To want to ban Friends Lego?

[chippednailvarnish]

I know it's been done before, but I'm just looking at Lego for DD's upcoming birthday and I'm most put off.
Why are most of the Friends sets which appear to be marketed at girls just so crap? There's a popstar dressing room set, a recording studio, a popstar limo, a shopping mall, a food market and the all important hair salon.
Why do Lego produce such dross aimed at girls, but the sets marketed at boys are so much more inclusive of a wider range of interests?

[greensnail]

My girls just have boxes and boxes of their dad's old Lego, so no real sets just lots of pieces they can use their imaginations with. I think this is a much nicer way to play with Lego than having specific sets that take ages to put together just right, especially at the younger ages when it is usually the parents putting the sets together anyway.

[chippednailvarnish]

I don't think it is dumbing down to introduce a range for girls, it's the fact that the "girls" range is far less complicated, has less moving parts and appear to be aiming at much lower design standard that the traditional sets have.

[Yorkshiremummyof4]

My daughters love Lego friends. She has dolphin boat, jungle bit, vets. We also have Star Wars Lego and normal Lego. She tends to build up her lego friends and play with it. She build temporary structures with the normal Lego and extra cars etc. depends on your daughter, but I see it as no difference in friends as buying my son Lego City stuff, which he did indeed build once and then it fell apart never to be used again.

[morelikeguidelines]

We have all lego in our house - friends and otherwise. Some of the stuff specifically marketed at boys as well as boxes without instructions. It's all dd's.

I don't have a problem with the friends stuff as I think it is just as good - there are cars and things not just "girly" stuff.

[ItsTricky]

Buy it, don't buy it. It's up to you. Banning it is going a bit far though. Do you think anything aimed at girls should banned? Does your daughter wear girls clothes?

[NerrSnerr]

I don't know. Personally I prefer the traditional lego sets but if my daughter wanted Lego Friends I would get it for her. Unless of course it might encourage her to become a hairdresser!!

[Only1scoop]

Ghosty

It just used to be lego in a bucket and a grey board 'go create' stylie.

It was fab

[Momzilla82]

Lego classic is what you need and the lego ideas book. They even have a slightly pinker box if you like. It drives me crazy that my niece makes up her pretty Lego friends shit and then can't cope if people move anything. She's obviously got perfectionist tendencies but still the whole point of Lego is to be creative- build, destroy, rebuild. And yes why such banal sets- I mean beach house and cake bakery- aspire high young girls of today

If you do give into Lego friends. Then pickle bums have some great prontaes to laminate to make a village.

[bikeandrun]

My DD loves the 3-1 creator sets the cat one is especially pleasing to the eye!

[Degustibusnonestdisputandem]

I was going to mention LEGO elves but got beaten to it. Yes they use mini dolls, but it's so, so much better than the Friends line.

[ghostyslovesheep]

that's it - a big grey board and loads of bricks and windows - I also used to make stables for my huges Britains horse collection

[TheoriginalLEM]

My DD really couldn't be less interested in the lego friends sets, her favourite is lego chima and we will be getting her lego minecraft for birthday. She is 9 now and more able to express her interests. She seems to be more interested in "boys" toys than girls.

I bought her a lego stables (i think pre friends) set but it was only really usable as it was designed, no taking apart and modifying. maybe that the problem with it.

What boils my piss with it is the bloody figures, they are NOT LEGO FIGURES

The 3 in one creator kits are fab, we have the house one, she does like to leave it alone (obessive im not allowed to touch it!) but occasionally we -I- get to dismantle and make another model.

DD likes animals and dragons, cars not so much but she does not like shopping, fecking nail bars and the vets does not have to be bastard pink!

[wigglesrock]

My kids love Lego Friends - they like swapping the heads on the figures to make different ones, their other toys also fit in the houses and the Lego Friends figures also fit in their other cars and bits and pieces. Their favourite is the caravan set, vets clinic and the wildlife/explorer/animal rescue type sets. They also like that they share the same names as some of the characters.

[VolumniaDedlock]

we have the treehouse, bakery, the horses set, and the science lab.
DC love 'em.

we also have a few Hogwarts sets. I don't find either brand offends my sensibilities. And agree that it devalues girls' interests to suggest that space/wizards are somehow more worthy than baking/ponies.

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

YABU, just buy the regular Lego sets.

DD likes Lego Friends and she likes the Lego City and Lego Superhero ranges too. She's particularly interested in the Fire & Police sets at the moment (both Lego and Playmobil). We buy her what she's interested in, sometimes that girly branded items and sometimes it's not.

YANBU to want to ban the Lego Friends characters because they're the wrong size to fit with the regular Lego sets. That's annoying

We've always said to DD that 'toys are toys' and she can play with whatever she wants and we always try to diffuse gender stereotyping where she mentions it. She has a slightly girly bike and a Batman cycle helmet, for example. In fact she loves Batman and has a range of Batman clothes (marketed at boys) and also I made her a Batman outfit which she chooses to wear with black leggings and a black tutu (she's then Batgirl).

[038THETA]

I'd have been ecstatic to have the Lego thats available today, when I was a child wheels and windows were coveted, there were no little people.
I loved playing with Playmobil and Lego when my children were small ?

[TheoriginalLEM]

NerrSNerr - what is wrong with being a hairdresser?

[ApeMan]

This "boy centric", "girl centric" thing is all nonsense. Lego doesn't stand over your shoulder forcing you to give the right or wrong thing to a particular child. Some kids will love the cutesy bits, elves, dragons etc., some will love the cars, spaceships, making robots etc., some will love both.

My DCs love both in appropriate measure for their little personalities.

[tbtc]

My nieces have lots of Lego Friends and love it. They also have non-friends Lego. It's all just Lego. If my DS wanted pop star Lego then I'd get it for him, but as it is he chooses vehicles and star wars stuff.

Personally, I prefer the non-kit Lego - just bricks and things, but children seem to be attracted to the kits, which often get built and then collect dust displayed rather than broken up and played with.

[prorsum]

Theoriginal Quite.

[prepperpig]

Lots of those "girls" sets are for a younger age range and so thats why they have fewer pieces. It's exactly the same with the "Boys'" sets.

FWIW I loved lego when I was younger (1970s) but spent most of my time playing with an amazing lego kitchen set complete with lovely 1970s yellow kitchen cabinets, sink, oven etc. Clearly aimed at girls. It didn't scar me and I don't now spend all my life chained to the kitchen sink. I have a degree and everything….

Its a bit misleading to post saying its all popstars and malls when actually there's the jungle set, vets set, ranch, tractor, lighthouse etc. Plus the lego city range is fairly neutral, DS has a pizza place, a bus top, a cafe and a pet shop.

[Idontseeanydragons]

DD likes the lego friends sets, don't mind getting it for her - it all ends up in the same box as the traditional style lego anyway!
The characters are rubbish though and not proper lego characters!
YABU to want to take the decision to buy it away from everyone else, just don't buy it.

[MrsDumbledore]

I see what you mean, and dd does not yet have any of the friends sets, partly because they really don't appeal to me and am pleased she hasn't asked for them! However, I think in some ways you are BU because nowhere do lego say girls can't play with what you refer to as the sets marketed at boys - that's your interpretation of them. We have bought batman sets, generic brick boxes and cinderella Castles for dd -basically whatever interests her. So Iif you don't like the friends sets, buy other sets -they pretty much have a set for any interest.

If the friends sets get girls who have more stereotypical interests building things, that can't be a bad thing.

[PaleoRules]

Apeman, the problem is that plenty of parents buy into the "boy stuff" "girl stuff" and pass these stupid ignorant attitudes onto their kids, who then pass it on to other children and so on.

I have two boys and have to work hard to constantly push back at the gender stereotyping they pick up from other kids at school. The pinkification of girls' toys makes this hard to do as boys are "taught" from a young age that this stuff is for girls only. So it's ok for girls to play with "boys' toys" but not the other way around.

When you have a boy who loves Frozen and ballroom dancing that's hard!

[EggOnTheFloor]

Lego have recently released a 'classic' Lego set.

It has lots of primary colours and isn't aimed at either boys or girls. That maybe the solution to your problem.

My DS loves lego - he recently built his sister Cinderella castle and was jealous because it had moveable doors and hidden boxes - he said it was better for playing with than any of his more complicated Star Wars lego.