Lego's egalitarian instructions from the 1970s

That’s all the proof I need.

1 Like

Yup, same here. Great find!

1 Like

The most heartbreaking thing: In the german Version of this, it says “Lego setzt der Phantasie keine Grenzen”, translated “Lego sets no limits to Phantasy”. Nowadays, they do more often, than not. And that’s sad.

7 Likes

Yes, and the “more human than spaceships” and “more exciting than dolls [sic] houses” pronouncements are amusingly naive - although well-meaning, I’d guess this has been made by someone under 25 who has no awareness of Sociology and gender theory.

1 Like

One of you Photoshop wizards needs to get in there and change the text to a warning about wearing shoes when your kid is playing with this stuff.

6 Likes

A copywriter in 1974 not showing proper awareness of gender theory? Impossible.

12 Likes

To toy companies
The urge to create fun toys is strong in all toy companies. Big and small.
It’s imagination that counts. Not marketing. You manufacture whatever comes into your head, the way you want it. Construction toys that build anything and open kids’ imaginations. Entertainment licenses just turn your business into a movie souvenir business. Even an officially licensed Lego set based on “The Lego Movie” (which purported to promote creativity) short circuits itself. The most important thing is put the right material in kids’ hands and LET THEM CREATE whatever appeals to them.

Logo check, as requested:

7 Likes

They’re still rather behind on that today…

4 Likes

I’m personally kind of amused by the notion that there is, or was, a single prevailing theory of gender.

8 Likes

I’m trying to decide if that’s the young Rob or the young Jackhammer Jill.

6 Likes

The problem that Lego faces, is its’ product is too good, too versatile. If our imaginations filled the gaps, we would only need a small number of types brick to make everything, and we wouldn’t need to keep buying more. They were losing money hand over fist before the licensing deals came in. So now they can sell us one fantasy after another, as long as the licensed properties keep on coming.

I still love the product, don’t get me wrong. But the company has lost a lot of its soul. (or maybe I’ve grown up and lost mine, whatever…)

1 Like

I had that rocket set! Pretty sure some of the pieces are in the big plastic intergenerational Lego box in youngest’s room…

1 Like

It should either be doll(’)s house or dolls(’) house depending on whether the house is for a doll (singular) or many dolls (plural).
They’ve left the apostrophe off completely.

I don’t know. Rather a lot of Lego’s more recent products show very little understanding of either sociology or gender theory, and I really doubt the shots are being called by someone under 25.

1 Like

To be fair to them, I think they’ve improved again recently?

Ok ‘gender theory’ writ large - there’s plenty of competing arguments in there.

I like the talk about “Times New Roman” as if the exact font says anything about age – TNR was designed in 1931 according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_New_Roman.

1 Like

I made that post imagining 70s Denmark but now I’m wondering if they just made stuff with little regard to gender at all. Certainly in light of recent attempts.
But I still think the copy was written recently.

I remember from the 1980ies that there is no such thing as having enough Legos…

4 Likes