Baker’s Delight – LEGO Friends Magazine, November 2022

It’s that time of the year where we’re making giant leaps towards Christmas and inevitably this has been a recurring subject in the LEGO Friends magazine just as well. Sometimes with Christmas trees, sometimes with fun in the snow and more often than not with baking activities. This year we’re once more going down that route.

Interestingly, the comic doesn’t delve too deep into this and after a short introduction with the girls baking cookies it’s off to some winter-ly outdoor activities.

The baking theme is taken up again on a coloring two spread, but strangely enough they’re suddenly making pizza. This feels a bit like they’re recycling a drawing that was originally intended for a different issue. There’s a second coloring page with a Mandala-like round design.

The poster is the same boring stuff we’ve gotten a million times already, but maybe there’s hope for next year when the revitalized and redesigned characters make an appearance and we get more diverse characters overall.

The extra is a small cookie selling stand with an oven next to it. It’s serviceable, but really a bit underwhelming and too unspectacular. throwing in a bit more stuff wouldn’t have hurt.

This issue isn’t much to write home about and it’s “just okay”. Definitely not the special celebratory edition one would have hoped for and way too early to count for the holiday season. Thanks to the coloring sections it will keep your kids busy for a little while, though.

Poodle-tastic Care – LEGO Friends Magazine, September 2022

As you may have noticed, this blog isn’t as much about LEGO Friends as it used to be (I could go into all the details why, but maybe that’s for another time), but that doesn’t mean I’m not into it at all anymore and still follow developments in that theme just as I still read the magazines. So here we go with the September issue.

One of the big topics in the series this year has been animal care with multiple sets and I reviewed the Pet Adoption Café (41699) and Pet Playground (41698) earlier this year. This months edition of the mag is all about that, too. The comic deals with some mayhem at the pet daycare center. The story is nothing to write home about, but the kids will buy it. It’s also an interesting observation that the more the comic veers away from slavishly rendering the characters in the style of the actual minifigures, the more tolerable it becomes. The protagonists looking more like regular people really does the whole thing good.

Unlike the previous issues this one comes up short in the coloring department with only a partial page as opposed to the double spreads before. that seems a bit odd, as no doubt kids would love to color their favorite dog breed or kittens.

There’s an info page with a few rather generic photos, but it’s really not that specific on anything.

The poster is kind of okay, but I’d bet most people will prefer the back side featuring quadruple Labrador/ Golden Retriever puppies. 🙂

The extra is one of those “pet grooming” scenarios we’ve gotten a few times over the years featuring the standard brush, a small basin with a water tap and some accessories. The teeter board similar has been seen before just as well. The poodle is the version with the Dark Turquoise print for the collar that otherwise can only be found in two other sets, so at least that’s a simple way of getting it here.

This issue is pretty mundane and even boring, so there’s no real urgency to buy it. It has very little to offer on all fronts. This becomes even more apparent after the pretty decent horse-themed previous issue.

August Pony Ride – LEGO Friends Magazine, August 2022

Little girls love horses. That seems to be one of those universal cosmic mysteries that nobody can explain. So literally Blue Ocean are right on the money with the August 2022 issue of the LEGO Friends magazine being centered around the subject.

As you know, I can’t quite get behind the Friends comics due to the unnatural faces looking like ugly grimaces. That said, this one is at least okay in terms of the visual density. Some panels would actually look quite nice if you substituted the characters for more appealing versions.

As is now an established standard feature there’s a coloring page, this time depicting the girls at the stables. As usual it would be even better if they didn’t plaster everything with those wannabe “funny” text overlays and graphical elements.

There’s an info page providing some factoids about foals along with some cute photos, which will please the kids.

That also goes for the reverse side of the poster, showing yet another of the little horses. The front shows two of the girls with the horse in the middle.

The extra this time is rather elaborate with a feeding and cleaning station, a water pump, some bales of hay/ straw and – surprise, surprise – an actual horse. It’s just LEGO‘s old foal mold in black that has been around forever, but it’s better than nothing. What’s even better is the fact that this extra would make a nice addition to the Pony-Washing Stable (41696), a low price set that contains another white foal and some more horse-centric elements to enrich your kid’s play fantasy. It’s definitely worth considering, even if only now after reading this brief magazine review.

Overall this is a pretty neat edition of the Friends magazine. As I’ve written in another such article, a consistent mono-thematic publication is always preferable over scattershot issues that try to cover too many different topics only to fail. The lucky coincidence of out there being a complementary set that would boost the experience can only mean to buy this issue, so just do it! 🙂

Juicy June – LEGO Friends Magazine, June 2022

It’s a well-established tradition that the LEGO Friends magazine is very seasonally themed and so here we are with the summer edition for this year.

As you would expect, the comic is centered around all sorts of activities one can do in the sun and the heat, most notably spend some time at a beach or a pool. Aside from my more general dislike for the Friends comics due to the girls looking creepy this one also comits a similar sin as the latest Jurassic World comic – everything looks just flat and lifeless and of course the story has very little substance beyond haphazardly trying to set you up to buy the latest pool-themed sets.

Personally I’m pleased that the magazine at some point has introduced more “real” activities and the coloring page has now become a staple. There are some more drawing-centric tasks plus a few puzzles. Another standout is a tic-tac-toe/ memory style “pack your picnic bag” game which could offer some ten minute fun. unfortunately it’s printed on one of the regular pages instead of the thicker outer wrapper, so durability and handling aren’t going to be great.

The posters aren’t half bad this time as someone had the good sense to not plaster them with unnecessary typography or extra fluff character cutouts that don’t fit the subject and don’t match in perspective, the most common sin in many of Blue Ocean‘s designs.

The extra is a small push cart with a juice/ smoothie bar on it, which is rather appropriate for the subject at hand. It’s simple and efficient and well decked out with fruit, which is something one cannot always take for granted. Two bananas and an apple is nothing to balk at. The only thing that could have made it better would be one of the printed pineapple or melon minifigure heads, which I would have preferred in place of the smartphone tile.

This issue doesn’t quite give me the positive vibe I had with the last one, but it’s still quite good and absolutely serviceable to keep your kids occupied for a bit while enjoying the sun at a public pool or beach…

Cats & Vets – LEGO Friends Magazine, May 2022

While it fails to provide anything revolutionary, the LEGO Friends magazine keeps chugging along and still manages to tickle my feet every now and then. I wasn’t super excited for the May issue, but I knew it would at least be tolerable based on the preview in the last edition, so lets see what we’ve ended up with.

One thing I knew would make this bearable was the cat subject and the comic already is full of the little felines. The title of it, “Cat-astrophe” at this point is just lame word play, as this has really been overdone to death, but that’s just a minor thing. The overall style of the comics is still rather weird, but at least the story is relatable this time and not completely wacko. Some of the characters and scenes clearly point to the current sets as well with the pet clinic and houseboat for instance.

The coloring pages by now are an established standard, so that’s just fine. If they didn’t try so hard to always squeeze in all the girls it might be even better. Who doesn’t like coloring cats and kittens? 😉 There’s two smaller coloring sections on other pages as well. Oddly enough, even the puzzles scattered throughout this time aren’t all that terrible. Overall there’s good content here that could keep your kids distracted for a good while.

The posters repeat bits of the comics and match the overall topic quite well. I also found myself wanting those crazy-looking mice decoys in some form, be that as a LEGO piece or as a plushy or felt animal. They look kind of cute and interesting.

The extra is another examination table, of which we had several versions already over the years, even more so if you count the various pet grooming stations as well. The build therefore is quite similar to what we got before with some slight variations. One of those is actually using a solid 4 x 6 plate instead of scattering the individual assemblies onto several bricks or smaller plates. I got one of those Lavender plates with the not so great Heartlake City Movie Theater (41448), but it’s not so widely used in sets. If you want one in a straightforward way this might be a good option. An interesting tidbit is the use of an actual Light Bluish Grey door on the container which is unusual for Friends in particular, but also in a more general sense. Those grey doors are surprisingly rarely used in sets.

Overall I’m surprised at myself how much I enjoyed this issue. It goes to show that a consistent motto and story thread have value and thinking about these things and not just throwing together random stuff pays off. I’d definitely recommend this one, especially if you have a soft spot in your heart for cats, of course.

Rabbit Invasion – LEGO Friends Magazine, March 2022

The date when Mr. Easter Bunny will be visiting is still a ways off, but his next of kin are already here thanks to the March 2022 edition of the LEGO Friends magazine.

Rabbits are of course pretty cute – most smaller breeds, anyway. Even I can’t escape their quirky charm whenever I’m at a small petting zoo or visiting relatives. On the other hand, they are pesky little buggers and notoriously prone to falling ill with all sorts of weird infections, so keeping them is not as easy as it sounds and as this magazine makes it look. You might need to be prepared for that if your kid falls in love with the idea and keeps pestering you about it. 😉

As always the comic is so-so, with the best moments/ best panels being the ones where the girls don’t annoy the heck out of everyone by being in view like someone tried to zoom in on their teenage girl pimples, a.k.a. puberty acne. Otherwise it’s just the usual combination of cheap soap opera level writing, the girls seemingly wearing the same clothes everyday and some harebrained stuff going on in Heartlake City. Funny enough the car shown in the comic bears quite a bit of similarity to the recent Tree-Planting Vehicle (41707), though in reality it would be even smaller than that.

Thankfully there’s loads of other pages such as this info page on a few rabbit varieties, several coloring bits and a few quizzes/ puzzles, of course. This makes the whole thing tolerable, as clearly the comic alone doesn’t hold a candle to provide enough interest.

The poster with the two baby rabbits snuggling up to each other is also quite okay, while the back side has just yet another umpteenth group shot of the girl gang.

The extra is a small enclosure for the rabbit such as you would likely have at home if you were to have such a small critter. It even has a small drinking spout. The colors are interesting, since the flap element used for the slide is in Bright Light Blue, a rare variant. There’s also a single 1 x 2 plate in that same color. I guess we’re just lucky that LEGO came out with a few sets using those pieces last year and we can profit off surplus stock here. Something similar could be said for the rabbit droppings, which are Dark Brown, not the more common Reddish Brown. Again we have to thank the ART sets for them being available at all in this color. The yellow corrugated bricks mimicking the hay/ straw are also nice. I only have a few from other sets and every bit helps to expand my parts stock, obviously.

The general shortcomings of this publication notwithstanding, this issue is one of the better ones. It isn’t as atrociously “teenage fantasy” as some others and there’s enough content aside from the comic to warrant a purchase. There are even a few unique pieces, which make me a happy camper.

Bad Hair Day – LEGO Friends Magazine, January 2022

Have been a bit lazy around the end-of-year holidays, so apologies for the rather belated review of the latest LEGO Friends magazine issue, technically representing the first 2022 edition, of course.

The beauty of the Friends magazines is that there’s not much to write and I’m done quickly because they usually re rather *meh*, anyway, and this one makes it even easier by literally being the laziest of lazy efforts. The hair styling theme ties into the comic as part of the preparations for a party, but that’s pretty much it. Otherwise the comic and the ugly characters remain an acquired taste at best. Interestingly, though, there are bits in there that show that the artists could draw better stuff if only someone let them.

There’s a few puzzles, inevitably, and a bunch of activity pages such as this coloring spread, some “connect the dots” stuff and one where you are supposed to scribble in hair styles on top of Emma‘s and Andrea‘s heads.

The poster’s are okay-ish with the front one being a montage of sorts of existing character one-shots and the back showing a hairdressers threesome. In fact I probably should have picked that one for display here.

The extra is just the umpteenth collection of the well-known make-up and hair styling utensils we’ve seen so many times, but on the bright side there’s at least golden pistol/ nozzle/ bar elements for the arm rests on the chair. The Magenta hair piece is also nice, as it otherwise can only be found in the Magical Funfair Roller Coaster (41685) set. If you’re into customizing minifigures/ minidolls, respectively, this could be the one decisive factor to get this magazine.

To say this issue is disappointing would be an understatement even by the low standards we’ve come to expect from the Friends magazines, so I definitely would not urge you to buy it except for the reasons I mentioned regarding the buildable parts. In the tenth year of the Friends series existing, at least the mag could use a major overhaul…

Funfair Baking – LEGO Friends Magazine, November 2021

At this time of the year there’s really only two possible subjects for the LEGO Friends magazine: Christmas decorations or baking. With the actual holidays being a bit too ways off for Christmas trees, baubles and stars, Blue Ocean opted for the latter – to some degree, at least.

The comic is centered around this year’s new Magical Funfair theme. I haven’t bought a single set from this series at this point, as the weird combination of predominantly Dark Turquoise, Dark Purple and Black puts me off, but who knows, maybe something falls out of the sky… With that in mind, the comic isn’t really much better for it and coupled with the general lack of drawing finesse it just looks extremely unappealing.

Returning to the subject of baking we get a coloring picture spread across two pages and there’s another smaller one a few pages further in. There are a few simple puzzles and games as well, of course, but nothing to write home about.

While I’m not too enthralled by the funfair stuff nor the often botched CG renderings, this time I have to give props to whoever did the poster. It’s really pretty good, both on an abstract artsy level but also when applying my own experience as a 3D artist. The secondary poster on the back is also not too annoying since they had the good sense to not plaster it with ridiculous typography or unrelated fluff.

The extra is just some random baking equipment like we’ve seen it several times already. given how they went out of their way to advertise the fairground theme I would at least have expected some of the parts to be Dark Turquoise, which would at least have been something fresh.

Sadly this is another rather boring issue, though at least the poster is excellent. It really bothers me that despite these mags being planned months in advance they never really align with what sets are available at a given time. the disparity between what’s being advertised and what you ultimately get is baffling…

Squirrel Time – LEGO Friends Magazine, September 2021

Autumn isn’t far away and in fact we have a quite unexpected wave of almost fall-like cold weather here in Germany, so the arrival of the latest LEGO Friends magazine and the subject it covers seems oddly appropriate and timely.

That subject is for all intents and purposes the life of those wonderfully adorable little creatures called squirrels. Their cuteness is almost irresistible and of course the comic plays heavily on that. On the bright side it also makes amends by showing how potentially in danger those little critters are.

To that end they are even including an info page, which is something rare in the Friends world. It’s only the most superficial facts, though, but something is better than nothing.

Continuing the theme is a crafting page where you’re supposed to make use of that good old toilet paper roll. It’s a bit odd in that they expect you to color it with paint while at the same time including pre-printed eyes, hands and a tail. Not only would it have been better to include those on the inner side of the stronger rear cover page, but perhaps it would also have been better had they included a matching body fold & cut pattern then.

Even though the coloring page picks up the horse riding from the comic, a squirrel is nowhere to be seen here, making this one of the few pages not depicting one of the small rodents.

Similar to last time, I wish they’d just leave out the tacky renderings of the girls from these types of posters entirely to make them more appealing. I mean they have a group shot of four girls on the front poster, did they really have to do it here?

As you would expect with the squirrel being front and center in this issue, the buildable extra also has one of them. It’s in itself nothing special, even if the old Elves/ Friends mold only recently has reappeared with new prints after being AWOL for a few release cycles. The small hut is based on the protective “bird house” from the comic and perfectly serviceable. I was pleasantly surprised by the two inverted slopes in Dark Orange, because so far they have only appeared in two other sets and also the flower blossoms in regular Yellow, which are still hugely outnumbered by their Bright Light Orange peers and thus kind of rare-ish. The two acorns and the mushroom are also nice additions.

Overall this is definitely one of the more pleasing editions of the LEGO Friends magazine, mostly owing to the consistent topic throughout. It’s much more enjoyable than some others which were rather higgledy-piggledy and tried to cram in too much. It’s also noteworthy that there is actually enough “real” activities here to keep your kid busy for some hours, making those 4 Euro a worthwhile investment overall.

Icy Ice – LEGO Friends Magazine, July 2021

We’re experiencing the first serious heat wave of the year here in Central Europe and oddly enough I also do have cravings for ice cream more often than in the past years, so what could be more fitting than the latest LEGO Friends issue covering these subjects?

The July issue’s comic however is centered around a different theme. It has the girls chasing through Heartlake City to not miss the opening gala of the Heartlake City Grand Hotel. Yes, exactly that one based on the new set 41684 with the same name. Talk about ulterior marketing schemes… I’ll almost definitely never buy this set, though. Since it’s based on a ton of large 6 x 6 panels and those tall 1 x 2 x 5 bricks it has limited value for custom building later on and the gag with the seasonal customizations can’t save it, either. So don’t hold your breath for it to ever get reviewed here. Anyway, the story of the comic is reminiscent of those many terrible “Arrive in time, save the day.” movies usually related to weddings or saving princesses. It certainly doesn’t get any points for originality.

As seems to be common practice lately in many of Blue Ocean‘s magazines there is a double spread with a coloring image and there’s a second, single-page one later in the mag as well. In addition there is a crafting page where you’re instructed on how to create fake ice cones from toilet paper rolls and crumpled up colored paper plus a bunch of the usual “Find the matching piece/ image” puzzles.

The posters are almost bearable with not too much background “noise” distracting. Now if only they would leave out those stupid texts…

By recent standards the buildable extras are pretty elaborate when you consider how much the number of pieces has been trimmed down lately. At least here you get a pretty decent slushy machine and a small sales counter in the typical design with a cooled glass showcase and a bit of canopy. It’s really only lacking wheels to pass as a sales cart as you might find them in parks. On the other hand the bowl is a bit odd, since there is nothing to go inside it.

Overall this is just your average LEGO Friends magazine. I’m not that terribly upset, though, as at least the extra is decent and surprisingly this issue feels nicely uncluttered and not overstuffed. Not plastering everything with excessive and unnecessary texts, emojis and stickers apparently goes a long way to make the experience more pleasing for everyone.