Alyska

I also find it interesting that Lego aiming a line specifically at girls gets called "sexist", when Lego has been marketing most of their lines specifically to boys for years. Just look at Bionicle. Only about one in ten characters is female, the female characters in the Matoran Universe were literally designed to be gentle peacemakers, all the matriachal societies are evil and corrupt, there are restrictions on what kind of powers each gender can have, and after we were told we were getting two of the female elements on the same Toa team, the gender rules were bent over backwards to ensure that that there wouldn't be more than one female on the team. It's not exactly enticing to most young girls. I liked it as a kid, but I was an anomaly, and as I grew older the undertones began to bother me a lot.

Wait... off topic, but where have you gotten that information from? I consider myself pretty knowledgeable of Bionicle's story, and I don't recall it ever being stated they were designed to be just peaceful. And what matriarchal societies are you talking about?

I don't think it was ever stated in the canon, but it used to be Greg's default explanation when he was asked about why there were females in the MU (ie, the females were better suited to some roles, such as teaching and peacemaking. In later years, Greg seemed to realise the unfortunate implications of this, so if you were to ask him about it now, you would probably get a different answer). It's also backed up by the fact that all Toa of Psionics after Orde were made female so that they would be more peaceful. While many characters have thankfully broken away from that stereotype, the in-universe reasoning of the Great Beings was extremely sexist and flawed. (I suspect that this portrayal may be Greg's way of acknowledging that some of the decisions Lego made in this area were somewhat questionable).And as was mentioned, the only confimed matriarchy is the Vortixx society (who enslave their males), but there's also the Skakdi (in which the females are larger, stronger, nastier and possibly dominant), and The Sisters of The Skrall, (who hate the males of their own species and have formed an independent society). All three societies are unquestionably corrupt and evil.

Besides, having more female characters in Bionicle would make them less exceptional - the fact that there are so few of them makes them stand out and brings them more notice.

But see, I don't think female characters should be treated like some sort of special anomaly. They should just be there, and they should be defined by their individual personality traits, not by the fact that they're "the chick" of the team. It is their personalities which should make them stand out, not their gender.But that's probably for another topic. What were we talking about, again?Oh, right. Friends.I actually quite like the minidolls' design. It's cute and feminine, without being overly sexualised, unlike most toys aimed at young girls. There's a good project on LEGO CUUSOO that demonstrates how it can be used in other themes, in this case, a sci-fi/adventure theme: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/7853

I wasn't necessarily trying to claim that Bionicle is sexist, I was just trying to point out that it is hardly gender-neutral; it is clearly designed to appeal predominantly to boys in the same way that Friends is designed to appeal more or less exclusively to girls. And yet people claim that producing a Lego line to cater specifically to girls is sexist, while a line catering specifically to boys apparently isn't. Now, THAT's where you'll find the true sexism.

It reached 100 supporters! Thanks, everyone!It's one percent of the way to the Product stage. Only 9,900 to go!

Well, looks like I was wrong about the Minecraft thing. I'm glad that LC is able to give its fanbase some good news for once.It also looks like they're getting rid of "bring back"s. The Bionicle project's a goner, then.

McSmeag, that was brilliant. Thank you for that.When making something that appeals to girls, the thing to keep in mind is diversity. Contrary to what most media would have you believe, girls are just as diverse, personality-wise as boys. Lego has clearly tried to capture that diversity, by producing characters with different interests and personalities. While many of them do lean towards traditionally feminine interests (cooking, singing, fashion, caring for animals), they contrast this with Olivia's passion for science and engineering. To me, it seems that they are playing it safe with four out of the five characters (they're the sets that are almost guarunteed to sell well), but Olivia is being used to test the waters, to see if the line can be extended far beyond the stereotypical stuff. After all, you can only make so many kitchens and salons. I hope the Olivia sets do well, so Lego will consider adding more characters with alternative interests.However, I think this diversity needs to be extended further- not just within the Friends line, but within other Lego lines. Friends does provide diversity to a certain extent, but the theme does mostly boil down to "Let's play house!". Not every girl is necessarily going to enjoy that, so it needs to be balanced by other options. Lego's ultimate goal should be to have a wide range of different products that appeal to girls, that should be on par with- and hopefully, one day intergrated with their products aimed at boys (my "Constraction for Girls" project was partly born out of this ideal). I hope to see fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, historical and a wide range of other themes that are tailored to appeal to a female audience (They won't necessarily all be girl-specific, but the female audience should be acknowledged and catered for.) One line for girls amongst dozens of lines aimed at boys is simply not enough.Anyway, as I said before, there's nothing wrong with having traditionally feminine stuff, as long as it is balanced by other options. You don't raise a little girl into a free-thinking, empowered woman by telling her she can't have pink stuff. Pink is fine. Pink is a great colour. Pink is not something that should be avoided at all costs when appealing to girls, and toy manufacturers should not be criticised for using it. It's only when pink is the only option given that it becomes problematic. When BZP featured my Cuusoo project, I was surprised to see some of the comments criticising it for being stereotypical and "pink-ifying" constraction. It's as though anything designed to appeal to girls is automatically evil. And there was only a miniscule amount of pink on one of the characters- it was by no means the predominant colour. I suspect that these people probably didn't even bother to look the project. It's pretty depressing when stuff for girls isn't even given a chance- I can almost see why it took Lego so long to come out with Friends. I also find it interesting that Lego aiming a line specifically at girls gets called "sexist", when Lego has been marketing most of their lines specifically to boys for years. Just look at Bionicle. Only about one in ten characters is female, the female characters in the Matoran Universe were literally designed to be gentle peacemakers, all the matriachal societies are evil and corrupt, there are restrictions on what kind of powers each gender can have, and after we were told we were getting two of the female elements on the same Toa team, the gender rules were bent over backwards to ensure that that there wouldn't be more than one female on the team. It's not exactly enticing to most young girls. I liked it as a kid, but I was an anomaly, and as I grew older the undertones began to bother me a lot.Lego is trying to resolve the problem created by Bionicle and other lines: the fact that girls are being put off Lego by the lack of a female presence among the characters. Friends is going to help resolve that. And if it gets little girls into building, I'm sure their interest will extend to other Lego products. To me, it seems like a pretty good alternative to Barbie and Bratz, even if there is room for improvement.

I'd pay fifty bucks to see someone go up to Tabitha St. Germain and say "talk Derpy to me, baby"

I can see why Lego would feel the need to do something like this, but I think the execution could have been a little better. To me, most of the "clarifications" seemed a bit state-the-obvious, and it didn't really touch on some of the more interesting points that could be made in defense of Friends.I guess it was somewhat hindered by the fact that the article was representing a company, not the opinions of an individual person, which is why it feels a bit watered down and tame. It doesn't really confront many of the big issues raised by the critics, either. One of the main concerns I kept seeing was that the line was perpetuating outdated gender stereotypes. Now, if I was writing that article, I think it would be important to address the fact that the five characters all have different personalities and interests, which aims to send a message that there is no one, "right" way to be a girl. While some of the girls like traditionally feminine things such as fashion and cooking, others are into stuff like engineering and helping the environment. All of those interests are equally valid.Another complaint I often saw was that the figures were "Bratz-ified" and sexualized. Now, that is just ridiculous. If anything, Friends provides a wholesome alternative to Bratz and other dolls with impossible figures, provocative clothing, and an unhealthy obsession with their appearance. The Friends dolls are still cute and feminine, without going in that direction at all. Also unlike Bratz, Friends encourages building, creativity and original thought, making it a vastly superior alternative. Another thing Lego needs to do, in addition to saying "Oh, but girls can still play with regular Lego if they want to!" is to claim they are taking a multi-pronged approach to getting more girls interested in Lego, and that Friends is but the first step. They need to acknowledge the fact that girls are just as diverse as boys, and like toys in a wide range of different styles and themes. They should say that they are still open to feedback and suggestions from girls and parents, and that they are working towards having multiple lines with different approaches to appeal to girls. (I don't know for sure if that last part is true, but it is something I would expect of any other toy company, and Lego should be aiming to have multiple strategies in place for appealing to girls, either in the short or long term. If Friends is the only new thing they're willing to try, I will be seriously disappointed.)Anyway, my opinion on friends isn't 100% positive, but I think a lot of the criticism aimed at it isn't valid, and that Lego should be doing more to address it. (Incidentally, I do actually feel that the stereotyping criticism is somewhat valid, but that's something I'll need to look more at the story material in order to form a concrete opinion on it.) I hope Lego becomes inspired by this line to try new strategies for appealing to girls.

Um... I think Greg might've been a little busier with his daughter, but I don't think she would be the cause for Bionicle's end.

I disn't say she was the cause of Bionicle's end. I implied that she was the result of it. ;)Although, Greg having a child to look after may have slowed down the serials, but I'm not going to hold that against her.I was joking about the time travel thing. I was just saying- everything happens for a reason.

I can see it now : From the people who brought you Hero Fatory: The Musical, comes....Hero Factory on Ice!

Being from a water-free country, I can't take much advantage of an underwater theme. I remember not being too happy about Bionicle's 2007 story going underwater either.

If you're referring to Australia, I'd say we're much more of an ice-free country than a water-free one. You know, considering most of our major cities are coastal and that.

I think by "theme" they just mean "no proposal is going to be made into a full theme of sets". Proposals that require a license, like for instance a proposal of the time-travelling DeLorean from the movie Back to the Future, will still be allowed, but other proposals (like the Bring Back BIONICLE proposal probably, or proposals for licensed themes) will have to be changed to proposals for sets.At least, that's my understanding of this. Truth be told I can't find any info on this supposed "change". Can anyone link to where they found this info?EDIT: Nevermind, I found in a proposal's comments. Should be a blog entry once they've completely worked out the details. It's good that they're informing fans of this in advance even when they're still getting things figured out. It gives people time to consider their options.

I don't know what I'm going to do, though. My entire project is a theme idea.Although, Tim did say that I didn't have any reason to worry, so maybe they've reworked the idea into something completely different. The blog entry is supposed to be coming sometime today, so I hope it'll be all right.

Well, we already know roughly what the sets would have been: Redesigned Glatorian, Agori-plant hybrids, and BIOMECHANICAL DINOSAURS WITH LASERS!But, you people are forgetting- if Bionicle hadn't been cancelled, it would have had other consequences. Horrible consequences. Remember what Mata Nui said? "It is said that all endings are merely beginnings waiting to be born."Well, he was right.As most of you know, Greg has a daughter now. She was born approximately nine months after the announcement that Bionicle was ending. Now, without going into too much detail, I think it's reasonable to assume that the end of Bionicle had a hand in Alexandria Farshtey's existence. If Greg had still been working on Bionicle, he may have not had the time to settle down and start a family.So, as a message to any would-be time travellers who want to go back and prevent Bionicle from ever ending, just consider the possibility that you may end up accidentally erasing a small child from existence.Just something to think about.

Lesson Zero sort of requires you to understand how the show normally works and who the characters are. I'd go with either "Bridle gossip" or "A bird in the hoof".So, the new episode told us something about pony genetics. It was certainly vague, but at least we now know that the three species of pony are genetically compatible, and that, say, a pegasus dating a unicorn wouldn't be considered weird. Also, was anyone else reminded of the "Where's the baby?" scene from Ice Age?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but once a project reaches 10,000 supports, doesn't it switch from Idea Stage to Review Stage?And then if it's approved and turned into an actual product it switches to Product Stage?

Actually, I think it just gets called the "Product Stage" after 10 000. That's what the Minecraft project is labelled, even though they haven't given a definite yes or no as to whether it will become a product.

I tend to agree that anything aimed at girls is automatically subject to far more scrutiny and criticism than anything aimed at boys. There are certainly some valid complaints you can make about Friends, but one of the most irritating ones I saw being thrown around the blogosphere was that the new figures were... wait for it..."Bratz-ified".I don't see how these characters have anything in common with Bratz. They dress modestly, have little to no makeup on, and do not appear to be obsessed with fashion and boys. They are more realistic than the standard minifigures, and have the slightest hint of a bust, but that just fits into the overall theme of more realistic scenarios. If my little neice expressed an interest in these sets, I would happily buy her one for Christmas. (Note that "if she expressed an interest" is the operative term- I'm not going to assume she would want these just because she's a girl. Heck, if my nephew wanted them, I'd buy some for him.)No, I actually think the problem with Friends is that they go too far in the opposite direction- they're too afraid of offending someone, afraid of not being liked, afraid to challenge anything. They want to fit in with the other cool toys, so they don't do anything unique or unexpected. They're good little girls who like things that little girls should like, and they never do the wrong thing. In short, they're rather boring.You can see it on the front page of the website- they all have the same face, same expression and they just stand there smiling serenely and giving each other hugs. I don't get a sense that these are characters with individual personalities beyond their respective hobbies.Maybe it's just the animator/web designer being lazy, but I want to be able to tell that the characters have personalities the moment I meet them. There could have been one character who suddenly turns to look at the audience and starts waving and grinning enthusiastically, while the girl next to her rolls her eyes in a "What is she doing now?" look. What about a timid girl who suddenly notices the fourth wall and tries to hide behind her friend? A clumsy one who keeps dropping whatever she's holding? A prissy one who freaks out when a butterfly lands on her head?See? Now I'm over scutinising, just like everyone else. Of course, this is Lego's first attempt in appealing to girls in a while, so it is a bit of a milestone and deserves some attention, but I hope that Lego will eventually get to the point where products that appeal to girls are no longer an anomaly for them.

Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls is a project by award-winning animator Lauren Faust.At the moment, it exists mainly as a series of dolls and artworks by Ms Faust, but her dream is to see it as a TV show.Here's a synopsis of what the show would be like, taken from Lauren's blog on another site:

I'm not sure if I've metioned it here before, but I'm producing a Galaxy Girls short. A while back I wrote a treatment for a "micro-series" which would encompass 13 3-minute episodes that, when combined together sequentially, would tell one big story. My plan for the whole thing is that it be told entirely to music, with little or no dialogue (except for 2 episodes that involve singing.) I've picked one episode to produce on my own, hoping that when it's done, someone with money will want me to make the rest. Here is the basic gyst of the series as a whole:

Milky Way's joy in life is to explore her realm, meet new friends and find adventure. While visiting our Solar System for the very first time, Milky comes across a beautiful, small planetoid. But when she touches it, it shatters into 11 pieces, releasing the villain who was imprisoned inside, the massively destructive and terrifying BLACK HOLE!!!Milky must find the pieces of the planetoid and re-imprison this threat to the known universe, but the fragments have been hurled to each of the planets of the star system that surrounds her. As she searches for them, she meets each and every one of the Galaxy Girls, and each girl must use her unique talents to help Milky retrieve the fragments and save the Universe from being sucked in and devoured by Black Hole's evil vortex!

Now, that was posted back in 2007, so it looks as though the planned short never got made. Lauren has since gone to produce Hasbro's My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and a new series of superhero shorts: Super Best Friends Forever. Despite this, Lauren still hasn't found anyone who can help her make the show!So, what do you think? Is this something you'd like to see? Can you think of any ways Lauren might be able to make this happen?

I've just finished a piece of MLP x Galaxy girls artwork. (In case you hadn't guessed, the girl with silver hair is The Moon from MWGG, and Luna is just doing her job of making the moon rise, the only way she knows how. Poor little Moon). Title: "The Moon's Alarm Clock."

Hi guys, welcome to BZPower. It's great that you're interested in this idea, but could we please try to keep the discussion on-topic?What would you guys like to see in a Bionicle movie?

Hmm... that's interesting... co-inciding with the decrease in traffic on Cuusoo, I keep seeing more people from Cuusoo setting up new accounts on BZP. (Hello, reptiman and cooldynamyte! It's me, Bunyip from Cuusoo.) I wonder why that is... oh, well, i guess it means BZP's transition to being a more general website has worked.@Eragon- It's not too difficult. You just set up an account, and vote for the projects you would like to see as Lego products. When you turn eighteen, you can create your own projects, too.

Well, I was mostly suggesting it as a means of us getting to keep Greg here and have members stay in contact with him without breaching Lego's guidelines, and it seemed like a broad restriction would be easier to implement than a specific one, but I can see why you might not agree with it. Then again, there may be another reason why Greg has stopped visiting BZP, so that may not even be relevant any more.Buuut, we're getting off-topic.

Well, "A Bird in the Hoof" IS a very good episode; in fact, I think that if I was going to try and convert someone, that would probably be the first episode I'd recommend.Out of interest, does anyone here have an in-order list of episodes that non-bronies should watch? My top three would probably be A Bird in the Hoof, Bridle Gossip and Lesson Zero.

Maybe the Great Beings are like the Ents, and the majority of females of their species are dead/missing/somewhere else? That'd be a pretty big plot point.

Because a society in which females just live alongside the males and do the same sort of stuff as them just isn't possible in Bionicle.

I've noticed that traffic on the site has decreased significantly lately, probably due to all the underage users having their accounts deleted. That, and a lot of teenage users would have been put off by the new guidelines that prevented them from posting their ideas.Furthermore, the promised Minecraft update hasn't happened yet. Now, this may be just me being cynical, but I think the answer is gonna be a "no". The sets posted on the project, while an interesting use of standard Lego bricks, would not make a good set. I don't see kids getting any more enjoyment out of that type of set than they would out of the bog-standard buckets of bricks- and Minecraft ones would only be more expensive due to the licensing cost. The project got to 10 000 on sheer brand recognition, not on the quality of the sets. And Lego knows this. They are probably very reluctant to hit their fans with more bad news, though, so they haven't posted their conclusion yet.Once all of their new policies are in place and everything is under control, it sounds like Cuusoo will be in serious need of a publicity boost. They almost need another "Minecraft"- some sort of well-built, official project that will get plenty of publicity and bring in new users. Anyway, Lego is obviously trying to improve the quality of the site, and I think that most of the decisions made in the last few weeks have been improvements, but it has also hurt their fanbase at the same time.

No idea. There being female GBs was only alluded to once (a Great Being making an offhand remark about his "brothers and sisters"), and every time someone asks Greg if female GBs exist, they get a "Sorry, can't answer that."So, all we know is that they probably exist, and that their existence is considered a spoiler by Greg (Either for story reasons, or because he's not allowed to reveal much about them).I really don't see how a species having female members is a spoiler...

The policy means that under 13s cannot have accounts, and also that members cannot start projects until they are eighteen, so all projects by people under 18 that currently exist will be removed until the owner is eighteen (hmm... I wonder how old the Bionicle project's owner is...). I agree with their reasoning for the most part, but he one thing that really ticks me off is that kids under thirteen can't even vote for projects, when they are Lego's target demographic, and as such, most of the projects should be aimed at them. I've said this elsewhere, but I really think voting for projects should be independent of having an account.There really is no definite way of verifying somene's age on the internet, even if you use other sites as a basis. And as a regular Cuusoo user, I say that BZP should not be using Cuusoo as a role model for anything. One thing BZP could consider is having one's age registered in order to use the PM system, and have the under 13s blocked from sending PMs. Actually, Greg PMed me out of the blue once, a short while after the policy was announced, citing that he "knew" I was over thirteen, and it was therefore okay to talk to me. But even then, he was only using a combination of my profile details and his own personal judgement. And he wouldn't even be able to use that if he hadn't spoken to me in the past.I'm annoyed that the BBB project is still up, too- and on the front page no less. The Cuusoo staff have been so busy trying to get rid of the spam, trolling, underage users and plagiarism that they haven't had the chance to implement any other quality-control strategies or guidelines. I expect it will disappear sometime in the next month or so, for one reason or another.

Also, bear in mind that most of them can apparently swim just fine without sinking, so we're definitely looking at some metal with different properties to ours. Or just, you know, Bionicle physics.