Legos

Hon and I love legos.  So much so that legos have already been incorporated here and there in our wedding.  Our kids, too, will certainly have plenty of lego-fun.  Once they reach the age where they stop eating them, that is.

I recently discovered that Lego has come up with yet another "girl" lego: Lego Friends.  This idea arose from the fact that girls like to create stories and make their toys interact.  This is very true.  I certainly did more than just build the sets when I was younger.  And I will always give credit where credit is due: Lego did an intensive study with young girls and their moms to see what they would want from a Lego set.

That being said, I have a couple of issues with this.  First of all, the new lego girls are all taller, skinnier (of course), and more realistic than their male counterparts.  Well as realistic as Poly Pocket was.  Secondly, they are all pink, lavender and come with the mandatory cute animals: puppies, bunnies and kitties.  Better yet, the five main characters have titles reminiscent of the Spice Girls personas: "The Smart Girl", "The Animal Lover", "The Beautician", "The Singer" and "The Social Girl".   I have no words for the last one.  The only reason I was able to write this post without using Caps Lock was the first who has a garage full of awesome tools (purple, obviously) and a blackboard (thankfully still black).

The hands and hair are the same and they can still stand on bricks.

Far be it from me to deny the girls that want pink legos.  I'm all for pink lego bricks (and teal and vermillion).  Yet, I can't quite accept that my daughters should play with beauty and the arts while the boys get to make pirate ships and castles and cars and robots and superheros and firefighters.

Girly legos didn't exist when I was a kid--or if they did, I certainly didn't notice.  Why the sudden need?  Have girls really changed so much that they want to play with a beautician and her puppy instead of a pirate and an aligator?  I doubt it.  Or at least I hope my girls don't fall for this nonsense.  As one lego fan put it:

There already was lego for girls. It was called "lego".