If you have gotten any of the LEGO Friends or LEGO Disney Princess sets, you have likely noticed that the hair-pieces on the mini-dolls are made of a different kind of material than the hair-pieces of regular LEGO minifigures. These more soft and rubbery hair-pieces are compatible with regular LEGO minifigures (and vice-versa; meaning you can use regular minifigure hair-pieces on LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess mini-dolls), and LEGO would like to know what you think of them. 🙂
Through the LEGO Ambassador Forum we have been asked to poll our communities and get feedback on how LEGO fans like the LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess hair-pieces. Here is the original announcement: “We would like your LEGO User Group’s feedback on the soft hair elements used in the LEGO Friends theme and the LEGO Disney Princess sets. Feedback can range from touch and feel to usability and play-value. All is valid, we want the negative and positive feedback. The purpose of this poll is to supply the LEGO quality department with valuable insights on the soft hair elements from high affinity consumers (that’s YOU, our experts).”
So this is your chance to give LEGO feedback on the LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess hair-pieces. Do you like them? If you do, why? And if you don’t like them, why not? Or it doesn’t really matter to you and you like both the hard ABS plastic and the soft rubber hair pieces equally? Also, if you have children, how do they like the hair-pieces?
The more detailed answer you give, the more helpful your feedback will be to LEGO. So please list positives and negatives about the hair-pieces in the comment section below. Also, please share this poll with your friends (you can use the social-media buttons below this article for easy sharing). Unfortunately we got a very short deadline for this poll and we only have until tomorrow afternoon to gather all the responses, but hopefully we can collect some valuable and insightful feedback before the cutoff time.
To start the process, I will go first. I like the LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess hair-pieces for the amazing variety of hair-styles, and I also like that they can be decorated with bows, flowers and other accessories. And I like the smoother, more natural look of the rubber – this is especially true for the larger hair-pieces where shiny ABS looks more artificial. To date I have not experienced any quality issues with any of the rubbery hair-pieces. Some things I don’t like is that the rubbery pieces get dirty easier (especially the light yellow ones) and they are not as easy to clean as ABS plastic. Also, while most of the hair-pieces fit really well on regular LEGO minifigs, some of them don’t look good, or don’t even fit properly – there should be better consistency in this regard. All in all I like the new pieces, and I especially appreciate the variety. We never had so many female hair-pieces before!
Now it’s your turn! How do you like the LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess hair-pieces! Tell LEGO what you think about the hair-styles of their girls in the comment section below! 😉
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Well to start off, being a teenage boy I don’t think my feedback will be very valuable, (I don’t really buy Friends sets.) However, I do have some rubber hair from the Lone Ranger and Hobbit/Middle earth themes, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it at all. I like that it gives a softer look, and the holes in the top are really nice for the few add ons that I own. That being said, I do prefer the hard plastic hair. I like that it comes on and off the minifigures easily, and the colors pop a bit better on the plastic. So overall, I enjoy having variety, but I prefer plastic.
I agree about the add-ons. And you can always place flames and maybe Azog’s metal arm in the holes in the hairpieces. Just a thought. A weird one at that but I did that yesterday.
Speaking of add-ons. I built this awesome AUG for War Machine’s shoulder. The lightsaber hilt just didn’t cut it.
I like them fine. I think the more variety the better!
I like the Friend’s hairpieces… for friend’s minidolls. As far as interchangeability, I just don’t thing that minifigure hair looks good on minidolls or the other way around. This is specially true on the Castle set with the Dragon, the only thing I disliked about that set is that they used minidoll hair on the minifigure princess and her head looks too bulky. Both types of hairpieces are good if you use them on their respectable figures, but they do not interchange and look good.
My kids prefer the harder plastic hair pieces. I have girls ages 5 and 9 and almost every friends and princess set that has been made. We love the variety and are happy about having girl mini figures now, They were so hard to find when my older daughter started to play with Lego. We would be happier if the friends and princesses were normal minifigures… not the skinny ones with the funny shaped heads, but it also seems lego is making more girls for the non friends sets too (great!). The soft plastic hair doesn’t seem to fit onto the heads as well and comes off often. The girls don’t use the hair bows much and so there are always holes in the soft hair. My kids mostly use the hard hair from their collection for the friends and princesses. We have purchased just hair pieces from Lego for this purpose.
I have a few rubber parts from the Hobbit and LOTR and I’m just not a huge fan of the rubber. The biggest pro is that you can still use capes under the longer hair pieces without them looking weird. But the colors look kind of weird I think and they don’t seem to hold into the heads as well as plastic.
Well, first I’ll say that I don’t have any Friends or Disney Princess sets, and am not a huge fan of the themes. However, I agree with Micho, the rubber hair parts look good on the minidolls, but not on normal minifigs. I note that the boy-dolls in Friends sets usually end up with some older plastic wig, like that guy in one of the article’s pictures (that Cole’s hair, BTW). It looks off when mixed in there with all the rubbery wigs.
Also, the rubbery-ness results in less detail. I have a rubber hair piece, it’s Kai’s hair from Ninjago, and it feels okay with a good deal of flexibility, but I believe being made out of rubber resulted in the hair piece having to be thicker than what looks right. Kai’s hair is thin and spiky, and while the hair piece has the spikes, they’re thick and rounded, which detracts from the appearance. 🙁
One more (positive) thing: since the rubber is flexible, there is less chance of the hair piece being broken if, say, it’s stepped on ( 😮 ). This gives it more endurance, though, as admin says, it is more difficult to clean.
Overall, I think the rubber hair is good, but looks best on the minidolls. 🙂 And I hope I didn’t go on for too long…. 😕
Hmm, soft or hard, well, I think the more detailed types of hair with long strands is better soft; they are less likely to brake and your less likely to step on them and feel pain. 😉 I have a hard LEGO hair that has broke, and I wasn’t too happy. But no one is when something brakes. I think the big, longer hair pieces should stay soft, and the short ones stay hard, give a little bit of a variety. Plus things such as Kai’s (ninjago) hair, should stay soft. Why? Because like a hard hair piece I have, Kai’s hair piece would definitely brake easily. So, to sum it all up. Things that are likely to brake easily, should be soft. I don’t buy things from the friends or Disney princesses line but my sister does, plus I get some from the hobbit, ninjago, etc. so from my use of soft LEGO elements, I was satisfied, but I do like hard pieces better. Thanks for reading my feedback! 😀 (right, LEGO will be reading this right?)
Yes, I will be submitting all your feedback to LEGO. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. 🙂
My daughter received Cinderella’s Carriage for Christmas along with a few Friends sets. One of her favorite things to do is to mix and match the minidolls – swapping legs and hair between figures to create her own people. As I said, she received these at Christmas and in the short time since then I have noticed several of the rubber wigs becoming stretched out to the point where they look odd if not down right awkward when worn. Cinderella’s hair has suffered the most being slightly torn on either side of her bangs and stretched out so much that I was forced to glue it to her head as it would no longer say on. While I think the concept behind the rubbery wigs is good and I greatly appreciate the lack of stabbing pain when one is stepped on by a bare foot, I do feel the could use a bit of improvement in the execution department to make them more durable for repeated play.
Weird. I don’t doubt your experience, but my daughter hasn’t had the same problem with her mini dolls’ hair, and she plays with them pretty much constantly and switches hair around to make characters she doesn’t have/they don’t make. (Two popular mix-and-match figures until quite recently were an Elsa made from Cinderella, with Rapunzel’s hair, and Anna, made from Merida with Black Widow’s hair).
Personally, I really like the rubbery hair, which I feel has a much more natural look, especially in some colors (black, for instance, is way too shiny in ABS). But I don’t mind the variety, and suspect ABS might have a longer lifespan, barring accidents.
On the tiny holes, I kind of like them, but wish here were a greater variety of accessories. We’ve got about two dozen bows, plus a handful of crowns, and that’s it. Why no hats, earmuffs, etc? I don’t expect all accessories to fit all hair pieces, but opening up the accessories some would make the holes a lot more useful.
I like them very much. They are less shiny than the regular hair pieces made from ABS and that’s nice in my opinion. I also think that the target audience (to which I don’t belong FYI) like the soft feel of it. Concerning the little holes to stick bows etc. in: I have mixed feelings about this. It doesn’t really comply with the hair pieces from regular minifigs but since this is a girlish thing I won’t complain.
I don’t like the material that much. It feels cheap, easy to damage and like it is not up to LEGO’s usual quality standards. However, I generally like their designs and would welcome more exchange of pieces between minidolls and minifigures (as I prefer the latter way more). The only thing I dislike (besides the material) are the occasional holes for adding further accessory. I think they interfere with the look, when choosing not to add any parts.
As others have stated, the rubber is great for longer styles. ( Hobbit, LOTR elves) I generally create new characters, but do not play/switch back and forth a lot. I see how that could deform them. The more options the better I feel. I was looking for a good brunette style for my Lego daughter, then she chose to use Arwen’s hair and be an elf, it all works. I wish there was a short, buzz cut style though.
When I got my first Lego about 35 years ago the most important thing to me was that I could use all parts for nearly everything I’d like to build. Simple bricks could become a house, a car, a boat, an animal, whatever you liked.
I see that lego today is much more than just simple building bricks, and because of the large variety of parts it’s no longer “only” a toy for children, it inspires many adults to create their own little world, may it be the town you’d like to live in, the space you’d like to explore, the realm that is much more fun to build with real bricks than virtually in an online game, large figures, etc. etc.
I think the best feature of lego (apart from its long life quality) is the possibility to combine everything with everything, to choose whether a part is a trailer stand or a lawnmower. To get inspired by a thing you don’t know what it is.
So I would wish that TLG wouldn’t spend their time on questions like “should we produce this part with a different material?” – when the common material has always made a great job – but what new parts could be invented to increase the variety of possible combinations. I have never heard someone say: I’d wish this hair-piece was made of rubber, but rather: now I could need a part that doesn’t exist.
Furthermore: if I were still a child and had some minifigs or “dolls” with plastic hair pieces, and next I got figures with rubber hair-pieces, I’d have the feeling they don’t fit together. What comes next? Real hair?
Lego has always encouraged the creativity of young and old like no other toy I know. And I hope that in 50, 100, 100.000 years Lego still will be Lego and not the attempt to be something else.
But I do like the idea that hair pieces can be combined with other parts, be it a flower, a hat, a crown or whatever.
Sometimes the rubber hair pieces are nicely detailed however I do prefer the sturdy plastic elements better.
I have an old Clone Wars Yoda minifig with a rubber molded head, and that thing caused me more trouble than when I tried to build Metru Nui when I was four. The paint was scraped off easily and it falls off constantly.
Nay! I fear I must go with plastic…
I’m the mom of girls and I just hate when things get all pink and fuchsia ’cause they’re “for girls”. That stuff never appealed to my girls either. We’re all thrilled that Lego incorporates more female minifigs these days but minifigs are fine with all of us. And we’ll keep buying the interesting regular Lego sets.
One thing I’ve noticed is that a good bit of the long female hair for minifigs prevents the heads from being turned any way but straight ahead. If the Friends’ hair has flexibility that accommodates more poses I’d be all for that but mostly the pink and dayglo Friends line with a flower or a heart on every third stud makes me want to barf both aesthetically and socially.
HA! I laughed at loud at the ‘barf aesthetically and socially’. I can’t agree anymore – and I’m now going to use this phrase when pointing out to my husband how crazy the pink/purple/heart/flower thing drives me. Lego has been adding more girls lately it seems, so yes that’s beyond awesome. But the hearts and flowers… blech, I know they’re more creative than that!
As a free-builder I actually very much like the LEGO Friends accessories; so much useful stuff we never got before! So although I agree that LEGO sets aimed at girls don’t need to be all girly, the whole point of LEGO is to mix and match to your heart’s content. LEGO Friends simply adds another sweet flavor. 😉
I strongly prefer hard ABS hair elements over the soft plastic that is being used for LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess hair elements. My little sister received some LEGO Friends sets for her birthday, so I asked to see the hair pieces. They are significantly stiffer than the rubber hair pieces that have been made in the past, such as that worn by Dr. D. Zaster from LEGO Agents in 2009, but from what I can tell these new hair pieces would still likely become worn over time, especially around the connection point. This connection would probably become loose. Also, the seams from the molding are more significant than on plastic hair elements. And, to put my final point simply, I like smooth and shiny better than soft and matte.
I like having a choice of hair, but I am a bit of a purist and do not usually put the soft rubberized hair on the mini-figs or the plastic hair on the Friends. I like the way the rubber hair looks on the Friends and Princesses but not so much on the minifigs and vice versa.
I like the Friends hairpieces for the most part, though some of the add-on pieces don’t seem to fit well on some of the hairpieces (the headsets/headphones in particular when they don’t have a hole in the top of the hair).
I don’t find the hairpieces to be interchangeable with mini-figures, they just don’t look right, and the mini-figure hair pieces in the ABS plastic don’t look right on the mini-dolls either. I think it’s mostly proportion – the soft hairpieces look too big on the mini figures.
What would be really helpful is a way to get the mini-dolls to stay put when they are sitting down. Other than the foot piece used in the cars, it’s very difficult to get the mini-dolls to sit upright on any surface.
The hair pieces are really neat when they are rubbery, but there are pros and cons.
Pros: The hair provides a good texture difference between hair and Mini-doll. The hairs look really nice.
Cons: There are no (too my knowledge) boy rubber hairs, and they are only for girls. Even though the hairs they give to boys are already nice, their should be some rubbers to boys too.
Overall, the hairs are cool, “fashionable,” and well done, but there should be some for the boys too.
There is (as far as I know) one “boy” rubber hair piece: Kai’s. It comes in six sets, and one is Friends. But I agree with the lack of boy rubber hairs, most of the boys in Friends have used older solid plastic hairs. 😕
Hey, Admin… would it be too much to ask you to tally up the pro- and anti- soft hair comments, and tell us what the majority is in favor of? I’m curious to know.
If you read through the comments you can pretty much tell even right now. There is a lot of thoughtful feedback that lists both pros and cons. I will wait until tomorrow morning to look through all the comments before submitting them to LEGO. I could probably give you a better picture at that point. 🙂
I like the variety of hairs but they don’t seem to fit in place for long. For a young girl and her mom, the hair pieces are rather frustrating. Since some are rather long, as soon as you play with the pieces you find some way of putting them out of their place or they simply keep falling. Nothing wrong with the quality and look but it should fit a bit tighter and better fit.
I like both types of hair although the hard hair has better quality, but I do enjoy having an occasional rubber hair piece.
I like both the “normal” hair, and the softer hair.
Pros for soft:
Because of their size and length, it’s easier to “flex” the hair when posing your LEGO figures (I’ve had a few instances where I’ve turned their head, so that they can look at something, and move their arms so that they’re waving goodbye to a friend, and the hair can get in the way. With soft hair, it flexes a little. Normal hair obviously doesn’t flex, but it’s also not usually that long either)
The soft hair allows for some different shaped hair that would be difficult to put on a LEGO figure. Because the hair can flex, it can be slid over small obstructions, that the normal hair won’t slide over.
In a few rare instances, the soft hair doesn’t fit the way I’d like it to. But, because it’s slightly flexible, if you apply enough constant pressure, it will eventually change shape (very slightly) to be a better fit.
As has already been mentioned, the soft hair looks more realistic. It’s not shiny. My older brother (who has very little interest in LEGOs) prefers the soft hair, as an artist, for this reason.
The soft hair is more “grippy” than the standard hair. Also, because it flexes slightly (and because it’s more “grippy”), you can grab the figure’s hair, and sort of “pinch” it, and turn the figure’s head without removing the hair. With the normal hair, I usually have to remove the hair first, when I want to turn the figure’s head.
Cons for soft:
I prefer the look of the old hair. I realize it’s shiny, but that’s how the hair has been for decades. I expect it to look that way. The new hair looks “faded” to me.
The soft hair does change shape over time (as mentioned above). As a result, I have seen a lot of my soft hair pieces that are loose now. Sure, they fit, and due to their “grippiness” they don’t fall off, but if I bump it, it shifts position too easily.
As already mentioned, it is easier to get it dirty. And it shows up more.
I don’t like the feel that much. It feels “squishy.” I realize that’s because it’s soft, but I prefer the solid feeling pf the normal hair.
Based purely on my list of pros and cons, I’d say the new soft hair is probably slightly better (being able to turn a figure’s head without removing the hair is a big improvement). However, I like the shiny look of the normal hair. To me, it matches the other LEGO elements, because all the other elements are also shiny. Perhaps if some kind of coating could be applied, or a slight change in the plastic fomula was devised, to give the hair pieces more of a sheen (not necessarily as shiny as the normal hair), I’d like it better. Also, the hair becoming loose over time isn’t that good either.
I like all hairpieces, but I think lego should stick with normal plastic and only use soft plastic for very detailed hairpieces.
I have bought some LoneRanger sets with the rubber hair, and overall i find them nice but frankly dont look great after alot of use, does anyone else have this problem? As a side note, Should i start collecting Poylbags? I think I should as someone gave me one, after i bought the same one, so i have one unopened. 🙂
Collecting polybags is a hobby for many LEGO fans. Have you read Fikko’s articles about it? http://thebrickblogger.com/2013/03/collecting-lego-polybags/
I love, love, love the thinner rubber hair that comes with Gandalf and Saruman because it can be easily trimmed to make all sorts of new looks. (I’d like it even if it wasn’t so versatile. It’s a good look for long haired characters who have fine hair instead of big fluffy, puffy manes.)
As for the thicker rubber hair, if using rubber allows for some shapes or textures that ABS can’t do, then I’m all for increasing variety.
Pros:
More flexibility on design
More variety
Cons:
Bad for collectors: Like many other soft plastic figure, once it was kept in storage for few years the soft plastic will become very sticky and very hard to clean
hi my names tegan and i love LEGO im trying to collect lots of lego sets and show off to my friends it would be a surprise if i won something becuse it would be my first time
I rielly like making your lego ninjaga please I love to bold your Lego.
i like the lego star wars First Order Snowspeeder very nice the lego
I like the look of the Lego Friend’s rubber hair, but the plastic hair is easier to put on and remove. We had a drama where one of the Lego Elves’s hair wouldn’t go back on for ages and she ended up wearing a pirate hat instead.