Hacker News Reader

Comment by timr | Hacker News Reader

I get the desire for narrative and different colors...but this looks awfully simple-minded. Why can a boy age 5-9 play with erector sets and legos, but a "girl's" engineering toy must comprise such a primitive set of components?

View on HN

In no way does it seem that this is the final product she will ever ship. This version is easy to manufacturer and easy to sell. She has an engineering degree: I'm sure this was not the first design and she whittled down from more complex designs, which she can get back to after she has a thriving business and marketing team. Personally, I think I would have been bored by this after one time at the age of 6 or 7, but it would have gotten my attention (and I was never a princess girl, I just liked puzzles). Think of the things that can spin from this: more technical puzzles, parts that the kids can use to invent their own games, story-telling and programming. I'm committing to her project because I see her as a long-term producer of products that could genuinely make a difference (and if not her, there's enough in here to spin a thousand ideas). Like someone commented on here: The Diamond Age could come from this, and who knows if it will be a girl in 25-50 years who builds it?

I can see the concerns some people have with legos clearly focusing on marketing to boys, but erector set stuff does seem rather un-gendered to me. I don't know if it has changed, but the erector set stuff I had as a child was just a bunch of stamped out metal parts with nuts/bolts. Not much "themeing" at all. I suppose you can just buy "vanilla" lego blocks too of course.

Anyway, parents know what their kids want more than anyone else, so I think the option of gendered construction toys is great (so long as the market doesn't become dominated by them).

That's what I get for switching from watching =3 to HN: can't help thinking that maybe that kit would sell better to girls if it wasn't called "erector set".

Ha, that never occurred to me before.

"Erector Sets" sold in the us are actually rebranded "Meccano". I'm not sure when that change happened, but it seems like that is what I actually had. I guess they bought the brand for marketing reasons.

If anything, the kids may not care, but adults picking out toys for a little girl will feel more comfortable buying this. People are always happier if they feel their choices were more "customized" for the person they're buying for.

Personal anecdote: when I was a girl I wanted this $50 erector set for Christmas which my dad said was too expensive, but then he bought me a some $50 stuffed animal for Christmas anyways. I guess he felt like it was a better gift.

Isn't that gender-marketing to the point where you don't even listen to what your kids want but get things based on what they should be liking?

Construction toys are gendered. You just don't notice because it is the standard.

There is girls themed lego and duplo these days.

And their sales numbers have been abysmal.

I haven't heard how the new "Lego Friends" line has been doing, though.

Ah thats a shame. Lego has always been pretty popular with girls though in my experience, though they tend to play houses with it rather than build vehicles. My girls love it, and so did my wife as a kid. Perhaps the genre specific lego sets have been pushing girls away from lego.

They're selling like gangbusters: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/aug/31/lego-frie...

Lego Friends has been selling ridiculously well. They're making lots more sets to keep up with the unprecedented demand.

There was in the early '80s, too. I remember seeing the product line in the catalogue but not the store shelves. The sets were for making jewellery out of and the like.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com