Lego: Just for boys?

My daughters, now eight and six, regularly played with Lego when they were younger. We have big boxes of Lego Explorer, the chunky type brick. Then they passed the age of six and suddenly Lego was 'for boys'. They dismissed it out of hand.

I was really disappointed. I had fond memories of playing with the little Lego bricks when I was a kid. So I scoured the shelves of poor old Woolworths looking for suitable Lego. I found robots and monsters and cars that turned into machines.

I tried the internet and found a nice set where you could build a house and put little flowers in the garden. It was sold out.

I have recently been sent two copies of the Lego Club magazine which is free to Lego-lovers everywhere. Lego Club Jr. for four to six-year-olds and Lego Club Magazine for seven-year-olds and over. R6 pounced on the former and did all the quizzes and puzzles, the colouring and drawing pages and read the story. H8 took one look at the robots on the front of the Lego Club Magazine, muttered "It's for boys. Boring." and went back to reading a book about magic ponies that turn into unicorns.

Even the Junior magazine is a bit 'boy' though. The pictures of readers with their 'Cool Creations' are all boys, the building challenges are for an alien and a sports car and it's chock full of 'villains', 'dudes', 'warriors' and fire fighters.

And it's a shame. When did Lego become for boys only? The front cover of this particular issue features Toy Story 3 with Jessie, Woody and Bullseye which the whole family love. That's not just a boy-thing surely?

I loved Lego when I was a kid and I have, I can assure you, ALWAYS been a girl. A girl who likes cars and used to play with a garage admittedly but a girl all the same. When did Lego abandon us girls and why?

The sad thing is I really want to go to Legoland. We even have handy relatives to stay with a stone's throw away and we pass the signs every time we visit my mother-in-law but my daughters (well mainly H8) won't have any truck with visiting what she sees as a purely 'boy' thing.

I've checked out the Lego online store and there is a large pink brick box aimed at seven to eight-year-olds but it's listed as 'hard to find'. My two would love that. It's got a horse in it (not because it's pink, pink is irrelevant once you're eight). There's also horse jumping and horse stable which my two would also adore (even more so if they featured Bullseye from Toy Story 3) but are these on sale in our local Tesco? No. Argos has those and Playful Puppy, but only online.

Obviously the lack of Lego in my life is entirely my fault. I should have given birth to boys not girls. Tell me though, is it me? Are there Lego-playing girls out there or is Lego just for boys?

Links: Lego Club homepage, Lego Club magazine sign up page, Lego Club Building steps, Lego Club Cool Creations, Lego Club TV.