L'Exocet Posted January 17, 2006 Posted January 17, 2006 I'm really happy with the new 2006 City sets I've got my hands on so far. For second year running - there were many goodies introduced in 2005 as well - Lego is once again making toys that are BUILT, and have great playbility as well. One thing that bothers me though is that there's practically zero female minifigs in the City sets! In the catalog, TLC hides this fact quite cleaverly - there's almost equal amount of males and females in the promotion pictures - but the sets have only guys. I can understand if the female MF's are not tough enough to become construction workers or fire(wo)men, but no girl cops, no air hostesses (nor female passengers) in the plane(s), no female nurses (although I think the hospital has only doctors and paramedics), not even female patients in the hospital? I do not want to believe this is an matter of gender discrimination by TLC, but it can't be just a mistake either and I hope we'll see the return of Female-MFs in 2007. Quote
xwingyoda Posted January 17, 2006 Posted January 17, 2006 We indeed do need female MFs !!!! (unless you're recreating a SF style :D :P ). One good point is that a classic smiling female MF is included in the new Deluxe Starter Set :oD Lets hop its a trend there !!!! Check the set here !! *yoda* Quote
kotua Posted January 17, 2006 Posted January 17, 2006 One thing that bothers me though is that there's practically zero female minifigs in the City sets! In the catalog, TLC hides this fact quite cleaverly - there's almost equal amount of males and females in the promotion pictures - but the sets have only guys. I can understand if the female MF's are not tough enough to become construction workers or fire(wo)men, but no girl cops, no air hostesses (nor female passengers) in the plane(s), no female nurses (although I think the hospital has only doctors and paramedics), not even female patients in the hospital? I do not want to believe this is an matter of gender discrimination by TLC, but it can't be just a mistake either and I hope we'll see the return of Female-MFs in 2007. I always wondered too why no female figs...and I think that only the train sets come with female figs... Quote
shineyfish Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 guess how many female MFs i counted in my 2005 catalogue...... 3! 1 with trains and 2 with harry potter (hermione, mermaid, they didnt even bother making fleur :'( ) and by the looks of it we wont be getting any more in 2006 except catwoman and maybe a starwars character Quote
The Hordesman Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Agree with you all fully. Thats one of the major lacks of many themes; TLG says that there are female knights in Morcia, but does not produce female knights in Lego sets, TLG makes an anime theme (Exo-force) and leaves out the women (whats anime without them, anyway?), TLG has a one gendered city theme... I dont like that lack. But I think it has to with the fact that boys dont like female minifigs since they are not as "cool" as the guys, and often leave them out pf play. I have no idea how they think though, but Ive seen this pattern alot. Quote
shineyfish Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Hordesman i have to say that exo force girls is the most brilliant idea in history. And is it wierd for someone to miss paradisa Quote
The Hordesman Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 And is it wierd for someone to miss paradisa Paradisa was "lost" (lost paradise, hehe) because TLG was losing on it; therefore they made themes like Bellville and Scala since girls were more interested in dolls than minifigs & alot of building and creativity, unfortunatly. Paradisa was also a girl theme so I think its natural those sets contained alot of girls. ;) It was fun how alot of paradisa sets contained guys with small german mustachos in bathing suits living in pink houses... |-D Yeah, Exo-force girls would make me even madder about it... I would like buy 5 of the set with a female pilot, reusing the face for every female character in my Lego stories... Quote
ImperialJohn Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 I had a chance to talk to two LEGO designers six days ago :oD And they got the same question !! Answer: "Boys don't play with female minifigs'!" Plain and simple. LEGO have of cause made a lot of studies! And they all show that the main audience of LEGO are boys between 4 and 10 ;) And when a boy between 4 and 10 get a LEGO set he play only with male minifigs. When he has visitors "no one will play the girl" so LEGO has take the step a almost eliminated female minifigs! By the way the two designers where the ones designing the UCS SW line :oD Quote
Jipay Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 And are they dumb enough to negligeate more than half of an age market ? Quote
Cutty Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Why no female Vikings? AARGH! The world is a bleak place to live in... Quote
snefroe Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 I had a chance to talk to two LEGO designers six days ago :oD And they got the same question !! Answer: "Boys don't play with female minifigs'!" Plain and simple. LEGO have of cause made a lot of studies! And they all show that the main audience of LEGO are boys between 4 and 10 ;) And when a boy between 4 and 10 get a LEGO set he play only with male minifigs. When he has visitors "no one will play the girl" so LEGO has take the step a almost eliminated female minifigs! By the way the two designers where the ones designing the UCS SW line :oD "boys don't wanna play the girl" of course not! we wanna play WITH the girl! :P the lego argument is nonsense. he's refering to roll playing! i wouldn't wanna PLAY a woman/girl either, but what does that have to do with lego? surely in a boy's mind there is some room for mum, sister, aunt, grandma, even tho he doesn't want to be either one of them! There are lots of girls/women in playmobil, btw, which has exactly the same type of audience! i think this decision made by lego belongs in the category: "Strange but true" Quote
Jipay Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Yeah, they do take a lot of nonsense marketing decisions. I really wander if they made some serious studies to come to this. I remember as a kid I was using a lot of female figures : princesses to rescue, a queen and even in the space some guys would fight each other for a girl. Quote
snefroe Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Yeah, they do take a lot of nonsense marketing decisions. I really wander if they made some serious studies to come to this. I remember as a kid I was using a lot of female figures : princesses to rescue, a queen and even in the space some guys would fight each other for a girl. my sister and i very often played with lego together and we always had to "imagine" her minifig was a girl... i think lego's approach is a bit conservative, but take a look at book n Quote
Jipay Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Actually the right thing is to stay they were still thinking 20 years ago :-D Seems like they stopped :P Quote
Evil Willy Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 We indeed do need female MFs !!!! (unless you're recreating a SF style ). Does SF mean San Fransisco...Haha yes ok..I know Quote
Jipay Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 We indeed do need female MFs !!!! (unless you're recreating a SF style Quote
The Hordesman Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Actually the right thing is to stay they were still thinking 20 years ago :-D Seems like they stopped :P I think their minds went on just to create Titan XP, and then stopped again. |-D Jokes aside, Im actually wondering how to make a small girl in Lego WITHOUT having the ugly HP heads that fits better for someone in their 40's than kids... I think I take my old standard smilie with freckles and the Pippi Longstockings hair... Quote
Cutty Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Im actually wondering how to make a small girl in Lego WITHOUT having the ugly HP heads that fits better for someone in their 40's than kids... That's exactly the reason I used the Hermione head as a "Trinity" head whenever I had some small Matrix moc done... it looks about the right age. Seriously the lack of "femifigs©" is a pain. But I see another problem related to this: Little to no hairpieces in late sets. Do vikings, knights or policemen never take their helmets off? Do they have no hair? A shame it is I say... So bring back "femifigs©" and hairpieces and I am a happy Cutty again... Quote
WesternOutlaw Posted January 19, 2006 Posted January 19, 2006 I had a chance to talk to two LEGO designers six days ago :oD And they got the same question !! Answer: "Boys don't play with female minifigs'!" Plain and simple. LEGO have of cause made a lot of studies! And they all show that the main audience of LEGO are boys between 4 and 10 ;) And when a boy between 4 and 10 get a LEGO set he play only with male minifigs. When he has visitors "no one will play the girl" so LEGO has take the step a almost eliminated female minifigs! I could understand this completely and have to agree with the rational. The word "discrimination" was used previously to describe Lego not puting more female figs in city sets. While I like female figs for the "rareness" and uniqueness, to describe this as discriminatory is pretty silly to me. What's next, Lego having to include figs of each major race in all sets (to be "politically correct")? As a kid, I remember a few female figs in sets, and they did in fact always get thrown aside by me and my friends. Now I like them in city displays because they make the city more realistic (kids would be neat too). - maybe that's why train sets seem to include more female figs (at least mentioned previously by someone). The HP and Spider Man female figs were nice and maybe Batman will offer a few too. I esp. like the old pirate and the castle FFs as well. One always could remove a male head and put it on any fig (police man, fire man, knight, etc.). Maybe a few female heads would be a nice addition for a quick optional female fig. Quote
Athos Posted January 19, 2006 Posted January 19, 2006 Maybe Legoland is like the Smurfs? 99 males and 1 female? Steve Quote
alex54 Posted January 19, 2006 Posted January 19, 2006 How con we have babies figs without women? It seems to be impossible... Quote
WesternOutlaw Posted January 20, 2006 Posted January 20, 2006 Little Lego mini figs are bricked. Quote
chump Posted January 20, 2006 Posted January 20, 2006 I think their minds went on just to create Titan XP, and then stopped again. |-D Well... this particular end user of Titan XP was still thinking about females! http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=101954 Quote
L'Exocet Posted January 20, 2006 Author Posted January 20, 2006 The word "discrimination" was used previously to describe Lego not puting more female figs in city sets. While I like female figs for the "rareness" and uniqueness, to describe this as discriminatory is pretty silly to me. What's next, Lego having to include figs of each major race in all sets (to be "politically correct")? I agree with you, the Brickster, about not going too far down in the line of Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.