Question about Friends minidolls hands

[A2L]

Is it only me or does any of you find the Friend's minidolls hands stretched outward a bit too much? When a minifig holds a mike or a telescope or binoculars, they are very well aligned with their faces. However this is just not possible in the minidolls as the hands are wide apart. Even a steering wheel doesn't fit in both hands and the figure looks funny holding the reins with outstretched hands.

This is not a rant. I would love to know why TLG did not align the hands of the minidolls closer to the body like that of the minifigures when there's a very high possibility of sharing accessories and come in sets having elements similar to the ones with minifigures like cars, horses, boats etc.

[xtremegoogler]

Yeah, apart from the fact that the hands cannot rotate, they are badly aligned as well.

And the minidolls can't sit and their feet stick out, I guess they didn't have the time to come up with a good alternative for the regular minifig, or they just did not care.

[Dat Lego]

The minidolls idea makes no sense for me. Why would Lego make something that's not even designed correctly. As xtremegoogler had pointed out, they might've didn't care or didn't have the time. I know Lego wanted to make the minidolls so that they would appeal to girls, but wouldn't the regular ol' minifigs make the same impact?

[Oky]

they might've didn't care or didn't have the time. I know Lego wanted to make the minidolls so that they would appeal to girls, but wouldn't the regular ol' minifigs make the same impact?

This is obviously not the case. This theme has been in testing for years and they made sure that it is just the way it appeals most to little girls. Girls liked the minidolls better than regular minifigures, so that's what they went with. I don't know why exactly their arms are angled away from their body so much (I think it's so that they can raise their arms up despite their large hairpieces) but I don't think that's the real issue with binoculars or microphones not lining up with their head; it's because their arms are so long. They are more proportionally accurate to a human body than minifigs, so their arms and legs are longer and they would probably just point accessories at their foreheads if their arms were more aligned with their body. As for their hands not being posable, I'm pretty sure Lego wouldn't be able to make them rotate on those thin arms without making them too unstable. Besides, just look at how long Barbie has lasted without being able to move her hands.

Ultimately, I believe minidolls weren't made to be posable as much as they were made to look pretty/cute. I guess that's what girls care about more.

Sorry if I got a little carried away, but your assumptions that TLG would just quickly and carelessly throw together a girls theme are both ridiculous and disrespectful to the good people at Lego who worked hard to make this the successful theme it is today.

[GregoryBrick]

The arms of Minidolls and Minifigures are at a very similar, if not equal, angle. They're aligned with the original minifigures because the latter have a sloped torso. I'm willing to bet a Minidoll with parallel arms would look rather strange.

The Minidolls can sit just fine.

Can you get a loudhailer to align with a Minifig mouth so it looks the same as a real person using one? I can't. Same with binoculars and a good share of the rest of the accessories. This isn't something limited to Minidolls. Furthermore, it's not a problem, it's part of the charm.

[Pandora]

The minidolls idea makes no sense for me. Why would Lego make something that's not even designed correctly. As xtremegoogler had pointed out, they might've didn't care or didn't have the time. I know Lego wanted to make the minidolls so that they would appeal to girls, but wouldn't the regular ol' minifigs make the same impact?

Back during Summer of Friends last year, we were lucky enough to be allowed to interview the LEGO Friends designers. We asked them about the minidolls as part of the interview, so here are their responses specific to this topic, where it's very clear a lot of thought was put into the design of the Minidolls:

Did you consider using the standard minifigure?

Actually we started with designing models with the existing minifigures, but when we tested with the girls, they kept telling us that they were not appealing to them. And we also realized how important figures are for the girls play. When girls play they project themselves onto the figures they are playing with, making the figure beautiful and feminine means it is easier for the girls to relate to.

How did you come up with the idea and design for the minidoll?

After we found out that the minifigure did not work for most of the girls, we simply started with designing different concepts of figures with different looks and different types of functionality.

We learned that it is a must that figures are beautiful. It was also important to us that the figure had recognizable LEGO DNA. This meant that the figures should have almost the same functionality as the minifugure, but also features like the hands should be recognizably LEGO. The modularity of the figure is also important and girls really like that they can change the figures hair, they like to change the figures parts like torsos and legs so that they can wear different clothes.

If you'd like to read the whole interview, the link is here.

[AndyC]

The other way of looking at it is the Friends theme has been an enormous success for TLG, so whatever perceived defects us AFOLs might think there are in the figures, the target demographic clearly don't see it as an issue.

[Hrw-Amen]

My wife certainly prefers the Mini-Dolls to the Mini-Figures. I think it must be a girl thing as I don't really like them.

Cannot say I have had any issues getting them to sit.

It is also hard to line up a whole load of tools that Mini-Figures use. They tend to end up just carrying them which implies an action by association rather than by doing.

[A2L]

Good to see that this topic has picked up steam finally.

The arms of Minidolls and Minifigures are at a very similar, if not equal, angle. They're aligned with the original minifigures because the latter have a sloped torso. I'm willing to bet a Minidoll with parallel arms would look rather strange.

No, they are absolutely not. The minifigs hands are not angled outward like the minidolls. Just take a look at the elbow angles of both.

Having said that, I don't think that my question is ever minifigs vs minidolls or why minidolls and not only minifigs. I have observed quite a few "perceived demographic" elements right at home and at play at gatherings. They love the minidolls and cannot ever think of minifigs as replacement of minidolls. The most shunned minifigs are the ones with "gowns" because they cannot do much. The most accepted ones are of course "cute ones" like Tamina, Hermoine (check sp). The minidolls and the animals (as much as I dislike them with cartoon like eyes and even eyelashes!) have opened a new exciting world of play for these girls. But and here comes the but that gave rise to the initial question, there is a marked degree of disappointment while using accessories, because of the hands. The disappointment becomes more when the boys show them how the sailor holds the telescope or the dj the mic vs how Andrea holds the mic.

They have found a semi-happy solution by turning the head with a little force towards the mic or telescope, as the rubbery hair allows them to do so unlike the solid plastic hair.

How did you come up with the idea and design for the minidoll?

After we found out that the minifigure did not work for most of the girls, we simply started with designing different concepts of figures with different looks and different types of functionality.

We learned that it is a must that figures are beautiful. It was also important to us that the figure had recognizable LEGO DNA. This meant that the figures should have almost the same functionality as the minifugure, but also features like the hands should be recognizably LEGO. The modularity of the figure is also important and girls really like that they can change the figures hair, they like to change the figures parts like torsos and legs so that they can wear different clothes.

The above quote really sums up how they play. Just add a zillion multicolored hairbands and bows and tiaras that can be changed every minute (that TLG has already provided), and the picture is complete.

Edited April 23, 2013 by A2L

[Aanchir]

The reason the mini-dolls' hands are spaced as they are is so that like minifigures, they can hold parts like 3839 or 98288. Likewise, this means that minifigures can use the handlebars piece 98397 which was designed for the LEGO Friends mini-dolls — however, they can only do so with their hands at their sides, which won't look too natural when using these handlebars as actual handlebars for a vehicle.

The only difference from minifigures in this regard is that the spacing remains constant at all angles of the arms, rather than getting narrower when the arms are raised. This was possibly an aesthetic consideration, or a functional one... after all, while it makes using certain accessories impractical, it also means that other accessories are less dependent on the angle of the arms than they would be for minifigures.

As far as steering wheels are concerned, try 40001 or 2819. 40001 may work best because it would be less likely to collide with the figure's lap, though it also won't necessarily look right for all types of vehicles. I haven't tested these myself so forgive me if they don't work — however, on LDD, the spacing looks correct.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Aanchir