Eurobricks publishes an interview interesting from the designers in charge of the LEGO Friends range (Fenella and Rosario), and without relaunching the controversy about the sexism manifested or not by LEGO with this range, I must say that the answers to the questions asked are unequivocal: LEGO has made numerous tests with young female audiences before offering this range for sale and concluded that the girls liked friendships, animals and family ... Through the responses (probably validated in high places) of these employees, LEGO takes responsibility for its choices and that's good. 

You will tell me that from an early age children are conditioned to learn to love what a priori corresponds to their sex: A boy is told that pink is a color for girls and to a girl that backhoe loaders are for the boys. LEGO only confirmed these educational consequences to draw the conclusion that the Friends range, clearly aimed at girls, had to respect certain codes to function in a very competitive market.

The idea for the Friends theme had been in the making for 4 years, and (intensive) studies by LEGO have shown that girls love animals, families, friends, etc. It has also been shown that girls love animals. need characters they can relate to, which explains the 5 minidolls in the range with a different look.

We also learn that the LEGO designers had planned to use the classic minifigs, but tests with a panel of girls showed that the standard minifig did not really appeal to them. The compromise was found by creating these pretty minidolls which however retain some attributes of the classic minifigs.

It is also clearly confirmed that LEGO wanted to attract a female audience thanks to the new colors which make it possible to create more models "girly"therefore more attractive to girls.

In short, LEGO has done its homework, drew conclusions, and came up with a range whose target is unequivocal: The young female audience.

The LEGO Friends range is set to continue and should become a long-term range as is already the case with the LEGO City range.

This should end the debate about the manufacturer's sexism with this range. In one way or another for that matter ...

Read the interview at this address.

For anyone who wants a Series 8 minifig review without unnecessary frills, infuriating comments or overplayed exclamations of admiration at each prop, here is the Artifex video review.

As usual, each minifigure is presented from all angles and you will have plenty of time to see, review and re-watch the ones you like the most before going to be noticed feeling the bag like a psychopath at Toys R Us from the corner.

If you've ever been kicked out of your favorite store and the cashier threatened to call the police because you've been kneading the red bags for a good two hours with a vague look and an ominous smile at every find , you still have the option of purchasing a box of 60 minifigs, keeping the 16 constituting the complete series and reselling the rest on eBay.

It will cost you just over 119 € at amazon.de for a complete box.

At Marvel (and therefore at Disney), we are surfing on the success of The Avengers and we already know that Joss Whedon will be at the helm of the second cinematographic opus scheduled for 2015.

But we learn today that ABC, the powerful American channel, has just ordered a pilot of a potential future series taking place in the universe of SHIELD and which will be written and probably directed by the same Joss Whedon.

On the other hand, it is advisable not to get carried away, the series should focus on the adventures of the Agents of SHIELD and the super heroes who make up the Avengers team should only make a brief appearance at best, just to keep the consistency of the thing.

Rumors are rife: We talk about the presence of Samuel L. Jackson episodically, via video briefings for example, of Cobie Smulders alias Agent Maria Hill, and even of the possibility that the series is a prequel in which we would find Clark Gregg aka Agent Coulson. None of this is confirmed, the series should go into production soon, and we just have to hope that we won't be entitled to a Cop show classic in futuristic sauce without the particular flavor of what makes SHIELD an organization apart: The presence of super heroes.

We do not yet know if this is a simple poster or the cover of the video game which is due out on October 26, but it is in any case very successful.

We discover on this poster / cover some additional elements of the bestiary and characters of the game and / or the LEGO Lord of the Rings range with a Mumak in the background and a Fell Beast overlapped by the Witch King of Angmar ( Lord of the Nazgul).

Note that amazon.de offers pre-order a collector's PS3 version of the game accompanied by an exclusive Elrond minifig.

Haven't pre-ordered your copy of this DK Publishing book yet? So the superb video below will convince you to offer yourself (or to be offered) a copy of this book which will take you to visit the universe of Batman and some other DC Universe super heroes and allow you to learn about it. more on gear, outfits, LEGO sets, etc, etc ...

Cherry on the cake: Batman's exclusive minifig in an Electro Suit version.

Amazon offers this book for pre-order with delivery announced for mid-September at a reasonable price of 17.86 €.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lCGje54hI0