Sarah

You mean the way City went from Arctic to swamp? That's not Friends specific. Its just Lego. And it is Heartlake. (Or were you messing that up on purpose? With the hostility it is hard to tell)

If you want more Minifigures, Series 12 is currently on sale on Lego.com for $2 each

How would you propose keeping off the sets that don't belong? More policing by Lego to pre-decide which ones should not even be given a chance to be voted on?

EXCELLENT ideas all. My kids are 3 (girl) and 7/2nd grade (boy) I got my daughter the pink Juniors Suitcase for her third birthday -- She's a bit young but LOVES putting the pieces together and carrying around the minifig. (She lost one of the heads and has put a yellow 1x1 brick on top, with a pink flower on top for a "hat" instead). She also loves the purse, cat, and the bicycle (though the wheels can come off the bicycle with her play, I've discovered. Had NO IDEA that they came off at all!) The pieces also go missing kind of easily :( And the suitcase has NOT stood up to her opening and closing it. The yellow clasps come off regularly and over time (since August) have already gotten to the point where they don't stay on. I'd not plan to keep the Legos stored in the suitcase in a classroom. My 2nd grader's favorite sets are the Mixels. Fast, easy builds and the first time he actually tries to get away from the instructions and make something else. I'd get several Mixels sets and keep them separate in a container. They can have a "booklet" of instructions or mix and match from the pieces still left and available. Mixels don't exactly "look like" anything so it isn't as big a deal if one piece goes missing, we've discovered. Just another opportunity to figure it out for yourself.

Hopefully they will learn from history and produce more Science Adventures sets.

Our Nilo table came with two large baseplate looking things -- Lego on one side and Duplo on the other. Available here: https://www.nilotoys.com/acc.htm

agreed! I like both of them! Love that they are little scenes and not just characters.

I have that same Ice Cream Stand! Built it about 4 months ago and immediately put it on display at the office. Just took pictures: Stand Close Up, on Flickr Stand Close Up 2, on Flickr On Display: Ice Cream Stand on Display, on Flickr As you can see, mine does not have any cracks at all. This is near Austin, TX. (Emma and the ice cream cone is hanging out "next door" with the cat gym, for some reason)

I was looking over the holidays for a Lego nativity set -- or instructions to make something similar that I could modify. Didn't like anything I found. (I saw the TrinityToyz Last Supper but was not impressed with the feel. It felt cheap. I'd rather just instructions to make from real Lego bricks. I guess I'm a bit of a purist that way.)

What's the story behind these sets? I notice our toys R Us Lego shelves have a lot of long empty areas but these cute little "Bricktober" mini sets (For $19.99!) along one stretch. Three types.

WOW! Indeed.

I find the stepping on a brick meme overdone as well. I grew up with Legos and just don't remember stepping on a brick as a big deal. So far, with my kids' Legos, it has not been a problem yet. More, step on a brick and "Oh! That's where you got to" (My 3 year old has managed to lose almost every single brick in the pink suitcase, and we can't seem to find them anywhere! Must have a black hole... She's happily using a 1x1 yellow brick for the head of one fig after losing its head) OTOH we don't have the whole floor covered with bricks as shown in these pictures either. Building piles are contained on sheets that can be picked up, on tables, or in containers.

As I recall, the Disney Princess line didn't get ANY additional sets last summer. So its got that beat for now. I'm wondering how this Castle will compare to Elsa and Anna's castle.

Before Friends, those other city like themes were not available in City sets either. Not for decades anyway. There was a farm set when I got into Legos -- back in the 70s and it had Homemaker figures. Not minifigures or minidolls.

If these (pink, white, teal, yellow, purple) are sexist "girl colors" What are the corresponding sexist "Boy colors"? Or are only some colors sexist and the rest are gender neutral? I REALLY want to like this I see all these articles as trying to restrict girls from liking whatever they want. They may not MEAN to be doing that. But when there is a steady drumbeat of how sad it is that girls like Lego Friends, Barbies, etc... What other lesson can you take from that? AS for those who wish Friends was the "Original" Minifigures -- Minifigures are NOT the original people. If Lego isn't allowed to change, we'd still be making people up from bricks. That's REALLY getting back to their roots. (And perhaps even farther back they had different people). You can't just stop the development at one point and say "This is the pinnacle and we shouldn't do anything new or its sexist/not being true to the company."

My favorite Lego theme is Friends. I love how it has brought so many new customers to Lego. And so many of my mommy friends are now talking about Lego and wishing there had been Friends when they were little girls. Before this, I was kind of alone in my love of Lego.

The fellow in front of me at Target last night was purchasing one so they must be on the shelves somewhere.

Minidolls seem to be more expensive than minifigures, at least at this point. Even in comparably priced sets, you get fewer minidolls than minifigs.

I must be missing something about this Flower Cart that makes it a big wow. It seems very similar to the Disney Princess Market stand and Friends ice cream cart we recently got as well. Is it the number of flowers on it?

Hasbro has won the Disney Princess franchise away from Mattel starting in 2016 Think it will affect this line? http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/25/news/hasbro-frozen-disney/

COOOL

Because of the way IDEAS work, this may not have been chosen instead of the project you preferred. Your project may have other difficulties that prevented it being chosen this time around regardless of whether any project was chosen to be made.

Actually, it started out in Historical because it was thought it would be Castle Themed. When it was determined it was a new minidoll themed it was moved to Action (And the Forum was renamed to Action & Adventure) "the category that is generally used to house most not-quite-historic, not-quite-futuristic, not-quite-modern-day themes."

Not a birder or a twitcher. But if they build the cardinal I'm getting one for my mom. Even if I have to make it for her, she'll display it at her office and love it.

The one thing about the Big Bang Theory set that is perhaps interesting to me, who knows NOTHING about the licensing. I've never seen the show and haven't heard enough to know anything about it. BUT! 1) Lots of minifigs 2) telescope 3) Whiteboard 4) Globe 5) Lots of other doodads in an interesting living room setup My favorite Birds project made it, I have room to be charitable with the other set that made it :)