Lego - how depressing

[EverybodysSnowyEyed]

I've always loved Lego as a 'genderless' toy

And now they have launched Lego friends - aimed at the little ladies in your life. And guess what, there's a beauty parlour!

Even DH finds this depressing! Are we alone in this?

I thought toy manufacturers might be starting to realise how bad this all looks!

It is depressing. When we saw the advert on TV ds (7) said "girls don't want that rubbish".

I have just bought my 4y old ds the Lego Friends Pet Grooming Set!

He had £10 Xmas present to spend, we went into the toy shop. DS1 7 bought Lego Ninjago. He wanted the doggy set, bless him. Breaks my heart that I had to kick DS1 to get him to not say anything and that in another 6m or so now that he is at school he wont feel able to want these sets.

I also feel like a massive hypocrite as I swore I would never buy LEGO Friends when I read about it. However, looking at it, it is actually really well made, technically, and is the exact perfect transitional step that my 4y old needs - he is obsessed with "big boy" Lego as his eldest brother is a massive fan, no longer interested in the Duplo really, but still struggles slightly with manipulating the normal Lego minifigures - putting flippers on, changing heads etc. Head and hands don't pull off which is great as this drives his brother and me insane at the moment. He loves collecting characters though and this would/is? perfect. How depressing though that the picture at the top is a set of 5 little girls to collect - why couldn't it have been 5 children. I suspect Lego do slightly feel our pain though - at least the packaging is purple not pink - I have managed to persuade both ds's that purple is in fact a unisex colour (no chance with pink now of course).

I was actually having a massive rant in the LEGO Shop in Bluewater over Christmas about the upcoming LEGO Friends range. I almost had the staff on side - mainly students, were agreeing really, saying hopefully it won't sell. Then a middle aged elderly couple came in and asked the staff if they had any "Lego for Girls" as they wanted to get some for their first grand-daughter. They were very sweet and explained they had always bought Lego for their children and wanted to get her some but that she was "a little princess" and wouldn't like all the sets that were on display. The staff were duty-bound to tell them about it of course, and they left utterly delighted. They did say just get her a tub of bricks or a house set after my rant but they loved the Lego Friends. Similarly, the lady in the toy shop today said the Lego Friends has been flying of the shelves (she agreed with us)

Sigh. Big up to MegaBloks though whose Moshi Monster figures have been going down well in our house and are all genders and colours.

The Lego twitter account just retweeted a link to this: The Google Girls, a group aimed at getting more girls into science.

I found myself smiling, wryly, at what one of the girls said: "Recently, LEGO put out a new series aimed at grabbing girls attention (it is very feminine). It is funny, because I am actually attracted to the regular LEGOs and this line kind of turned me off."

She did then say, "I am not sure why I mention it, except I realized that if LEGO reached a larger audience by doing this, and maybe reaching some girls they hadn?t reached before, then that is awesome!"

But I don't really see that there would be a very natural progression from the new range, which seems to involve little building and more role-play (in beauty parlours, ffs), to the more construction/technical type sets.

DD (9) has acquired a lot of the Ninjago range over the past couple of months, and has really enjoyed putting together all the moving parts and booby traps, which are much more of a lead-in to technical stuff.

Apparently, you can get the "regular" magazine sent to girls, but should they contribute (with photos and suchlike) they will feature in the girls' mag.

Bucharest, that's appalling.

Oh well. I suppose if the Friends range had been out when DD was younger she'd have liked some of these better than bloody Belleville. Not sure I'd bother with the Inventors Workshop... just buy your daughters actual robot kits and chemistry sets

I bought some of the girly Lego today for a birthday pres for girl friend of ds1 in reception.
'City' Lego is very clearly coded for boys (ie blue, all minifigures in the sets in our local toyshop were male); if I had got her that her parents would have thought I was regifting an unwanted one of ds1's Xmas presents and the odds are she would have written it off as a boy toy and refused to play with it! (She is a very girly girl.)

At least this way she will get a car and some building blocks to play with instead of the other options in the shop such as cupcake making kits and make-your-own nail varnish....

Why can't they make bloody UNISEX lego, the box could be half pink and half blue if they can't bring themselves to make nice red and yellow ones like when we were kids?

There is plenty of unisex Lego available, it just sounds like it wasn't in the toy shop you were looking in.

Is there really Belgo? What should I look for?

Our local shop has very little stock at the moment but I try to support local businesses rather than just get everything off Amazon.

You can find it on the Lego website; I don't know what is available in UK toy shops.

It's great that you want to support your local supports, but do they deserve your support if they limit the toys they provide to 'boys' and 'girls'?

standard bricks

Sainsbury's often do a variety of Lego. Sometimes half price.

Sorry I haven't read all the posts, but oh gawd no there is no need! Heard an interview on the radio though where it was said it was parent demand. Yes demand pushed by aggressive marketing.
So depressing. Overheard seemingly intelligent mothers in the park discussing how girls are cerebral and boys are physical. Eh? So little boys are thick then and girls are lazy lumps???! Give me strength!

thanks

Haven't read the whole thread, but I absolutely agree that there is NO need for a 'girly pink' version of LEGO. It comes in such lovely brights red, greens, yellows, brown etc and I loved playing with it as a child. Especially as most grass and flowers are green, most houses are brown/red and water is blue - so where is the need for pink from a practical point of view?

In fact, everything is becoming ridiculously segregated between pink girlyness and blue boys' toys - I've got a dd and ds and how hard it was to find a nice unisex bicycle that they can both use. Got a German make in the end, a lovely bright red one. I think manufacturers are doing this so parents end up buying two sets of everything, 'boys' lego/bikes/pencils for their sons and the girls' version for their daughters. Same with clothes - took me ages to find unisex ski suits... could go on and on.

So, yes I agree wholeheartedly! And I hope no one buys the pink girly lego!!

Urgh.

My 5 year old goddaughter asked for Lego for Christmas. She is very much of the pink is for her and blue is for her little brother persuasion and I hate it. I can't understand why girls are supposed to play with pink, purple and white toys and boys should get all the other colours.

I went to great lengths to find a bucket of bricks, rather than a set, in a colour that she would like that wasn't pink. I eventually found a red one that did go down very well. I would not have bought the pink one and she would not have liked the blue one.

When I first saw those online retro Argos catalogues I was struck by the lack of pink in both the toy and the duvet cover sections. It seems that it was only when the catalogues started doing large Barbie sections that the pink everything thing started.

I don't think there is a need for pink and purple bricks. My dd will play for hours building with Lego, all the little sets do seem to be boats/cars/trucks though which she finds boring.
Where are the new ideas? I don't think Lego Friends is the answer, they don't really have the amount of bricks to be considered Lego imho. I mean, one of the sets I've seen, the roof is pre-built so where's the challenge in that?
DD does own a pink tub though...but at least there are plenty of bricks for construction and we like the bright colours (lime and orange).
Don't think I'll be buying any of the 'Friends'. Lego must do better.

How is Harry Potter Lego not for girls as well?

Lego City Camper Van?

New Lego Superheroes has 3, yes 3/8 or so female characters - Wonder Women, Catwoman and Posion Ivy.

I feel a bit sorry in a way for Toy Manufacturers like Lego - who traditionally have not been big offenders in this arena, becasue I think they are forced to keep up with the relentless pinkification that other toy manufacturers, Argos, ELC, etc insist on - and for every one of us there are, I fear, hundreds of parents demanding pink Lego for girls.

Agree Quenelle. I look for alternative colours too.

Growing up in the 70's I didn't see a lot of pink, my Mum didn't like the colour and I didn't have even one garment that was pink.
It's all Barbie's fault. I won't buy Barbie for my dd if I can help it.

Loved Sindy though...she had blue bedding

So depressing, toys are suposed to inspire not restrict people. That's why we all instinctively smile when we see that small child holding out their creation.

Note: my gender neutral language, life is much fairer and better for it.

I actually really like the new girly lego.I remember buying a princess and castle lego set [in girly colours] for my then 3 year old dd [now 12 and she loved it].My dad frequently does lego kits with my twins and had to look hard last year to find one [a camper van with water ski on ]that would appeal to my very girly dd.Girls do play in a very different way [speaking as a mother of 2 of each!] and i don't think this reinforces stereotyping in any way.In fact i can't believe you are all taking this so seriously [but then i don't normally post in this section].The fact is that women are doing better than men these days in almost every arenas including so called male dominated professions.Boys are the ones that need worrying about now!.

teta they are doing better at school - GCSEs and A levels, yes. But apart from a very lucky few the massive pay gaps in the workplace still persist. I work in the City, this is still almost alway sthe case. Trust me, I know.

I was sayingthe exact same thing about Sindy to the lady in the toy shop today - we were 3 girls then a brother and when you looked in our playroom it wasn't just a sea of relentless pink and lilac - Sindy car was yellow, house was multicoloured, like a normal house. Her clothes were normal clothes coloured.

And we wore just clothes - I dont remmember a single specifically pink item.

Re. clothes, I don't think pink suits that many children actually. My dd looks much better in blues.

Getting really bogged down being one of the very few feminist voices trying to explain what's wrong with the Lego friends range on theLego Facebook page. Most posters' sexism seems so entrenched and they sure don't argue fair and resort to personal attacks when they are losing on reason.:(