FiletOFish

Getting girls to play with/buy LEGO

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Many of us, both guys and girls, feel that Lego's approach to girly product lines (Belville, Clickits) has been a total disaster. If you happen to like one of these lines, then let me take nothing away from you--I do not intend to offend you. But, the overall consensus of the Lego community is that Lego's efforts to reach out to the girls have failed miserably.

Please take a look at this example of epic failure:

http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Product.as...n=378&d=412

Pieces: 450

Price: $79.99 USD <--Extremely overpriced. That is close to double the general 10 cents/piece rule.

Besides pricing, there's construction and design issues. A woman suggested that Lego use classic lego pieces to build fairytale themes for girls. For example, a set involving a light-colored cottage in the woods or a small castle set involving a princess. I think this is a solid idea. I believe that classic Lego pieces (rather than using nonclassic, oversized pieces) can create girly sets that even appeal to guys. I for example would purchase a cottage, whether it was designed for girls or not, if it was designed well with classic pieces. It could be pink and I would still buy it if the design was solid.

I know that the Paradisa theme from long ago used classic Lego pieces, but in my opinion Lego didn't think things through too well when designing the sets. They were poorly designed and boring (you may disagree) and were overwhelmingly one dimensional. I think the key to a successful girly line up is to make it balanced by 1. appealing to girls (obviously) and 2. providing a hook that give reasons for guys to purchase it as well. A simple hook, for example, may be a knight in shining armor in a princess set.

What are your thoughts?

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That´s an interesting topic but it´s a little hard for me to argue because my point of view is for sure pretty

different to that of a younger girl... I guess. :grin:

The example you linked to, 7586 Sunshine Home, seems to be a very nice kind of doll house, with many very interesting

parts, but it looks like it´s aimed at a younger audience (6 - 10 years according to the box art?) and I don´t like these

play figures that much. However, the construction value of that set (and other Belville products) as a whole looks not

very favorable to me... maybe my imagination´s too limited, but it seems not so easy to make some alternative models

or to MOD the main one... there´re a little too less useable basic bricks coming with these grrrl sets.

TLC deployed some odd 'ready to play (almost) right out of the box' marketing strategy over the last years, a rather

unfortunate attitude for a construction toys company, and although this stance became milder now it looks still like they

except gals not to show much interest in some rather straight building...

Like I said in another thread, there´re, in System, simply too less prominent MF heroine characters to attract the girls.

I mean, how many female police officers do we get compared to their male counterparts? One in twenty, forty or even

hundred? That seems really not much to me, but on the other hand I don´t know if simply increasing the number of

female MF characters within the existing line-up would help that much too, because I have to say that even I already

got pretty tired of all these perpetual conflict based play scenarios... is there really no room left for a more open ended

and exploration centered play experience in these times?

I don´t know much what girls want from LEGO, but obviously there´s not much there for them right now... but it shouldn´t

be impossible for a big company like LEGO to simply ask them. To bring down the interests of both genders to a common

denominator seems to be the crux and that matter´s perhaps not so very easy to resolve indeed.

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That´s an interesting topic but it´s a little hard for me to argue because my point of view is for sure pretty

different to that of a younger girl... I guess. :grin:

You guess? No offence but this is no place for guessing :tongue:

As for the female lego connection theorem, what do girls want?

Paradisa was a good semi-girly line. Also recently City relased the Horse Car, that´s almost paradisa like. Maybe if TLC slowly revives some Paradisa elements?

Stauder.

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While my wife may be a bit older than Lego's target audience when it comes to girl's items, she did recently make some comments on this subject that I can share. She basically said that she didn't like sets with conflict at it's center, but just wanted to build models like buildings and such. She would be happy if things were "girly," but that didn't necessarily mean the colors had to be pink and purple. She has expressed interest in sets like the the creator houses, Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Taj Mahal, and Medieval Marketplace. Again, this is from the perspective of an older girl (27), but I just thought I'd add the post fwiw.

Edited by Paradosis

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There were some interesting classes and conversations about this at Brickworld this weekend. Before her presentation, I had the chance to talk to the 13 year old girl who gave a presentation about this very topic. I heard most of the stuff that Paradosis' wife stated. Some of the things I heard from her and other FFOL's.

1) Belville people are kind of scary looking

2) Include us, don't pander to us.

3) Girl specific sets are a niche for some girls, but are not the total answer.

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I was never impressed with "Girl" Lego, it was too pink, too flowery and didn't have proper minifigs (Just missed Paradisa). It was also about double the price of your average impulse set (all I could get unless it was a real treat) and I only ever saw them in a newsagents in Dartmouth (we didn't go to Toys 'R' Us. It was mythical in out household).

Now, that might have been due to my tomboy-ish nature and abhorrence of pink. However my Mum has always liked Lego but she loves the modular town buildings. She said herself, if we were rich and had the space, we would have a town plan full of all the town and city buildings and vehicals to play with. She loves to look at modular houses and is amazed by micropolia on the blogs I read. This indicates that she isn't into conflict centric themes either.

My sister likes Clikits, as she likes making jewelry. My other sister isn't into Lego but once had a mosaic set. Scala and Bellville have never been popular.

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You guess? No offence but this is no place for guessing :tongue:

I just try to live in peace with the feminine aspect of my personality... :tongue:

Paradisa was a theme that seems to be pretty attractive to at least many AFOLs too,

and I would for sure like a return or implementation of its amenities into some future

City sets... if this would be fetching for the kids too I don´t know.

Hmm... what I really would like to see (completely non-pc), if I´m allowed to dream, is some

very cool and even action packed new theme with many strong female characters... stray cats

from hell, defending earth against an invasion of some slimy alien scum... yeah!

But maybe I simply like the good old trash movies of the seventies and eighties too much... :laugh:

Edited by Asuka

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While my wife may be a bit older than Lego's target audience when it comes to girl's items, she did recently make some comments on this subject that I can share. She basically said that she didn't like sets with conflict at it's center, but just wanted to build models like buildings and such. She would be happy if things were "girly," but that didn't necessarily mean the colors had to be pink and purple. She has expressed interest in sets like the the creator houses, Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Taj Mahal, and Medieval Marketplace. Again, this is from the perspective of an older girl (27), but I just thought I'd add the post fwiw.

I agree with your wife and I am 27 as well. I really love the Beachhouse and Creator houses. I have the Beachhouse in my living room set up complete with minifigs, as well as Medieval Market (which I didn't like as much once I built it). There are a lot of System sets are appealing to girls. Paradisa and Girl's Freestyle were all out about the same time and have beautiful Parapink elements. Looking at the history of City/Town, I think it is gender neutral and pretty much always has been. I see Cutlass_Iz and Sandy using a lot of Harry Potter elements. Although I don't particularly care for the theme, it seems to appeal to females and I admit that the color scheme is appealing. I like anything Creator, even the Stegasaurus. Fabuland was also a cutesy little theme that might have appealed to females. I love Fabuland. New castle sets appeal to my fairy tale loving side as they portray princesses in need of rescue by a knight in shining armor. That is right out of a Grimm Fairy Tale.

Clickits and Belville both have some useful elements although I've never owned a set of either. I have considered buying some older Belville sets on ebay just for the parts. I've also looked at sets of Clickits. You are right, overall the pink little girly type sets are generally not on the market for long. I would like to offer another spin on this though. When Lego creates a set that is pink with flowers, they limit their market to girls only (for the most part) and when they make unisex sets, there is a wider market.

I feel like I just typed a lot of the same things a few days ago. This topic is very similar to another one.

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LEGO doesnt realise the marketing equasion in front of them:

Unisex sets= More male AND female consumers= More money for TLC

It's not doing open heart surgery on a jungle battlefield.

Lego could make city more unisex by cutting down on the "action" subthemes, making a few Female firefighters or cops, and adding more shops and houses.

They could make castle more unisex by adding more civilian based sets, making some more Female characters (Maybe a female dwarve) and doing what they did during KKI by having a female knight.

And pirates, make a Better wench figure, more kickass

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My sister was fond of the Paradisa sets she had before she turned about 10 or so (I enjoyed them too despite being 5 years older than her). They appealed to things both genders like (who doesn't like the beach?) and filled gaps in the System Town lineup of its time. I think it was the perfect way to attract girls to LEGO sets. The pink/pastels may have been a bit overdone, though when Paradisa sets are mixed together to build MOCs you get a far more uniform color mix than standard sets, especially with a small collection.

If LEGO wants to attract more girls, here's a few suggestions:

1. Abandon any attempt at appealing to teens or pre-teens. I think it's hard enough to keep boys interested at this age, with their video games, cell phones, and running through older neighbors' lawns (i.e. mine).

2. Ditch Belville. This seems like an attempt to compete with Barbie and other dolls, when LEGO should play up the building aspect and not the figure aspect. Yes, Eilif, they are nightmarish looking too. The parts are often large and hard to use for different things.

3. Appeal to boys on some level to increase odds of success. I bought one or two Paradisa sets but they did seem overly girly. 6595 Surf Shack is an example of a perfect unisex-appeal set that is very similar in theme to some of the Paradisa sets. Ditto with the new horse trailer.

Last but most obvious: have female minifigures, a balanced number of them. Girls won't want to play with only male minifigs!

Edited by Section8

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I think lego should make a "House" theme. (No, I am not talking about series with weird doctor xD)

Sets would look like old duplo houses:

-Bathroom- With sink, Shower cabin, mirror, towel, some belvile bottles

-Bedroom- With two beds (with bedclothes)- mom minifig, vacum cleaner, drawer, wardrobe

-Garden- With three-four trees, bushes, watering can, butterflies, bench, dog, frisbee, girl

-Livingroom - Cat, sofa, table, rug, tv, fireplace, remote, bookshelf,

-Kitchen, food(fish, scala bottles,) dad, table, four chairs, teapot, cups fridge, shelfs, oven

-Kids Playroom, two beds (bedclothes), baby(new minifig!), cradle ,bottle, bear, some bricks, toycar, shelf for toys, book, mom minifig

-Garage- car, dad, some tools, shelf, some junk, paper boxes

-Build-a-house- House walls, big baseplate

-Big house-exclusive(all sets together)

That would be awesome theme! Not only for girls, but for

everyone.

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I think Fabuland filled a very good section of the market. It was appealling to kids (boys as well as girls) who wanted character play (i.e. the kind of thing you have with doll's house/tea party) and building too. It was suitable for kids of a younger age and yet those a bit older could build better and combine with ordinary Lego. It surely got some girls hooked on Lego who wouldn't otherwise (or more importantly their parents may have considered Fabuland an option for a girl while discounting Lego). Kind of the same market as Sylvanian Families or such (I think my sister may have wanted those but they were very pricy).

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I too have noticed that women tend towards the building sets, less so than the action sets. Building sets are stationary or largely stationary, and actions sets have movement. My experiences with women and Lego may be anecdotal, but I think there is a trend here.

Correct me if I'm wrong, ladies, but I get the feeling that women like to build as much as men, but I think what they like to build is a little different from what men like to build. I think women are more drawn to sets like creator and architecture than even to playsets. As such, I think TLG already has made good inroads into attracting women.

However, I think TLG is having trouble with girls. While the difference between the interestes of men and boys is mostly superficial, girls seem to seem to mature in a completely different way. There are absolutely social pressures involved that cause this difference, but at the same time there are natural psychological differences between males and females.

Building, especially when done by a child, is a solo affair. You sit down in front of some material and you build. Boys are perfectly OK with this, and men like to be left alone. Girls, however, tend to prefer to socialize when they play. They don't like to play alone for the most part (I'm not going to go into a whole thing on psychology, but for various reasons, women are more receptive to doing things alone than girls). There are two caveats. One is that girls will be more willing to partake in an activity alone, if the results of that activity can be used as an asset in socializing later on. Two is that socializing does not necessarily require an actual person to be present; young girls will play with imaginary friends in the absence of real friends, and slightly older girls will personify their toys in the same situation.

Thus the key is to make building a social activity, or at least, to incorporate socializing into building. And on top of that, to make it cooperative, instead of competitive. The pastels color scheme for sets for girls is not only pandering, but probably mildly offensive. Which is also why Belville has never done well, and continues to not do well, as it's taking the dollhouse stereotypes to a condescending extreme. Very young girls might fall for the pink and purple, but older ones (7-12) wise up to these tactics as they mature and end up being put off just as quickly.

It's not an easy task to figure out how to market building sets for cooperative play. I think the only time I've ever done social building was in school, with 5 large boxes of BASIC and a community workers minifigure pack. Myself and about five other peers each took a minifigure to represent ourselves and set off to build a one-floor mansion with the large green bricks as baseplates. Several more of my classmates joined us as we continued to expand the mansion as we opened more boxes, including a fair number of girls once they caught on to what we were doing.

Perhaps the best start would be to have a community workers pack that contains the same bodies as the regular community workers pack, but with half female heads and half male heads. Or perhaps offer a large freestyle set with 10 minifigures, 5 male and 5 female minifigures, with lots of base plates or bricks. On the box would be a picture of several girls and boys playing together. The idea is not only to facilitate communal construction, but to promote that idea with box art and other marketing devices.

The unfortunate thing is that minifigures are expensive. Since girls prefer social forms of play, the abundance of minifigures are absolutely essential. So the real trick is to put out sets that promote social building at affordable price points. And that's more a business decision.

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I'd just like to give some more anecdotal evidence to the "Girls enjoy building, boys action" theory going on; Former girl-friend of four years had never touched a Lego set before she met me. At her first Brickfair she was absolutely enamored with sets like Green Grocer and Creator, and she now has a small city growing in her closet. She still loves little cars and houses and things like animal creator sets. She is currently nineteen, and was fifteenish when she first got introduced to this stuff. She, like many others, absolutely deplores the pink Belleville.

She also does love the Minifigs.

Edited by InnerRayg

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I think Fabuland filled a very good section of the market. It was appealling to kids (boys as well as girls) who wanted character play (i.e. the kind of thing you have with doll's house/tea party) and building too. It was suitable for kids of a younger age and yet those a bit older could build better and combine with ordinary Lego. It surely got some girls hooked on Lego who wouldn't otherwise (or more importantly their parents may have considered Fabuland an option for a girl while discounting Lego). Kind of the same market as Sylvanian Families or such (I think my sister may have wanted those but they were very pricy).

:thumbup: I'm male but my sister had a lot of them (which I inherited). The animal-people were appealing to play with and the only figures, apart from minifigures, I have liked. The simplicity and rather large building bits actually worked well here.

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I have 2 daughters who are into Lego. My oldest is 10 and she is a tomboy. She doesn't play with the girl minifigs. On the flip side, my youngest is 7 and she adores the girl minifigs. I bought her the camper the other day and she loves it. She expresses high interest in sets if they include a girl minifig. She is not interested in Bellville, or any of the pink brick boxes aimed at girls.

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In my opinion most girls who play with Lego will be like tomboys as Badsneaker said and will play with stuff like the castle sets or space police, i mean to be honest i would buy a small belville set for pieces (still haven't) like that one with the dogs would be great for wizard wands. But why does Lego make boring sets for girls for example Paradisa while boys get explosions and giant robots (We can't all be Jeremy Clarkson :tongue: ). Nowadays boys play with boy Lego men and girls play with girl Lego women, and i also used to be like that. But when you grow up you tend to not care really. Most Lego women i make are often armed with giant robots and rocket launchers!

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My niece just recently turned 5 years old; I got her one of the pink brick buckets for her birthday since she has been bugging me to let her play with my collection. She loves it, but I'm not sure it's because of the colors. She primarily likes the bucket because it's her very own collection. She does play with the girl minifig that came with, though she also likes to play with any other by mixing and matching hair, etc. I guess the moral of this story is that pink bricks didn't make her more interested in LEGO, I'm pretty sure I influenced her in that department.

I may conduct an experiment by taking her to Toys R Us one day and asking her if she could pick one set what it would be; my guess would probably be the horse camper or something with animals in it since that is what she likes at her age.

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My grandmother(same one that introduced me to Lego) gave my younger sister(5) one of the brick buckets for X-mas. She doesn't care for the minifigs, but she will make animals such as llamas and rabbits out of the Legos. I don't think the Belville (insert synonym for rubbish here) will appeal to her when she's old enough for it.

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Heh, I was a real tomboy, but I adored having girl minifigs, ok, so they did have more action "costumes" and were more often than not a Pippin Reed head on the latest "most awesome of the week" minifig body. Now I use girl minifigs (See sig-fig) and all my custom factions have a female member. I do get a bit put out by my little sister turning action gals into tea party guests... My little brother also learned that the girls do not need rescuing, nor do they often get captured, when playing with me :thumbup:

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Heh, I was a real tomboy, but I adored having girl minifigs, ok, so they did have more action "costumes" and were more often than not a Pippin Reed head on the latest "most awesome of the week" minifig body. Now I use girl minifigs (See sig-fig) and all my custom factions have a female member. I do get a bit put out by my little sister turning action gals into tea party guests... My little brother also learned that the girls do not need rescuing, nor do they often get captured, when playing with me :thumbup:

That image of the armored femme fatale minifigs in a tea party is making the image from Toy Story where Buzz has the apron on stick into my head :laugh:

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The worst part was that she had friends in the loft, so there were two custom female mecha pilots, Cam Attaway, Jet and two custom Lady Knights using a big pink belleville plate and teacups... I was there trying not to get too Radical Fem. while I made some more suitable figures...

She has improved since then (Me playing as Zero Suit Samus on SSB Brawl has influnced her...) but still prefers to have more housey sets and figures.

It was very much a Mrs Nesbit moment at the time.

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As a gal, I have some ideas on this...

When I was a kid, I was completely unaware that legos were for boys. I just didn't "know" this and no one told me (credit my parents here). My little brother and I had tons of lego and I spent a lot of time with my castle sets. But I could never figure out why there were no female minifigs. It was such a mystery. I have all these knights defending my castle, but no princess in the tower to be rescued. It was weird to me.

I've noticed lately that more female minifigs are showing up, but they're still few and far between. Why are there no strong female characters? And why does the castle queen not have legs?? It bothers me. If we have capes, why can't we have fabric skirts so she can have actual legs under there? Miniskirts for city would be so awesome!

I was kind of a tomboy I guess, but I did have dollhouses. It seemed so obvious to me. Lego dollhouses that I could build myself. And I'm not talking about the crap lego is producing for gals right now. I would have been in heaven if I had a cafe corner or green grocer when I was a kid. I suspect that's why they're so popular with adult female fans.

This leads me to another problem I with lego's approach to girls. I like full background type sets. I'm talking complete pirate ships, a soldier fort, a castle, a town building. I can't figure stuff with half walls out. For example, the new star wars hoth set. I :wub: the tauntaun, but I have no use for the gun things. I'm not imaginitive enough to figure out what to do with them. I like to display my sets. I want a complete setting. I want a full hoth base building with my tauntaun running out of it. (I was like this as a kid too. It's not just an adult thing.)

So why don't I just build one myself? Easy...it can't figure out how. I have an idea in my head, but it's difficult for me to translate to reality. I love, love, love the mocs here on this site, but I need help. I need pictures, instructions, guidance. I've been watching Captain Green Hair's build a frigate topic with great interest. It has pictures to help me along and I get a complete ship. (If I could just figure out where to get the plastic ship bow and stern pieces!) This is the kind of thing that interests me and would have interested me as a kid.

Anyway, just my $0.02. And just in case TLG is listening....stop with the obnoxious pink and purple parts! It is such pandering to the boys like blue, girls like pink stereotype!!

Finn

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Man, if I had a dollar for every AFOL that thought they knew how to market LEGO to girls! If there was a simple solution, I think it's safe to say TLG would have figured it out by now.

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Why are there no strong female characters?

This leads me to another problem I with lego's approach to girls. I like full background type sets. I'm talking complete pirate ships, a soldier fort, a castle, a town building. I can't figure stuff with half walls out. For example, the new star wars hoth set. I :wub: the tauntaun, but I have no use for the gun things. I'm not imaginitive enough to figure out what to do with them. I like to display my sets. I want a complete setting. I want a full hoth base building with my tauntaun running out of it. (I was like this as a kid too. It's not just an adult thing.)

So why don't I just build one myself? Easy...it can't figure out how. I have an idea in my head, but it's difficult for me to translate to reality. I love, love, love the mocs here on this site, but I need help. I need pictures, instructions, guidance. I've been watching Captain Green Hair's build a frigate topic with great interest. It has pictures to help me along and I get a complete ship. (If I could just figure out where to get the plastic ship bow and stern pieces!) This is the kind of thing that interests me and would have interested me as a kid.

Well, I guess I was lucky, I came into Lego when Jet, Cam Attaway and Radia were characters in two popular themes. Pippin Reed and the other Adventurer's girls. All action gal's to the last.

Then there was a gap. No girls except in town settings. Then we had Hitomi (but no Mecha for her) and now Agents Trace and Swift plus the lovely lady Pirate. So we seem to edging closer to more strong female characters.

As for the second point? Never had that problem, I am a MOCer through and through. My head makes a 3D model and I fit the elements into the shape I want, so no issue. Also Bricklink is great for buying Lego parts you need.

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