A year later + Millions of Friends sold & built, yet still people spread false information ...

A recent interview demonstrates those who criticize LEGO Friends don't know their studs from tubes!

Read about how Peggy gets it wrong!

Now that the Butterfly Beauty Shop has sold out this holiday season -- it's no doubt a recent effort by Susan Linn's RadFem-related group to decry it as "worst toy of the year" in an award backfired big time!

Oh, and don't forget about checking out all the anecdotal evidence of more girls engaged in building spatial-reasoning skills during play with LEGO Friends:

Puppet behind the petition

   How convenient that the petition against TLG, which garnered merely 3,000 signatures after several weeks of the RadFem groups spewing their campaign of false information all over the Internet, became included in Change.org's mailing to its members.  Well, here's how it works:  Shelby Knox, member of SPARKsummit, just happens to also be on the staff of Change.  She runs the Women's Rights section there:

    So, for her to then push that their petition should be included on the regular update mailing to Change members (said to be 4 million subscribers) is quite interesting and at the very least, quite tainted.
   Maybe she is also responsible for composing the false information in the letter.

   Giving people false information, inciting them on a "click-through-to-add-your-signature" platform and then using that as some evidence is maliciously skewed.  When the first wave of doctored, mis-proportioned images and false claims of Friends sets being pre-assembled didn't garner more than the original signatures of the RadFem sheeples, they then moved even further from the facts to get their petition bulked up.

   Normally the Change site is for real problems, like banks charging unfair fees (the most well-known petition is against the Bank of America by 22-year-old Molly Katchpole) or other social injustices affecting kids and people who don't have much of a collective voice.  It appears that the limelight Molly garnered became attractive to some other 22-year-olds: Stephanie Cole (who didn't play with LEGO as a girl, since she didn't like the whole 'construct' part) and Bailey Shoemaker Richards.  These are the names on the petition against TLG.  I bet they are more famous now.

   How the owner(s) of the Change.org allowed the site to be used by the "no pink" campaigners is a discredit to any worthy movement.  Causes about preventing people from starving, being physically harmed, or having their rights diminished are not even remotely similar to a LEGO theme.  Especially a box of bricks created to spark the interest of girls who don't already build with them.  Girls who are now building spatial, technical, engineering & math skills by creating their own play scenes with LEGO Friends -- rather than opening a toy that is not interactive.

   Online petitions are a bit shady anyway.  Verifying actual signatures is hard enough for governments in real life voting places.  There was never a need for a petition regarding LEGO Friends.  If you don't like them, don't buy them.  Plenty of girls do like them and are buying them. LEGO bricks are meant to be re-built and re-built; it's the activity of gaining and using skills to re-build the bricks of any color into anything she can imagine that gives her a voice.  This campaign has done far more harm to any perceived psychological image girls have of themselves than any innocent LEGO toy set of a young girl enjoying her splash pool & ice cream on a warm Summer's day.

  
   Feminism has run amok in this scenario; when they exclude 'some' girls for their quest to represent all girls, it's self-serving.  Girls can speak with their own creativity.  Girls are using their imaginations.  Real girls do build with LEGO Friends!

Town Hall has nothing to do with "no pink"

   PBG & Hardy Girls (Spark partners in the "no pink" campaign against LEGO Friends) is attempting to claim Astrid's presentation of the new Town Hall is a direct response to their wacky, skewed, misinformation-laced "social-media" campaign!  Really?
   Of the video they write: "Coincidence?  We think not.  Let's give LEGO some props for listening!" 

REALITY Check:

   Astrid has been working on this new Modular building way before you RadFems even became aware of the Friends theme.  That she mentions people may be surprised she is the presenter is due to the fact that Jamie (who pioneered the Modular line) usually presents new buildings in the videos.
   Did PBG even watch the video, did they even listen to the video, do they understand the video?  Or, did they just see a still-image of the video on LEGO Club TV channel on YouTube and since there is a female in the picture, just assume that she in a response to their spamming, tweeting, posting, block & deleting all over the Internet?  Seriously, this takes the cake.
   There is a systemic failure in comprehension of timelines of LEGO product development and presentation by these groups.  Astrid has worked for TLG for 3 years.  She's an architect.  Of course she likes LEGO Friends.  She, like all other LEGO employees & fans, want more girls to build!  That's the whole point.
   Astrid spent time researching Town Hall designs all over the world.  She spent time helping to design this new Modular building -- which takes more than a few weeks (as in, since Spark's ultimatum to TLG, pitching a hissy fit, sending more FedEx packages of silly 'skewed' petition print-outs, or else the RadFems will launch yet another 'blurred' letter-writing campaign) and certainly was well underway before the Friends launch this year!
   More girls are building with LEGO bricks today than December 31st, 2011.  Friends contributed to that change.  Astrid obviously will continue to inspire builders of all types: girls, boys, men & women!  Just don't try to attach your skewed agenda-promoting "no pink" campaign to her in any way!
   The Town Hall is a Modular building, just like the 700 brick/piece flagship set of LEGO Friends Olivia's House!

Petition promoter doesn't like pink 'or' macho

The main person behind the petition against The LEGO Group, Lyn Mikel Brown, also is against what she believes are "macho" toys for boys.  Along with her partner & fellow Colby College instructor, they appear to have spent the past 20 years railing against toy companies.
    Lyn Mikel Brown is also owner of these entities: SPARK, Hardy Girls, PBG, which comprise the majority of petitioners and spreading of false information about LEGO Friends.

   SPARK has launched another 'campaign' called "Toy Aisle Action Project" telling its followers to put 'notes' onto product boxes in stores' toy aisles to protest that they are girl & boy toys.
   Yep, it's true.  Here is an image of notes stuck to the display case of Olivia's House in the LEGO Friends theme:

    The irony is that Olivia's House is far more complex than the Creator House the feminist 'activist' added to that note she affixed to the display case.  Olivia's House has 700 separate bricks/elements!  It has to be built, the box contains un-assembled pieces.  So, yeah, "she" is gonna have to build it.
   Also, notice the empty shelves below where Olivia's House set boxes used to be -- yet are sold out!  Why are they sold out?  Because girls LOVE them!

   And here are some more: one note attached to a Harry Potter LEGO set which says something about how girls like to play with Harry Potter too.  Well, yeah, so what's stopping them?

   So, if a retailer puts this in an aisle with other girl-oriented toys, there are wrong (according to SPARK) and if a retailer puts this item in the "construction toy" aisle, then they are wrong (according to SPARK), so what is it?  It seems like no matter what companies and retailers do, SPARK feminists are going to complain about it.

    
They can't even see females when there are females in LEGO sets!!

   Can you see the female Police Officer Minfig right there in the center of the whole Police Station?? I hope so!
 (set is #60047 released in 2014)

    The irony of Stephanie writing a comment on that post above on their FB page is that even in her article against LEGO Friends she admitted to not playing with LEGO bricks, "because I didn’t like all the assembly required," so, for her to say she would like it even now is hilarious.  Also, demonstrated is the ignorance of these groups not realizing it's the "Construction Toy Aisle" not the boys aisle, or LEGO aisle (as there are MB & Knex, and Lincoln Logs, etc., in that aisle too), so their argument is moot.

   And some other toys in their target sights.

         Product tampering surely is not welcome at retailers.  It seems like it would be some sort of misdemeanor crime.  One Toys 'R' Us employee posted a message to SPARK that what they are doing, and encouraging others to do, is merely causing more work for employees -- who have to waste time removing the notes.
        It's not causing some sort of revolutionary change in product development.  So, sorry feminists -- you're wasting peoples' time and making yourselves look very petty indeed.  Petty product tampering.

SPARK letter to TLG

SPARK letter to TLG Jan 20, 2012

    Once again, you do not speak for all girls.  You do not speak for me.  I have spent my life in STEM disciplines.  I faced stereotyping.  I over-came obstacles in male-dominated academic and professional careers.  You do not speak for me.
    Kids need to be exposed to examples of what their parents may perceive as gender-stereotyped messages in marketing, media and at point-of-purchase, so that they may know to recognize it.  They need to be able to delineate for themselves if it is indeed a suggestion, or a trick telling them this is what society demands of them.
    If you feel this is the issue -- then use this as a teachable moment for your own kids.  Give them the skills to navigate through society's messages, so they may use those same problem-solving skills in application to other aspects in life.  Whether inter-personal relationships, or in the virtual world, kids need to have the ability to think for themselves.

    However, your campaign's tactics on the Internet, consisting of re-spinning half-truths and fact omissions is very unbecoming of any intellectual persuasion.

    To the millions of girls who are thrilled about LEGO Friends and the new options which encourage them to manipulate bricks into their play & imagination time, I say: Build on girls!
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Besides, why would The LEGO Group give into demands by people who call them names like this:

Melissa Atkins Wardy 'aka' Pigtail Pals and her foul language (see above name she called TLG execs) have perpetuated so many falsehoods about LEGO Friends online, such as them being pre-fab (which they are not), it's hard to keep up with the drivel -- all the while she bought her first ever LEGO bricks in December.  The only regret of covering her actions on this blog is that she is online as a business, masquerading as a "girl empowerment" group -- giving her any attention is a bad side-effect.  The sacrifice is worth it -- documenting the tactics and actions of these petitioners is here for posterity.
   Pigtail Pals pays bloggers to write up stories about perceived inequality in toys, apparel, media, etc., which she hopes to turn into outrage --and hopefully another "viral" effect for her little t-shirt business. 
She confesses to never reading the actual public replies to controversial articles, because she considers the articles (and the emotional outrage they inspire) to be her "job security."

   Now she teaches her 7-year-old daughter to use profanity too!

   Just another reason her initial ignorance about LEGO Friends and spreading false information is more hypocritical than ever.  Why should any other parent listen to her?  Those words are not appropriate for a young girl.  Period.
   Please Melissa, just stay away from LEGO Friends, you don't deserve their awesomeness.

The LEGO Group's reply to misleading information

http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/news-room/2012/january/lego-group-commentary-on-attracting-more-girls-to-construction-play/

LEGO Group commentary on attracting more girls to construction play

Hoodwinked by pink

Spark changed petition sponsors; somehow they convinced Change to include it in their mailings to its 5 million members.  This, after their petition drive stalled-out at around 4,000 signatures over about 2 weeks time period of spreading incorrect information by:  tweeting, posting, e-mailing, blogging, begging off op-ed submissions on media sites, plus creating and redistributing false images --- all the while blocking & deleting counter-information posts, links, and product images.

When members arrive at the petition page via a quick link, they are presented with a fantastical story of false information.  Any "electronically signed" petition isn't valid if the facts aren't there.  Using Spark's own child actresses of Dana Edell (owner of an acting studio) in videos filled with false information.

    FACT: 2012 does have more female MiniFigs.  How can LEGO add more girls to Harry Potter?  Shall they request them from JK Rowling?  Yet, you claim "back-story" isn't inspiring creativity anyway?  So, which is it, girls?
    FACT:  Images of both girls & boys are all over LEGO advertising -- Buckets, KidsFests, Posters, Magazines, Club magazines, Game covers, etc.
    FACT:  It's a Splash Pool -- just like millions of young girls enjoy in their own backyards.  It's Ice Cream (apparently some people aren't familiar with LEGO utensils -- the glass is a goblet, used in many, many sets) not a cocktail "drink" in the one small set in Friends theme.  That set is easily over-looked if any of you actually went to a store near you to see for yourself!
    FACT:  Olivia's house is prominent -- oh, and is not "dumbed-down" and the set box includes System bricks compatible to all System sets (yes, including City) -- and it has 695 separate bricks & pieces -- loose and un-assembled.
    FACT:  Stay tuned -- there are more Friends on the way -- you may have to look to the sky!

    No, the "no pink" campaigners do not represent all girls making up 50% of the population.  You do not represent me.

    The LEGO Group is a privately help company; if you don't like one of their themes, don't buy it -- that will leave more for the rest of the world's builders.
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Update:  Read what the Change.dot.org members' mailing message included in regard to the petition against LEGO.  http://www.paganomation.com/2012/01/the-ongoing-lego-friends-controversy/

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Another petition based on false information created by New Moon Girls: http://www.care2.com/causes/girls-to-lego-what-the-heck-are-you-thinking.html

FACT:  The LEGO Group already does employs female designers.

Friends in the LEGO aisle

FACT: Friends new sets are placed in the LEGO aisle at major retailers in North America.

 FACT: Friends sets at the end of the construction toy aisle (note: it is not called the boy toy aisle).
 (this display was sold out of Olivia's House Jan 9)

Display of Olivia's House - set includes 695 separate bricks/pieces.

Display of Olivia's House interior - yellow serrated wheel allows customers to rotate set for viewing.

Fembots FIRST Robotics Team 2009

One of three teams featured on Oprah

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Inside-the-17th-Annual-FIRST-Annual-Robotics-Competition/4

Fact:  The LEGO Group gathers research data from all of its educational and corporate sponsorship activities all over the world.  FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and TLG's partnership organization: FLL (First LEGO League) have been listening to girls (and boys) since 1998.
    Some women's rights groups claim girls who build with LEGO NXT Robotics should have been involved with development of any new "for girls" designated theme.  They must not realize, NXT building/programming girls were part of the voice!

    This is in response to some groups complaining real NXT girls were not part of LEGO research for the new theme: