LEGO Friends Olivia’s House 3315 - the best source of books

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This is an incredible set. In effect, it’s a dollhouse with 4 fully furnished rooms and an extensive front yard. Thankfully, it’s a modular build, so you only need to build the legos in bag 1 first, then go on to the legos in bag 2, all the way owing to to bag 7. (Imagine going owing to all 695 pieces looking for the one piece described in the instructions!) Lego’s anthropological research revealed that girls like to play as they’re assembling their legos, so Lego made the Lego Friends into modular builds. Assembly is undemanding.

The house is mostly tan, white and lime, with pink roof pieces and some pink accent pieces. There are many, many accessories, which was delightful. I read that some Lego developers questioned why the anthropological research found that girls wanted more accessories, like handbags, combs, etc., and in response, the researchers questioned why boys needed a sword, dagger, shield, etc. (In the Ninjago Booster bonus set I got recently, a minifigurine came with 9 assorted weapons…). See the splendid article in Bloomsberg Businessweek on Lego’s affair strategy in targeting first boys, then girls, with their themed sets: [...]

The best review I’ve seen of this set is at Eurobricks[...]. You have to check out this review. It shows every brick included and goes into splendid detail on the furniture and rooms, so I won’t go into the details.

Basically, this is an awesome set, and you can play at this for hours. As I wander around the girls’ section at Toys R Us, I am vaguely repulsed by the aisles of pink barbies, skinny teenager dolls, pink dress up princess clothes, plastic kitchens and food, and fake taking-care-of-baby dolls and accessories. In comparison, the Lego Friends sets are much more creative and imaginative. Unlike the static dollhouses with the pre-printed furniture on the walls and static dolls (I saw numerous that were selling for $149 for dull, huge, static dollhouses for barbie-sized dolls), this Lego set (much cheaper) can be taken apart, place together in different ways, rearranged, and I found myself reaching for my fixed Lego blocks to place together new furniture and outdoor pieces. You can customize the minifigurines with the hair pieces and accessories from other minifigurines.

There are a few accessories that don’t “snap” into place, like the cupcakes, hot dog, apple, cherries, lawnmower – but most of them do, and they’re splendid. The figurines don’t snap into a sitting position, but they do snap into a standing position. I really like the minifigurines, they make the ancient ones look very blocky. If there’s anything you don’t like, you can take it apart, rearrange it, and even order new individual lego blocks from the lego.com pick a brick website.

I was very impressed by the creative use of the same lego elements – small 1×1 round pieces can be flowers, blender tops, lawnmower wheels, cupcakes, greenery and flowers, plant holders, doorknobs, lighting fixtures, shaker tops, bedding, lights, etc. Anyway, you get the point – just an ingenious use of common Lego elements. There’s no stinting of legos here, the house is fully accessorized, fully furnished, and even outside the house, the landscape is very busy and fun.

The rooms can be place into different configurations, so they’re not very solidly connected. You can easily change this by removing the smaller smooth pegged pieces and attaching them with the exposed fixed lego pieces.

I know there is controversy among adults who don’t like the fact that Lego is targeting girls with these themed sets, and insist that girls and boys should all play from the same basic Lego blocks like they did in the excellent ancient days (like the 1970′s). Sure, Duplo is embattled towards boys and girls, and there are basic Lego building sets available, but from age 4/5 onwards, Lego deliberately targets boys with themed sets such as Alien Conquest (salvage crew fighting evil Atlantean minions), Pharoah Quest (archaeologist fighting evil Egyptian monsters), City (cops fighting evil robbers, firefighters fighting fires), Ninjago (ninjas fighting evil lord and skeletons), Hero Factory, Racers, Star Wars, etc. The Bloomsberg Businessweek article notes that since 2005, when Lego deliberately focused on the market for boys (after years of anthropological research on how boys play) to revive its brand, Lego has doubled its revenue and is now the hottest toy company in the boy segment. Just as there is a princess phase for girls, now people talk in this area a Lego phase for boys. Yet nobody seems to be complaining that Lego is deliberately targeting boys with gendered stereotypes of violence, monsters, fighting, conflict, competition, cars/ships/airplanes/boats, and weapons. In contrast, after four years of anthropological research on how girls play, the Lego Friends themed sets focus on cooperation between the main characters and is newly launched.

If you just want the lego…

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 Comments (3)

= Toughness:  = Fun:  = Educational: 

My daughter was very excited to have “girl power” legos, and both my son and daughter like the unique pieces in the kit. The colors are also gorgeous. The house was very simple to build and once assembled the house itself has been very lasting during play. Though, some of the smaller pieces fall apart quite easily (i.e., the cupcakes). The other issues we have had are: the hair doesn’t stay on the mini figures and the slippery surfaces on the furniture that give it a more modern appearance combined with the new styling of the figures don’t allow the figures to “snap” in place like traditional lego mini figures. My daughter gets really frustrated when they won’t “sit” and stay on the chair. Otherwise, it was a splendid buy and my daughter likes it.

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A. Sawyer (Santa Fe) –

  

= Toughness:  = Fun:  = Educational: 

I bought this for my daughter’s 8th birthday. We have a lot of Lego and she has loved the other Lego sets we have, but she has not had near as much fun with those as with this set. It is a small like Polypocket Lego. Although she is not a too much of a girly girl, she really likes this set. There are lots of really cool pieces and the designers have invested a lot of thought in putting together this set. She also has Olivia’s invention room set, which I liked as it makes Olivia less of a stereotypical girly girl. She has been able to place this set together herself with very small help. I reckon Lego has finally found the right balance in the girl’s market. For the price it is really quite reasonable given the complexity and number of pieces, primarily when compared to some of the other Lego sets.

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