On Saturday Fifi and I used our Friends & Family railcard to pop into central London to attend the launch event for a feature length LEGO Friends DVD.
Personally in our house we like LEGO Friends. Fifi has always been much more about the role playing with toys than the construction, and LEGO Friends has the best of both worlds. The figures are distinctive, so unlike the normal minifigures, you can imbue each one with a distinct personality. I’ve found that when playing, Fifi is definitely more character driven than plot driven, whereas the boys are completely the opposite. She’ll have toys befriending animals and playing together, where the boys will have a train that crashes and causes a multiple car pile up. Boys eh?
LEGO Friends Girlz 4 Life follows the group of LEGO Friends characters, Andrea, Emma, Mia, Olivia, and Stephanie. Our favourite is Mia, if she was one of the Friends Friends and not a LEGO Friends, she’d be Phoebe- a bit off the wall and likes animals, just like our daughter. The story is based around the friends writing a song that then gets stolen by a conniving manager and turned into a big hit for a lonely pop star. As the girls try to get their song back before the big concert where everyone will incontrovertibly think of it as belonging to Livi, they deal with issues surrounding vanity, trust and friendship.
Fifi understandably loved it to pieces and was over the moon when her goodie bag had a copy of it on DVD. She’s probably watched it about a dozen times already and managed to drive Ned out of the playroom by putting it on so much. I must say as an individual I found it tolerable but as a parent I found it good- it has a moral story at it’s heart, a few catchy songs and obviously appeals to girls.
Boys and girls learn differently, play differently and as long as differentiating toys for them doesn’t simply come down to making something in pink or blue, I don’t think I have an issue with it. LEGO Friends has managed to get Fifi into building LEGO, which is something pretty much no other range has. Without the confidence in construction she’s got from Friends, I doubt she would have been able to build the Mystery Machine on her own at Christmas either.
LEGO Friends Girlz 4 Life is out to buy on Monday 15 Feb from all good retailers.