Barbie 'Lego'.....well if you can't beat'm join'm

Comments

• LegoFanTexas TexasMember Posts: 8,409

  December 2012

  Ok, so I want to hear from all the Friends haters who claim they are a sexiest toy. Now that Barbie has done it with Megablok (now that just sounds wrong!), where is all the hate? :)
  
  Honestly, I don't see this doing well, while many people understand that Megablok sucks, this will just prove it to many more parents who otherwise didn't know.

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• Joseph Member Posts: 651

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  brickmatic said:

  This was announced back at the end of March. The logic behind the move makes sense. The rationale behind it sounds like something that TLG would say. It really does look like MB is making a move to capture some of the Friends market, as well as the Racers perhaps, but I don't expect a bigger impact than what we've seen from MB thus far.

  I agree, it will be interesting to see how they do, and if they receive the same "overreaction" friends did.
  Also, shouldn't the title be Barbie MB rather than Barbie Lego? :-)

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• tamamahm Member Posts: 1,967

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  Wow. I really hated that article.
  
  It really just came across to me as, hey, we decided to develop this toy because men now make toy decisions, and they are the only ones that would fathom buying construction toys for girls....that Mattel is finally introducing construction toys because of the shift of more males being stay at home dads, and because of hypervigilant (reads to me as aggressive parents) that wants educational math/science toys. Let us ignore the fact, that maybe girls would love Construction toys, if we bothered to do the research (oh wait, Lego did the research, so let us copy the design with no clue as to the reasons such a line works)
  
  It is hard for me to distinguish in the article if this was the writer's viewpoint or Mattel's viewpoint, but I found the entire thing far more sexist than any Friends set could ever be.
  
  They completely failed to mention that Mattel is trying to play catch-up on Lego Friends. They completely leave out the fact that the fact that these sets may appeal to women and grandmas, and are purposely in the girls area for that market...obviously only men would play Lego with their kid, so let us forget that gender. Never mind that Lego has spent years of research on how to capture the girls market, for the sake of capturing the girls market for monetary reasons, as opposed to suddenly coming to the conclusion that "Oh, dad's now stay at home, and they like construction, so let's make Barbie construction sets".
  
  Obviously, the above is a bit of an exaggeration, but yikes, I just found the article frustrating.
  
  Yes, it has been known for a while that there was a Barbie megablok coming out. The article was a completely turn-off on the line to me, if I wasn't already turned off months before now. ;-)

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• legoprods SpainMember Posts: 445

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  Oh... gosh.
  
  Barbie and Megablocks together.
  
  
  
  At least it's not Lego :)

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• Aanchir United StatesMember Posts: 2,892

  December 2012

  There's a blog entry that makes a lot of comparisons between LEGO Friends and the Mega Bloks Barbie line here, mostly created in response to the Center for a Commercial-Free Childhood choosing LEGO Friends for one of this year's TOADY (Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young children) anti-awards. Needless to say, the Barbie sets are atrocious in comparison to Friends. Hopefully other clone brands will be a bit more informed in their responses to the realization that yes, girls can enjoy building toys too (Hasbro, I'm still waiting on a My Little Pony Kre-O line. Show me what you're really made of.)

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• Amiko Member Posts: 97

  December 2012

  I dunno about all this now... I have a two year old daughter who is already getting into 'mummy's pink LEGO' ... the Friends line seems like a half decent way to suppliment LEGO aimed to encourage girl builders (after chucking the minifigs away and replacing them with 'proper' ones... lol) ... If it works with my little one, I can analyse whether or not it's stereotyping or just get on with engaging her with LEGO.
  
  If Mattel are trying to get in on the action then something must be working for Friends on a business level... which ultimately means more actual LEGO aimed to encourage girl builders.

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• Rainstorm26 Chicago Burbs USA (and sometimes Ireland)Member Posts: 1,004

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  Joseph said:

  Also, shouldn't the title be Barbie MB rather than Barbie Lego? :-)

  My title was written carefully to attract attention.... :)

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• Joseph Member Posts: 651

  December 2012

  ^ Ah, ok. Gave me a bit of a shock for a second there. :-)

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• Aanchir United StatesMember Posts: 2,892

  December 2012

  Amiko said:

  I dunno about all this now... I have a two year old daughter who is already getting into 'mummy's pink LEGO' ... the Friends line seems like a half decent way to suppliment LEGO aimed to encourage girl builders (after chucking the minifigs away and replacing them with 'proper' ones... lol) ... If it works with my little one, I can analyse whether or not it's stereotyping or just get on with engaging her with LEGO.
  
  If Mattel are trying to get in on the action then something must be working for Friends on a business level... which ultimately means more actual LEGO aimed to encourage girl builders.

  I agree, and to be fair this does show that LEGO Friends has accomplished one of its key goals, which is showing that girls can enjoy building toys. That then opens all kinds of possibilities for the future. However, Mega Bloks still seems to be going about this in entirely the wrong way, creating what is perhaps the quintessential example of a theme with little redeeming value other than its desirable license. Basically they missed the secondary message of LEGO Friends, which is that girls can enjoy building toys without those toys being "dumbed down" for them.

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