Product Review: GoldieBlox

Goldieblox PackagingThese days, walking through the toy aisle is treacherous. Everything is either hot pink and covered in glitter or has a superhero logo slapped on it. (For the record I like both glitter and superheros!) There aren’t any toys of substance anymore- rarely do you see a cool educational toy on the shelves these days. What happened to science kits and bug catchers and dollhouses. These days, toys take no imagination.

That’s where GoldieBlox comes in. Branded as “Engineering Toys for Girls”, founder Debbie Sterling (an engineer at Stanford) aimed to give girls an accessible female engineering role model. GoldieBlox allows children to follow the story of Goldie, a little girl who loves engineering and wants to build a spinning machine. (Side note: She has a group of very docile exotic pets who don’t mind spinning on spools for hours on end.) The story walks children through the process of building the spinning machine, allowing them to problem solve rather than giving them all the answers right away. GoldieBlox is designed specifically to encourage scientific curiosity and at the end of story asks children to try to build one of the other included patterns or to come up with a spinning machine of their own. The Geekling found ways to incorporate the parts in to her other toys, showing GoldieBlox limitless possibilities for play. She keeps coming back to GoldieBlox again and again finding new machines to build and new stories to tell.

I would recommend GoldieBlox for any boy or girl who loves to build or any parent who wants to get their child a toy the doesn’t have an on switch. My only complaint is that toys branded for “boys” or “girls” tend to do more harm in the market than good, but without the female perspective the scientific community  we are seriously limiting our possibilities. Any toy that properly encourages women to enter science is good in my book.

Learn more about GoldieBlox and purchase them ($29.99) at their website GoldieBlox.com, or through Amazon.

Disclosure: Pure Geekery was provided with a GoldieBlox for review purposes.

GoldieBlox Contents

The contents of the GoldieBlox.
Photo from the GoldieBlox press page.

 

4.5 / 5 stars     

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