Lego club girls magazine

onabrud

My six year old daughter's Lego club jr magazine was replaced this month with a "Girls" version. I will have to call for her to get the normal one again.

I had ignored all the friends controversy as I was sure she would like it too, but she also likes Star Wars, and there is no Star Wars in the girls version. So she will need both.

I see no reason why they needed to segregate. I am fine with them marketing towards girls, but why start defining what lines are "boy" vs "girl". Does anyone know if they have done the same to the bigger kids version.

In her magazine was mainly Friends, CMF, city, Harry Potter, SpongeBob, "cool creations" - but only those made by girls, games and creator.

MinifigsMe

Yep, same here. glad I have a subscription in my husband's name too. I think the junior and senior ones are replaced by the same girls one. I did like that all the models built in the middle are by girls, who are clearly into lego, but also are fairly stereotypical in building houses etc (it's what I used to do).
About 50% of the content is the same as the boys one btw, I think it would be better as one mag, what if the little boy had a sister? surely it would make sense for her to see the girls sets in his mag?

AETerry

I got my Club Jr. Magazine for my daughter and had no such "Girl" only version.

I won't complain too much if future magazines for her come for "girls" as she loves the girly things and pink.

I'll be upset though if my "Senior" magazine gets replaced with a "Girls only" version.

richo

My 5 1/2 year old got the Girls one today. She loved it!

legonut80

yep same again, my little girl got her 1st club magazine today which was the girls one, after i had asked for the jr magazine for her as she's only 3 but steals her brothers copy. Well she loved it, she said thank you to me and then said thank you postman.
Mine was also changed to the girls one though, which i know i can ring to change back to the other one but i think my husband might like to join now :)

richo

Maybe it's not been changed, and actually they will send out both?

Jenni

My Friends obsessed daughter received her first issue yesterday and it's the boy one. She's happy because there's comics but she'd be more excited by one with Friends.

Her father on the other hand .....

starfire2

I wonder if, when they are sending out the "girls" issues it is based on name or sex of the child?!

Jenni

Well I'm not at all trendy in thay my daughter has a definitely female name. We haven't bought Friends through [email protected], I wonder if that influenced it.

Huw

^ IIRC it asks whether you are a boy or girl when you join.

Jenni

Well I'm definitely a girl, I believe I signed my daughter up on the phone "Thank you for reporting your eBay fraud experience, is your child signed up for Lego Club?" Or something to that effect.

Duchessa

There's a lot of things I would like to say about both the magazine and the new Friends theme. I think I'll settle for this:

Why is it considered cool when girls are interested in things that are traditionally boys stuff, but whimpy when boys want to wear skirts or play with pink Lego? That is really my biggest issue with all of this. Daddys girl is cool. Mommys boy is.. not so cool.

legomatt

I'm very disappointed with this move by Lego magazine.

They should have put ALL content into ONE magazine. We are ALL lego fans, Lego is one of the few toys out there that CAN appeal to everyone, adult and child alike, and unites us together is a shared activity.

But this decision by lego is so boneheaded: it plays right into the hands of those critics who have bashed lego for years with claims of sexist 'boys-toys' nonsense.

NOoo! Lego was a toy POPULAR with boys, not exclusively for boys - but this move has Lego confusing that distinction themselves. *facepalm*

Yes by all means make toys that will attract MORE girls that haven't been attracted yet, that's great, the more rooms in the house the better - but DON'T be so stupid to go saying this set is FOR girls, or that set is FOR boys. Good grief, the critics are going to have a field day with this. It is divisive and utterly Stupid stupid stupid.

I'm a man, and I want my Spongebob, dammit!
(I'm a girl and I want my Batman, dammit!)

We are all FANS of LEGO. Together we stand, divided we fall.

dino_girl

I annoyed about that they swapped my daughter to girls mag without being asked

As my girl said couldn't Lego have sent me both this month and let me chose which one I want to get!

princedraven

Not gonna write a lot as I haven't go the time ATM, but the big thing people are missing here is......it's not a magazine, it might look like a magazine, it may say magazine on it, but in reality it is just marketing!
And Lego are clever enough to market girl things to girls and boy things to boys.
Not saying that girls dont want or wont get 'other' lego, but by showing them what the majority want it gets them through the door and then once through the door they can buy any lego they like TLG don't care. Friends sits right next to loads of lovely Creator sets and you have to pass Superheroes/HP/etc to get to them.

Targeted marketing is nothing new, nothing unusual and nothing that will change.
I can understand the call to have all sets in one 'magazine', but also understand TLG's approach. A single 'magazine' would just result in a large percentage of boys completely ignoring Friends pages, and a large percentage of girls completely ignoring... Dino's pages. So it is a large waste of paper, etc..
If they decided that other magazines should cater to both male and female and merged GQ and ELLE magazines (lets be honest they are pretty much nothing buy marketing too!), would that be a good idea??

LostInTranslation

Aren't kids (girls) who receive the club magazine already fans of Lego and therefore probably not the market Lego have been targeting with their Friends marketing? I understand the wider advertising campaign trying to draw in new female customers but this just seems a bit of a daft move to me.

dino_girl

^ totally agree with you Lucy
My girl been in the club for a year already so she not the one they needs to convert

princedraven

^ Just because you are a fan, doesn't mean you are a buyer.
Being able to point at pages in a "mummy/daddy I want that" kinda way is VERY powerful. More so I would say than a TV advert that is pretty fleeting.

And I dont think this is entirely a Friends thing, it is a decision to target different sex's with different products.

I dont understand how it can be daft? Maybe I am misunderstanding.
If I was selling make-up I would send my brochures to females.
If I was selling computer games I would send my brochures to males.
Obviously its not quite as black and white as that, but the prinicple it there.

princedraven

ok, another point.
Put yourself in the shoes of a 7 year old boy who loves Lego, his new 'magazine' comes through the post and the front is all Pink with flowers and fluffy animals..... does he even open it??? I'm not convinced, especially if it is next to the latest TRU catalog that has a Transformer on the front (again over generalisation I know!).
It could even lead to Lego being "not cool anymore, all about girls stuff..." kids are quick to judge.

Or alternatively you have a 7 year old girl who loves Lego and her 'magazine' comes through with Dinosaurs on the front.... same kinda scenario, its quite possible she will not be attracted to it at all.

LostInTranslation

@princedraven: Firstly, am I right in thinking you either pick up these magazines in Lego Brand retail stores or you have to actively sign up online? I don't receive them despite ordering from [email protected] so I assume so. Where do you find out about how to sign up? From the website or an instruction manual? Therefore you are most likely already into Lego and have made prior Lego purchases.

My point is that a girl who receives the club magazine is already into Lego as a concept (and has not been put off by the Minifigure) and yes, she may be interested in the new Friends theme, but she may well also be gutted that there's no sign of Star Wars, which she has been happily playing with before. It's this restriction of information and the pigeonholing of certain themes that bugs me. I understand the marketing angle of making as many girls as possible aware of the theme, but to exclude entire themes from the magazine is disappointing and exasperating for existing fans of those themes.

My suggestion on the news page was that they should make the magazine reversible, i.e. a girls version if you read it one way and a boys version reading the other, like some of the retailer catalogues used to be with Lego/Duplo products. However, there would still be a frustrating flaw in this idea in that some themes would still be clearly marked as "girl" or "boy". I now think the best option would have been to have two different covers with a different leading article (i.e Friends on one, Dino/Superheroes on another), but then exactly the same content in the rest of the magazine, covering ALL themes (so an article/section on Friends in the "boy" magazine too), so that kids like Dino_girl junior have all the information available to them in order to decide for themselves what Lego themes they want to play with, not just what has been approved as suitable for them to know about. TLG could still accomplish their marketing aim of prominently advertising Friends to girls while not alienating boys.

I like Friends. I think the marketing overall has been smart and will be successful, even though I think it's a shame that a lot of little boys (and some big ones!) won't be getting the cool convertible or lovely vets set because they or their parents can't see past the purple boxes and dolls to the nice sets inside. I just think this particular strategy could have been handled differently.

princedraven

@LostInTranslation
I think you have suggested a really good strategy, different covers with the same content would be a very smart move. Still think it means 90% of kids are only interested in 60% of content if you get my drift, but hey would give 100% of kids 100% of choice.
Oh and I totally get where you are coming from with regards to females liking StarWars as well, etc...

I think they have gone about things badly, to take that choice away is not going to win them friends (if you pardon the pun), I honestly think it was marketing thinking "oooh this will be great we will do an entire magazine just for girls, they will love it", and I bet some do, but as you say it's reducing the range for some that have broader tastes.

onabrud

I finally had time to call lego on this today. They clearly are getting many call on this. They were very attentive and helpful and my daughter will now get both. They noted it is still an experiment, and that the March issue will have City on the cover. It will also include other themes such as Star Wars and Superheroes. They said it was customers that requested a girls version, which is a bit surprising. Either way, they shouldn't have converted everyone. I also logged a comment on not segregating the cool creations section based on the sex of the builder.

mr_benn

I've actually received both, as the previous family who lived at our address clearly had a membership (although there was a note saying it would be the last issue delivered to this address!)

It really is thinly veiled marketing - and for some sets (i.e. new City Forest sets) they are the same in both magazines, so there is an element of targeting, but they aren't totally different!

If I were a child, it would be the catalogue I'd look forward to anyway more than the magazine - I only signed up for the magazine to get the Max minifig anyway!

dino_girl

I'm total agreement with last few posts
Dino_girl jr loves the friends sets she got but she also wants the new dino range and super hero range and her friend (boy) wants to show the friends set to his little sis cos she would love them

So Lego could miss sales from both

Jenni

So I emailed Lego to ask if my daughter could get the Friends version and this is what they said

"Yes Jennifer, we are coming out with a magazine geared towards the Friends line but at this time we do not have any details on how this will be distributed because it is still in the works. We are just as excited about this new line as your daughter is and we are anticipating the launch of the magazine as well.

As soon as we are able to get details on this we will go ahead and share the details will our fans. We do appreciate your kind words and wonderful email."

Is it available in the US? Or are the people who were sent it in other countries? Should I have called instead of emailing?

legogirl

Hi there,
I see that you are very good at legoing :-)
I am building a website and I would need some LEGO food recipes and pics.
If you have any, please send me.
Thanks in advance,
LEGOGIRL (http://buylegofriendsforgirls.org)

jocappy

I only get club jr. How go you sign up for other ones? Always says signing up for jr.