Seems Mums don't play with Lego...

[EduCated]

...at least not according to one of this week's MN competitions

Let Dad relax and have some fun, quality time with the kids. Grab a box of LEGO and see where their imaginations take them. With the LEGO brick you can build anything your imagination desires, as the latest TV ad from LEGO shows.

LEGO has been covering playroom floors since 1949 and today it is still the number one kids construction toy. So popular is LEGO worldwide, that there are now 80 LEGO bricks to every person in the world! Why not challenge Dads and kids to see what they could build with 80 LEGO Bricks?

To celebrate the joy of LEGO, four Mumsnetters can win a LEGO Build & Play Box. The children are going to love it and Dad's will feel a sense of childhood nostalgia as they get back to playtime basics and build with the kids.

If Dad's are after some building inspiration, check out the latest TV ad from LEGO, tissues at the ready.



I mean, really? Are single mums allowed to enter, or is having a Dad in the house mandatory?

[EduCated]

Looking at it again this morning, I just can't believe how absolutely insistent it is on it being dads. They have to reiterate 4 times that it's all about the dads. One mention I might have shrugged off with a bit of a but this is really OTT.

[legoplayingmumsunite]

Namechanged so I can enter the competition. DD2 and I love LEGO. Lego Friends is banned in this house. I do remember LEGO kitchens back in the 70s but shockingly they were red and white not pink.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Is anyone writing to Lego?

[Ilovexmastime]

I remember the Lego kitchens back in the 70s too... in fact I think they were the flame that ignited the feminist spark in me! I'd been after some lego of my own, rather than making up my brother's sets on xmas day and making him cry, and so my parents (read mum) bought me a lego kitchen set one year and I was massively pissed off that it was different to the 'normal' lego that my brother had and so I couldn't integrate it into the rest of the lego 'we' had. I remember thinking "WHY?????????? is the girl's lego different?"

So maybe lego Friends will do the same for other young girls?!

[rosy71]

I loved Lego as a kid and I still do now! I love playing Lego with my 2boys.

[EBearhug]

Was the Lego kitchen set different? My friend had a Lego hairdressing salon or something - I don't remember exactly, other than it had a mirror sticker, which I thought was so cool - a mirror! On a sticker! How amazing was that? (I was easily pleased.) But it did also work with all the other Lego when broken up and stuck in the big bin with all the other Lego.

[Ilovexmastime]

The lego kitchen pieces were bigger, so instead of building a kitchen cabinet out of small pieces it came as one big piece - ie whole kitchen cabinet (like the doors and windows you used to get). So the only thing you could use it as was a cupboard. If I remember correctly, the figures were different too, but I'm not 100% on that one.

[Ihatespiders]

I still have my Lego kitchen! The meals were stickers onto 2x2 tiles.

The figures then were different to minifigures (which came out later), but they were not boy/girl differentiated. They were all like this: brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=Building%20Set%20with%20People

[EBearhug]

Oh, it was the hairdressing salon my friend had - see mirrors on a sticker! And Lego flowers!

My other friends had the Lego bathroom, I think. There was quite a lot of my childhood spent playing with Lego at friends' houses as well as at home.

We did (rightly) get a bollocking for the game where you have to try and hit a car passing on the road below the bedroom window with a piece of Lego. Even though I do now recognise it was stupid and dangerous, my main puzzlement is over why we were prepared to waste Lego blocks on this game.

[fanjobiscuits]

Just signing in to agree with everyone. Advertising fail, Lego.

[FairPhyllis]

PMSL that Lego don't think that mums can recognise when they are being fed patronising, sexist claptrap. What a good way to advertise yourselves to the people who probably buy the majority of toys. Pretty fucking embarrassing.

I used to play with Lego ALL THE TIME as a child I may still have all my Lego, but the trend in the way they are marketing themselves as a boys' product and having a gendered range for girls would make me think twice about buying it for any child tbh. If I were looking to buy something fun and educational I'd think about getting a Raspberry Pi.

Penises are not even any good at unsticking lego bricks. You need hands and fingers, and last time I look, even girls and women have them.

^^ This.

[FairPhyllis]

I do however feel like entering the competition to see if I could win enough bricks to build a 'fuck off' pointing finger and mail it back to them.

[LurcioLovesFrankie]

Argh! All these years (48 tomorrow) that I've been playing with lego - in fact DS has my lego from the late 60s/early 70s - and I shouldn't have been because I don't have a penis!

My sexist gripe is the lack of decent female mini-figures. DS and I love Lord of the Rings - they have no Eowyn. How are you meant to kill the black riders without her? (I have improvised with some armour from a chima figure and the head and face of a female figure who, prior to my intervention, was waiting for a fireman to rescue her cat from a tree. She looks much happier now she's wielding a sword).

[MurderOfGoths]

Fair You have to!!

[LurcioLovesFrankie]

How do I change my user name temporarily? I have a good one specifically for entering the competition.

[curiousgeorgie]

I bloody hate Lego. It really hurts when you step on it.

not the point I know

[Procrastinating]

I stood on a whole assembled Lego Hero Factory 'man' yesterday. My sock was full of blood. You don't see that in the adverts.

[EduCated]

Lurcio Click MyMumsnet at the top right of the page, then My Account.

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

If it's any comfort, in DS's Lego Club magazine this week (month?), about 25% of the submitted pictures and constructions are from girls.

[AnAdventureInCakeAndWine]

As if by magic...

[UptoapointLordCopper]

That's better. Perhaps I'll enter the competition now!

[IHadADreamThatWasNotAllADream]

Oh that's nice. Somehow I suspect it had more to do with MNHQ than Lego seeing the light, but it's better than nothing.

[ErrolTheDragon]

The original wording was presumably to tie in with the TV ad they link to - I've just watched it with the sound off but its a dad and a boy playing with lego.

Will probably take them a bit longer to get an ad out with a mix of genders but if they're thinking of it - lets just spell it out please not a mum and daughter playing with Lego Friends?

[heartichoke]

Oh, that's good - I don't need to worry about writing a letter now (had lazily shelved it until inspiration struck)

[BlueSkySunnyDay]

I hate lego with a passion, I think it is the work of the devil - im generally quite creative and arty but I really cant see it as being anything other than a plastic brick.

When we went to lego land we bought both children the same toy - DH built the first one while I worked on the second...then finished the second one after I had a mega tantrum. Sorry not what you wanted to hear is it