Soupperson1

Hei Hei has leaked and many are saying it’s the best retail buildable character ever! I agree that he looks great. Moana 2 has mixed reception but it’s making oodles of money. Im hoping we at least get Kotu (maybe with a new mould?) and mini dolls of Matangi and Hele. :)

I think we’ll know next year if there’s new minifigure sets how well the sets sold. Sets usually have a two year development? I do wonder if ANY of the sets from last year are selling well, mini doll ones included as they all seem to be on sale more regularly than other themes and not have very long shelf spans. I hope they sold well because I would like Disney sets both mini doll and minifigure for many years to come.

The Moana film was originally a show. If they were making sets for the show they might be able to fast track them!

Here’s the four new sets: https://bouwsteentjes.info/lego-disney-2024-sets/ Im guessing Rapunzel’s Tower is a retail exclusive or not a January release after all. :P

Apparently the promo is only available on City, Monkie Kid, Friends, Dots, Ninjago, Classic and Creator 3 in 1 so not even all unlicensed sets! I’m delaying a lot of my 2022 purchases until this releases on the 27th, but even then I think I’ll be struggling to meet this threshold!

I haven’t seen many deep dives into discussing the reboot! So here is an essay length of thoughts from someone who grew up with Friends! :) I’m going to refer to them as G1 = Generation 1 (2012 - 2017), G2 = Generation 2 (2018 - 2022), G3 = Generation 3 (2023 - ?) I think the first reboot accomplished very little. I think making the line more diverse was good! It just didn’t really add anything else. Getting rid of all the secondary characters besides Liam and Stephanie parents (because they were in production) will never sit right for me! Especially because it was only a short term fix. Emma as a character has two sets of biological parents and that’s just really weird. It was not giving a big enough marketing push. There were no Ameet books, a decision that still puzzles me given that they are so popular for other themes. H&M, JustHype and Adidas have all had plenty of Ninjago clothes within the last two years. I’m pretty sure there has been one Friends top in H&M. Other household items like storage containers, bottles, lunch boxes, etc. were lacking too. Yes they existed but not in the quantity as before. From 2018 to this year only Olivia and Stephanie received keychains. Then they were slow to incorporate the redesigns into LEGOlands. I know a few didn’t update the performers’ costumes until mid 2019, a whole year after the reboot. Then they and some LEGO Stores kept the old designs of the characters on display. In 2020 they released a new DVD with a compilation of the G1 episodes. :S It just felt that they didn’t care. I hope this reboot is cared about! It’s fancy press release months out and confirmed ameet books is at least exciting. I really hope this line celebrates minidolls. Nearly all of the previous upplementary materials for G1 and G2 were all just of their CGI forms. The lack of send off is just sad. Part of me thinks they didn’t have time to prepare! I think there’s just so many little things like Andrea never getting a horse riding uniform that they could have done if they had known. Santa and the “future sets” are the only suggestions that they knew! The future sets don’t all seem set in the future to me except for Olivia’s. Andrea’s theatre says HLC High suggesting it’s a high school play. So I wonder if these becoming future based sets could have been a quick fix too? At least they were all very good sets. I do think it’s sad we never got anniversary figures, a collection of the five in prom dresses, the girls besides Olivia in their school uniforms and G2 Olivia in her G1 clothing! I strongly dislike ageing up the girls. I think they should just be casual friends with the new cast. If I had to age up the girls I would have had them be 19 not mother age. I just think giving them definitive futures is closing so many creative doors. :P The one positive I can think of is I like how we have child, teenage, young adult and adult versions of the characters. I do not like Mia’s adult version. Why isn’t she wearing lime and where are her freckles gone? It’s simple things like that which would be easy to fix. Mia having a white child seems like a misguided choice. River was one of the few characters from the show to make it into the sets. I understand not everyone marries their high school sweetheart but it’s not like the reboot had much depth in the storytelling department. Then if she wasn’t going to marry River she moves to Africa. I think this was the perfect opportunity for LEGO to have a mixed race lead. The new cast is too big. 8 (same as the number on this list!) just feels like a lot. I think 6 would be a good number. Then have a bigger focus on secondary characters coming in and out. Livi is still the most notable Friends secondary character because she appeared in so many sets, many of which were devoted to her! I think having characters like that would have been a good idea. I just think group outfits and gimmick sets (Heart Boxes, cubes, the 2017 interest sets etc.) will be harder to implement when there’s 8 characters. There’s bedroom sets rumored already. So maybe they’ll split the gimmick sets across two waves? Boys! I have wanted a male lead since 2012, but I’ve been saying it’s ridiculous Friends hasn’t had one since Nya became a lead over in Ninjago. Three feels like a lot at once, but I think it’s harder for parents or bullies to say this is for girls when there there is a closer ratio of males! I like how these boys seem to be getting the pastel treatment! I didn’t like how for the vast majority of G1 and G2 the boys outfits did not use traditional Friends colours like the girls’ outfits did. I’m sure many boys playing with these sets will be glad that they can now customise themselves in their favourite colours. I like how all 6 skin tones are represented! I really don’t think G2 could have survived with just the 3 skin tones, though they could have added three new characters and the number of friends would have been the same. XD I do think it’s bad optics in a traditionally girl focused theme that the darkest skin tone is a male character. Why is there no traditional girly girl? None of these characters are wearing pink in their default outfit! Only one of the characters are wearing a skirt too where in both G1 and G2 four were. In G1 all the girls had lipstick, in G2 all but Mia had lipstick and now none of the main cast. Or I’m sure many children playing with these sets will want an unapologetic girly character and not to give them one in the default looks is just weird. Olly likes fashion, but even he is not opulent as he could be! No signature colours? I think for kids toys I think this is a good way to keep the characters easily distinguishable. I think G2 went w bit overboard at the beginning with colour schemes for characters but found a nice balance at the end. According to the Brickset interview, they didn’t do this because they thought it was too restrictive. There’s so many variants of different colours I think they could incorporate it subtly. Aliya might wear a light pink shirt and matching shoes in her default outfit but in another she might wear just a metallic pink pin. No logos either because that was also restrictive? :S Stephanie’s main hobby being sports did not restrict her from baking, taking care of pets, scuba diving, doing ballet or going to the jungle. Just because they have a core interest doesn’t mean they have to be tied to that in every set. I really disagree with their interview there! Also it’s clear most of the characters still do have a defining trait. :/ Aliya - An Arabic name! She has my favourite new hairpiece. Andrea had the first afro textured hairpiece (unless you count the Afro, which I do not as that character felt more like a costume a la Disco Stu from the Simpsons) so it’s nice to see the new black girl has a new one! The amount of Afro textured hairs must be in the mid to late teens now? I wish she had the darkest skin tone and Zac had medium brown, but it is nice that we have a dark skinned female lead. I like how she’s the brainy one too! I don’t think it feels forced either. The black girl just happens to be the bookworm. The direction of her fashion doesn’t feel very nerdy or smart to me. Obviously she wouldn’t have to wear preppy clothes all the time, but as they’re launching the character I think it would have been neat! :P They already updated her bio to get rid off the ‘she allows you to copy her homework line’. I don’t know how they thought that would go over well? It’s a bit alarming to see them already updating things out of the gate, but hopefully this is just a one time error. Autumn - I really don’t like how her hair parts in the same direction as Aliya. That makes both feel less unique. I still don’t think we have a good general braid piece as this feels too specific. I think this would have been perfect if they pulled all her hair back. I really like how she has dark orange hair. Mia having dark red and red hair always confused me. I really like how many freckles she has too! Autumn wears sand green shorts in all four outfits we’ve seen. But on the plus side she’s the only character with a signature colour - green! All of her outfits have a similar style and fit her outdoorsy personality. I like how they mixed both Mia’s personalities (outdoor adventurer and animal lover) into her daughter. The limb difference is a neat inclusion too. Variety in figures is always a plus. It’s just a shame this will make swapping her tops harder. No one will be able to wear her tops and she won’t be able to wear others. Leo - I didn’t like the Rex Dangervest hair on minifigures OR minidolls as I think it sits too high! I think TLNM Jay hairpiece or classic skater hair would have been better choices, but I guess they picked this to make him more unique? I really like how he’s wearing coral in the three outfits we’ve seen! I like his big bushy eyebrows too! I think food is a good shtick for a LEGO Friends character and I’m glad he is a new guy in town like G1 Olivia! Zac - His hair mould seems way too similar to the one that just debuted in the park set! And he doesn’t have a shtick that can be translated into LEGO very well. Him being good at everything is a funny commentary on how the Friends characters were in so many different situations. But they were good at everything and still managed to have a core trait. :P Stephanie was the weakest of the G1 characters as her trait was vague - organising, but this is some how worse! He has a video game shirt in one of the renders, so like G1 Stephanie he’s already borrowing from his peers. None of the characters have science or sports as their core trait and I think he should have had one of these! My friend pointed out since his the cousin of Aliya, it’s possible he could be Liz’ son, wouldn’t that be neat! Liann - I LOVE LOVE LOVE her hairpiece. I’ve been wanting one like that for years! I imagine she’s Emma’s daughter if she’s an artistic East Asian. This means Emma probably didn’t end up with Ethan. I like the added trait of Liann being disorganised, this separates her from Emma and makes her character have a little more depth. I don’t like the colour matching in her default outfit, but the overall one looks really cute. Olly - They clearly have too many characters as fashion, photography video editing should fall under Liann’s art umbrella. I do like how Olly has traditionally feminine hobbies. I think he should have gotten the art trait, Liann sports and Zac science. I love how he’s wearing pastel colours and it’s a boy who’s the one with the bright blond hair. His glasses are cute too! I can’t tell if he’s light nougat or warm tan as he looks darker than our two red heads and paler than Liann. I really don’t like his new hair piece. It just doesn’t feel unique. I think LEGO have become wasteful with their moulds in the recent years! Making him from a working class family is nice as stuff like that isn’t usually discussed in childrens media. However the fact it’s coming from LEGO, a high end toy feels a bit off. Paisley - Her mother is a late famous singer. I hope it’s not Livi… w The description says she was famous in the 90’s and Livi’s tour sticker says it took place in 2015. However they’re clearly messing around with time if these sets are set in modern day. So let’s see if they really do kill off Livi. :S The shy musician is always a good character for a piece of children’s media. I think her hairpiece has been requested a lot too. Marceline from Adventure Time is coming to a lot of peoples minds but this style of hair is popular in animation. Rosalina and Elizabeth Lioness have similar dos too! I think Paisley should have had dark tan, FYO, medium nougat or medium tan hair. Two red heads when the colour is so rare is a weird choice to me. Dark red doesn’t really look like auburn either. If they needed two redheads she should have had bright orange hair, like her sister. I think more kids would have related to it! Paisley’s fashion seem competitive. Her tops seem to be bright and summery, while her trousers are long and baggy. This new trouser mould also feels a bit excessive. As it’s basically the regular pants, but just covers half the shoes. Nova - I think it was a great choice to make the nougat character blond and hazel eyed. It makes her stand out from the majority of other LEGO characters with that skin tone. I think her hairpiece is okay. I think they probably could have reused one instead? I am at least glad she has short hair! Her fashion so far feels more tom boyish than traditional gamer girl. I’d be praising this if the other girls didn’t have more gender neutral outfits. There’s a stark contrast between the fashion styles of Zac and Olly. All the girls seem like they could wear the same clothes. It looks like they will be incorporating her love of video games into sets though. That’s a fun trait. She will also be interested in science fiction and horror according to the Brickset interview. I’m curious how that will be implemented. Alternate heads with different facial expressions are confirmed to be coming back! I hope we get more funky ones for females. The only two scared faces we have are male! It looks like hair accessories are slowly going the way of the dodo. I think that’s such a loss. When I got the €10 Mia puppy set at 11 my favourite part other than the dog was the different hair accessories. I had briefly had that with the Kingdoms Queen and her crown. Now I could put a bow on that Queen and make Mia or her dog a royal. My mind was blown when I got Stephanie’s Convertible when it had the packet that included sunglasses, a star, a heart, a differently shaped crown and flowers in addition to the bows. I think these as well as the top hat, party hat, ear phones and cat ears can really add to storytelling. I think they should introduce more representing professions and embrace the ability for boys to wear them. The only male hairpiece with an accessory hole is the birthday suit guy from series 18. Neither Olly’s or Zac’s hairs seem to have accessory holes. :( Aliya’s, Nova’s and Liann’s don’t seem to either. It’s really strange that Paisley’s and Autumn’s do. The teacher in the school also has an accessory pin hole in her hairpiece. So now you’re excluding some characters from additional play. I understand this was to make the pieces more reusable on minifigures where the hole would usually remained infilled and thus look unsightly to some BUT some of these hairpieces already look similar to existing ones. Accessory holes would make them unique and justify the new mould. Animals - I think it’s interesting to see that they didn’t take this opportunity to undo the Friends style of animal. Not only are they continuing to use those old moulds they’re creating more! I think it’s kind of a shame Friends can’t create animal moulds that could be shared in regular minifigure sets. Then the eye prints could set them apart. I just think it’s less exciting now when a Friends animal is produced as we know a regular system one is down the line and it’ll use a less cartoony style. I do continue to like these moulds even if I prefer the minifigure style ones a little more. The Dashaund with missing limbs is such a welcome and unexpected inclusion! The big dogs also look great too. Now we have three sizes of a Friends style Labrador! Box designs - No more curves and teal. I like these much better, but this is quite the transition. Logo - I never get why most rainbow logos don’t use yellow! This I don’t like as much as the original. That felt more warm and friendly. :P This font is too sharp. I think they should have changed the colours and butterfly, but kept the font. 41724 Paisley's House - Isn’t it kind of sad how this set is basically the same as the Juniors set and it’s $10€ more? I think that Juniors one, Stephanie’s 4+ house and this one are all really good first LEGO sets that lend themselves to play. I’m really curious of what the interior will look like. The exterior is almost identical to those previous two sets with different colours, but I suppose why fix what isn’t broken? Lavender doesn’t traditionally go with orange so it’s nice to see them encouraging kids to try new combinations. I don’t think it looks that bad in practice. I’m really excited to see the inside. I do think it says a lot that despite the efforts to be more diverse they still launch with the houses of two palest characters. :/ Paisley’s sister looks really similar to Ava. I guess they aren’t continuing with her but this almost feels like an imitation. :P The dad looks like a stereotypical dad. I’m glad the budget is extending to the secondary characters as his three new pieces allow him to stand out. I do find it a bit worrisome a bunch of young children will pretend he and Paisley are the parents of her sister. I think it might have been a better choice to have Pasiley’s house be the bigger set as then the late mother could be more easily conveyed? 41727 Dog Rescue Centre - Here is where I start to be confused by the claims of new colour schemes and architectural designs. This really wouldn’t look out of place in any previous Friends wave. I don’t like the ladder up to the treehouse as it feels out of place when the rest is designed with dogs in mind! I think overall the set looks really fun and I like all the other design choices. I don’t like the colours together here, but that’s just personal preference! It’s wave one and people including me will want to get all the friends quickly without having to buy eight sets so I don’t mind there’s two included in all of these other sets. I think this set feels like it’s missing a character though? I guess you only need a vet and a patron, but I think someone in a regular volunteer outfit would have been neat. So this lovely looking vet doesn’t have to work the counter in her scrubs! I really do think she looks lovely though. This is our first non light nougat minidoll with freckles! I love the use of medical gloves (I hope this means Cinderella and Belle can get gloves again and Tiana for the first time!), her recoloured hair piece and even the torso design is cute! I love the dogs too. The Labrador apparently will have a smiling variation in another set, I think that’s a really fresh idea! I love the super happy pug too. I think these variants will really stand out to kids and collectors in the long run. :) 41728 Downtown Diner - This is an admitted tribute to City Park Café, which I still think is one of the best Friends sets despite being the first! I think the references are minimal but it’s nice to at least see something. :P I think this diner has very good building techniques for an age aimed at children. It looks equally fun to play with. There appears to be a arcade machine and juke box! I think it would be improved if they some how managed to fit the booth inside (I never liked how the outdoor seating area of the City Park Café wasn’t attached) and the kitchen was a bit bigger. The kitchen accessory pack is another great set of moulds I’m sad to see retired! I really like all the recolours of the set here. My favourite are the dual doors are finally available in a regular transparent! Wouldn’t it have been fun if Marie was included, but as an older woman? That would have also referenced Dottie in the Drifting Diner set! References like that are what I want and I think they’d be so easy to do. I’m curious if the waiter minidoll will be non binary? The interviews said this reboot is going heavy on the representation and I think a non binary character is an easy way to get some without making any new moulds. They could just be a man with long eyelashes and mint hair. But even that’s fun as the most experimental the male characters got in G1 and G2 was wearing purple. :P This waiter is not the star of the minidolls though,that’s Liann’s helmet and hair combo. I think since Friends’ debut 2012 that mould has been in high demand and it’s amazing to see it finally becoming a reality! I think the sassy looking black kitten is also a show stealer. :) 41730 Autumn’s House - I really like the design of this set and the price seems miraculously fair for 2023. I don’t think the colour scheme of the house goes with the architectural design or autumnal colour scheme. Mia’s house with medium nougat, tan, medium blue and purple worked much better. We can’t see much of the interior from the reveal video, but I’m pretty sure Mia doesn’t have a room which is kind of sad. She really did just become a Friends parent. The foal’s stable is made with very few pieces yet still looks decent, I’d love to see more side builds like this looking forward. Sizing things down means more can be included! The rocking chairs are excellent builds! I think Stephanie felt a bit random in Andrea’s house. Aliya and Leo feel less awkward here as there’s two of them, but I can’t keep but thinking who could have been included instead! If Autumn is an only child they could have extended out her family! It would have been nice to see Mia’s husband/partner, uncle Daniel, Mia’s cousin Ava all grown up, Grandma Ann, Grandpa Angus or Great Grandma Nora! The dog and horse recolours look good. Im glad to see the red bird with a print appearing in more sets too! 41731 Heartlake International School - I do not like the design of this. The flat roofs, sputtering of random colours against white and random 3D designs are not for me. I’m sure they’ll appeal to some people as it certainly looks unique! Gaudy in my eyes, but unique. The interior from the reveal video looks jam packed! There’s so much variety and so much to do! I really think this set would have been a slam dunk if it just had a better exterior and colour scheme. I wonder why they don’t include balls that can roll in Friends sets anymore? Those are obviously more fun to pretend to play basketball with than the technic ball. Oh and a medium blue bike seems like one of the worst choices for a new recolour. We need a bike in orange or a shade of purple! Who needs medium blue when medium azure exists? :P I really like the look of the teacher and it’s nice to see an Asian boy. G2 never had a male Asian minidoll besides Emma’s dad and microdoll brother.  So overall I’m optimistic about where this line is going! It just needs some tweaks and it’ll be flying. Oh to break up all the text, I really love this image! It just looks so warm and inclusive! :)

Nope @sunhuntin was right it’s Charlotte’s cat Marcel according to the description. He does bear a striking resemblance to Marie and I’m sure most people will use him as her! Does anyone know who the minifigure with the Haunted Mansion is? Just a random park guest?

I can’t believe it took until hours before we we’re expecting the images to be revealed for the set to be proven to be fake.

I hope people’s dislike of Triton doesn’t stop the set from selling! I really think it’s a great set, albeit a bit pricy. It feels very unique and the shaping and colours are excellent. The interiors are also very good and they have perfected the dolphin chariot builds! The fact we’re finally getting new characters in this theme is also very exciting. Even the unnamed octopus makes me happy as that’s a print designed for an official Disney character, even if it’s a background one! Only having one of Ariel’s sisters was always disappointing, just doubling it two makes the line up feel so much more full. :P Now with her and Triton, The Little Mermaid has six different characters as minidolls which is quite an achievement. Frozen 2 has 4 and then every other film only has 3, 2 or 1. I think the Elsa set would have been vastly improved if it came with a door, even if it was built out of leaves. I feel like the set would look more complete and be more playable as a result. The minidoll of Snow Queen Elsa is great and yay to us finally getting new outfits for the characters too. It’s just a shame her hair couldn’t be more accurate. Those Rescue Rangers BrickHeadz are some of the best yet IMO! I believe this is the first set based on a Disney Channel property too? The only other one I can think of is the cancelled Phineas and Ferb Game! I guess they couldn’t balance the beard properly on the torso. So they they thought it would be better to render it as a mask than as a single head piece to appease minifigure fans. This way at least the eyes line up even if they’re not the eyes minifigure fans like.

Hmm maybe this was an ill-guided decision to appeal to minifigure fans? I can’t imagine anyone will be pleased that their minifigure Triton will have minidoll eyes and a nose, even if he’s only semi-purist. :P

Medium Brown definitely seems to be making a comeback. Check out Priyanka in the high quality images for 41699 and 41718. Nougat and medium nougat are clearly displayed close to her in next sets and they don’t match her skin tone!

Hmm what if the mystery set is tied to Disencanted or Hocus Pocus 2? I feel like they’re good enough fits. Even if they’re not based on the sequels I could easily see them doing a single set based on either of the first films and it selling decently.

I wonder if Disney Princess (other than Raya) underperformed in 2021? Nine sets for the whole year seems kind of low. There’s no rumours of a follow up to The Ice Castle either. :( As for these three sets I really hope the big one is a joint set. I’d rather individual sets of course, but if this is the way we get Pocahontas I’m all for it! I wonder why they’re making another 4+ Frozen set with Elsa and Olaf when we just got one? Wouldn’t it make more sense if it included Sven or Kristoff with Elsa? And then they could sell both simultaneously. :P I’ll keep hoping for a new hairpiece and dress colour for Cinderella, but my hopes are low after Tiana looked nearly the exact same as before in her set. I wonder why they went with Mickey and Friends over Frozen for Dots? I guess to appear more gender neutral? Oh well hopefully these will be successful enough that we get some Princess and Frozen stuff down the line. I’m very excited for the potential prints and interesting 1x1 moulds to come out of these sets. More Mickey and Friends 4+ sets is exciting! I really hope at least one of these gives us a plain clothes version of Goofy. :P Characters Clarabelle too! Or at the very least Figaro.

Ah so no zoo theme like we speculated! Instead there’s just one wildlife set for Mia. I assume that’s where the Rajah mould will be reused. :) I’m really happy that there’s sets staring the main 5 again. It was really odd that the winter wave had none. This is a much better way of paying tribute to 10 years IMO! These 5 sets have very generous piece counts and I can’t wait to see what they do with them. The site that lists the sets has the name for 41708 as a Roller Disco Skating Rink, which is even more exciting! The Recycling Truck is another concept that we haven’t gotten in Friends yes. Hopefully it’ll be executed well. All the other sets are rehashes, but as there is an even enough balance I don’t mind. Especially if they are good!

I don’t really care what the €100/$ set is as long as it’s minifigure scale and comes with at least one new character. :P I think it’s definitely a possibility if there’s really only one regular DC set this year they could make it not Batman related or at the very least just have him as a side character. Again I’d take a Batman set if it meant us getting characters like Cassandra Cain, Batwing, Hush, Mad Hatter, Punchline etc. It’s not like they’ve done all the Gotham locations either! I still think we should get a goofy set for the Bat hot air balloon and a semi serious one for the Battrain too. :P