Cinema - Showing "Friends style"

   You may recognize this cinema design from the Town Plan -- it has been adapted into a Friend-ly style Cinema by Sanna. 

                                              by Sanna via her blog

   I like how the pink and tan blend with the classic LEGO red bricks she uses, rather than the dark red color which dominates the official set.  The way she blends these colors creates a more modern look.  It makes me hungry for a twist of red licorice!
   Modifying such well-known LEGO buildings to easily appear along the street in Heartlake City is a bold move.  Sanna accomplishes this with style!

Garden Room

   Global weather affects everyone; especially now that we are all connected via the Internet.  Knowing of a friend who can enjoy a Summer's day, while another drudges through another round of Winter's mix can lead to empathy.
   That's why just looking at Emma's Garden Room by Kristel can positively affect a person halfway around the globe!

Built in traditional Friends style and colors, this could easily be located near the back of Olivia's House!

Just like any solarium, conservatory or greenhouse, this Garden Room has a glass ceiling for maximum sunlight to grow plants and warm the soul.

   Kristel created a Potting Bench to showcase the lovely growing area in the Garden Room.  Attention to detail is superb.  This room has all the tools needed for successful growing!

   Sharing a sunny & cheery Garden Room with Friends is what it's all about.  There's a lovely sofa, fun potted-plants, table with stools to enjoy a cuppa ... something -- perhaps coffee, tea, or hot chocolate -- depending on your taste.
   Wait, is that a frog over there? :-)

   To enjoy a few more images of this delightful build, see the full set of Emma's Garden Room on her Flickr (kjw010).

Which little voice would you listen to?

   Harkening images of a cartoon in which a character has two opposing "figures" appear on each shoulder, with voices only that character can hear, giving advice on whether or not to follow-through with a specific deed is 6kyubi6's creation:

    Friends Mini-Dolls customized to represent two differing attitudes make this creation a nice appeal to fans from various angles.  The brick lettering is excellent too!  Both cars are fun and clever.
   The creator titled it:  "A ride to Hell or to Heaven, you choose!"

   So, which voice are you gonna listen to? :-)

In a Gal-City not far far away ...

   Stephanie and her friends enjoy their Star Wars obsession in her room, as re-created by Ninja_Nin in "Stephanie's Playroom" MOC:

   For anyone who thinks Friends and [insert your favorite theme here] are mutually exclusive ... well, think with your eyes!

   For additional fun with theme-blending, set mash-ups, Ninja_Nin also created a "Baby Rock Monsters Nursery" scene with Power Miners bricks & Friends bricks:

   So, if you read any hyperbole about LEGO Friends not being 'compatible' consider the source an unreliable one.  Of course they are compatible -- all LEGO Bricks are!  Says right there on the box, "Building toy" -- if you take the time to read facts.

Friends by the Sea

   Water activities are always fun.  In Cyndi Bourne's lively "Friends Beach" scene, you can see those girls are enjoying their day in the sun!

   She used a trip to Mexico as inspiration to build; initially this began as a practice for palm tree techniques.  There are a few more photos of her creation in her set on Flickr.

   Now that Heartlake City has its own pool, we will most likely be seeing more creations like the wonderful "Pool Party" Katie (eilonwy77) built last year:

 

   Katie also built her water-themed creation as part of exploring building techniques; for her, it was the curved wall and trees with inter-woven leaf branches.  For additional images & instructions, visit her set.

   Building techniques, old & new, are just one more aspect of LEGO Friends theme in getting more girls to have interest in construction play.  The prevalence of polygons in future technology is undeniable.  There's no reason new technology can't be fun too ;-)

Primary Park

   Inspired by the Friends slide, Toni (tonistokes529) decided she wanted to build a playground.
   While LEGO bricks have always come in primary colors: red, yellow, blue; those colors are also found in Friends sets.
   Visit her Primary Park and see just how Friendly it is!

   She built: a see-saw, stairs to funhouse with an adventure's wobbly bridge, vertical climb bars, monkey bars, climbing wall, sandbox, park bench seats, lovely tree for shade, swing set, basketball court, bicycle rack, and even a drinking fountain!  Whew!  That's a lot of fun packed into one park!

    Oh and hey -- there's that Friends slide (from Heartlake City Pool) which provided the motivation to push her building skills! 
   Most of these primary-colored-bricks you see here do come in Friends sets; some of these are from other System sets -- which all play nice together ;-)
  

   Bird's-eye-view (yes, actually that bird is a Friends' pet) looking like a typical playground found in every town & city across the globe.  Sure looks fun to me!

   Toni has even provided other fans a diagram of how she built the swings -- quite similar to the swing from Olivia's House, with just a seat change for Primary Park.

   Primarily known for pastel colors, LEGO Friends sets contain merely 10% of the color pink.  They also contain some nice technic building opportunities.
   Ready to have fun building your own park?  Head over to Toni's Primary Park set for inspiration by viewing additional close-up photos of the various playground equipment.
    

Friends at Classic-Castle

Classic-Castle.com recently announced the winners of their annual Colossal Castle Contest.  One of this year's side challenges was to use Friends elements in the castle creation.  Bruce posted several great examples in our forum.  Some were quite clever, and I wanted to highlight them here. 

Several models included the hedgehog.  SergeantChipmunk has one hiding under the tree by his watchtower.

Quarktaart's Radagast the Brown also features hedgehogs:

(As an aside, there is a -- Flickr group dedicated to finding Oscar the Hedgehog he shows up all over the place.) 

ElephantKnight used minidolls as elves in his secret gathering.  I think using the Friends as elves works really well here.  The different proportions are very effective at setting them apart as a different race of beings.

 

And finally, David Frank (Fraslund) turned a minidoll into Joan of Arc.

(Thanks to Bruce for the post on the forum.  For those who don't know, Bruce is an admin at Classic-Castle.com, and also created and writes for a whole host of LEGO blogs.)

Have A Break

When LegoManiac wrote the description on his Ice Cream Truck creation last April: 
 "Hey Girls it's time for Ice Cream!"
-"Yeah but be careful of calories if we want to keep our silouhette and don't look like the ugly LegoMinifigs!

   
    His comment was poking fun at how some people reacted to the new Mini-Dolls being so, well, new & different.  Some fans said: they would never own one; they threw them into the bin; others pined for the new brick colors in sets while not wanting to get those 'dolls' too -- yet in a nearly parallel universe, millions of girls, many new to LEGO building, squealed in delight at having a mini-figure which they could identify with on a personal level.  Those girls found a new avatar.
   This year we have an official Ice Cream Cart set to enjoy.
   Nearly a year later, it's easy to see how this "Have A Break" curvy & groovy Ice Cream Truck creation demonstrates many aspects which appeal to some girls.  The pink & orange colors evoke fond memories of a trip to Baskin-Robbins or Dunkin Donuts.  (Or, maybe even Scooby-Doo ;-)
   Since he so kindly provided a break-down of sections in this image, it will be fun to see what other fans create in the ice cream genre, or food truck category.
   Seriously, who doesn't love hearing that familiar medley of ice cream truck music echoing in their neighborhood?  You just have to look -- to see if it's on your street ;-)