Lego Friends (stylized as LEGO Friends) are Lego construction toys marketed for girls. The toy line utilizes slightly larger and more detailed "mini-doll" figures in place of the usual Lego minifigures.
Overview
Launched in 2012, the Lego theme featured five core characters named Andrea, Emma, Mia, Olivia, and Stephanie. To feature a more diverse set of characters, the theme was later relaunched in January 2023 with Aliya, Nova, Zac, Liann, Paisley, Leo, Autumn, and Olly. Lego Friends is set in the fictional town of Heartlake City, where sets depict scenes from the characters' say-to-day lives. The sets are accompanied by a CGI-animated series, Lego Friends, which debuted in 2012.[1]
The launch of Lego Friends sets in 2012 was one of Lego's biggest successes: in addition to doubling sales expectations, it also widened Lego's customer base within the girls' sector. Despite receiving initial criticism regarding its representation of girls and their interests, the line has consistently performed well and has been regularly listed as one of the Lego Group's best-selling themes.
As of January 2023, the Lego Friends story features eight characters (Aliya, Nova, Zac, Liann, Paisley, Leo, Autumn, and Olly) from the fictional town of Heartlake City.[2] These characters replaced the original cast (Andrea, Olivia, Stephanie, Mia, and Emma). Each character's personality is built around a specific interest, such as animals, cosmetics, or pop music. Playsets are designed to depict locations where the character might spend their day-to-day life, such as houses, cars, or locations tied to their interest. The Lego Friends characters are represented by the line's distinct "mini-doll" figures in place of the usual Lego minifigures, a feature that's shared with Lego's previous girl-focused theme, Belville, who are similar to Lego Friends, except they were non-customizable. While the mini-dolls of Belville and Lego Friends are considered more "life-like" than Lego's minifigures, the Lego Friends pieces are compatible with a other Lego products. Lego Friends also introduced a range of new Lego brick colors, including purple, lavender, teal and turquoise.[3]
Characters
2012–2022 (Original)
Prior to January 2023, Lego Friends focused on five teenage girls from the fictional town of Heartlake City. Each character had a distinctive personality illustrated by her favorite activities, along with their own pets.[4]
- Andrea – A confident and charismatic character who loved to sing. She loves being the center of attention and dreamed of being a popstar.[5] She had a pet bird called Pepper.[6]
- Emma – A creative and imaginative character who expressed herself through her art. She is known to have loved cheese, the silliest of the group, and was shown to be quite smart. She had a pet cat called Chico.[7]
Development
Before the launch of the Lego Friends range, The Lego Group had originally targeted both genders with its marketing as commercials from 1955 depicted both young boys and girls playing with their toys. Lego in the following years continued to introduce girl center products to follow their themes of inclusivity:
In October 1999, Lego released a computer game for Windows PC titled Lego Friends. The game followed five girls as they "do all the things [girls] enjoy most -- from being part of a girls 'gang' to playing in a band."[28] According to Lego, this game "was created as a sort of experiment, the byproduct of research conducted by Elena Catón in 1997 for the Lego Group into some concerns the company had about the demographics of its toys."[29]
Years of additional research into the Lego customer base revealed that 90% of Lego sets sold were aimed at boys. This meant that there was a huge untapped market of girls who were not using Lego. As Lego spokesman, Michael McNally, reported, "Seeing that the play pattern was really skewing so heavily toward boys, we wanted to understand why. We embarked on four years of global research with 4,500 girls and their moms. Some of the things we heard were really surprising and challenging in ways that weren't really comfortable for us as a brand."
The research showed that boys and girls play very differently and construct different worlds of play. McNally noted that, "The boys immediately grabbed the figures and the horses and the catapults and they started having a battle". By contrast, the girls were more focused on the structure. "They all looked around inside the castle and they said, 'Well, there's nothing inside'. This idea of interior versus exterior in the orientation of how they would then play with what they built was really interesting. If you think about most of the Lego models that people consider to be meant for boys, there's not a whole lot going on in there. But [the girls had] this idea of, 'There's nothing inside to do.'"
Launch
The Lego Friends toy line was launched in January 2012 in North America (December 2011 in France), with the release of 14 sets.[32] The first wave afterwards contained 23 sets.[33] In the initial release, the larger sets included the Heartlake Vet, City Park Cafe, and Butterfly Beauty Shop. Smaller sets in the initial wave included vehicle and hobby-themed kits, such as Stephanie's Cool Convertible and Olivia's Invention Workshop.[34]
Success
Lego Friends is one of Lego's biggest successes. At launch, the line doubled sales expectations, with sales to girls tripling in the same year. In the first six months of 2012, The Lego Group's net profit rose 35% to 2bn kroner (£213m), partially driven by the success of the Friends line. This success caused other construction-set companies such as Mega Bloks to introduce girl dolls.[35]
Reception
Controversy
The Lego Friends theme received initial criticism for its reinforcement of gender stereotypes. Campaign groups in both the UK and the US particularly disliked the use of pink in the product range, as well as the activities the characters were given felt stereotypical. Abi Moore of UK campaign group Pinkstinks remarked, "We want toys that offer all sorts of opportunities to all children. We think that cupcakes, parties and having everything revolve around leisure is just tiresome and heavily stereotyped." In the US, a petition launched by the Spark movement achieved 50,000 signatures with the aim of pressuring The Lego Group to change its marketing strategy.
The slim figures of the Friends characters have drawn additional criticism from eating disorder specialists. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood nominated Lego Friends for a TOADY award, a "worst toy" award whose acronym stands for "Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children." The Campaign declared that the Lego Friends line was "so jam-packed with condescending stereotypes it would even make Barbie blush."[30] In response, the Lego group has stated that the line was result of 3,000 girls who wanted to find relevance in Lego construction sets.[42]
Relaunch
In October 2022, The Lego Group announced the relaunch of the brand, which introduced eight new characters in January 2023 named Aliya, Autumn, Leo, Zac, Liann, Olly, Paisley, and Nova. The lineup represents a new generation of characters accompanied by a new series. The Lego Group stated that it had been working with the Geena Davis Institute to present greater diversity.[44][45] The new sets were launched on January 1, 2023. The new characters were created to offer greater representation by featuring a variety of skin tones, disabilities, cultures and neurodiversity.[46] Unlike the first lineup, the main characters of the relaunch include male characters.
Toy line
Construction sets
Following the initial launch, Lego Friends sets have been released in waves and have expanded on the various interests of the characters and their friends. These have included various interests, such as agriculture, equestrianism, wildlife animal rescue, rehabilitation, and pop stardom. The range has also included suburbia-themed sets, as well as an amusement park. The largest sets since the original wave have been the Summer Riding Camp, Heartlake Shopping Mall, and Heartlake Grand Hotel.[47] According to Bricklink, there have been a total of 568 Lego Friends sets released since January 2012.[48]
- In 2018, the Lego Friends line announced some physical changes to the main characters, which according to The Lego Group, were made in response towards children's feedback. The changes were to make the characters more diverse in their appearance and to add more depth to their personality.[49]
Animated series, web shorts and TV specials
Animated series, TV specials, and Films based on Lego Friends have been released to accompany the product line. The story follows the adventures of the original cast in their hometown of Heartlake City.[71] The toy line is also accompanied by a series of animated short films released on YouTube.
Other media
Books
In June 2012, two books based on the Friends theme were released. Lego Friends: Welcome to Heartlake City and Lego Friends: Perfect Pet Show were released on June 18 by DK.[89][90] DK also released a Lego Brickmaster book based on the Friends theme on September 17 of the same year.[91]
Video games and apps
Lego Friends video game
Lego Friends is a Lego-themed life simulation video game developed by Hellbent Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Awards and nominations
- In 2012, Olivia's House was awarded "DreamToys" in the Construction category by the Toy Retailers Association.[103]
- In 2013, Dolphin Cruiser was awarded "DreamToys" in the Granny Knows Best category by the Toy Retailers Association.[104]
- In 2013, Lego Friends was awarded "Toy of the Year" and also "Activity Toy of the Year" by the Toy Association.[105]
- In 2014, Heartlake Shopping Mall was awarded "DreamToys" in the Build The World category by the Toy Retailers Association.
See also
- Belville (Lego)
- Lego Disney
- Lego Elves
- Lego DC Superhero Girls
- Lego Fusion
- Lego Juniors
- Lego Unikitty!
- Lego Gabby's Dollhouse
External links
- Lego Friends at Lego.com
References
- Meet the new LEGO Friends! Brickset.com, 2022-10-27, retrieved 2026-04-18^
- Meet the new Lego Friends! Brickset.com, 27 October 2022, retrieved 2023-01-03^
- Lego Friends: It's Lego But, You Know, for Girls Wired, retrieved 2021-03-24^