The LEGO Group is marking a decade of its LEGO Friends franchise – launching an exclusive new celebratory set, the Friendship Treehouse, alongside seven other new sets.
Launching in 2012, the franchise has employed continuous innovation and the use of different themes as key drivers, ensuring it stays relevant with fans. It originally set out to deliver on a desire for realistic role-play, creativity and a highly detailed, character-based world with core values of LEGO building. As a result, the theme introduced a new type of character, ‘the mini-doll’, designed to the same scale as the classic LEGO minifigure but more detailed and realistic then had been seen before.
The Friends experience went on to include an animated TV series – Friends of Heartlake City, Friends: The Power of Friendship and Friends: Girls on a mission – as well as books, video games, a LEGO Friends magazine and LEGOLAND theme park attractions, plus a host of other merchandise.
The story centred on the everyday lives and personalities of five main characters in the fictional hometown of Heartlake City.
Each of the friends – Olivia, Mia, Andrea, Stephanie and Emma – have distinct qualities and interests, with the building sets designed to immerse children into different parts of town where the friends’ adventures take place – downtown, suburbs, beach, nature, camping grounds and mountains, to name a few.
“Not only is the celebration of LEGO Friends ten-year anniversary a great achievement, it’s also extremely exciting to celebrate the anniversary of the mini-doll, recognizing it as a brand icon for the LEGO Group,” commented Fenella Blaize Charity, creative lead design director at the LEGO Group.
The eight new sets include a main hero set, LEGO Friends Friendship Tree House which has retro Heartlake City treasure hidden within it.
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