This LEGO with it's pink and purple bricks is designed for girls.
I bought it for myself because I really don't give a crap about gender boundaries.
Why do girls and gay men like pink?It's feminine? Says who? It is what you want it to be.
Anyhow, when I was younger and less reminiscent, I used to do a few martial arts. I did judo for a few years here in Toronto, and in Japan I did kyudo (Japanese archery), kendo (Japanese fencing with bamboo sticks), and a couple of years ago I did Tae Kwon Do until I tore my meniscus in my knee as apparently my 40+ year-old body parts aren't as supple as they were when I was in my 20s. Apparently.
Too bad - doing this Korean martial art, I was power kicking down tackling dummies filled with sand with my still strong leg muscles. Strange how the muscles are still powerful, but the connective tissue isn't.
I have never done karate like Emma has. Karate - the way of the hand. But I have always wanted to. And, while what I thought was an arthritic ring finger hasn't bothered me in a month, the knee has since I stopped taking my Omega 3 for arthritis meds. Even though there is no cure for arthritis, this stuff did seem to work. Placebo or not.
Anyhow... the LEGO kit was inexpensive and quite easy to build. Even too easy.
My favorite part of it was actually the bonsai tree on the far right. It's brilliant in its simplicity.
What I don't care for is the useless basket that came with the set - periwinkle? Mauve? I was supposed to place three little dots in it... why? Was it to represent knitting yarns? Why is there a basket in the karate class?
The kendo mask on a stand, the katana sword hanging up beside the trophy case are nice touches, as is the block of wood set up for Emma to smash with her lobster-boy hand - though I would have mad the board from a tan tile rather than white.
I even like the Japanese shoji screen behind her.
And while I do understand the need for the pink and purple bricks to 'feminize' the place, it just reinforces tired stereotypes.
I do dislike the fact that in this Friends series (for girls), the minifigures aren't so mini. While they fit the LEGO studs (to stand on), they body is longer, and the faces have 'real' human roundness, as opposed to the barrel shaped regular LEGO minifigs. That means you can't really use them with the 'boy' sets... so boys play with their manly sets, and the girls play with their girlie sets.
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| Batman and Robin and Emma. |
It's a shame, really.
When I go to visit the two LEGO stores here in Toronto (one near my home at Sherway Gardens mall, the other near my work at Fairview Mall - both excellent stores, by the way), there have always been just as many girls as boys in the place.
What were the girls buying before the Friends sets came out? The 'boys' LEGO. While I applaud LEGO for trying to cater to this female market segment, it seems strange to do so in 2012-13 when women and men are supposed to be equal.
I like the Friends sets, and have purchased a couple and disregarded the over-sized female characters because the sets are interesting and can be used in other parts of my imagined cityscape, though not in the large Japanese diorama I may one day construct.
Oh well.
Cheers,
Andrew Joseph
PS: And yes... I mashed together the Robin minifigure by giving him the legs and panties from a Hawaiian hula dancer minifig. It was the only once I could find with green short shorts like what the classic Robin used to wear. "Batman" (baseball bat) came from a LEGO baseball minifig.
Oh yeah... I dislike that the karate gi (uniform) that Emma wears does not have an obi (belt) painted around her torso... it's just there as a bow in the front, and doesn't have the ends hang down like they would in real life.
PPS: It's official. I have become a grumpy old man.
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