Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
I’ve seen many a variation on the spray painted toy animal or reptile or object over the years, but I’ve never really tried it. This was a mistake. Because it’s the easiest, cutest, most tangibly cute project I’ve done in a long time.
I won’t even insult you with the DIY, because hello, spray paint meet tiny rubber toys. But honestly, these teeny tiny dinos do deserve fun homes, so let’s dream up some hilarious options:
1. The dash on your car (most awesome plastic co-pilot ever)
2. Add a key ring and throw one on your gym bag. Feel like a monster while working out.
3. Place one on top of your oven. Remember that not all dinosaurs were carnivores.
Where would you put your adorable glam dinosaur?
We have more than a few grown up toys in our house. Between LEGO and vinyl, we have, well… A LOT. Cue awesome tips on making your grown up house feel so much more fun!
So I wrote this post for Apartment Therapy, but I just knew you all would appreciate the tips. Here are a few of my favorites:
Alright friends, how do you master the toy collection/grown up life at home quandary? Or do you fully embrace it? You can read the rest of the tips over at Apartment Therapy.
LEGO announced that they’re coming out with a new line of toys for girls: LEGO Friends. This is their fifth attempt to launch a product for girls, most of the time relying on the very basic marketing idea that girls like pink.
Here’s what’s different: The standard minifig is gone and is replaced with a girl minifig. Of course, with the requisite oversized eyes, colored lips and boobs too. Apparently, she’s also having a cocktail in a pool in the set at left.
Why the change?
According to NPR:
While boys and girls both love to build, boys build in a linear fashion, assembling the kits from start to finish and not stopping until the toy looks like what’s on the cover of the box.
In contrast, girls like to stop along the way, and start role-playing while they are building. So … Lego bagged the girls’ toys differently, so they can begin playing before finishing the whole model.
Aha, so girls hate building. Apparently they hated the minifig as well:
The researchers found that girls do not like the iconic, chunky Lego minifigure. So the company designed a new one that’s slightly bigger than the traditional 1 ½-inch figure, to make it easier for girls to put hairbrushes and handbags in the minifigures’ hands.
Here’s an idea: perhaps it wasn’t about hairbrushes and handbags or even the ability to role play along the way. Maybe, just maybe, it’s about broader issues related to the packaging and marketing of LEGO. Think back to last month when the sets with Wonder Woman and Catwoman hit the Internet. The images are set up in role playing scenarios and in this case: the women need saving. Perhaps, the roles LEGO is identifying for young female users don’t resonate? Where’s the set with Wonder Woman kicking ass? Are they afraid that boys won’t want a set with Catwoman chasing after the bad guy?
It’s no surprise that I love LEGO and that I have a fairly extensive collection. As a child, I loved to build and role play with the pieces I shared with my brother. I distinctly remember that my biggest complaint as a child of the 80s wasn’t that my LEGO minifig couldn’t have a hairbrush or a handbag: it was that the only hair option was a long, blonde piece and I had brown hair. Things have changed since then, but wouldn’t it have been great of LEGO to include Ginny Weasley in the LEGO Harry Potter Quidditch set? Last I checked, Ginny was a badass Chaser and far outperforms Oliver Wood in terms of name recognition. Could they have been bothered to include at least one female astronaut, policewoman, firefighter, pirate, ANYTHING in one of the hundreds of sets where she isn’t an accessory to the action - just sitting there holding a surfboard or drinking a coffee?
LEGO: You claim that girls don’t visually respond to the colors in your sets or don’t like the minifig. If the key is that girls are visual and they respond to things like color and images and instructions, well, I challenge you: Would girls also visually respond to scenes they can relate to and aspire to in the products you already produce and sell? Maybe you could help them with their role playing by giving them scenes that include girls in the action instead of placing them off to the side with a cup of coffee.
It’s not all bad with LEGO Friends. They’ve produced one set I can give props to: Olivia’s Inventor Workshop.
Does it balance out the fashion design, dog show, pool party, bakery, beauty shop and convertible sets? No, but they made the effort. Right?
I’m making a prediction: LEGO Friends, like their previous 5 attempts, will fail. It may be popular temporarily, but like Bratz and the countless other oversized-eyeballed, prematurely breasted female figurines of the 2000s, they will fall by the wayside while your main brand continues to grow and expand and reach into generation after generation of young children. The reason? LEGO is something you keep. It’s a toy that you don’t sell at a garage sale or drop off at the Goodwill, because you look forward to sharing it with your child some day. It’s not built on gimmicks and so it endures. This is a gimmick.
When this fails, I suggest LEGO stop before throwing millions of dollars at more research about girls, their desires for handbags and their color preferences and instead research the products sitting right before their eyes. There’s plenty of opportunity there.
There’s a plushy insurgence happening across the geek community. It’s stuffed toys designed, produced and made just for geeks. On a visit to Minneapolis-based RobotLove - it struck me; are these stuffed wonders all geek or totally chic?
I guess the answer is: it depends.
Let’s start with the RobotLove variety. The shop features adult, designer toys. It’s hard to hear that phrase without your mind instantly going to dirty places, but these are truly toys. Their online store will give you a good feel for what they’ve got in stock and just how “designer” these plush really are. Let’s start with the affordable.
Mr. Toast is adorable. He comes in two sizes: 7 and 11 inches and apparently, he’s lonely. His description:
Mr. Toast is lonely. He only wants to be your best pal ever. Soft and plushy, he doesn’t smell bad like burnt toast at all. At 7 inches tall, he’s about the same size as a real piece of toast, so be careful not to mix him up with your breakfast. He’s sweet, but probably doesn’t taste that great.
Mr. Toast is totally affordable. The 7 inch version will run you $1/inch or $7.
And since we’ve got bread - let’s check out the meat, shall we? The Sweet Meat Hambone pair is totally insane.
I genuinely have a hard time imaging who would want this plushy pair sitting on their couch, or on display for that matter - but for every geek there is vice and those food lovers out there may just latch onto these.
This tender duo is a limited edition set - which makes it all the more exclusive and potentially justifies the price. However, you have to buy them as seperate items. The big red version will run you $50 and the smaller hambone costs $26.
As I said: for every geek there is a vice. So no matter how silly, there is something for everyone. The ugly plush, the crazy expensive plush, the licensed plush, and of course, the utterly ridiculous plush.
If I were to shell out cash for my very own plush it would have to be of something I love anyway. You’re going to take some serious heat from your friends when they come over and see a plush proudly sitting on display - so you better love it. (Unless you have kids, then you can pass the blame onto them!)
If you’re trying to find the plush for you, I suggest search for homemade examples from Etsy.
I mean, look at this Yoshi! This little guys almost makes me understand why someone would spend their hard earned dough on a plush.
This Yoshi has a lot going for it:
1. It’s absurdly adorable
2. The knitting is top notch
3. The matching potted Parinha Plant
4. It’s totally affordable.
Of course, I thought it couldn’t get any cuter - until I found this cute Harry Potter duo.
Sold separately, these adorable best friends are totally chic and perfectly geeky. The perfect blend of design-savvy, cuteness and respectable representation.
Check out Ron here.
And Harry here.
Now, if only there was a Hermione.
Mattel is spotlighting girls toys at Comic-Con for the first time, Wadleigh said in an interview. Barbie has a booth and the company is selling a limited-edition Polly Pocket figure, he said. Mattel is also promoting Monster High, a toy line that targets girls.
“It’s turned from a fanboy event to a family event,” said Doug Wadleigh, vice president of boys action play marketing for Mattel, based in El Segundo, California. “Parents are bringing their kids.”
About 40 percent of this year’s attendees will be female, the organizers say. Mattel and Hasbro, the world’s largest toy companies, will sell limited-edition dolls and offer peeks at new products to an estimated 125,000 fans registered to attend starting today. Hasbro is bringing figures based on characters from “G.I. Joe” and “Transformers.” Mattel is producing “Masters of the Universe” and “Ghostbusters” toys.
