The history of LEGO Friends
Friends is a theme that was introduced in early 2012, although some sets were available in late 2011. It replaced Belville as the "girl" theme. Twenty-three sets have been confirmed so far. The theme is more story-based than most, and follows the activities of five girls: Andrea, Emma, Mia, Olivia, and Stephanie. The theme also introduced the Mini-doll figure and over two dozen new moulds not seen elsewhere.
A television show named LEGO Friends of Heartlake City based on the theme is currently available in at least three different languages.
| Friends | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Years |
2012-present |
| Subthemes |
Friends Animals |
| Related themes |
Scala
|
Description
The Friends theme is mainly targeted towards girls between the ages of five and twelve. Rather than having minifigures, the theme has introduced a new Mini-doll figure.
Heartlake City
A map of Heartlake City
Friends follows five main characters: Olivia, Mia, Andrea, Emma, and Stephanie, and their lives in Heartlake City depicting their houses, hobbies, cars and favourite places to spend free time. The different interests of the girls reflect on the sets they are included in and are meant to help a girl find a character whose interests identify with her own. Even though their personalities are different, the friends seem to have some common fancies. For example, even though Mia seems to be the biggest animal lover and volunteers at the Heartlake Vet, Stephanie, the social butterfly, has also been seen rescuing animals on pet patrol.
While previous "girl" themes such as Scala and Belville gave in to juniorization, Friends generally has as much building as other City-styled sets and themes. Friends still has a unique architecture with brightly coloured, modern structures.
Unlike most other current themes, Friends uses brighter, pastel colours. The colour palette used for Friends is much broader than retired "girl" themes which mainly used pink. While pink is not absent from the Friends line, purples and azures are more dominant than before. In fact, according to press releases and catalogues, Friends has introduced a total of six new brick colours, Medium Lavender, Lavender, Yellowish green, Dark Azur, Medium Azur, and Aqua. In reality, many of these colours were seen on the 2011 Colour Palette and even used in other themes in 2011, such as dark azure in Alien Conquest and Aqua in Cars. Friends is still one of the first times these colours were used regularly rather than parts for characters. The first time would be in the SpongeBob SquarePants theme where one of the azures appeared in 2011's 3815 Heroic Heroes of The Deep.
Apart from building elements, Friends sets include many specially moulded accessories, which increases their playability. Over two dozen new moulds of this kind were introduced, such as new bowls, kitchen utensils, pens, hairstyling accessories, several new flowers and unique rubber hairpieces designed for female characters. Friends also reuse a few parts from Minifigures, like pies, pretzels, beakers, microphones.
Friends has also introduced many new animal moulds including redesigned horses and a foal, rabbits, parrots, dolphins, butterflies and bugs, also cats and dogs in different poses. There are also some entirely new moulds, such as a hedgehog, a squirrel and a turtle. Most of these figures appear in different colour variants. The Friends Animals subtheme released in 2013 was entirely dedicated to the Heartlake City fauna. These small sets are sold in polybags, with three bags per series.
The first winter wave of sets released in 2012 follows the adventures of the girls in a suburban setting, the summer wave also focuses on a more rural setting with Emma and Stephanie going to a horse-back riding camp outside of Heartlake City and Olivia taking a camping trip. The 2013 winter wave went back to the suburban setting and added two water themed sets, which go outside Heartlake City to the beach and ocean. The summer 2013 wave added a high school and other suburban-themed sets, while expanding the characters' interests to include soccer and music; a large yacht rounded out the sets.
The winter 2014 wave saw several farm and agriculture-themed sets, including a farmer's market, a horse barn and a set where one of the characters nursed a newborn lamb. A beach-side house was also added. The summer of 2014 saw several animal rescue and nursing sets, playing off the polybag sets featuring animals such as baby bear and tiger cubs, birds and other wildlife; each of these sets was set in a jungle. A camping caravan set and a large shopping mall – the largest Friends set yet – went on sale to round out the suburbia theme.
Several of the winter 2015 sets were new versions of sets issued during the original wave, the most notable examples being a new veterinary clinic and hair salon; also, Emma's House replaced Olivia's House (the last original set still in release in late 2014). All-new sets included a hot-air balloon, a beachfront lighthouse and a pizzeria stand; the summer of 2015 brought a private jet, airport, tourist kiosk, a small grocery market, skateboard park and a hotel. The January 2016 wave expanded on the girls' outdoor interests, with archery and river rafting camp sets; suburban sets included a "Cupcake Café" and a supermarket.
The summer of 2015 brought a new subtheme: "Pop Star" sets, centering on the life of Livi, a pop music recording artist who apparently lives in Heartlake City and is friends with the main "Friends" gang. Sets in the initial wave represented a recording studio, a backstage dressing room, a performance stage and a tour bus. Announced for January 2016 were a mansion where Livi lives, along with a television studio.
Mini-dolls
Main article: Mini-doll figure
Construction of Olivia
Construction of the Minidoll, Olivia
The mini-dolls were introduced with the Friends line, and were initially exclusive to this line. (Since then, the Disney Princess and Elves themes, as well as at least one Friends-related Fusion set, have been introduced and use mini-dolls.) The mini-doll is much closer in scale to classic minifigures than the figures from previous "girl" themes, such as Scala and Belville. They are around 5 millimeters taller than a standard minifigure and are less blocky and stylized. The mini-dolls are made out of four parts, like most regular minifigures: legs, torso, head and hair. In 2012, 29 mini-dolls were introduced, not counting second variations. In 2013, 3 new mini-dolls were introduced, and more have been introduced with each subsequent wave.
Background
The theme takes place in the fictional Heartlake City, and centres around the lives of five girls, Olivia, Mia, Andrea, Emma, and Stephanie, and their adventures in and around the city. In the winter wave of 2012, the sets were mostly based the girls' interests or their hangouts. In the summer wave of 2012 it had more of a summer subtheme having Summer camp for Emma and Stephanie, there was also a bonus Christmas set to have Olivia and Christina celebrate Christmas. In 2013, the girls looked at new interests such as going to the pool, grooming dogs and karate, while in 2014, the girls developed agriculture-related interests and worked in the jungle caring for sick and injured animals. The announced wave for summer 2015 included the girls becoming pop music stars (although performing arts-related interests were hinted at in several earlier sets).
The success of the Friends line of sets inspired rival construction brick manufacturers to introduce their own line of sets targeting girls. This included Mega Bloks, which marketed a line of sets featuring Mattel's Barbie [1] and (for younger girls) Hello Kitty.
Characters
Andrea is one of the five main friends, she is the music lover of the group.
Andrew likes exploring the seas.
Anna is Olivia's mom and Peter's wife. She likes cooking and mowing the lawn.
Chloe loves telling stories and going on adventures with Mia.
Christina is big into Christmas.
Danielle likes fresh home baked cakes, cupcakes and bread.
Ella likes horse riding.
Emma is one of the five main friends, she is the beautician of the group.
Isabella is big into swimming and going to the pool.
Joanna works at the pet salon.
Kate loves the ocean and exploring it.
Katharina is a expert horse rider.
Liza enjoys horse riding at Sunshine Ranch.
Matthew likes painting pictures.
Maya likes water skiing and exploring the seas.
Mia is one of the five main friends, she is the animal lover of the group.
Ms. Stevens is a teacher at Heartlake High.
Nate is the buss boy of the Heartlake Grand Hotel and the boyfriend of Stephanie.
Naya is a bar attendant working in the Heartlake Juice Bar.
Nicole likes camping and cooking.
Olivia is one of the five main friends, she is the smart one of the group.
Peter is Olivia's dad and Anna's husband. He likes cooking and watching t.v.
Robert attends horses during the Heartlake Horse Show.
Sarah works at the beauty shop and loves style.
Sophie is Olivia's aunt and Peter's sister. She's also the vet.
Stephanie is one of the five main friends, she is the social girl of the group.
Theresa is the horse riding instructor.
TV Series Characters
Jacob learns how to be a pilot.
Lacy is Mia's arch rival and a horse rider.
Notes
There are several online games including Dress up Game, Cafe Game, and Beauty Salon Game.
Several parts from the Minifigures theme are used: the Crazy Scientist's beaker, the Pop Star's microphone, Small Clown's pie, the Surfer Girl's surfboard, and the Artist's paintbrush.
A mini LEGO Friends of Heartlake City TV Series was created and airs occasionally on the Disney Channel.
In 2012 it was the 4th most popular theme, Behind City (No. 1), Star Wars (No. 2) and Ninjago (No. 3).
Three of the five main characters, Andrea, Emma and Olivia, are named after those characters from Scala.
In The LEGO Movie, Friends is one of the themes that didn't make canon appearance or have a Master Builder character. It only referred Heartlake City in a road sign. The Friends world is briefly shown (with Mia) during Wyldstyle's speech about the different worlds.
Descriptions from LEGO.com
LEGO.com-icon-yellow This is a description taken from LEGO.com. Do not modify it.
Welcome to Heartlake City
The LEGO Friends story centers on the everyday lives and personalities of five girls in a fictional hometown called Heartlake City. Each of the friends—Olivia, Mia, Andrea, Stephanie and Emma—has a distinct personality and interests, such as animals, performing arts, invention and design, that are reflected in the models. Building sets reflect different parts of town where the girls’ adventures take place—downtown, suburbs, beach, camping grounds and mountains.