Dorayaki

Sorry to say I posted something similar before, but luck for you. Congrats.

Well, 50/50 gender ratio is too idealistic. We might need decades to achieve that goal, because of social gender stereotypes or market trends. For now, TLG could try to achieve this goal in some neutural themes such as City life or Creators as their first step. Though according to market survey, minifigures are less attractive to girls, the fact is still that a new kind of figures can't provide the same diversity as minifigures, as soon as they're introduced. Maybe only time can tell, but for now the newest Friends wave still focus on new buildings and clothes prints instead of providing variable and different characters. Licensed minidolls could be a different debatable issue, even though it's another way to do so. Very unique and practical thought. Well, we should be happy that pink isn't really the major part of Friends' buildings, and this theme pushes TLC to give us more brick color choices. The basic concept and the minidolls are the key to appeal girls who never touched Lego, or don't quite understand how it works, so Friends becomes a key to help them. If we just want girls to full in love with another stereoype Lego toy such as action themes and chase bad buys, that's unrealistic. Still, we should also be concerned about what's Friends' position in Lego's strategy. Friends could represent one of the interests that some KFOLs have, but it's not just a "starting point" if we wish to see Friends have a longer way to go and eventually become as important as other regular Lego themes. Generally, the real starting point in Lego's dictionary could be Duplo, then the brick boxes, aka the new brand "Junior". I think it's nice to see that some girls, like your daughter, are willing to touch more themes of Lego after buying Friends. Same for those who only used to buy boys-oriented Lego products and then become interested in Friends.

Great work! The HK title called "the Lego Hero Legend" which sounds..... too original.

Well, if they really forgot, we don't have to be surprised because I don't think TLC often notice us about this fact. Generally, I'm fine with the designs of Friends sets. If we remember to mix different themes up when we need, it's nice to have both soft ad hard side of the same toy, and we don't have to reject Friends. And I believe everyone has different taste, it's not about gender. A Town fan could buy both Police and Friends at the same time, while a Chima fan never bought an Agent set. I like Charotte for her daring taste for toys, but it's her own choice. I'm not sure that SW and IJ have to be responsible for this. Both are great franchises. It should be a general problem for the whole film industry, which seldom provide a good action film featuring leading heroine that TLC wants to make. Disney series can be a good choice for girls if TLC are going to design other themes based on future Disney films. Partially agree. Yes, we see the progress, though not very obvious. For example, female criminal, female ratio in single CMF series, etc. But theses are still rare examples and we can still find many sets that don't include any female minifigure. The other issue is the decision of TLC to introduce minidolls. The lack of male characters in Friends and the lack of female characters in other System themes are actually the same, because the Friends protagonists weren't born to be the "supplement" for minifigures, nor the male minifigures were to be for Friends. Well, maybe Charotte doesn't like the Friends protagonists since that they're not outstanding adventurers.

Though the Duplo animals can stand on System bricks, and as the pic shown the giraffe and elephant are big enough when they stand with minifigures/dolls, IMO their designs are still too "simplified" comapred with other System animals. Maybe the Duplo animals were made to be cute, or more angular models could harm children. The upcoming jungle sets might help you if you want to create a safari park.But here's another problem, there seem to be no large animal introduced despite that Friends animals are quite popular. The Friends animals in System scale can also be in a City zoo. Their own problem is that the prints don't match the style of normal System animals. But this is really a pity that TLG don't design a real City Zoo, they spend more time on anthropomorphic ones. Offtopic, it's wierd but fresh to see that Takara Tomy design a Zoo theme called AniA that allows their little cars to pay a visit.

Wow, the new tree house is a musthave for many fans.

Just great! I wish I could make such kind of thing. Envy your family.

Uh...... what about a harbour city? Habour makes more sense than Arctic IMO. Also there have been many subthemes, such as Train, that deserve to have more sets every year. The designers shouldn't run out of ideas. 2014 Winter news: City: Jungle Adventure Friends: Arctic Expedition Agree with this. Sometimes AFOLs are picky, we can't avoid rehashing and some updates can be good, but the lack of new things would make KFOLs lose their interests after two or three years. Chima?

Even if the interests of kids are determined by biological genders, not to say exceptions, still as said, brick toys are neutral. Friends is a good move that shows brick toys can be girl-oriented. Also, we may expect to see more neutral Lego themes that can be popular among both boys and girls. We should hope that the 21th century children can develop their own interest that doesn't have to be restricted by gender stereotype, no matter whether they are still affected by their own natures. We can't force girls who only love Barbie to play Lego, nor can we ask boys to put down their Barbies to play Lego. After all, the societal influence shouldn't be ignored For the traditional themes that were not girls-oriented, I gues not all lacks of female characters or girly elements are reasonable. Action themes have more male characters mostly because the major boy consumers don't expect to see "cool ladies". Brave heroines are added to be a "useful" subcharacter, by assisting other male protagonists or become damsel-in-distresses. But IMO, City Police is alittle debatable. Careers are for both genders (not to consider how many few female criminals or officers exist in real life). If the reason why there are so few female minifigures included in Police sets is that boys, who are the major consumers, don't like them. it is not "educational" at all. Meanwhile, the truck sets also seldom have female drivers included. For other subthemes which are not very boy-oriented, such as Train or Arctic, I think it doesn't matter if we have more ladies there, like Horizon Express having three ladies and three guys, especially for the driver lady. The only thing I could be afraid of is "regenderalization", for the lack of advertising, Friends could be regarded another kind of "girls' toy" and not the stereotypical Lego that most people know. Just hope that TLG can do more lessons.

Well, the broad audience wish to see a full-featured City rather than "yet another", don't they? In the commercial view, you're correct, not all parents can afford more sets when children already bought a police and a fire station. But there should also be some other subthemes running (Trains, Post, city life) and random creative ideas to make a colorful City. Like others said, Arctic is alittle weird for not being part of a real City, but it's just a small complaint.

I thought they've mentioned that the choice was the "better" design. But it has to be in the same review period, and we're not sure if future projects based on the used concept but have improved models (eg, the UCS DeLorean Time Machine) would pass. But even if the original design wasn't good enough, I guess TLG would try to make the final product better, or worse.

The question should be what the position of Friends is in Lego System. Though some opinions expect to see more male characters or careers in Friends, however, iT IS due to that we can't, or, don't tend to combine it with other System themes to meet the needs. For example, simply putting Chase McCain into a Friends set can solve this problem if TLC encouraged us to do so. Back to this topic, yes, brick toys helps both girls and boys in their education. The reason why Lego became a stereotypical toy for boys is that, IMO, it's been used to feature themes that boys are interested in, such as the action themes or City Police, while the older Belville wasn't considered one of the major lines of Lego. The licenses are another problem. Most problems belong to the film industry, who seldom make a heroine features in a normal action film, unless we're branding a superheroine. But there are also licenses that girls are intrerested in, such as Disney classics. I'm not sure how to answer that. Simply judging from the characteristics of brick toys, they don't show any gender preference themselves, but it's TLC who made them into "themes" that boys love, and there have been lacking the "soft side" of design concepts in Lego System for a long time, and as a result, the Lego toys weren't colorful and diverse.

I think these things can be avoided as long as the cultural elements are generic enough, since we've seen many examples such as CMFs with cultural backgrounds. Winter Village is a generic theme, but maybe it doesn't locate in a place as cold as the Arctic scenes, so a different building style is needed.

Yes, The Lego Ninjago Movie. Movie products are big money, I don't think TLC won't do it again. But still, the TLM 1(?) could have been planned for years. Maybe another film wouldn't be announced before 2017. But another movie doesn't necessarily mean to be a "sequel" that directly continue the protagonists or story, for that Lego should have diverse aspects to describe. Maybe the previous characters would only temporarily show up to tell the new characters what they should do in their own mission in order to be the new master builders. For me, I just hope that Friends or other unseen old Lego stories can be more involved in this movie or a second one.

It depends on their strategy about marketing the Friends brand. But most important of all, the members voted for "Female Minifigure Set", many of them won't buy the "Female Minidoll Set" since it's much different from the original idea, just like what you concluded. And yes, so far Friends/minidolls don't have enough variety, but you need another project to ask for it.

Generally yes, Farm was one of the example. It doesn't matter as long as we can get the sets we want. However I'd like to see these subthemes have more things to do with "residence" or "settlements". For the Arctic, there could be some Eskimo cultural things rather than just a expedition team.

I don't think it's legal or meaningful for the fact that there have been numerous Disney villains in Lego products before the classic series appear, especially that many existed Lego-Disney theme (if Pixar films count) had nothing to do with princesses. After all, lacking characters or story ideas is not what a Lego product should be, and we can see that the first wave of Lego Disney products didn't do their best. Honestly I'm not sure how "strict" it is. Mattel Disney dolls is one of the brand that features the Disney Princesses, but they have designed many non-protagonist figures, and it is what Lego have done before. This question would only be answered after more waves of Disney products appear, .

Uh, Tiana? For the thrid-party creations owned by Disney, we've mentioned the Prince of Persia, and future Marvel films, which all happens to have been in Lego line. The only exception seems to be the Muppets. Unless TLC would use the offial Disney crossovers (Kingdom Keepers/Hearts, Sofia the First, etc) as their subtheme of products, I don't think they can combine any two themes at will, like, a Simpsons-DC crossover. Only we fans can take some wierd photoshoots after collecting the products. Personally, I haven't seen an official Disney crossover that really stands out and combines all Disney materials very well, so I don't expect to see that happen. Not even to say a crossover between Disney and other companies.

Yes, that's the question I've mentioned. Unless TLC is willing to design a complete series of the GB theme, which isn't based on any Cuusoo project, it seems like we're not going to see the station at this point.

Uh, I meant "different characters and buildings", not "same". I'd like to see a smaller fire station project filing, along with Janine and Louis. Hope that TeeKay, who didn't pass, can also bring us a better project based on this series. After the project, there comes a scientist and a contruction worker. I guess as long as CMF series expand, we would only see more and more female workers. So the point is whether the mini buildings take any advantage. For the City, I can see more of Gail's co-workers in the future, while female police and fire officers are already there. But these are a different story if Lego City isn't going to release any zoo, museum or laboratory set (at least the male mad scientist can apear in Monsters or Agent).

No, I'm saying that why we're not getting two different sets, as I've mentioned. But there could be one problem for Cuusoo. The chosen project have a better car design, however, if the chosen project is asked to make the buiding one instead of the car, we'll get the losing car design as result. Or if both the buildig and the car from a single project are made, it would be a "theme project". I guess unless TLC volunteer, the creaotr still have to start another project that allow us to vote again.

Well, I don't think Disney had ever considered to make The Snow Queen or Rapaunzel portrayed by real actors, so the conclusion is the same. TLG or other companies can still design toys based on real actors just like many films they've done with. But I'm not sure Giselle would be in future Lego line if she's not in a new film or considered to be a Disney classic personality.

I'm not sure where to confirm this information, since I was alittle confused by the unclear statement below: It sounded like "they will have a line of minifigures out next summer", before the coming of regular series 12. But it also seems not. However, if there won't be any new original character or returng Universe character in the MMO content, there is no need for a special CMF series. Yes, definitely .

Well, the other upcoming BTTF projects are pobably from the same voters, and I don't think those who were fond of other licensed themes would only buy one Lego product as result. So as I said, there could have been two Ghostbuster sets base on two different scenes, one could be the car and the other could be the office. (in a simplified version)

Uhmmm... after several announcements from the Cuusoo team, I'm not sure it's good news or not. a) Only one set chosen, even though Cuusoo have made it clear that it's not a seasonal competition that only one "winner" product comes out, it's still weird to see only one set chosen and they can't prove they're right. b) Oz is one of the pity for me. However, the other conecrn would be whether Disney would make the sequel to their own version of Oz. It could result in that TLC is more willing to make Oz under their Disney theme instead of the classic version. c) "What happened to the other Ghostbusters Project?" I agree that Cuusoo is a competition that compares the models based on the same idea. However, I think two chosen projects should mean that this licesnse have big potential and should have two different sets based on this series. If TLC chose not to do so, I feel alittle upset, or bored. d) The "looking into possiblity" female worker series is an ucertain one. It has nothing to do with licenses, and it sells. However it could be regarded as a repetitive concept with traditional City theme. Unless TLC already defines City as police or fire.