Friends Animals. Do you love them or hate them?

Venunder

It is Great that the Friends Theme is introducing new animal designs into the Lego universe.
Now I know the market for these is supposed to be young girls. 
However the Friends Animals are beginning to bug me.
Why?
They are just too stupidly cutesy.
Come on TLG make them slightly more realistic please, so they are better for collecting and using in "real" city MOCs.
In my view most of them are only good for representing cuddly toys.
The exceptions so far are maybe the baby rabbits, the poodle and the new pug dog?

What do you think?  

CapnRex101

I don't object to the Friends animals within the Friends world but I agree that most don't fit into City models very well, at least not in my opinion.

My favourite is probably the new hamster. It is quite similar to the baby rabbit in terms of size and is one of the few that could fit with City animals.

CCC

I think that they are great, and fit in perfectly well with the friends sets. My little girl won't play with things like the city Alsatian, but loves the friends ones. 

It's a shame there aren't more city ones, but it is not the fault of friends.

Aanchir

I like them, honestly, and I don't see how LEGO City animals are any more realistic. City animals tend to be blockier and have simpler eyes, but neither of those things is inherently "realistic". If anything, the Friends animals are the way they are because LEGO City animals aren't detailed or realistic enough to fit in with the figures of that world.

I generally would prefer not to use Friends animals in a City display, except for ones like the baby bunnies and the new hamsters that have simplified eye shapes by default. I do think some other Friends animals might possibly work in LEGO City with new eye printing.

Overall, though, as with the differences between mini-dolls and minifigures — I don't think one style is inherently better than the other. People who prefer animals with curvier shapes and more expressive faces will generally opt for LEGO Friends. People who prefer animals with blockier shapes and more simplified faces will opt for LEGO City. If only one style of animals existed, one group or the other would have to settle for a style that doesn't suit them or the kind of world they want to build.

My biggest frustration with LEGO Friends animals, currently, is that there are some types of animals like lions, tigers, bears (oh my), and deer for which there are presently baby versions but no adult versions. It'd be nice to be able to create whole families of these species.

My biggest frustration with LEGO City animals is not enough dog breeds. When you're using a German Shepherd mold for Dalmatians (a breed that should realistically have floppy ears) it should be pretty clear there's a problem. More species like lions or an updated elephant would also be nice, though there hasn't yet really been a theme or subtheme that needs them. There are also some LEGO City animals that still lack printed eyes, but thankfully more and more animals are being updated to meet that standard.

tallblocktoo

I really like the animals in the Elves sets.  Perhaps they wouldn't work in the city theme but then they weren't made to either.  I am not sure that would stop me from using them in a city set up if I had the space to build one.  Although I don't live by the many rules that others do about what does and doesn't work together.  

tamamahm

I look at it this way. There are things that bug me in the regular Lego sets, and there are things that bug people about the Friends sets. That is just the way it is going to be. 

Personally everyone one here including my son loves the Friends animals. 

Venunder

Are they hamsters? or guinea pigs?
Surely with back feet like that they are rabbits? or wallabies?

AllBrick

Dolphins are ok, so are the birds, chameleon at a push, everything else far too cute for regular Lego. Hedgehogs?

sklamb

I find most of the Friends animals too large-eyed and cute for my taste--perhaps partly because I admire the stylization of the older molds. The hedgehog, baby rabbit, penguin, tiger/lion cub, bear cub, and poodle are honorable exceptions. The birds are too large to be songbirds and shaped wrong to be anything else. The mold for the foal isn't bad but the larger horses don't appeal to me at all. And I really wish the "wild" animals in particular didn't have holes for bows or other decorations!

On the other hand I suppose it's better to have friendified (or more likely Disneyfied) animals than no animals at all.

tamamahm

I have a city polar bear and husky and  the 3 Brave bears, a few yetis, a Friend's rabbit all in my winter scene. They work well together. :-) Oh, and Sven. We can not forget Sven.

brumey

rabbits, sqirrels, cats, birds i love them all.
the only animals i ever actually purchased myself have been friends animals for my little niece.