When will the Lego Friends Theme retire, because it is taking up important shelf space for the Lego Star Wars and Lego Marvel/DC Superheroes sets.

haha:):):)

not any time soon... for the first time lego has really hit it with the girls and at least in denmark lego friends is flying off the shelves faster than any toy. and now they are making the disney princess theme which is kind a the same sets so it seems they are expanding rather than retiring:)

Hahaha...again. Me thinks you have the question backwards.

When will the Lego Friends Theme retire, because it is taking up important shelf space for the Lego Star Wars and Lego Marvel/DC Superheroes sets.

There's probably people out there who think that Star Wars and Superheroes are taking up valuable Friends space....

No need to be grumpy about this. Lego fans have different interests, and themes come and go. There's no need to be competitive about it. Me, I miss Monster Fighters, as I think that theme had plenty of room for additional waves and didn't need to disappear for the sake of Chima and Galaxy Swarm. It wasn't my call, though, so I'm not mad at those themes.

Finally, in the stores that I shop at--Wal-Mart, Target, and TRU--Friends is always in its own section. At Wal-Mart and Target in particular, Friends is over in the girls' toy section along with Barbie and Hello Kitty. "Regular" Lego is in its own aisle. There's no shelf space competition there, unless you want City, Castle, and Creator to get out of the way next.

Friends is the one theme that pretty effectively is not taking shelf space from other themes. Rather it is very effectively growing shelf space of its own over in the land of pink. As far as Friends retiring? Not anytime soon. Right now Friends is looking like TLG's breakout product line. Something unseen since they first got the Star Wars license. Star Wars and Ninjago bring Lego lots of happy customers and lots of sales to those happy customers. Friends however is bringing Lego an utterly mind blowing number of customers who have not bought Lego before. They are new business growth. Somewhere in excess of 80% of friends sets sold are to new Lego customers. And they can't keep the stuff on the shelves.

To Savage Oppress:

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

H. L. Mencken

Probably applies to more countries than just America.

All of this is said with a big :-)

haha:):):)

not any time soon... for the first time lego has really hit it with the girls and at least in denmark lego friends is flying off the shelves faster than any toy. and now they are making the disney princess theme which is kind a the same sets so it seems they are expanding rather than retiring:)

My sisters liked fabuland alot back in the 80's... But from a market view, lego has a winner here, not going to be discontinued very soon. Personally i hate it, but if it sells, it sells.

Friends is not going anywhere for a long time! Probably one of the best selling themes at the moment.

And not to rain on anyones parade, this thread seems a little bit BS since the topic is trying to bash one theme over another and wanting to cause an argument.

Friends will go away when the theme isn't making a profit, so not anytime soon. Also I don't see how this theme is taking away space from any other theme. They aren't even displayed in the same aisle in most stores.

This question threw me a bit, because I don't see Friends as one of those themes that's around for a couple of years, like Castle or Space in their various guises. I consider it to be more like City, with it always being there (even if it gets a rebrand a la Town -> World City -> City). Think of Friends as like a girls version of City, with different sets out each year, but the actual theme sticking around. I don't think they'll ever actually 'retire' the whole theme. Would they ever retire City? No, and there's your answer.

Edited December 29, 201311 yr by Paperballpark

Sadly at the local Lego stores the friends sets do no take up space as they cannot keep them on the shelves. From a building MOC's standpoint the new colors and a great addition to the color choices.

Matt

LOL. Minidolls even expanded into the Disney Princess licensed theme. I think they are here to stay for a long while. Maybe you can get the Friends involved in some sort of moral scandal with a Sith Lord or some shady bounty hunter then TLC can't support them any longer.

In just about every store I've been to, Friends set aren't in the same area as LEGO sets, they are often with girls themed sets like Barbie. If anyone should be complaining, it's that the Friends set are taking away valuable Barbie space.

Belville lasted for twenty years and that wasn't nearly as popular. Friends has just taken space from Belville, nothing else :P

Actually the Friends theme is not going to retire until like in 30 years! also it is not taking space for any themes. The friends line is very popular now and it is not retiring soon.

I'll join the chorus.....Friend's is not successful and Lego have poured too much money into the theme to quit it and actually toy stores/departments have made extra room for Friend's not take it away from other themes.

I don't see Friend's ending any time soon.......which is good I have at least four great niece's to buy for when they are the right age !

I think that Super Heroes will be discontinued before than Friends. Why?

Super Heroes are a licensed theme linked to the release of new Super Heroes movies. In some years, producers will be lack of ideas of new Movies, and people will be saturated of seeing them when they become repetitive, like it was on 80's and on the 90's.

Friends is the new city. Not only for AFOLs fed up of police stations and fire brigades, but also for some male KFOLs that are starting to find out that Friends sets can be a complementary playsets for their city play.

And minidolls are here for stay, Disney Princess is the first step of a minidoll expansion. IMHO, if market and costumer preferences continue going in the same way than now, TLG is going to have no more option than replace minifigs for minidolls gradually. And maybe in ten years we are going to see minidolls in a Galaxy far far away.

Edited December 29, 201311 yr by El Garfio

This is one of the silliest topics I've ever laid eyes on.

Short answer: LEGO Friends will retire when the time comes to retire it. Chances are another girl-oriented theme will then be introduced to fill the void. It has never affected the amount of shelf space available for LEGO Star Wars or Super Heroes, and retiring it wouldn't have any significant impact on shelf space for those themes either.

This is one of the silliest topics I've ever laid eyes on.

It's actually interesting, though you may doubt the attitude how this question began.

It depends on what kind of thing you're suggesting. Do you mean "Frineds" the nominal title of theme would retire? The Minidolls would retire? Or girl-oriented themes would retire? These are very different things.

1) When girl-oriented themes retire:

For sure, not only Friends disappear but all themes related to girls won't be there. It could mean that all future Lego sets would be for uni-sex, or just totally for boys only.

2) When minidolls retire:

You may think about the Scala and Belville cases. Their dolls could not cater to market needs so they can only result in retirement. Maybe minidolls would retire when they don't appeal girsl anymore, then TLG would invent another kind of dolls or just use minifigures in a new girl-oriented theme. Or in the worst case, minifigures retire too...

3) When "Frineds" the nominal title of theme retire:

Just summarize what I was talking, the end of "Friends" means that another girl-orientd minidolls' theme would appear, just like Ninjago comes after Agent. When the Friends scenario isn't fresh anymore, TLG can give us another story:

Olivia has a cousin, Sylvia, who stays in their hometown, Soulcanyon. The cultures there are very different from Heartlake City, but they also have lots of fun things. Besides, Sylvia also has a bunch of very interesting friends.... and it's another beginning of Friends.

It doesn't have to be simple rehearsal, but could be a theme of new characters, parts, building styles. It can even be compatible with previous series so we don't have to afraid it'll end.

IMO, Friends is a theme that can compete with City. As long as City can live, Friends can, too. Unless girls would be more easily bored than boys, or there is a more powerful competer in this market that eventually beats Friends down.

BTW, I don't know if you're joking or not, don't ask TLG to focus on only several things. It could bring a negative effect that bores people with massive products of the same theme. The more are always the better.

Edited December 30, 201311 yr by Dorayaki

Friends is not going anywhere for a long time! Probably one of the best selling themes at the moment.

And not to rain on anyones parade, this thread seems a little bit BS since the topic is trying to bash one theme over another and wanting to cause an argument.

Agreed. My first response was "When Lego City retires" *Wry*

When will the Lego Friends Theme retire, because it is taking up important shelf space for the Lego Star Wars and Lego Marvel/DC Superheroes sets.

LOL what a thing to say!

It is tough to say if this was a serious question posed, a trolling response, or something to stimulate conversation/debate on EB.

I would agree that I don't see Friends coming to an end anytime soon. I end up buying Friends more than other themes, just to make sure we get the sets before they retire. My daughter has a huge stockpile of sets that aren't opened because we will give them to her throughout her collecting/playing years. That way she can still get them and we won't have to pick them up at high aftermarket prices.

As far as Star Wars and Super Heroes, each license would have their own number of sets that are approved of each year. Since Friends would have the same requirement, they wouldn't take up any extra shelf space away from the other themes. Some stores just may not get certain sets or in the quantity a customer may like. Even if they were displayed in the same aisle, there are a certain allotted slots for each theme. I love LOTR/Hobbit, but most stores around me don't have them on the shelves, so I could say that Star Wars is taking up shelf space from my precious Middle Earth sets... see how that isn't a good argument?

There's probably people out there who think that Star Wars and Superheroes are taking up valuable Friends space....

I personally think LEGO should do away with ALL themes and just focus entirely on LotR and the Hobbit!

Back to being serious, Friends will end when Lego has something better they think can replace it, or sales drop off. Then and only then will it retire. I think it's funny some people seem to be implying Friends will become more popular than other boy-aimed themes and take them over. Keep in mind while Friends is incredibly popular with girls and AFOLs, it's not exactly turning tons of young boys over to the theme. How many 6-12 year olds are buying Friend sets?

How many 6-12 year olds are buying Friend sets?

Only few, but the number of boys that include their sisters Friend sets to their LEGO playworld is considerable.

I fully realize that we are being trolled here, but let me say this: I have two little girls who love both the Friends and Star Wars lines. For the 2014 sets, we just aren't that excited. We will buy the Death Star Troopers set, and probably the MicroFighters, but the rest of the 2014 Star Wars wave isn't very impressive. For 2014 Friends? Yeah, we're going to break the bank on those.

(Also, I was at my Lego Store on Sunday, and Friends was almost completely sold out. They had Stephanie's Lamb & Water Scooter Fun, and that's it.)