Friends 2021 - Rumours & Discussion

[DragonElves]

There are better pictures of the upcoming March sets:

https://www.promobricks.de/lego-friends-2021-neuheiten/112615/

[Lyichir]

Nice! The back of box pictures give a little more insight into the set contents... the ambulance and vet clinic are nicely furnished and the shopping mall has some features that couldn't be seen previously including a bathroom behind the escalator and a ball pit at the base of the slide!

[Soupperson1]

Whenever the back of the box doesn’t show the interior from the back I think it’s an immediate red flag. The mall box is just so empty. Each of these shops seem to have the bare minimum. The only stuff we can’t see from the original blurry images are things in the corners of some of the shops. :S I’m still planning to get it, but now I’m going to have to customise the heck out of it. :P I really don’t think this set is worth €100 at all. Really disappointing after how great Andrea’s House was! 

I wouldn’t say the vet has a bad interior but it has the bare minimum, but I guess in in that sense it’s already a step up from City. :P But the rest of the set is so great I wish they went the extra mile to create the perfect Friends vet. They could even have increased the price and ditched the turtle crossing road. :P The chunky vet ambulance set has two complete interiors at least, the colours kind of scare me as an adult though. :P I still don’t understand what the tree part is supposed to be - a vet clinic in a treehouse?

The little 4+ bakery gets its job done. I think little kids will be happy if they recurve that as a present. It’s a shame there’s no pictures of the small €10 Stephanie and Andrea set though!

[Rambo260]

I’m honestly pretty disappointed in the shopping mall, to me it just looks odd. I think it might have to do with the overall shape, the top floor is so short, and so empty. They could have done so much more there, at least one more shop instead of just stalls. We could have gotten a more proper sushi bar. The shops look fine, but as @Soupperson1 mentioned, the fact we don’t get more looks at them is concerning. I’m fine with having small stores, but I hope they have at least something more to them than just two or three objects. Also imo the jewellery/beauty store is a concept we’ve seen so many times but has never been done justice, this one looks like more boring hair accessories and two wigs which are both not exclusive. The colors also look off to me, like they’re way to bright, I wish they had gone for a purples and teals color scheme with the gold accents and ditched the yellow and pink. I absolutely love the minidolls though. Emma’s family looks great, especially the mom. Emma also has a cute outfit. Don’t care for Olivia though, that top and that skirt are used way to often, and look terrible together imo.

the vet is cute, it’s not anything crazy complicated or detailed but it does the trick. The animals, especially the horse are all great, and so are the minidolls. I’m so proud of lego for doing a blind character, it’s great representation. I’ll definitely buy this one as soon as possible.

the ambulance set is fine as well. I really like the ambulance, the colors and the interior save it. The tree is odd, it’s just a pretty pointless build imo, but it’s alright. I really like that we’re getting a good amount of animals here, and the two new cats here are great. Emma’s vet outfit is cute, but what happened to Olivia? This is unbelievably lazy honestly, they couldn’t do a new top for her? And honestly if they didn’t have the budget they should’ve excluded any other character but not her. To my knowledge there still isn’t a vet uniform in her skin tone, while there are many in the light skin tone and even a few in the darker one. It’s just odd honestly, and very disappointing.
 

as for the summer sets, I’m excited about the forest subtheme, hopefully we get a lot of good forest animals and nice outfits. The grand hotel and school both needed an upgrade, so I can’t wait to see how those turn out. Don’t really care for another amusement park theme, but if the sets are good and unique then I’ll happily welcome them

Edited January 23, 2021 by Rambo260

[Lyichir]

Personally I love the color scheme they went with for the mall. I'm a sucker for magenta/yellow/azure striping, and I love how each floor has a different shade of purple for the floor, getting lighter as you ascend.

I do sort of wish there were two side-by-side escalators, geared together to go in opposite directions as you turn the crank. That would have been more realistic (since in real life escalators generally don't switch directions so you need one of each) as well as pretty interesting mechanically, and fun for role-play (with characters able to pass each other on the escalator). But honestly having an escalator system like this at all is a huge breakthrough, and there'll be plenty of time for other sets to continue to innovate with that going forward. I wonder if we'll see anyone mod older sets with non-functional escalators, like the Grand Emporium, to use this new system?

Edited January 24, 2021 by Lyichir

[Maple]

That style of LEGO building of the mall has never pleased me. It's just weird. They made the hotel with the roller coaster in it and it just isn't pleasing to the eyes. I miss big buildings like the Hotel from several years back that was $130ish and looked like a building.

The vet's clinic is lovely. Great mix of the tan with azure and coral. And the park I think will be a fan favorite.

[Maple]

On 1/23/2021 at 3:19 AM, Soupperson1 said:

Whenever the back of the box doesn’t show the interior from the back I think it’s an immediate red flag.

I'm just throwing out the box for 60265 (City underwater base) and noticed you are exactly right! The base has yellow three sections and the 4th where all three connect. Only the tiny lab is shown! They don't show the back of the sub being empty, they don't show the bed cabin (Which is actually a nice section.) or the connecter base being empty.

[Lyichir]

5 hours ago, Maple said:

That style of LEGO building of the mall has never pleased me. It's just weird. They made the hotel with the roller coaster in it and it just isn't pleasing to the eyes. I miss big buildings like the Hotel from several years back that was $130ish and looked like a building.

The vet's clinic is lovely. Great mix of the tan with azure and coral. And the park I think will be a fan favorite.

To be honest, I think different approaches work better for different types of buildings. Compared to a hotel or a smaller, free-standing type of home or business, the exterior facade of a shopping mall is rarely its most attractive angle—it's the storefronts inside that tend to be flashier and more exciting. It makes sense to me that they'd opt for an approach more like this for both shopping mall sets they've done instead of trying to box it all up in an exterior that only served to conceal its most interesting features.

[Maple]

4 hours ago, Lyichir said:

To be honest, I think different approaches work better for different types of buildings. Compared to a hotel or a smaller, free-standing type of home or business, the exterior facade of a shopping mall is rarely its most attractive angle—it's the storefronts inside that tend to be flashier and more exciting. It makes sense to me that they'd opt for an approach more like this for both shopping mall sets they've done instead of trying to box it all up in an exterior that only served to conceal its most interesting features.

As a toy I fully understand the malls being designed this way, just not something I'd buy. However I can see children loving it.

[icm]

According to Zusammengebaut's toy fair coverage, this summer will have Friends in Space, featuring Emma's Space Shuttle and Stephanie's Moon Base.

https://zusammengebaut.com/live-ticker-keine-spielwarenmesse-2021-alle-lego-neuheiten-113557/

Edit, the joke's on me, apparently.  It's not April 1, and Zusammengebaut is usually a trustworthy source.  Sorry about that.

The entire article was a joke by Zusammengebaut, and they admitted as such deep in the comments.  I don't usually read the comments on Zusammengebaut, so I took the article at face value even though it seemed a little strange.  I'm sorry for posting something false.  It was entirely unintentional.  Gosh darnit, the 27th of January is not the 1st of April!

Edited January 27, 2021 by icm

[Lyichir]

1 hour ago, icm said:

According to Zusammengebaut's toy fair coverage, this summer will have Friends in Space, featuring Emma's Space Shuttle and Stephanie's Moon Base.

https://zusammengebaut.com/live-ticker-keine-spielwarenmesse-2021-alle-lego-neuheiten-113557/

Edit, the joke's on me, apparently.  It's not April 1, and Zusammengebaut is usually a trustworthy source.  Sorry about that.

The entire article was a joke by Zusammengebaut, and they admitted as such deep in the comments.  I don't usually read the comments on Zusammengebaut, so I took the article at face value even though it seemed a little strange.  I'm sorry for posting something false.  It was entirely unintentional.  Gosh darnit, the 27th of January is not the 1st of April!

That's a shame. I think that a "space camp" subtheme would certainly be a fun direction for Friends, and one that's been sort of teased by Olivia's dad's profession in the TV series. Maybe some day...

[Maple]

I agree. City Space is a big seller. I could see Friends Space Camp with some training sites, a lab with animals (because why not?), the artist friend can work the newsroom and have a pink space shuttle. Easily 4 sets.

[Klaus-Dieter]

On 1/13/2021 at 8:04 PM, Gobias1234 said:

I think this last batch of redesigns have been really neat so I think there is a lot of potential.  For example, the doggy daycare this time around is so different aesthetically from the previous version. My kiddo basically got heart eyes when she saw it despite having the previous version.  The details and clever designs have been really exceptional these last few waves!  

I agree with you, a modern hotel would be really exciting! Especially because our little city mixes City and Friends- the modern house needs a friend!

With the inclusion of micro dolls, I wonder if the school will be an elementary school where the older girls work or volunteer.  That could be so fun!

Yes, you're absolutely right:

1. Indeed this year the style of the Friends houses increases much.

2. I, too, combine City with Creator 3 in 1 houses and even some Friends houses mainly we til now haven't gotten in City so far (beach hut, juice bar, ...).

3. I bet that it'll be an elementary school, too.

[DragonElves]

Official pictures are on the Lego website, I really like the vet clinic so will be a first day purchase for me. Princess bricks did a review of the Disney Cinderella coach comparing the new style horse and the old, to me they look good together just like different breeds so could be used in mocs together.

https://princessbricks.blogspot.com/2021/01/43192-cinderellas-royal-carriage-review.html

[Gobias1234]

On 1/27/2021 at 11:52 AM, Maple said:

I agree. City Space is a big seller. I could see Friends Space Camp with some training sites, a lab with animals (because why not?), the artist friend can work the newsroom and have a pink space shuttle. Easily 4 sets.

The Cinema features a movie poster that looks like the "movie," is set in space.  Maybe an Easter egg?  I could see a cute little subtheme set in space- maybe instead of animals in need of rescue they find little aliens in need of assistance! 

[Soupperson1]

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while but I really think the Mall is one of the worst Friends sets in quite some time. The only new items for LEGO fans in the shops are a pink controller and the lavender wig (which is also in the Raya Boat set). I think that’s lame for such an expensive set. The rabbit, accessories or skirt could’ve been a different colour, rarer or new instruments (even ones from Vidiyo) or even stickered tiles of toys such as LEGO or doll boxes in the toy store would be neat. I guess it wouldn’t be that much of a big deal of there was more to do in the shops but apart from the game on the laptop in the tech shop and slushie machine there isn’t beside picking an item, paying and leaving. There’s no changing room for the accessory store and a catwalk has been replaced with a turntable. :/ Even within the shops there’s only six studs worth of depth for play. I think the worst offender is the food court. There’s no where to prepare the food. You can’t even stand a figure behind the tables and pretend to have them serve the characters as there’s no studs. Why was on earth was it designed like that? :S Then the table only fits three figures despite five figures being included and in general Friends is trying to make the largest sets fit five figures in case girls want to play with the other core friends not included in the set.

Besides the lack of depth I think the build is monotonous due to the uniformity of the shop’s designs. The fact he shops all look the same from the outside bar the colours used on their signs rob them from the character which Friends buildings are famous for! The worst part of the design is the balconies don’t curve around the floors. It makes the build seem unfinished and again it’s not a budget set by any stretch of the imagination. 

Now for some positivity I really love all six figures (though for Olivia I’d wish they’d stop using outfit combinations from other sets in general) and I’m very happy that the Friends line is finally putting the main characters’ families in sets that aren’t just the houses. It is unfortunate there’s not a single employee though! I like everyone else love the escalator. I think that’s pretty perfectly designed and deserves to be in a better set. The atm, changing room and toilet sections are really good uses of space. Then the slide into the ball pit and photo stand are also fun additions. I was going to get it Day 1 to meet the Amelia Earhart threshold but I think the negatives overwhelmingly outweigh the positives. I just can’t justify spending €100 on it. I don’t think it’s worth the money at all. XP 

[thekeeperofthereaper]

ive seen the leaks for the summer sets and the travelling magic show carnival theme has some interesting things

41687 has a helter skelter and a ferris wheel with magician top hats as carriages ,

41689 has a entrance way , some stalls and a bench

41688 has a fortune teller , her stall and carriage along with a horse

41686 has 2 small acrobatic builds one is on a float being pulled by a horse

41685 is a magicians rabbit themed coaster that has black and white track pieces that goes round in a full circle  and in the middle is a magicians stage show with a popcorn booth

there is also a smaller build of a hoop shaped ride ( i think ) where figures stand up and the hoops do a 360

i like them so far but these are prelims so things could change

[DragonElves]

I really like the look of these new sets, I think they’ve really excelled with the mini dolls, especially Stella and Camila. In 41686 on the acrobatic float a couple of bricks look like they light up, but I don’t know whether that’s just the graphics on the box? I think the horse in that set is great too. For the price point 41679 looks a fun build, I think the new raccoon piece is good too.

[danimarroquin]

This summer releases from the city line are meh ! I do like the animal molds tough .

Edited February 24, 2021 by danimarroquin

[Maple]

Where did everyone see pictures? I've only seen some meh NinjaGo ones.

[ToysUnlocked]

On 2/16/2021 at 4:58 PM, Soupperson1 said:

Even within the shops there’s only six studs worth of depth for play. 

I picked up the mall and filmed the first 1/3 of the build to review, and this really stood out to me, too. The shops are so tiny that they aren’t really playable. It doesn’t bother me as an AFOL, but if I were a kid, I would be really frustrated. Each little shop reminds me of the Friends Play Cubes, but with those, you can open them up and have access to them.

Besides that, I’m pretty neutral so far. The stickers are cute, but I also hate that there are so many stickers. I like the mini doll family, though!

 

[BrickObsessed]

The shopping mall does not even look like a shopping mall to me.

I never apply the stickers they provide with the sets. Just seem unnecessary. I can understand some would like them though. I might create my own stickers for MOCs.

 

[Soupperson1]

With LEGO releasing a statement of why the crooks hideout was cancelled, I wonder if we could get a statement if someone of note (even Brick Fanatics again ) reached out about the winter cubes? 

[DragonElves]

A new pony has leaked, perhaps a Falabella/ Shetland, with the same mould as the nokk from the frozen 2 storybook. Most likely from the riding center set 41683.

[Soupperson1]

22 hours ago, DragonElves said:

A new pony has leaked, perhaps a Falabella/ Shetland, with the same mould as the nokk from the frozen 2 storybook. Most likely from the riding center set 41683.

Unless it’s from a retail exclusive it has to be from 41683 as non of the other sets use that mould.