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Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
5 Rules Of The New Chivalry
Mad Men: Where Blatant Sexism Meets Chivalry
'Kid Nation': Girls Rule, Boys Drool

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Hana Maru
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
They've been marketing Legos as boy toys at least since my '80s childhood, except for the pink girly kits for building domestic scenes. Lego commercials and boxes, even the basic primary bucket, always featured boys only. I was the one in my family who loved to play with them, but I only got them from my parents after I asked for them. Other people kept giving kits to my baby brother for birthdays. I cried about it.
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hellosunshine
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
Bish plz. I LOVED Legos... still do. In fact, if someone is feeling generous and would like to send me this set, it's called the Tiger Shark Attack set or something like that.

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VoxPopuli
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
I had Bristle Blocks. They were gender neutral in that boys and girls equally wanted Legos instead.

Also, having those things in the late 70s/early 80s was a bad idea - they stuck to shag carpeting like crazy.
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mbot says Spock yeah!
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
My little sister and I loved to play with Legos. Now we're both architects. Coincidence?
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Liz11685
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
I desperately wanted a set of Legos one year growing up, as my brother had decided I couldn't play with his anymore. (He was very territorial as the older sibling)

I begged and begged for the Legos and cut pictures out of catalogues of the set I wanted(the generic red starter box)- come Christmas morning I got a purple Tyco set (With white, purple and pink blocks). This was the only time my mother bought something that was gender specific for me. I think it was two-fold- keeping the sets apart so my brother didn't lose his shit, and I had just gotten my room remodeled entirely purple walls/bedding with white wicker furniture. I cried because I wanted the brand name Lego box. It was so cool. But I got over it and played the shit out of those Tyco blocks.
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Princess Leela
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
Did anyone else have something called "Loc Blocs"? I LOVED those damn things. Favorite toy of childhood. The pieces didn't really look like anything the way some Legos did, but I think that made me more creative ...
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Cookie Dough Monster
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
You had to tear me away from the Lego table I shared with my brothers as a kid. The entire surface had the little bumps so everything would stay in place as we built huge towers and bridges and whatever else came to mind. I'm still mad that my parents threw it out when we moved.

I also hated all things "girly" as a child... the idea of pink legos still makes me shudder. My only exceptions to my non-"girly" rule were beanie babies and stuffed animals... because of my enormous love of all things animal-related.
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Miss. Money-Sterling
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
I loved legos, but they ended up sort of falling under my brother's domain, as he would have hysterical, scream until he puked, rip the wallpaper off the walls-temper tantrums if a single block of any of his constructions got moved. Once he built a castle it stayed built, and if he wanted to make something new he'd save his money and buy a whole new set. The going theory is that the men in my family fall on to the high-functioning end of the spectrum of SOMETHING.

Me, I ended up in the basement nailing pieces of plywood together, which turned into working as a carpenter for most of my 20's. Is adaptability a girl thing? To sum up, if I have kids, they're totally getting legos, but I'm going to MAKE them learn about the impermanent nature of things, because my brother grew up to be a mess.
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stacyinbean
12/05/08

@Miss. Money-Sterling: Now you've got me all worried. My little brother would pretty much lose his mind when a Lego piece (required in the instructions) was missing from a kit. The basement of my parents house was cluttered with fully constructed Lego items until my mother finally made him put them away. The catch was she had to buy him individual containers for EACH set so he could a) see the blocks and instructions were together and b) keep each set separate so that it could be put together in the future! He's only 15 now so hopefully I can work on this...
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Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
Personally, I preferred Construx, myself.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
I admit ... I coveted a pink set of Legos.

For two reasons:

1. It also included female faces for the little Lego people (if the "boy" set had both I would have gotten whichever one my mom could afford. So prob not the pink ones.)

2. It had an architectural component to it beyond pirates and fighting - a house. I loved any and all things relating to structuring and building a house. Not playing house, but building the rooms, furniture, appliances, etc.

And, I'm sure there were boys out there who would have loved to build homes and offices. Seems to me they could actually SELL MORE if they remained/went back to gender neutral.
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happysquid
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
it's bulllllllllshit.

Also, all the stuff they market to boys is better. Except for those WWE wrestling figurines... I have never understood the appeal of sweaty, mostly unclothed action figures with folding-chair accessories.
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beliefunwrought
12/05/08

@happysquid: I firmly believe that professional wrestling is soft core gay porn. But what does that say about my WWE fan boyfriend?
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happysquid
12/05/08

@beliefunwrought: er, that he likes hilariously bombastic acting with incredibly arcane feuds!
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happysquid
12/05/08

@beliefunwrought:
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ImDatNinja (loves her Red Sox)
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
Me want LEGOS! *Said in a Jenna voice circa last season.
Would it be bad if I, a 27 year old girl, went out and bought myself a Lego box for some Friday night play?

I think not.

In fact I think that + wine + Emmit Otters Jug Band Christmas would be perfection. Counting the minutes.
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propriocept
12/05/08

@Imdatninja: Last winter I bought myself a Lego Technic Off-Road Truck and built it. Everything rotates and moves around and the tires are intense and I play with it every once in a while, climbing things and picking up cargo.
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ImDatNinja (loves her Red Sox)
12/05/08

@propriocept: AWE-SOME. I can just see myself doing this, with added in sound effects.
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WinifredCleite
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
I was in Toys R Us with my 3 year-old daughter yesterday, and she found her way to the "boy" section and spent about 20 minutes playing intensively with a Home Depot-branded workbench (rotary blade saw, drill press, etc.). I realized that despite the fact that she is into tons of "boy" stuff, I had NEVER taken her over there, instead unconsciously steering her towards the "girl" toys (and trying to avoid Bratz).

And I'm a fairly down mama: she wears nothing but little boy underpants because she wants Thomas the Tank Engine and Cars underwear, and if they only make those with a little penis door, so be it. I shop in the boys' section of the thrift store because she wants to wear Thomas and Lightening McQueen and dinosaur t-shirts. At the same time, she loves pairing those things with silky Ariel pajamas or flowy, gauzy skirts. She makes her dad pretend to be Princess Leia so she can be Obi Wan. Her Barbies marry each other.

Bottom line: kids are individuals who like incredibly diverse activities and products, and adults need to stop falsely gendering everything. Lego is responding to a market "reality" that is totally created by parents and advertisers, not kids' actual preferences.
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Cesybabe or Nirvanah Crane
12/05/08

@WinifredCleite: What an awesome little girl you have, she sounds like a joy. I'm totally in agreeance with the kids are individuals comments, and would like to take it a step further- all humans are, and that explains why there is so much lego lust on this thread. Everyone loves lego, and we shouldn't be pigeon holed into thinking them as only childrens toys. This 'pigeon holing' works with most marketed items.
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Uncommon Whore
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
I don't think there is anything gender specific about it. Every year for Christmas I would get something related to the firefighters and my brother would get some police themed legos... we loved them.
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stacyinbean
12/05/08

@Uncommon Whore: That would be your parents not being gender specific about it, not the company's marketing.
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dianersb was bit by a zombie
12/05/08

In reply to Building Blocks: Are Legos A 'Boy Toy'?
Boys toys, girls toys. Between my brother and me they all ended up in giant, shared tupperware containers, anyway. Tonka trunks, dolls, x-men figurines, care bears. Let me tell you, Barbie drove a mean ass excavating thing around the garden, and the care bears often beat the x-men in battle (mainly cause I was older and would sit on the x-men puppet master until he surrendered)
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