Pandora

2012 Friends Discussion Thread

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I actually think that LEGO may have nailed it with these figures but I think the success of the line will be driven by the sets themselves. It will be interesting to see how girls respond to this theme. It seems to me that even when a company thinks it has all of the key components for success, something intangible is still missing.

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Are the hairs compatible with normal minifigures? cause the blonde hair loks ALOT like the one used in the collectable minifigures. i guess we'd get some good new hair if this is true.

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I agree - these look pretty good. scale is close enough to minifig where playsets should be compatible enough to system sets - which IMHO is a requirement if they want to get this right. The hands are clearly minifig-size, and thus accessories will be cross-compatible, and certaily the pet looks that way as well. Hard to tell on the hair, but if indeed hair/hats are cross-compatible as well, than that is a HUGE plus in my book.

I am getting more optimistic now, but as mentioned, it's all going to depend on the sets.

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My girls love Polly Pockets and Lego, so they are going to go NUTS over these.

great comparison. They really do look like a hybrid of the two.

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That hair really does look like CM hair. It seems that they will be compatible.

Unfortunately, they are probably not going to be visually compatible. If you pay attention to the blonde girl, since the head is rounder than minifig heads you can see parts of the hair piece that you should not be able to see. Knowing that site's precedents, it is likely that they used the wrong hair piece. I think that if you take the other hair pieces and try to put them in LEGO minifigs, they may even not fit well because they expect a round head.

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

Ha ha. How can I really say what I want to here? He went from playing with bricks to dealing them... Is that ok?

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notbelvile2.jpg_thumb.jpg

Interesting to note that this fig has a Warner Brothers Entertainment copyright... :wacko: Perhaps an animated series in the making?

edit: Oh, I see that the seller mixes and matches random packaging... So the © is probably from some Harry Potter keychain. :hmpf:

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My girls love Polly Pockets and Lego, so they are going to go NUTS over these.

Funny, that was the first thing I thought of, too, when I saw these over in the S6 thread.

Personally, maybe it's because I favor the classic style of minifigs, but I think TLG is going way too far into the action figure-ish realm with these. I really don't like the way the legs were done. The connection doesn't look at all like LEGO, and the legs at this size should be separate. It's not like they're Duplos.

But who knows. I'm not a 5 year-old girl, but in my experience with that type of kid, I think these are the kind of figures they like, and TLG may very well have succeeded in making a 'LEGO dollhouse'-type theme. I do think they're better than Belville, if not in scale only.

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Oh no. The figures might be an improvement over previous attempts, but they're certainly not my taste. The restricted movement is also rather disappointing.

On the other hand, there is still potential for rare parts and useful items. Other themes like Belville have often been exclusives over here, so even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to find any decently-priced sets for parts.

The amount of sets is also surprising. I'm interested to see what happens, because I feel that the collectible minifigs will have an influence on this line.

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It's really a pity that TLG doesn't release this theme with regular minifigs. :thumbdown:

Firstly this keeps girls away from the regular City theme since they get their own theme. Secondly this for sure means that we won't get much civilian stuff in the City theme (like cafe, zoo, more farm sets etc.) since these would be sets mainly adressing girls.

Klaus-Dieter

Edited by Bonaparte

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They're roughly a bricks height taller than regular minifigs. So I'm guessing a building with a door would have a door height of 6/7 bricks high. the handbag accessory looks to be about the same height as the new minifig bucket accessory with the handle upright. Compare the pic of the girly figure on a cmf minifig stand to the cmf series 6 alien (newest pic) also on a stand. Both pics are scaled the same.

If the handbag accessory is any indication other accessories will also have a very loose cartoonish design and not really fit in with regular system bits and bobs. Having said that, Look how many Fabuland pieces have crept into system sets over the years.

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Now that the site has been killed (well deserved). Here's one another picture I saved:

notbelvile4.jpg_thumb.jpg

Posting it just in case, it does not match belvile and it looks like the other ones, but the legs are way different.

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Now that the site has been killed (well deserved). Here's one another picture I saved:

notbelvile4.jpg_thumb.jpg

Posting it just in case, it does not match belvile and it looks like the other ones, but the legs are way different.

Actually, that is Belville – this one.

As far as the new figures are concerned: Well, I guess they could have been worse, but I too would have preferred minifigs. But as AFOL I'm not really in the girls target audience... We'll see how well their accessories and sets can integrate with regular Cities, so maybe there's something in it for us AFOLs as well.

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All right on, that makes sense. In Brickset I could only find a horse rider that had the same uniform but looked like a cyborg because of the excessive articulation and had a very creepy face.

I really, really think TLG are making a mistake in not using minifigs. For starters, any girl that is actually attracted to the sets because of their theme will not be able to transition easily to FOL. I also think that not using true minifigures puts LEGO in disadvantage against clones which I think have Hello Kitty and smurfs, if you are going to get a girl theme with no LEGO minifigures you may as well get the licensed ones. Then we have the accessories and bricks not being very useful for AFOLs. I boguht a huge Paradisa bulk the other time because it really has a lot of useful pieces and minifigs.

Anyway, at least they do look better than belvile. But that's not an accomplishment.

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They will not be out of business simply because they can already do rather well without girls and without AFOLs.

The outcome will be that they will still fail to get the girls market, as they have continuously done since TLG started making sets.

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I honestly wonder if lego did a proper study including ADULT females or if they thought AFFOL's didn't matter. I'm an ex-AFFOL that's currently stuck in a kinda semi-dark age but if I'd find one of the sets on sale and it was NORMAL figures, i'd get it b/c my cousin always wants to play legos when he comes and it'd add variety.

That's where targeted audience comes in. I'm sure these sets are targeted at younger girls. For the AFFOLs who want adult-targeted sets, D2C sets do include a good amount of female characters. (Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, Emerald Night, etc.)

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That's where targeted audience comes in. I'm sure these sets are targeted at younger girls. For the AFFOLs who want adult-targeted sets, D2C sets do include a good amount of female characters. (Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, Emerald Night, etc.)

Yeah. Ultimately, every set or theme can't be everything to everybody. This theme is clearly targeted to female children. Any appeal to AFOL (male or female) is a bonus, and likely not a huge part of the design considerations. I think a much more important point for this line is how compatible (or not) it is with system sets, particularly the CITY lineup.

I think LEGO does a pretty good job of marketing to both sexes in their AFOL-centered markets, with Modulars and the Holiday stuff being the two most prominent examples of this, and Creator to a bit lesser extent. They also managed to design the Alien Conquest series - clearly a kid play-focused theme - with a large amount of AFOL appeal due to the campy throwback design of the aliens, saucers etc. It was brilliant really.

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This is a LOT of money they are investing into these sets. I can guarantee (no, I can't...but you get what I'm saying) studies were done by reputable institutions.

Whether it WORKS is another thing. Plenty of products have been tested up the wazoo and failed. But before they commit to an undertaking like this there have been LOTS of kids tested using multiple models and see which ones they gravitate towards.

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The studies are most likely the equivalent of making things up of thin air. I bet you that the same study would conclude the same thing about boys. The study probably also means that the girls that like real dolls so much would probably just buy real dolls instead of construction sets.

TLG needing such a study is more of an indication that they don't have an idea how to get the female market.

I'd also bet that it is the dumb study that made TLG flop with things such as 4+ and Belville in the first place. The moral of the story is to disregard these studies.

That sounds right. the "study" probaby forced things towards things girls would "Normally" like. I want a girl themed set to put w/ my stuff and expand overall a little bit that'd add a level of something different when my cousin would come over. I'm a girl that prefers vehicle building and minifigures but I really would like some GIRL items to add variety.

Yea, there's the modulars that may attract girls, but the sets cost 2 arms and a leg. Plus, even if I could find it cheap, I have no where to put it.

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Yea, there's the modulars that may attract girls, but the sets cost 2 arms and a leg. Plus, even if I could find it cheap, I have no where to put it.

And I think targeted audience strikes again here. Adult fans who aren't serious enough to want the AFOL-targeted sets are in that group of 'not quite AFOLs and too old to like the kiddie sets' fans that I don't think are one of TLG's highest priorities.

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links are down/images removed!!

anyone save? I didn't get to see them yet. :hmpf_bad:

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They flew my brickshelf which is funny because all the other images from that site are still in my gallery. I would say that probably BS' admins didn't think it was LEGO or for some reason TLG worries a lot about leaks of this girl theme and not so much about CM.

Unfortunately, since I don't care much about them, I seem to have removed my images from my computer once I uploaded them to BS.

Edited by vexorian

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