The splashy introduction of the new LEGO friends line earlier this year stirred up a lot of controversy. My goal with this set of posts is to provide some historical perspective for the valid concerns raised in this heated debate. The LEGO Group started as a family business with the motto “only the best is good enough.” The company produced primarily wooden toys for the first two decades of its existence. It wasn’t until 1958 that the iconic LEGO brick was patented as we know it today. LEGO bricks were originally marketed as toys for both boys and girls. The 60s saw the introduction of new elements to the LEGO system like wheels, windows and hinges. Marketing images from this era tend to feature boys and girls equally. In the 70s we encounter the first LEGO theme marketed specifically at girls: Homemaker. The sets aren’t very different from the rest of the products offered at that time (there’s some bricks and you build stuff), but the pictures of smiling girls playing with the sets clearly mark them as “girls only.”
Homemaker sets are clearly meant to be furniture for dolls. Dolls are popular toys, so finding ways to integrate the LEGO experience into this existing model of play was a shrewd business strategy for TLG, but one that nevertheless perpetuated stereotypes. The 70s also saw TLG experimenting with different types of human-like figures. The first figures (sometimes called maxifigs to contrast with their later mini brethren) were built from regular LEGO bricks and new head pieces. These appeared in a line of sets with the uninspired name “LEGO Building Sets with People.” These line as a whole was marketed at both boys and girls, but some sets were more targeted. Co-existing for a brief period with the maxifig was a proto-minifigure. The minifig we all know and love today was next. In 1978 the minifigure first appeared as we know it today and, after an awkward period of co-existence with the maxifigs, the “minifig” became the standard for tiny plastic people.
The minifig is now as iconic as the LEGO brick and equally important in defining the LEGO brand, over the years has tried to introduce other types of figures, but none of them have the staying power of the minifig.For the next decade LEGO minifigs existed in a gender neutral utopia. One can argue that the hairstyles are slightly gendered, but keep in mind that unisex hairstyles were all the rage at the time. When people talk about wanting to get back to the “good old days” of LEGO, this is generally the decade they are referring to. In response to the LEGO Friends launch a lot of people have been passing around these images from an early 80s ad campaign:Even at this time, however, LEGO was promoting gendered play. The short-lived Scala Jewelry theme, for example was a major deviation from the core LEGO product line. There is virtually no building in these sets, they are completely superficial — a triumph of style over substance. Contrast this with Technic, which is all substance and no style.
These complicated sets (originally called Expert builder sets) are clearly for boys. Boys also seem to have taken over LEGO trains. It’s great that TLG provides a range of products for builders of all skill levels, but why is it that the products for girls are always on the low-skill side of the spectrum and the high-skill side always reserved for boys? The segregation of LEGO into feminine and masculine sets would escalate in the next 15 yrs, however, and I’ll cover that development in the next installment. Read Part II of A Historical Perspective on the LEGO Gender Gap. David Pickett is a social media marketer by day and a LEGO animator by night. He is fanatical about LEGO and proud to be a nerd. Read more from David at Thinking Brickly. Error 404 - Page Not Found Sorry, I've looked everywhere but I can't find the page you're looking for. If you follow the link from another website, I may have removed or renamed the page some time ago. You may want to try searching for the page:
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Our shredding fundraiser is back! Securely shred confidential files, protect against identity theft, and raise money for the library! Suggested donation: $5 - $10 per banker box.World War II (or the Second World War) was a major worldwide conflict that followed what was then known as the Great War in bringing nations across the globe to fight once again. The war began in 1939 with the declaration of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom, following the German invasion of Poland. It ended following Japan's surrender to the United States of America in 1945.[2] The main players in the war were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allied powers (France, United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China). The results of the war were the defeat of fascist regimes in Germany and Italy, the rise of the United States and Soviet Union as the dominant superpowers, and the beginning of the Cold War. In his adventures during and after World War I, Indiana Jones saw hints of how another conflict might come to pass.
After being captured in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, Jones met fellow prisoner of war Charles de Gaulle, who predicted that "the next great war will be fought with tanks and airplanes".[3] While at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, T. E. Lawrence also predicted such a war to his friend Jones.[4] Although all three men played a role in the first world war, Lawrence never saw World War II come to pass, as he died in a motorcycle accident in 1935.[2] Jones and de Gaulle became involved however; de Gaulle later led the Free French Forces—eventualy becoming the first president of the French Fifth Republic. Though the war had already been fighting for two years in Europe and Asia, the United States did not enter the war until after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Prior to this time, Jones had been contacted for a few missions by US Army Intelligence against Nazi searches for the Akashic Hall of Records and at Mount Sinai. By 1942, Jones, with his background in intelligence, joined the Office of Strategic Services, along with Sophia Hapgood[6], and had become friends with MI6 agent George McHale and General Bob Ross,[7].
Jones and McHale regularly worked together during the conflict, disguising themselves as Nazis to steal the cipher machine responsible for generating Germany's Enigma codes. McHale had to save Jones' life again when they traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia when Jones felt the needle of amnesia darts. In 1942, they went on a mission to Flensburg.[2] In the summer of 1943, Jones and McHale took a brief leave and went in search of the Heart of Darkness, a black pearl, in Haiti, though ended up in the middle of a race between German and Japanese spies in search of an invincibility formula. Around D-Day (June 6) 1944, Jones received a form "go-get-em" letter from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. At this time, McHale also entrusted Jones with a letter to Penelope in the case that McHale was killed. Jones kept both of these letters in his journal. At some point during the war, Jones and McHale also worked as double agents in Berlin, and also served in the Pacific theater. In 1945, Jones and McHale were in Flensberg for the final action, perhaps in conjunction with the British effort to arrest the "Flensberg government" which took civilian power after Hitler's death.