Girl's Stuff

It's pretty common knowledge I think that the LEGO company wants to be more popular with the fairer sex. LEGO is generally seen as a boy's toy, and in line with any sensible company, the LEGO company want to broaden the appeal of their product. Quite right too.

LEGO - just for boys ?

I've always found the concept of LEGO being a boy's toy a little hard to get my head around, to be honest. When I was a kid I often played LEGO with my friends, and some of those friends were girls. I certainly don't remember them enjoying it any less than me. Hell, some of them even had more LEGO than I did. Surely there isn't anything inherently off-putting to girls about building with LEGO ? Nonetheless, the statistics do suggest that the typical LEGO user is male.

LEGO have tried to woo the female market, of course. This has been via gimmicky niche products such as Clikits "fashion items" and jewelry, and also by way of "girl-friendly" sets. Without wishing to denigrate their set-related efforts, this has at times seemingly consisted of just putting some pink pieces in the box. OK, so that's not quite fair - while sets in the Paradisa theme (produced between 1992 and 1997) did contain more than their fair share of pink pieces, not to mention a few other rather nice pastel colours, the play experiences promoted by the sets were markedly less macho and aggressive than the usual Police and Fire scenarios that we're used to, as exemplified by sets such as Sidewalk Cafe, Poolside Paradise, Cabana Beach and Show Jumping Event. In other ways the sets were much like any other set, not least the fact that they included standard minifigures. I've no hard data on how well these sets sold, only that (a) they're pretty neat IMHO and I wish I had some of them, and (b) they're relatively pricy on eBay which suggests to me that maybe they didn't sell in huge numbers.

Paradisa Poolside Paradise

Overlapping with the availability of the Paradisa theme, and indeed continuing to the present day, is the Belville theme. In truth, Belville largely follows the Paradisa formula - a preponderance of pink (albeit a darker shade) in the packaging and pieces, non-aggressive scenarios such as The Royal Stable, Royal Summer Palace, Belville Luxury Cruiser and Cat Show (!), and the inclusion of figures. Interestingly, however, unlike Paradisa the figures deviate from standard minifig scale; they're significantly larger and more realistic, with an almost doll-like appearance. I must admit I was shocked by how long the Belville theme has been going for and how many sets there have been in the theme; according to Brickset, the first Belville set appeared in 1994, and there have been at least 82 sets since. There have however not been any new Belville releases since 2008, and while the four 2008 sets are still currently available at retail, I suspect they won't be for much longer.

Set 7587 Horse Jumping - welcome to Belville !

Rumours have been rife for some time now that LEGO are planning a new assault on the female market, and recently the cat was let out of the bag with the release of a host of 2012 set images. A number of these images were evidently of the new girls theme which, it appears, will be called "Friends". A selection can be seen below - click to enlarge the images for a closer look at what's to come.

So what to make of these upcoming sets ? Well, on the basis of the images at least, there are few major surprises, unless you class the preponderance of pastel purple rather than pink or magenta on the packaging as a major surprise.... Pink and magenta pieces ? Check. Non-threatening leisure and/or animal-themed scenarios ? Check. Inclusion of figures ? Check. While it's clearly premature to draw any firm conclusions, there doesn't seem to be anything markedly different about "Friends" in comparison with the Belville theme which it succeeds. This is the case right down to the figures included in the sets, which to my dismay, follow the Belville formula of being significantly larger than minifig scale.

Which leads me on to today's gripe : why oh why oh why are LEGO including these large, non-standard figures in the "Friends" sets rather than the much-loved and ubiquitous standard minifigures ? I can only assume that the company have conducted focus groups among girls of a certain age and got feedback that these girls prefer the large figures. Thing is, I fear that virtually nobody other than these girls of a certain age will buy the "Friends" sets now that LEGO have decided not to include standard minifigures. I certainly won't. Nor will anyone else I've spoken with about it. Would I have bought them if the "Friends" sets were System scale and included standard minifigures ? Hell yes I would, and so would the people I've spoken with about it. After all - who in their right mind wouldn't want Stephanie's Cool Convertible in purple and turquoise, for instance, if it came with a standard minifigure....?! Minifigures are currently a massive customer-magnet, so it just seems absurd not to design the new sets around them. Sure - I get it that I'm not the target demographic on this occasion, but that's no reason to actively drive me and millions of others away....

Stephanie's Cool Convertible - nice car, shame about the figure....

Thinking about this a little more, I wondered whether aside from all the focus groups there's also a view that minifigures are too small and fiddly for little hands ? Well, anybody watching a 3 or 4-year old utterly engrossed in role playing with standard minifigures inside a modular building would have to revise that view pretty quickly I think - it's almost impossible to pull them away....

So let's just hope for LEGO's sake that there are indeed huge numbers of girls of a certain age who are as I write preparing to flock to the stores in 2012 to buy "Friends" sets and who can make up for all the other people who now won't buy these sets because of the figures. Otherwise this could be a massive wasted opportunity....