A new Heartlake City themed zone featuring Lego Friends is set to open at the Legoland Windsor Resort in late May.

Launched in 2012, the Lego Friends play theme is primarily aimed at encouraging girls to play with Lego. The concept focuses on the everyday lives of five mini-doll figures within a fictional hometown called Heartlake City. Each of the friends — Olivia, Mia, Andrea, Stephanie and Emma — has a distinct interest, such as animals and performing arts, while the accompanying building sets reflect different parts of town where the girls’ adventures take place, like a beach and camping site.

The Lego Friends product range has become such a huge hit with its intended audience that the concept has now been incorporated into Windsor's Legoland Resort. The new Heartlake City zone features a live 'Friends to the Rescue!’ show featuring the five main characters, while the Heartlake City Express train transports guests through Lego countryside.

The Lego Friends brand has also been promoted at the 150-room Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel, which backs onto the theme park, with the launch of ten premium Friends bedrooms in March. Originally built in 2012 and featuring themed Kingdom, Pirate and Adventure rooms, the new Heartlake City rooms are decorated with bright wall graphics and models of the main characters and their favourite pets like Scarlett the Dog. Equipped with interactive games and a TV apiece for the adults and the children, the new Lego Friends rooms create a welcome update to the existing branded accommodation offering.

Elsewhere in the resort, the Lego City Driving School has been polished up for the 2015 season, with more child-sized Fiat cars and a new lane on the test course, while the Boating School has been equipped with more boats and animated Lego models.

“We have lots of new cars in the fleet this year in our bigger and better Lego City Driving School. We want to make sure ALL our vehicles are in tip top condition when guests get behind the wheel in a couple of weeks,” explains Lauren Moss, senior press officer at the Windsor site.

On the back of the huge commercial success of The Lego Movie, Merlin has also recently announced further future additions to its existing parks, including the development of a 4D film based on the movie to be rolled out at its Legoland and Discovery Centre sites.

Using 4D effects such as wind, water, smoke and special lighting, the experience will bring the film’s main characters – Emmet and Wyldstyle – together for an original adventure previously unseen by fans of the franchise.