Legos!

OMG LEGOS EVERYBODY! LEGOS!

Here’s what we talked about in our Lego podcast:

• Random awesome things about Legos. Like the robots in the Lego factory.
• Do Legos help? Yes.
• With children with autism, Lego play vs. various other therapies: Lego wins.
• The Lego club rules from the paper that so delighted me: “1. Build things together! 2. If you break it you have to fix it or ask for help to fix it. 3. If someone else is using it, don’t take it, ask first. 4. Use indoor voices- no yelling. 5. Keep hands and feet to yourself. 6. Use polite words.7. Clean up and put things back where they came from. 8. Do not put Lego bricks in your mouth.” From “LEGO Therapy and the Social Use of Language Programme: An Evaluation of Two Social Skills Interventions for Children with High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome” by Owens et al.
• Lego DNA, as in “hands on, minds on,” and all that, and how that compares to licensed Lego sets, like the Death Star.
• Changes in Lego philosophy between 1998 and … basically immediately after 1998 when they started licensing stuff
• Portrait of an Adoption and Star Wars Katie
• Lego Friends
• Feminist Frequency’s Lego vids: One and Two
• The figurines in Lego Friends and their incompatibility with minifigs
• Goldieblox, the Engineering Toy for Girls, and how it’s different from Lego Friends
• Some interesting data in an ABC report regarding how many more Lego sets are being sold to girls
• Hamleys Toy Shop
• How marketing to boys and girls really starts way earlier than Lego age
• Previous outcries in Lego’s general direction
• Lego vs. Minecraft
• Minecraft Legos
• Lego architecture sets
• Fancy robot Legos and FIRST Lego League
• Lego animation
• The Legoland Discovery Center near our office
• Lego video games
• Lego Universe, sadface
• A different Funcom Lego MMO
• This ill-advised full-sized Lego house
• Lego instructions vs. Ikea instructions
• Listener mail! It’s about perfume, from Micha
• How Legos Work
• Episode link: PopStuff Plays With Legos

My research:

• Can a Kids’ Toy Bring More Women Into Engineering?
• Gender Controversy Stacks Up Against ‘Lego Friends’
• Lego Friends petition: why feminists should think twice before they sign
• Lego’s ‘sexist’ Friends range for girls spurs 35% profit rise
• construction play.” History and Technology. Vol. 24, No.3, Sept. 2008.
• Grienitz, Volker and André-Marcel Schmidt. “Scenario Workshops for Strategic Management with Lego Serious Play.” Problems of Management in the 21^st Century. Vol. 3, 2012.
• Kato, Daiki et al. “Effects of Collaborative Expression Using Lego Blocks on Social Skills and Trust.” Social Behavior and Personality. Vol. 40, No. 7, 2012.
• Lauwaert, Maaike. “Playing outside the box – on LEGO toys and the changing world of
• LeGoff, Daniel B. “Use of LEGO as a Therapeutic Medium for Improving Social Competence.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 34, No. 5, October 2004.
• Neroth, Pelle. “Play for Tomorrow.” Engineering & Technology 14 February – 27 February 2009.
• Owens, Gina et al. “LEGO Therapy and the Social Use of Language Programme: An Evaluation of Two Social Skills Interventions for Children with High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Vol. 38. 2008.
• Schultz, Majken and Mary Jo Hatch. “The Cycles of Corporate Branding: The Case of The Lego Company.” California Management Review. Vol. 46, No. 1. Fall 2003.

Holly’s research:

• Lego Friends Triples Sales Despite Feminist Critique
• With New Toys, Lego Hopes To Build Girls Market
• Should the world of toys be gender-free?
• James May and his full-size Lego house nobody wants
• James May’s Lego House has been demolished, try not to cry

You can follow PopStuff on Twitter at @PopStuffHSW, and you can keep up with us on the official PopStuff Facebook page.