Friendshiptember is that wonderful time of the year where builders of all experience levels come together to create a ship (space, sky, or seafaring, all are fine!) inspired by the colors and minidolls of LEGO Friends. With another successful Friendshiptember in the rear view mirror, we rounded up some of our favorite entries to share. We also sat down with the event organizer Aubree (moctura) to reflect, so scroll to the end to read our interview. But first, let’s see these fabulous friendships!
Brilliantly capturing both the aesthetic and the color palette of the Friends theme, Chad Rhodes first-ever entry is a sight to behold. This ship is smooth and sleek, yet feels like a true crossover for Friends and Space. The Star and Heart tucked away in the top of the ship is a perfect touch.
With another impressively sleek design, Jason Bourassa shows off this colorful ship adorned with embellishments. Even if the jewels or hearts are blasters, they still seem quite friendly. The bright purple engine exhaust is the perfect final touch.
The Friends theme has introduced several adorable cats over the years, and Roldan Grace has gathered many of them here aboard The Meowther Ship. This feline take on the traditional flying saucer is so unique and bursting with character that it feels right at home for this challenge. The legs and tail jutting out from the side of the ship are hilariously great, and the swords used for the cat whiskers are purrr-fect.
LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery alum Jessica Bavier incorporates her talent for mosaics into this kite-inspired Friendship. The cloud-like hull is built from a white Belville Dingy found only in Desert Island 5846.
The Crossguard-227 by revan_bricks is a stunning sight to behold. Even beyond its sheer size of 136 x 100 studs, this ship features fully posable wings and is rich with detail and finish all across its hull. Tucked away inside the cockpit is a team comrpised entirely of animals (2 dogs and a….crocodile?), the perfect crew for a Friendship.
There are few things cooler than a good airship, and brickbuiltjosh‘s entry is no exception. The intentional color choices here are so nice, especially in how the colors of the ship match with its captain. The crystal that powers the ship is just one of many nice little visual details you can find here.
LEGO Masters Season 5 winner Sage Abigail built an Unidentified Fluffy Object that is simply adorable. The scale for this ship is very nice and really highlights the cat in the cockpit that is determined to abduct some milk. The posing and balancing throughout this build does an excellent job in making it feel like a still photo of an actual event.
Tacobitesandbricks too a unique approach making a monowheel, tapping into her STEM background with a technologically savvy friendship.
In our first water ship feature, exoch.i shows off a lovely baking boat with plenty to see. There’s a full garden atop the highest point of the ship, a busy bakery on the interior, and a large deck for enjoying some baked goods out in the ocean breeze. This build truly brings the full spirit of the Friends theme out to sea.
femmefromtheblock put together a bright and colorful pirate ship filled to the brim with cool characters. The ship itself is built very nicely at this scale, and the outfit and costuming choices for each of the characters is perfect for this crew. In celebrating the diversity of pirate ship crews, the diverse and representative minidolls here are a beautiful touch and feel perfectly at home for LEGO Friends.
TBB editor Jake Forbes sailed in under the wire with a Friendship spin on the coolest coffin ship in the Grand Line piloted by “Cool Dad Mihawk.” Sadly Mihawk’s sword doesn’t come in pink… yet.
Proving that the spirit of LEGO building is still very much alive with today’s youth, 7-year-old KFOL builder babyborgbuilds (account managed by parent drborgbuilds) shared an incredibly cool ‘flying dragon spaceship’. This ship is super fun, and it seems incredibly swooshable. Amazing job!
“Get in, loser, we’re going to space!” LEGO Ambassador Jean gets in on the fun with a compact shuttle for her minidoll avatar and her friend Christina. Speaking of whom…
LEGO Masters alum Christina (brickstery) makes a Friendship of her own by swapping out the wings of the Death Star GWP with something much more fabulous. Princess Leia makes her minidoll debut.
Star Wars has the coolest ships, and Friends might have the coolest colors….so why not combine the two? Karen Jones built a version of the 75357 The Ghost and Phantom II set to feature the neon and pastel colors of the Friends theme, and the result is really clean. I commented that I’d actually buy this one, and I meant it. Sabine Wren would be extremely proud.
cynthia_brickbuilds has been building Star Wars microfighters in the Friends color palette over the years, and this year’s build was the Snowspeeder. The bright neon colors are a treat, but our favorite detail continues to be the animal pilot. The Battle of Hoth never looked so cute.
Kaylie (ohlego) also puts the Friendship touch on a Star Wars icon, this time the new Death Slice Star. A windsurf sail in lieu of a superlaser is a brilliant touch.
Congratulations to the winners and to everyone that built something and participated in celebrating the LEGO Friends theme this year!
Our interview with Friendship organizer Aubree (moctura)
TBB: How does it feel to complete another Friendshiptember? It must be a highlight of your LEGO year!
Aubree: The end of Friendshiptember is always bitter-sweet! It is definitely a highlight of my year, and I found the end of this one to be particularly emotional.
We had more participants than ever before, with a lot of incredible builds! Each year, I receive messages from builders about how much this challenge brings joy to the algorithms of our community. There are always personal stories on what the Friends theme means to people or how building a friendship was a light in a dark time.
I am not sure I’ll ever be able to put into words how much it means to me that people participate in this challenge, building friendships!
TBB: The event seems to get bigger every year? To what do you attribute that success?
Aubree: This is the 5th year we have ran the Friendshiptember challenge and we had over 100 entries, which is our biggest year yet! The success of this challenge definitely comes from the community who continue to support and build for the challenge.
This year in particular, I had concerns that I would not be able to give the challenge the attention it deserves and more friends and sponsors than ever reached out to me to get involved.
I genuinely would not be able to continue this challenge without the support of our amazing community!
TBB: How have things changed since you started the first challenge back in 2021? Have you observed any changes in the type of builders who participate?
Aubree: 2021 seems like a lifetime ago and it is wild to me that we have been doing this challenge since then!
The core of friendshiptember has remained pretty consistent, with biggest change is the growth and attention the challenge has gained! When we started this challenge we weren’t sure anyone would participate, and we were excited to be proven wrong!
We created this challenge with a very small barrier of entry so that anyone could join. The types of builders has always been quite diverse over the years of the challenge and as it continues to grow we have started to see participants from all over the world join us in building friendships!
My personal favorites are the youth builders and first time moc builders! It is always such an honor to have someone build a friendship as their first ever MOC!
TBB: Were there any differences in how this year’s event was run?
Aubree: This year is the first year we introduced trophies!
Four of Friendshiptember’s biggest supporters and most prolific friendship builders agreed to build trophies to give to participants this year!
Shout it to Meredith (@_pinkwheels_), Michael (@moto.lego), Dana (@troublesbricking) and Cole (@colerskates)
TBB: What’s been your favorite thing about organizing this amazing event?
Aubree: My favorite thing about hosting the event is seeing how the community supports each other! There are always such kind, supportive comments on each build and I think we all could use some extra support sometimes!
The challenge is also about raising awareness to how great and important the LEGO Friends theme is. It is a widely criticized theme, especially by AFOLs, mostly due to the minidolls. Creating a challenge centered around this particular theme that is not only highly personal in my own LEGO journey, but has statistically brought more girls and women into the LEGO space has been a wonderful experience.
It is a highly inclusive theme that is packed with incredible details, wonderful stories and really fun play functions! I think it is important to note that even if you are not the target market for this theme, it has created change within the LEGO group.
I love seeing people embrace the theme, especially if it is out of the ordinary of something they would typically build.
TBB: Do you have a message for builders who are curious about participating but haven’t built a friendship yet?
Aubree: Building friendships is for everyone! Whether you are an experienced MOC builder, haven’t picked up your bricks for several years or have never made your own creation, all are welcome here!