Holiday Gifts: Building Sets for Girls Take Off - East Idaho News
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Holiday Gifts: Building Sets for Girls Take Off

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GETTY B 12412 BuildingBlocks?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1354625897560iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — One of the hot holiday trends for toys this year is construction sets for girls.

Lego Friends, for example, is a line of pastel construction toys and it’s been a hit so far.

“We were very skeptical to begin with,” says Stephanie Oppenheim of the ratings and testing site, toyportfolio.com.  Most building sets for girls involve shopping malls or beauty shops, but this line is different, she says.

“What it did was wonderful: it had girls interested in building,” Oppenheim says. 

Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, Mattel has introduced a Barbie line of construction sets.

“That underscores a huge shift in the marketplace,” declares Tuesday’s New York Times.  “Fathers are doing more of the family shopping just as girls are being encouraged more than ever by hyper vigilant parents to play with toys (as boys already do) that develop math and science skills early on.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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