BrickBucket

Yes your right everything comes from something, but licensed themes are more specific and classic Lego themes more generic. They are not equally generic. Generic themes leave more to the child's imagination. Licensed themes leave less. Although looking at the current crop of Star Wars clone wars ships it looks like a space ship and a bunch of alien's to me since I'm not familiar with that series, so yah their looking more generic nowadays like you said. Who the heck is Ko Ploon and Cad Bane anyway?

How are licensed sets as generic than Lego standard themes? The jack sparrow minifigure is jack sparrow from the movies with all the history that comes with it, the Lego pirate can be what you want him to be. Lego Batman is batman, not generic man with mask/cape. Obi-wan's starfighter is the starfighter from the movies not a generic space ship. Same for all the licensed sets, their all based on something that existed prior. Course if you never saw the movies that would have no effect on you, but you'd still wonder why sets where designed to have certain elements that seemed strange unless you understood why they where there from the movie. I like some of the licensed sets (parts, nostalgia for the theme), but I think the standard Lego themes are much more open to creativity as they have no back-story. Which is not to say you can't be creative with licensed themes, just I think it's not as open ended. I hope they keep doing them, but I think they have been doing far to many (toy story, pop, cars, avatar). And I'd rather see more Lego themes.

3. Ninja Nin's Underwater Bank & Money Transfer 3 points 10. Spacy Smoke's Sunken City Corner 2 points

If you look under the picture of the house set you see the icons of hair + head + torse + feet -> a friend minifigure. So I think it's fair to say the hair, head, torso and feet will be interchangeable. I was wrong in my previous thinking that these weren't modifiable. The only thing that sucks is the hands don't articulate nor do the legs move independently from each other EDIT Bonaparte: Links removed on request of LEGO.

These sets look great, but I'm biased I don't like the minifigures, I wish they would have made these sets in the city line with regular minifigures and I think it still would have appealed to girls. However I think girls who never bought or had no intention of buying Lego will like this better, girls who already like Lego will probably be happy that Lego made something for them that doesn't scream PINK! like Belville, but a bit irked that the minifigs they have aren't exactly compatible with this Friends world. At least they scale is compatible and parts work in the regular Lego system sets, just throw the girls figs out if you prefer mini-figs. It appears the walls for the house and other sets are large junioriized panels or just larger sized bricks judging by the lack of seams. Still there are a lot more parts and it looks like the building is more on accessory and decoration vs. building structure.

Yah compared to all the other girl dolls out there, the Lego friends theme is tame, the girls look normal and not overtly sexual at all. Lego is betting on these new friend minifigs(which I admittingly am biased against) doing better than the regular minifigs and I'm sure they put some research into this, but Lego has far from a flawless record on releasing products (i.e Ben 10, Galidor). I think they should have kept the theme and used highly decorated minifigures in flesh tones, or made more female friendly city sets and put more female minifigs in them to attract more girls, but I could be wrong, maybe this theme is the way to go! I do think the figs are better than bellville, but will have to wait and see what the sets look like.

It's a fact that Lego has and will always be more popular with boys, it's a construction toy and caters to builders which is predominantly a male thing. You are right that this will bring more girls into the Lego world, but I think most of us wish they would have stuck with using Lego minifigs and believe it would be just as successful if not more. I think the theme is unnecessary and they should have just introduced those cafe's, vet clinics, shops with Lego city to fill the gap of predominantly boy oriented police and fire sets. I said girls who like Lego can hardly buy any, that implies they got some already and liked it and can't find enough of what they like. My sisters look at the catalog and can only find a few things they like, the majority is catered to boys, there is Lego that appeals to girls, but there's not enough and it's hard to find. Girls might start out with the Lego pink box or bricks and more set like my Sisters, become hooked on the toy, but find there's not enough that caters to them. You mention the City House, I got that one for them, but it's limited edition and came out for less than 6 months! The marina's cool, but I don't think their crazy about it, they might like the mill village raid though. The problem is there just ain't enough selection to appeal to girls who already have some girly Lego, and that is my point!!! It's not enough they want more!!! But now their coming out with this girls theme and it's going to split their choice between classic Lego and the girl only Lego and the minifigs aren't compatible! Their already addicted to the collectible minifigs so it's an annoying situation. If Lego created more Lego City girl oriented sets, more than just what you mentioned (you may feel it's enough, but I don't have that opinion) there would be more girls buying Lego. But instead they go and create a separate theme with girl figures that can't co-exist in the classic Lego world.

The figure can't move the legs independently of each other, not sure if the head moves. May not be interchangeable or customizable at all from the looks of it as the characters are meant to have distinct personalities. They look about as customizable as star wars battle droids. We'll have to wait and see. The problem for girls that like regular Lego, is that they can hardly buy any because there isn't enough regular Lego with girls in them with themes that are girl oriented, let alone gender neutral. Their stuck with police, fire, castles, star wars and action based themes that appeal to boys. Back in the 80's Lego was more gender neutral then it is now, there were holiday homes, cafes, taverns and cottages. It's obvious why less girls buy Lego, there's hardly anything for them to buy except maybe creator houses and the camper van. Lego removed most of what appealed to girls from Lego and gave them a stereotypical girl theme called Bellville. This new set will have themes oriented to girls, but not the Lego minifigs. Their betting girls will like these realistic figures more than the minifigs. I wish they would have stuck with regular minifigs, and give that a chance instead of making separate girl minifigs. Of course I'm biased, so I'll have to get back to you on what my sisters think. google: lego girls theme 2012 click images, voila!

I googled the pics and saw it in their cache. The figures are more realistic than mini figs but appear to have less articulation (legs look like they are joined together and hands are part of the arm so don't rotate). The hair and head are one piece I think. They appear to be more slim and slightly taller than minifigs, but very close in size. So they would fit into regular Lego houses and vehicles and on scale with the accesories. I guess that way they won't have to make bigger doors, windows ect.. Those creator houses without the minifigs finally make more sense now as they can cater to both minifig and the girls theme. I think most of us are going to be disappointed as they don't fit in with the minifigs and their less customizable and have less articulation. They are more realistic and have definite human features. I'll have to ask my little step sisters what they think as they already like the collectible minifigs and Lego I got them. I'm guessing they will like them but may find it hard letting go of the colectible minifigs they already have. I know one of them really gets a crack out of putting blonde hair on the geisha, lol. From my own experience when I was getting minifigs and already had some fabuland as a kid, I immediately ditched the fabuland because the just didn't 'fit' into my minifig world. For me personally I'm disappointed, I think this theme would be more successful if they stuck with minifigs, as it would be more in harmony with the Lego brand and would allow girls and boys to buy into each other's theme to add more variety. It's like Lego has no idea that girls and boys actually play together and they forgot that Lego in the beginning was considered a unisex toy. It kills me to see parents walking with their daughter in the Lego isle desperate to find something that appeals to the girl. A girl looking at this new theme will think well it's not a real Lego cause it doesn't have Lego people, just these dolls that look like they belong to some other toy. Anyway time will tell whether this thing is a success, at least it's better than belville.

What I like to do is go on bricklink and look at certain parts or colours that I'm interested and find the sets in the past 2 years that have the most of that colour or piece and buy those. So I was interested in castles, wanted lots of gray and earthy colours so I bought the fire brigade which has tons of gray as well as most dark red of any set. I also got medieval market village which was just a must for all the accessories of food and ornate windows. Honestly MMV (medival market village) is probably a must buy no matter what your building. If you want vehicles get the creator vehicles sets like the rig with the helicopter 5765. Check out sales on toysnbricks.com for deals online and buy what's currently cheap and will improve your collection. Also In my opinion it's better to have more of the same type of part/brick than to have a larger variety of different kinds of bricks. Cause when you end up building something your less likely to run out of the colour/part you need since you'll most likely be sticking to a certain colour or repetitive motif. Which is why I sometimes buy multiple copies of the same set.

In my opinion all modular buildings, the medival market village and creator houses have the best price ratio and most useful pieces for mocing. They also have the most unique and useful pieces, especially pieces in rare colours and lots of tiles. So I often I fall into the trap of buying smaller sets, but they have less pieces per price and it's better to save up and get the big expensive ones to get more value in one shot.

Go to BrickBuildr website where they keep track (or try too) of the inventories of all the PAB walls around the world http://www.brickbuildr.com/view/pab/ The New York store hasn't been updated in months, but if you click on the more recently updated stores you get a rough idea of what mite be there as the stores tend to receive similar inventories If you have time, even try to update the New York Inventory with what you got at the store.

hammelgeier 2 points Yatkuu 1 points Cecilie 2 points

Wow 71 scorpions, what are you going to do with so many? Is there an alternate use for them like maybe as a hook or something? The first time I went I primarily went for very basic pieces that I could use everywhere, I'd hate to get stuck with a lot pieces I'll never use. It's kinda fun looking at the Denmark store inventory on BrickBuildr, It's updated almost daily and I notice a lot of the new stuff that's coming out shows up in a lot of the other stores. Gives you an idea of what to expect.

Blacktron first series (second one looked lame) I had some blacktron but they were from space police, I never got any blacktron only sets. They were just so cool and sinister looking.

Next time I go to the Toronto PAB I'll just grab at least one piece from every section and punch in the inventory with what I got. I think if when you plan what your going to get you can make better decisions based on what you have already and what you need. It won't be probably till the fall though. You can check other stores and guess what your local store might have, I find they have similar inventories, especially when looking at new stock. The 2x4's are quite plentiful in most of the colors, I got a few last time and found out as I was building terrain features they are more usefull than 1x4 (which are better for structures). So next time I plan on taking a lot of tan, brown, green and dark bley. They take up a lot of space but those 2x4's are actually quite uncommon in most of the advanced sets so I always grab a few.

Anyone use the brickbuildr online pick a brick inventory tracker ? Wondering if anyone in Toronto could update the store there since it's new. They seemed to have a small selection last time I was there, I wonder how often they will get changes and do they ever mix more than one shape of the same colour in the same bin? like 1x4 with 1x3 of the same colour to save space?

I dismissed this set at first, but when I took a closer look at the parts and started thinking of what I could do with 2 sets I bought it and I was quite happy with what I was able to come up with. The figure articulates very much like an art mannequin and I can pose him in a lot of different positions, also the led light lines up right with the center of the turn table base that I use for the eye. They really should have sold this set with more joints to make a much more flexible robot. More on my flickr account, I just came out of my dark age so this is the first thing I posted that I made

I agree nice box art, cool model. But I still boycott anything that came from those terrible prequels and after.

All I'm saying is the current City theme is less gender neutral than before, it's full of police and fire, and construction. 30 years ago it had more mundane buildings and more things that appealed to girls as well as boys. Like: Holiday Home with Campervan ( I owned this one) Riding Stable Holiday Home I'm guessing most people are not against the idea of Paradisa which was to create female-oriented Lego products. I think what most people complain about was the execution. The pastel colours were off-putting, especially the lime green and the sets had a staggering lack of construction to them. While they assumed girls weren't so much into construction, I think a lot of people think Paradisa went to far. I personally wish to have more gender neutral sets in Lego City that appeal to girls as opposed to a having a separate theme (like Paradisa) as it brings Lego back to it's core of what it was 30 years ago. I have 3 little step sisters and a brother that play together. However I think nowadays that Lego is considered more boyish, Lego has to directly market a girl-theme to girls otherwise they wont buy it because they will be assuming it's a boy's toy. Any of that make sense?

Sounds like their going to make girl exclusive sets ("female-oriented products"), I really hope instead of pandering to girls they simply return to making more gender neutral sets like back in the 80's Lego Town. It would probably be better for their bottom line as boys would buy them too. Stuff like the Lego city house, cottage and camper are what I hope will come back. Hope it's not Paradisa 2.

These licensed themes have been financially lucrative for Lego, but is there anyone here who had wished Lego would have stuck with and expanded with their classic themes and sub-themes of system? If you look at a company like Playmobil, although not a construction toy they have similar themes to Lego (castle, city, agents, pirates, ect..) and they have never relied on licences and are still around today. I don't want to knock the licensed themes for people who like them, but they do take focus, energy and consumer dollars away from the core Lego themes. I think at some point depending on what franchise get's picked Lego will actually loose out on some profits, that could have gone to unlicensed products. I have see more recently a lot licensed sets on clearance at Walmart (mainly Toy story, POP) than I do core sets and this makes me wonder. Anyone have any idea what Lego pays for something POTC, POP, Toy Story, Sponge Bob and Star Wars?

Yup I totally agree, back then there was a lot of gender neutral sets, the basic sets were white, then they were red and blue, now they are blue and pink. The really old ones had girls on the front of the box playing Lego. Lego has become less gender neutral, and I think this is why it has been seen more now as a boy's toy, with girls seen as an after thought.

I think an interesting comparison to Lego would be Playmobil. Despite not being a construction toy Playmobil has the same iconic feel and has a lot of the same core themes (castle, city, pirates) Playmobil is still around and has never resorted to licensed themes or left its core themes to turn a profit. Having grown up in the classic Lego era I kinda wish Lego had kept core to it's original products. But apparently Bionicle saved the company in 2004 and the Star wars brand has also been keeping the company afloat, so it's hard to argue against them. Still makes you wonder.

Hey, I was reading this thread and generally enjoyed reading peoples comments until it turned negative and would like to shift the thread back to the topic on getting girls to play with Lego and specifically what sets. I have 3 little step sisters (as well as a little step brother) and I've gotten them into some Lego and seeing how'd they'd take to it. They had Duplo, so they are familiar, but weren't too crazy about it. Last month I got them this: For the whole lot: -an old 50th anniversary set I bought for myself for nostalgic reasons but never used. -green base plate For the two younger girls: -small pink brick box 5585 -house building set 5899 bricks and more (now discontinued after one year) :( oldest girl: -city camper 7639 The boy is 4 so I got him that really cool my first Lego starter kit with the thick green base plate, I had something similar as a first set as a child. Boys are easy to please with Lego. The result was they took too it like crazy. I called my Dad up and I hear they play almost every day and one of the girls wants Lego for her next b-day/Christmas present. Success! at least for now. The sets I got them were all girlyish, and from what I observed, they liked it all. They wanted me to build creatures (dragons specifically) out of the 1x1 printed googly eye bricks and they really took to those. They put minifigs on them and rode them around. They keep fighting over the base plate and are constantly fighting when one of them breaks the other's house :S Things I observed: They liked animals/creatures, googly eyes, minifigs, little accessories (lamp, cups, flowers, fences, pet faces), blocks to build houses They weren't crazy about the cars or wheels, but I think a few to have around isn't bad Now what do I get them in future? Well I bought some stuff while it was on sale so I could give it to them later and here are my thoughts. The oldest girl 8 wasn't crazy about the camper but was more into building mosaics and houses with the basic bricks, I'll try giving her the Lego Beach house 4996 so she can build a proper house and have lots of bricks to build whatever, otherwise she can stick to the basic bricks that are already there. I got 2 large pink Lego brick boxs for the two youngest, they are girly girls so will like the pony, accessories and the pink bricks. I also got a small blue brick box cause it has a bunch of googly eyes for building creatures. For a special occasion I'll give them the city house special edition 8403. This is probably the ultimate gift cause it's essentially a family home with tons of accessories, minifigs, a dog ect.. It is also a set not pandering to females as it has a relatively gender neutral theme, but still has enormous appeal to girls. Probably the best set to give a girl, but I'll have to wait to see what happens. A link to this awesome set <RANT> I have to say I'm very disappointed with TLG for making this special city house a short one time only thing. They released it in the Summer of 2010 and it's now discontinued 6 months later! I mean seriously, of all the city sets, the one thing such as a normal city house is a special item??? WTF!! Even as a boy growing up with Lego I ended up buying the Holiday Home with Campervan 6388 cause I wanted something normal to complement my city. I mean I'm sure it would at least make money for TLG, sure of a lot more than some of the Toy story sets I see languishing in clearance for a few months at Walmart. I think at the very least TLG should always have a few gender neutral Lego City family house or building that can appeal to girls at any given time. Unfortunately the Lego creator houses, though welcome, are a bit bare in minifigs, accessories and details that girls would probably like. The only thing that comes close now, fortunately is the Lego City corner (7641). </RANT> I've also gotten the collectible minifigs, which I'm sure they will love, especially the girl ones. But the future for Lego sets that appeal to girls will look sparse, but I'm sure they'll manage. Have these marked as great potential sets for girls: -Lego Building Fun 5549 -My Lego Town 6194 -Lego Deluxe Box 5508 There is also Harry potter, but I want them to use their imagination more and they can get into those themes later if they want. We didn't have licensed themes as a kid, so I'm biased against them. So apart from the basic sets, I do really like the bricks and more stuff (would love it better if there were more girlish sets available too), finding Lego stuff girls like isn't easy but it's out there. I suppose in the future I'll just throw them the catalog and they can point out stuff they like, but when your trying to make it a surprise it's a bit harder. As an maniacal Lego builder in my youth I want my step siblings to experience the same fun I had as a child.