I agree with that sentiment to a degree – when I was a kid I loved Lego. I’ve always considered it a fairly… gender-neutral toy. Multi-coloured blocks that you can clip together to construct shapes is no more masculine or feminine a toy than a jigsaw puzzle or Jenga. But that’s why I’m kind of disappointed with the products shown above aimed exclusively at girls. It just reinforeces existing gender stereotypes. Pink, pastel, infantile colors.

Lego always appealed to girls as well as boy. It didn’t need to create a “girls only” product. Some of their branded stuff (Star Wars, etc) is boyish, but a tub of Lego was never anything other than a tub of Lego. Look at the difference in themes – grooming, cleaning, cooking, caring. I wouldn’t have an issue with that if there was ALSO a girl’s product that included some overlap with the boy’s product to balance things out (such as the ninjas, star wars characters, etc.)

They even LOOK less challenging. Huge chunks of plastic requiring less assembly – check out this ostensibly “female” toy (http://shop.lego.com/en-IE/Adventure-Camper-3184) compared to this similarly priced and ostensibly “male” toy ((http://shop.lego.com/en-IE/Minecraft-21102). Far fewer parts. Less thinking involed. It defeats the point of Lego.

Incredibly disappointing move from the company.

I see your argument, but niece loves these girl-orientated packs. She and her brother were brought up by parents very into the gender-neutral toy idea, but it didn’t stick. My nephew wants swords and cars and footballs, my niece wants Barbies, and it absolutely didn’t come from their mother or father. This Lego is great if you look at it as not the whole toy, but as special extras beside a big bucket of standard bricks. At the end of the day, no matter how ethical or honourable a toy is, if the kids don’t want it, they don’t want it.

Minecraft lego isn’t targeted for the ‘boy’ market, but the gamer market which is generally teen/adults.

@B Collins, comparing minecraft lego to any other set besides architeture sets is pointless on price versus piece’s basis. Minecraft by design use’s lots of 1×1 blocks and tiles increasing the piece count, where as the van has 150 less parts it has alot of rounded and larger parts, Lego have confirmed in the past not all blocks cost the same, even blocks the same size vary in price by colour, some dyes are more expensive.

Ohhhhhhhh have to share lol Thanks Harry :-D

Thanks for that Harry. Smart girl.

So true Una, and then you rock too, and if you’re unlucky, roll all the way down the stairs as well. Lego’s great, but that’s not the way I want to appreciate rock ‘n roll.

James May ( the hairy beer-drinker from Top Gear ) once made a full-sized house out of Lego once. It worked. You’d need a very thick pair of slippers though.

The new buzz word is gender neutral toys, Tbh most girls like girl toys and most boys like boy toys there is no harm in redesigning toys that will appeal to the opposite sex, Barbie could have dated action man not ken….

I think it’s a good move by Lego, I loved playing with Lego as a kid.

As a parent I hate the dam things, treading on them on the way too the bathroom at night wakes up the whole house, all you can here is shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii@%=+-*//()) !!!

Doesn’t matter if it’s boys Lego, girls Lego or gender neutral Lego, my reaction will always be the same..

@Karla barbie should’ve dated action man, he’s way cooler then that douche ken!!

Karen, while yes it is all very stereo typed, at the same time its aimed at 6 year olds, I have Technic lego myself and Star wars and City ect, My 6 year old son thinks they are all cool and loves building stuff with them, my daughter on the other hand who is 5 likes to play with lego now and again until she got afew friends sets and now the barbie is in the toy box and its friends friends friends all the way. While some people have whipped up some media storm about demeaning women..notice I said Women because clearly this seems to offend some feminists out there who don’t undertsnad the difference between “women” and 6 year old girls! This is aimed at a market audience that still belives in princess’s living in towers and fairys at the bottom of the garden.

Even if you go onto the brickset forums and other major lego fansites on the web this friends demeaning women stuff is not even being discussed, most serious Lego fans accept friends for what it is..aimed at 6 year old girls and accept it, infact some even collect it themselves, serious Lego fans don’t care if bricks are pink/purple or glow in the dark orange they all have a use somewhere and there is always a brick from a different set that will hide the offending brightly coloured brick.