Tag: Lego For Girls

Lego Friends Olivia's House Display

Lego Friends – A Success Story For Lego?

Lego Friends Olivia's House DisplayAlthough I don’t have solid proof yet, I’m beginning to get the feeling that the Lego Friends theme is one of the year’s most successful toys.

As I said, this is just a guess and not to be quoted as fact in any way, but I’m noticing a general mood that kids and parents are embracing Lego Friends in both mind and money terms.

Lego Friends

As someone who spends an unnatural amount of time thinking about Lego, visiting Lego stores (both online and off) and stealthily over-hearing people’s conversations when they talk about Lego, I’m picking up that the sets are selling very well and both kids and parents are very happy with the quality and overall feel of the designs.

Over the last six months since their release, whenever I visit the Amazon Lego bestseller list, at least one (and often more than one) Lego Friends set is in the top 10 selling sets. And that is not just in the US but also in France and the UK. That adds up to a significant amount of sales.

I’ve already written a post about growing to love the theme but after building one and seeing others up close I can say that I have fallen head over heels, at least for a few of them (the beauty parlor remains out of my sphere of interest).

On the holidays I went to a department store with my kids and we ended up in the toy section – I must be one of the few mothers in the world who avoids the clothes section and drags their children to the toy department.

Me -“Please kids can we go see this one?”
Kids – “Come on mum we just went to two others – they all have the same sets!”
Me – “It’ll be the last…I promise?”

Lego Olivia's House InsideThe store had a very large Lego Friends display that included a light-up rotating model of Olivia’s House (set 3315).

I had looked at this set before and thought it was pretty cute but when I saw the model in it’s full 360 degree glory I was instantly hooked. I swear I rarely get this excited about a non movie-related Lego set. It was beautiful.

And I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

Both my son and daughter couldn’t take their eyes off the house and wanted to keep rotating it round and round, to see all the features inside and out.

My son, an architect in training whose idea of a great time is to sit and watch Grand Designs on TV, loved all the effort the designers had put into the interior; he especially liked the mixer in the kitchen.

My daughter went for the colors and the details in each room – the shower, the beds, the fridge, etc. It really is a wonderful design and for a set that can also be considered minifig scale – it’s one of the best houses I’ve seen for Lego figures to date. I don’t have Olivia’s House yet but it is absolutely on my must-get list (which admittedly is a long list- but this is right near the top).

After we returned home I did some more “research” (voyeuristic web-surfing) – Check out this official Lego video made with set designer Fenella. There is something so wonderful about seeing women designing and making Lego for girls.

LEGO Friends FigureIt’s true that not everyone shares my enthusiasm.

The larger Friends figures can be a turn off for many people and it is a shame really as they are missing out on some incredible sets. One answer is to buy the sets, turf the figures and simply use regular minifigures with the rest of the set. All the accessories can be held by the normal Lego figures anyway.

Others have been turned off by the way the sets were originally marketed and while I think they have a point (to a degree) I am hoping that this aspect of the theme will balance out over time.

Lego Friends – The Future

Lego have obviously put many hundreds of hours of thought into Lego Friends, both into the theme as a concept and the sets themselves.

It is clear that Lego Friends is not simply a mini version of Belville which alienated many in the Lego community, and I think did more harm than good with the female market.

There are more Lego Friends sets coming out mid 2012 and, if the early images are anything to go by the quality of the theme will continue to be very high.

Personally I am hoping that Lego Friends is as successful as it seems to be and that we can look forward to many years of these wonderful sets. I know that I will be adding more than a few Lego Friends to my collection and that both my kids will enjoy the thought and care that Lego have put into this controversial theme .

Lego Friends – Set Guide, News And Reviews

Lego Friends Banner

Lego Friends is a theme aimed primarily at girls and first appeared as a video game in 1999.

The sets are based on Lego figures that are taller than regular minifigures and include buildings and vehicles as well as animals and a number of unique accessories.

Lego Friends are available at Amazon.com

Lego Friends

Lego Friends Olivia's House 3315

Lego Friends 2012 Sets

Summer 2012 Sets

Early 2012 Sets

Lego Friends 2012 Gallery

Lego Friends

Lego Friends Olivia's Inventor's Workshop 3933 BoxLego Friends is the Lego Group’s latest  theme to appeal to girls within the company’s traditional range of brick-based toys.

While other attempts to engage the female market have involved Lego Jewelry or mosaic-type artwork, Lego Friends is a more traditional Lego play theme.

Replacing the Belville theme, which was a largely pink theme with both worldly and fantasy elements, the Lego Friends is built around a more subdued and diverse palette of colors, to reflect the varied and realistic characteristics of the characters.

The boxes for the first wave of sets (in April 2012) are purple and other colors featured in the sets include; violet, white, light pink, light blue, tan, orange and lime green.

The theme centers around a close-knit group of girls who each have unique personality traits and interests. Emma, Olivia, Stephanie, Mia, Andrea, Sarah and Marie have diverse talents including caring for animals, tinkering with cars and inventions, fashion design, music and singing, nature and beauty.

The characters take the form of molded figures roughly twice the size of regular Lego minifigures but all pieces are compatible with regular Lego and most of the elements can be used by regular minifigures.

The Lego Friends sets place emphasis on play and interaction between characters (hence the larger figures) and the sets have met with enthusiasm from both male and female members of the Lego Community.

Official Description

Welcome to Heartlake City and the world of LEGO Friends, a brand new range of construction sets and exciting mini-dolls for girls who love to build and play.

Centered around a beautiful, heart-shaped lake in the foothills of the Clearspring Mountains, Heartlake City is an amazing place to live where there is always something cool happening. It’s also the home to five special girls. Though they are best friends, each has their own personality and different hobbies.

Meet Mia, Emma, Andrea, Stephanie and Olivia, who hang out in the café, have barbecues in the backyard, go to the beauty parlour and play with their pets together. Mia loves animals, Emma lives for fashion, Andrea’s going to be a star, Stephanie throws the best parties and Olivia keeps them all organized.

Lego Friends – The Beauty Of Building

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