None of my co-workers get my love of The Avengers. I don't discuss it much but it is a little more out there now that I have three of the Lego kits put together and on display in my cubicle. (The Hulk Helicarrier Breakout kit, the Quinjet Ariel Battle and Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape) I got a few eyerolls but for the most part nobody has said anything. OTOH, I don't say anything when they sit there and talk incessantly about all the reality shows they watch like Teen Mom, Honey Boo-Boo and the like.

I can't wait to see what they say about the three LoTR Lego kits I picked up once I get them together and displayed. *eg*

The problem always seems to become that they think you just really like LEGOs! They don't understand that it's one expression of many types of fandoms and then you start getting gifts of random LEGOs because they think you like them! That happened to a friend of mine once. Fun times! *grins*

Well I do TALK about The Avengers-like talking about the movie release dates so hopefully that will clue them in.

although the three LoTR Lego kits that I just bought, will be assembling and displaying might throw them off.

And I do admit, I love Lego.

Because LEGOs are COOL!

I'm really tempted to buy the Firefly set (that isn't a true LEGO release) but I don't really think spending over $300 on a huge ship would be smart at this juncture!

*ahem*

Well I did just spend $250 on the three LoTR Lego kits.

*whistles* But I got the three Avengers kits free after using Discover card cash back bonuses so you know-Merry Christmas to me.

And Legos are cool. I played with them as a kid. In fact, I had a whole trunk full of them. Except they weren't all the cool things they have now. It was all bricks and flats. No shapes or wheels or cool things like that. But my imagination sufficed quite well. I would build whole cities and then play with my barbie and GI Joe dolls. (Barbie usually drove the Tonka truck through the city *g*)

Ah, the days when LEGOs came without the imagination included! I get so frustrated with them now because you have to play with them the way they think you should play with them. And the girl-ification of them has me a bit miffed but I know it's just a tactic to garner more money going into the holiday buying season.

I never had enough to build cities so used boxes for that. I still have this thing about boxes... like I should be using them for something instead of recycling them. It's particularly bad at work where I'm constantly carting flattened boxes to the bins. All those cities... reduced to rubble!

Yeah, I just started getting back into Lego a couple of weeks ago. On one hand, the kits are great because I am looking to build sets to display and not really-at this point in time-looking to build things to play with.

But the girl-ification of Lego is really an overall symptom of the entire toy/media industrial complex. Girls like all things pink/frilly/"traditionally feminine" and boys like things blue/gritty-dirty/"traditionally masculine".

So girls get toys like the Easy Bake Oven, all the Barbie crap (and yes, there are a few Barbie dolls that are Doctors or other role models but tbh, I hate the whole concept) and marketed pink and purple Lego kits.

Boys get Hot Wheels, Tonka Trucks, GI Joe and really cool Lego kits.

For fuck's sake, Amazon.com has links to girls toys and boys toys. And guess what each page has??

Let's not get started on the unrealistic ideals that girls are expected to live up to with respect to beauty ideals.

/soapbox

Sorry, I have lots of feels about this.

Boxes are fun to play with. I used those a lot as well. They made cool forts. I think, because when I was a kid we didn't have computers or the internet, we had to make a lot of our own fun so we had to rely more on our imagination.