Toy Story

So in anticipation of the upcoming celebration of the FYO's next year on the planet, I ventured out to the ubiquitous Target in search of the perfect gift.

I didn't intend to be a raging feminist bitch about the whole thing. I just wanted to get her something that I, too, would be interested in. Not just dress-up princess clothing, a Princess and the Pauper dvd, or barbies. I had in mind some sort of girly-girl-friendly legos or playmobil stuff. That way we could not only be in fantasy land (o.k. you're the prince and I'm the princess and we're going to the ball!) but we could also DO something. BUILD something.

Anyway, I get there and there is not a single version of Legos or Playmobil that is even remotely girly-girl-friendly. That's not to say that there aren't cool, somewhat gender-neutral toys out there. For younger kids they have decent legos that would have been suitable. But for the five year old set, the playmobil sets are about pirates and adventures. They have snow-trekking adventures and adventures in search of dinosaur bones etc. But nothing that the FYO would be remotely interested in. Furthermore, even the adventure-sets included only male dolls doing the adventures!

Before changing my career to toy-developer to fill this obvious absence in the supply of toys where there is surely a demand, I checked it out on the Internet.

It turns out that you can order pink castles from both playmobil and lego. Apparently the demand doesn't exist here.