[twitter]Lego has ruffled a few feathers of late with their new Lego Friends line. The pieces are soft pastel colors, there are more female minifigs, and the themes of the Lego Friends sets are obvious in their feminine bias.
The backlash has come because many felt Lego was already gender neutral in the first place. Bricks are bricks are bricks, right?
Well, as Lego moves away from bulk bricks and in to expensive sets and themes, marketers felt it was necessary to soften the edges a little bit. Head in to a Lego store and you will be assaulted by geeky guy sets – Lord of the Rings, Ninjago, Star Wars, and more.
So an opposite market was sought to be carved out, and it has worked. Parents have bought the Lego Friends bait hook, line, sinker and profits are up 35%.
It is disappointing because Lego, at its heart, is a toy about imagination. You are given a series of bricks and told to make something. At our house, anyway, those sets last maybe a few days before they are mashed up, mixed up, and rebuilt as something completely different. In that sense, Lego is unisex, gender neutral.
Proof is in the Lego Friends display at the Lego store. There is a soft purple box filled with pastel bricks. Next to it, a Lego board. As with other bins at the Lego store, kids are free to dig in and create and play. On this particular evening, the Lego Friends setup was surrounded by 3 young boys. They were chatting, building, and sharing ideas on how to manufacture something unique. Not one of them cared that the bricks were pink, purple, or light green. It didn’t matter. To them, Lego is Lego is Lego.
Kids get it, too bad the adults don’t. 
I do agree with the points you’re making here–I loved building Legos as a young girl and wasn’t bothered by the gender neutral colors.
It’s an unfortunate fact that the sets are REALLY what’s taking over, though. NinjaGo, Monsters, HeroFactor, Dinos, and the ones you mentioned are stereotypically aimed at little boys so it was only a matter of time before the “Girl Sets” came out. It’s nice they’re calling them “friends” so as not to discourage boys from playing with them.
I would be angrier if it didn’t seem like it was actually taking off–which it is. At least it’s encouraging more children to pick up Legos which can then by styled into gender neutral objects!
I will mention, though, finding a girl mini-fig back in the day was few and far between–I ended up having to “pretend” that a boy fig was a girl if I wanted to insert myself into the game-play.