When I was little there were no Lego people at all. I would make my own Lego spaceships and crew them w/Gumby and a wooden carved mouse I called Space Mouse. They were supported by an army of Lego robots. I suppose Gumby was a male. Not sure about Space Mouse, he/she/it could shoot laser beams out of its sharp nose so presumably was not entirely organic. But I guess by default Space Mouse was a straight white male.
Bravo, that young person. Lego only needs pop a few extra heads in to each box to give kids the choice of sex and race.
I love that she ended the letter with “From”. I don’t know why, it’s just so much more sincere than “Sincerely”. And while I’m on that, it’s kind of weird when a business sends correspondence with, “Yours truly”. How are you mine? I don’t even know you.
Sorry for the diversion.
From,
IMB
Somebody get her the Illustrated Primer
The girls always demand more gifts. If boys don’t like something, they just don’t buy it.
Of course we have a double standard. It’s because there are two sexes.
Really?
I’d say the problem with LEGO girls (Friends series) is that they don’t have holes on the backside of their legs, and therefore can’t be fixed in the sitting position to ride a car, for example.
This set is cool, though:
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Emma-s-Karate-Class-41002
Give the girl a yellow jumpsuit with black stripes, and it becomes ultra-cool!
Yeah – most gender-specific toys have the force of “tradition” to support them, for whatever that’s worth, but not Lego. They made an entirely-gender neutral product for years and only recently tried to make “girls’ Lego” and “boys’ Lego”. Why?
Lego Cuusoo: Female Minifigure Set
While I can’t say I know the current gender split between Lego figures, I would say that Lego isn’t the whole problem; retailers deserve a lot of the blame. Stores, especially the big box ones, increasingly separate toys in to male and female (blue and pink) sections, and really don’t even order much that is gender neutral, much less anything that breaks stereotypes. And the largest retailers dictate what gets made even more than just wth their purchase orders; Walmart is notorious for telling manufactures what to make and in what color and what the price has to be, and I don’t doubt that others do the same. So if you don’t like the toys you’re seeing on the shelves, it might not just be the manufacturer who is to blame. Shop elsewhere.
Marketing idiocy… What else?
I’ve also noticed that Lego has been shifting towards merchandising for franchises like Star Wars more than the old style generic Legos. This to me is not good. I think we have enough branding without Lego adding more to it!
Nothing like using kids to say your own adult agenda. Does this all seem like is was spoon-fed to the kid?
FYI I absolutely agree with her mommy’s point, it’s just kinda lame to hide behind your kids.
Star Wars licensing saved Lego. My daughter loves legos, and will spend hours building little projects and playing with all the figures (mostly Star Wars at our house). She got a couple of the Friend’s sets (a horse farm, a cupcake shop) and loves them. In BOTH cases, (Star Wars and Friends) they reflect her interests, I’m all for purple Legos. It’s about time.
Well, no need to guess which gender you are.
Is she ready for 70 years of obsessive cyber stalking from wingnut misogynists? Will she ever be able to use the internet?
Thanks for thinking girl-kids don’t have a brain, or notice things in the world around them.
This “adult agenda” is directly affecting this girl - Lego’s adult agenda about a sex segregated world of where boys can do anything and girls can do the shopping.
I agree with you in general, but this is a LEGO-specific marketing choice. It’s like this even in the LEGO stores, with no other toys sold.
Her spoon-fed opinion is misdirected. The letter needs to be addressed to all the consumers who do not make it profitable for toy companies such as Lego to produce toys that buck biology and tradition. Believe me, kid - if it were profitable, they’d be making 'em.
I used to put the skinny hinge-pieces on my minifigs’ heads so they could be girls with ponytails. They didn’t make a lot of girl-hair-pieces in the 80’s, and the faces were all just the basic smiley.
I didn’t think about it, it was just obvious. I was a girl and my Lego people needed to be girls too. Even if the only marker I could give them was a weird mohawk ponytail.
