I have followed a number of articles on Lego lately. This one crossed Facebook today and is worth a good read. The number of pieces on PINK Legos abounds. Really, we've never had pink Legos in our house. Our daughter was not our Lego fanatic, even though we had plenty of them and gave her sets right along with her brothers. It wasn't her toy. That's fine. Regardless, I do agree with the gender toy slant.
But I feel the stronger issue is the loss of creativity with "universal sets and the growth of the world "pre-determined model kits. I'm the first to suggest that what a kit started out as was never what it ended up being...and the spread of Legos across a floor lent itself all the more to the mixing of kits and wild new "creations."
--I think it was really a marketing effort on the part of Lego to retain their market share in a world where tv/movie shwag had taken over. Star Wars, Harry Potter, BatMan, you name it. How do you stay competitive in that market? You make your product mesh.
I also think there is a component of driving play in such a way that it's "educational." If a child understands the physics, math, etc while they play then they have a job/college edge, right? Hence, Lego Robotics, Lego Movie studio, Lego Architecture. I don't believe that Lego is entirely responsible for all this shift. The responsibility really is with parents. What do we want to teach? Do we want to teach or inspire?
Do we want to open doors and let the kids experiment while playing? What are we after with the toys we give our kids after all??
No comments:
Post a Comment