On October 9th 2014 Lego announced it is removing itself from it's association with Shell after a concerted Greenpeace effort. So you'll no longer be able to buy a Lego Shell garage. You can however still buy a lovely pink Lego Friends set where girls do nothing but sit in a beach house in their bikini's or trot off to ride their ponies.
When I was a child in the 1970's, Lego was bright, fun, a high quality creative play experience without any gender stereo-typing. It was for both boys and girls. Something which I'm sure my parents were pleased I could share with my older brother. Even if I did already wear his handed down jumpers & jackets for going out to play.
My son is a member of the Lego Club and gets his quarterly magazine. Until recently I didn't even know they send out different magazines for boys and girls! What's that all about? Different age groups; fine, but different genders. Is that really needed?
The marketing is pink & blue.. it's a shame. My four year old girl loves pink things but that doesn't mean I have to settle for buying everything in those colours. She has enough pink in her life, you can't fight it but you can try to steer them away gently away from it.
So if we have to have pink Lego aimed at girls, how about some positive role models? A Doctor (note, not just a nurse!), a vet, a judge, an engineer, a deep sea diver...maybe a Greenpeace protester?
Lets bring it back to the days when it was simple, you bought a plain box of bright bricks and used your imagination to build, not worry about a parent hoovering up the small bits because they weren't necessary essential to a set and always left one bit for some unsuspecting person to tread on.
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