Review: 77050 Nook’s Cranny & Rosie’s House

February 28, 2024 | 5

LEGO Animal Crossing will launch globally from 1 March 2024 onwards, and to get you excited about one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2024, let’s take a look at 77050 Nook’s Cranny & Rosie´s House, the biggest and most expensive set of the wave.

It contains two exclusive minifigures, Tom Nook and Rosie, a peppy cat villager who has been a staple of all Animal Crossing games. With the set containing a buildable Nook’s Cranny, and everyone’s favourite capitalist racoon dog, Tom Nook!

But at US$74.99 / AU$119.99/ £64.99, it’s also on the expensive side of things with only 525-pieces, so let’s dive in to see if it’s worth the money, or if Tom Nook is pulling a fast one on us!

Special thanks to LEGO for sending this set over for review

77050 Nook’s Cranny & Rosie’s House Set Details

Name: Nook’s Cranny & Rosie’s House
Set Number: 77050
Pieces: 535 pieces
Minifigures: Tom Nook & Rosie
Price: US$74.99 / AU$119.99 / £64.99/ €74,99
Exclusive to: N/A
Theme: LEGO Animal Crossing
Designer: TBD
Buy from LEGO.com

One of the things that improves the perceived value of Animal Crossing sets is that there are zero stickers in every set, which was quite a startling discovery as I was expecting there to be stickers galore.

The manuals also have these large illustrations of the characters greeting you as you build them which is quite a nice touch.

The set comes with only 2 minifigures, Rosie and Tom Nook. Rosie has been one of the original Animal Crossing characters, and is a peppy cat villager. She also starred in Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori, a 2006 Japanese animated movie, so I’m guessing she’s quite popular with fans, especially thanks to her pink blushed cheeks.

I personally never had Rosie in all my games, so don’t feel as strong of a connection with her, but she’s a neat addition.

Tom Nook on the other hand, is dressed in his New Horizons Hawaiian shirt, which looks very schmick. After his esteemed career as a ruthless business, he now spends time in New Horizons working in Resident Services, which is a more relaxed career with slightly better hours.

Tom of course, has passed on the family business to his twin sons, Timmy and Tommy, who now run Nook’s Cranny in-game, and since this game does have elements of New Horizons, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Timmy and Tommy get introduced, hopefully with an upgraded Nook’s Cranny in a future wave.

And here’s the completed model! As the set’s name suggests, you get two structures, Nook’s Cranny, and Rosie’s House.

As this set is really aimed at younger kids (hence the 7+ label), the build was very straight forward and simplistic. After building the entire wave, don’t approach LEGO Animal Crossing sets expecting cutting-edge build techniques, or novel designs – this is really bordering 4+ levels of design, so you know that LEGO and Nintendo had kids in mind with these sets.

Speaking of Nintendo, the LEGO Super Mario base plates make a return and form the backbone of LEGO Animal Crossing, allowing you to connect buildings, trees and other small sections to one another to expand your LEGO Animal Crossing island, and allow you to customise and personalise the layout.

Let’s take a look at Nook’s Cranny, which is really the highlight of this set and is based on the upgraded Nook’s Cranny from Animal Crossing New Horizons, and outside of the sign not being raised, is quite a faithful small little re-creation of the in-game store.

Firstly, the sign is printed, which is a great touch, but I do wish it was upright and raised like the one in-game. The striped awning is also quite nice and contrasts well with the blue, and I do like the multi-coloured streamers/bunting over the double-door entrance.

If there’s one design flaw, it’s that there are some unsightly white sections that peep out on the roof thanks to the white shield elements that hold the roof at this angle. I really wish these were blue to have a more uniform look.

Fans of New Horizons will be delighted to find the Drop-Off box situated outside – a handy tool to sell your items when Nook’s Cranny is closed. And yes, the decoration is printed!

And here’s a look at the notice board on the other side!

And here’s a look at the inside. All the buildings in LEGO Animal Crossing have large exposed backs, with minimal roof overhead to allow easy access inside, which might annoy some fans, but I just keep telling myself that these are for kids to cope.

There’s quite a bit of space for you to pop the minifigures in, and there’s scaled down versions of what you can expect from a shopping trip to Nook’s Cranny.

As it isn’t massive inside, the shop section is quite small – on sale is a pink guitar, red bucket, a radio and a potted plant. Definitely no space for Kitchen Cabinets here!

We get a basic cash register that funnily, has a contactless payment section, and next to it, a new printed Bell (Animal Crossing currency) tile!

But my favourite part of the store is this mint-coloured glass cabinet (next to a barrel with a shovel and broom), which Animal Crossing players will find very familiar!

Among other things, it contains a printed DIY Recipe card.

And quite possibly my favourite new printed decorations – a brick with Flower Seeds, and Fish Bait on them, two essentials that you’ll find in Nook’s Cranny cabinets.

Oh, and there’s also a new sack of bells – naturally!

Next, let’s take a look at Rosie’s House, which has a subdued cream roof, and white walls – which is a close enough approximation to what her house looks like in New Horizons.

Rosie has a blue bicycle to get around the Island with.

And there’s a small picnic table outside for Rosie to entertain guests, and enjoy some tea and biscuits.

Trees are a big part of Animal Crossing and the LEGO versions are quite delightful. They come with a new base, with roots sticking out on all 4 sides, and have a pretty basic/blocky design with a special surprise inside.

In each tree, there’s a small compartment inside with items that you typically find from shaking trees! In this Orange Tree, we have some Tree Branches, a basic resource used to craft furniture and other items that you find early in the game, before you get an axe!

Like the game, LEGO has introduced a small but meaningful way to customise the look of the homes in the form of interchangeable windows. There are 2 options included, square pink windows, and curved brown ones.

They’re fairly easy to remove and you can swap them in and out or mix and match with ease. It’s a small feature, but another familiar play-feature that Animal Crossing fans will welcome.

And here’s a look inside Rosie’s House, which is quite small but still very cosy.

To mimic the interior decorating component of the game, you get to assemble all of these little pieces of furniture, and it’s up to you on how to re-arrange them in the room, something I really enjoyed!

The furniture might look quite simple, but there’s an art and science to the size and selection, to ensure that it all fits in different configurations in Rosie’s house.

Oh and for hardcore Animal Crossing fans, a printed Bubblegum K.K. album cover hands on the walls. It’s THE soundtrack to Animal Crossing, so I really appreciated this inclusion in the set.

It’s a small, but very confident sign that the design team are actual fans of Animal Crossing, and understand the deep subculture of the game and fans.

Why is some grass in the house?

What I liked:

• Nook’s Cranny as a LEGO set feels like a dream come true
• All printed elements
• Excellent minifigures
• Fun Animal Crossing Easter Eggs
• Sets are very playable at a very pleasing scale

What I didn’t like: 

• Should have included another minifigure or character for a set this expensive

FINAL THOUGHTS:

77050 Nook’s Cranny & Rosie´s House is the most expensive set on the wave, so it makes sense that this is the set you need to buy if you want to get your hands on Tom Nook and Nook’s Cranny.

Even in LEGO form, the capitalist Tanuki is still finding ways to maximise profit and to get you to spend more than you should.

The set does feel very complete, with a core building in Nook’s Cranny, which is really well-designed at this scale, and even manages to have a scaled down interior, filled with Animal Crossing items like Fish Bait and Flower Seeds. No Froggy Chair, though!

Rosie’s House is also a decent build, and introduces you to the interior decorating element which is translated well in LEGO form. Rosie’s addition purely depends on how you view her as a Villager – personally, I think there’s way too many Peppy characters, and I can think of 3 other Cats that I’d prefer, but that’s mostly because I never had her in my years of playing Animal Crossing (since the Gamecube days), so I don’t really have a strong connection to her.

The set does feel a little pricey, but that feeling is tampered when you discover that there are no stickers in the set, and when you actually get to see the LEGO Animal Crossing minifigures in-hand, which feel very premium and so well designed.

That said, I do wish that LEGO included a 3rd visitor in the set. In the game, it’s very common to see Villagers hanging out in each other’s home, so a guest for Rosie’s House would’ve been perfect!

If you’re a fan of Animal Crossing, this is an easy one to recommend, and I think this will be very popular thanks to Tom Nook. I think this set will definitely sell out because of Tom Nook and Nook’s Cranny, but if you’re on a budget, I think it’s safe to wait for a sale, unless you absolutely have to have it at launch, which I think most of you will.

But if there’s one set to splurge one, it’s definitely 77050 Nook’s Cranny & Rosie´s House as it feels like the complete package of all things LEGO Animal Crossing. Plus, you get a sack of bells and Bubblegum K.K. which are so far exclusive to this set!

Rating and score: 4/5 ★★★★✰

Build [3] – The build is very basic, but keep in mind, this is designed for kids
Real Value [3] – It feels fairly priced despite the expensive pricetag, as the minifigures are great and all parts are printed.
Innovation [4] – So much Animal Crossing distilled into playable LEGO form
Coolness [4] – Incredible amount of Animal Crossing references included which are just a joy
Keepability [4] – This is the flagship set of the first wave, and it’s Nook’s Cranny, so you’ll naturally keep this around and build around it

Thanks so much for reading my review of 77050 Nook’s Cranny & Rosie´s House!

77050 Nook’s Cranny & Rosie´s House will be released on 1 March 2024 from LEGO.com or your local LEGO Store. If you’re eyeing this set, I recommend not sitting on it, as there’s a very high chance it sells out due to the Tom Nook/Nook’s Cranny factor.

What do you think of the set and all the features from Animal Crossing that LEGO has adapted?

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