Anyone who grew up playing with LEGOs knows there is something quite satisfying about assembling the small colorful blocks to build a castle, car, spaceship, landmark or other magical creation. LEGO buffs also know what a treat it was to graduate from regular blocks to special building sets, which allowed them to construct near-exact replicas of their favorite characters and scenes. Fortunately, LEGO adds more building sets every year, some coming directly from fans via the LEGO Ideas website. One of this year’s finalists is a kit for the Central Perk coffee shop of “F.R.I.E.N.D.S.”
Although “F.R.I.E.N.D.S,” the hit TV show featuring six, 20-something friends living in Manhattan, finished its run more than a decade ago, it has found a second life in reruns playing on TV and online streaming services. A few years ago, one of the show’s biggest fans honored the sitcom in a unique way. Aymeric Fievet, a father of two from the Normandy region in Northwest France, designed a replica of “Central Perk,” the coffee shop where the “F.R.I.E.N.D.S” characters spent much of their time, entirely out of LEGOs.
The set is made of around 1,750 pieces and seven characters – the six main cast members (Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Monica, and Chandler), Gunther, the Central Perk’s manager, and his pet cat. Fievet has watched many episodes of “F.R.I.E.N.D.S.” as his details are on point. Tiny coffee mugs, Phoebe’s guitar, the iconic orange couch, and nearby armchair, the coffee counter and espresso machine – each piece helps bring the scene to life.
The French designer submitted his creation to LEGO Ideas in 2016, and it was recently approved as a possible new LEGO product.