Iria

I both agree and disagree with your sentiments. LEGO definitely still has work to do with targeting the female demographic and incorporating positive, strong female characters in there sets. But I find the vitriol for anything super girly is counterproductive for bringing females to LEGO and encouraging positive image. I’ll explain further in the answers below. I think it’s kind of ironic how different people think of ‘neutral’ so differently. For example I always considered City geared much more towards males with its abundance of vehicles, and male-dominated careers (policeman, fire fighters, construction workers etc). Aside from the minidolls which are mostly female, Elves could almost be considered gender neutral. Yes. Friends, and Disney Princesses have been very successful. Just because LEGO introduces something that obviously targets girls, doesn’t mean that they are trying to enforce negative stereotypes. These newer themes are simply targeting a different group of consumers whom LEGO has had difficulty getting in the past. Females who don’t like super pink, ‘girly’ themes have always had the other options (unfortunately with few relatable minifigs though). *It would be nice to have more female minifigs in other neutral and boyish themes though. I can see this being an issue where a young girl will feel excluded from many of the themes, deem them to be boy sets and not want them, which is a shame. I also think it would be great to have more male minidolls as well. No Aladdin in Disney’s Aladdin?- lame! I think LEGO is reflecting the status quo rather than enforcing it. That the Research Institute, showing female scientists, was hugely successful and sold out fairly quickly is an indicator that there is a desire for intelligent female minifigs in the spotlight. I don’t know whether these sets are as appealing to little girls as they are to AFOLs. Overall no. They are under no obligation, however it is likely in their best interest to consider gender and diversity. I feel that it’s best to let kids (and AFOLs) choose the sets that appeal to them and leave adult agendas out of that. That being said, there needs to be a variety of themes, sets and minifigs available, ie girly, boyish, mixed, neutral etc. In recent years we have gotten more females minifigs in sets that aren't simply filling a damsel in distress role, which has been awesome. LEGO needs to continue this trend. I recall reading backlash again the very pink Intergalactic Girl cmf. ‘Why did LEGO have to pinkify an otherwise cool female minifig?!’ ‘Ew pink. They ruined it,’ were some of the comments (paraphrased). I felt the same way at first but then ended up changing my mind. The fact that a character can be both super girly and intelligent + tough, is in itself empowering.-Because it’s not sending the message that to be successful as a woman, you have to be a man. Just do what you wanna do, well. Slightly, but it’s not a bad conversation to be had every once in a while since LEGO still has a ways to go. I think you’ve done a good job in framing issues and your opinion respectfully, so thank you for that!

'The Martian'. Overall I liked it, but I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again (Way too much disco music). I think reading the book might be worthwhile.

A bit closer to dark tan though.

Medieval: Cartographer probably Modern: Geoscientist/ Geographer/ Field Assistant/ student for more than 80% of my life Dream medieval & modern occupation: Renaissance [wo]man Here's a long list of medieval jobs if anyone is looking for a counterpart. Any takers on these interesting occupations:

Beautiful landscape, both in the daylight and the dark.

Finally got myself some of the S14 CMF. Tricky to find. At London Drugs there were only six left in a box, heavily handled by the look of the packaging. I'm terrible at feeling them. I ended up just taking a chance on one that someone had left a post-it note on that said 'Gargoyle'. Turned out to be the Mad Scientist. Oh well, at least it wasn't the Franken Rocker guy. At Toys R Us, I almost didn't find them.They had three almost full boxes at the customer service desk (along with a box of S13). I searched through one, as did my helper and we successfully managed to find the Specter, Banshee and Fly Trap guy. Still want to find the Spider Lady.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Into the White

Welcome and cool username. It's always been my favourite number too. I like your taste in Lego sets.

6 year old boy: "Your LEGO is okay, I guess". He wasn't that interested in my Elves collection or glow in the dark cave. Mid-late 20 year olds: "Haha you have Lego, that's great," and then they saw my Lone Ranger's Silver Mine "That is so perfect for you!" They found it very endearing that I have that particular set since I have a bit of a geology background. Mid 40 year old man: "Awesome!", "Yeah!!" and then "Lame" @ my girly Elves sets. Mid 60 year man: "So this is where your mortgage money is going to?" I kind of regretted having my Lego out at this point. Expected some judgement, but still found it rather insulting since 3/4 of my paycheck goes to paying off my education and saving for a house. Mid 60 year old woman: (Witholds verbal judgement and then notices my two akro storage cabinets) "It's so organized! Can I take a photo to send to my daughter-in-law?" That's a cute story Peppermint_M and quite true. A similar story- After playing LEGO with my friend's six year old he asks me if my boyfriend is a good boy and if I was going to marry him. He then informs me I should marry him when he grows up, since he is a good boy. Hahah.

Not a fan of the wrench- Way too big and they tend to dwarf the minifig in possession of it. I know there are wrenches in real life that match that scale, but they're not an everyday item.

Fantastic! The architecture is amazing and is way above any other modern house I have seen before.

Yep! Your turn, Hemlock Falls.

Here's an odd one:

That's Tank Girl

Trying to force myself to improve my paper before I submit it for publication. Ughh.

I love a lot of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western stuff, especially these three: from Il Mercenario from Once Upon a Time in the West from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

fermented

Wow! So cool. Love the design of the coaster and how it twists through that awesome theme park. The crashed space ship looks great as well. I'd ride the Space Oddity.

And probably cutesy. Although I rather adult dragons not be. Guessing they'll be pretty colourful with lots of Elven designs, similar to the other Elvendale animals. I agree with you that the set names give the impression that they will be adults rather than just baby dragons. I wonder if they'll include other elemental baby dragons in the sets as well. I think the 'Dragon School of Elevendale' would be the best bet for including multiple dragons (like one earth adult along with variable elemental baby dragons). I'm still having a lot of trouble envisioning what the Elves' dragons will look like. Brick built ones like the Ninjago ones have more complexity than what we've seen so far in the majority of the Elves sets, which is reflected by the difference in recommended ages bracket between the two themes. I think there is a higher probability that Elves' dragons will have moulded pieces like the Castle dragon.

Wow! So beautifully ornate. You've made a very good representation of the actual temple. I think I like your detailing of your entrance way even better than the real thing. Is it my imagination, or is that a guardian lion head built into the entrance wall? Very creative. It's kind of funny - the real temple's roof looks like it's made of Lego plates;

Interesting list. Too bad the first one listed is so vaguely titled to gain any insights into what it could be (Aside from having the human), I'm happy that Elves is getting a third wave. Yay for dragons! I would love to see some adult dragons, but at the same time worried to see how cute Lego will make them. Would adult ones be brick built though?- It would probably be expensive to create a mould for a large dragon. Like the elves and other creatures, dragons each get their own element. Miku the baby dragon must be air/wind, while fire and water dragon are stars of their own sets. I wonder if they'll be an earth dragon as well, possibly in the dragon school set at least.

Wow! These look great and professionally done. I love the rainbow group shot. Thanks for sharing.

Oblivion and Moon have one common plot theme, but are otherwise opposites in many respects. Moon is a great hard sci-fi movie. I really appreciated and enjoyed it more on the second viewing. So sad. Oblivion's got great action and amazing visuals (same director as Tron Legacy). Elysium has been on my 'need to watch' list for a while. Edge of Tomorrow was a bit too Ground Hog Day-ish for my liking. It wasn't at all a bad movie, but it still drove me a bit crazy . I will be sure check these out. Thanks!

Thanks for the recommendations! I haven't seen a bunch of them, including Solaris (though I have been looking for it lately).