Lauren Faust's Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls

Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls is a project by award-winning animator Lauren Faust. (You know that show with the talking, magical horses who learn lessons about friendship and stuff? Yep, she created it.) Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls centres around the planets in our solar system, personified as a group of teenage girls, with personalities ranging from the eccentric artist Mars to the punk-rocker Pluto.

At the moment, MWGG exists mainly as a series of artworks on Ms Faust's deviantArt page (http://fyre-flye.deviantart.com/) and as a standalone website featuring a blog and character bios (http://milkywayandthegalaxygirls.com/), as well as a series of handmade ragdolls. However, she has been trying to pitch it as a toyline and/or TV show for several years now. (Approaching Hasbro with the idea resulted in her getting the job on My Little Pony instead). But despite the success of MLP, Milky Way has still not managed to get off the ground yet.

Sooo... if Hasbro won't take it... how about LEGO?

This year, LEGO has been trying to appeal to a female audience more with the release of LEGO Friends. There has been a lot of talk about this new line; some excitement, some backlash. One of the most significant aspects of the new line is the introduction of the Minidoll (or "Ladyfig" as some prefer) instead of the traditional minifigure.

While not everyone likes the new design, I actually think that the more streamlined look of the figures would make them work well as Galaxy Girls figurines. In the past, LEGO has often struggled with translating animated characters into standard minifigures. This is in part because the art style of a cartoon contributes heavily to the look and feel of the characters. In trying to stretch a cartoon character into the shape of a minifigure, a lot of the "essence" of the character is often lost (The Avatar: The Last Airbender line was a prime example of this). This highlights the needs for other kinds of figurines besides the conventional minifigure.

But as it happen, the new Minidolls happen to share a lot of stylistic similarities with the Galaxy Girls characters. A few tweaks to the facial features, and they'd be perfect. (Below: The characters Neptune, Milky Way and Uranus as minidolls)

And if you're still a bit sceptical of the minidoll's potential, I would recommend checking out builder42's "Friends in Space" project- an excellent idea that shows that minidolls can do more than just play house and go shopping! (https://ideas.lego.com/projects/7853)

The characters in the Friends line have detachable hair accessories that plug into a tiny socket in their hairpiece. I think a similar technique could be used for the Galaxy Girls' distinctive earrings, with the sockets being located on the hairpiece directly below the ears (the character Mars has antennae that could be attached in the same way).

Another feature of the Galaxy Girl characters is that they apparently scoot around the solar system on rollerskates. While I have not yet included this in the concept art, I think that the figures could come with skate-shaped pieces that attach to the soles of their shoes. The larger feet of the minidolls makes this much easier to do than it would be on a standard minifigure. While the sets would certainly benefit from these new part ideas,however, they are by no means a necessity. New minidoll features aside, sets themselves could be constructed entirely out of existing parts.

Each set would reflect the character it is based on, resulting in a range of different themes and styles. The above image is based on The Moon- a dramatic and melancholy poet. (She's not sure what that funny metal thing that landed in her backyard is, but she'll probably use it as inspiration sometime).

Anyway, if you're a Faust fan, or you'd just like to see LEGO making a more diverse range of products for girls, please support and spread the word!