I was just reading this article over on NPR by Neda Ulaby: Girls' Legos Are A Hit, But Why Do Girls Need Special Legos? (http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/06/29/196605763/girls-legos-are-a-hit-but-why-do-girls-need-special-legos0) that discusses how Lego's created the "Legos Friends" line to attract more girls to their products. The Legos Friends differ from the traditional "minifigs" by being more detailed in clothing, hair, faces, etc. but also has less joint movements. The Legos Friends are more in-door centered while the traditional legos are more out-door centered. Legos said they came up with this after doing studies on how boys and girls play with toys -- girls like more details and they like having their toys play indoors settings.

Anyway, this article (and the comments) got me thinking about childhood toys. Being raised female with an older sister, I had only female toys around, and I am trying to remember if I played more "indoor" or "outdoor" and if details mattered to me. From what I recall, I think I played more in the described "boys style" while playing Barbie with my older sister; I did tend to be the male Barbie, which had far less clothing options, and this dinosaur we had (which was Barbie's child in our on-going storyline), and I think I was more interested in driving the Barbie car than playing in the mansions we'd set up. [Though, I did used to make elaborate dollhouses out of shoe boxes, complete with little cardboard furniture and people, I guess that's "indoor" oriented]

So, ladies here, did you grow up with mainly "male" toys and did the lack of details, etc. bother you? Did you make up for the lack of details in other ways, like drawing on faces, etc.? Guys, chime in too. What was your favorite toy? What toy did you really want but your parents wouldn't let you have being it didn't match the gender they thought you were? (I think my favorite toy was either the dinosaur toy or the "skip-it" , though I really wanted a nerf gun but my parents wouldn't let me have one because it was "violent")

I was never allowed to have Nerf guns, probably because they were too violent.; Lucky enough for me, I was often invited to nerf battles by friends! (although I wasn't always the best...)

I actually didn't play with toys much. i was a bit too hyperactive as a child, so I had to play outside. So, I ended up playing on swings and all that nonsense. But, I had a lot of plushies.

I don't know if bikes count, but I desperately wanted a bike. For some reason, my parents thought that the bikes I wanted were too old for me, or not feminine enough. And because I was so stubborn about the bikes I wanted, I just never got one.

EDIT: Oh, Joanna Dark just mentioned GI Joe dolls/action figures. At my elementary school, I used to goof around with the ones they had: I remember we had those little green army men. Me, a male friend, and a destructive female friend would spend our indoor recess times setting them up, and destroying them one way or another.

I played with GI Joe dolls which is pretty much the exact same thing as Barbie. Other then setting, dolls are dolls. I don't know about toys but I really wanted to play the violin and I was never allowed as only girls played in my school and it was considered a girls instrument.

Mainly as a kid though I played video games, specifically Zelda. With my friends I played guns a lot. So I guess I was pretty male that way. Of course, when I was 13 I converted to Wicca with my friend so there is that lol

I hope you don't mind me posting here(since I am unsure about all this). But this is another interesting topic

I for some reason don't remember much about this. Anyways, I guess at home I mostly played with my brothers, so that means mostly did boy things, like pretending to be soldiers. Though I did create a game with my younger brother, that I somehow turned into a girl and lived life as one, but of course there ended up being some action in it.

I remember that whenever I would go to my friend's house, I would play with her barbies and stuff. I don't remember much about house, but I used to love playing with her oven toy thing.

I did play with legos, toy guns, and other stuff like that though. But, I have always enjoyed having more details, so I would make up details about whatever I was playing. When I was around 6 or so, my uncle introduced me and my family to Halo, and I have been gaming since then, only recently stopping because I just lost interest, but I mostly played as a female character and created stories for my characters.

Now that I am older, I love to cook, love to make music, pay attention to details, etc. Also cool that I remember my mom always talking about how she wanted a daughter to help her in the kitchen and things, and now I get to learn to play the violin even though my friends and brothers, maybe my dad, think that it is a girl instrument.

Anyways, think I kind of had a mix, but of course preferred girl toys(though I didn't really know there was a difference).

My siblings and I used to play with dolls (my favourite was a one armed Jafar) and make houses for them out of cardboard and other toys. We used to play with hot wheels and lego. I used to play with playmobile to act out the stories in my head. In the summer, we played outside a lot climbing trees, playing war, and stuff. I played a lot of imagination games (think Bridge to Terabithia) where me and whoever I was with would be fighting invisible enemies with "swords" (sticks).
To be honest, I have no clue which of our toys/games were considered for girls or boys. We just played.

Well let's see I played with barbies at my dad's aunt's house, and at my mom's aunt's house I played with my cousins polly pocket toys and had no problem doing so. At my house I had a barbie, a scuba GI Joe and a hockey player. Lot's of action figures from batman and some spiderman ones but I always liked Poison Ivy the most. I guess I had the male equivalent of a doll house. It was this castle thing that had knights made by Hasbro. Other wise I played with Lincoln  logs  and Legos. Oh and I had lots of stuffed animals. I used to have tons of Beanie Babies because my mom would get me one every time she went away on business.

Over in the pretend play category I tended to do lots of role playing type stuff and I was generally female.

So I had mostly "boy" toys and I had enough fun but I think I would have liked more dolls and stuff. However I remember my aunt making me fun of me for playing with the barbies so I kind of got the message as a kid that I wasn't supposed to play with them. Same thing sort of happened with cousins, as they got older they started questioning me on why I liked playing with "girl" toys.

IDK really? my mom was a home daycare teacher in Cuba so i guess i just played with toys like everyone else did?

Lots of legos and video games for me.  Getting me to go outside was a struggle for my parents.  I never liked playing catch with my dad, but that has my parents amazed that I turned out to be a juggler.

Quote from: Anna! on June 30, 2013, 10:01:33 AM
Lots of legos and video games for me.  Getting me to go outside was a struggle for my parents.  I never liked playing catch with my dad, but that has my parents amazed that I turned out to be a juggler.

I did nothing but Lego, Video Games and of course racing around the block with my best friend.

Toy soldiers were by far my favourite. I would line up armies and shoot them down with toy cannons. I could just never understand why girls played with dolls. Boring!!!! but I always wanted a dolls house strangely enough (and still do). Eventually a football took over. I played for hours every night till darkness declared it was full time. What, even transsexuals can be tomboys!

Played with Lego and Knex growing up all the time!  Now I'm a Mechanical Engineering major so I can play with big kid Lego and Knex :p

I really don't feel Lego is really "male" because I don't think creativity has a gender. Therefore, I also think "Lego for Girls" seems to be unnecessary.

Playing outside I guess I was more "male" since I did the typical thing where I would pretend a stick is a sword and engage in imaginary sword fights, but hey, that's super fun so whatever.

Reading the other posts reminded me of stuff. I did get a stuffed animal when I was like 10 or so, but acted like I hated it, I guess. And I did play outside a lot, until I was about 12, then I got really into gaming(think that was when I got my laptop).

I suppose I really wasn't much of an "inside" player, because my main playthings were "gadgets." Things like marble-works, and K'Nex, and other things that let you build and create and then watch the cool things that happened. One of my favorite things to do was build big towers of blocks and see how high I could make them, or using the blocks from Jenga like dominoes.

I know what you mean by "details," and by "inside" play, though... that would be like when you're playing, the important parts are what the individual characters are doing, and how they feel, and acting out little life scenarios. And I did do that also... but pretty much only with my female friends.

I guess you could say that I've always been more androgynous... I hated both the uber-masculine "war" play where all they could talk about was tough manly things, and battles, and conflict. My response to that was "what's the point? It's just dumb pointless action." I'd want some more character in it, and I'd always add little character-based storylines to it to make it more interesting. (And I did the same thing when I was building things... I always imagined things like what news stories would be run about it, and I'd give the marbles names as they rolled down the course and root for certain ones.) But I also hated uber-girly play where they'd obsess so damned much over what the characters were wearing, and their hair, and all of that. Because I'd always be asking "what's the point? What are these people DOING?" And I'd want these little details to be relevant to some larger plot where something actually happens to them.

So whatever. I didn't really fit any gender stereotypes when it came to how I played with things.

GI JOE, Transformes, Lego, Matchbox/HotWheels... that was most of it. I was not remotely attracted to Barbie or any girl toys for that matter. I think it was more due to the lack of variety in the girls stuff than anything else though. Barbie and similar girl toys, seemed boring and uninteresting.

Quote from: JennX on June 30, 2013, 12:48:20 PM
GI JOE, Transformes, Lego, Matchbox/HotWheels... that was most of it. I was not remotely attracted to Barbie or any girl toys for that matter. I think it was more due to the lack of variety in the girls stuff than anything else though. Barbie and similar girl toys, seemed boring and uninteresting.

I sort of feel the same. There's just so much things to you can do with Lego and HotWheels tracks Playing with those totally inspired me! I'm pretty sure I feel this way because I'm a STEM major 

I played with everything I had. I was very lucky, because in that time and place there were no video games yet, and we had cartoons on TV during specific time only . I had a lot of stuffed animals and dolls - I actually remember my mother buying me dolls which I asked for (and she claims now I did not show any feminine traits back in those days). The first scenarios were very indoors based - I replayed fairytales with my stuffed animals and dolls, and I was always the main heroine there - like Snowwhite or Little Red Riding Hood - by the way, I remember being extremely dysphoric at those times, except back in those days when I was 4 or 5 years old I had no idea what were those feelings, which were basically tearing me from inside. Later, I got a lot of different constructors - like nowadays Lego, but much simplier, house building kits, scale cars, toy dishes and accessories (!), toy soldiers and weapons... I enjoyed them all - I could play kitchen with my stuffed animals and later under the influence of some movie I could replay a pirate battle with them, using plastic swords and fighting the biggest bear... It is all kinda confusing and I can see why my parents thought that I overgrew that gender non-conformity phase, which I never did - I only learned to hide it inside.
Yes, later I was playing "war" with boys outside and I have to admit, I enjoyed those games too... Not much running around and making stupid sounds at other boys with my "weapons", but rather infiltrating, scouting and ambushing from the most unimaginable places and positions . Oh, that was truly a challenge and child-adrenaline...  Amd then we engaged each other with plastic swords and rapiers and I turned out to be the best fencer in the whole neighborhood... Even those bigger brutes, who were always bullying me with their physical strength could not hit me with their swords - I was too fast, agile and nimble for them
Go figure

I always hated sports. The few times i tried playing football i got completely lost. Was always too afraid of getting hit by the ball.

Quote from: Calm/RageMusic on June 30, 2013, 02:16:47 PM
I always hated sports. The few times i tried playing football i got completely lost. Was always too afraid of getting hit by the ball.

Oh...I know that feeling!

I hated 9and still hate) sports. One of the reasons is because americans say "Soccer," and everyone else says football. Something like that just irks me to no end.

I was also never good in sports. If it didn't involve balance and stealth, count me out.

I always wanted to play sports. Basketball, baseball, soccer, football. When I joined the football team in seventh grade, they said something about I should join the cheer squad. When I did play in scrimmage, no one passed the ball to me and they made me the kicker. I never played one down. I did play sports with my friends and that was fun. By HS I internalized this and never attended gym class. But by HS I was punk rock and into the occult and I was into wicca, not a very male religion lol

I'm still a big baseball fan and I want to try and start running marathons. I also do yoga.

The main thing I did when I was younger was write. I skipped two grades in elementary school in vocabulary and reading and always kept a journal, created magazines, wrote mini-novels, and generally lived in the library. And now I write and edit for a living. My favorite books as a kid were Beverly Cleary books: ralph mouse and ramona. I also won a poetry contest.

Here is a good link: http://www.parentingscience.com/girl-toys-and-parenting.html

"That idea is consistent with a recent study of testosterone (T) levels in toddlers. Researchers in Finland tracked T levels in 48 newborns for 6 months, and then tested the children's toy preferences when they were 14 months old. Girls were more likely to play with toy trains if they had exhibited higher T levels as infants. Boys with lower T levels were more likely to play with dolls (Lamminmäki et al 2012). "

I did want to play sports, but I wasn't allowed to when I was little. I did eventually join the track team in high school though. I was on the wrestling team until my dad made me quit. 

I always wanted to play hockey though, it just always looked so fun, especially all the punching/hitting.  Now, I want to do kickboxing, maybe one day when I can afford classes. Roller derby looks like fun too.