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16 Ways The Toy Industry Is Stuck In The Stone Age

Offerings for girls: pink kitchen-cleaning accessories and mini sewing machines. For boys: powerful telescopes and toy weapons.

1. Hi, girls: Your laptop has half the functions and costs less.

2. Say hello to princesses, ponies, and mermaids. Sorry, no scientists and builders.

3. Here's a "diamond ring" for a "sweet baby girl" and a "saw" for a "busy baby boy."

4. It's playtime! Girls: Please clean the kitchen. Boys: Do science.

5. In the 2009 Toys R Us catalog, the pink microscope gets the lowest magnification.

6. In 2010, it gets a mere fraction of the magnification. And costs way less.

7. "Do you think girls will get the memo about the kitchen? OK, well, let's make it pink just to be sure."

8. Boys: guitars, war, roller coasters. Girls: pink home decor, baking.

9. Here's the boys' stuff in Australian store Myers' catalog.

Here's the girls' stuff.

10. Important news: This cleaning trolley is for "girls only."

11. Just like Mom.

12. Merry Christmas! Please enjoy your respective sewing machines and cool robot things.

13. Ah, yes, boys and their "kooky" things.

14. The war of the "arty, silly" boys and the "puzzly, pretty" girls.

15. Happy holidays! Girls, per this Pottery Barn Kids catalog, it's time to make tea in the kitchen. And then have a tea party.

The boys, of course, have more diverse interests: They're permitted to play with trucks, trains, dinosaurs, and telescopes.

16. By the way, this will not stop when you grow up.