LEGO... For Girls!!

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This video is intended for adult, and young adult, collectors- NOT children!
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[@Ava_Leigh]

"Neutrality is often mistaken for stereotypical masculinity-" PREACH. Omg,, I cannot tell you how much this frustrates me!

[@kittycheshire5099]

Ikr. We were buying my cousin , who was pregnant at the time, a souvenir from Disneyland for the baby. My cousin lives in India, so we didn't know what gender the baby was. My sister argued that we should get it a Mickey baby toy instead of a Minnie one, because we didn't know and Mickey was apparently neutral while Minnie was only for girls.

[@emmym9276]

I belive it was Simone DeBeauviour who said maleness is considered default, and femaleness is the deviation from that default. It should be the other way around considering everyone started as female in the womb....

[@Lucy-cl2qk]

@@emmym9276 Simone spitting fax

[@demo2823]

@@emmym9276 We don't all start as female, we start as neutral, it's just that without the Y chromosome we would be female, whereas without the X chromosomes we would be dead. Humans are default female in that the Y chromosome makes you different from the template while the X chromosome is part of the template.

[@catalinamelo9932]

I'm a girl and loved LEGO police cars, dinosaurs, aquanauts and Bionicles (I had the Blue one, which was the female one- the best thing is that she didn't have female stereotypes whatsoever). I never found a girl to whom I could play with. If girls are receiving an education of pink, and princess everywhere that is not to blame to "stereotypical masculinity". Firemen exist, and it's so good to help your city by being one. There's no... "masculinity" there if you may. Firemen exist because they have to- they're not there to be turned into toys and entertain just boys. I kind of disagree with the video... Still. I do agree that aesthetically they are not so "bubblegum pink"? Also there are astronauts... which you will never find in dolls (or at least the ones I know). IDK Maybe what most bothers me is the size of the dolls- they look like DUPLOs, which are the ones only babies play with. So girls... are babies?

[@freakette555]

The "this isn't what girls want" criticism is so weird to me... like some girls definitely do want to play with a beauty salon or a mall or whatever?

[@Narwhal39]

"this isn't what girls want, this is what girls are told they should want" is such an ironic statement to make like the entire point of eliminating gender roles/stereotypes is to not dictate what kids should or shouldn't like, yes you can criticize Friends for advertising exclusively to girls but you can't criticize it simply for existing???

[@Ri57490]

The beauty salon and mall should be in a set with the firetruck and helicopter- because that is how the world is. There is no town that only has one or the other. (Unless it's an Amish town or remote village where none of these exist)

[@clarascats1365]

Yup, like I personally did like Lego friends, but many of my friends wouldn’t have and that should just be ok

[@creed8712]

That argument died the moment the numbers of sales came out and Lego friends made big money

[@estrellaanne1589]

When I was younger I definitely loved both “boy” toys and “girl” toys. I loved having salons and “girl” things. So it’s definitely weird criticism because there are too many girls who do want those sorts of toys for the statement to be true. There is a good population of girls who like both and then a good population who like “boy” things. The statement never solves the problem.

[@natwombat]

As a kid I remember legos always being in one of the “boys” toy isles. When shopping with parents or even on my own I always just kinda skipped that section. So even if girls would have been interested in them, they were not seeing them at all or being told subliminally by the store layout that legos were considered a “boy thing”. Now I’m pretty sure the Lego isle is one that bridges the gap between the pink and black sections

[@starame2452]

The Lego isle in the store I frequented as a kid actually wasn’t to bad. The toy isles were kinda like: -Legos- -Bikes- -Girls- -Boys- Although the neutrality didn’t really help since I never took interest in legos until Elves

[@hal-fling]

in my country the Lego section is usually behind the counter in toy stores, and they usually aren't divided into boys/girls Legos but just based on what franchise it was

[@Ri57490]

Black is a neutral colour. Why do they use black for boys sections instead of blue (if they're going to use pink for girls section). Seems like they're trying to show typically male toys as default and typically female toys as a deviation or 'other'.

[@fairy_floss]

Exactly

[@juliapimenta908]

@@Ri57490 Well, that’s why Beauvoir called women “the other”. Male is standard-female is a deviation.

[@JeepersSqueakers]

as someone who was an 11 year old girl when lego friends came out I can say it actually really did get me interested in lego. I actually desperately wanted to have all the sets so i could have my own little city... only got one small set of it in my entire childhood sadly though :( personally i wish they kept the branding of the of the main brand and just added the cafes and concert sets with the normal girl minifigures tho.

[@iwakeupandboomimarat]

same i had a waterfall set and i was OBSESSED w her

[@mrsdummydumdum]

Me too, I think I was 7 or something and they were actually my first Legos ever and the only Lego tipe I ever had...

[@disneyfan5571]

I had a small lemonade stand and a cabin set (I think) that came with a surfboard, car, and some other things I forgot

[@iimuffinsaur]

Yep same! Mine was a bedroom set.

[@sentientmarshmallow4644]

I was so excited when I got my first Lego friends because PINK LEGOS

[@deanyaschempp]

Legos were only ever "gender neutral" in the wishes of the company. The ads appealed to boys and dads, showing them often playing together, or two boys playing together. They used the old adage of, "those who aren't boys wish they were," and they used ONLY boys in their ads, to play with the toys. The little sisters were only ever watching on in amazement, like, "I wish I could make those." As a 59-year-old woman who was a "tomboy", I LIVED through those commercials, being shown over and over that those toys were not intended for girls like me. If you'd seen those ads, you wouldn't believe the "gender neutral" advertising crap at all. There're also interesing studies that talk about how boys "identify" with non-human things, when they are not allowed to play with dolls; they turn their airplanes and cars into avatars for themselves. Kids who have dolls don't usually objectify themselves as inanimate objects like cars; they see themselves as humans INSIDE cars.

[@miguelstarboy5572]

damn that's crazy I used to play like that all the time

[@markgoldby6502]

Fascinating. Play really is just projection of the self onto inanimate objects.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Really? I'm a guy who never played with dolls, but I never identified myself with the cars to planes I played with. I would do flips and tricks with the car, but never thought of myself as the car or saw myself as a human inside of the car. Rather, I thought of myself controlling the car like with a giant hand directing it or just observing it doing epic things (even though I was technically the one moving it). I believe I thought of the car as it's own animate thing that was separate from me, like it had it's own life and agency.

[@mrsdummydumdum]

I was born in the y2k and I also recall Lego not really being as inclusive as it promotes it self to be: before Lego friends I had actually never had Legos (edit: thinking back, I actually had Lego Duplo & Hello Kitty themed Duplos as a toddler, but I don't really see them as the same thing as normal legos) and my main (if not only) exposure to the brand came from the animated shows they had, like Ninjago or Lego Knights, and while I liked them I think it's important to notice how all the main leads are male, aside from 1/2 girls who are always the sisters or the love interests, so I didn't really get to see myself truly represented by them and I think that's why I never thought of actually buying the toys... :(

[@jessicah4462]

We’re probably the same age-ish. I loved Legos both as a child and still now as an adult. I really enjoyed building homes with Lego as a child. So much so my parents entered me in a contest at the K-Mart she was working at for builds. I didn’t place, simply wasn’t good enough. Some of the builds were amazing. I also played video games on the Intellivision and Atari. Then, Nintendo, all the way up til today. Not all of us were influenced by gender marketing and just did what we wanted and had a blast! Still do. Now I have a blast with our grandson. We play video games, build Legos, shoot bow and arrows and air soft, and whatever else we want. I have never once stopped and thought, “oh, I can’t. I’m a girl.” We’re not all some kind of victim out here. I also love purses and shoes, making beautiful crafts and being a housewife, ftr. We don’t all fit into premade boxes.

[@leftygurl]

personally the most appealing "for girls" lego theme to me is elves, mostly because i'm more drawn to fantasy settings than ones based in reality, but also because they were just more cohesive and prettier than most friends sets imo.

[@Gallopstar]

I was 9ish when lego friends came in and by that point I despised the idea of having pink sets aimed at little kids like I felt those were. I had previously been disappointed by the sets being all aimed at boys and my mum talking about how she used to love legos as a child so I definitely wanted to get into it, but not with lego friends. When I saw the lego elves sets I immediately loved them and I got all the dragons sets because they were so pretty and in a fantasy setting which I love anyway. While there is still ninjago that is somewhat similar, I'm still sad that they discontinued elves.

[@Studio-Sidoki]

Lol same

[@user-qp4th3ij7z]

It’s interesting that so many girls seem to really enjoy magic and fantasy style play, but Lego only really caters to “normal human role play:)))”. Since you liked Elves, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on gothic fantasy Lego sets (a la the Harry Potter sets, or hypothetical twilight/teen wolf sets or other similar 2000’s properties)? Doesn’t need to be branded but I could see it bringing a lot of interest (assuming we are designing sets in the 2000-10s). My theory is that if we’re going with the “girls are more concerned about the interior” data, then gothic fantasy is a no brainer. Lavishly furnished castles and mansions, secret rooms full of treasure, magic and werewolves in the woods. Rooms with stained glass windows, potion cabinets, exorbitant banquets and hidden passages. I feel like THAT is something that would really appeal to girls, but more importantly a wide range of play styles.

[@Gallopstar]

@@user-qp4th3ij7z I think for me the appeal of Elves was the fantasy theme, the nature that surrounded the builds, and the pretty colour combinations that I really liked (sort of like out of a cartoon or something). I also really enjoyed the aspect of collecting all the dragons which was really fun. The other benefit to the Elves sets was that the aesthetic matched lots of my other fantasy figurines such as the Schleich Bayala figurines. LEGO Friends has a similar colour scheme, but I am not really interested in city builds and any I would rather a more realistic palette if I did get any city builds (maybe I find it hard to suspend my disbelief that a city would be pink idk). As for the Harry Potter sets, I do like them and I own several of them though I mainly prefer the sets that are more centrepieces, or at least are a bit more colourful as the castle sets are all rather bland due to the colour of the castle. I also personally much prefer sets that are more integrated into nature as I feel that allows even a small set to feel much more complete than half a building. For me I don't really care about the interiors unless they are on display from the front of the set as I like to use sets to make a scene and usually the exteriors look a lot more complete than the interiors, except for when the interiors are incorporated into nature like I've previously mentioned. Those are my opinions on the sets, and despite my love of the brighter Elves colours, I would also love some gothic fantasy sets provided they are nicely detailed and ideally would fit with the more natural surroundings that appeal most to me.

[@blicket282]

I miss Lego Elves. The dragons were so cool and I wanted them so bad. I still want them but it’s so hard to find them now.

[@ariadnefrolich7243]

About your comment on how if someone sees the Lego Friends as "sexy" they belong on a watch list, I think the outrage came more from the fact that the girls have a faint hint of curves on their chest. This makes sense given the fact that the girls are pre-teen/teens, but sadly there are still plenty of people who prefer to keep their kids in the dark about how their bodies will develop as they grow and feel threatened by anything that even hints at such changes. Keep in mind this is pure speculation on my part, but its based off my own experiences (not with my own parents thankfully, but with my peers) plus similar cries of outrange I've seen aimed at various doll lines and such.

[@booktales1687]

I think you’re pretty spot on, actually. Parents got upset over Turning Red for the exact same reason.

[@EduardoMartinez-rs3bu]

Truly sad

[@LucasSantos-ss6ou]

Seeing this I can only remember the Barbie doll that had a puberty function (as in you'd spin her arm and she'd grow taller and grow breasts) and that toy caused such a massive outrage. Can't help but wonder why adult masculine features are presented to boys as a good thing, but women's bodies are "inappropriate"

[@rune2O2O]

@@LucasSantos-ss6ou it has to do with how sexualized women’s bodies are across cultures in general i think unfortunately. But idk

[@lavendertiles]

I mean it makes no sense, for that’s just natural anatomy. You see all of the “boys’” figures with abs, why can’t minidolls have curves?

[@Tama-Hero]

So the thing I remember about the outrage over Lego Friends was not just that it was a gender neutral toy suddenly being marketed exclusively to girls, but that it was part of a larger trend of gender neutral toys disappearing altogether in the 90s and 00s. Even if companies had successful gender neutral toys, they would suddenly start splitting their marketing up with sets for boys and sets for girls, because it was an effort to eliminate competition and serve more targeted products. Why dilute your message trying to sell a toy to boys and girls when you can generate more sales by sending targeted marketing messages to ONE demographic? It's not surprising that Lego Friends sold better, it was designed to. I think sales isn't necessarily the thing to go by in terms of "was this a good thing or not" or "was this liked by girls or not" because ultimately if the stereotypes were harmful, if the dominating trend of "this is for you" enforced those stereotypes in every aspect of a girls life now including Legos, then it's not really a positive. That's just my two cents. Girls grow up in a world where these stereotypes already exist and still manage to have fun and imaginative play with gendered toys. It's not like Lego Friends singlehandedly created this. It was just like one more straw on the camel's back. Parents are smarter now so this isn't working as well anymore, so the gendered toy thing is creeping back and gender neutral toys are more common again. Finally, like 30 years later. I guess you could say this also intimately impacted me as a girl growing up in this time period who did not at all fit the mold of "traditional femininity" but if I didn't want something pink I had to play with "boys toys" which was alienating and made it difficult to connect with my peers. As someone who has worked in gaming for a significant portion of my life, the marketing of video games as gendered toys for boys in the 80s and 90s has had significant and long lasting negative impacts on my life and career lol

[@markgoldby6502]

Loved this response. I had the reverse experience but essentially the result is the same - if as a child you play with toys marketed for a gender that you are not identified as, you can expect to receive bullying from peers and parents. Therefore gendered marketing is bad because toys should just be things you play with. Likewise clothes are just things we wear. Except, they aren't in society, they are loaded with subtext. Personally I see the benefit of gendered marketing as a gateway into a style of play (I.e building) to girls who are ALREADY femme gendered, and who would otherwise have no interest in lego.

[@arikalamari19]

marketing is an inhumane business, they just want to take as much money as possible in a crude way :( but i must say those mass produced toys since the 50s were made for boys mainly (insecure boys who are afraid to be called girls) Most toys don‘t have delicate features and portray boring roles

[@howdyyall4335]

I pray the separation stops. God bless 💓

[@TheWholeEntireCake]

This is definitely a first world problem.

[@Tama-Hero]

@@TheWholeEntireCake I mean this *is* a video about Legos. I don't know what you expected.

[@shinekitten7669]

if your "gender-neutral" product excludes girls, it was never gender-neutral to begin with. it comes from seeing masculine as the "default" and feminine as an added accessory. i'd like to see more actual gender-neutral things

[@sagejungwirth4155]

The thing that still frustrates me is the division of color. Girls get pastels lego sets and boys get all the other colors in there Lego sets. Is it too much to ask that I beable to purchase a set of Legos that includes pastel blue and purple, lime green, pink, yellow, blue, brown, black, and white!? I dare anyone to try and find a set that isn't harshly color divided. I just want a big box of basic building block Legos I can get that has neons, pastels, and the traditional colors of lego in it 😭

[@JutlandAngel]

I would say Lego Classic is good at giving you a vast amount of colors, and they are mostly the standard building bricks too. If you want more specific builds the Creator, Icons and Ideas are good too, but they are realistic colored, example the tiger set will be orange and not purple.

[@phoneheaded]

That last line of, "Maybe I don't want to drag Minifigures out of a traumatic fire. Maybe I just want to bake cookies," really resonated with me as someone who wanted to do the opposite. I come from a long line of absent fathers. I had little male presence in my house as a kid and was raised by my great grandmother, grandmother, and mom along with my sister. I had no idea what it was like to be boyish or masculine outside of media. I didn't want to play with the feminine toys I was given, and begged for swords or Pokemon instead of Monster High or Littlest Pet Shop. I would never play house or vet or anything with my LPS. I would always load them up into the car/van playset and pretend that they were running away from natural disasters. It would be kind of funny what these isolating gender stereotypes do to us as kids if it weren't so sad.

[@laragallahue7127]

As Adult Female collector of Lego, I never got into Lego Friends even I was right age for it. Mainly because the figures, they didn’t look good with my rest of minfigures. But the sets were cute.

[@LePezzy66]

I had that problem too when I got Belville when I was younger. It wasn't up to scale with my brothers train set, and so we never played together. Mine was calles "girls lego"..

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Yeah, the mini dolls were never something that appealed to me. Granted I'm a dude who has never been into dolls but the dolls just seemed so much more incompatible with the Lego world. Like you can't move their legs individually and their legs don't have any holes so you can't attach them anything when they are sitting down. I vastly preferred minifigs because I could simulate walking and actually have them sit down. Mini-dolls are just objectively more limiting.

[@orionhan2431]

Yeah, almost all female collectors i know are the same. Personally i feel the only exception is the Disney Princess & Superhero Girls cartoon series minidolls are superior to the minifigs.

[@taraelizabethdensley9475]

The minidolls creepec me out when i first saw them, but they grew on me. If they had been around when i was a child it would have been easier to get my parents to buy them

[@onemoreweirdo207]

@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi As a person who really loved dolls growing up, it's still a no from me. The main point of lego is compatibility, and these minifigs are not it. Also they look a lot out of place as they aren't really blocky (which I get is the point, but it's not what I'm looking for).

[@sitron7224]

Personally I was kind of upset with lego friends when it came out, just because suddenly there were two lego boxes at my grandma's house, one with the "boy lego" and one with the "girl lego", and it just did not sit right with me when my brothers got scolded for trying to play with the "girl lego". Like that divide just hadn't been there before. Also I found the sets kind of boring, I really liked Belville as a kid because of the fantasy theme, but friends was all just smoothie bars and girls' bedrooms, regular everyday places just wasn't it for me. If lego elves had been released earlier I would probably have appreciated friends more, because it wouldn't have felt like it was my only option and also I'd get to play with cool fantasy sets.

[@thaissa215]

Everything in Lego - from the professions depicted in the playsets to the ads to the GOD-AWFUL PACKAGING with "serious colors" - screams "BOYS ONLY". If it ever was gender-neutral as they claim, then where are the pink, purple, or pastel-colored blocks?? Certainly, muddy green and dark gray can coexist with these colors! Why some of these colors are considered alienating while others aren't, I wonder 🤔 🤔 🤔 I've only had Lego knock-offs as a kid (the real deal is crazy expensive in my country), y'know those buckets with simple blocks? And I loved them so much! Yes, the "gender-neutral" ones didn't have girly colors, but I still liked them 'cause the colors (the standard "baby-targeted" primary colors + bright green, black and white) were still cute and fun! Throughout my childhood I've also come into contact with other sorts of building toys - from the simplest wooden squares with brick patterns printed on to those peculiar straw-like tubes with holes and spikes - and had a blast with them, not only because they were indeed fun, but because they didn't push a faux-seriousness with gritty colors or didn't depict "heroic", adrenaline-ridden professions (who coincidentally are also the ones pushed into boys' consciousness since they were little babies). They were building blocks. You build, you play. No need to alienate anyone! I don't have a problem with traditionally feminine toys, but it's tiring to see them exist as a second choice, an afterthought, instead of toy companies questioning why the so-called neutral toys aren't being, well, neutral; and why toys depicting certain scenarios come accompanied with a number of gendered little details.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Hold up, why do the professions scream boys only? No profession is exclusively for boy or for girls, and Lego sets have had male and female characters of every profession. And if anyone can be any profession, how does that make it "boys only?" As for the colors I don't think pastels, pinks and purples automatically make something gender neutral. Lego take a lot of inspiration from the real world and in the real world, pastel colors aren't that common in vehicles and buildings. I don't think Lego's color choices are less gender neutral than say, the color choices of a car dealership or construction company.

[@xoxo.pochacco]

Hearing all the controversy surrounding Lego Friends really made me upset. I was around 5 when Lego Friends debuted, and me and my friends were obsessed with them. As a stereotypical girly girl, I always felt alienated by the darker colors, and more prominent "male" characters featured in the main LEGO sets. I loved animals and photography, but the main careers in other LEGO lines never featured those interests. Lego Friends will always hold a special place in my heart, and I'm really glad Lego has made efforts that extend to not only girls, but anyone who never felt like previous Lego sets represented their favorite interests, color palettes etc.

[@chefcantcook7966]

Lego friends really has gotten me into Legos. Yeah I would watch Ninjago or collect blind bags, but I never really wanted a set. But once Friends started coming out I would ask my parents to my me one. And I would play with those all day.

[@cthulhucult3230]

I had Lego sets before Lego friends but I really loved the line when it debuted. I felt like the figures looked more human and kinda prefer the stylized version. I had no problem with previous sets but Lego friends introduced me to so many new pieces. I loved having little sandwiches and birds that could decorate my creations.

[@fusetunes]

I do kind of wish the normal minifigures made it through to the sets. One of my favorite things to do with Lego as a kid was customizing the characters, and I was always sad that I couldn't use Friends pieces in that process. No idea how people found them 'sexy', though!

[@kittycheshire5099]

Honestly, I loved Lego Friends. I feel like the normal Lego sets weren't really reflecting my interests as a child, so I didn't really care about them. I was a very girly child, and most of the stuff the Lego Friends did was stuff that actually interested me. Not to mention how much fun they were to build with all the small details, and how you could actually move the dolls around inside. The normal Legos sets was just building replicas of building, Lego Friends was building a literal doll house. Not to mention the show, which I was obsessed with as a kid. I get that people don't like that it's "stereotypically girly," but the normal sets at the time were really "stereotypically boyish." Where else was a girl supposed to get a ballet studio or mall set? It's really just about what kids want to build, and Lego Friends gave them more variety.

[@bridgetbrennan6615]

I got both the “boy” legos and the “girl” legos. I had fun with both, and combined them to make a whole city! However, I will say that Lego Friends had cuter animals.

[@Garbaz]

As a boy having played a lot with Legos as a kid, if something like the Elves line would have released in my time, I would definitely have been interested, irrespective of the marketing. What I do however find irksome about, and what dissuaded me from ever getting into any of these girl-oriented sets, rather than the pink or the themes, is how they are essentially incompatible with most other Legos with the figures being so differently shaped and sized. This very much always felt to me like a separating barrier between the "girl" Legos and the rest. Sure, that existed with stuff like Bionicles as well in explicitly boy-oriented sets, but for the most part, the standard Lego minifigure was the norm across themes and brands, allowing for a lot of creativity in play, which I feel like making the "girl" figures so different stands somewhat antithetical to.

[@pearldiver6949]

As a girl who absolutely love Lego friends I kind of agree with this. I always preferred to use the Friends mini figures because they looked more like me, and the alternative was the normal “girl” Lego figures which had those atrocious cutouts for their waists. However, the Friends figures couldn’t sit properly like the normal legos. Either way, it feels like “girl” mini figures were always a poorly designed afterthought in the Lego world.

[@flipflopzthreeonethree1873]

I was a girl who already had a lot of lego city sets when Friends came out, and I remember being disappointed that the figures wouldn't fit with my city. Even more, the color palette, while pleasing on its own, looked pretty bad alongside my red/green/blue/yellow/grey sets. So even if I wanted to have a cafe or vet clinic alongside my fire station and airport, it would look super out of place. Idk, something just bothers me about the incompatibility.

[@iitspiink8580]

my brother had a TON of lego growing up that me and my sister weren’t allowed to touch, then lego friends came along and we were suddenly allowed to play with lego sets! it didnt matter to us that they were “girly”, we could build our own city and preform our melodramatic soap operas. ironically, we wanted more male lego friends characters so we could roleplay a fighting married couple who have a messy divorce that shatters the town... lmao. i actually had the lego friends ds game too and had alot of fun with that :)

[@SadieRockheart]

I'm actually working on a presentation for work about gendered marketing! I'm so glad you made this video bc I know very little about lego (didn't play with the sets because they didn't interest me and the pieces pinched my fingers) but I remember the impact lego friends had on the toy market. Do you mind if I reference this video as a source?

[@DarlingDollz]

Sure, I'd be honored!

[@itslubia]

good luck with your presentation!!

[@lennogamesyt8876]

You should bring up the fact that in the 1800 I think it was or a long time ago blue was for girls being more Delicate and pink for boys as it was closer to red.boys and girls also both wore dress as baby’s to make it easier to change diapers and buy less clothes if they grow out of pants.the reason it’s flipped now is because the used pink in in makeup products and it became the color of girls witch I don’t believe in as I’m a boy and love pink and I love dolls and am not apart of the lgbtq+ like the public would think seeing my interest and hobbies.

[@iwakeupandboomimarat]

good luck w the presentation!

[@winglessfairy564]

Good luck with your presentation you’ll do great!!

[@hannahwatson4003]

as someone who was a huge girly girl, lego friends was a dream come true. i loved that they made pink and “pretty colors” instead of the obnoxious colors lego used. i also loved that there was so much thought put into the girl’s hair and clothes, something that appealed to me. as a kid i never liked traditional legos probably bc they were so marketed to boys

[@AllycatlovesAG]

I remember when Lego friends launched and as a very girly girl, so seeing “girly” Lego sets peaked my interest. I had (and still have) a bunch of the sets from the original launch and seeing the sets in the video makes me nostalgic. I remember when Lego elves came out as well but I never got into it despite the stunning character design

[@Goleon]

I’m so glad that my parents never had a narrow mindset when it dealt with toys. I always had a nice mix of so-called gender specific toys (action figures, various types of dolls) and that included Legos which in my case was mostly a bucket full of regular like pieces that I mostly made a house with. Also me and my dad are fans of the Lego Movie (and it’s sequel) and his favorite character is actually UniKitty. Keep in mind my dad’s not the kind of guy that be into cute things. So the fact he likes a pink cat with a unicorn horn over Batman, his favorite DC character really says something about UniKitty. And in total irony Lego Batman is actually my favorite character from the films because of how much fun he is to watch.

[@FaeFlirtations]

I'm a cis woman and there were always Legos in my house as a kid. My dad loved Lego and it was something I could usually convince him to buy if he had extra money. We started getting the Lego catalogs when I was 9 or so. I wanted the girly sets BADLY. My dad was against how simplified a lot of the builds seemed to him though and he didn't like that the figures didn't match... So I never got to have the pretty colors, crystals, and other details that drew me to them.

[@Cheesedirky]

thank you SO much for bringing up LEGO Elves, i literally followed you on twitter for having a LEGO Elves icon!! it's by far my favorite LEGO series and I'm still so sad to not see it in stores anymore :(

[@Cheesedirky]

this was also just such a fun and interesting watch as a whole, I had no idea how much thought went into LEGO Friends as a brand!!

[@veronica_plays_roblox5223]

Yeah, I miss lego elves very much!

[@flipflopzthreeonethree1873]

I am SO mad that I missed out on lego elves. I was just a bit too old to still be interested in playing with legos when they came out, but they look so fun and I lowkey want to scour ebay for a set just to experience them even though I'm 21 and I don't have the space to start a collection lol

[@ihasmdb389]

Are we just not gonna talk about the wild rollercoaster that was Lego Belleville? 😭

[@hhh1234h]

I feel like people would definitely start arguing that “boys don’t look at Batman figures and think why don’t I look like that” which just undermine boys vulnerability to body image issues and suggest that girls are all stupid and impressionable and all girls are uncapable of looking at a Barbie and thinking “she’s a doll, that’s what dolls look like” which is what I thought as a kid. If we want to talk about unrealistic bodies we gotta start including boys too and stop thinking they’re invincible. As well as acknowledge that girls can recognize that their monster high dolls look like that because of stylization and not bc that’s what they should look like. Or maybe just talk to your child about their thoughts on a toy before you assume or just ban it from the house

[@unepresenceambigue]

I try my best to present a gender neutral approach to my daughter's toys but she does gravitate towards more "girls" toys. In her Lego sets she mainly uses her Friends over the regular mini figs (and some awesome Monster High Mega Blox!) I would have loved Friends as a kid myself. I played with my big brother who had a space ship base while I made the town and families lol

[@dinosaur___7209]

Unfortunately even if you are “gender neutral” the rest of society and everything she interacts with will still enforce those ideas so that’s not surprising. It’s really hard to combat.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

@@dinosaur___7209 Or perhaps that's really just what her daughter likes to play with. I don't see why a girl play with stereotypically girl toys is automatically a bad thing or it automatically means she being influenced/manipulated by society. Some girls just like playing with dolls and some boys like playing with trucks, that's just how some kids are.

[@dinosaur___7209]

@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi did I say it was a bad thing? I’m just saying there’s no way to separate what she would really like w/o sexist influences from what she likes currently. Sexism is so pervasive. I’m just saying we live in a society man lol

[@dinosaur___7209]

@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi and well, there are negative effects of girls having more limited options focused on preparing them for motherhood and beauty over careers and fun activities like boys get

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

@@dinosaur___7209 I think you are viewing as a negative thing, per your third reply and wording like "unfortunately" and "it's really hard to combat". But if that's what the kid likes then that's what she likes. If she likes toys associated with motherhood and beauty then I guess that's her call. Nothing is necessarily stopping her from doing stuff related to careers or other fan actives since OP said that she parents with a gender neutral approach. And even if she plays with those toys at as a kid, it doesn't mean she won't or can't have a career or do other fun things when she gets older. There are lots of moms who have careers.

[@clairep3688]

My sister and I grew up with these sets. My sister’s favorite sets were lego Chima, she would connect the legs and arms together to make super tall monsters with super long arms and make them fight with each other. I (22F, 12 at the time) thought that the lego friends were really cool and secretly wanted them, but I never got any because I thought I was too old. Now I’m adult and I love dolls and legos lol.

[@julias.7534]

I don't know if this is relevant, but it feels like after Lego Friends that the main brand began doing more sets with an overarching story, like an alien invader themed line-up of UFOs and motherships, or my personal favorite -- Monster Fighters, which featured a leading female character and gave most of the protagonists a form of prosthesis or scarring as they battled Dracula and other famous movie monsters.

[@oddmnemosyne2869]

Yes! LegovFriends showed them that kids liked have a story and world built around their toys, definitely noticed this more in the mainline afterward too.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Lego Friend didn't start that. Lego knew for a long time that kids liked to have a backdrop of story for playing with their sets and the first major story themes being Lego Adventures (launched in 1999) the immensely successful Bionicle (2001-2010). Over the last 20 years, there have literally been dozens of other themes with overarching stories. Just a few examples include Knights Kingdom (2004-2006), Exo-Force (2006-2008), and Atlantis (2010-2011). These themes and many more all came out before Lego Friends (launched in 2012). Even your example of the Alien invasion theme (Alien Conquest) came out a year before Lego Friends did. So the idea of story being important in Lego themes didn't start with Lego Friends, rather Lego Friends was just another theme in long line of successful story themes continuing a decade back. Lego Friends did prove to Lego that there was a market for girls and several years into Friends's run they started adding more female characters to the other Lego themes (probably around 2018). But even decades back other themes had female protagonists. Lego Adventures had Pippin Read in 1999, Bionicle had Gali in 2001, Atlantic had Sam Rhodes in 2010. Now all these characters were outnumbered by their fellow male protagonists and plenty of other themes didn't even have female characters, but my point is that main female characters still existed before Lego Friends got on the scene. But more than anything, I think Lego Friend's biggest influence was jump starting themes like Lego Elves and Lego Disney. Those themes were extremely popular and only exist because Friends was so successful. Now Lego has an actual market for female consumers, one that never really existed before. So I think Lego Friends was/is tremendously influential, I just don't think that evolving or creating story themes in Lego was one of its influences.

[@SeymourDisapproves]

Ah, I remember Monster Fighters. My brother and I ate that shit up lol

[@krystalhuntress6795]

Oh I remember watching the cartoons that Friends was based off of and loved the band that did some of their music. I am a BIG fan of the designs for the animated reboot they did as well.

[@TheTsarofKLV]

As a person who used to hate LEGO Friends, I 100% agree. I do love the series especially the Girls on a Mission series, and their music, yes they're meaningful. I love listening to it all the time to calm me down...

[@loreleiwhiteblade7919]

I was obsessed with LEGO friends when I was a little girl. I loved the Tv show and the music.

[@clarascats1365]

… hello fellow bisexual who likes Malinda😂

[@krystalhuntress6795]

@@clarascats1365 Not sure who that is lol My pfp is Karis Oka, a swing for Six the Musical Australia and New Zealand

[@clarascats1365]

@@krystalhuntress6795 oh rly? I recognised the Six costume on ur pfp and when I clicked on it to double check it also said you were subbed to Malinda lol sorry

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

As huge Lego fan and dude who never played with dolls and other stereotypically "girl toys", I have to give my honestly opinions of Lego Friends. which I feel is perspective that difference from your core audience of doll fans/collectors. Well, here it goes" I absolutely hated Lego Friends. I acutely remember when Lego Friends was released and I could not stand it. I didn't like how the sets had such a high focus on fashion, how every single one was super pink and purple, of the minidolls which were vastly inferior to the variety, detail, customizability, and articulation of the standard Lego minifigure. I also didn't like the setting, because when I played with a toy I wanted there to be something cool for it to do. But going to the mall or having a pet puppy aren't really cool, that seems really ordinary. But there's the thing, that's totally ok, _because Lego Friends was never meant for me._ It's meant for all the kids who want to role play with a doll house and have their characters go to the mall and it's making those millions of kids very happy. I don't like Lego Friends, but it has every right to exist because I'm sure there are millions of other kids (who don't like Ninjago or Bionicle or any of the themes I do like) who love Lego Friends. This is their theme and I'm very happy that it's their gateway into Lego and building. So while you will never see me buying Lego Friends (unless there is an alien invasion of Heartlake City that the girls need to repel using mechanized robot suits), I am totally fine that it exists. I don't like it, but it would be selfish to deny its existence to millions of kids who certainly love it. (And your mention of Lego Elves rings true as well! I particularly loved the show. It was a cool fantasy world where all the characters had elemental powers, that's much more appealing to me than girls in the real world going to an animal sanctuary or attending a science fair.) Well, that's just my perspective on the matter as a guy who's loved Lego for as far back as I can remember but never really liked Lego Friends. I don't like it personally, but it's totally fine because there are a bunch of other people who do. And I think it's totally fine that it was marketed towards girls, if it contains a bunch of stuff that appeals to them who am I judge? As long as kids aren't *excluded* from playing with certain things, I think gendered marketing is fine. As you said, the solution is having more options, not dumbing everything down so it's all the exact same. That's counterproductive, because we are all not the same and that's ok!

[@flipflopzthreeonethree1873]

This comment is pretty funny to me, because I'm a girl who absolutely hated lego bionicle and ninjago as a kid 😂 I didn't really get the point of them, because the appeal to me of legos was the building process and designing my city. I wasn't very interested in imaginative or roleplaying with lego sets. I had a torn opinion on the Friends sets when they came out, because they clashed aesthetically with the city I already had established, but I liked some of the details included in them. I didn't have to worry about it long, though, because pretty soon after lego Friends came lego minecraft, and I started getting those sets instead. Lego minecraft is imo the perfect lego line: universally appealing and allows for a wide range of playstyles, or can just look cool for display.

[@garbageGothic]

Omg I also remember Ello, yes!!! I could never remember what it was called (lost the box and most of the pieces ages ago), and the tactile feel/sensory experience of all the pieces and building with them was straight-up top notch lol. To this day I actually still have this weird little Ello jewelry display rack sort of thing sitting on my dresser

[@auggieb2681]

I was 12 when Lego friends came out and I was so vocal about hating the line. I think the real reason I hated it so much was that it just wasn’t for me. Family members and family friends who already knew I liked Legos would start getting me Lego friends instead of the sets that I enjoyed playing with. I played with a mix of toys in terms of gender, I remember lining up my trucks and tucking them into bed right alongside my dolls. I think if people never bought me Lego friends for holidays I would’ve been way less cranky about it

[@cassandralyris4918]

I remember getting my first legos when I was three. It was just a basic loose set and it came in a yellow bucket with a blue lid. I'm glad my mom let me have "girl" and "boy" toys. The concept was always silly. Some days I wanted to play house and others I wanted to play war too. My kids had quite a few Ninjago and Friends sets growing up. They frequently combined them, which was pretty interesting.

[@AnonymouslyAmbiguous1]

17:21 This part made me so happy to hear someone else say that I immediately clicked the subscribe button lol. As a cisgender boy who grew up LOVING "girly" things like Lego Friends it always made me super sad to hear about people trying to cancel it. I've never been into police or fire trucks or other "boyish" things so having Lego sets of regular buildings and places I could play with always made me so happy. I will always be really glad and thankful my mom always let me get dolls and other pink and "girly" toys as a kid because it would've sucked if I was stuck with Nerf or Marvel toys or whatever else people besides my mom insisted on getting me for my birthday. It's always kind of weird to me how people will complain about toys aimed at boys as not being marketed to girls, but then no one bats an eye when Barbie commercials never show boys playing with them. Like it's fine for pink/"girly"/frilly/cutesy things to never be marketed to boys because they're expected to all just like the gender neutral and "boy" toys. I think in an ideal world everything would be considered/marketed as neutral (no matter how "boyish" or "girly" it is) and individuals would just pick whatever they liked the most. But I guess we're still a long way away from society reaching that point \:

[@samtheflutegirl1373]

I do appreciate that LEGO took the time to research how girls play with their toys because I feel like a lot of times toys markets at girls have no idea what girls actually do with their toys. They tend to be like "You can dress up this doll in different outfits!!" whereas when girls actually play with dolls it tends to be much more along the lines of this doll has a routine and an ongoing conflict in her life and every outfit change is necessitated by the ongoing story line I have made up in my head. My memories of playing with Barbies involve them all switching outfits so they could disguise themselves as each other to avoid being murdered by the evil Barbies. Detail oriented is correct. And even as an adult the LEGO sets I like the most are the ones with secret compartments and hidden details-- the ones you can actually imagine the minifigures living in as opposed to being a backdrop. It's something that I never really noticed the difference on before but LEGO really did nail that attention to detail on the friends sets.

[@antibinary3782]

Im 18 years old, but I was about 7-8 when Lego Friends came out, so I was the target demographic at the time. I was completely unaware that there was so much backlash towards the brand when it came out, and I was honestly surprised because back then i LOVED Lego friends so much! I was so excited for when it came out, and it was the first time in a long time that I was excited to buy a Lego set. I used to all the time with my brothers when I was younger, but as they grew out of it I didn't have much interest to keep playing with them because all the sets were about spaceships and Transformers and things I didnt care about. As a young kid at the time I found Lego Friends so much more approachable. I wasn't a particularly girly or feminine child (Im a transgender man now!) and I never owned dolls or makeup sets or anything like that, but I saw myself more represented in Lego Friends then from other toys. I loved the construction part the most and I'd get mad if anyone tried to play with them lol. I loved Olivia because we shared the same name and she looked like me too (before the redesign) and even though I was never someone interested in science it piqued my interest a bit. Mias interest in veterinarian science even made me consider being a veterinarian when I grew up. Just because something is traditionally feminine doesnt mean its promoting something bad in children. Theres nothing wrong with pinks and pastels and things young girls can relate to. I love the idea that Lego could be gender neutral, but it never felt like that growing up.

[@_day_light]

LEGO Friends and Disney sets are actually what brought me back into the hobby from my “dark ages”! I found Frozen castle set at a discount store and have been back in love ever since 💖

[@madylittler]

I was a 10 year old girl at the time who already played with Lego when "Friends" came out, I absolutely hated it. People knew I liked Lego so I would previously get the CITY sets, Harry Potter, or starwars but after it came out I only ever got Lego Friends. I appreciated the more colourful blocks but hated the figures and all the "Lego for girls" vibes they were giving off

[@flipflopzthreeonethree1873]

I was in basically the same situation, but my saving grace was that lego minecraft came out at almost the same time, so I asked for those instead. I had a couple lego friends sets, and I loved the detail in them, but hated that they weren't compatible with the city I already had set up.

[@bluejay8396]

i loved lego friends as a kid and i ended up being transmasc. playing with feminine toys isn’t going to shape kids’ views on reality- sometimes it’s just nice to play with dolls that you see yourself in.

[@nyanfrills]

i had a lego friends set when i was little, it wasn't "dumbed down" at all. the building aspect of it was actually really cool.

[@MissMoontree]

I'm a bit older, so I had Belleville. My grandfather would buy all sets and then build them with me. Seeing lego friends, and especially the rollercoasters (which both I and my grandfather love) makes me want to time travel. I wish they had it when I was small so I could have build it with him. Seeing all the friends sets makes me want to be a mother/auntie just to have an excuse to play with them. My heart just jumps when I see all this girl lego. I started out having only 2 female lego figures once.... and now look at this!

[@NoiseDay]

It's SO important for us to talk about bias whenever we talk about criticism of girl-targeted stuff. It goes both ways. Some products are obviously catering to a stereotype, but there's nothing wrong with being a person who fits some of those stereotypes. Especially when it comes to something objectively neutral like femininity. Softness, pink, anything we put under the umbrella of "feminine..." There's nothing wrong or right about any of that. Either you like it or you don't. The main thing I'll point out that companies are bad at is including an equal number of boy and girl (and god forbid nonbinary!) characters. Just as with Lego mainline having a surplus of male-coded characters, their Friends line and especially fashion dolls in general have a surplus of girls.

[@ithinkflutterawesome6511]

Ah, those images of the playsets bring back memories of playing with Lego Friends while blasting Adele and Taylor Swift's albums from an Ipod to create a complex jukebox musical soap opera. Good times.

[@miniseams]

Thank you for such a great video. Honestly as a kid I used to use my legos to build houses for my polly pockets (the rubber clothing ones), and if I had some of those like pastel bricks to make their houses I would have been over the moon. I love the comparison between outrage over female-branded products versus male-branded products, you made some interesting points that made me think!

[@novembercrust]

I had legos as a kid, notably a few generic set of random parts and a Harry Potter themed set that had a Hermione mini fig; I can definitely recall my play habits and relate to the study that the excitement of playing with legos for me was the construction and interior decoration. I liked to build kind of fantastical 'cities' with no roofs so the insides of buildings could be accessed. It did tend to annoy me though that there weren't more items to decorate said interiors with or mini figures I found super aesthetically pleasing (because I was mostly a doll and dress up clothes kid.). The HP set was definitely better because it had cute mini versions of magical items like a snowy owl. I definitely would've been into Lego Friends, and definitely Elves, not just for the look and the fantasy but I always gravitated to lines with unique characters with thoughtful personalities. Those angry adults tend to have their criticisms based in the world of masculine = gender neutral without really giving it thought. They seem very out of touch with how kids think, especially. Currently I work as a tee designer for a licensed t-shirt company and one of our partners is Lego. I made a few designs for Lego Friends specifically, using their character art, and my boss didn't get it - he felt it wasn't 'lego' enough and had never heard of the brand. In general I tend to have to fight for a lot of our very cutesy brands that are not just aimed at girls but are seen as brands for the too young OR too old (see, also Gabby's Dollhouse, Bratz, and Precious Moments.). If I didn't fight for these we'd just make Marvel tees all day (I'm exaggerating, but only a bit.)

[@memethyst]

i loved the "boy" legos as a kid and when lego friends came out i liked them too. i liked how you could mix and match the wigs and accessories on the regular lego figures and the lego friends figures

[@imaginationstudios8yt]

I loved Lego Friends when I was younger, more so than actual Legos. I know, me being a girl n' all that sounds kinda lame, but I remember them fondly. I had a TON of the sets, still kept em to this day even, and even bought a few. For me growing up, I loved building the sets, I would say they even took a long time just like standard Legos depending on how big it was. I do hold a place in my heart for them.

[@LePezzy66]

Lego Belville was amazing, I had the desert set and was absolutely in love with it. Later on I got a wedding cart set, and I did not play with that one at all. I just converted the cart to a hut, and set the horse free. The only criticism I would have of lego Elves is that it came out just too late for me to enjoy in my childhood (luckily I now have adult money). I also still want that Belville witch and fairy set!

[@probablymiku]

when lego friends came out it introduced me to two of my lifelong interests, interior design, and building! my sister and i spent hours and hours playing and designing houses:) such a lovely topic

[@oddmnemosyne2869]

Great video! I've always had some mixed feelings on Lego Friends, mostly because I always felt like they could have taken all that research and just incorporated it into the mainline sets, but at the same time these came out at a time when gendered marketing was at it's most polarized, and it was clear that Lego's model for "neutrality" really just meant "not girly." Which has been a big issue with many so-called neutral toys over the last 20-30 years. It's very telling to the way people collectively view things with a masculine lean as the default. I appreciated that they took the time to actually find out what girls wanted to see from their toys and that they created sets that were just as enriching to put together as standard Lego. The sets are incredibly eleaborate! My partner is a grown man and lego enthusiast and he owns some of the Friends and Elves sets, although he uses the standard figures with them to make them cohesive with all his other Legos. I'm happy that in more recent years Lego has begun to take the things they've learned from Lego Friends and is better incorporating them into mainline Lego finally, as well as working on more neutral marketing for the Friends line Itself. At the end of the day, Lego Friends are quality toys that speak to a lot of kids and they've more than earned their place in the Lego aisle.

[@jujucatjuca]

This was such a great video!! As a girl, the biggest drawback to Lego Friends were the figures: I much preferred a standard minifig with long hair. The sets, however, looked super fun!

[@yasmineahsan8402]

growing up I liked standard minifig but I preferred how the lego friends looked way more I just wished the legs were separately movable. My brother however loved the lego friends figures way more than regular legos because the characters look better and more realistic in his opinion. He gets especially happy when we get a friends set with a boy character in it.

[@DanielGuzman-mm8ti]

Now I kinda wish Lego Elves was a TV Show released in 2003/2004 it would have been Avatar before Avatar and a Video Game series developed by TT Games during the PS2 era so if it's massively successful Lego & TT wouldn't have to make games based on LICENSED Lego brands like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel, DC, etc and not share any money to the Studios that owned them.

[@Writing4MySoul]

I’m glad my parents were like “you want LEGO Indiana Jones? Knock yourself out.”

[@robinsiciliano8923]

If you look at these dolls and think sexy…….well, you probably deserve to be on some watchlist…. I’m going to giggle about that comment all day! Thank you for the video and for that gem! ❤️🌺❤️

[@orionhan2431]

What if i look at the regular minifigs and think it's sexy, hahaha. Example Nya, Wyldstyle , Poison ivy??? Hey! Lego minifigs have to be able to fall in love with each other too. ... Also i wont be surprised someone out there has the Harley Quinn minidoll in a c** jar

[@MnMsandOreos]

My dad LOVES Lego. He kept all his pieces from childhood in the 70s. When you described the part about how boys like to build the structures while girls like the details, it perfectly describes how I’d play Lego with my dad. He’d build me houses and buildings, and I’d go in making furniture, mainly for my Polly Pockets (the early 2000s ones with the rubber clothes)

[@worminabag]

As a kid who grew up with lego friends and was never really into “feminine” toys I’m surprised that I absolutely loved them. From what I remember the sets were unique and interactive which was why I was super surprised to hear people calling them simple and dumbed down as I got older. Before Lego friends came out I remember feeling super left out when it came to legos. The cars and planes were never appealing to me, and when lego friends finally came out I remember playing for hours with my sisters and cousins. While I don’t think toys should be gendered, I’m glad lego came out with sets that catered to audiences with other interests.

[@Princess-Daisy]

When I was little, my brother and I would play legos together all the time. I had such a fun time creating new things and building whatever I thought was cool. I do remember one of the problems he and I would have was the lack of girl figures. It was a problem for me because when I wanted to make a figure to represent me, I always ended up with the wrong colored hair, hairstyle, etc because we only had 2 “girl” hair sculpts. It was a problem for my brother because he wanted to make his figure a Lego girlfriend LOL. We’d usually have to share our one girl head for both of the characters as none of the other heads would’ve worked (my brother was specifically into Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Star Wars so the majority of the faces either had beards or weird scaring 💀). I remember my feelings of frustration how he had such an easy time making a figure to represent himself but I had such a hard time. A while later, my cousin (female) started getting into legos and we had such a fun time. She liked Lego ninjago, specifically the dragons, and I did as well. We’d play with the dragons all the time. In one instance she was gifted a Lego friends set, a horse stable or something like that. We ended up keeping the horses and never using the girl figurine. We thought it was weird how she looked different from our normal Lego figures. I’d say the mold they used for the girls was the main reason it didn’t appeal to me. I feel like Elves was more suited to my specific taste since I like more mythical stuff, but again, I didn’t like the molds of the people. It’s a shame cuz these sets are really cool, but everyone has their cup of tea. Luckily, legos been getting better with their marketing/female inclusion as you mentioned. The blind bags are a reall easy way to get more female presenting figures for your collection, which I’m sure young me would’ve appreciated.

[@Prinnamon]

the whole masculinity = neutrality thing was so real for me..... as a kid/tween girl, i usually wanted to pick the boy avatar in games because boy characters just felt like more of a "blank canvas" in my mind. i'm aro/ace, and although i identify as a woman i rarely think much at all about my gender, so i doubt it was about gender/sex, but i think i probably just absorbed the idea that a male character is more versatile and a female character is inherently less interesting simply because i consumed a lot of media that prioritized the development/characterization of its male characters. (when i was young i was into star wars, super mario, penguins of madagascar, avatar: the last airbender... dora the explorer was the odd exception) even today, the characters i project onto the most are masculine, and i have a tendency to make lots of masc-presenting OCs :0

[@isle-unto-thyself]

I loved lego friends sm as a kid (still do) and had a bunch of their sets. I always heard about the outrage and adults would ask me if I wanted something else like.. no?? People think you're forced to be a girly girl but I really thought I had to be masculine to be normal and cool (which led to my not like other girls phase). Thankfully I'm out of that now and I am glad to be a girly girl who still likes some traditionally masculine things without forcing it on everyone, lol. This was an awesome video :)!!

[@LePinkCanary]

I totally had some of the Paradisia sets as a kid. I *adored* them, most of mine were horse themed ones because I was a horse girl ^_^' I LOVED that they looked like my younger brothers legos but were colors I liked. I feel like they're super underrated given some of the faces and hair molds were *impressive* not to mention the decals on the blocks. The stables were cool because you could put and bring the horses in and out and the buildings were also cool because you could interact with the interiors (mostly because they were 'open air' concept). Lego Friends looked awesome even as an adult.

[@Leafpool2]

i was a real big bionicle kid and i loved the world and lore of it (and that all american rejects ad? mwah) so for me interest in lego has always been "do i care about these characters?" which is why when i buy city sets i always put my bttf, lego movie, and ninjago figs in there and kinda. throw out the generic ppl. i like these characters i want THEM to go to this fire station or take a roadtrip in this vw bug. even then i can acknowledge the sets w/ characters and lore like ninjago and bionicle. while they have SOME girls theyre mostly an afterthought in terms of character development. its only been in the last couple seasons Nya from ninjago got to rlly rise above her fairly shallow characterization and do heroic things like the guys have been the whole time. Also the first female bionicle was literally named Gali...bro...

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

So much respect for mentioning the All American Rejects Ad. I will never stop moving along because of that commercial!

[@Leafpool2]

@@Obi-Wan_Kenobi that was my introduction to the band and i wouldn't have it any other way 💜

[@ogerponreject]

The way I see it: Nobody should be excluded from toys. Boys should be allowed to the pastels and cookie baking and girls should be allowed to the rough & tough fighting. What's wrong with it? Its mainly the parents that get their panties in a bunch because "oh no! our son likes pink?!?!"

[@ness3614]

Sort of off topic for Lego Friends but on topic for gendered marketing, my dad's worked at Mattel since the late 80s and apparently they used to start all of their marketing meetings with the phrase "Boys love guns and girls love stickers!" They've stopped saying that since, of course, but Mattel is still split up by people who work on "boys toys" and people who work on "girls toys" - if Mattel wanted to make a "gender neutral toy" they'd literally have to make a whole new division lol

[@DarlingDollz]

The gender bias at Mattel is actually crazy. Like, completely removed from reality. There's so much stuff they wouldn't allow them to do with Monster High for instance- they had to fight to make Frankie Stein have green skin because marketing straight up told them "girls don't like green."

[@Dr.PicklePh.D.]

As a kid who played with LEGO Friends, my biggest and only gripe was that the minifigures had less articulation that the regular ones. They were also top-heavy, and the legs being slim and having no holes to snap them into a sitting position really frustrated me because they'd always fall over. I've always felt like that was such an obvious and remediable oversight. I loved the sets because of all the interior features and details, but I always swapped out the figures with ones from my LEGO City sets (although I stole the lady garbage truck driver off my little brother, she was my favorite). I loved building LEGO sets, but I also liked dolls and dollhouses, so the way a lot of Friends sets were designed with lots of accessories and interior accessibility made for a happy medium. Olivia's House was a heck of a lot easier to play with than the Creator Family House, although I loved that one. My sister went through a horse girl phase, and LEGO Friends was there for her in that, too.

[@benmalsky9834]

What I love the most about Lego Friends besides it’s design philosophy and characters, are the absolutely INCREDIBLE new molds and brick colors it introduced and how they bled they’re way into other Lego themes. Friends not only helped Lego appeal to girls, but broadened the possibilities that other themes can adopt immediately, color wise, piece wise, and design wise.

[@maxrobinson4835]

Seeing some of the Lego friends sets in this vid gave me the biggest nostalgia boost ever oh my god. And that thing about Lego friends being like a gateway into Lego for young girls is so true. As I got older (and explored my Gender identity a bit more lol) I got into other Lego sets. It’s really interesting.

[@howlt005]

Holy crap I forgot all about Ello!! They were amazing!!

[@xxtjxx6995]

I grew up with Lego And now I’m an adult, I love Lego Monkie Kid which is generally a masculine show and series of Lego sets. But they’re my absolute favorites. Lego friends actually never appealed to me, and I was about 12 at the time. I liked normal Lego, and LPS figures.

[@brooke-lynnwilliams3418]

Currently a minutes in and I just want to throw my hat in the ring, I’m a 17 year old girl so I’m pretty sure that I have opinions about Lego friends. I had personal really like the earlier sets of Lego but had much preferred Lego chima and ninjago shows(all 3 came around the same)but didn’t really like the sets(found them to be somehow both too simple but also too mechanical) I find it a fascinating difference because I legitimately don’t understand why I didn’t like the shows/sets. Also looking forward to seeing your opinions on the RH series 4 leaks because I have some… thoughts. Edit: also shout out to the snakes from ninjago and Cragger from chima for almost making me a scalie when I was ten lol

[@pell222]

I remember Ello, i used it to make settings for polly pocket. The big flat pieces meant that it went together quickly which was satisfying, and the scale was about right for Polly

[@andyfirechild9823]

I actually love the standard minifigures better. If they did the Friends and Elves sets with regular minifigures, I'd buy everything! I loved building entire towns with details inside too for the stories of my playtime when I was little. I want to be able to combine any sets together in my lego world without having different proportioned characters. Plus you can mix and match the different parts of minifigures for more unique characters. All Lego needed to do was use a wider color palette, add some female minifigs and add a few more building options instead of just fire station, police station, gas station, etc. It didn't need to be so complicated. Of course the company did have to deal with social conditioning though, so that was tough. But now, I think kids are more free to like what they want. So I hope they continue to release new and interesting sets (with standard minifigures). And as a side note, I'd like some more houses released for minifigures. They could even do some in more fun colors like lime, pink, lavender, etc. Most of the past houses have been primary colored. I want to build towns, and towns have homes for the inhabitants to live in. ;)

[@HybrydaArt]

tbh I miss the light pink of paradis :< this was such a pretty shade of pink and there is nothing wrong with using pink. no one talks about all the shades of blue, but that baby pink of paradisa is so missed by me :< I wish there were a line of powdery girly pretty sets, bc some girls and boys love pastel colors that fit together better and look soft and dreamy... for me friens are not girly enough so I stick to system (and mostly get potter stuff, tho i love baracuda bay, such a fun set to build)

[@projecte-niko8655]

I remember of playing Lego city, Belville, Clikits and Bionicle, but then I grew out to even enjoy to own a new generation of lego sets. I couldn't look into Friends, but I found the animals sets cute. So when then I still remember that I wanted to play with the LEGO chima and Ninjago sets, because they were just *aepic* . Like what's not to love when you could watch an animated series of an appealing toyline and fantasining playing with them? But it's marketing just ghosted itself, what happened to them? Is it still going? I'm also glad there were toylines like Elves, they get an *aepic* sticker.

[@minniedamon8057]

There was only one thing that stopped me from liking Lego Friends as a kid. I couldn’t get over how different the figurines looked like from the rest of the others and it made me apprehensive to show interest in it. The sets were cute, but maybe if they had more traditional lego figures, I would have considered them more

[@iva_berg5607]

I feel like the only ones hating on Lego friends are adults pushing their issues and stereotypes on to kids. I was 8 when Lego friends came out and I was OBSESSED, and quite frankly still am. But I also loved the Lego Mika go and Lego chima animated series and played with the sets too.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

This was a pretty interesting video and I wanted to give my opinions since I feel like I'm approaching the issue of Lego's marketing from a perspective outside of this channel's general audience. Fair warning though, this comment's a bit long. I'm a guy who never played with toys one should stereotypically call "girl toys". I'm also approaching this from the perspective of a Lego fan (that's why I was recommended this video) while I assume most of your audience are females who are into dolls and other brands primarily targeted at girls. With regards to gendered marketing, I think that credit needs to be given to the companies and advertises for how they market their products. As you discussed in this video, companies do so much research to see the toys kids are interested in because they need to know what their consumers want in order to make money from them. If they are marketing something in a certain way, I don't think it's because they are trying to reenforce gendered stereotypes, it's because they know those sorts of things actually appeal to their audiences be they boys, girls, or both. And as much as many people would like to think that girls and boys are identical and have the exact same interests, I just don't think that's the case. Whether it's because of societal conditioning or something innate (and I personal thing both of these factors are valid), girls and boys do _generally_ seem to gravitate towards different interests. Like Lego did research and found that boys liked conflict in their Lego sets while girls preferred to have set pieces that they could role play stories in. That's why Lego City sets often have characters fighting a fire or stopping bank robbers while Lego Friends sets usually have big buildings with lots of details so characters can interact with their environments. And as much as some people would disagree, I think that it's perfectly fine for girls and boys to have different interests. We can all be different and instead of trying to erase any of those differences, we should accept them. Then we can move forward with the knowledge that we can like different things while looking, thinking, and acting different. And all of these differences are ok, I think we all wish more people would accept all these differences rather than erase them Because of this, I'm not really resistant to Lego marketing their toys in different ways to appeal to different genders. I mean, it did totally work for them, Friends was a smash hit explicitly because Lego realized what girls wanted and gave it to them. It does the company and society not favors to pretend that a lot of girls don't like dolls, or fashion or other stereotypically "girly" things. Like you said, girls shouldn't be told "you should like this", they should have options and go towards whatever they actually like. And of course even if Lego has gendered marketing, that's no reason to exclude kids from liking or playing with a theme even if they are not the primary demographic. If a boys wants to play with Friends, go for it. If a girl wants to play with Ninjago, more power to them. Lego would not complain about their toys selling to more kids because even if they are marketing to a specific gender, they are happy when more people like their products. That's exactly happened with Ninjago, Lego was surprised by how so many girls were into the theme than anticipated and they moved forward with the knowledge that a lot of girls liked the theme just as much as boys did. That's why I'm a bit skeptical of this "gender neutral marketing" Lego has recently been committing to. This move seems to be a result of a changing gender landscape and many companies trying to adapt to said landscape. Because everything I discussed and you mentioned in your videos seems to indicate that girls and boys do generally gravitate towards different things and play in different ways. And that's ok and companies should be allowed to market to different demographics. Again, no one should be excluded but as the adage goes, if you try to appease everyone then you will end up appeasing no one. Researched based marketing should not be watered down if specific groups really are generally attracted to different things.

[@brolololo]

I found this video while trying to remember what the set I had as a little girl was! I'm pretty sure I had a bunch of the Paradisa sets (or my brother did, probably from my mom getting them second hand). I don't like the style of the Lego Friends but I understand why they are. The wild changes seem to be an attempt to do it 'right' instead of letting it flop, but I still wish it was just a girlier version of the minifigs with more hair and clothing options.

[@dansparce]

Ive had much older customers complain that Lego Friends isnt "pink enough" for their granddaughters, which always makes me laugh knowing how much controversy Friends had when it launched.

[@Silly_Sulky_Seli]

the thing with the shapes of the Friends dolls is that it's more the concept of "basic human figure vs female human figure" (and basicly related to your point of the standard being masculine) as a kid I've grown to draw myself with (long) eyelashes and a skirt because that's always what happened, I don't even like wearing skirts but I knew I had to "portray myself as a girl" and kids still think that of girls they all think "you got the stickmen and you got the ones with a bow on the head, the skirt, the eyelashes, ect" femininty is always "the base with things added" and why? because in the end that's what makes a girl/woman "attractive" all the things that they've decided on being feminine is always but just always rooted in "we have to be different" and mostly "be attractive" longer lashes made to pop out with make-up, skirts to show leg (got shorter each time, even for young girls), simple colour picks (pink vs blue is somethings special but ended up the same), anything is just rooted in it and how do you make trapezoid shapes "feminine"? with the hourglass shape and/or boobs as you can see with Lego drawing on boobs and even adding triangle shapes to the side or having it carved out and Lego Friends? not only do they not have simple trapezoid torsos anymore they're fully reshaped because girls think they have to be like Barbie dolls and not ragdolls even when they literally have no curves yet, they know they'll have to or they'll be the odd one out and that's why I think those "random" comments on the dolls being to "sexy" aren't so random (but still not a good word choice lol) and I wish they atleast didn't change that aswel

[@IfItComesInPink]

As an elementary school age girly girl when lego friends came out, me and my friends were OBSESSED. We each had our own girl we could relate to, (I always played as emma.) and it was quite literally the opposite of what these parents were saying back then. Yes, we liked the building, but really it was about the play! The sets were sooooo fun and it was things we were actually interested in. (bakeries, dance studios, shopping) me and my friends loved them! I know I was a typical girly girl and not everyone will relate but, Lego friends will always have a special place in my heart.

[@playererror4044]

Something I do want to say about the more recent traditional lego sets with standard minifigures the number of female characters is going up in them, Even in Speed Champions, a line based around real world super cars is including more female drivers. Point is Lego is offering options and I've been tempted by a fair few friends sets (My love of giant robots has persisted even after realising I'm Traps XP) Probably would own an Elves set if the line was still going. Or a Disney princess set if the prices weren't insultingly bad for the price per piece count.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

If you like giant robots, you'd love Ninjago. They have some of the coolest mech sets I've ever seen, there are few things cooler than building a robot that over's a foot tall and basking it's towering, mechanized mass!

[@minnie7453]

i can never get over how people think “feminine” is insulting to women/girls and then never stop to examine why they think that

[@rabbit_anon3356]

I remember Lego Elves. I used to watch the ads on tv. I got one set fro Christmas I liked it a lot. I had a lot of sets actually. Lego, Lego friends, Lego elves. Dang I even played with old legos before the people at my grandmas house.

[@AllieCat23]

I always liked the little details in the Lego sets, like the inside decorations, accessories, etc. When Lego friends came out, it appealed to me more because most of the insides of the buildings were more open and accessible to play with in a way which made it fun for me and my sister. I feel Lego Friends was good and a big favorite childhood toy of mine.

[@MoOveOver_plz]

The only thing I don’t like about the Lego friends mini figures is that their butts can’t stick to the chairs! They would always fall off of the chairs, unlike normal mini figures

[@voidvalkyrie]

As a girl who was given a few of these sets when I was young I hated them. The only thing that was redeemable for me in my opinion was a few unique pieces that came with the sets. And a few hair pieces. Outside of that I would never use the mini figures that came along with them. I always preferred the normal Lego mini figures. They just had more character despite having a more simplistic shape. When comparing sets I naturally gravitated to the more spacey or sci-fi sets. I don’t want a set with a veterinarian or horse riding range. Lego is an escape at least with the Lego City sets you can make a adventure. The Girl sets where plain with little room to grow. I was more interested in the Star Wars sets than anything else.

[@MonsterUnderYourBed.]

I remember always wanting to build new stuff for my lego figures and LEGO Friends just really helped me! There were so many houses to build, beautiful shops and stuff, and the fact that there were main characters made me extremely happy because I could just change their clothes. I had a lot of fun because I could play with my older brother and we both would have fun, he'd build a car shop and I would build a cafe sometimes. I have many great memories thanks to the sets and I see nothing wrong with them

[@psychoPilgrim36]

I had a lego friends set, i think it was a house or something and i built it and it was pretty fun but i think even though i was a kid i felt snobby about it because i was like “lego for girls? Thats dumb legos already were for girls” which is true, but the weird thing is that no one in my family ever bought me legos until the box they came in was pink. I only ever had that one set because i guess by that point i was already too into barbie and littlest pet shop, but I wonder how much i wouldve liked legos if i had been free to play with them at a younger age. My boy cousin loved legos but anytime we would play with them, i hated it because there was SUCH a lack of girl lego characters. For most of our childhood i had to play with boy lego characters until he got an Indiana jones lego set that came with a girl. He also never really built sets, he would just build random stuff but i was too young to know how to build a car from scratch so it felt like i didnt have much to do, but looking back on it i know i wouldve liked building sets because for some reason i love following instructions. He also was a little weird with his toys, like he always thought i would lose them or break them or something so “boy toys” were somewhat kept away from me. I dont completely blame him though because i never let my little sister play with my littlest pet shops because i knew she would lose them. But in some ways i feel like having a boy cousin who was basically a brother to me cemented the fact that there were “boy toys” and “girl toys” because god knows he would NEVER play with my toys, and he totally gatekept video games from me which isnt a toy but yanno what i mean. Then again, if he wasnt in my life i wouldnt have even been exposed to “boy toys” so i guess its a pro and a con at the same time

[@grandmasgopnik9642]

Being raised as a girl the basic astronaut sets were what appealed to me. Thankfully my Dad always walked me down both aisles of the toys. He taught me to sew dresses for my fairy Barbie dolls and make parachutes for my GI joes and throw them off the roof. I'm very lucky my Dad was like that though even now we both are fascinated by toys and their development. He was actually the one who got me into collecting monster high. I was super interested to see this video because I remember this news story and my whole thought was are people angry because its the girly Lego? Is it so wrong to love Bionicle's and Bratz too? 🥲

[@hhh1234h]

The hate for “feminine” toys and activities is practically screaming in my face with those articles. Like if I had a child and they wanted a restaurant set featuring a bunch of pretty girl dolls I’d buy it for them. Weird how these parents first response is “you don’t want that that’s what they want you to think, they think your stupid for wanting this playset. Oh? You think the main playset are too boyish for you and you don’t want it? Too bad that’s what it means to be progressive.” Masculine is seen as gender neutral and feminist values apparently equal throwing away all feminine qualities. Let kids play with they want

[@Woopsdiditagain]

I LOVED LEGO Friends as a kid. I still have the sets sitting at home because I don't have the heart to throw them out- I had the Grand Hotel and other smaller sets. My first set was Olivia's treehouse, it broke once but I tried my absolute best rebuilding it, even with the parts mixed in the box of other Legos. Good old times

[@kermiekermie333]

when i was little my parents bought me the toys i wanted, they didnt care abt gender stereotypes, so i got legos all the time because i loved them (and still do) but ive noticed that when i was little, the legos were always in the boys aisles. they were with the nerf guns and toy cars. lego friends was with the 18" dolls and barbies. now when i go to target or walmart to find new sets, lego is what makes the transition between the girls and boys aisles. the lego aisle is in the middle. and i like that way more.

[@elsiemae9270]

I’m a girl who when I was younger, was super into Lego friends! I convinced my parents to buy me the hotel, and building it was challenging and fun, but the best part was roleplaying! I really enjoyed putting the Lego hairbrushes into the girls hand and brushing her Lego hair, and using the revolving door to the hotel. Creating interesting storylines between the friends while using the hotel set was so fun and enjoyable! I was never into traditional Lego, and Lego friends was much more up my alley. I am honestly so glad Lego friends existed! (My favorite characters were Olivia and Stephanie by the way)

[@Atlass-Lark]

I remember when I got my first lego set in middle school and got to experience the joy of putting them together for the first time, it was the friends bakery set if I remember correctly. Friends and elves are great and a step in the right direction

[@NotAquaRelated]

I grew up with three brothers who all loved Legos. While I liked them a lot too, I never felt fully connected to them and thought they were a boys' toy I shouldn't be playing with, so I wouldn't usually ask for the sets myself. Once Lego Friends came out though, I was really interested in them and got a handful of the sets. I remember them incredibly fondly, so I don't really get the huge amount of criticism toward them. I think if regular Legos just had less overtly masculine marketing during the time I grew up and had more female characters, I would've wanted to get those sets too.

[@playererror4044]

Lego has been adding more female figures into the lines they make, it's not as far as I'd like but it's a lot more comon then I'd like... now if only Legos original action lines could have more then one girl per hero team that would be grand.

[@heckyeahponyscans]

I have complicated feelings about Lego Friends. I grew up in the 80s when Lego was HUGE, especially the pirate and space sets. I remember everyone, girls and boys, wanting them; I was very envious the girl in my class who had one of the huge pirate ships. So, with Lego Friends . . . I get their appeal and it's good that they're a hit with little girls. But, like you said, if the company says "THESE ones are the Legos FOR GIRLS", then that does have an implication that the standard Legos are not, in fact, for girls; that a little girl is "wrong" if she wants to play with them. Does Friends do more harm than good, or more good than harm? I dunno. I think they would've made little-kid me feel like a freak for wanting a pirate island instead of some girl's house.

[@TheGirl-with-the-Curls]

Omg i had the Belleville duplo princess set and i had forgotten completely about them. You just unlocked a core memory

[@kelvinpittman8766]

I just don't get it toys are Toys they are meant for anyone and everyone that wants to play with them is it be a boy or a girl grown ups or anything if they like to play with it play with it if my son would like to play with it all I have no problem with it if my daughter would like to play with trucks I have no problem with it Earth as human beings need to get over the stigma that if my child plays with a doll or a truck it they would turn out to be something more or different than anything else than what they supposed to be God put us here to be who we are and that's who we should let everyone be so get over the stigma that our toy can turn your child different let your child be who they want to be