Have you seen some of the fun new products from Green Toys? This is a brand that manages to make eco-friendly plastic toys out of recycled milk jugs right here in the USA (locally made = small eco footprint!). I’m utterly impressed by that combination. It’s notoriously hard to do small runs of plastic toys affordably, to make them eco-friendly (so many chemicals, ugh), and to make them stateside (higher prices!). The combination, along with their friendly pricing, makes me want to give them all a great big hug.
They’ve got lots of adorable new products to boot. But what interests me is their girls and boys versions of the same product. I love the new toolset, $27.99. And it’s also available in a pretty pretty pink version. You can get dump trucks, $27.99, in traditional red and yellow, or pink and purple (coming soon). Their race cars are available in pink too, $9.99. On the one hand, it’s lovely to see traditional boy toys for girls. On the other, can’t girls just play with the red one? However, I do know lots of little girls that go through the pink phase, no matter what kind of little girl they are. (My sweet Birdie keeps looking for her pink crayons, dagnabbit). Maybe pink trucks and tool sets will pull in the girls with pink on the brain. What’s your take on this phenomenon parents? Seriously, what’s your op ed?
There are several other great new itmes. Like the Pizza Parlor set, $$27.99. We have a wooden pizza set, but the thinner food bits work so well in plastic, it’s a great choice. Same thing for the Sandwich Shop, $16.99. And their dishwasher safe! Perfect for my avid licker!
And coming soon, their first teething toy, The Twist Teether!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Since you asked… I hate this “everything for girls has to be pink” trend. At t-ball the girls use pink helmets and gloves and bats. Gloves are leather- they should be brown! Girls can play with regular colored Legos.
I’m a grown-up girl and I don’t sit at my pink desk on a pink computer.
***rant over.
I don’t have any little girls so I can’t say for sure what I would do, but I have BEEN a little girl and I didn’t need everything to be pink.
I do love Green Toys though. I’d like one of everything- just not in pink.
Thanks Esther – that’s my gut reaction too! It just seems to separate the issue and call it out even more. From a company perspective, I like that they’re thinking about girls equally, but I’d love to see a subtler approach I guess. (add purple or pink into designs with other non-girl colors, for instance)
I think americans are SUCH extremists. I wouldn’t mind a pink dump truck if there were, like MULTIPLE options to choose from. But there are typically only two. The regular one. And the pink one. As the mom of a boy i get annoyed that boys don’t get color “options”. I don’t want to totally hate on pink, because its a great color. It truly is. But I don’t buy into the whole “NOTHING BUT PINK!” game. Wolfie’s favorite color is blue. But he doesn’t sleep in a room that is ENTIRELY BLUE! And ONLY WEAR BLUE CLOTHES! I think as parents we have to be selective. I dont’ have a daughter but I imagine I would let her have some pink things and then encourage other colors too. *sigh* I know it’s never that easy….
That’s exactly it Alix, Americans are extremists and seem to really loooove to pigeonhole and label things. From a company perspective, I’m sure Green Toys is trying to show that they believe their toys are for boys AND girls. But instead it’s just highlighting the discrepancies?
My biggest beef is that most pretend toys are solid pink – dolls, kitchen stuff and other pretend play toys (Target, I’m looking at you). My boys love trucks and dinosaurs, but they also love to cook, to pretend, to be little daddies – but they refuse to play with pink toys (society, I’m looking at you).
Companies fall all over themselves to please little girls with their pink trucks & pink toolsets (not to mention millions of cute little outfits for girls), but they do little to win wallet-share from moms like me.
Kris, that is a brilliant point. I know I looked hard to find cooking and kitchen things for Birdie that weren’t pink – we’re trying hard around here to not influence her towards that particular color. (Yes, I like pink, but it seems to carry sooo many connotations at this young age)