With all the exciting new releases since the beginning of the year, we haven’t yet had the time to discuss the new LEGO Friends sets in detail. However, there are some great sets in the collection worth checking out. So, let’s take a closer look. 🙂
Last year, the LEGO Friends design team rebooted the LEGO Friends characters with new features, graphics, and colors for each of the original five friends: Andrea, Emma, Mia, Olivia, Stephanie (we discussed these changes in detail here: Response from LEGO About 2018 LEGO Friends). One of the other changes that happened at that time is that now the sets consistently match the color-scheme/favorite color of each of the girls. So, even when you look at a set from a distance, you can tell which of the friends it’s related to. This might sound unnecessary to adult LEGO fans, but children do like to pick their favorite characters and be able to identify them by color. LEGO Ninjago also has consistent colors for all the main ninjas and they are often referred to by their color instead of their name.
Some of the most obviously color-coded new sets are the LEGO Friends Heart Boxes. These are basically brick-built jewelry/trinket/treasure boxes with a removable lid. They each come with one of the five friends, some accessories, and a printed nameplate. Andrea’s box is bright-light-orange, dark-turquoise, and magenta. Emma’s box is medium-lavender, dark-purple, and light-aqua. Mia’s box is lime-green, dark-purple, and dark-azure. Olivia box is dark-pink, bright-light-yellow, and dark Azure. And Stephanie’s box is medium-azure, dark-blue and bright-pink. The heart boxes are only $7.99 each, and if you like to play around with beautiful colors, they are a great resource! You can even stakc them up! Besides the five LEGO Heart Boxes, there is also the larger #41359 LEGO Heart Box Friendship Pack with a large and small heart box (different sizes than in the other sets), lots of accessories, and two mini-dolls (Olivia and Vicki). This set is $19.99. You can find the whole collection at the LEGO Friends section of the Online LEGO Shop.
The friends also get some small sets based on their favorite activities. The #41360 LEGO Friends Emma’s Mobile Veterinary Clinic includes a small vehicle and veterinary accessories. Mia gets two sets; the #41361 LEGO Friends Mia’s Foal Stable, and the #41363 LEGO Friends Mia’s Forest Adventures. The #41364 LEGO Friends Stephanie’s Buggy & Trailer includes many accessories for outdoor adventures. And the #41383 LEGO Friends Olivia’s Hamster Playground is a fun little set including three adorable hamsters in three different colors! All of these sets are also available at the LEGO Friends section of the Online LEGO Shop.
Although there are no real large sets in the early 2019 LEGO Friends collection, there are some nice medium-size sets. One of my favorites is the two-story #41365 LEGO Friends Emma’s Art Studio featuring an art shop downstairs (with art pieces and creative supplies to buy), an upstairs studio (with a mini easel stand, paint pots and turning sculptor’s wheel), and a roof terrace café with a table and umbrella. The decorative stickers are also very pretty in this set and could potentially be used in other creations.
My other favorite set in this wave is the #41369 LEGO Friends Mia’s House. The set features a two-story cabin-style house including Mia’s bedroom (with bunk bed, desk, and chair), living room, bathroom (with sink and toilet, but no shower), and a well-equipped kitchen. There’s also a climbing wall with a hidden entrance to Mia’s bedroom, and a well outside with a bucket. The three mini-dolls are Mia, her mom Ann, and her dad Angus. A bunny and a LEGO Friends style horse are also included.
Three other medium-size sets are the #41366 LEGO Friends Olivia’s Cupcake Café, the #41367 LEGO Friends Stephanie’s Obstacle Course (for horses, not people), and the #41368 LEGO Friend’s Andrea’s Talent Show. We have seen previous versions of these sets, so they don’t stand out as that interesting, but they are still great sets – especially if you missed out on the previous ones. You can find them all at the LEGO Friends section of the Online LEGO Shop.
While none of the new LEGO Friends sets are large or super unique, they continue to offer great play-value to young children, and adult LEGO fans who enjoy the unique colors and accessories. The only thing I’m sad about is that LEGO Elves, the fantasy off-shoot of LEGO Friends, is now discontinued. That was another great collection with beautiful colors, animals, and accessories. Hopefully, it will be replaced with something equally magical…
What do you think? How do you like the new LEGO Friends sets? Do you have some of them already? Which one is your favorite? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
I like the art studio. Haven’t gotten used to the new faces yet, but we just pretend that they are different people.
Wait, when did they introduce a new friend? Also yes, Im not dead lol
Are you talking about Viki? Friends always had other characters besides the five friends. Parents, siblings, employees, at the numerous cupcake cafes and juice bars.
Oh, and I’m glad you’re not dead. Haven’t seen your name for a while.
Ahhh, glad to hear you are still with us! 😀
The colors are pretty wild, but other than that, I like them. Mia’s house could be easily made “normal” by replacing the purple pieces. I just wish the walls were deeper.
Yeah, the floors are a little narrow, but they could be made deeper if you want. This seems to be the common way LEGO builds houses now.
we just want elves back. please bring back elves.
I’m with you on Elves, but sadly, that’s not up to us. However, you can call customer service and let them know you miss Elves. The more people call the better. You can also post on their social media channels. They are very active on Twitter and Facebook.
Elves rule!! If you have kids, take a picture of your kids being really really sad about not having elves anymore and send it to Lego company. Add a note that Lego should reconsider bringing the elves theme back. ( and have other parents and there kids get involved to do the same).😭😭😭.
That’s actually a really good idea! 😀
You could try, but it might not lead to any obvious results. I guess Lego is a bit wary of restarting cancelled themes after the Bionicle experiment, though.
(Even if I still like the Elves theme…)
Lego restarted ninjago and it should have retired three or four years ago. The more of the demand the more the results. if Lego doesn’t respond or do anything about it. Then the hearts are made of bricks ( not the Lego kind). This is a test on how much lego listen to their fans. They also repeat star wars sets ridiculously over and over. Why can’t Lego continue on a theme that fans actually want repeated or have renewed. Let alone it’s a theme for girls and there are so few of them out their.
They didn’t restart the theme after a cancellation, they rebooted it to create new interest, there’s a difference.
And Lego is a business, not a charity organization. They don’t have any obligation to keep any theme running if they don’t make enough money on it.
It wouldn’t be a charity organization, it would a business that listens the fans that want a theme to continue. ( of which Lego is constantly eager to hear from. If they don’t want the input and not do anything about it then why bother asking). Let alone that they are few girl themed sets out there. That in it self should be a reason to keep it going.
I prefer the new lego reboost. The lego friend reboot series on netflix was my childhood favourite film. I do wish that they had kept it and would listen to what sets/themes people want to keep instead of assuming. Also, might I add how expensive the sets nowdays are.