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I don't care too much about the "girl" Legos. It's a marketing technique. I LOVED Legos as a kid and I wasn't turned off or otherwise negatively disposed towards the "boy" Legos of the 80s.
I loved them too. I didn't have many of my own, but a neighbor boy did and we played with them a lot. But they didn't have girly Legos back then, either.
I was fortunate that my mom kept ALL of my old Lego sets including a lot of the original space and castle sets that were my older brothers. My kids have a giant 50 gallon tub full of Lego's to imagine away with as well as a bunch of the original pirate sets that are still complete. My son and my daughter love the Lego's and my son isn't too thrilled with the boxed sets that make one thing, he tends to prefer making his own stuff.
One thing I have noticed though is that there is a lot of toys and things out now with cross gender appeal that seems to be drawing in both boys and girls. From my own kids to cousins to other kids at school the line of "this is boy stuff", "this is girl stuff" seems to be really blurring. Harry Potter appeals and the associated merchandise appeals to both, the newer Star Wars does as well with a lot of strong female characters, even the current Power Rangers series seems to be a hit with boys and girls.
I guess what I am getting at is that while having things specifically marketed to girls is fine, I think a lot of girls these days tend to be interested in the same things the boys are to an extent. I for one always get a chuckle when DD1 is wearing a frilly pink princess dress and plastic Disney dress up heels while she has a lightsaber duel with her brother, or they team up to fight evil as Power Rangers, or the latest pretending they are the people from Pirates of the Carribbean.
I don't like the Lego packages that come with the directions and are only meant to make one thing. The boys each have a set of regular old Legos and they come up with some nifty things!
I don't care too much about the "girl" Legos. It's a marketing technique. I LOVED Legos as a kid and I wasn't turned off or otherwise negatively disposed towards the "boy" Legos of the 80s.
The science centre or museum or such here a couple of years ago had an exhibit with literally thousands of white lego bricks and you would come and build whatever you liked. It was great. So creative. Bricks only. No fancy bits.
We have a couple pink tubs for my son. He loves having the pink, purple/magenta and orange color pieces that he can't find in all of his blue totes. It is stupid that there are separate cases for the colors anyway when you are buying case sets of pieces anyway
As far as the sets, which are absurdly expensive for small plastic pieces, my son will have us make them once, and then they are never seen again. So disappointing to spend all that time making the police station, City houses and shops, ect just to have them destroyed within a few minutes, but all the stuff he makes with the pieces instead are a window into his imagination that I love that he shares with us. He makes some fun stuff combing set pieces and individual pieces that are far better than the structure sets that Lego sells because they are his creations
These have been around for a while, this is a lego type dollhouse from the early 90's my DD used to have Huge 3-Story Mega Blocks-Lego Dollhouse Mansion (http://www.flickr.com/photos/abrown720/3700413985/in/photostream/ - broken link)
I think my son probably got as much use out of the set as my daughter did. He really didn't care about the color, just that it was cool to have a lego baby grand, a lego computer and tv, and a lego bathtub and toilet, lol.
It was also not uncommon to find the dollhouse pieces used in houses built with building blocks and occupied with plastic dinosaurs families and FP little people. Cars built from erector sets or K'nex shared the same plastic roads with the Hot Wheels. Pretty much anything that could be used to create was thrown together to build some very imaginative scenarios. I thought it was interesting that the kids didn't seem to feel restricted to using just one type of thing at a time. It's kind of sad to watch that disappear as they get older and become more conventional.
Lego probably did some market research and discovered that primarily mothers of boys bought their products. In an attempt to appeal to a larger audience and make more money they came with pink.
I personally loved legos as a child. I also had K'nex, which my dad took over shortly after purchase.
I was fortunate that my mom kept ALL of my old Lego sets including a lot of the original space and castle sets that were my older brothers. My kids have a giant 50 gallon tub full of Lego's to imagine away with as well as a bunch of the original pirate sets that are still complete. My son and my daughter love the Lego's and my son isn't too thrilled with the boxed sets that make one thing, he tends to prefer making his own
That's awesome! I'm probably dating myself here, but my parents saved my old Capsela sets. They made the round of the siblings and were then gifted to DH a few years ago by my brother. I can't wait until the kids are old enough for it!
I agree about the benefit of creating one's own over boxed sets.
My daughter loves Legos and has chosen both the pink and non-pink sets, including the houses and garden, and Lego City. She also loves the Spongebob sets and has quite a few. This year, we are doing the Lego City Advent calendar which is really cool. Not all kids follow gender lines when it comes to toys, esp. Legos, so I say, buy what stimulates their imaginations.
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