January 10, 2018

Friends mini-site for 2018

With 2018 full on its way, the team at LEGO have rolled in the new graphics and new theme aspects of Friends on their mini-site.
The header graphics are new and in the center are buttons for 4 places: Home, Profile, Products and Videos.  The most previous site also had links to Games, Explore, and Activities.  Many of the activity downloads are gone now, including the most recent download of the Advent Calendar "surprise" extra building instructions.  [Edit: They have re-added it on the sidebar of all the "Products" pages, and the link leads to the standard LEGO Instructions part of their web site, with a download.]
 
The current page has a snippet of the new "We've got Heart" 2018 introduction video as the central focus, with framed images of each of the 5 Friends below, as a buttons linked to each of their profiles.  The design team's statement on the changes.  So far their core interests have not changed. (Whew!)

Here is Olivia's -- it appears her "symbol" is now a gear, rather than a heart.

In the center of the page is an image slide showing real girls playing with the new sets.  Below that, they currently feature two of the 2018 specials: "Girls on a Mission - Heartlake City" and "We've got Heart" videos.

 The videos page hosts product animation videos, among some older videos of varying time-period and focus (edit, those have already switched out from yesterday).
What has also changed is the way the product videos are more "mechanical" in nature -- showing off the functions of the sets, rather than just a cgi mini-doll interacting with it.

Yesterday, there was also mention of some "games" yet that text is now omitted.  It seems to be an evolving mini-site.
One still image from Andrea's profile caught my eye; could it give clues to the 2nd 2018 wave?

 Retailers have started updating their product pages too.

Featured prominently on the upper left cover of the LEGO 2018 first half of the year's catalog -- Welcome to Heartlake City!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

They also removed the amazing gallery. �� {themime}

Xyra Silverleaf said...

I don't mind updates when the make additions. Sadly many times we lose things we are accustomed to using instead (like the gallery). Olivia is cool and her gear icon is cool. She's always been STEM and they are getting closer to it with these changes. I don't mind that her provenance (place of origin) has changed; it's good to have someone represent medium skin toned people of color. Adding the glasses is a bit stereotypical, but as I've worn glasses since age 4, she speaks to me as a mini doll better now.

It is disheartening they took down the advanced build instructions from the advent calendar. All users may not have found them yet.

Thank you for the update on the website changes.
~Xyra

Unknown said...

I’m sorry but if I’m honest I really don’t like their new looks. Now they are more like Barbie of Polly Pocket, not like Lego Friends...

Anonymous said...

I felt like crying when I found out the Lego Friends were changing. But I like Olivia's glasses because I have glasses. I don't like her skin color though.

Xyra Silverleaf said...

These sets are supposed to inspire. I've been collecting fora few years and have quite a few Olivia mini dolls in my collection. My thoughts for adding the new Olivia is that she is a new person all together. So I envision a conversation like this...
Pre-18 Olivia, "Hi, how are you? You're new here, I'll show you around. What's your name?"
2018 Olivia, "Olivia."
Pre-18, "Really! That's my name too! So cool! I've never known anyone with my name before!"
2018, "Me either! What's your favorite project?"
Pre-18, "Robots."
2018, "Me too! We should totally work together on one."
Pre-18, "I'd love that. First, let me give you a tour of the lab."

~Xyra

Anonymous said...

We lost the Friends, the Gallery, what's going on next? :(
But please please please, does anyone downloaded the latest Lego Friends Advent Calendar surprises? Would you somehow send it? Really, please, I forgot to download it when I could!!!
BL0NDwAvE

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