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"boy's toys and girls...um... toys"

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Tue 17/12/02 at 22:41
Regular
Posts: 787
Yes it’s Christmas time again, where telly begins to churn out more repeats than you can shake a stick at, diets are thrown out the window and the high streets become full of all those last minute shoppers. But casting all that aside what is the real meaning of this festive time, to get presents of course. Now over the year’s thought my tastes in ‘toys’ have changed one fact has remained: boys have better toys than girls. Ok so that’s a bit of a harsh statement but lets look at the facts shall we?

Exhibit A – baby dolls
so you unwrap the box excitedly expecting to receive a wondrous gift and what do you get, a wrinkled fat piece of badly manufactured plastic.
What can it do you ask? Well if you feed it some plastic food and pour a hazardous liquid down its artificial throat it rumbles. Give it five minutes and all of a sudden your present begins to cry and wail. That’s right people you get a baby doll so you can feed it and then clean up its mess. Wow (why not just get a cat or a job in an old people’s home?). But that’s not all, you can push it around the place in a cheaply little buggy and cook it plastic food from a makeshift kitchen with rubber knifes.

Conclusion
If you enjoy pushing about a hideous synthetic replica that will remind you not to become a parent in later life then be my guest.
Rating: *

------------------------------

Exhibit B – Barbie
Here we have Barbie your average woman with a slim waistline, tanned skin and over sized hooters. You can dress her up, do her hair and even make her drive a car. Barbie’s your basic role model for the kids as she doesn’t smoke take drugs or drink (maybe that’s because she doesn’t have a mouth?) and is always well presentable and tidy; I’ll give Barbie that point as she does kind of teach the kids something about life, is fun to dress up in different outfits (not that I have done anything like that) and also is quite fit for a toy. However what she gains there she loses with the shear amount of rubbish she comes with, from a small barking dog that resembles a lint ball to a pumpkin carriage pulled by immobile pink horses. I mean what’s with roller skate Barbie? Its just Barbie only with 2-centre meter long skates and an extra fiver put onto the bill!

Conclusion
She’s a good role model and looks quite fine but on the other hand comes with so many useless additional stuff that you can’t really do anything with its not worth it. (Plus if here head comes off it takes bloody ages to pop it back on again)
Rating: **

Exhibit B.2 – Betty spaghetti
Like Barbie only her/it’s arms and legs are made out of recycled shoelaces. You can change her top and put beads on here limbs but unless you’re into playing conkers all year round this one should be chased out of the shops by an angry mob wielding pitch forks and the odd flame or two.
Rating: zilch

---------------------------

So there’s what in the way of girl’s toys have to offer but now lets have a look into the exciting, thrilling and magnificent world of male playthings…

Exhibit C – action man
Action man has been for along time a favourite with me, I got my first one when I was 3 and enjoyed every minute with the little fellow. Action man is basically a muscular solider who goes about trying to stop ‘doctor X’ destroying the world by using as many different and elaborate weapons as possible. Some may say he promotes violence at a young age and I see where they’re coming from but no one ever really dies and he also promotes things such as bravery and courage. His hands are specially crafted so they are able to hold weapons/items and climb things, this means that not only can you change his clothes but you can also change his gear (something that Barbie lacks). Also with action man its different every time, you could be on a mission to save someone or be trying to protect and area from rebels its really down to the imagination. Though he does have his down sides, for one he suffers from having too much worthless stuff and another is his flexibility as he is only made from plastic so has a limited range of movement.

Conclusion
This is one for the lads, a good all round hero with many different weapons/items and situations to keep you going for hours. But it does have its limitations.
Rating: ***

------------------------------------

And finally the one that makes all the difference….

Exhibit X – games console
No need to explain what these are to you as for some strange reason I think you might already know. You could argue with me and say that game consoles are unisex and you would be right but what I’m looking at here is not so much the console itself but the games.
On one hand we have such games as splinter cell, the getaway and grand turismo 3 which are games packed to the brim with stylish graphics and real manlike fun e.g. blowing stuff up, killing people and driving really fast (think the exact opposite to butlins). Where as on the other hand you have girly games such as creatures (a 2/3D game where you get to play with little animals and try to make them happy) and Barbie pony ride (a thrilling look into the wolrd of professional show jumping) get my point.

Overall conclusion
It would seem that though times have changed the toy market has stayed firmly in its place. Boys are still given figures with guns and weapons cause explosions and save the world with a kind of protection and hunt theme that the male role has played through out history and still today. Where as the girls are given dolls and babies where they are shown to look after things, which may have been the way about 50 years ago but females has moved from a housewife figure who good for the washing up and a little bit of humpy pumpy to a business woman who does your accounts and is an independent individual. Until toy manufactures realise that boys will have the better choice of the toy market
Wed 18/12/02 at 20:27
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
Barbie a good role model? {smacks head}

Anyway Barbie and Action man are pretty much the same thing.

Lego - that's unisex and gets full star rating too, you can even build all the other toys you would have got. In my day it was Action Man original (before GI Joe stuff) and Star Wars/just about Transformers.

hm. Other girls and boys toys would include tools and versions of grown-up machines. They even have working milkshake and popcorn makers now for kids. Back in my day....
Wed 18/12/02 at 20:25
Regular
"Ghost Mutt"
Posts: 1,326
The spamming in here is terrible.
Wed 18/12/02 at 20:23
Regular
"Z will be here soon"
Posts: 7,562
Hercules! wrote:
> Kyz22 wrote:
> Hercules! wrote:
> Dagfern wrote:
> Tiltawhirl wrote:
> Girls toys?
>
> Hur hur hur
>
> you dirty little sausage
>
> -----
>
> Digging yourself a big hole there...
>
> :-D
>
> Agreed
>
> Indeed.

Very much so
Wed 18/12/02 at 20:20
Regular
"Hmmm....."
Posts: 12,243
Kyz22 wrote:
> Hercules! wrote:
> Dagfern wrote:
> Tiltawhirl wrote:
> Girls toys?
>
> Hur hur hur
>
> you dirty little sausage
>
> -----
>
> Digging yourself a big hole there...
>
> :-D
>
> Agreed

Indeed.
Wed 18/12/02 at 20:19
Regular
"Z will be here soon"
Posts: 7,562
Hercules! wrote:
> Dagfern wrote:
> Tiltawhirl wrote:
> Girls toys?
>
> Hur hur hur
>
> you dirty little sausage
>
> -----
>
> Digging yourself a big hole there...
>
> :-D

Agreed
Wed 18/12/02 at 20:05
Posts: 0
Tiltawhirl wrote:
> Girls toys?
>
> Hur hur hur

you dirty little sausage
Tue 17/12/02 at 23:25
Regular
Posts: 21,800
Girls toys?

Hur hur hur
Tue 17/12/02 at 22:45
Posts: 0
Nice post!

Bit lengthy and straying from the point. But i like it.
Tue 17/12/02 at 22:41
Posts: 0
Yes it’s Christmas time again, where telly begins to churn out more repeats than you can shake a stick at, diets are thrown out the window and the high streets become full of all those last minute shoppers. But casting all that aside what is the real meaning of this festive time, to get presents of course. Now over the year’s thought my tastes in ‘toys’ have changed one fact has remained: boys have better toys than girls. Ok so that’s a bit of a harsh statement but lets look at the facts shall we?

Exhibit A – baby dolls
so you unwrap the box excitedly expecting to receive a wondrous gift and what do you get, a wrinkled fat piece of badly manufactured plastic.
What can it do you ask? Well if you feed it some plastic food and pour a hazardous liquid down its artificial throat it rumbles. Give it five minutes and all of a sudden your present begins to cry and wail. That’s right people you get a baby doll so you can feed it and then clean up its mess. Wow (why not just get a cat or a job in an old people’s home?). But that’s not all, you can push it around the place in a cheaply little buggy and cook it plastic food from a makeshift kitchen with rubber knifes.

Conclusion
If you enjoy pushing about a hideous synthetic replica that will remind you not to become a parent in later life then be my guest.
Rating: *

------------------------------

Exhibit B – Barbie
Here we have Barbie your average woman with a slim waistline, tanned skin and over sized hooters. You can dress her up, do her hair and even make her drive a car. Barbie’s your basic role model for the kids as she doesn’t smoke take drugs or drink (maybe that’s because she doesn’t have a mouth?) and is always well presentable and tidy; I’ll give Barbie that point as she does kind of teach the kids something about life, is fun to dress up in different outfits (not that I have done anything like that) and also is quite fit for a toy. However what she gains there she loses with the shear amount of rubbish she comes with, from a small barking dog that resembles a lint ball to a pumpkin carriage pulled by immobile pink horses. I mean what’s with roller skate Barbie? Its just Barbie only with 2-centre meter long skates and an extra fiver put onto the bill!

Conclusion
She’s a good role model and looks quite fine but on the other hand comes with so many useless additional stuff that you can’t really do anything with its not worth it. (Plus if here head comes off it takes bloody ages to pop it back on again)
Rating: **

Exhibit B.2 – Betty spaghetti
Like Barbie only her/it’s arms and legs are made out of recycled shoelaces. You can change her top and put beads on here limbs but unless you’re into playing conkers all year round this one should be chased out of the shops by an angry mob wielding pitch forks and the odd flame or two.
Rating: zilch

---------------------------

So there’s what in the way of girl’s toys have to offer but now lets have a look into the exciting, thrilling and magnificent world of male playthings…

Exhibit C – action man
Action man has been for along time a favourite with me, I got my first one when I was 3 and enjoyed every minute with the little fellow. Action man is basically a muscular solider who goes about trying to stop ‘doctor X’ destroying the world by using as many different and elaborate weapons as possible. Some may say he promotes violence at a young age and I see where they’re coming from but no one ever really dies and he also promotes things such as bravery and courage. His hands are specially crafted so they are able to hold weapons/items and climb things, this means that not only can you change his clothes but you can also change his gear (something that Barbie lacks). Also with action man its different every time, you could be on a mission to save someone or be trying to protect and area from rebels its really down to the imagination. Though he does have his down sides, for one he suffers from having too much worthless stuff and another is his flexibility as he is only made from plastic so has a limited range of movement.

Conclusion
This is one for the lads, a good all round hero with many different weapons/items and situations to keep you going for hours. But it does have its limitations.
Rating: ***

------------------------------------

And finally the one that makes all the difference….

Exhibit X – games console
No need to explain what these are to you as for some strange reason I think you might already know. You could argue with me and say that game consoles are unisex and you would be right but what I’m looking at here is not so much the console itself but the games.
On one hand we have such games as splinter cell, the getaway and grand turismo 3 which are games packed to the brim with stylish graphics and real manlike fun e.g. blowing stuff up, killing people and driving really fast (think the exact opposite to butlins). Where as on the other hand you have girly games such as creatures (a 2/3D game where you get to play with little animals and try to make them happy) and Barbie pony ride (a thrilling look into the wolrd of professional show jumping) get my point.

Overall conclusion
It would seem that though times have changed the toy market has stayed firmly in its place. Boys are still given figures with guns and weapons cause explosions and save the world with a kind of protection and hunt theme that the male role has played through out history and still today. Where as the girls are given dolls and babies where they are shown to look after things, which may have been the way about 50 years ago but females has moved from a housewife figure who good for the washing up and a little bit of humpy pumpy to a business woman who does your accounts and is an independent individual. Until toy manufactures realise that boys will have the better choice of the toy market

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