LEGO’s girl-focused Friends line, which replaces the traditional minifigures with something closer to tiny plastic dolls, can rub certain collectors the wrong way. Making the tiny plastic dolls DC Comics characters, as LEGO is doing with six new DC Super Hero Girls sets, certainly helps.
Welcome to Wonder Woman’s dorm room.
I’m a big fan of the DC Super Hero Girls line, which takes popular characters from the comic books and places them in a kid-friendly high school setting. It’s a gateway drug into comic fandom for a whole new audience, and by that I mean my Monster High-collecting wife.
Just your average high school.
In terms of retail placement and marketing targets, it’s a girls line, so LEGO’s six new sets are part of the Friends line, along with my beloved LEGO Elves.
Part of me appreciates the irony of these characters in this setting, especially considering recent developments in the lives of Wonder Woman and portrayal of characters like Harley Quinn and Batgirl in live-action and animation.
Buying it for the Batjet. Yep.
The first three sets, which will be available early in the US (November 27), include the amazing Batgirl’s Batjet set ($US24.99 [$33]), Harley Quinn to the Rescue ($US29.99 [$40]) and the large Super Hero High School set ($US79.99 [$106]), featuring Supergirl, Poison Ivy and Lena Luthor. Australian pricing has not yet been announced.
To the rescue. Right.
On January 1 the series goes worldwide, with three new sets dropping as well. The final three are Wonder Woman Dorm Room ($US19.99 [$26]), which includes an invisible motorcycle, Bumblebee Helicopter ($US14.99 [$20]) and Lashina Tank ($US14.99 [$20]). I have no idea who Lashina is, but at that point I’ll have bought the rest of these so I might as well collect the whole set of sets.
Why do the flying characters always get flying machines?
Each of the sets come with tiny buildable crystal creatures called Kryptomites, which sound like they’re going to ruin Supergirl’s day in a big way. Note the inclusion of Krypto in the Lashina set. He’s bound to make Supergirl’s day much better.
Woof.
Yeah, OK. So the Friends line and its spin-offs continue to stand by their weird plastic dolls. That’s fine. Between the DC iconography and the use of unique colour/part combinations, the Super Hero Girls line is likely to be a hit with collectors and fans of the property alike.
Comments
2 responses to “DC Super Hero Girls Sets Make The Most Of LEGO’s Friends Line”
Gender marketing is fucking awful. They seriously had to change the figures into fugly clumps of plastic just to appeal to young girls? LEGO is for everyone, they shouldn’t have to pander to this demographic. And shame on DC for doing the same thing.
You said this much better than I could and I agree completely.
I knew someone would post this bananas take. As the father of two girls, let me tell you, you are 100% wrong.
…okay maybe 80%. It’s gender stereotyping, sure, and there’s cultural reasons to oppose that, but boots on the ground, these things work. They make my girls engage in imaginative play, both storytelling and structure-building, more than any other Lego sets ever.
Everyone I’ve ever seen complain about these sets hasn’t seen first-hand the way that girls LOVE them. It may offend your ideology, but it’s not oppression, it’s meeting a real demand for Lego sets not confined by the cramped dimensions of the minifigs.
And let me tell the person contending that a minifig version of these sets would be more popular, I’m sorry to tell you the sad truth, but the opposite is going to happen. Sooner or later Lego will release superhero playsets for boys in these dimensions, and they will be the most popular Legos ever made.
Yep its a disgrace.
You saw how well the Disney Minifgures sold, and I think Lego will be pretty embarrassed when they eventually provide “girl” type Lego in the traditional form and they sell like hotcakes.