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El Garfio

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Everything posted by El Garfio

  1. El Garfio
    When I say that a lot of girls are not builders I don't talk about skills, I talk about the approach or the way they use the sets. When I was young I took out my bricks for building something (a car, a boat, a house,...) sometime I created a master piece and other a bunch of ugly assembled bricks. I passed hours and hours building. More than the ones I spent inventing stories/playing with my creations. Seeing the new sets I understand why TLG has renamend Young builders to Junior (because there is no place for new creations with sets composed with that huge pieces and only few basic bricks. Maybe a lot of boys that buy LEGO are also not builders and buy them as playsets (city, ninjago, chima,...) or as collective (LOTR, SuperHeroes, Star Wars,...) but in girls the number of not builders is more relevant. As Legoist said, most of the girls want figures with names and a bio to be identified with. They assemble the set and play with it as an scenario, making no MOD or only time to time.
  2. El Garfio
    Only few, but the number of boys that include their sisters Friend sets to their LEGO playworld is considerable.
  3. El Garfio
    I think that Super Heroes will be discontinued before than Friends. Why? Super Heroes are a licensed theme linked to the release of new Super Heroes movies. In some years, producers will be lack of ideas of new Movies, and people will be saturated of seeing them when they become repetitive, like it was on 80's and on the 90's. Friends is the new city. Not only for AFOLs fed up of police stations and fire brigades, but also for some male KFOLs that are starting to find out that Friends sets can be a complementary playsets for their city play. And minidolls are here for stay, Disney Princess is the first step of a minidoll expansion. IMHO, if market and costumer preferences continue going in the same way than now, TLG is going to have no more option than replace minifigs for minidolls gradually. And maybe in ten years we are going to see minidolls in a Galaxy far far away.
  4. El Garfio
    I don't know the reason of the new young builder sets for girls. Some of the Disney Princess sets are built with pieces bigger than the ones these sets include. I have a lot of doubts about that because: - TLG has redesigned the cover of the pink suit case from young builder to juniors brand. - The princess playcastle is an update of My first LEGO princess (discontinued after only one year in catalog). - I have bought the Pink brick box with a hard discount (also discontinued in 2014). That means that pink brick and more sets has no relevant sales. Why? Maybe girls hate minifigs, maybe due to Friends success,.. I think there are a big group of girls that buy Friends but are not builders. They are attracted by Heartlake City world due to the TV serie and some roles that they can identified with. They assemble the sets because they have no option (the toys of other brands need assembling also, even not being a building bricks toy) but are not interested into rebuild or MOD the sets. And due to it, they only use the sets as playsets. Answering to Dorayaki: Other toys manufacturers launch some extension sets. I think it could be something that TLG should have in mind. Some sets that could have sense individually but that could be attached to other main sets from city or castle.
  5. El Garfio
    Look at this: Friends in Duplo size
  6. El Garfio
    I wish it, but seeing that the side characters are a combination of the Girls face with other wigs...
  7. El Garfio
    Due to the repetitive use of the same minidolls, better include two wigs into CMF bags o copy Playmobil and create a hairdressing set with a lot of wigs.
  8. El Garfio
    With the adding that €21 are now close to 30 USD.
  9. El Garfio
    This year we have also another bunch of vehicles from LEGO the Movie. My cops, maybe will be without doughnuts for another year but at least this year they are going to be able to buy some octan branded ice creams.
  10. El Garfio
    Ok, the majority of citizens are Robbers and Pyromaniacs. Due to it, every year the city needs more police and fire fighters. We need more sets like Town Square (but if it could be possible, better arround the $50 than arround the $100). I don't know why Cussoo rejected the little shops proposal. If we want to add city life to our city we have to buy Friends sets (sometimes to much pink) or spend a lot of money into modulars.
  11. El Garfio
    Yes, because city life belongs now to Friends. Something smells rotten in Denmark when the majority of citizen are robbers.
  12. El Garfio
    The facts are these: -The market and the competitors are following the way of realistic dolls. -Keep minidolls isolated increase the risk of being discontinued, because all the LEGO themes has passed by bad sales years, lack of ideas or set saturation and TLG has non option than take a break with them. If there isn't other themes with minidolls, they could disappear from the catalog and never come back like paradisa, bellville, scala,... or the LEGO Technic figures. -Peter deserves more than passing their whole life making barbecues, and the worst, could the LEGO of the XXI century afford keeping Robert in his actual role of tanned boy going around the riding stables with a wheelbarrow serving a blonde girl and her Friends? Or TLG should design Friends sets where male minidolls has a relevant role, or at least equitable? TLG will do what they want (or what their professionals think that is the best for the company), but at least, an approach/merge of Friends and City seems unavoidable.
  13. El Garfio
    Farm was always live at duplo and due to it was a theme with a huge acceptation into girls they transfer it to Friends (I think that LEGO never had so many differents animals, well more than a farm Friends are collecting a zoo, another theme that only worked in duplo because LEGO was not able to giving it the styling that girls wanted). Construction is a cyclic theme in LEGO and in other toys like Playmobil, There is years that have less presence, but it never was out/ended (when construction has not a whole serie for it, there is always a crane, a loader or some construction workers into a set . And for not being repetitive, TLG sometimes transform construction into digging, or mining or create a movie as excuse for continuing offering construction minifigs and sets ).
  14. El Garfio
    Well, LEGO design minidolls because they made a Marketing research and arrived to the conclusion that girls don't like minifigs (specially female minifigs). Girls don't find minifigs realistic, they don't feel identified with minifigs and, in big terms, girls find minifigs ugly. Playmobil has a complete city life offer, yes some sets are more liked for boys and other are more liked for girls, but they try to include male and female figures and roles that allows boys and girls play together (most times into a single set). Last year, due to the Friends effect, they designed some series that made the catalog a bit more differentiate/segregated than other years. Now, the market requirements are driving Playmobil to fix it offering some extra figures/roles, via direct sales, blisters and figure packs, to compensate the lack of female or male figures/roles in the main sets of some series. Playmobil 2014 novelties catalog is again full of both genders sets/series. Due to Girls "hate" minifigs, TLG only have to options, maintain shopping, free time, having fun and teen lifestyle separated of public services like now (in Friends and City), or integrate them. Peter, Andrew, Mathew and Robert are the first male minidolls and they deserve to be more than the relatives of the friends girls (maybe in future Friends sets, maybe working, maybe doing boy things with other buddies,...) <-- Is this as impossible as some people think? Think about if the female minifigs were only the wife, the daughter, the sister or the girl of one male minifig? How would some mothers react? How would Internet and social networks become on fire? Kids integrate all, without looking at forms, scales and colors, and minifigs and minidolls share daily playing in a lot of homes. But I can't imagine to see a LEGO set with 2 minifigs and 2 minidolls in the same set. It's for that, and for market requirements and competitors pressure, that in IMHO I think that TLG has not option that create an upgraded minidoll (with mobile hands, independent legs, 2 studs wide,...) and gradually introduce it on city, on new licenses,... and, why not?, on a galaxy far, far away.
  15. El Garfio
    Really great! Young builders are the future, and seeing the truck, the future of LEGO is guaranteed and with high quality
  16. El Garfio
    I have some Friends sets and I find them easy to build. Few Technic pins and some hinges but nothing that I haven't found early in under 12€ creator sets or city sets. When I was a child I used to play with building sets like this: Due to it, for me, hinges are not a problem but Technic pieces are a nightmare. Friends Sets has a reasonable difficulty, but the difficulty of new bunch of sets labeled as "for young builders" is ridiculous. I find all the Friends sets under $20 very easy to assemble, and the "shops" and the rest of under $30 sets have medium difficulty. All the big sets of every series have some hard to assemble steps. If you or your kids find Friends sets very difficult I recommend you not to try to assemble SW or SuperHeroes sets.
  17. El Garfio
    I agree with Dorayaki. And I think that Friend sets are more for young builders than the specific ones with "young builders" label. The 2013 sets labeled as "for young builders" should better be labeled as "baby builders" or "I just left duplo builders": simply vehicles, one wall houses,... It's other TLG fail, for the same, the idea of segregate Friends from the other LEGO instead of making the big conceptual changes that LEGO needs. I can be wrong but all I have in mind that should be LEGO is in Friends (realistic figures, integrable playsets, easy to assemble but good looking buildings, non repetitive sets,...) due to it, I think that soon or later LEGO is going to introduce minidolls and some conceptual changes into all the series (and it's a pity that they are going to do that not for costumer oriented policies but for business necessities (because competitors are working on that way and that way is that kids want).
  18. El Garfio
    For me there is no problem about having Friend like minidolls in other themes (I can't say the same for other, you only have to read some comments of this threat). I only said that the day Friend include some roles and some male minidolls like the upcoming 41056 Hearthlake news van. Some KFOL boys are going to add Friend sets into they wishlist. And if the number of boys who do that becomes relevant, LEGO would be in the disjunctive of making city life sets with minifigs or adding some classic city items and roles to Friends sets. I'm a male AFOL and I'm writing in this, and in other, forums, about how dully is becoming city. And how I have to go to creator and to friend if I like to have city life sets (something else than chases, hideouts and races). And in addition, in my country, Spain, is hard to find some sets like the 60009 one of the few that contain a building. The only problem is that TLG is betting for a figurative minifig when the market and the competitors are betting for realistic figures like minidolls because TLG thinks that minidolls only can fit on Friends sets. And they had transformed an all gender toy into a gender segregate one (all for not daring to solve the real problem, that is that most of LEGO sets are not attractive for girls, and however girls adore Friend sets and, in addition, boys are seeing interesting playing scenarios in some Friends sets). The new theme of Disney Princesses is a test for measuring the acceptation of minidolls out of Friends. And a precedent for introducing minidolls or more realistic figures into future Licensed series (for the risks of kids would prefer the action figures toys instead of the LEGO version, and for having an alternative serie with minidolls if there are a saturation of Friends sets and TLG has to take a break). And IMHO I think that if the competitors are working in launching every year more realistic figures, in some years TLG is going to improve minidolls (independent legs, mobile hands, 2 studs wide,...) and starting to replace minifigs with redesigned minidolls in all the series including SW. And the actual minifig will be a symbolic item of the brand but only for bricks and more, promotional bags or anniversary sets.
  19. El Garfio
    How long is going to be until a Police man or woman appears into a Friend set? or maybe, a medical set with an Ambulance? They both work to protect and serve citizens. I know that a Friend set of a 800 pieces Police station is not on TLG mind and is not in the wishlist of any KFOL girl. But a little one, is going to be easy to see in the near future, the same with a Doctor office. And then the Friendlyzation of City will start, because, like now, maybe only few girls will be interested in having a big police station, but if there is some male minidolls, or an attractive vehicle or building, the number of boys interested in a Friend set with a mini Police station or a Doctor Office could be high.
  20. El Garfio
    There is no problem for an AFOL to moc LEGO buildings, but if we talk about KFOLs I think the answer is not the same. Mattel product lines are highly differentiated by gender and I think that their sales go well. But this is not what parents want for XXI century kids. A separated LEGO line for girls is a risky strategy because there is not infinite set options. Now, Friends is a new line, but in some years, TLG is going to do the same that they do with long time themes, repeat ideas, restyle sets,... This year they try Disney Princesses but if there are not more themes with minidolls, TLG can't take a break when the Friends sets suffer a saturation (Like TLG has done to NinjaGo launching Chima). They had invested a lot of money in LEGO Friends conception and they don't forget Bellville, Paradisa,... failures.
  21. El Garfio
    Aanchir: IMHO The crane is not to big for using the Town Square as a playset, but hard to integrate into a ctiy diorama (I think the crane is not able to bend into a track base plate and surely is going to crash with every lodge or awning of the city building). I read in this forum some comments calling LEGO City LEGO police due to the sets, well there is LEGO police, LEGO Fire brigade, LEGO harbour and LEGO Airport. LEGO Police: taking off the yearly Police Station, you only get an excuse of buildings as thieves hideouts. LEGO Fire: Only the several Fire Brigades, last year TLG provided a burning house (a little building, but something that was expected, because since then we have enormous fire trucks for the only propousal of rescue cats on the top of a tree. LEGO harbour: A very rude male theme, only the Marina set was a flush of fresh air. The beach house of Creator was a good complement. LEGO airport: full of planes, cargos and vehicles. The airport building is only for air control and check-in. Last year City museum was small and all was very tight, ideal for robbery scenes, but not for making him a place of the city to visit. Sometimes TLC provides us some shops like pizza restaurant or the bikes shop of Town Square (both designed in boyish style) the other day in the Friends sets discussion threat we talk about that until Friends arrival there was not bathrooms in buildings (and this is only one of the large list of items that take girls far of classic LEGO themes). IMHO, TLG is not doing anything to bring Girls closer to LEGO City but in the other way, boys with KFOL sisters are detecting interesting playing scenarios into Friends sets. About minidolls, well it's a growing trend: Playmobil adopted the "pollypocket" figures this year seeing that LEGO Friends was taking them girly sales, and is updating some male classic figures to minidolls. Mega Bloks launched Barbie sets with Barbie minidolls. The new LEGO Disney Princesses sets with minidolls is a market test for obtaining info about the acceptation of minidolls into new product themes and the first step in the way market is going (realistic body figs). Even Construblok (the block adventure of Tecnitoys) has realistic minidolls with independent legs and mobile hands (Yes, I know they look like very ugly but it's a proof of that a minidoll with mobile hands, independent legs and 2 studs wide is possible). Due to it, I think that sooner TLG is going to improve the minidolls giving them more functionality and introducing them into more licenced themes and maybe, if TLG achieves to design a 2 stud wide male minidoll, the heresy is coming, and we are going to start to see minidolls in "far far away" themes.
  22. El Garfio
    When TLC launched Friends I said that it could be the end on LEGO City. Well the end no but it could be the start of a Friendlyzation of city. I was not far of truth. Now we have seen the City sets, and said more of the same. More than city it has been called route because there is a bunch of vehicles with some minifigs and in some sets you can find a simple building. The only exceptions are the Police and Firemen stations. If you want some city buildings you have to go mainly to the Creator theme. Well, last year TLG launched the Town Squareand the Museum Break-in. But in Town Square would the crane is dispensable (good for kid playing but to big to include in a city diorama). Sometimes licenced series include some interesting buildings but the theme that is providing us the most usable buildings is Friends. And TLC is introducing new male minidoll figs and is expanding minidolls universe on the sly with the new Theme of Disney Princesses. I think that The LEGO Movie is one of the reasons of the delay of the inevitable friendlyzation of city (probably we are going to see soon a CMF serie composed by minidolls).
  23. El Garfio
    There are WC in the Police Station jails (but as it's seen, prisoners push them to escape and look for a tree )
  24. El Garfio
    I have to find how to set my camera color because it uses to make blue pics when I make them under fluorescent light. All the houses has an empty backside (3 walls)
  25. El Garfio
    I know, I'm a bit late. But I want to show you a haunted house. Happy Halloween to all!!!
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