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LEGO Thread, mostly Friends
2019-09-24 14:44:35
edited 2023-09-02 15:02:45 in Meatspace
There is love everywhere, I already know
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!
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!
Comments
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:
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.
This thread made me try a LEGO simulator (Mecabricks), though unsurprisingly it's not quite the same as building stuff irl
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.
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
friendFriend 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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
and is that a sliding door
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
January: Man! Nu LEGO Friends is exciting! I wonder how this'll go...
February: I really like these new room sets, especially Leo's! I also really like these new upcoming Classic sets, they seem super cute!
March, 1st Half: Oh wow these new LEGO Friends sets have some colors I don't really like... and I'm not a fan of some of these sets.
March, 2nd Half: Screw LEGO, it's all about M*GA and Alt. Bricks now*
April H1: You know, these new LEGO Friends sets aren't half bad, and I really do like these new Classic sets...
*It occurs to me that none of my Alt. Bricks arc was ever spent here and honestly it'd take too much effort to recreate it but tl;dr there was a lot of Alt. Bricks.
My Nu LEGO Friends sets so far;
I initially got a single copy of Leo's Room and the two Bubble Tea sets, then I got two copies of Leo's Room and one of Nova's room, then I got the Donut Shop.
After that I kind of lulled before getting Aliya's Room and then the Hair Salon, and now I have three copies of Leo's Room. The only room I'm yet to have in my hands is Liann's, because I dislike how monotone it is.
There's way too much blue for an artist one, or maybe that's the point?
Meanwhile, Halle Bailey Ariel's LEGO sets have been previewed! I have no idea why Disney has so much faith in this direct-to-streaming starring-a-grownish movie (the other being Yara Shahidi as like... Tinkerbell? what?) but at least kids will have a lot of discount present options during the upcoming Christmas season.
This coming from a guy who is eyeing "LEGO Disney Peter Pan & Wendy's Storybook Adventures" right now.
(I love this so much).
Disney sets are always amongst my favorites, but I abhor Disney characters in minifigure form (in fact, maybe I'm just not a fan of minifigures?), and a $100+ set for this children's movie makes very little sense, like that BTS set from a while ago.
(there's no way this thing will sell)
I'm also going to get the Storybook Adventures set for this movie, because I love these sorts of sets more than I hate Halle Bailey Ariel (who I just like, mildly disapprove of anyways).
However this like $50 "Treasure Chest" set can go kick rocks. It'd be worth it for half the price maybe.
(Will update post with pictures later).
LEGO Friends is kind of annoying right now. I like a lot of the characters, but I feel like the colors of the sets have really lost the plot. I don't love the emphasis on more natural colors. I know some of the bigger sets keep the cutesy colors I like, but I think a big reason I dislike the new sets is because of the color scheme.
So here goes LEGO Friends sets I'm not too keen on;
The new LEGO Friends Diner v2023. This set has the exact same color scheme as the Hair Salon, but turned up in a weird, gross way. I really like LEGO Coral Pink, but not here, and not like this.
There's also something vaguely uninspired about the build.
Positive Note; this set introduces blue-haired friend-of-Friends Charli, who looks pretty cool. I'd get it entirely for him maybe, but his outfit is kind of situation-specific.
The LEGO Friends Skate Park! I am not a fan of giant skating instruments, but I bring this one up specifically because I really love the "Chill Out Zone" part of the set.
The Organic Grocery Store. The color scheme on this is like, realistic, but noooot too much. This set features two entire "different" characters (main character Autumn with her one-arm and friend-of-Friends Jordin with vitiligo).
Yeah, the realism just kills it for me. This should go to CITY, not Friends.
I was planning on doing LEGO first.And I did it turns out.
I've been putting off this specific period of my life for a while. I haven't documented it properly outside of various chat logs, and I should probably get the exact timelines right before I keep going, but it's better I put this in writing as soon as possible instead of getting lazy again.
So, in H2 2020, LEGO released this evil monstrosity of a set. How does one hate a set called "Everyone is Awesome"? You ask? Well, you begin with Gender Ideology, and then add Anti-Racism (because of course at the very least the legitimate sexual minorities also have to be divided by race).
2020 was, well, the year of both George Floyd and Ibram X. Kendi, and it was unbearable dealing with every single brand lecturing to you about it's latest Social Justice nonsense (a tendency that, as a result of both apathy and pushback, is now at the very least going back to some sort of tolerable level).
LEGO was no different, with a toning down of police in CITY sets (that lasted quite literally 1.5 years). That, I was willing to tolerate, but Everyone is Awesome crossed lines for me, so I stopped buying LEGO.
(brief interlude; hahahaha, "stopped buying LEGO". DOTS literally came out in 2020 and DOTS is one of my favorite LEGO themes ever. I had every DOTS bracelet until at least this year)
But this thread is actually about happy things. So anyways, aside from LEGO annoying me with it's messaging, I was just generally interested in other brands of LEGO-size bricks too, most primarily Mega Construx. Which, I mean, is owned by Mattel, which is so committed to Racial Justice they made Barbie half-black), which is bad, but not as bad as gender woo.
Which they stopped doing... and are now doing again...
Anyways, this isn't about Mattel either!
Speaking of, I've found out that the new LEGO Friends line generated a bit of anti-buzz in conservative circles as being "woke". I mean, yeah, I have my qualms with the line. Call me heartless, but having a full-time main character with one arm means you have extremely limited options in terms of "remaking" your characters, and also it's actually just not entirely appealing (I really hope this isn't construed as me never wanting to ever look at anybody with one arm, it's just very weird for a mass-produced children's toy line).
Olly being obviously gay and possibly dating Leo is definitely not appropriate for children, and the fact that only 3/8 of the cast is white is kind of weird (I mean the number is actually the same as before, it's just that before it was 3/5). Leo adopting the default 'African' skin tone and making it Latino means Aliya now has the dull-gray-brown 'Priyanka' tone that was somehow mean to imitate Indian people. Everybody knows having Zac both be a guy and the darkest skin tone of the line is a super-bad combination (he's being outshined by literal side-characters in his 'own sets').
Frankly, out of everybody, Nova bothers me the most. Why? Because she's one of those purposefully anti-cute characters who is cool and edgy. Well, yes, I know there was that little Easter egg in Nova's room where it's revealed that she too likes Elf Twilight (or whatever those books are), but her dolls are usually purposefully unappealing. Despite Autumn making it hard to steal her torso for other characters, at least those torsos are cute enough for you to want to reuse.
Of course, there is at least one cute Nova, but she literally comes in a set with Matilde, decidedly aka Best Side-Friend, so she's quite overshadowed.
But overall, I was more concerned about how unappealing the builds were, and how 8 main characters in general was a bad move (they should have stuck with 5 and had one boy, and I'm pretty sure stuff's not going too well in Friends-land already so we'll see if there are any major changes with 2024H2 or 2025H1).
I really enjoyed DOTS and it's various permutations, whether it was actual sets, or the cubes or the bracelets, or the bagtags etc. I wish it continued on a smaller scale, but I guess demand just disappeared after the initial buzz wore off.
Anyways, I decided to take stock of my current LEGO backlog. When I wrote it down, I wasn't too worried, but then I made a compilation image and I was very, very surprised.
The full rundown;
As you can see, I've been very into smaller sets this year, and I'm pretty into repeat set-getting. I'll probably have FOMO next year missing all the big sets, but I really like having the time to build and appreciate the smaller sets anyways.
I've actually already opened the Pony Washing Stable, Pancake Shop, Donut Shop, Beach Buggy Fun, and the Skate Ramp Polybag. The Stable I had quite a while back, but the rest were certainly this year. I've also had multiple copies of the LEGO Friends Mobile Bubble Tea Shop, and I kind of really, really want more (I really like Matilde and that Nova in the cute outfit).
On the more negative side, I only got the Dog Rescue Bike for completionism's sake, because I've missed at least one smaller set every year before now (Forest Waterfall was one of those from 2021). Dunno why, but Aliya sets are almost always lame to me.
I would have more LEGO CITY sets, but the shipper I was meant to get them from kiiiind of screwed me over (and I didn't even get a refund).
These will be reviews of sets I got and completed quite a while ago, mainly because I have general things to say about them.
LEGO Friends Pancake Shop
This set features new Friend Paisley and friend-of-friend, the wheelchair-user Luna. I think Luna was also in the Skate Park set from earlier this year (she was, didn't put it together till just now). LEGO Friends has had a few of wheelchair Friends since they developed the wheelchair piece in 2021 I think. I like Luna's hair piece and her face screening (painting). Her hair piece is the same as Matilde's I think.
I didn't notice till I built it, but Paisley's lower leg piece is a very common G1 Friends Stephanie skirt piece. And for the record, I hate Paisley's hair, the way it covers her eye is supposed to show off how "shy" she is as a character but I really just don't like it at all. It's just in the way.
As for the set itself... it takes much longer than you'd expect? Personally, I was frustrated by that complexity, but I didn't mind it in the end because it was a pretty cute build. I really like the roof a lot. Also, once you get used to the build length, you should have a decent feel of how long it'll take you to get through it. That should lessen any frustration you'd feel.
LEGO Friends Beach Buggy Fun
This set features two new Friends; Liann and Zac. The main thing about this set is that it's like... that 4+ set that always, always comes out every year, so much so it's spread to LEGO CITY as well.
I really like Zac's outfit in this set, and Liann's is also okay. For some reason, I'm really disappointed when this sort of set doesn't have an animal face. I mean, this is the same car-face as last year, but last year's set had cute pets on the side of the vehicle.
The new puppy is also very cute, but I don't think the surfing vignette is very fun. I think they should have just done another vet or grooming (especially grooming) set. I guess they couldn't do the vet since CITY did that.
Before I forget, that Harry Potter polybag has Cho Chang in it, I guess because the designers got bored of always doing Harry, Ron, Hermoine, or Draco. Plus this recent-ish push to make sure Harry Potter sets are racially diverse since like... every main character in Harry Potter is not racially diverse at all.
Speaking of racial diversity, I forgot to mention that the Beach Buggy Adventure set was endorsed by this adorable little Asian kid (in the official promo material).
There are some I wish I'd gotten a few years ago, like one that had Olivia on a picnic...
Actually, it seems I'm misremembering this by crossing the "Summer Picnic" polybag with the "Park Picnic" polybag. Still, both are cute.
I also like this one from last year, the Market stall. Unfortunately I never got a copy.
I just like the stall concept a lot.
There was also a CITY polybag from 2021 I wanted a lot for the minifigure.
There's a store around here that suddenly has a bunch of last year's hobby cubes, but at exorbitant prices, which is what usually happens with toys around here. I might cave, but hopefully not soon.
I'd really like another copy of Olivia's Gaming Cube, and maybe Emma's Fashion Cube, and definitely Mia's Soccer Cube, and from then I definitely just need the other two for completionism's sake right...?
Anyways, the cubes sure had an overly expensive-to-make looking commercial.
(My first ever three LEGO Friends sets).
The point being, I only got my first LEGO Friends set in 2016! I mean, this is me in 2023 with better distribution networks, so overall the problem was probably just the unavailability of sets, but overall I only got my first LEGO Friends set 4 years after the line started.
Which made me think I should look through the previous years and check out exactly what sort of sets where available in a faux-nostalgia fashion.
I'll start with 2015 and work my way back.Well, I was going to do that, but I guess I should talk about these first three sets. I have a lot of memories with... well, one of them. I guess I didn't think much of the Foal's Washing Station, because it was so small it seemed like an extra, but I do still have the Emma minifigure from that set! I think I might have posted pictures of her at least once before.
She's actually wearing a sleeveless pink zip-up hoodie piece that's more associated with Mia since it's so sporty. See why having the majority of main characters have the same skin-tone is so convenient? Actually, this is from when 4/5 of the main characters had the same skin-tone.
I also like the black foal, but you honestly have to admit that for a $10 set, this was kind of a ripoff, even the 4+ sets with this same concept nowadays (like the Pony Washing Stable I posted above) have more cohesive and expansive builds (mostly thanks to the big pieces, but still).
I remember really liking this Birthday Party set, but what I remember the most about it is a review I read where a mom points out that Andrea is throwing a birthday party all by herself with no other Friends. No doubt if this were a modern set, it would no doubt have more than one Friend in it, but frankly I am struck by the simplicity of this build. I really like it. Nowadays Friends is full of more complex (and usually costly) sets that take longer than you'd like to build. I wish we had more stuff like this.
I understand that this set cost the same as one of this year's 'Room' sets, but I find that I prefer it. The pieces are bigger, so there's more room to mess with stuff, and it's not overly complex and therefore limited to smaller pieces and therefore a smaller overall size.
A recent set with a similar concept is last year's Pet Playground, which you can see also has a lot more going on. It's also less fantastical and more realistic. I wish Friends would go back to being the other way around.
Well, that was a lot of words and took more time than I expected, so I guess I'll talk about the Pop Star Show Stage later.
Okay as you can see, the sets are somewhat similar, even in basic coloration. My initial thought was the 2022 Pony-Washing Stable was undoubtedly superior, but some of the 4+ limitations do hold it back.
In detail;
Aside from that, it occurred to me that I never discussed microdolls in detail, despite posting them here a bunch.
In addition to the minidolls introduced in 2012 that we all know and love, LEGO introduced a smaller variant for the Disney Storybook Adventure series in 2020.
(That horse is quite out of scale...)
I was quite enamored with this line, I had all four original books (nobody remind me I "wasn't buying LEGO" in 2020). Sadly, because I was boycotting LEGO stuff at sporadic intervals, I did miss this super cool set that featured Cinderella, Tiana, Ariel and Belle at the same time.
For some reason, I always miss sets Tiana is in (ever since I started seriously going at this LEGO thing in 2019). I don't mind this, but it's notable. Next time one exists, I'll go after it with all my effort, just to say I've had at least one Tiana pass through my hands. This was also the only time so far that Cinderella (my favorite Disney Princess) was made in microdoll scale.
This year, the Disney Princess LEGO brand was full of tiny surprises. One I'll discuss later, but the other was this Frozen set that was not a Storybook Adventures set. I was going to say "it was the first set ever to feature microdolls in this context without a minidoll", but that actually happened in a Friends Advent Calendar from 2021*.
(We're bigger that Babyz, we'll soon be Teenz, we're Friendz Kidz! Friendz Kidz!)
(You won't believe this buy MGA actually repurposed even this exact concept for a song for the L.O.L. BTWeens.)
Otherwise, and even in this set actually, LEGO Friends only features microdolls as "children", so they usually aren't by themselves in a set.
I look forward to getting my hands on it. I'm not a Frozen fan to any degree, but by George LEGO Disney Princess always gets me good.
*Which I don't have, but should have gotten, but again, sporadic LEGO boycotts.