It’s only the end of November, but the latest LEGO Friends magazine is apparently even ahead beyond December and already refers to January. Despite that slightly crooked calendar logic it can’t evade the Christmas craze, of course, and is themed accordingly.
There aren’t really any surprises in this one, so I’ll keep it brief. The LEGO bricks are for a Christmas tree and a rather simplistic sled, which won’t stand any comparison to the skidoo in the City mag. If you have been a loyal buyer of LEGO Christmas calendars those past years and/ or the magazines, you basically know the drill already and your parts boxes likely are already overflowing with those green angled slopes. Same for the puppy and the present box – you probably have them somewhere already. Really nothing new here.
The rest of the magazine is forgettable as always from the ugly “uncanny valley” CG-rendered posters and inserts to the poorly drawn comic. One can’t help but feel that the publication and the Friends them as a whole seem to have run their course and are due for a major overhaul. New story lines and characters are desperately needed and it seems some of that could happen when the new 2019 sets arrive, pictures of which incidentally have been released just in time with the magazine.
From what I’ve seen they are certainly better than this year’s botched kart racing theme, but you shouldn’t expect revolutionary things. Most stuff has been done one way or the other and for me the most important aspect of some sets remains the fact that you get some parts in new color variations. In that regard of course Friends is a cornucopia for creating funky, vibrant MOCs.
Mylenium's Brick Corner 