Comments on: LEGO Friends – a father-daughter review

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:54:00 +0000

As an educator and a feminist I cannot understand why FRIENDS is getting such negative press! So the colors are pink and pastel colors so what colors do not define us! Brains are what we are defined by and our hearts and souls! I absolutely love this range it’s the first one created where there is a BACK STORY we are given the story of HEART LAKE the place where the FRIENDS live, work and play! Lego has gone the extra mile with this! I went to the High School of Art & Design and FIT and I was a costume design major in both so Emma’s Design Studio gave me an entry into the world of FRIENDS.
Here we see good positive role models in the girls! We have a costume designer, an inventor, an entertainer, a baker, an animal care taker, a vet, a beautician, a waitress, an announcer in a dog show, a girl who washes her car and in the sets coming out this summer: an airplane pilot, a horse trainer and a motor boat rider! Unheard of…do you realize how many years went by before Mattel gave BARBIE role model roles?
I think this alone is reason to buy and let their daughters the FRIEND Range! But more so even boys would enjoy the Heart Lake Vets, the Treehouse and the dog show!
What LEGO needs to do is create boyfriends for the girls and let them have date themes!
FRIENDS surpasses Belville and Paradisa in that although Friends isn’t the first to give each “mini-figure” names (Scala the 1st!) the fact they have names has an endearing quality!
LEGO’s billion dollar gamble will pay off!
And the colors can be used by so many MOCbuilders in so many ways!
Imagination & Creativity are called for and FRIENDS has both!
And as you can read it was a great way to bring father’s and daughters together maybe even mothers and daughters!
FRIENDS…I’d say successful!

By: nate_decastro

nate_decastro — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:26:12 +0000

Nice review. I accidentally read “icepack” as “icepick” and had a very confused moment:P

By: the enigma that is badger

the enigma that is badger — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:49:58 +0000

Thanks for sharing this, Josh! Your own thoughts on the sets were informative, but I’ll admit, your daughter and nieces’ thoughts on the line were the highlight.

For all the discussion about themes, elements, colors, and marketing of the line, I think it’s telling that nearly every review I’ve read from the target audience has been strongly positive.

By: kayakermanmike

kayakermanmike — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:25:01 +0000

My 18 mo old daughter already knows what Lego (pronounced Laylo in her vocab) is. She has the old super huge duplo, the new duplo and of course she sees Dad play with ‘big kid’ lego all the time.

She shouts Lego in the isle with the ‘normal’ Lego. There has been no brand recognition yet with the friends sets despite being shown several times now in the store. This weekend I let her pick an impulse set and we played with it when we got home…

Clearly at this age, it’s a heavily supervised toy only. I was the one that put it together, but she ‘helped’ by dumping out the bag and handing me pieces and taking apart things as I put them together. Fun was had by all.

She played with the doll some. And picked up the assembled lawn chair and played with it some. It probably lasted about 20 minutes. Which, for an 18 mo old is pretty fantastic really.

I’d say the sets are a hit, and she’ll grow in to them. I’m interested in the new colors to spruce things up since any Lego we buy right now is our Lego and most, but not all, of my Lego will be accessible to her as she grows too.

By: eilonwy77

eilonwy77 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:31:06 +0000

My daughter and I really want to get the vet set, but it hasn’t made an appearance in our neighboring store yet. Madeleine really likes the dog show set, too, because she can have the figs take care of the dog.