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?

[SomewhereIBelong]

my friends who hate/don't doooooo lego friends are also the mums and dads who send their daughters to ballet/tap/gym class etc - there is one boy in the gym class so that makes it ok.... no stereotyping in their lives, heaven forfend...

[PandasRock]

I hate lego Friends, for all the reasons I've already outlined.

My dd2 also does ballet. I'm not sure what point you're making?

Fwiw, ds will also be starting ballet classes in September, when he is old enough (by his choice, not mine, and he can continue or stop as he chooses)

[ItsTricky]

Of course children should choose what they prefer chippednailvarnish.

There is a culture of being impressed with girls who shun all things pink and plead to play with daddy's prized 30 year old Star Wars collection. As if the girls who would turn their nose up at it are somehow a bit stupid.

My daugher doesn't particularly like dresses, should she (or I?) be given a round of applause for that? She also loves all things Spiderman. More applause.

I couldn't really give a stuff what she's playing with. As long as she's happy and developing.

[SomewhereIBelong]

Pandas - I just get fed up of being told my girls are being "bound by stereotypes" etc because I happen to let them have pink, girly lego, whilst they send their little girls to ballet - last time I did a pick up to help out there were 14 in one room all in tutus with their hair all done up in a bun, and send their little boys to football practise on a Saturday morning.

[DisappointedOne]

This is the falcon

shop.lego.com/en-IE/Millennium-Falcon-7965

And this is what's stolen the dining table.

shop.lego.com/en-GB/Death-Star-10188

[NotBeingUnreasonable]

Still can't understand why pirates and star wars = ok

Pirates are criminals. They fight and steal. Star wars is more fighting.

No one is addressing the gender stereotyping of boys as aggressive, power hungry megalomaniacs.

[noblegiraffe]

Lego need to get their act together and sort out the gender diversity in their non-girl targeted sets. They are making some effort, a recent set I bought had a female firefighter, but the other three characters were male. I've also got a set with a female robber. But they are in a minority rather than 50% of the City population.

[Degustibusnonestdisputandem]

Yes NobleGiraffe! I think that is far more of an issue. Why are there not far more females figures in the city sets?

[TSSDNCOP]

Panda I think the Millennium falcon might well be a challenge. Even the regular sized one is 1500 pieces of grey lego.



But I know we'll have to scale it eventually. A sort of Lego Everest

[PandasRock]

Ah, yes, that is a good Falcon, but not the one I mean, Disappointed

The UCS one is this one and as you can see, even used sets fetch £££££££

noble I agree. I really think lego are missing a trick with the City range. Mak it more realistic and balanced, as a real city would be, and lots of the Creator sets (houses and the recent bike shop, for eg) would also slot in nicely. I too was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a female firefighter in a recently bought set (only 2 minifigs, so a good inclusion) but it isn't a balanced range overall.

[PandasRock]

TSSDNCOP, yes, I am slightly daunted by over 2000 pieces in white for R2.

I would love the MF, though. And it really would be one of my first purchases if I won the lottery. Along with Yoda. That's the other one I really want.

[chippednailvarnish]

Why are there not far more females figures in the city sets?

'cause they're all too busy getting their hair done and visiting the juice bar.

and don't even start me on the separate Lego magazines...

[Tamar86]

I think they has been a move to include more female figures recently.

A few of our recent sets have had female figures - a construction set with a hardhat with a ponytail attached was good. And we have a female robber who rides a motorbike from another set. And the ice cream van (that I want to buy but can't find any more) had 2 female figures and only one male.
We also recently bought a little set of 4 or 5 surf dudes having a beach barbecue, and I think at least 2 of them were female.

I saw a little space set as well, which has a female scientist figure, and a couple of male astronauts/scientists, and there was one with divers and sharks and one of the divers was wearing lipstick, so presumably female!

OK, you could cynically say it is just a token female figure, but it is definitely a step in the right direction, and something that I am pleased to see. Especially since those little sets are the ones the DC are most likely to buy with their pocket money, so it's especially nice that they are making them a bit more diverse than just a load of male minifigures with stubble and quizzical expressions.

[CrapBag]

When I was little they had Paradisa lego. I loved it. Riding stables and villa in pink and mint green. It's in my loft for DD when she is old enough (DS is only into lego vehicles so wouldn't be interested).

Ultimately, no matter what the 'boys wear dresses' brigade say, all, of the girls I know play with toys that are aimed at girls and vice versa. I don't agree that basic toys need to be produced in unisex colours and a pink version (ELC and Toys R Us Bruin range, thinking of you here) but there is too much angst about some of this stuff.

DS got a nerf gun for Christmas. DD wants one, but the pink rebel version, because she loves pink. Personally I don't see the need for a pink Nerf gun but there is clearly a market.

[CrapBag]

DS has got a lot of lego city, he has many female lego figures.

[CrapBag]

I'll tell you what though OP, I did see the new limo/popstar range recently and I did kind of despair about it. Then DS saw the limo and thought it was really cool. Missed their target market a bit .

[girliefriend]

Damn you Disappointed you made me go on the lego website and now i really want to get this [http://shop.lego.com/en-IE/City-of-Stiix-70732?fromListing=listing very cool]] set for dd!!

Do think lego is expensive though.

[AnnoyedParent22]

all, of the girls I know play with toys that are aimed at girls and vice versa. I don't agree that basic toys need to be produced in unisex colours and a pink version (ELC and Toys R Us Bruin range, thinking of you here) but there is too much angst about some of this stuff.

Yes, but why is this? Could it possibly be because they see the TV ads, and the Lego Magazine for Girls and therefore are constantly shown and directed towards the toys that are meant for them? As opposed to what some of them might choose if left to their own devices and not motivated by marketing?

As someone up thread said, imo there is nothing wrong with girls liking pink and purple or wanting to play with being a vet or a pop star. It is just that Lego Friends [and so many other 'girl' branded toys] are almost exclusively pink and purple and have their female protagonists act out the same narrow range of 'female' inspired roles.

Why can't there be female fantasy figures [rather than just elves and fairies] such as pirates and spaceship captains? And why can't the figures be in a mix of green, yellow, blue, etc. as well as the ubiquitous pink and purple?

[merrymouse]

there is too much angst about some of this stuff

I think we can say that when there is no pay gap and women are well represented in government, industry, films, TV, the music industry, academia etc, etc.

Until then role models matter.

However, more than anything Lego Friends are deeply naff. Who wants to be a Lego Friend when you can be Wyldestyle?

[girliefriend]

I think making boys and girls toys is simply about making more money for the toy industry, likewise with boys and girls clothes.

I don't think in the 70s and 80s (when I was growing up) this was as bad as it is now. I have always told my dd there is no such thing as 'boys' stuff and 'girls' stuff and she has been happy to play with a wide selection of toys, some aimed at girls some not.

One of her favourite toys when she was 5-6yo was her cars and wooden garage, now she will happily spend hours playing with play mobil and sylvainain families.

She also has a few items of clothes that were from the 'boys' section, she finds the trousers more comfy and t.shirts generally more exciting than the stuff in the 'girls' section.

I find the blatant stereotyping and other peoples desire to label her a tomboy just because she doesn't fit with their perceptions of gender utterly depressing tbh.

[funkybuddah]

I like some of the sets, every city needs a bakery or cafe but I would love to ban the friends figures. Nasty lollipop heads that don't even fit onto the blocks properly. We have all the blocks mixed up with the normal Lego city coloured ones

[CrapBag]

I don't think gender specific toys and toys that are pink make any difference to pay gaps and that.

I will give you Wyldstyle. She was cool.

[chippednailvarnish]

But Wyldstyle wasn't a Lego Friend.
I can't see her giving up saving the world to go and work in Heartlake City.

[merrymouse]

We are agreeing that she is better than the Lego friends.

[JumpingJetFlash]

I was very po-faced about Lego friends but my DD was really keen so we compromised on the Jungle set. It actually took a lot of team work and instruction following to build the individual parts (far more than the hospital set I had as a kid).
That said, we do also have 'traditional' Lego and she also loves to build with that. I feel this is a happy balance.