fourteenwings and (LEGO) Friends

fourteenwings

I bet you were expecting lots of words, weren't you? Well tough luck, here's a bunch of pictures (and words).

I've been collecting LEGO Friends (again) for the last few months. As such, there's a lot of fun stuff to build and take pictures of. Here's a thread for that!

A couple of days ago I was deep in the LEGO Friends zone, building an artsy department store which with a coffee shop feature. At some point I decided to make the bottom floor a coffee shop and the top floor an artsy space. Just like that, my latest build was born!

The Uptown/Downtown Art and Coffee Cafe!



Front facade, I was really inspired to build mostly from transparent bricks with a curved style by the song "6cm no Keshiki ue" from Aikatsu Friends!, but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the "chic chic, chic chic chic chic chic" part.



My favorite thing about this sort of build is the candid shots you can take. Yes, Olivia is indeed holding a chocolate bar half the size of her tablet.



I wanted to show here that technically the builds could come together into one floor, but it came out blurry ;-;



Emma's ready to help Zack. What would he like (along with his possibly spilled coffee). There's cookies, coffee and a single croissant. Hey, don't blame me, the LEGO company is very stingy with croissants. Also, the muffin is just for show.



Upstairs, Andrea gets some water from the cooler. Possibly avoiding some vapid discussions about art.



He's also a salesperson on the upper floor because casual artistry does in fact not pay the bills.



The perfume stall can be easily removed to give the room more space and make it even more artsy. In fact, the coffee counter from the first floor is also easily removeable, but it doesn't really serve a purpose. Maybe an outdoor day?

Now there's no sales at all, because as Dean always says, down with capitalism! (right before he has to get to work, that is). Here, I guess... Aladdin is giving an art lecture. That's totally a thing Aladdin does.

I bet Andrea's looking for any excuse to get out of here now, but she can't because then she'd seem less fancy than her even bigger poseur friends.



Here's some of the removable bits. Andrea stands with the drawer. On it are some of Dean's art pieces and a camera. The drawers also open. Aladdin stands with the perfume (and goblets, because people totally buy those when they're hipsters). There's also a catalogue on the far right in case he needs to order even more pointless toilet water.

fourteenwings

No new builds this time, just words.

I've managed to secure all five Summer Heart Boxes! Woo! This is probably the first time in a long time I've completed a toy collection. I only have 3/5 of the original series of Heart Boxes though, so I probably need to get on that.

As I was building Stephanie's Heart Box early in the morning, I came up with a hypothesis. In the short time I've been building LEGO Friends 2.0 (meaning everything post-reboot in 2018) I find that Stephanie's sets are the most challenging or feature the most ingenuity. This includes:

• Stephanie's Summer Heart Box, which takes 6 extra pages to build because of the accessories' complexity versus Andreas and Mia's (I haven't built the rest yet)
• Stephanie's Buggy and Trailer, which I started out not really being thrilled by but by the end I was both convinced of the build's integrity and it's coolness. I was actually initially impressed by this set by the way, but lost my enthusiasm at one point
• Stephanie's Soccer Practice, which includes probably one of the most practical mechanisms in a LEGO Friends set outside of the one in Emma's Creative Tuning Shop, which is really just a sliding door (but I really like it).

By the way building so early in the morning unusual for me, since I'll usually try and schedule any LEGO Friends activity for 3PM-4PM because that's what works on my schedule. Plus, I can do it while watching First Move with Julia Chatterly on CNN.

I also realized recently that choosing to not get Stephanie's Bedroom when I had the chance a few weeks ago robbed me not only of a new drawer set, but a phone as well.

Stormtroper

There's a missing image, perhaps one with Dean in the background?

This thread made me try a LEGO simulator (Mecabricks), though unsurprisingly it's not quite the same as building stuff irl

fourteenwings

Ah, thanks! Fixed it now. Probably happened when I migrated the images to an album.

I tried making a blueprint build of my gift stage in BrickStudio a few months ago and it was a nightmare trying to get pieces to fit together.

I've been thinking about getting multiple copies of the set Aladdin came in, because it includes about 11 of the modular tile pieces that allow for all the removable bits, along with the pieces that align with the roof for each building to make each floor easier to remove.

But it turns out I don't need to be so single-minded since the Summer Heart Boxes come with two of those modular pieces each (no dice on the roof bits, but those are much less rare). I wouldn't mind having multiples of those since it'd allow me to mix and match the main characters' hair, which in LEGO terms makes them whole other people.

fourteenwings

Today I guess we'll take a look at an out-of-the-box build. I'm not planning on doing that for everything, or even regularly, but it can't hurt to do it once in a while.

I built Andrea's Accessories Store, from last year. It's one of my most wanted sets from last year (along with like... a whole bunch of other sets). However, I have mixed feelings about it.

(this isn't a review or anything, just my feelings in general and some photos because why not)

I should mention beforehand that I guess as I continue to build more and take even more pictures, I'm going to need a permanent photo-taking rig/space. Right now I've fumbled one out of some semi-free space but it's in a terrible place for lighting, since the natural right is right behind me whenever I take photos.

I've also switched back to my old camera, and I'm happy with how these came out.



The main exterior. It's very... tall? It's somehow pretty featureless as a building, and even the flags don't look all too cute. Well, it would fit nicely with a street of other stores. If only I hadn't already stripped my build of Emma's Art Store for parts, I could have a mini-street of stores.

I know that LEGO Friends 2.0 had a big change in team, and the new team was more focused on gimmick/moving parts builds versus what the brand is known for with stores. I'm not saying they're bad at it, because later in 2018 they released Emma's Creative Tuning Shop which is surprisingly amazing despite being mainly a moving-part/gimmick set.

But, this was clearly a "learning" build for them.



The door, featuring a sticker for the open sight. Man, this set had two pages of stickers and I am not very good at sticker application (yet? maybe I'll improve eventually?). This door also has a star for a door-knob, which looks like it might hurt to touch if you do it wrong, but I wish LEGO Friends had more whimsical touches like this.



Andrea welcomes you into her store, where she sells nothing but "accessories". I have no idea how she can rent this much space and sell nothing but accessories, but here we are.



A scooter, not really a fan but I guess it might be useful sometime.



In the shop window you can see some of the accessories for sale. A blue kitty wig and a gold fabric wing piece. I have never met a mini-fabric I disliked as much as LEGO fabric.

One of the things I was really excited about in this set was the inclusion of this blue kitty wig. I love LEGO Friends hair and it's soft plastic feeling, and I always love it when they make it in different molds from the usual.

So of course it's made of normal LEGO minifigure hair. I am so sad.

But! That means my overlords at LEGO think it's okay for me to use normal LEGO minifigure hair and it's intense hard-plastic-ness on my Friends minidolls. I am going to buy so many minifigures now just for their hair.



Emma inside the store. This set comes with Andrea and Emma, because every businesslady (business-...girl? how old are LEGO Friends even?) needs a loaded friend Friend to trick into buying weird pink skirt overpieces.



Speaking of, here is Emma modelling the skirt thing. I only kept it on during the build for this photo, and I immediately removed it after because it ruins how naturally cute LEGO Friends are.



This is my favourite part of the build, actually. Andrea has a mini glass case that opens! Inside is some costume jewelry, or maybe real jewelry. Emma better leave before Andrea sells her the whole lot...



As this build is mostly a facade, it is very, very tall. Towards the ceiling there are a few pieces of art (and some speakers because what's a shopping experience if somebody isn't blasting Taylor Swift's New Brickmantics at you). There's also perfume! There's always perfume.

Oh and a camera. This camera actually had a normal lens, but I thought the star was much cuter.



This set also features Andrea's pet dog slash store mascot Dexter. I've never heard of this dog, and it never shows up again (Andrea's pet is usually that pink bird/toucan thing), so I guess he takes the store mascot thing very seriously.



Here's Andrea in the blue kitty hair. Can't say I actually love it on the minidolls, but it might prove useful someday.



The Andrea from this set looks very similar to the Andrea from Emma's Art Studio, and they have the very same bottom-half. However, I think they're both worth having. How can you choose between leopard print and solid gold? You can't, and you don't have to, thanks to Andrea.

Oh, you thought we were done now? Nope, that's just the main build, here come the peripheries!



This set comes with a sewing machine, for sewing more accessories I guess. This is the only time in LEGO Friends 2.0 I've seen this pen piece in colours rather than Emma's default, and it infuriates me to no end but also hey I have it now! Two of them even.

Here, Andrea watches over Emma as she works. I guess Emma has spent so much she now owes Andrea a bunch of money, and is working it off. Emma really needs to find a cheaper friend to hang out with. Then again, Mia's idea of a good time is high-octane remote-controlled skateboarding around the woods.

This set also features a nice little changing room. It spins around on a fun little mechanism that's quite popular in the Friends line, so I made a GIF.

So overall, while I don't really love the build as it comes out of the box... this thing has pieces, so many beautiful, wonderful pieces (clear glass windows!). I love all of them, and I can't wait to turn them into something else entirely.

fourteenwings

By the way, I found some of my old Friends minidolls today and I wasn't even looking! I was most glad to find my Livi minidoll, the popstar one, because clearly that train is never coming round again.

Maybe one day I'll take some photos of my whole minidoll collection, but I feel that maybe that would bring the severity of my collecting obsession to the forefront and make me more concerned than I already am about it.

fourteenwings

I decided to take some photos of my first collection of Heart Boxes.



As you can see here, I only have Mia, Emma and Olivia's from the first collection.



You're supposed to stack them like this, but it's actually really hard to separate them if you do. I notice they didn't recommend doing it for the Summer ones. I mean, aside from the new top configuration which doesn't prevent them from stacking anyways.

You can't actually put all five in a circle, because they fit like triangles so only four fit.

I'm really looking forward to next years Heart Boxes, if they continue them that is. Right now the LEGO group is focused on releasing the Frozen II sets, but the 2020 sets should be out by Dec '19/Jan '20. Previews should be up soon...

Surely...

lrdgck

There are web-based communities of adult fans of LEGO. Do you belong to one of them, or do your thing just for your own pleasure?

fourteenwings

I don't belong to any LEGO sites, probably for two main reasons.

The main reason is that well, Friends isn't particularly well-regarded in the main LEGO communities. Most people don't mind it exists, but they also don't care. I think the only LEGO Friends community, which was hosted on Flickr of all places, mostly died after the reboot anyways.

The other is that nowadays I prefer going to places for the people, rather than the content. So yeah, this is just a personal hobby thread for me.

EDIT: I think another reason is I want to be able to quit at some point without feeling like I've invested too much. As a kid, and like, at least until two years ago, my main thing was collecting dolls (well, "collecting" as in over the years I collected like 10?) and I never thought that much about LEGO. I keep feeling like I'll wake up one day and be over it.

If I start getting into the LEGO sites then it'll be harder when that day comes. Maybe I'm just being too cautious (well, cautious-ish) but there are times when I feel like I don't really care that much about LEGO Friends, and then there are times when I'm building, taking hundreds of pictures, editing them and posting them here. So who knows.

Anyways, I did (what I thought would be but was definitely not) a little bid of fiddling with Andrea's Accessories Store and present to you an Evolution; Andrea's Atelier!



I think I might be a bit obsessed with the whole two-storey thing right now. If you look inside the window, you'll notice I've changed the little stands the displays had, because on the older ones were really wobbly and things came off them easily. Now, the wig clicks easily in place.



The inside as a whole.



Andrea still has space to work, next to Dexter.



The rest of the space is more compact. I kept all of her wares, but it feels much less sparse.



I had a transparent side-panel just sitting around, so I put it in because I thought it looked cool.



The top floor from the outside. I particularly like that it's mostly window from every side.




Now for the inside!



I incorporated the mini sewing machine build and turned it into the main feature here. I also kept the drawings on the walls and set up the cape and overskirt. As much as I dislike the cape for what it is on the mini-dolls, as an accent it's perfect.

Daniel, who is working at the desk, as a coffee and a cute little note to remind himself of... whatever modistes remind themselves of.



In the background, pre-2018 Andrea, who I guess is new Andrea's little sister now, examines his work. Maybe she'll wear it to the end-of-year school ball? (I've been thinking recently that it would be so cool if LEGO Friends did a school dance theme sometime but that'll never happen, since that isn't STEM-ey enough).

My next project, I think, will be a redo of the only set I currently own from pre-reboot. I would have loved to get some of the Winter sets from 2017, but they continue to escape me. I think I've mentioned elsewhere on IJBM how I passed on getting some in favor of an Ever After High Doll. I had the opportunity a few more times after that as well, but that was long before I'd gotten back into LEGO Friends so here I am.

fourteenwings

Huh, what's this average looking garage doing here?

Why don't we take a look inside?

Oh look, it's Mia and Olivia (with Livi's pink hair) at yet another LEGO Friends store. This time it's "Mia's Urban Surf Shop"!



Now you're probably asking, "Why did Mia put a surfing store in the middle of the city? Shouldn't that be somewhere beachside?". To that I answer; you can't stop hipsters.



On the inside you can see a selection of surf boards to one side, as well as some other seafaring equipment behind Mia.



I incorporated the wave element from the original build, because you don't get
a surf element that cool and then just discard it.



Here we have the space without the surf board rack. You can see a picture of Mia and her brother Daniel in the background (it and all the green "wood" elements were repurposed from Mia's Tree House).



The surfboard rack outside the store. I like the earthy look but I would have preferred to use have the textured brown circular bricks (I don't have any right now) rather than these solid ones, which look much less like wood.



The other elements.



And finally, the store with just Mia and Olivia hanging out. I wish they would make that yellow wicker bag element for real.

I really like to discover/mess with the LEGO Friends sets from pre-reboot, because I haven't done excessive research on them and I think I'll keep it that way. Unfortunately, as the years go on, it'll probably become harder and harder to find them on store shelves or anywhere else without them being ridiculously overpriced.

glennmagusharvey

oh hey it's diver girl

and is that a sliding door

fourteenwings

It is indeed a sliding door. It's not an original idea on my part, it's just repurposed from Emma's Creative Tuning Shop.

Funnily enough LEGO Friends this half-year is all about diving suits. Everyone got one.

ActuallY i have a fun a fun tidbit about this, probably because I heard it for the first time around the sets being revealed and it having a vague summer feeling, I associate the LEGO Friends Summer/Fall 2019 sets with the FYKA remix of The Naked and Famous' Higher. I was thinking about doing a stop motion video or something when I have the time, but I'd probably need to have like... more than one Ocean Rescue set.

fourteenwings

I said I was going to make a stop-motion video with LEGO Friends, but I ended up not doing a Summer Set themed video. Instead, I made a video recreating the opening sequence from the American sitcom Half & Half. I wasn't exactly a "big" fan of the show (though I have seen a few seasons over the years), but I loved this opening sequence. In fact, I knew the dance by heart for a few years.

Not only did I make the original opening sequence, I also made an additional two to go with the sets (because it has a lot of sets).

Here's the original, and here's the funky, soul train inspired psychedelic set version. There's another with the initial sequence set, but I'm still undecided on the overall editing I should do.

Now, for the sets!



The set for the initial sequence. As you can see here, I repurposed some bits from my gift stage, but added a few flourishes.

You can see that the 'floor' of the set has been embellished not just with flat tiles, but little pegs. This entire thing would have been impossible without them, since LEGO Friends bottom-halves move in unison (both right and left legs, I mean) and trying to have both foot-pegs attached to the exposed brick would have resulted in movement that was super-stiff.



I thought I would end up using the left side more, or at least having it in frame, but it ended up being a flourish you can only see here :P



My psychedelic, 'Soul Train' set. I've never actually seen Soul Train or anything, but I'm assuming it looked something like this. Though I tried to keep the tiles as mismatched as possible, I made sure to keep the floor's sense of symmetry.



The 'Sky' stage. This one was ridiculously hard to work with, and my initial design (with no tiny pegs to hold my minifigures in place) was even harder to work with. However, I do like how it turned out. It has a real sky feeling about it I think, and I think the elevated stands are fun.



My cast, including one pre-reboot Andrea and Dean sporting his original hair (no worries, I switched back to artist hair right after working on this). Despite my cast being 4 out of 5 Andrea, none of the Andreas are wearing Andrea's actual hair piece. It just didn't feel right in trying to recapture the bombastic and sleek styles of the original video.

This took about six hours work total. Two building, and four 'filming' over separate days, but I think it turned out great.

fourteenwings

I think the reason there are so many people dedicated to LEGO, versus other things is that you basically learn LEGO. I mean, it's very simple to start with but it really is a system that there are layers of understanding to.

In fact I wouldn't be surprised if over 70% of adult LEGO fans were the kind of people who enjoyed studying. I mean obviously the nerd overlap there is already very strong, but this taps right into that part of your brain. You get a box of bricks, and you get instructions, as you acclimate yourself to instructions, you learn different styles and techniques to build with.

The other thing is that once you *do* learn LEGO, building what's instructed on the box becomes vaguely moot, and once you do get there, you probably already have a bunch of sets, and so justifying buying new ones is hard.

Like, lately, I've been trying to quit Friends, but I have had so many ideas and I basically know how they all could work (mostly). I also really want to learn how to build with Technic so I can... well, build more Friends.

In fact right now I am working on a build, and I have another I just haven't posted here yet that I might take pictures of soon.

I do wonder if this is a habit I'll actually be able to put back in the box...

fourteenwings

What's this now, a facade? Well, that's pretty, but also pretty basic, 14w. Is that it?

Really?

Well...



Whaaaaat? It transforms! Amazing!

[end of patting self on back]

Anyways, this is inspired by the Shopkins Lil' Secrets line of miniature playsets, which are like those retro super mini Polly Pockets. I was actually going to remake one of the two I have, but that would require Technic pieces I don't have to do properly, so I made use of the hinge system from Jasmine's Petite Tower.

I'm surprised there hasn't ever been an official Friends set like this. Maybe eventually.



On one side we have Andrea's little music studio, and on the other Daniel's running himself a cafe!



Andrea sings a little ditty (imagine Firecracker from The Lost & Found Music Studios) whilst Daniel accompanies her on the keyboard.



Poor Chico has to bear all these human noises.



On Daniel's side, we have a giant glass box of cookies (because I love making those) and a single table where customers can have a piece of rainbow cake and two entire milkshakes (Andrea is definitely not sharing).



There's a picture of Daniel and Mia's tree-house on the wall, for when Daniel longs for simpler times before he had to get a job in a transforming cafe (no insurance would even think about covering this place).

The cafe isn't going too great either. From the lack of entryways that aren't a window, to Andrea co-signing the lease and promising she was only looking to provide "ambient music" (before the giant speakers came in.



A closer look at Andrea's side, including the "Gold" record she bought for herself. You gotta visualize before you succeed! Maybe... surely...?



As mentioned, Daniel's side has an opening window, as inspired by one of the Shopkins Lil' Secrets mini sets (and supported by the "Emma is really mad you stole her Cafe parts" fund).



I accidentally set my camera to flash when I took this picture, but I found myself liking the end result. The exposure looks really great.

I'm quite glad with how this one turned out.

fourteenwings

Now for a build I worked on basically forever ago. I was going to post pictures of it back then, but I didn't really feel like it as it was. After a major renovation, I finally felt it was complete.



Andrea appears to be lugging her suitcase somewhere...



Ah, it's a Boutique Hotel!

I've always really liked boutique hotels, they're my favourite sort of hotel. Before you ask; yes, that's a thing that can be a thing. Embedded inside the city, rather than on their own property. Less vacation, and more a necessity for the traveler. They provide an almost unseen force that allows patrons to relax, but not too much.

I think New York has particularly captured the world's imagination when it comes to boutique hotels, but I'd say those are much too fancy to count. A boutique hotel should be much more chain-ey. Bit of tradition there, but built on an unbridled sense of soulless capitalism. That sort of no-nonsense attitude and just-above-blase interior design aesthetic always give me a sense of comfort.

... wait, I think I was talking about LEGO? Kay.



This is the first floor exterior, and a side view. There's a bit of greenery here and there. I was really insistent on maintaining that dark blue line on the bottom all around, it's a regal color that gives it a bit more aesthetic, but not too much of one.



Here's Aladdin, I guess he's the manager here. On the wall here there's a shield that matches the decor from LEGO Nexo Knights. I have a lot of these shields, with the intention of using them in this sort of contexts, but you can see how rare the opportunity would be.



A view of the lounge area, which completes the first floor. I wanted to take a better picture of the reading nook in the bay window, but I totally forgot to.



Olivia's just gotten up from the bay window and is headed upstairs. As you can see here, there's a big couch and a table where people can have drinks, maybe share a chat. On the wall is a bookcase with no books because it was made to scale with the room. Oddly enough, I'm most proud of the tiny little vase of flowers here. It was a novel thought I had.

The bird is stuffed, in case you're worried about it flying around.



A better view with the furniture removed.

To the second floor now;



This side of the second floor has clear walls because I thought that would be cool for a mini-restaurant style area.



Here you can see a mass of lights, as well as more shields on the walls. I wonder if this is too garish, but I really quite like it.



The 'buffet', I guess? On display there's a lot. A water cooler, a cookie box, a coffee machine, and a cupcake. There's also a vending machine. The walls here are adorned with some fashionable art.



In the window is a single table and chair to enjoy the view of passersby outside (yes, that's the same croissant from earlier).



On the other side of this floor is a bathroom! I've wanted to build a bathroom ever since I got the shower pieces from Mia's Surf Shack, but I've had a hard time finding the space for it.

On the floor there in the shower are some suds somebody left behind (probably Ethan in his rush to get that croissant). In that third picture, you can see bottles of shampoo and bodywash next to the shower because details. There's also a full-length mirror, because bathrooms should always have mirrors (maybe not full-length ones...).

The funny things about this bathroom are:

a) No minidoll can fit in this shower
b) Actually trying to maneuver my hands in there once it was all built was impossible.

But, it's super cute, and that's all that matters.



The top floor now! Here we see Zack enjoying his coffee on the balcony.



The walls on this floor are vaguely transparent. Partly out of necessity (because I was running out of wall parts) and partly because it's cool.



The bedroom interior.Owing to being a boutique hotel, it's not too heavily furnished. A bed, a side-table, and a chest of drawers. On the wall is a whiteboard because... well, you might want to plan your day out in detail. There's also a map of the city, which Robert is examining as he plans his day out.



The front of the dresser. On top is a juice-box and another flower in a vase.



The room with all the furniture removed.



A view of the whole hotel from the back. When I first looked at this image, I was struck by just how busy a hotel can be on the inside, outside of your own activities. It was a humbling moment, brought on entirely by LEGO bricks.

And that's all, folks!

Woah, I'm beat just writing this. I can't imagine how tired I was after actually completing the build.

fourteenwings

The first pictures of the 2020 sets are out. I couldn't even bring myself to look at them at first, because I knew I would probably cave.

I... I have caved.

A HAIR SALON WITH A NEW FRIEND AND LOTS OF HAIR PIECES YOU GUYS.

I'll need like at least two of these.

A BAKE-OFF SET WITH A NEW BOY.

Since that new Frozen II set, I've been in a serious hate/hate relationship with these new fabric tent pieces but I love the new Olivia and Mia outfits so tough luck, wallet.

SO MANY WINDOWS (also what the heck Ethan?).

I would also 100% get this if it were not probably the size of six entire other sets (I've already run out of display room).

I guess I'm never escaping this hobby...

fourteenwings

I gave all of my LEGO Friends things to charity before Christmas, so I was expecting to never update this thread ever again.

But, I actually kept a single baseplate and... okay I kept a bunch of stuff, but about 95% of everything went to charity. I've had lots of ideas, but they've mostly been hampered by like... not having much.

As a result, this build is mostly repurposed Summer Heart Boxes. About 10-15 pieces aren't from a Summer Heart Box.

Without further ado!:



It's Daniel's Store! He's like, again, one of the mini-dolls I still have (I'm really regretting getting rid of the minidolls...).



Here he is standing outside the store.



Checking out the makeshift garden. I really didn't like how bare this space looked without it and it only took a few fun geometric pieces from Mia's Summer Heart Box to make.



Inside we have Daniel selling... something. Everybody suspend your imagination and think of the clear pieces as refrigerators.



Here we have a better view of inside.



At first I was going to use one of the nameplates from the Heart Boxes as the store sign, but via some chicanery I came up with this alternative. This way, the sign is not only 3-D, but it can go any which way.

fourteenwings

I can't believe the last post I made in here. It's been a really, really long road since back then.

For one, all the LEGO Friends characters got replaced with newbies!

I'll discuss further some other time but the most important thing for now is this new map of Heartlake City;



It reminds me of all the dangerous Florida marshlands that GMH mentioned some time ago. The areas that nobody should be living on yet they do without a care in the world.