Review: LEGO Animal Crossing - Nook’s Cranny & Rosie’s House - Is It Any Good?

The LEGO Animal Crossing range brings a variety of Animal Crossing: New Horizons characters to blocky life across five sets (initially, at least) that enable you to connect them and create your own Animal Crossing island in Lego form.

Keen Lego fans will spy a similarity to the defunct Fabuland theme, now with a Nintendo flavour, and we've been looking at all of the launch kits to see how they rate against other Nintendo X Lego offerings.

Here, we're looking at Nook's Cranny & Rosie's House — the largest set in the launch lineup. Let's see if Animal Crossing's mild-mannered loanshark can corner the market in Danish plastic...

What's in the box?

You get seven bags in the box, transparent ones this time, with Rosie's House and Nook's Cranny split across bags one to four and five to seven respectively.

Importantly, you also get two separate instruction manuals, which means that two people can build the set simultaneously — a nice option if you've got another family member eager to get involved semi-autonomously. If you're building solo, it makes no difference, but it's great to see this level of thought going into the building experience.

This is an ages 7+ build compared to the 6+ categorisation of other sets in the range, and there are lots of small pieces. This set also reaches Lego's unknown piece-number threshold to warrant the inclusion of a Brick Separator. Get in.

We'll be taking things in the order suggested and starting with Rosie's House.

Rosie's House build

First up, Rosie herself looks great, with an optional bow and a tail element we haven't encountered before. The tail does present problems when it comes to sitting in her armchair or riding her bike, but it's a cute detail nonetheless. Hey, you can't ride the bike in-game, right?

The rest of the first bag is the outdoor parts, including an orange tree, a tea set and parasol, and a blue bicycle. We especially enjoyed the little toadstool detail under the tree. From the off, there are plenty of extra pieces left over — by our count, there are 10 additional pieces in the first bag alone.

Then it's time to start housebuilding with the remaining bags. If you've built Fauna's house in the Isabelle's House Visit set, this follows the same template, with interchangeable windows depending on your taste (of the rounded brown and square pink here, we personally prefer the pink) and some nice details like the lantern hanging beside the window and a fetching streetlamp outside.

It's not a long or complicated build, but the small elements and intricate details keep things interesting.

On we go to bags five, six, and seven, and Tom Nook's store...

Nook's Cranny build

First out of the bag is Tom Nook himself, and he looks spiffing in minifig form. He's wearing a short-sleeved island shirt and also has a bushy tail element. We're not about to suggest it's worth buying the set just for him, but if you're a sucker for minifigures, this one is a winner.

The store itself follows the same template, although with this particular building, there's a tinge of disappointment. It's fine, but it's also difficult to shake the impression that this iconic shop deserved more attention than the villager houses. In the back of our minds was that lovely fan-made build submitted to Lego Ideas — that's the kind of lavish detail we would have liked to have seen here.

Again, what's here is nice enough. You have the cute little canopies over the windows with alternating colours, the rich blue roof, and printed signage — no cheapo stickers around here thank-you-very-much. The Bell bag is fantastic, as are the seeds and fish food in the cabinet. It's all colourful and fun to build and sufficiently charming.

For all the detail of the set, though, things are missing and, unlike the houses where the small size feels cosy, the store feels excessively cramped. A little more stud-based real estate would have given space for Timmy and Tommy, for example, whose presence is keenly missed by anyone who's played New Horizons.

This is already the priciest set in the current Lego Animal Crossing range, but we wonder what could have been included had another 10 or 20 of your local currency units been added to the RRP. Might we have gotten a bigger roof, space for more items on sale, or a recycling box lid with hinges?

Nook's Cranny & Rosie's House cost

Nook's Cranny & Rosie's House is the most expensive of the Animal Crossing Lego sets, going for $74.99 / £64.99 / €74.99.

That price tag gets you 535 pieces, which works out at just over 14 cents per piece — which is on the pricier side, even for licensed sets.

Of course, you're getting brand-new minifigures and elements, plus fully-printed pieces, so it's not surprising that the cost-to-piece ratio isn't as favourable here as with other sets. Nook's gotta get his Bells.

Personally, splitting these sets into separate offerings might have been preferable — making Rosie's House a cheaper proposition alongside Fauna's house, while giving Nook some room to expand his store into a more luxury shopping experience with his young employees on hand.

Conclusion

Nook's Cranny & Rosie's House is a good Lego set, but it could have been more. It's the most expensive of the current Animal Crossing crop, but we would have liked to see a more ambitious, expansive take on Nook's Cranny than what's on offer in this dual set. The ability for two people to work on each building at the same time is great, and the result is charming enough, with good options for play and display. However, given the importance of Nook and his store in the game, and in the hearts of gamers who have worked for days on end to pay back this most understanding of loansharks, it's hard not to feel some disappointment at this limited rendition of the tanuki's emporium.