Inclusive advertising Lego

[littlebillie]

Just spotted this on Twitter from 1981. Inclusive and refreshing advertising - respect to Lego for this

@Nellodee

I feel the need to defend Lego friends. It has huge amounts of fairgrounds rides, safari adventures, robots, garages. Some girls like pink, others green or blue.

I agree, and it's all building at the end of the day. However the TV show is utter hair flicking drivel

Dd2 loves lego. Some girls like.pink and purple. So do some boys. And lego wanting to make money Will obviously try and cater fir all tastes.

I agree the body image portrayed in the friends sets is problematic though and yes there need need he nore male characters in the friends sets. The city sets have female fire fighters drs and police officers.

To he fair to lego staff we have never been stopped at the till for attempting to buy the wrong ones and I'm yet to see staff or parents to be fair guide their children to specific shelves.

There's just alot of sighing gasping and empty wallets....

Winky yes the TV show is pants. The magazine has also recently stopped being published because it wasn't selling enough copies where the other comics (City, Batman, Ninjago etc) are still going. If we are going to go down the boy/girl stereotypes I have found boys do like easy to read comics - not many words, lots of pictures etc but girls would rather read a decent book and find those type of comics 'babyish'. As much as I agree that there shouldn't be girl toys/boy toys and everyone can just play with whatever they want and be whatever they want I also believe there are differences in the way girls and boys develop which does mean they play in different ways.

I like the Parisian restaurant, but mainly because I have populated my ‘town’ with Marvel, DC and Harry Potter characters so it’s fun to have Batman having dinner with Wolverine, next to Hermione and Spider-Man etc. DP and I swap them around from time to time and wait to see if the other notices. For the actual build I enjoyed the bank the best I think, I like the hidden story inside the build. I haven’t built the diner or the petrol station yet, they’re saved for a rainy weekend or next time I have a mental health dip, I find building Lego very therapeutic. Even breaking the builds down again and sorting and organising the bricks ready for a rebuild is soothing!

(Who thinks we need an Adult Women Fans of Lego thread to show off our builds?)

Lego have v few women in design / senior roles.

@Whatsnewpussyhat

This is a shame because the LEGO City range is full of female cops, firefighters, skateboarders and deep-sea divers

Yes but isn't it funny how people cry about 'pink lego' yet don't seem to give a crap that city has always been in blue packaging and targeted at boys. Endless bloody police, fire stations, trains and construction. They might now add a few more female characters than they used to but still mainly aimed at boys.

^^ This.

Lego's sexism didn't start with the development of Friends, it started with them deciding boys were their main market and focusing the brand as a whole on playing up to male stereotypes and values and pushing it as a boys toy. That meant, for a long time, putting few female characters in the sets, focusing more on the sorts of subjects adults tended to push on boys (like vehicles and police) and steering away from subjects that boys associated with girls (like pink bricks and domestic builds) and mainly using boys in their focus groups and marketing.

The development of Friends, while the marketing of them is problematic just as the marketing of the City line has been, is a huge improvement in terms of them acknowledging the importance of lots of aspects of play that they had previously avoided because it wasn't "boyish" enough.

Aroundtheworld fingers crossed I am going to be able to display some of my builds later this year. Still not many shows scheduled to happen but some are planned.

the body image portrayed in the friends sets is problematic

No child is going to get body issues of a tiny plastic figure. Pushing adult issues onto them might though. They don't have tiny waists. They have been made in proportion to be able to use lego accessories already available, they wear a variety of clothes, including skirts and they have shoes, because people wear shoes. Their hair is compatible with and used for normal minifigs so where is the 'big hair'?
A lot of girls prefer having the dolls with similar skin tone and hair colour/style to them too.

Those ones are nothing like the ones that dd has. Hers are definitely ganglier although she mainly has the city stuff. The Harry Potter lego has the more conventional style figures.

What ones does your daughter have then Whatwould ? Are you sure she has actual Lego Friends and not another brand.

The development of Friends, while the marketing of them is problematic just as the marketing of the City line has been, is a huge improvement in terms of them acknowledging the importance of lots of aspects of play that they had previously avoided because it wasn't "boyish" enough

The city builders had to watch while friends builders got a school, hospital, hotel, a yacht, youth club, gym, decent cafes and a mega fairground whilst they got yet another police station and some more criminals to chase. They started producing far more varied sets for the city line, and more usable buildings in the smaller creator line because of friends.

I love putting minifig hair on the minidolls. I have given them some hilarious hair dos (and the other way around - Andrea's hair looks great on a minifig)

Its just some random one I cant remember we've had it years I think there was an ice cream kiosk and a hot tub or something. Maybe I'm remembering wrong then. She has mostly the city stuff and Minecraft. U can't move in my house fir hospitals fire stations and ocelots

I kept on meaning to get around to buying the bank Cwenthryth then one day I checked and it had been retired. I mustn't make the same mistake with Assembly Square.

Swap.... good hair do on minifig lad

Those ones are nothing like the ones that dd has. Hers are definitely ganglier

The mini doll body shape has never changed.

I love this hair. So funky.

Good to know the hair is interchangeable... Means I don't need to separate out the hair in my minifig/doll storage case. I have separate compartments for heads, bodies etc.

My girls love the Lego friends. They notice all the detail like different eye colours, t shirts etc. They rebuild the sets into all sorts of things but they do just like building houses and vets and things like that. We have loads of Lego now and I sort all the Lego into shapes so we can find stuff quickly, it is very therapeutic!

My daughter and I really like watching Ellie V on u tube.

We love lego friends. It is mixed in with my DH’s old box of lego, so they spend their time creating wildlife rescue centres (including for the baby velociraptor) in the Amazon while exploring ruined castles (which are reached via the pirate ship).

I used to think Friends was terrible, but it was the Gateway That got my girls into lego.

It was this minifigure that got me back into LEGO as an adult.

@nauticant

Which is your favourite modular Cwenthryth? I like the Fire Brigade because to my mind it's the first having a proper execution but a close second is the Parisian Restaurant for its charm.

I'm looking forward to buying the bookshop. I combined two Parisian Restaurants together to make one big one and it is fantastic. Now Bricklinking the Green Grocer. My bank manager would like a word!

@Ilovemaisie

ordinary horses like they had back in the 90s What like this set?

No, like the ones in the Castle sets.

Ddraig no I was being sarcastic about the horses. Lego Friends gets a lot of criticism and people saying "we never had any of that girly stuff in my day etc etc" making out that Lego has never done a 'girls' range before when they have infact done several. The picture I showed was from their Belville theme. The theme 'for girls' that Lego created years before Friends.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

(Who thinks we need an Adult Women Fans of Lego thread to show off our builds?)

Yes, we do.

(I can’t start the thread though because I haven’t built anything original in years)