An author's opinions on the whole trans Lego thing.
Plus Kitten lunchboxes, arguments about gender, and David Bowie.
^ Does this look ‘girly’ to you?
So, a lot of people say that bright transparent Lego pieces are “girly.” The idea has been around since at least the early 2000s, when Lego’s Belville theme introduced us to shiny transparent elements that were not found in any other sets, such as the snowflake. These did later appear in other themes, but pinks and purples were almost exclusively reserved for female-marketed sets until later on. There was also Clickits, Paradisa, and other themes. Boys got browns and greys and yellows, girls got pinks and purples and whites. This created issues for the many of us who aren’t explicitly on either side of those gendered expectations, so that’s what this blog post is about.
So where did the idea of “girly” Lego pieces come from? Well, I think it starts not with Lego but with society as a whole. Blue is for boys, pink is for girls, that sort of thing. You can go to any cheap clothing store today and look at the kids clothing and see positive, kindness-based messaging on the girl’s clothing, and adventure, aggression and confidence-based messaging on the boy’s clothing. Girl’s shirts are emblazoned with BE KIND whereas boy’s shirts say things like ADVENTURE, BREAK THE MOLD, CLIMB TREES. This carries on into toymaking, and has resulted in the infamous “Pink tax” and the ridiculous effects of it, such as more expensive pink razors and pens.
It also leads to existential crises in kids, but that’s not a subject I’m equipped to talk about right now, despite being one of those kids. Let’s leave it until the end of this blog, when my future self is a bit more composed.
It’s marketing genius obviously, to coerce half the population into paying more for things that propose to make them feel more like a girl or a woman. As those feelings are largely dictated by the ads for those products it becomes a circular argument for its own existence.
Obviously, Lego doesn’t suffer from Pink Tax. In fact from what I found their female-coded sets have a better price-per-piece than some of their other themes. They are also generally very good at marketing to kids equally.
The rise of the minidoll. A step back?
So back to Lego. There were never explicitly boy-coded sets, but there was definite aimed marketing towards girls in the 90s and early 2000s, that focused less on conflict within the story of the sets and more on luxury or more domestic pursuits, as seen in Paradisa. But the minifigs were always the same as in the other sets, they always retained that classic 1978 body; pivoting wrists and individually moving legs (brilliant for stopmotion). So whilst the sets were arguably more peaceful and docile, the minifigs could walk on over to the castles and the fortresses and get along fine with the boy-set minifigs, because they were built the same.
That was, until Lego Friends, which introduced the Minidoll. These came with curvy, dented boxes and brighter packaging which was supposed to appeal to a primarily female audience. But over the next months, as the Friends range pushed its characters into STEM fields and introduced a brilliant range of new colours for old parts, older, professional Lego fans started buying up Friends sets.
I have the stable. Because why not? I also have one of the later robotic engineering sets, again because why not?
This is a good set, I got it from a charity shop basically unused, and rather than sell it for profit I kept it for the dark red 16x8 tiles, which I still haven’t used for a moc…
And this is lovely too. Here we have Olivia building robots. I got this one. No idea what to do with the minidoll though. At the moment they are aliens in my expanded Lego universe, and I think they may stay that way!
The minidolls eventually stepped out of their comfort zone, showing up in DC comics sets and in the Elves line, which was basically Lego Chima but more environmentalist. It had an absolutely magnificent range of neon colours that still make me drool to this day. I love them. I wish I had them all. Imagine if Technic had half this creative range with colours? I would simply lose my mind.
JUST LOOK AT THAT GLITTERY EGG. WHO WOULDN’T WANT THAT?
THESE ARE NOT FOR GIRLS THEY ARE FOR EVERYONE.
LAVENDER ROCK PIECES? YES PLEASE!!!
A DRAGON SKULL? YES!!!
I have only just noticed the lavender rock pieces, and my heart hurts from wanting them so badly. Lego, why are you doing this to me?
Also they are using a 1990s catapult technique, using an old pan piece that I first got in the Ninja line in 1998. I can’t cope, this is too beautiful. These set designers know EXACTLY what they are doing, the evil geniuses.
But why put minidolls in? I really do not understand the minidolls. I haven’t seen any proof they help sets sell better. I wish we could see the stats from a focus group of the set’s prototypes, see how kids felt about the exact same castle but with minifigs and minidolls. That would be the only real way to quantify their effect.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the minidolls, but I think they sometimes have the undesired effect of essentially blocking little boys from admitting they want the cool castle, because it comes with little Lego barbies (boys can like barbies too, by the way).
So why do so many boys want the ‘girly’ sets?
The answer is simple; they are amazing sets with brilliant colour palettes.
Bionicle was probably the most ‘boyish’ theme I can think of, but even that made sure to include female characters who were strong and intelligent and independent (yes I am aware of the meme), and who many women and men have related to in the 20 years since it came out.
The photo above depicts Lewa, my favourite hero from the Bionicle line, for his sense of humour and beautiful colour scheme. If I lost my memory and my personality, I could probably rebuild a passable replica by reading about Lewa and David Bowie.
There was famously a bright pink Rahkshi in the Bionicle storyline, though it never appeared in set form.
Likely because it just would not have sold well, but then again neither did the stone-element sets, hence their constant recolours as the company grappled for a colour that was desirable. In fact my theory on the stone sets is that their element, being so close to earth meant that casual fans weren’t too bothered about getting them, and that newcomers to Bionicle preferred the reds and blues and whites because they were more striking, leaving green black and brown behind not for lore reasons, but simply because they weren’t as bright on store shelves. But that’s a story for another time, I could ramble about Bionicle endlessly.
ANYWAY
Trans purple and trans pink elements didn’t really show up much in “boy Lego” until around the 2010s, when Ninjago burst onto the scene and more colourful Lego star wars sets showed up. Then in 2015, as if the gods had heard our pleas, we were treated to trans purple CCBS (character and creature building system) parts in the revived Bionicle line, which was glorious (though I’ve late been buying up custom made trans pink parts because I love them so much). So the reason there are so many 30 year old men buying sets that are arguably marketed at little girls is that there is a supply and demand issue. We want shiny colours, the boy sets don’t have shiny colours. Give us the shiny colours.
Technic is a notable exception to the pinkification of Lego. Whilst system sets have loads of pink, bright pink, magenta and other typically ‘girly’ colours, Lego’s Technic sub range has no such thing, apart from some very small exceptions (the odd panel or liftarm existing in an Elves set for example, such as my favourite ball joint piece in dark pink)
It is sad to consider that so many AFOLS (adult fans of Lego) shunned the Lego Elves theme for its use of minidolls, because without them, it is obviously a spiritual successor to Chima, Knights Kingdom, and other epic fantasy lines of the past. I actually prefer it to Chima in a lot of ways, but I’m not about to bore you with my set-by-set deconstruction of both themes… On with the blog!
Some miserable personal story for engagement!
My own trouble with “girly” Lego started when I was small. My dad had a thing for calling me a fa**ot at any opportunity, shoehorning the word into normal conversation since I was about six. He was weird around toys too, telling me privately that my mum didn’t think I “deserved” a particular gift because I had upset her somehow. What he told me about her wasn’t true, and it took me about 20 years to work that out, primarily because we still lived with him for that long and as soon as she was free I got to ask her about it all. My point being that growing up, I was pushed into acting in ways that would gain my father’s approval (or at least avoided his insults), and that included feigning disinterest in “girly” Lego sets. I was one of those kids you see in stores who stares a while too long at a bright Lego set and is afraid of buying it, so I know what it feels like. That said, I convinced my parents in around 2003 to get me a Harry Potter Lego set just because I wanted to harvest the pink crystal pieces for my own Lego sonic chaos emerald moc (that stands for My Own Creation). So even at 11 years old I was aware of how girly sets could be used to make epic fights between talking hedgehogs and egg-shaped lunatics… As Bionicle was a big thing for me at that time, the Toa also got their hands on these crystals.
I still think my 12 year old self’s Flying Battery set would have made a good Ideas Sonic set.
The pink crystal later showed up in 2007 in this set, which I wanted because it was badass. I didn’t know the crystal was pink at the time (it looks red on the packaging and product images, as shown below) so it was a huge surprise to get a second pink crystal after all those years. It looked very good next to my trans yellow one.
It still is badass. When I was around 17 I showed a spaceship I had made out of this set to a friend in college, but he was more interested in girls. What a loser.
Watching THE LEGO MOVIE, I immediately loved Benny, whose trademark phrase SPACESHIP SPACESHIP SPACESHIP is my writing philosophy. I am a simple man, I see spaceship, I like spaceship…
I also loved Unikitty, as did my girlfriend at the time. I felt those old pressures resurface, and I regret to inform you all that I never did get that large Unikitty clock which has since vanished from history, but I did manage to collect all the kitties from all the sets (and then later lose them during a house move. They’re in the garage, I’ll get them eventually, my sister donated some to me, including Bizniz kitty, one of the best). I wouldn’t mind the plush either, but I already have a gaudy zebra print box filled to the brim with Garfields I fell in love with during one holiday many eons ago, so I have no room.
And then everyone clapped, but they didn’t, because this is real life and I didn’t intervene when I should have.
In around 2016, in the Liverpool Lego Store, I saw a kid looking at a Lego Friends set. His mother pulled his arm and said “You can’t have that, that’s for girls.”
A member of staff turned their head to them but said nothing. I said nothing also. And I regret that to this day. The kid looked hurt. This pink-blue divide is harming children, and there must be something we can do about it.
For the record I think Lego is doing a brilliant job of showing kids that they can build whatever they want. The Friends line is encouraging young girls into adventurous and scientific fields, and I hope this trend continues.
Other quotes about the pink-blue divide and sex-based splitting of behaviours.
The designer of the trans flag Monica Helms described its meaning as:
“The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender”
Lego distributed a letter in the 70s or 80s that said
“To Parents
The urge to create is equally strong in all children. Boys and girls.
It’s the imagination that counts. Not skill. You build whatever comes into your head, the way you want it. A bed or a truck. A dolls house or a spaceship.
A lot of boys like dolls houses. They’re more human than spaceships. A lot of girls prefer spaceships. They’re more exciting than dolls houses.
The most important thing is to put the right material in their hands and let them create whatever appeals to them.”
I am a big fan of Lego, and their move to include more colourful parts in neutral sets is an appreciated one. I think it’s getting better, but there is still some sex-based splitting in the community that I think is silly. My sister had a few Friends sets when she was smaller, and I remember her finding the minidolls creepy and hilarious. She had an active dislike of minidolls, and I remember they basically got put aside in favour of populating Heartlake city (the Friends line’s location is called Heartlake city) with regular minifigures, or “not mutants” as she called them.
It annoys me that she is funnier than me, to be honest.
I think she got them for the hair pieces, as these, whilst more zany and bigger than standard minifigure hair pieces, still fit atop minifigures. I think she was aiming to get everyone in her Lego city hospital a wonderful mane of 1980s hair, and for that I must thank the Lego Friends line and its ridiculous big hair. Thank you.
Back to the colourful parts
There are a lot of AFOLs (Adult fans of Lego) who show up to conventions or sign up to LUGs (Lego user groups. Aren’t we learning a lot today?) just to get their hands on these parts from ‘girly’ sets in bulk. I am signed up to one but can’t afford the membership right now. I know a guy who has more trans pink pieces than Legoland, and I myself am partial to scooping up almost any set with dark turquoise in it (not inherently a girly colour, as it is now appearing more in lines like Ninjago).
The downtown diner is a fine example of the love of pink. I recently smashed mine to bits to combine it with the palace cinema, before realising I am too busy writing to find the time…
This set is glorious. Dark turquoise and bright pink? Yes please! The upstairs isn’t massively inspiring, but it is a nice 50s styled build with gym and some fantastic minifigures. The recording studio is nice too, and the overall shaping of the set is nothing short of genius. It all comes together beautifully. Shame I lost the waitress in a house move :/
So Lego is getting better at including all the fun pieces in all the themes, which is going some way to erode at those pointless gendersplits that have for decades now put little boys and girls in front of sets they want, but won’t admit they want.
I guess I’m hurt by this, or I was, and I don’t want other kids to have those same existential crises, and I think Lego is doing a great job of helping parents to realise that no, that isn’t a “girl toy” it’s Lego, it’s a toy for ANYONE.
Captain Carter versus ‘gender’
Lego has been doing a great job of making things more accessible to both boys and girls, and companies such as lettoysbetoys are making massive leaps forward too. Lego has been putting more ‘girly’ colours in ‘boyish’ sets since the mid 2000s, but the recent minidolls did feel like a step back for some people (and has evidently been used by parents to force kids into certain choices, which is not good). That said, transparent pieces are easier to find than ever, especially with pick-a-brick walls! I have many dozens of trans dark pink cups for this reason. Did I need them? No. Do I care? No.
Side note. The pick-a-brick in Legoland Windsor in 2004 was charged by weight, and I knackered my mum’s bank account with trans blue pieces. Mum, if you ever read this, I love you and I am still not sorry.
There’s also a lot of talk about gender these days which has nothing to do with Lego, but which does tie back into our childhoods. When I was younger I would have easily called myself non-binary or gender nonconforming or anything really, and I think that was due to my own existential crisis imposed upon me by sexist expectations for boys and girls. Even now I best suit the term non-binary, though if you ask three people what it means you’ll get three different answers, so for that reason I avoid it.
I like dresses. I like kittens. I like wearing my pink boots to places where it is probably slightly dangerous for a man to be parading about in pink boots. I like not telling you people my pronouns because I believe pronouns are (for some) a stand-in for personality charts and astrology, if not a new form of religiosity among the atheist masses. It’s a category you put yourself in, something comforting and confining yet alien to the oppressive categories your parents put you in. I get it, but I think it has already been jumped on by marketing types and turned into something at least slightly dehumanizing. I have heard of at least one performance poet who put their gender identity on their event posters, but failed to mention what their poems are about or what genre they are written in. That’s because the marketing says that the writing is less important than the identity of the writer, so you’re not selling books any more, you’re selling yourself. There is some darkly reductive quality to it all, where your actual personality (as seen in your art) is taking a back set whilst things about your personal life, that some of you might not want to share, is being used to market. It’s sad. I know of at least one author who felt a pressure to “come out” to their publisher for this reason.
Because we are all grappling to be kind and do the right thing, we are focusing too much on people’s personal lives and not on the wonderful art they might be creating. I’ve taken the personality tests, I’ve had my childhood and teenage identity crises. I’m still having one now. I don’t know if I’m a poet or a comedian or a science fiction author and to a lot of people those three things should never mix, but they do mix in my debut book, and they do mix in a lot of my other work. I enjoyed shoe design in textile class at school, and was called names for being so good at it (and picking a high heel over a boot) and I really fucking love kittens. Did I mention the kittens?
So what am I?
I like dresses. I went shopping for one the other day but with size 46 shoulders it is basically impossible, I envy anyone with a larger frame who manages. I like kittens, and was called names in school for not finding violence hilarious. I like science fiction movies about vast cosmic mysteries. I like dark comedy. I like shoes and paisley print and painting. I find football so boring that I once watched a match and wanted to dissolve myself in a vat of acid. I don’t like the star wars movies but the expanded universe is pretty cool. I want to wear a dress like Bowie on the cover of TMWSTW.
This is a proper man right here. I don’t care what rumoured censors think. 100% pure manly man right here. Best man ever. Anyone who disagrees should unsubscribe now.
The above link is pretty interesting to any Bowie fans following me here, of which 50% of you are.
So. I am a human who likes Lego and collects the shiny pieces.
That is enough of a label. I do not need any more.
So my point is - and I had a lot of points that came and went - that proper expression can be hampered by toys, and it can be dampened by dissenting parents and siblings and society as a whole. But it can be reinforced by those same things, that we can make kids feel welcome without having to invade their private lives and minds and tell them what to think. Rather we can give them some bloody good toys, like Lego, and leave them alone with their creativity.
Because gendered products perpetuate stereotypes, and stereotypes perpetuate harm.
Just look at this. A little boy bullied for liking cats. I’ve been there Ryker, but I grew up to be the superior male. You can too. Here’s a photo of his uncle, with an identical cat lunchbox, in a show of solidarity. I don’t know this guy but I would like to buy him a drink some time.
I wanted to write this to say a lot of stuff, but also to thank Lego for their continuing efforts to promote creativity in children, male and female, and to level the playing field a little. Because for so long it has felt imbalanced. Lego, you’re doing a great job.
Lego is for everyone. So are all the many colours it comes in. You are an artist, don’t limit your palette.
Stay innovative.
Captain Carter