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!

February's GWP - Build a Sunflower!

 *See stores and Shop at Home for details

Changes to Friends characters & Skyline in 2018

A new year, a new wave of sets, and a few changes to characters and skyline of Heartlake City.

There seem to be lots of construction cranes on the horizon in this capture from one of the new videos for 2018.  The signature highrise building has changed a bit too.

Here is the playlist of the 7 new videos:

    One is a music video (which shows the new skyline), another gives a demonstration of the new "Mission" the 5 Friends are on in 2018 -- with intro videos for each of them.
   They show some motion details the 2018 official set images can't portray.

 The most notable changes are to 4 of the characters as seen in this image.

Graphics from the new Heartlake Rush game

Here is the official statement from the LEGO Friends team on these changes.