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?

[Pilgit]

My DD loves the friends stuff. Visited the new heartlake city at legoland last weekend she was very excited. She also loves the princess stuff - got given 2 rapunzel towers so has combined them. We have lots of other lego as well and she makes towns to play in. I don't like the emphasis on superficial stuff you see in the friends range but this isn't the stuff she likes - she wants the jungle station and cars etc.

[RaisingSteam]

This comic strip sums it up nicely

Lego Friends

I don't have DD's but... I don't think there's a problem with girls choosing toys they prefer. The problem is when they only have girl-stereotype things to choose from. Not surprising they choose a set which featured female characters? If there was a Girl Power Construction Set for example...

The world is 50% female. So should the mini figures be. Humph. Gimme Wylde Style.

[CinderellaRockefeller]

Girls are only any good as girls if they're emulating society's stereotypical view of boys as far as I can tell from this thread.

DD has lots of Lego friends and elves and (whisper it quietly) Disney Princess. She builds all kinds of different things with the bricks and uses the little figures as dolls, once something is built its played with as a prop in the imagination game, construction is only a part of it. That's how she plays. I'm not going to demean who she is by adding in a list of stereotypical boy things that she also does to justify her worth as a girl. But she loves playing with dolls. And she prefers the more recognisable human features of the doll styles. She doesn't want the yellow ones (they have been offered).

Don't buy it if you don't like it. But don't look down on the children that do.

[PausingFlatly]

"Girls are only any good as girls if they're emulating society's stereotypical view of boys as far as I can tell from this thread."

How do you mean?

[EddieStobbart]

Has anyone bought Lego Friends for their DS?

[Discopanda]

Am I the only person who clicked on this thread hoping that they'd invented "Friends" themed lego?! They could do various styles of clip-on hair for Rachel and a teeny weeny guitar for Phoebe.

[differentnameforthis]

Things evolve. My girls love it, not because it is pink/purple etc, but because it is Lego. They love their dad's old Lego too.

The sets marketed at boys are spaceships, police stations, cops & robbers, fast cars....that's all stereotyping too, no? Perhaps mum's don't like that Lego aims their boys range towards violence/violent preoccupations?

What if a boy wanted to be a vet? Or a hairdresser?

The people can't even sit in vehicles FFS. Not true...my daughter's fit in her vehicle quite happily!

[DrEdwardNigma]

My eldest loves batman Lego.
My youngest loves playmobil. But also likes the batman Lego.

The girlie Lego does look naff.

[HerRoyalNotness]

I Wasn't keen on Friends sets when they first came out, but if you look closely at the individual pieces, there are some very nice unique bits you can't get in standard lego sets.

If you are the type that builds from your imagination and creates your own scenes, they would be a very nice addition to your collection

[undermythumb]

But Lego has always had hairdressing salons. It is not a new thing. In fact this was my favourite set in the early 1980's.

There is nothing inherently 'naff' about the Friends sets; There is nothing wrong with building a mall or a juice bar as opposed to a rocket. Neither is of intrinsically higher moral value. I would rather build a juice bar with it's inherent socialising, it's mercantile and community orientated interactions than a dull monotone rocket that bears no relevance to my life.

Likewise though I instinctively feel that the enormous sets of plain blocks are 'better' than sets upon reflection I accept that is my own value judgement and is not necessarily born out any basis in fact.

I do think toys are unisex, (though I think the way children play and interact with a particular toy can fall primarily along gender lines) I have no issue with a desire to see toys marketed to children not to a particular sex. But to dismiss legitimate spheres of interest as 'naff' is really wrong.

[TheNewStatesman]

I have always avoided lego like the plague it is, due to not wanting to do the Lego Firewalk every time I walk across the living room. But if we do buy any, I think I'll stick to PLAIN LEGO BRICKS so that I can avoid the whole controversy altogether...

[WoonerismSpit]

I agree CinderellaRockefeller. These threads always bring out the MNers falling over themselves to describe the stereotypical 'boy' things their DDs love doing.

I like that idea discopanda. Ross could have a little sandwich.

[SomewhereIBelong]

The friends people do fit in "vehicles" - you build vehicles for them in some of the sets - so don't know where that came from. They also have the dimple in their feet to let them "stand" on the lego and the funny C shaped hands that let them hold stuff. They are jointed like the minifigures and their heads turn - they are just not "blocky" like the minifigures.

[PandasRock]

They don't fit well in vehicles - they don't 'stuck' down so eg if you try to fly a helicopter then they wobble and fall out. Because they have silly stick thin legs which don't have the necessary holes in to stick them down. Which means they need a different design of vehicle seat to stick down, and proper mini figs don't fit... More segregation.

No one has said that wanting a juice bar or a hairdressers is a bad thing. It is bad because they are the only options offered to girls, which is a bit limiting.
And yes I have a problem with a lot of hat is offered to boys, although their range is wide enough to be able to swerve the violence and get a good city going, if you build houses etc from classic bricks.

[SomewhereIBelong]

but the "juice bar" and "hairdressers" are just the ONLY ones people talk about on mumsnet -

how about the private jet with the female pilot, the sunshine harvest with the tractor, the lighthouse, the skate park, the airport, the recording studio, the hot air balloon, the lifeguard and all the jungle rescue stuff.

Those don't fit with people's blinkered views though.

The classic bricks are fine for a bit, then they like to expand - the friends sets have stuff like binoculars, a slide, all the extra little bits that have kept my 12 and 14 year old girls playing with it on a rainy afternoon, making up stories, filming stop-go animations on their smartphones etc.

[Notso]

Am I the only person who clicked on this thread hoping that they'd invented friends themed Lego?!

I would love that. Am picturing it now a Central Perk set, and the two apartments. I would pay good money for that!

[PausingFlatly]

undermythumb, that's a lovely salon from the 1980s. Do you notice how it isn't colour-coded? It's exactly the same colours as other lego.

The role-modelling is a girl, of course, and the lego people provided are all female. But at least they're no different from the male figures of the time, who won't look out of place when they're plonked in the salon as soon as the set joins the other lego.

[PandasRock]

SomewhereiBelong - all those sets came much, much later. From inception, the Friends range was about a group of (only female) friends who pretty much lounged about, went to the cafe and the juice bar, or cruised about on a dolphin cruiser, or went to Pony club. It was quite hard in the early days to find anything remotely 'worthwhile'. One friend did have an inventors workshop. It is only now, a good few years later that the more diverse range is being introduced - maybe Lego are listening to customer demand. All good. But it doesn't change the fact that the emphasis of the friends range is in looks (why change and slim down the mini figures?) and on what is seen by society as purely girly activities (hairdresser, shopping, pony club, cute animals, etc).

I have no issue with any of those things per se. A full and busy town will include thm all. I have massive issus with them being marketed at girls alone, and also with the fact that for many years they were the only options available to girls. The lack of imagination is startling - the new elves range (placed next to the Friends range in all the Lego shops ive been in, so presumably also aimed at girls) has started off with the same sets - bakery etc! Talk about Emperors New Clothes.

My dd has lots of Friends sets, and I do like some of them. I just hate the segregated marketing and the image focus. Imo, it wasn't necessary at all and Lego have done a huge disservice to girls (and boys, actually, as it is just as limiting for boys to exclude them from these sets which are not replicated in the 'boys' range) in going down this route

[noblegiraffe]

Seems like lego have shot themselves in the foot. I expect loads of boys would want a skate park or recording studio set but refuse to buy Friends because it's for girls.

[prepperpig]

Mine was this lovely yellow flowery kitchen set (set 263) from the wonderfully named "homemaker" range from 1974.

brickset.com/sets/theme-Homemaker

As I said earlier, I loved it and it hasn't turned me into a "homemaker"

(although now I want to buy it on ebay…)

[PandasRock]

Absolutely, noble giraffe. There was also a recent/new football set in the Friends range. One of the little sets, so just about doable with pocket money too.

They really would have been better off rebranding the City range to include the new colours, and expanding the police/burglary/emergency services theme to a proper City with all the amenities. Enjoyed by both boys and girls.

[penisland]

Ha, I read this and thought why would they produce Friends Lego? I was thinking of Joey, Chandler, Monica etc!

[chippednailvarnish]

They really would have been better off rebranding the City range to include the new colours, and expanding the police/burglary/emergency services theme to a proper City with all the amenities. Enjoyed by both boys and girls

This is exactly what I think. Why do we need pink sets marketed explicitly at girls? Why not just have Lego sets with an equal mix of male and female minifigures, marketed to children.

Prepper interestingly the first thing that jumped out at me on your link was the distinct lack of pink. It's also the first time I've seen any of those sets, so I clearly had a deprived childhood!