Kate & Joanna (2014)

I was very happy to see these two girls return in 2014.




Kate: 41037 Stephanie's Beach House
Joanna: 41034 Summer Caravan




During the first two years of LEGO Friends, no single secondary character appeared twice.

But in 2014, a few familiar faces started to return to new sets. As I have said before, Kate and Matthew have appeared every year since they became part of Friends in 2013.

Of course, like many other Friends mini-dolls from 2014, Kate and Joanna did not get anything new to wear. Kate is wearing her own bikini top from 2013, and the other body parts shown here all once belonged to Andrea.

 

Kate's return was actually not that surprising, as she had been previously introduced as a rare secondary character worthy of appearing in a set all by herself.



But this time, Kate came back as Stephanie's guest at her beach house. Interestingly, they would be paired again at the lighthouse a year later. They must enjoy each other's company at the beach!

On the other hand, Joanna appeared as Olivia's friend on her camping trip.

Did you know that there were some contradicting statements about Joanna?

As I showed you before, she had first appeared in 41007 Heartlake Pet Salon in 2013.

Soon after that she made a brief appearance in the second mini-movie/ TV episode as the worker at the pet salon. Naturally, many of us assumed she was working there.

LEGO's official set description says, however, Emma is the one who works at the pet salon while Joanna is the customer with the dog (who is actually Emma's dog named Lady)!

That also contradicts the small image at the bottom the box; It shows Emma paying money to Joanna at the checkout counter.



And what does DK's Character Encyclopedia say?

It says those two girls work at the pet salon together!!

I imagine the author just didn't know what to do...

So does Joanna work at the pet salon, or does she not?

I think she does, but either way, Joanna must be seen at the pet salon quite often.

My guess is Olivia must have brought her dog Scarlett there, and that's how those two girls met and became close enough to go camping together.

Kate & Joanna (2013)

When LEGO Friends was launched in 2012, there was only a limited selection of mini-doll parts. The mini-doll faces were no exception, and we pretty much had the bare minimum in variety: the faces for the five Friends and Olivia's parents.

That means all the secondary characters from that year (except Olivia's parents) got the same face print as Andrea, Emma, Olivia or Stephanie, as I discussed in a few of my earlier posts.

As a result, there were five different characters with dark skin and green eyes including Andrea. 

I'm sure I was not the only one at that point who wished there were some dark-skinned girls with brown eyes.

So, Kate and Joanna were a most welcome addition in early 2013; finally we got dark-skinned girls who didn't look like slightly different versions of Andrea!




Kate: 41000 Water Scooter Fun
Joanna: 41007 Heartlake Pet Salon

Kate's hair is the black version of Olivia's wig, previously seen on Ella from Summer Riding Camp. Since Olivia's wig is a bid overused on secondary characters, Kate's hairstyle doesn't really stand out among the crowd unlike Joanna's.

All the remaining parts of Kate were brand new in 2013. The shorts were new, and they were produced in two different colors for the dark-skinned mini-dolls. This version in Medium Azur has not been used in any other set so far. The bikini top was exclusive at the time, but reappeared in 2014.

Joanna's wig was newly designed, and there have been only two characters so far who have worn their hair in this exact style: Joanna and Emily Jones from the Elves theme.

Joanna's top is exclusive to this mini-doll. Her leg piece is not very common, either; they have been used on Andrea on one occasion only.

The printed details of their torsos are quite nice. Kate even has a belly button!


Since both of them have made more than one appearance, I will feature each of them individually some time in the future.