New Lego Friends

[Green_Tea]

I've been assembling Lego kits with DS (5.5) pretty much non-stop for the past year, and the thing that strikes me about these new "girl" sets (don't get me started...) is that the construction looks really dumbed down and not at all challenging. I am surprised that they are labeled as being for 6-12 year olds. My 9 and 7 year old DDs would find them babyish and way too easy.

I really wish Lego would expand upon their Creator Series houses and structures. We got the log cabin and the lighthouse for Christmas. Tower Bridge and the Emporium look AMAZING, but I can't stomach the cost. And I kind of want the VW Camper for myself .

I am with Katie on the "girlyfication" of all toys. I pretty much blew my lid the day I saw the PINK Little People School Bus and Jenga for girls at TRU.

[k_null81]

I have twin boys so obviously this won't pertain to me really...but my boys got a couple small Duplo sets for Christmas this past year and they had little ads in them and I saw that Lego is making Disney Princess sets...not sure if anyone else caught that or not.

[vonfirmath]

Green Tea: They are expanding on the Creator series as well.
http://www.brickset.com/search/?theme=Creator&year=2012

[YouAreTheFocus]

I'm with you.

Yeah, me too. I keep clicking back and forth between this and this, and I am just shaking my head and thinking "how did we get here?" And aside from the overall look/theme, I agree that Lego missed the mark in dumbing these sets down too much. What's the point of Legos that (essentially) don't require building?

[katydid1971]

I agree with a lot of what people here have said about not liking the pink version of every toy but I really am excited about these sets. I think DD is still a little young for these but I think she will enjoy them and I plan on buying a few and putting them away for a year or two for her. I think the dolls are cute and not strangely overly sexual like so many of the toys lately (have you seen the latest version of candyland?!?! Princess Frostine looks like she lives in the playboy mansion!!!) Or weird like those dolls that go with the Littlest Pet Shops (they really creep me out). I think it combines the doll play so many girls like with some good mechanical skill building. I really like it and I'm glad Lego is putting these out.

[Green_Tea]

Green Tea: They are expanding on the Creator series as well.
http://www.brickset.com/search/?theme=Creator&year=2012

Oh, good! I like the idea of a taxi cab and the Statue of Liberty and the seaside house. My girls would dig those .

[vonfirmath]

Yeah, me too. I keep clicking back and forth between this and this, and I am just shaking my head and thinking "how did we get here?" And aside from the overall look/theme, I agree that Lego missed the mark in dumbing these sets down too much. What's the point of Legos that (essentially) don't require building?

The Friends sets are focused on allowing girls to roleplay as they build. Which probably means that a set of similar complexity may be a bit more expensive since they have to add all those roleplay bits in as well. But they do still require building. One Lego reviewer even mentioned that the convertible introduced "Studs Not On Top" construction. (which in the Lego world is evidently called SNOT. They didn't have that when I was last in Lego)

As for what the website says about "Building their own city" -- Despite doing Legos since I was a kid (4 or 5 years old) I've NEVER been interested in this. I'll build according to the directions and then tweak what I built. But give me a big pile of bricks and I freeze. I'd rather go read a book and do something else. And that's despite putting hundreds of dollars in all sorts of Lego sets before Friends ever came out.

So I'm okay with Friends not having the complexity of the Creator sets.

[anonomom]

I've been assembling Lego kits with DS (5.5) pretty much non-stop for the past year, and the thing that strikes me about these new "girl" sets (don't get me started...) is that the construction looks really dumbed down and not at all challenging. I am surprised that they are labeled as being for 6-12 year olds. My 9 and 7 year old DDs would find them babyish and way too easy.

I really wish Lego would expand upon their Creator Series houses and structures. We got the log cabin and the lighthouse for Christmas. Tower Bridge and the Emporium look AMAZING, but I can't stomach the cost. And I kind of want the VW Camper for myself .

DH and I have been having a fierce debate about this the last several days. DH thinks it's cool that Lego is making sets for girls and he doesn't see any problems with them. But they bug the heck out of me, for the reason you point out -- the sets barely have any "lego" pieces in them! One of the things that I like best about DD being into lego is that they challenge her to follow directions and to problem-solve. These new sets seem to have strongly de-emphasized that aspect of Lego in favor of the kind of dolls/houses/pretend play that almost every other "girl" toy depends on.

If Lego wants to reach girls, why not have female characters in its regular sets, instead of segregating almost all female presence into the pink sets? DH has been looking in vain for a Star Wars set with Leia, Amidala or Ahsoka in it. In the non-licensed sets, it seems like the vast majority of the figures are male. IRL, women are police officers, race car drivers, etc. Why aren't they in the Lego world?

[sarahsthreads]

As for what the website says about "Building their own city" -- Despite doing Legos since I was a kid (4 or 5 years old) I've NEVER been interested in this. I'll build according to the directions and then tweak what I built. But give me a big pile of bricks and I freeze. I'd rather go read a book and do something else. And that's despite putting hundreds of dollars in all sorts of Lego sets before Friends ever came out.

So I'm okay with Friends not having the complexity of the Creator sets.

I really can't emphasize enough that despite being offered all manner of non-girly toys (I don't buy pink or girly versions of unisex toys, and we have tools and cars and train tracks along with the dolls and tea sets) my DD1 is completely uninterested in building *for the sake of building*. Not because the legos themselves are not pink or girly enough, but because that's just not something she's interested in doing. She's happy to build a thing to then roleplay with. So for my daughter, this new line will (I suspect - we haven't gotten any yet) fit in with her method of play and allow her to enjoy legos.

And I'm excited about these for me too. Like vonfirmath, I have never been able to just build something out of my imagination when faced with a pile of bricks. I do enjoy building a set with directions, though, so I hope that this sparks enough interest in DD1 (and eventually DD2) that legos will be something that they *want* to play with. So I can, too!

Sarah

[alien_host]

Yeah, me too. I keep clicking back and forth between this and this, and I am just shaking my head and thinking "how did we get here?" And aside from the overall look/theme, I agree that Lego missed the mark in dumbing these sets down too much. What's the point of Legos that (essentially) don't require building?

I think you need to keep in mind that the starting age is 5 for these sets (I do think 12 is a stretch). You also have to compare similar sets in size/complexity before you feel these are too "dumbed down".

The smaller $5.99 Friends sets do have few pieces - however it is comparable to other small sets, like this alien conquest one http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=7049-1

Olivia's House is 695 pieces and the lawn mower is the same one as in another creator house we built. http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=3315-1 The Hillside Creator House is 714 pieces and while the building itself is more complicated to build, it lacks the furniture that Olivia's House has. Also I just noticed that it appears that you can build Olivia's house a few ways.

I agree with vonfirmath that LEGO is trying to appeal to the role play aspect, which IMO is not a bad thing, build first then role play (much like Playmobil). We have built many a LEGO set, it is rare that DD wants to take them apart and do them again (she'd rather get a new set) as she wants them set up so she can play with them.

You CANNOT begin to compare Friends to the Grand Emporium - that is aged way above ages 5-12 and is almost 2200 pieces.