Lego bids to build a greater appeal for girls

[Aanchir]

I'm guessing most people are not against the idea of Paradisa which was to create female-oriented Lego products. I think what most people complain about was the execution. The pastel colours were off-putting, especially the lime green and the sets had a staggering lack of construction to them. While they assumed girls weren't so much into construction, I think a lot of people think Paradisa went to far.

I personally wish to have more gender neutral sets in Lego City that appeal to girls as opposed to a having a separate theme (like Paradisa) as it brings Lego back to it's core of what it was 30 years ago. I have 3 little step sisters and a brother that play together. However I think nowadays that Lego is considered more boyish, Lego has to directly market a girl-theme to girls otherwise they wont buy it because they will be assuming it's a boy's toy.

Any of that make sense?

I bought Paradisa sets when I was a kid. Nominally, I was buying them as gifts for my mom-- really, of course, I was just making an excuse to buy Paradisa sets (I was like 5 years old, and I usually ended up building them-- part of the reason today I don't bother getting my parents LEGO sets most of the time =P ). As far as building goes, some of them were fairly intricate: at least as much so as the other sets of that era. The one with the lighthouse stands out in my memory, as does Poolside Paradise.

The only pastel colors they used in these sets were 4 Light Yellow (mainly printing on baseplates), 6 Light Green, and 9 Light Reddish-Violet (Pink). However, I agree that these were fairly bland against the white and grey buildings that eliminated pretty much any hope for strong contrasting hues. Additionally, though, these colors were not remotely abundant in these sets, so the sets didn't make great price packs, and this was long before the 2000s when LEGO replaced more boring colors on the palette with more vibrant variations-- 25 Earth Orange (old brown) was replaced with 192 Reddish Brown, the greys were replaced with stone greys (bluish greys), 9 Light Reddish Violet and 22 Medium Reddish Violet (pink and dark pink) were replaced with 222 Light Purple and 221 Bright Purple (Bright Light Pink and... the other color Bricklink continues to call Dark Pink), etc.

I loved the Paradisa theme for what it was worth. In retrospect the sets aren't all that attractive, but they had many merits, and it's the only real "tropical vacation" theme we've ever had.

[______]

I wonder what sort of sets they will make. A hello kitty licensed theme would be badass, figuratively.

[Peppermint_M]

I wonder what sort of sets they will make. A hello kitty licensed theme would be badass, figuratively.

Mega Brands already has Hello Kitty.

[user]

For all of yo people complaining about "Lack of strong female characters" if you look at alien conquest it looks like there's going to be a several of female butt-kicking soldiers in the sets not to mention a new female citizen in the mothership and it seems one of the female soldiers is the commander (her suit is more detailed).

[brickmack]

Well this could be good or bad. On the good side, LEGO might release some more pink and purple parts (I only have like 15 purple parts and one pink part in my whole collection). On the bad side, some of the stuff there makes it sound like the sets are going to have a lot of big parts to limit the construction required. Of course, a new theme is always an opportunity for LEGO to release some new part designs, so that's a good thing also.

[Hive]

They just need a theme with tons of horses. And possibly other animals. A theme with a named girl as the key person, with her family in supporting roles.

Yes I know it's a cliché, but my experience tells me that girls really dig playing "family" and love various animals, with horses being a particular joy.

To expand on what I said earlier: I think girls wants a theme with good, strong characters. Not just generic minifigs, but an actual story with characters that has names and a backstory. With a, say, 8-12-year old girl in the "leading role", surrounded by her family (mom, dad, big sister, little brother) and her friends. Sets like "Jessica and friends at the zoo", "Jessica at the stables", "Jessica and her family on vacation", "Jessica playing in the park", etc... some pink and purple might be fine here and there, but I don't think it needs to be dumbed down to "girls love pink, PINK EVERYWHERE!!!!" like the Paradisa sets were. Incidentally, I think several of those sets in newer versions could be a good idea.