El Garfio

2023 Friends Rumours, Leaks, Information And Discussion

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Yes it is! A few great sets to start off with to MOC into modulars once you add minifigs and tone down some of the bright colours. Loving the architecture. Cat hotel will be a 16 wide 3 storey building in my town as my next project. 

 

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Is the downtown street set the first time Friends has had a minidoll wearing a police uniform? And has Friends ever had a police station or any structure or vehicle that could be considered "police"?

 

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1 hour ago, jonwil said:

Is the downtown street set the first time Friends has had a minidoll wearing a police uniform? And has Friends ever had a police station or any structure or vehicle that could be considered "police"?

 

It's their first Police Officer. Friends fans have been demanding one for years. The last animated series before this reboot had Olivia's mother working as a Mounted Police Officer, so fans wanted her in sets.

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I just noticed the purple wheelchair in the skateboard set. Long overdue that LEGO makes a new piece for minidollars. The brick built versions weren't good.

Edited by Maple

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2 hours ago, Maple said:

I just noticed the purple wheelchair in the skateboard set. Long overdue that LEGO makes a new piece for minidollars. The brick built versions weren't good.

Yeah! In addition to generally looking much nicer, this one seems to be narrower than the old brick-built wheelchairs (like the new wheelchair introduced for the Avatar sets this year), which should make it more compatible with narrower door frames.

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Someone trying to beat a dog to death with a wrench to add it's skull to her skull collection is something I never expected from Lego Friends. 

Chima may no longer be Lego's most Metal theme anymore.  :roflmao:

 

!                                                                                                                                                                  s-l500

 

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Remember Trevor and Joshua, the gay couple with their daughter Maya in set 41704?

I feel like Lego are going for diversity and inclusion again with set 41732. Two women, Adi and Aida, seem to be buying furniture to move in together in the picture on the back of the box. Perhaps the twin children in the set are theirs too? They could even be Liann's mothers, like they adopted Liann and the twins; Victoria and Peter?

I know it's not as implied as Trevor and Joshua were, but I like to think Lego are giving us another possible rainbow family

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On 12/3/2022 at 4:55 AM, Killian said:

Friends fans have been demanding one for years.

Really?

What play value would a police person provide in the Friends theme? Are there criminals in Friends?

I wouldn't see them having much to do, other than directing traffic.

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1 hour ago, danth said:

Really?

What play value would a police person provide in the Friends theme? Are there criminals in Friends?

I wouldn't see them having much to do, other than directing traffic.

Have you not seen the wanted black kitten in the diner set, looks a most dangerous criminal! Also there’s the person who left the dachshund next to the bus stop, perhaps the policewoman could have a chat by saying it’s much kinder to leave it at the dog rescue center. On a more serious note, I think the new Friends reboot are trying to show not everything can be perfect in life and how those obstacles may be overcome. Also I think it’s refreshing that a policewoman is in a positive environment.

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I keep noticing cute things about these sets.

  • Nova's phone (in her room set) has a Pokémon Go-looking app on it! And the character on it is on her shirt in the bubble tea set! Friends has its own knock-off Pikachu!
  • The grocery store has a phone printed with a "mobile pay" decal. Trendy!
  • I also didn't realize at first how the sliding doors in the grocery store worked. It looks like both doors are geared together so that moving the knob on top opens/closes both of them.
  • The outfits in the room sets are neat too—Paisley and Aliya have pajamas and Autumn and Liann have paint splatter!
  • The same lost dog flyer appears in several of the sets—as a printed tile in 41727, 41738, and 41741, and also as a sticker with other flyers in 41729! 41738 is where that dog is found, with plenty of evidence (a poop piece and a sticker with a collar and pawprints).
  • The plaque on the flower shop building in 41732 reads "Est. 2012", a nice nod to the Friends theme's introduction.
  • Churro the chubby cat is my FAVORITE new animal! In Leo's room, his cabinet has a sticker showing Churro with a chef hat and rolling pin—it's not hard to picture him as the mascot of Leo's cooking videos.
  • The book and projected movie in Aliya's room are both fantasy, and her dog is named Aira... is she maybe an Elves fan?

Overall there's so much to love about these sets, and the new characters' personalities really shine even though we've only just been introduced to them.

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23 hours ago, danth said:

Really?

What play value would a police person provide in the Friends theme? Are there criminals in Friends?

I wouldn't see them having much to do, other than directing traffic.

I take it you've never watched the show then 

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2 hours ago, Killian said:

I take it you've never watched the show then 

Nope!

It wasn't a rhetorical question. I was genuinely asking. I am very ignorant about the Friends theme.

What happens on the show?

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1 hour ago, danth said:

Nope!

It wasn't a rhetorical question. I was genuinely asking. I am very ignorant about the Friends theme.

What happens on the show?

I assume they're referring to the "LEGO Friends: Girls on a Mission" series which ran from 2018–2021. This series features a villainous tech magnate named Dr. Alvah who, despite being one of Olivia's biggest role models, is a fairly amoral in her real-estate acquisitions and efforts to "upgrade" Heartlake City with her dazzling new inventions. She employs a pair of bumbling construction workers, Ricky and Joey, in a lot of less-than-legal parts of her gentrification schemes.

In the second season, Dr. Alvah is joined by an investor/con artist going by the name Carter Greene, who turns out to be more interested in procuring wealth and power with the aid of Alvah's machines than in genuinely helping her to bring about her futurist vision. He's particularly obsessed with finding a legendary lost treasure that belonged to Heartlake City's founders.
 

As the LEGO Friends investigate various problems around town (for example, power outages, environmental issues, and economic pressures on local business owners), they begin to trace these issues back to Dr. Alvah. In order to protect their community, they join forces with the city's "Shadow Group", a sort of secret society of concerned citizens who've been investigating the same issues: cupcake chef Dean, diner owner and former go-kart racing legend Dottie Rae, and Dottie's grandson Ethan (who moonlights as the vigilante street artist "Prankzy"). They are also assisted on occasion by Olivia's mom Laura, an officer of the Heartlake City Police, and her police horse Barney.

However, Officer Laura and Barney never ended up appearing in sets, nor did Dr. Alvah and her accomplices. So pretty much the only aspects of this storyline that made it into any sets were mini-dolls of Dean, Dottie Rae, Ethan/"Prankzy", and Kacey, an impressionable teen who infiltrates the friend group as a "double agent" under orders from Carter Greene, in hopes that their boundless curiosity will lead him to the founders' treasure.
 

In general, I don't see much indication of this new story arc revisiting these plot points, especially since Dr. Alvah was more or less disgraced over the course of the series (both due to her expensive pipe dreams cutting into her company's profits and her affiliations with Carter Greene damaging their reputation). However, I wouldn't be surprised if we do end up seeing more criminal elements in future storylines, since Nancy Drew style "kid detective" storylines are a great opportunity to add excitement and suspense to modern-day slice-of-life stories like this one.

For now, Officer Isabella's tablet in set 41732 is displaying pictures of the two youngsters Peter and Victoria, which suggests to me she's in the midst of investigating some childish mischief rather than some more serious crime. In future sets, I could see police showing up to direct traffic, like you mentioned, or to investigate various nonviolent crimes like illegal graffiti or bike theft. Personally, I'd prefer if police didn't feature TOO prominently in the Friends theme (since I have mixed feelings about police sets in general), but I definitely see how they could open up new play and storytelling opportunities.

Apologies for the lengthy post, but I hope I answered your question!

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58 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

Apologies for the lengthy post, but I hope I answered your question!

Wow! I would have never guessed anything like that based on just seeing all the sets. The sets seem to focus on cooperation, or rescuing animals, or just doing fun stuff, with no "bad guys".

I agree it would be a shame if they tried to add a "police vs criminals" element to Friends.

Although a police woman with police horse sounds kinda badass.

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I think a police officer in Friends isn't a bad thing, as it's a story driven theme, look at 2023, looks like all minidolls get names.

City had a focus on named characters in the past few years (and some others before that), but mainly talking LEGO City Adventures here, which seems to have ended with 2023.

Ironically City's most known named figs perhaps are Chase McCain and Duke Detain, both police, and pretty much main characters in their media appearances.

 

With the expanded roster of Friends, and entirely new part of a timeline/story, I don't mind that City stopped doing named characters so prominently, or perhaps paused until some other show appears.

While some LEGO City Adventure characters and Stuntz certainly had some very unique looking figs, it doesn't seem that unnamed characters are any less detailed or special imo, both 2023 Friends and City have a very varied selection of figs/dolls, in hairstyles, faces and outfits, some repeats but also a lot of new prints or colors.

Edited by TeriXeri

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With Lego friends being more diverse, and the fact Lego has done it before, what are the chances we see a minidoll with a hearing aid sometime in the future?

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52 minutes ago, Lemerbrix said:

With Lego friends being more diverse, and the fact Lego has done it before, what are the chances we see a minidoll with a hearing aid sometime in the future?

It's possible! Though I don't think any mini-dolls have had printing on the sides of the head before.

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It really does depend if LEGO can print on the side of minidoll heads.

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1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

It's possible! Though I don't think any mini-dolls have had printing on the sides of the head before.

A man can dream though, i don’t think it’s likely either, since mini dolls have unique shaped heads, unlike minifigs 

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They can always make a hair piece that has a hearing aid or a pin that attaches to the hairpiece.

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20 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I assume they're referring to the "LEGO Friends: Girls on a Mission" series which ran from 2018–2021.

Yep. And you answered it way more comprehensively than I would have, I'd forgotten about Carter. 

I'm still disappointed that we never got Dr Alvah, Ricky or Joey in minidoll form. I think the only villain we got was Vicky?

16 hours ago, Lemerbrix said:

With Lego friends being more diverse, and the fact Lego has done it before, what are the chances we see a minidoll with a hearing aid sometime in the future?

I hope we get a unique hairpiece with a hearing aid eventually. Maybe one for each "gender"

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15 hours ago, Lyichir said:

It's possible! Though I don't think any mini-dolls have had printing on the sides of the head before.

Celeste from The LEGO Movie 2 and Lashina from DC Super Hero Girls both did, so I certainly wouldn't rule it out!

25 minutes ago, Killian said:

Yep. And you answered it way more comprehensively than I would have, I'd forgotten about Carter. 

I'm still disappointed that we never got Dr Alvah, Ricky or Joey in minidoll form. I think the only villain we got was Vicky?

Arguably Kacey as well, but neither Vicky nor Kacey were really dyed-in-the-wool villains like Dr. Alvah and Carter. Vicky was more of a rival, while Kacey was manipulated into working against the LEGO Friends, as I mentioned above.

I definitely agree, it would've been nice to get mini-dolls of more of those other antagonistic characters — there were even minidoll-style renders of them in the LEGO Friends Heartlake Rush app (with a unique body mold for Joey)! Additionally, some of the builds associated with them, like Dr. Alvah's futuristic self-driving car or Carter's seaplane, would've been very fun to see in sets. Sadly, I think the opportunity for that has passed now that the "Girls on a Mission" series has ended and the storyline has moved on to new protagonists following a time skip. :sceptic:

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7 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Celeste from The LEGO Movie 2 and Lashina from DC Super Hero Girls both did, so I certainly wouldn't rule it out!

Yeah, I completely forgot about those two, I think Celeste is a better example though 

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