2012 Friends Discussion Thread

[Piranha]

so it is not a City subtheme anymore?

The horse and porcupine sound interesting.

[lightningtiger]

so it is not a City subtheme anymore?

I guess not 'Macoco', we need more defined information and of course images to make up our minds for sure about this new product !

[vexorian]

I will go and guess that the pics that we are speculating about are more preliminary than retailer catalog level. It could as well be that the apparent inmobility of the figs is due to the figs in the pics still being prototype placeholders.

I think that as long as they don't keep pursuing making a different scale for the figs ( and we are still not sure if they will) it will be fine. Else I hope it fails. TLG should really stop making the 4+ mistake over and over again.

[lightningtiger]

Lets all hope we don't see a return of Town Jr. style sets !

True also that when we get the first images they might not be the final ones !

[lightningtiger]

So they can sit and stand, how smegging boring !

Why change the game plan, what's wrong with minifigs for this theme....it's fine for all the other theme's !

And there has been nothing said about male characters ? Come, these girls don't have boyfriends ? Pardon, me saying but is Lego saying that they are well, friends in another kind of way ?

Plus not as bad as Town Jr., this still sounds bad.....we need those images even just a few to make our minds up.

[Haltiamieli]

I presume the figures will have skin tones like licensed themes instead of classic yellow?

Porcupine sounds interesting, new animals are always great. The new horse will probably be along the lines of Belville horse and incompatible in style with normal Lego horses, but a new animal might work. Hopefully it can at least be attached to studs (unlike some Belville animals). I hope there will be lots of useful new pieces in this theme. And if it is a success, maybe TLC will someday make a fantasy/fairytale subtheme - that could have a plethora of useful new pieces for Castle collectors like me.

[Aanchir]

So they can sit and stand, how smegging boring !

Why change the game plan, what's wrong with minifigs for this theme....it's fine for all the other theme's !

Other themes? What about BIONICLE? It was a very successful theme with boys, despite its "minifigure"-based sets only lasting for three years.

And there has been nothing said about male characters ? Come, these girls don't have boyfriends ? Pardon, me saying but is Lego saying that they are well, friends in another kind of way ?

So what does that say about the Power Miners theme? There were no girls in that theme at all! While we can all acknowledge that the theme works with some female stereotypes, I don't think we should assume that there need to be boys for the theme to be complete.

It seems clear to me that the girls in the theme are present so girls playing with the theme have characters they can identify with. Male figures aren't entirely necessary for that purpose, even though they'd be great as side characters in addition to the theme's five female protagonists. Hopefully TLG will introduce some male characters at some point, if only so that kids can role-play a wider variety of social situations.

Plus not as bad as Town Jr., this still sounds bad.....we need those images even just a few to make our minds up.

One thing we can definitely agree on. Even if I have high hopes for this theme, I've still got a hankering for some images so I can come up with my own complete list of pros and cons.

Also, it's curious that there's a horse, and yet the minifigures' legs allegedly can't move separately. Is there any way for the girls to ride the horse? Granted, LEGO minifigures don't need separately-moving legs to ride a horse, but if there's going to be a new horse for this theme I'd hope for at least a bit more realism (and in some form other than a figure that's perpetually bow-legged). I also hope the horse has some posability of its own. The Belville one was one solid piece, and even the System one is woefully limited in its poses.

[Tamamono]

Why change the game plan, what's wrong with minifigs for this theme....it's fine for all the other theme's !

I'm really not that surprised that there aren't going to be any minifigs for this theme. LEGO's most likely trying to cater to the population of little girls who just love playing with dolls.

I personally don't mind there not being minifigs in this theme, as long as the buildings themselves are at least close to minifig scale. I'll most likely be buying the sets, putting together the buildings/MODding them/scrapping them for some yummy purple and turquoise parts, and then putting the figures away in a box until I have some creative use for them. It's really no big deal that there's no minifigs, and from what it sounds like, this theme is going to be a goldmine of fantastic new parts and accessories.

[slovakiasteph]

No minifigs. :( That would've been great-- basically the only Lego sets I'm interested in are the ones that will fit into a city/town theme, so these would've been up my alley.

At least they don't seem to be doing the Paradisa PINK thing again... yes, there was a lot of white in the sets, but many of the accessories are pink (pink chairs? mugs? cars? fences?) and my Paradisa stuff doesn't quite match with the rest of my city. ;)

[Sandy]

LEGO's most likely trying to cater to the population of little girls who just love playing with dolls.

And that's where they're making a mistake. When girls want to play with dolls, they ask for a doll - and there are countless of doll brands out there.

Now, the issue has always been that many girls want to play with LEGO - that includes building - but the products that TLG has offered haven't really catered to them. Either they are too conflict- and vehicle-oriented so that they don't really appeal to girls, or then watered down and <insert that tiresome argument> so that there really isn't much to build with. Girls want to play with roles, everybody including TLG knows that - but the one thing that LEGO has as an advantage to other toys is the building aspect - you can build practically anything out of LEGO if you just have the suitable parts.

So why isn't TLG fully using its biggest asset over the countless toy companies that produce toys for girls - the compatibility, the connectivity, the building experience? Why water that aspect down again like they did with Belville and Scala?

Sure, the bricks will click together as always, but if the parts can't really be used with the other LEGO themes, then what's the point of this new theme? I know it's all guess-work at this point when all we have to go on with is hear-say, but I just don't like what I'm hearing. This is not the female-oriented theme we've been waiting for years to come.

Oh what I would give to get to interview this theme's designer!

[lightningtiger]

'Aanchir' the point I was making was on the figures and how they interact with other themes....i.e. Sponge Bob Jedi Knight !

Are these new figures human like (Belville in small scale) or torso/arms like a minifig we are use to.....that's the question I pose ?

[SilvaShado]

And if it is a success, maybe TLC will someday make a fantasy/fairytale subtheme - that could have a plethora of useful new pieces for Castle collectors like me.

That's what I'm hoping for. I really want fantasy creatures and I don't see why LEGO isn't making any. I mean, they have plenty of excuses with Harry Potter to do fantastical creatures, but they didn't/haven't yet. So it'd be great if they made some for a different theme. As long as they're not too oversized for normal minifigure scale.

[lightningtiger]

Something i just remembered......

Both from 1978, but one difference - lots of building involved !

Food for thought ?

[Pingles]

It will be interesting to see if what Lego comes up with is successful. From what I'm hearing I don't think my daughter will be interested but I look forward to trying it out on her.

But if it doesn't work perhaps we can try to guide Lego on their next Girl venture. I'd love to see sets of just girl-themed regular minifigure sets. Perhaps even a Fantasy theme with the girl as the Hero a la Lara Croft. And by Lara Croft I mean a strong female protagonist...not unrealistic physical proportions.

[Aanchir]

Something i just remembered......

Both from 1978, but one difference - lots of building involved !

Food for thought ?

Well, keep in mind that people probably won't have the same animosity towards these sets as they do towards the new theme because these, rather than being a separate system from the mainstream figures, were at the same scale (since minifigures hadn't even appeared in 1978).

As for "lots of building", I'm sure plenty of folks would disagree. Looking at the instructions for 232 on Brickfactory.info, there's a lot that LEGO fans today would call "<insert that tiresome argument>". The build is almost completely dependent on 1x3x5 and 1x6x5 panels, not to mention the massive windows and doors! At the same time, of course, if these sets used basic bricks for their walls I'd think they were awful, since that means the picture frames, mirrors, etc. would have to be STAMPs (Stickers Across Multiple Pieces).

The main difference between those sets and Belville sets, besides the figures being brickbuilt, is one I think all AFOLs can appreciate: solid walls. Even if they rely on so-called "<insert that tiresome argument>" pieces, they're unquestionably better than Belville's overuse of lattices for buildings of all types. The new theme may have a lot of open walls to allow for play, just like today's City sets, but hopefully it won't have ridiculous latticed walls like Belville so often did, which have no play potential and detract from the realism in large-scale buildings. Other than the solid walls, these sets stand out as a sort of "proto-Belville" or even "proto-Scala", with a similar scale and even some similar parts like giant sinks and cabinets.

From what we've heard, this theme might be at a much smaller scale, so unfortunately I doubt it will be able to achieve the same level of detail with heavily-<insert that tiresome argument> parts. But thankfully accessories and furniture sound like they'll be at a very reasonable scale. It would be wonderful if the theme also maintained this heavy focus on building, with numerous alternate models, although I have doubts since this is a trait that many older sets tended to have and newer sets tend to lack. Besides, the Creator theme already fills that niche, and I'm sure girls inclined towards that sort of building may be more likely to buy the Creator houses than more role-play-intensive sets.

Something I was thinking about last night... since we know the theme will use some collectible minifigure parts like the cream pie, I considered while fiddling with my minifigures whether the "science lab" set we've heard about might have the flask from the Crazy Scientist minifigure in a wider variety of colors. If it does, then this theme might have as much potential for great minifigure accessories that some Belville sets had.

[Darkdragon]

Something I was thinking about last night... since we know the theme will use some collectible minifigure parts like the cream pie, I considered while fiddling with my minifigures whether the "science lab" set we've heard about might have the flask from the Crazy Scientist minifigure in a wider variety of colors. If it does, then this theme might have as much potential for great minifigure accessories that some Belville sets had.

Multicolored flasks would be so great

I still say the whole thing sounds like Fabuland scale which means everything is a little big for minifig scale but lots and lots of useful parts even for building in minifig and belville scale. I'm pretty excited, I hope there are new animals!

[vexorian]

Other themes? What about BIONICLE? It was a very successful theme with boys, despite its "minifigure"-based sets only lasting for three years.

Bionicle had more poseability than minifigs. Less poseability really impairs this new theme, so much that I have doubts it is not caused by the stuff being still prototypes.

More so, to compare it with an action figure brand, we would then be talking about buildable dolls, which I think is very far from what the theme is talking about. This theme is about construction sets so, minifigs were a more natural choice. And TLG's success with alternate minifigs is not similar at all to Bionicle's. In fact, since those themes tend to die and warm shelves, historically they have been failures.

[Aanchir]

Bionicle had more poseability than minifigs. Less poseability really impairs this new theme, so much that I have doubts it is not caused by the stuff being still prototypes.

More so, to compare it with an action figure brand, we would then be talking about buildable dolls, which I think is very far from what the theme is talking about. This theme is about construction sets so, minifigs were a more natural choice. And TLG's success with alternate minifigs is not similar at all to Bionicle's. In fact, since those themes tend to die and warm shelves, historically they have been failures.

How are minifigs a "natural choice" for construction sets? They only seem that way because they're traditional. Plenty of construction-based themes such as Technic and Creator regularly include sets at non-minifigure scale. Technic even had its own figures for over a decade.

Also, when you discuss "alternate minifigures", you neglect to mention Fabuland, which lasted ten years at a scale other than minifigure scale. The only difference with Fabuland is that at that time, minifigures were not a long-standing tradition of the company-- they were still fairly new when Fabuland made its debut.

You also have a strong tendency to use the word "failure" in a way I disagree with, but I won't bother trying to argue that again. The only thing I was trying to demonstrate in the comment you quoted was that it's a rather shallow generalization to assume that regular minifigures are, for no special reason, the ideal figure design and scale for all themes. I'm sorry if BIONICLE was a bad example.

[meyerc13]

The other day I was in Target, and saw a girl of about 6-7 looking at the LEGO City Space sets. She was telling her mom she wanted to buy one, and her mom told her that they were too 'boyish.' Even the girl's older sister was standing up for her, arguing that the girl should be allowed to buy the set if that is how she wanted to spend her money, but the mom wouldn't give.

Whatever LEGO does with this theme, they have to get it into mainstream retail stores, and not just Toys R Us and LEGO brand stores. I grew up in a town of 50,000, and the closest Toys R Us is over an hour away. So this line must make it to Target, Wal Mart and other retailers.

I still think LEGO is wrong going with a different scale, but time will tell. As a parent, the only way I'll buy them is if the price per piece is on par with mini-fig based sets, especially because the figures sound like they'll be going in the trash. If the price is like Belville, I can't see myself buying them unless they are majorly discounted and include some incredible, unique parts.

I just asked my 3 year old daughter "If LEGO made sets for girls but they didn't have minifigs would you like it?"

Her response, "Noooooo."

I responded, "Why not?"

"Because I'm not going to play with it. I like to have it with minifigs. Minifigs are my favorite."

[Doug]

Just playing catch up on this thread. This is both very exciting and disappointing to me at the same time. I have two girls - 5 and 9 - who both have been playing with my LEGO (and their own newly acquired) of late.

The exciting part of course is a focus on themes that are more traditionally-girl oriented. beauty parlors, vet clinics, etc - I know they will love that. And truth be told, while they enjoy the building aspect, that generally is the means to the end - the play. Once they build a set, they have no desire to ever take it apart again - only to use it in their various role-play activities through use of the minifigures.

The disappointing part however could very well be the incompatibility. They currently have and like many of the city sets. it would be a real shame if the scale on this new line was in-congruent with the city line going forward. I just struggle to understand how LEGO thinks that is a good idea, as mentioned much more eloquently by others above.

The minifigure issue itself is a bit more up in the air for them I think. They currently love the minifigures - and my 5-year old just can't get enough of swapping around different "outfits" on her minifigures all the time. So maintaining a wide variety of hair, clothes, faces, etc is key, moreso probably then minifig versue new fig in and of itself.

[ACCURATEin]

When i worked for LEGO brand retail, customers would get mad because there didn't seem to be any specific sets geared towards girls. There was a custom built furniture set in one of the display windows and people would ask almost daily "where is this set"..and i would have to explain to them that it's not an official set.

For me personally, i hope there is a hoard of new pink/purple/magenta pieces in this new theme for next year. I will invest thousands of dollars in those sets because i simply love pink lol.

I started working on a pink and purple 16x32 modular the other week..

[Aanchir]

When i worked for LEGO brand retail, customers would get mad because there didn't seem to be any specific sets geared towards girls. There was a custom built furniture set in one of the display windows and people would ask almost daily "where is this set"..and i would have to explain to them that it's not an official set.

For me personally, i hope there is a hoard of new pink/purple/magenta pieces in this new theme for next year. I will invest thousands of dollars in those sets because i simply love pink lol.

I started working on a pink and purple 16x32 modular the other week..

Very neat! Although a little bit garish, the grey really helps tone down the color scheme.

Are those dollar bills reserved for Bricklink orders of more pink and purple pieces?

[Blondie-Wan]

so it is not a City subtheme anymore?

Not the way it's traditionally defined outside EB, but I think given the somewhat arbitrary theme distinctions used here, it could be considered one - it apparently is still "city/town/regular, day-to-day life"-type stuff, after all. The only difference between it and the other stuff in City is apparently the scale - but that doesn't stop people from putting microscale spaceships and whatnot in the Sci-Fi forum, for example, or talking about the numerous non-minifigure-scale Star Wars sets (minis, "midi-scale," large Technic figures, large sculptural character busts, etc.) in the Star Wars forum, so...

[Pingles]

That stack of hundreds has me intrigued for many different reasons.

[vexorian]

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10395529016&

I tried looking for it in brickset's belVile catalog and I couldn't find it. Plus the style seems slightly different. And this seems to match all the previous information we had about the theme:

If this is really one of the figs of the new theme I have to admit that TLG did a good job. At least she looks a lot better than belvile. It is because unlike Belvile, the style is more cartoonish which fits better for a minifig, the scale seems also closer to minifig scale, albeit not the real one. Unless this girl is actually meant as a kid and there are giantic adults in the theme.

Edit: Found at the same time as lisqr (images are links):

Edited August 5, 2011 by vexorian