Friends Reunited

I emerged from my LEGO Dark Ages back in 2008. I've long suspected that the number of sets released annually since then has increased year on year, and a cursory interrogation of the Brickset database would seem to support that notion. According to Brickset, LEGO released a total of 410 sets of all types in 2008. This increased to 454 in 2009 and 501 in 2010, and the total has continued to rise every year since then to the point where in 2016 we're already up to 810 sets at time of writing. So basically a doubling of output in the space of less than 10 years - amazing!

It's fair to say that for much of the past decade my purchasing of sets has grown in a similar fashion. It was modest at first, but rapidly accelerated as my passion for the hobby increased. I reckon that I probably hit my purchasing peak back in 2013 or 2014, but since then I've increasingly tried to put the brakes on due to limited storage space. A few specific themes have borne the brunt of this restraint, notably City and Friends. From a City perspective I've admittedly continued to cherry-pick some specific sets, and I've been unable to resist some of the excellent summer City subthemes such as Deep Sea Explorers and Volcano Explorers, but in truth it hasn't been much of a hardship to forego the annual slew of City Police and Fire sets. Likewise for Friends, while I've felt some regret at passing on a few sets, for instance 41122 Adventure Camp Tree House (below) and 41134 Heartlake Performance School, in the main it's been fairly easy to abstain given the similarity of many sets to previous Friends releases.

All that having been said, regardless of the rules you set yourself, sometimes something comes along that forces you to make an exception, and 41129 Amusement Park Hot Dog Van definitely falls into that category; when Brickset threw up an alert back in October informing me that the set was 32% off RRP on Amazon I immediately pounced and pushed it to the top of my build queue.

It's been a while since I last built a Friends set, but as far as I can ascertain the box features the same scalloped edges and pretty much the same colour scheme that the Friends theme has been using since it debuted back in 2012. The branding has been subtly tweaked, though, and one obvious evolution concerns the five Friends themselves - while they continue to look out from the top right of the front of the box (above) like they've always done, their hairstyles and outfits are distinctly more glamorous and less "girl next door" than I remember. Looking beyond the branding, the front of the box showcases the completed build, with silhouettes of the Friends amusement park space ride and ferris wheel just about visible in the background, while the back of the box (below) is dominated by a number of vignettes highlighting various aspects of the set.

The box opens via a couple of thumb tabs and contains two numbered bags of elements, a single instruction booklet and a small sticker sheet which is loose in the box. You can see a scan of the sticker sheet below; note that all the areas which appear black are actually silver mirrored, but unfortunately this finish can't be reproduced by my scanner.

The cover of the instruction booklet can be seen below. The booklet comprises 64 pages from cover to cover, and in addition to the building instructions the contents include a one-page inventory of elements, three pages of advertising for the Friends theme, and a single page of advertising for the rather impressive 2016 Elves line up.

The set contains two minidolls, Stephanie and Nate. While this version of Stephanie (below) is unique to the set, her bright yellow hair complete with dark pink sun visor, her dark purple skirt with dark purple and magenta shoes, and her light flesh head with bright light blue eyes, have previously appeared as a part of other minidolls. Her torso featuring a medium azure top printed with a palm tree pattern is however currently exclusive to this minidoll and has yet to appear elsewhere.

As you can see from the picture below, Stephanie's torso is embossed with an incongruous "© 2009 LEGO" copyright notice which would have been better placed out of sight in my opinion. The head isn't back-printed, so there's unfortunately no alternate facial expression hidden beneath Stephanie's ponytail.

Nate has to my knowledge only previously appeared in a single set, 41101 Heartlake Grand Hotel from last year, and the version of Nate you get in this set (below) is exclusive to the set. All of the elements making up this minidoll have appeared elsewhere, although the dark red cropped trousers with dark red and white sneakers, and the hooped torso print, have each only featured once before.

Like Stephanie, Nate's lower back carries an embossed copyright notice (below) although in this case it's dated 2011 rather than 2009. Once again there's no alternate head print. A pair of small dark red pockets are moulded into the back of Nate's shorts, and the shorts also feature larger moulded side pockets.

Nate isn't just included in the set to keep Stephanie company - he actually has a job to do advertising her hot dog business. To help with this he's provided with the wonderful hot dog suit that you can see below. This element has only previously appeared on one occasion, as part of Hot Dog Man who was one of the Series 13 Collectable Minifigures released in 2015. In order to fit the suit you remove Nate's hair and just slide the element down over his head and body. It's interesting that the suit fits both minidolls and standard minifigures. I think it looks great - definitely a highlight of the set for me!

Before I move on to the build, a quick comment about minidolls in general. When I first wrote about them back in November of 2011 (you can read my post here) I was pretty dismissive, questioning why LEGO was abandoning the much-loved minifigure for its then-upcoming Friends theme, before rashly stating that I wouldn't be buying any of the Friends sets as a result. Barely two months later however I had broken that pledge, and in my review of 3931 Emma's Splash Pool I went so far as to write "I can't deny that Emma is cute and appealing, with an almost anime-like quality" - quite an about-turn, that.... In addition to their continued use in the Friends sets, and their presence in the well-received Elves theme, minidolls will also feature in the new DC Super Hero Girls theme which will debut in 2017; my enthusiasm for upcoming Super Hero minidolls such as Poison Ivy (below) suggests that I've now been well and truly won over....

And so to the build. Bag number one kicks off with assembly of the set's two minidolls as previously described, and then it's on to a number of small accessory builds (below) including a distorted funfair mirror, which consists of a mirror sticker applied to a white 6 x 2 curved slope, a couple of bar stools, and what LEGO describe as "a camera with instant photo function" complete with a stickered 2 x 2 tile to represent the photo. There's also a carnival cut-out board consisting of a stickered 1 x 6 x 5 trans-clear panel; this is topped off with a pair of medium azure 3 x 1 curved slopes only previously seen in nine sets, and a stickered dark purple 2 x 2 round tile which is only appearing in a set for the fourth time ever. The carnival cut-out board is mounted on a lime 4 x 8 semi-circular plate which has only previously appeared in a total of four sets.

With the accessory builds completed it's time to make a start on the hot dog van itself. This is built on a dark pink 2 x 14 plate only previously available in two sets. There's otherwise little in the way of rare or unusual parts until we get to the bulbous SNOT front and rear of the vehicle which feature pairs of tan 3 x 3 x 2 round corner bricks with dome top which are only appearing in a set for the third time ever in this colour. These elements are mounted on top of a tan 3 x 6 half round plate with 1 x 2 cutout which was previously only available in seven sets in this colour. The trans-orange and trans-neon orange elements that you can see towards the rear of the interior form part of the grill where the hot dogs are cooked.

Construction of the hot dog van continues with completion of the grill which is, appropriately enough, topped off with a number of modified 1 x 2 tiles with grille. A cash register consisting of a 2 x 2 45 degree slope brick printed with a pink, purple and yellow cash register pattern is then installed; this element has only featured in five sets including this one. Trans-clear 1 x 6 x 3 windscreen elements are then dropped into place at the front and back of the van, and stacks of dark purple 1 x 1 round bricks, which are only appearing in a set for the sixth time ever, are installed so as to provide the roof with additional support. Mustard and tomato ketchup dispensers are then placed on the medium azure counter top, as are a couple of hot dogs in buns, thus providing me with my first ever up-close and personal encounter with the wonderful tan hot dog bun element which is only appearing in a set for the sixth time. Talking of hot dog buns, the roof, which can be removed in order to provide access to the interior of the van, resembles a giant hot dog bun thanks to the use of various tan curved slope elements including modified 1 x 4 x 1 1/3 bricks with curved top which are only appearing in a set for the eighth time ever. The roof features a canopy made from alternating red and dark pink modified 1 x 2 x 1 1/3 bricks with curved top which have only previously appeared in a total of seven sets in dark pink. Also located on the roof is a dining area featuring four seats and a medium azure round table; there's a cushion on each seat consisting of a stickered dark purple 2 x 2 round tile. With the roof completed the wheels are attached and we're done.

Access to the rooftop dining area is via a ladder which can be seen in the rear-view picture below, and when the ladder is folded down Stephanie can gain entry to the van's interior. The back of the van is pretty much indistinguishable from the front, with only the absence of a steering wheel giving it away.

You can see the finished build below complete with all the accessories and both minidolls.

OK, so you don't need me to tell you what a bizarre-looking vehicle the hot dog van is, but it was precisely that which attracted me to the set in the first place and I wasn't disappointed - it's a genuinely fun set which put a big smile on my face. The build is pretty quick and straightforward, with accurate placement of the stickers probably providing the greatest challenge, and it's never dull thanks to all the humorous details plus a decent selection of unusual and/or interesting elements. There's also a good amount of play value for the younger builder thanks to all the accessories, not to mention the inclusion of the hot dog suit which is absolute genius in my humble opinion....

Set 41129 Amusement Park Hot Dog Van contains 243 elements and retails for £24.99 / US$29.99, although like me you may be able to get it at a decent discount from Amazon (UK/US) or other retailers.

Yellows !

My passion for LEGO exists, as much as is reasonably possible, in a vacuum, unaffected by most environmental factors. Regardless of whatever else is going on in my life, be it work, illness, holidays or whatever, my enthusiasm for collecting and building LEGO remains largely undimmed, even if the actual time available is limited. Truth be told, a passion for LEGO is actually a welcome relief from day to day pressures.

I have to confess to feeling pretty distracted right now, though. My beloved Watford Football Club, a.k.a. The Hornets, have reached the Championship Play-offs, and are potentially only 3 games away from claiming a place in the English Premier League. They actually had the chance to gain promotion outright last weekend without the need to endure the Play-offs, but having failed to grasp the opportunity for a variety of reasons, they now get a second chance, starting tonight (Thursday) with an away game at Leicester City. Given the trials and tribulations of Watford Football Club over the past few seasons, even having reached third place in the rankings at the end of the regular season constitutes a massive achievement and cause for celebration, regardless of the outcome of the Play-offs to come. And so it is that by way of a tribute to my yellow-clad heroes, I thought I'd write a football-related posting on Gimme LEGO this week.

Me, sort of

So, football-related LEGO, then. Well, the good news is that over the years LEGO have produced a surprisingly prodigious number of football-related sets. According to the Brickset database, a total of 71 football-related sets were released between 2000 and 2007, from individual footballers and promotional polybags to some more substantial sets such as 2006's Set 3569 Grand Soccer Stadium (below) which contains 386 pieces.

Set 3569 Grand Soccer Stadium - spot the LEGO....

The bad news is that I don't actually own any of these football-themed sets.... They do come up on eBay and elsewhere on a reasonably frequent basis, and they're generally available at bargain basement prices. Problem is that I've never actually bothered buying any of them as they look, well, a bit rubbish. I was therefore facing the prospect of abandoning my idea of a football-focused post when it suddenly struck me that LEGO have in fact produced a football-related set much more recently. This year, in fact. And not only that, but I actually own it. Problem solved....

Yes, yes - I know it's a Friends set, but it's the only football-related set I've got, and beggars can't be choosers. Anyway, there's no point in me pretending to be all macho about this - I already blew my cover by previously admitting here to liking the Friends minidolls more than I expected, not to mention raving about all the new colours and interesting parts that you get in the sets.

My copy of Set 41011 Stephanie's Soccer Practice (above) is a bit squashed thanks to the local postie's insistence on trying to cram anything smaller than a housebrick through my letter box regardless of the degree of damage incurred in the process. The branding of the 2013 Friends sets is very similar to that of the 2012 sets, although the group shot of the girls on both the front and back of the boxes has taken on a more cartoony, and dare I say it cruder, appearance. The back of the box (below) highlights the play-features of the set, such as they are - Stephanie's football, a mechanism for mechanically propelling the football towards the goal, and, er, Stephanie holding a banana. It was half-time oranges in my day.

Opening the box reveals two sealed bags (one big and one small) of parts, a folded instruction booklet, and a green 4 x 12 plate. The front cover of the instruction booklet is almost a carbon-copy of the front of the box. The booklet itself weighs in at 32 pages cover to cover, which is quite a feat considering that the set only contains 80 pieces. The 23-page building guide culminates in a line-up of all the set's constituent elements (picture below - click to enlarge). We're also treated to an aerial shot of Heartlake City, which is where our football-loving heroine resides, a page of snapshots of the 5 Friends going about their business, advertising for some of the 2013 Friends sets, and a two-page inventory of parts, amongst other things.

Parts-wise we get a typically eye-searing combination of colours, something which has been a feature of the Friends theme from the start. The set contains parts in 18 different colours, rising to 21 if you include the parts making up Stephanie. This seems incredible given the modest piece count. Furthermore, some of the colours such as bright green, bright pink, dark orange, magenta and medium azure blue, are found relatively rarely in LEGO sets. You can see a selection of some of the more interesting part/colour combinations in the picture below (click to enlarge). The football is unique to this set, and all the other parts appear in 10 sets or less in their respective colours.

The set contains just one minifigure, or more accurately minidoll, that of Stephanie in her football kit (below - click to enlarge). She's unique to the set in this attire, although 5 more versions of Stephanie wearing other outfits can be found in a variety of 2012 and 2013 Friends sets. Stephanie's football kit  - white shirt with light blue sleeves and magenta trim, dark blue shorts - isn't obviously based upon the kit of any real football team that I can think of, and she's really not going to get very far with those football boots, but when all is said and done she does kind of look the part. Except for her huge hair, which she'll really need to tie back....

As you can see below, there's no backprint on Stephanie's torso, not even a number nor (and you'll need to take my word for this) her name at the top of the shirt in modern footballing fashion. There is however some very prominent text - "(c) 2009 LEGO" - embossed just above the waistband; I'm not sure if this is an indication of LEGO's product development cycle, the date when LEGO patented the minidolls. or even both of these.

Assembly of the various structures included in the set (below - click to enlarge) takes but a few moments. Stephanie is provided with a goal, a dugout and bench plus water cooler,  some cones to dribble round, and a rudimentary structure to flick the ball into the goal. The latter seems a bit pointless, to be honest, capable as it is of propelling the ball a few centimetres at best. All of these structures are characteristically garish in true Friends style.

You can see all the elements of the set laid out below; in addition to providing Stephanie with everything she needs to hone her footballing skills, LEGO have also thoughtfully provided Stephanie with a puppy, which as every true football fan knows is an indispensible part of any football practice.

Set 41011 Stephanie's Soccer Practice retails at £9.99 / $9.99, although as I write this the set is currently available at 33% off RRP (£6.66) from Amazon.co.uk. Folks in the U.S. will have to pay pretty much RRP (click here to buy) although it still works out cheaper than the UK price.

And now, with the set built and my posting written it's unfortunately time to return to reality and start biting my nails again in anticipation of tonights Play-off game. If you've enjoyed this posting then please do me a favour and keep your fingers crossed for a Watford victory...

Come On You Hornets !

Get your Watford shirt on - you're going in goal....

* Custom Dr. Dave Watford F. C. minifig crafted by Minifigs.me - cheers, Caz & Nick !

United in Manchester

There's no shortage of excellent LEGO-related events to attend in the UK and the rest of Europe, but until recently we've never had a U.S.-style LEGO conference complete with a programme of presentations, keynotes and workshops. AFOLCON finally brought this U.S.-style format to the UK in 2011, and I was determined to attend this year having missed out last time on account of work commitments. And so it was that after work last Wednesday I grabbed some dinner, kissed my family goodbye and set out on the three-and-a-half hour drive to Manchester. Despite not arriving until almost 11 p.m., it was gratifying to find the hotel bar still packed with a motley crew of AFOLs, most of whom were members of the Brickish Association, Brickset or both.

There were a few sore heads at breakfast the next morning, but hangovers were (mostly) forgotten amidst a sense of anticipation at the event to come. After breakfast we made our way over to Event City to register. This venue is located at the edge of the absolutely enormous Trafford Centre shopping mall, a few minutes away from Manchester United's Old Trafford football stadium. The registration process was efficient, and in addition to the obligatory event bag, lanyard and agenda we all received a kilo of random LEGO elements in a ziplock bag - a nice touch. After loading up with tea and coffee and greeting our fellow attendees we passed through the cavernous exhibition hall and into the meeting room. At around 10 a.m., AFOLCON organiser Warren Elsmore welcomed the attendees, and we were off.

The first speaker was Mark Stafford, already a renowned and prolific MOCcer prior to being taken on by the LEGO company as a set designer in 2006. He has an impressive portfolio of sets under his belt spanning a  number of themes including Space Police, Atlantis, Alien Conquest and Ninjago, and was coincidentally the designer of my favourite set of last year, Set 7066 Earth Defense HQ. Mark's talk focused on the development of the Ninjago theme, and more specifically the design of the sets making up Year Two of this popular theme. To illustrate his points, he'd brought along a number of prototypes which gave a fascinating insight into the evolution of some of the sets, including a few which won't be on the shelves until the Summer - click images below to enlarge.

Samurai Mech - a Summer 2012 release

Fangpyre Mech prototype...

....and Fangpyre Mech final

Ninjago prototypes and boxes

Ninjago Snake Train Concept

When I first saw the agenda I thought the gaps between the presentations would be too long, but in fact they were a masterstroke, allowing attendees to quiz the presenters 'offline', catch up with each other, build with their kilo of LEGO, and remain well-refreshed. Next up was Alex Bidolak from the Manchester LEGO Discovery Centre (LDC). In his talk entitled "From Postie to Brickie" he described how he'd gone from being a postman to securing his perfect job, that of a Master Model Builder at the LDC which he described as "an indoor LEGOLAND". While he's undoubtedly a talented builder, I suspect that his infectious enthusiasm and passion for LEGO were at least as important in getting the job over around 200 other applicants.

After a surprisingly good lunch, attendees were treated to a talk by Thursday's keynote speaker, LEGO Executive Vice President of Markets and Products Mads Nipper. For me, this session was perhaps the highlight of AFOLCON. Mads was an excellent, polished and passionate speaker who had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand after his disarming admission that he had been a member of the LEGO board that had presided over the company's brush with oblivion in 2003. He described the reasons for the company's difficulties - effectively the core business losing its way coupled with attempts to expand their way out of trouble - prior to explaning how a focus on LEGO's core strengths plus some substantial cost-cutting had saved the business and helped to set it on course for the fabulous success that it's currently experiencing. His fascinating wide-ranging talk, aided by a minimum of slides, no script and no need for a microphone, culminated in a lengthy Q & A session where he was questioned by attendees on a huge variety of subjects. I left the session confident that if the rest of the LEGO board is even half as impressive as Mads then the company is seemingly in good hands.

Day one finished up with a fairly brief and somewhat dry talk on quality in the LEGO group from Bjarke Schonwandt, Senior Manager Consumer Perceived Quality. The session really sprang to life during the long Q & A which followed, however, with attendees grilling Bjarke on multiple quality-related topics which he did a pretty good job of answering I thought. Topics included the longevity of stickers, colour discrimination in instruction leaflets, variability in the colour of elements, the mistreatment of boxes by certain retailers and the quality of Chinese-manufactured elements to name just a few. I left the session hoping that someone had recorded this Q & A in particular as it dealt with many of the questions that I see on the various LEGO forums every day.

That evening I grabbed dinner in the Trafford Centre with some of the Brickset Posse. The plan was for AFOLCON attendees to meet at an amusement arcade in the mall to do some bowling, play some video games and carry on the chat, but predictably enough most people headed straight to a nearby bar instead, prior to retiring to their respective hotel bars for more socialising....

Day two of AFOLCON kicked off with a talk from Adam Vaughan, a fellow Brit who's been working for LEGO as a designer since 2006. Adam is one of those responsible for the development of the Friends theme, and he talked us through a number of design choices they'd made along the way, not least the controversial decision to ditch the traditional minifigure in favour of the new minidolls. Another very lively Q & A session ensued, with Adam striving manfully to avoid letting slip any confidential information about future sets in the face of persuasive questioning ! As some of you will recall, I was initially very unsure about the Friends theme (see here for details...) prior to being somewhat won over (more here) and it was thus fitting that I was able to help to build some of the Summer 2012 Friends sets between AFOLCON sessions for display in the exhibition hall (pictures below - click to enlarge).

Friends Camper Van, coming Summer 2012

                 

                                  Friends Mini-Dolls - check out the little lady bottom left.....

Friends Riding Stables, coming Summer 2012

Next on the agenda was Ed Diment, chairman of the Brickish Association, partner at Bright Bricks and one of my AFOLCON hotel drinking buddies.... Some of you may remember the spectacular LEGO Christmas tree which was erected in London's St. Pancras Station last Christmas. Ed and Bright Bricks founder Duncan Titmarsh were responsible for that amazing feat of LEGO engineering, and Ed talked us through the process of designing, building and installing the tree during his session. Over 600,000 bricks were used in its construction, and you can see a picture below. Despite the herculanean effort required to build the tree itself, it was sobering to discover that the majority of their time was in fact spent securing the necessary permissions from multiple agencies to actually install it....

After Ed's session came Friday's keynote from Tormod Askildsen, LEGO's head of Community Development. Tormod's well known within the AFOL community, having worked with AFOLs for many years now. He introduced us to his family (alas only via Powerpoint) and the LEGO Community Team, before sharing his likes (AFOL events, great MOCs) and dislikes (websites posting images festooned with 'LEGO confidential' stamps) and going on to provide a regional breakdown of the global LEGO fan community from the perspective of the number of LUGs, their membership, and the events they put on. I was surprised to learn that there are LUGs recognised by LEGO which only have a few members, while some of the Asian LUGs have memberships which run into thousands. Quite a lot of time, both during his talk and during the Q & A which followed, was focused on information leaks. Tormod acknowledged that leaks, for instance of confidential images, were certainly LEGOs fault, but that the company would nevertheless continue to ask websites to remove confidential images, and take further action, e.g. contact ISPs, if this wasn't done.

The final session of the day was a panel discussion which seemed to consist of a cast of thousands - most of the speakers, plus Jan Beyer (LEGO Community Operations Manager), Megan Rothrock (freelance toy designer who worked on LEGO Universe amongst other things) and Carl Greatrix (LEGO Model Designer at Travellers Tales), lined up to have questions fired at them. To be honest, it felt like attendees had exhausted their supply of more challenging questions during previous sessions as the Q & A was shorter than I expected and there were no particularly noteworthy revelations that I can recall....

Prior to wrapping up the formal AFOLCON proceedings by giving thanks to the presenters and attendees, Warren Elsmore shared a few announcements including the 1st June 2012 release date for the LEGO Batman 2 game and the reveal of a lovely new set also due for release on 1st June - Set 10226 Sopwith Camel - together with a minature version - Set 40049 Sopwith Camel - to be given away as a promo item during the summer.

Set 10226 Sopwith Camel

  

Video - Jamie Berard talks about Set 10226 Sopwith Camel

Set 40049 Mini Sopwith Camel

During the two days of AFOLCON, staff from the nearby Liverpool LEGO Brand Store had been feverishly constructing a "pop-up" store at Event City in preparation for The LEGO Show, the public portion of the event which kicked off the day after AFOLCON finished. The store opened for business on the Friday afternoon, allowing AFOLCON attendees early access. A 10% discount for AFOLCON attendees, coupled with LEGO's "May the 4th be with you" promotion, meant that the store did some healthy business. Newly-launched Set 10225 UCS R2-D2 was a particularly popular purchase, with attendees receiving a free TC-14 minifigure, mini TIE fighter and R2-D2 poster with Star Wars purchases over £50.

AFOLCON attendees - doing their bit to help UK economic recovery....

As a final bonus, AFOLCON attendees were given private, out-of-hours access to the Manchester LDC on the Friday evening where they got to see Miniland and participate in some of the rides and activities for free, not to mention avail themselves of another shopping opportunity... Miniland (below - click to enlarge) was small but perfectly formed; what it lacked it sheer size it made up for with a day/night cycle and some neat lighting.

Miniland Blackpool Tower by day...

....and by night.

Saturday morning heralded the start of the LEGO Show. Many AFOLCON attendees stayed on to exhibit their MOCs, help out with the show, buy LEGO from the many traders in attendance, check out the displays of others, or all of the above. It would take a blog posting all of its own to give the LEGO Show the attention it deserves; suffice to say here that the quality of MOCs was incredibly high, with my personal highlights being some of Mark Stafford's space MOCs, the latest UCS creation (a speeder bike) from Pete Brookdale (Cavegod), a massive collection of marvellous Neo Classic Space models from Peter Reid (Legoloverman) and a number of lovely creations from Yvonne Doyle ({YVD}) including her Friends Classroom (below - click to enlarge)

Mark Stafford's work-in-progress Alien Defence HQ on Steroids...

               

                Yvonne Doyle's Friends Classroom

Peter Reid's Exo Suit - vote for it on Cuusoo...

So in summary, a great few days. I'm loathe to spend time away from my family these days unless it's necessary for my job, but I'm pleased I took the decision to do so on this occasion. The AFOLCON sessions were of a uniformly high standard - kudos to Warren for pulling together such an excellent programme - and the LEGO Show was extremely enjoyable. But most of all it was an absolute pleasure to spend a few days eating, drinking, breathing, talking and building LEGO with fellow AFOLs pretty much 24/7. Be it Rodney who came all the way from Zimbabwe to attend, the Brickset Posse, Brickish Association folks or members of other LUGs, thanks to you all for making the hobby so much more than 'just' building with plastic bricks - you guys are great !

Taking the Plunge

A couple of months back I wrote here of my disappointment that LEGO had decided to abandon its much-loved minifigure in the 2012 girl-focused Friends theme in favour of a new, doll-like creation.

Since I posted my initial impressions, LEGO have launched the new Friends sets amid a blaze of publicity and explained the reasons for the decision not to use standard minifigures in the theme. It seems to boil down to a belief that girls "hate" (LEGO's word, not mine) the standard minifig and want a more realistic character that they can identify with and project themselves into. So there you go. Those looking for more background on the extensive market research that underpins the new figures and the design of the sets can click here to read an interesting article about this in Bloomburg Businessweek.

Sceptical or not, I'm loathe to dismiss anything LEGO-related without first experiencing it for myself, so following the launch I visited my local John Lewis store and picked up one of the small Friends starter sets from the shelf for the purposes of my own, homespun market research....

Set 3931 Emma's Splash Pool (above) cost me £4.99 and contains 43 pieces. Other than the predictable pastel shades adorning the box, you can see an interesting purple scalloped effect on the sides of the box. For this and the other smallest sets in the Friends theme, these purple crescents are just printed on the front of box, but in the bigger sets the purple areas are literally scooped away and the front of the box bows outwards, leading to a distinctive sculpted appearance. I actually found this sculpting quite agreeable when I inspected the bigger sets on the retail shelves BUT it's going to cause problems with respect to stacking and storing the boxes, so any points for aesthetics are unfortunately lost when one considers the practicalities.

The box contains a set of folded instructions (above) consisting of 12 pages of building steps, an inventory of parts and pictures of a selection of other Friends sets complete with check boxes so you can tick them off as you buy them. There's also a single sealed polybag containing the pieces (below).

The first thing you notice on inspecting the bag of pieces is the riot of colour, particularly the garish preponderance of bright pink, lime and medium azure on show. Medium azure is a brand new colour for 2012, a lighter shade of blue compared with the dark azure last seen sported by Alien Defence Unit soldiers in the Alien Conquest sets. I'm a sucker for new colours, and it's this in addition to my curiosity about the new figures which was my main motivation for buying the set. While bright pink isn't a new colour for 2012, it might as well be from my perspective given the almost complete absence of any pieces in this colour within my existing sets.

So then - on to the build. As usual, the first step is to assemble the minifigure(s), or in this case, the "mini doll" as LEGO is calling them. She's called Emma, and you can see her below.

Emma is slightly taller than a regular minifigure, with a distinctly curvier, slimmer, daintier appearance. In contrast to regular minifigures, her legs don't articulate separately, although they do both bend together at the waist, and her hands are fixed, although they're otherwise similar to those of a regular minifig meaning that whatever a regular minifigure can hold, Emma can hold too. Including a lightsaber (and yes, I've checked - rude not to....). Helpfully, Emma can also swap hair and headgear with regular minifigures; the hole in the back of her hairpiece (below) accommodates standard accessories such as the feathers which come with a couple of the Collectible Minifigures, although no such accessories are included with this set.

Building the set itself, which consists of a sun lounger plus parasol, splash pool and plant pot, is predictably a 2-minute job, although unless you've invested in one of LEGO's Pink Brick Boxes it still probably contains more bright pink pieces than you've ever seen in one place before. There's really not much else to say about these little models (below; click to enlarge) beyond the colour selection, and more specifically the medium azure macaronis which form the curved walls of the splash pool and are at present at least unique to this set.

So what's the verdict ? Well, only time will tell whether LEGO have finally cracked their target market with these sets, although early anecdotal reports do seem encouraging. Like many other AFOLs, I'm certainly enthusiastic about the huge number of new parts and interesting new colours that the Friends theme has brought with it. Furthermore, I can't deny that Emma is cute and appealing, with an almost anime-like quality. I've still not seen anything to change my mind that trying to integrate her into a diorama alongside regular minifigures would look ridiculous, however, which was my principal complaint when images of the Friends sets first hit the internet.

And so to the million-dollar question : having now had a chance to sample one of the sets myself, not to mention enjoying a number of reviews over at Eurobricks and elsewhere, will this be my only foray into the Friends theme ? In a word, no. While I won't be rushing out and snapping up all of the sets as a matter of urgency, I can certainly see myself picking up a few of the sets such as the City Park Cafe. Like I said - I'm a sucker for new colours. Plus I can hardly leave Emma all alone without her Friends....