk more versatile. And no stone-type floor stickers in the bathrooms. They look odd, IMO.
