Friends Character Encylopedia
Posted by Huw,
My Amazon order for Dorling Kindersley's latest book LEGO Friends Character Encyclopedia turned up today, a week or so early.
It's the same size and format as their other character encyclopedias so I won't be writing much about it. However it is worth mentioning what's in it.
The mini-doll on the cover is Naya with exclusive outfit and accessories. According to the book, Naya appeared in the 41035 Heartlake Juice bar and as far as I can tell, this version of her is wearing the same top as Maya who appeared in 41015 Dolphin Cruiser. (Naya/Maya, confusing isn't it...)
The book comprises 5 sections. The first covers all the characters, the five main ones, then all their contemporaries, and the adults. If I've counted correctly, that's 30 of them in all.
The second section has a page for each of the animals that have appeared in Friends sets, from horses to hedgehogs. They are all given names, which I don't think are stated in the literature accompanying the sets although I don't have many Friends sets to be sure of that. For example, there's Flame the tiger, Kiki the green parrot and Clara the hen. Maybe their names come from the many story books that have been published.
The third section covers hobbies: music, magic, charity work, etc. The fourth locations: the shops, houses, stables, etc. and the fifth vehicles.
Finally, at the end of the book are galleries of mini-dolls, 'more than 80 of them so far' (BrickLink lists 87), animals, accessories, and 'more than 80' sets. However it is not complete: series 6 Animals sets are included, but the 2014 polybags and the Advent calendars are not. We list 91 normal Friends sets so there must be other omissions too.
Like all DK books, it's all very colourful and easy to read and I am sure girls that are into Friends will love it. But unlike other Character Encyclopedias, there's not much in it to interest adults.
Interestingly, the copy Amazon.co.uk sent me is the US version complete with 'spelling mistakes' (color, harbor, etc.) so be aware if you're buying it for young readers.
You can order it here: UK
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Yeah, my daughter will be wanting this...
This Naya minifigure bothers me because not one of its parts is unique. I wouldn't mind if this were considered a "unique" outfit (just like I consider the Min-Droid minifigure in this year's Ninjago sets a "unique" minifigure even though all his parts are found on other figs). However, calling it "exclusive" smacks of false advertising.
Anyway, this book looks quite interesting. It's nice that it doubles as story reference rather than just a "collectors' guide".
Also, spelling mistakes? We Americans spell color with the original Latin spelling, thank you very much! None of that silly "-our" nonsense. :P
^That's false advertising. I guess the supposed exclusivity stems from Naya wearing something she's never worn before in a set? I really don't like when LEGO underestimates the intelligence of children... especially because I'm especially bright for my age and can see that that's what they're doing.
Go, Latin spelling!
^^ I thought my comment would ruffle a few feathers on your side of the Atlantic :-)
This is quite an interesting article that explains why the US spells differently: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/why-we-have-both-%E2%80%9Ccolor%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Ccolour%E2%80%9D
I always assumed Americans spelled things differently because the first people to come over from England weren't able to spell and just made it up as they went along :)
This book looks great. I think I'll get it for my three year old if for no other reason than it'll be fun to assign official names to the animals (who are all inhabiting the roof of her pink castle at the moment).
I'm gonna hazard a guess that someone involved in the production of this book has a daughter/niece called 'Naya'.
You're probably right about that, Andhe. Ha Ha.
@Aanchir - Blame French, they added the 'u' from Latin and English adopted it :o)
Canadians due to their history and loyalty to the British Crown; words like colour and harbour are not spelling mistakes. Though due to out close proximity to our US neightbours we've come to accept both spellings.
Funny you should mention loyalty to the British Crown, as words like colour and harbour only entered the language in the first place after it was traded for loyalty to the French Crown. :P
The French re-spelled "cow" as "beef" and "fall" as "autumn", and the Brits just chickened out and accepted it. Oh, and hey look, "crown" is from French, too! And so is "loyal"! So now you can no longer be loyal to any crown without being loyal to the French. Brilliant. (Which is yet another French word right there.)
And don't get me started on the very verb "to spell", which English managed to borrow from French even though it already existed in English. Talk about overachieving.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=spell
So now in this thread here we have the rather bizarre situation that one side is rooting for Latin, and the other for French aka Vulgar Latin, with absolutely no one at all actually rooting for English, a Germanic language.
So much for history. (Also a French word.)
^ My head is now officially spinning with the penultimate paragraph there. Go Latin!
It's funny that half the comments have nothing to do with the book itself. I wouldn't have posted here otherwise, Friends not being my preferred way to get bright colors...
On top of all that, I wonder why you guys spell 'center' like 'centre'. I'll actually see some businesses in the U.S. spelling center with an re though. Oh well. It's fun to look in some LEGO books and see words spelled the British way if it's non-licensed.
Just read that article. That's some interesting stuff. A lot of questions were answered.
Almost stopped reading at 'section for animals.' Almost. Surprised to hear of this book becoming a thing. Might buy it just to avoid looking goofy browsing it at the bookstore.
^^ I'm not sure 'US version of English is what is spoken worldwide' is actually the case, and I suspect you actually meant written rather than spoken since the words sound the same however they are spelt.
I'd be interested to hear whether the US- or English- spelling of these words is taught to non-English speakers in France, Germany etc.
Besides, we were speaking English for centuries before the USA was even discovered :)
^ I believe the majority learn American spellings, although I am not sure why since I expect many more Continental Europeans come to the UK than to the US.
On the other hand, can an American advise me on the phrases 'without do' (the equivalent of the English 'without further ado') and 'I could care less' (the equivalent of the English 'I couldn't care less')? I could ask about the pronunciation of 'aluminium' as well :o)
Here in Australia, we follow the UK spelling which I think is the proper way. I mean, when you think about it, English did come out of England.....
In fact if I'm not mistaken, most Commonwealth countries follow the English spelling system.
"Without do" and "I could care less" are simply mistakes that have been widely adopted by the moronic. Anyway, I love that light yellow colo(u)r found in Friends sets!
Language is interesting. I guess I hadn't noticed too much. I just blindly came to accept the spelling differences.
But Eddie Izzard has a nice little bit about pronunciation differences.
I still don't understand why people say "I could care less." If you could, then why aren't you caring less for this subject that you dislike? Some people's kids...
FYI: In the Netherlands they teach us British english.
@BrickSnorter, what I meant was that colour and color, harbour and harbor are pronounced the same.
Although I registered as being in China (where I work), for some reason it shows me as being from America, whereas I am Welsh...
OK, just seen it changed to the UK now...
So to add to the debate. Many words "sound" the same when spoken, but are written differently (hetrographichomophones), but the problem is which word means what? Different words have different meanings, such as "pants": trousers in American, and underwear in English. This means that nevermind the spelling, the words have different meaning.
In schools, and universsities etc. (especially here in China), many of the textbooks used are actually in English, as they are up-to-date, and not been translated yet, so the students learn a mix of spellings, depending on where the books come from. When I have asked students what they learned (this was both here in China, and also when I was working in the UK before I came over), I was often told that they would learn British English to start with (primary school), and then change to American English in secondary school. After that, it would depend where they were. This did actually confuse many of the students, so they were unsure on many words that have dual usage...
To throw another piece into the fire, there are many companies that check academic articles prior to submission to journals for English coherency, especially grammar and familiarity of words, etc., and no matter where they originate (UK, America, Australia, etc.), the companies use British English as the baseline of the language standard.
This Naya isn't really exciting. This torso can be found in Shopping Mall as a "wedding dress". It should at least get a non-Friends hairpiece with at least a new print on the face or a new torso.
The content would be more appealing to FOLs who are interested in the world of Friends, while LEGO City can't do this. The main problem for Friends could be that despite featuring "characters", so far most Friends sets aren't "story-driven" like Chima and Ninjago are.
It's nice to see all animals given official names and bios so their existence in Friends would be more recognizable and reasonable. Somehow the Heartlake locations look like a new commercial catalogue.
@Andhe
> the production of this book has a daughter/niece called 'Naya'
Naya is an existed character from Heartlake Juice Bar. You may also see her in later TV episodes.
American English versus English is always amusing. American English didn't exist until the arrival of European settlers. I've no idea what British English is. Britain is the collective of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. English is from England. The Scottish, Welsh and Irish have their own languages ;-)