Girl lego

pwurple

So, as a lifelong lego fan, i went to a symths shop today to get some for my niece's birthday.

I asked for the lego section, only to be asked was it 'girl lego or boy lego'.

Curious, went to check out the girl lego. I nearly cried.

In cutsie purple packaging sat:

Lego Salon
http://shop.lego.com/en-IE/Heartlake-Pet-Salon-41007?fromListing=listing

Lego princess
http://shop.lego.com/en-IE/My-First-LEGO-Princess-10656?fromListing=listing

Lego cake shop
http://shop.lego.com/en-IE/Stephanie-s-Outdoor-Bakery-3930


So now, the real lego... Mixed block sets, Pirate ships, space sets, boats and all that cool stuff is coralled in the boy section.


What do the true lego fans think?

shedweller

I have mixed feelings about it tbh. On the one hand i think it's silly but on the other it could be the thing that sets a young girl on the path to a good solid career in things like architect, cad design etc.
At the very least it will help bring out the creativity in them that otherwise wouldn't have happened.

pwurple

Yeah, that's the bit that depressed me most of all. I'm a girl, i'm an engineer. Building a lego hairdressing salon would never have inspired me the way my spacetrain set did.

jill_valentine

I'm hugely opposed to it. "Girl's Lego" is invariably "pick your favourite option from this selection" type sets, rather than encouraging any actual expansive creativity, building something new and crazy. I hate it, I absolutely hate it, that "generic" Lego, or creative construction type toys in general, are now branded as "boy's" toys, it's a horrible development.

And having worked in Smyths, I can tell you the kids don't care - it's the parents and gift-buying family members who are steered by the marketing, and they only absorb it from them.

shedweller

jill_valentine wrote: »

I'm hugely opposed to it. "Girl's Lego" is invariably "pick your favourite option from this selection" type sets, rather than encouraging any actual expansive creativity, building something new and crazy. I hate it, I absolutely hate it, that "generic" Lego, or creative construction type toys in general, are now branded as "boy's" toys, it's a horrible development.

And having worked in Smyths, I can tell you the kids don't care - it's the parents and gift-buying family members who are steered by the marketing, and they only absorb it from them.

When you say that creative toys tend to be for boys only i wholeheartedly agree. I do think that "girls lego" is somewhat trying to shatter this long held idea. On the other hand, having seen my boys start to "collect" sets, i think it is not doing the best it can for creativity. Lime this star wars crack. Spend x euro on a set for it to spend the rest of eternity sitting on a shelf. Just buy and build an airfix of the bleeding thing ffs!!
I suppose not all girls will become ceo's etc. (Nor will boys) so the sets in question will, for them, let them have the dolls house of their dreams. No harm there, really. But it will instill a sense of how the world works in a physical sense. I'm actually less on the fence about it now that i have talked it out here!
Lego is about using what grey matter you have and letting it loose. Look at sariel.pl for example. Theres creativity.

beauf

shedweller wrote: »

...
Lego is about using what grey matter you have and letting it loose. Look at sariel.pl for example. Theres creativity.

There's lots of money too. You couldn't build so many huge pieces all perfectly colour coordinated without a serious collection of pieces. Even designing and planning them on the computer. Some of them are stunning though. I look at brothers brick from time to time.

Be girl or boy theme. I think a lot of the modern lego has become very specific and tied in with their franchise. While they look good many of them fall apart if played with. They are more like sculptures than creative toys. I think kids might struggle when their own creations aren't as professional looking. Maybe I'm thinking to hard about it. As child I used to make things that looking nothing like their inspiration but in my imagination they were exactly the same.

I think the idea with the Girl lego is too appeal to a wider audience. So its not considered a boys toy. But perhaps they've gone too far with it.

jill_valentine

The thing is, when I was a kid, there was no question that Lego was a "girls" toy as much as it was a "boys" toy. I and my sister had buckets of the stuff that we swapped and chopped and changed with all the other girls we knew. It was just something taken for granted.

It's not that Lego has been "opened up" to girls by branding like this - it's actually been taken out of their hands, figuratively speaking. They're now being told they're supposed to like a particular, very narrowly focussed sub-species of it, and in that line, their only "creative" input is to take your pick from a pre-determined selection - rather than to actually create anything.

beauf

You could argue that lego has been doing this for a long time already by targeting boys interests.

shedweller

beauf wrote: »

Be girl or boy theme. I think a lot of the modern lego has become very specific and tied in with their franchise. While they look good many of them fall apart if played with. They are more like sculptures than creative toys. I think kids might struggle when their own creations aren't as professional looking.

Agreed 100%
My lads get disillusioned when they get part way into a project. They know too well that what they are making is nowhere near what they see online or in books. I did a few calcs on pricing a castle he wanted to build and it would cost me €200 in parts. Feck that.
We have tons of lego all carefully organised but it is in so many different colours. That makes for creations that are not true to the image in their heads. Maybe thats why i cant get my 8 year old off minecraft. He has made some mighty stuff there. Colour coordinated too without me blowing half my wages on it!

beauf

Same experience here. No so interested in Lego, but love minecraft.

I can see the kids having my laptop and me taking their lego...

Then theres the lego minecraft set...which I just don't understand.

ShadowHearth

shedweller wrote: »

When you say that creative toys tend to be for boys only i wholeheartedly agree. I do think that "girls lego" is somewhat trying to shatter this long held idea. On the other hand, having seen my boys start to "collect" sets, i think it is not doing the best it can for creativity. Lime this star wars crack. Spend x euro on a set for it to spend the rest of eternity sitting on a shelf. Just buy and build an airfix of the bleeding thing ffs!!
I suppose not all girls will become ceo's etc. (Nor will boys) so the sets in question will, for them, let them have the dolls house of their dreams. No harm there, really. But it will instill a sense of how the world works in a physical sense. I'm actually less on the fence about it now that i have talked it out here!
Lego is about using what grey matter you have and letting it loose. Look at sariel.pl for example. Theres creativity.

I think there are few issues in all this, but in some cases its being looked in to way deeper then it should be. Yes, I am a man, I dont want to offend any ladies in here and I am all for ladies to be playing whatever they find interesting.

Back in the day we had Lego, but Lego was very basic. So it was Unisex toy. The more complicated Lego became, the more themes it could spread to. You can still buy those buckets of lego with basics bricks we had back in the day and I am pretty sure those are still marked as unisex toys?
We came in to the age, where lego can do specific themes. Like it or not, some of those themes are more focused to one or another gender. Thing is, there is no one to tell you, that you cannot buy a 42009 technic mobile crane to a 6 years old girl if she enjoys that sort of thing. Its just that product is focused to a male child in the first place. And I am sure sales would show that such set is mostly bought for Males ( even if they are almost 30 :pac:... and bought to them by their wifes or girlfriends... :pac: ). Same way is with "friends" line. There are plenty of girls who enjoy Friends theme and "oh my" how much money Lego made of this theme alone. It shows demand and it shows that girls do like a product focused to girls, same way like boys like product focused to them. Yes, not all girls like "friends" theme, but no one stops them from buying a Technic set or a big ass police station, no one will think its "weird". I guess what I am trying to say: I dont want to see lego to be completely stripped of polarities in themes to one or another gender, just to make it unisex across the board so it would not offend one or another gender."
Now before the ladies will murder me and hang me on the nearest tree - I grew up in different country. All of my male friends had Lego, very very rare when I sow a girl having Lego. Most of the girls were about dolls and Barbies. Then again for me its very weird to see boys playing with "dolls" or those action figures ( big muscully military/action man thing ), its a very "western world toy for boys" in my eyes.

As for kids "collecting" lego - saddest thing I could think off. I would put together the set as a child just temporary and then it would go to a box with all other Lego. The joy of getting your first lego set was fantastic (we were poor so it was 6832 Super Nova II set with 36 parts, it costed 1 month of my mothers wages ) . When I got my second set ( it was even smaller one , like barely 20 parts ) I was over the moon! I built it up and played it for a day, then I broke apart both sets and tried to build something bigger and cooler. Rinse and repeat with each set. I look back now and I think that I had a lot of lego, but when I started doing a list on brick links of them in barely even called as a lot and could be bought back for less then 50eu , Now my collection goes in to thousands. Still, the best toy I ever had. A toy which should be played with and not stored by kids. Adults can sort of get away with it, we got a lot more other stuff to do outside of swimming in a tub of lego ( I am pretty sure its a dirty fantasy we all AFOLs got ), so even collecting brings us joy. Even as adult I got "lego for collecting", "lego for building and showing off", "lego for Mocs and going crazy".

So why kids do not have the urge to tier stuff apart and build their own cool stuff? I personally think the problem is the sets themselves. I like super heroes ( I dont own a single set though and here is why ), but outside of cool minifigures the sets themselves are very bland and specific. Parts are very specific and dont really give room for creativity. I personally really dislike the shift in LEGO, where the Minigs taking the main stage and not brick themselves. When I was a child I only cared about minifigs as a way to make myself in minifig form out of all minifigs, my friends would make themselves out of minifig parts and we would play together. Same way I would do at my friends house - build myself and play with whatever I would build with is lego blocks. It is really sad to see when people give more though about minigs in the set, then the actual set and bricks it has. They might as well just make a set with all Super heroes and a small trash can build and people will buy it for hundreds of dollars.
Biggest problem is - licensed themes. Its like those themes are not offering the CONSTRUCTOR to play with, but offer you a Specific MODEL to build one and play with. Unfortunately this mindset has spread to non licensed themes too. Remember when almost every single set on the back of the box offered alternative builds? It encouraged you to experiment. Now the only sets that offer alternative builds are Creator ( which are pretty darn good! ) and technic.
So yeah, I am not surprised kids not playing with Lego and just collecting it. Its a sad world, but I guess thats what Children ( and sort of lego ) prefers. I bet adults are more fond of making mocs then kids these days.


*Sorry for long post.

pwurple

I think you're right. It has affected the whole lego company, which I didn't realise. My own favourite set as a child was that spacetrain/monorail set... There were 4 different configurations that it came with, and I had another few myself. My friend had the same set and we joined them together.
http://www.toysperiod.com/lego-6990-monorail-transport-system-futuron-space-train-set-pi-1202.html?invis=1

Lego has changed a lot since I was small. And not for the better it looks like. Only one configuration for a set, in my mind, reduces the fun and entertainment in it.

One major issue though is that the mixed blocks are NOT in unisex areas though, they are firmly placed in the boys section.

My own child is young enough to not realise there are boy sections and girl sections, but it will happen as she gets older. It just means I can't bring my child with me to the shop to pick something out, I need to get it for her on my own so she doesn't see which section it comes from. Maybe online instead of pandering to smyths annoying segregation.

ShadowHearth

pwurple wrote: »

I think you're right. It has affected the whole lego company, which I didn't realise. My own favourite set as a child was that spacetrain/monorail set... There were 4 different configurations that it came with, and I had another few myself. My friend had the same set and we joined them together.
http://www.toysperiod.com/lego-6990-monorail-transport-system-futuron-space-train-set-pi-1202.html?invis=1

Lego has changed a lot since I was small. And not for the better it looks like. Only one configuration for a set, in my mind, reduces the fun and entertainment in it.

One major issue though is that the mixed blocks are NOT in unisex areas though, they are firmly placed in the boys section.

My own child is young enough to not realise there are boy sections and girl sections, but it will happen as she gets older. It just means I can't bring my child with me to the shop to pick something out, I need to get it for her on my own so she doesn't see which section it comes from. Maybe online instead of pandering to smyths annoying segregation.

Well, I personally think, that this is the actual shop management who is responsible for this "booboo". When I was a child ( I know, I know... ), we had Lego shops. So it was a whole Lego shop with sections for themes. Even in bigger Toy shops there would a LEGO section and not boy/girl section. Nothing wrong in dividing Boys and girls lego in lego section though.
I cant really comment about shops in Ireland, because 90% of my lego is bought online. The rest is bought by misses shadowhearth from her holiday trips. If they do devide Lego it self in to girl sections and then put the rest of the lego in to boys section, which is on entirely differnt flour, then shop is clearly doing it wrong.

prospect

All the infant toys in our home were deliberately picked not to be gender orientated. All greens & oranges etc.

There did end up being some pink/purple duplo which we just mixed in with all the other stuff.

We have two girls and a boy and they all play with the same boxes of Lego/Duplo.

Last Christmas Santa was good enough to bring this to our 6y.o. girl (a set she selected herself):