One of the great things about shopping for girls is that they're a lot more willing to accept and enjoy toys for boys than boys are willing to play with toys for girls.
To take one example, He-Man had a huge, huge girl fanbase, even though it has the words "He" and "Man" right in the title! The girls who loved He-Man may have been smaller in number than the girls who loved Barbie, but the girl fanbase was big enough to have spawned He-Man's sister-series, She-Ra.
Now on the other hand...
if you saw a boy playing with a Barbie doll, you'd probably do a double take.
This doesn't mean you can get away with throwing a dart at a toy catalogue, but you do have a little breathing room.
Below, we've compiled a list of Manly toys that, most likely, will have any girl giving you a "Gee...
thanks...
I guess?" In other words, these might be great if you're shopping for boys, but you may want to use it as a warning list if you're shopping for girls.
TRANSFORMERS We're not going to be foolish enough to say that no girl in the world would ever play with Transformers action figures, but the franchise doesn't seem to have a lot of crossover appeal.
The masculine, somewhat militaristic nature of the characters tends to put Transformers into the same category as GI Joe.
If you're thinking of getting Transformers for a girl, make sure the kid actually does like Transformers, or you're kind of rolling the dice here.
MEGA BLOKS Most of the Mega Bloks toys are pretty much gender neutral.
Anyone in the world can appreciate snapping some plastic bricks together and making something cool.
However, one line of Mega Bloks toys that hasn't been much of a hit with girls would be the Plasma Dragon kits they've been releasing.
The dragons are kind of fearsome in design, built for combat and named after Viking war gods and so on.
Of particular note, you have the Mega Bloks Slime Egg: Vile Norvagen Wind Sprinter Dragon.
It takes seven words just to name him, he's so gross.
According to the info on the package, these dragons love fighting the others to prove their own superiority.
In other words, this is just about the best toy ever invented for boys, but with girls, you generally want to avoid anything with the words slime, vile, or Norvagen in the name! TOY CARS When you're looking at toy cars, it's kind a thin line between toy cars for girls and toy cars for boys.
A good rule of thumb would be, if that car were full-sized, what would you want to do with it? If the answer is "take a long drive along the coast", it's perfect for girls.
If the answer is "Smash into some other cars, YAHOO!" it's a boy's car.
Most girls just don't seem to appreciate the sophisticated appeal of a police cruiser with missile launchers slapped onto the hood.
Of course, what really counts is what a kid is into.
Some girls love smashemup car chases, some boys don't mind playing Dora and Diego with their little sister now and then.
The problem is that it can be tough to figure out what a kid is into if you're an aunt or uncle, a grandparent, or anyone who doesn't live in the same home as the kid.
Hopefully, the above can help you narrow it down a little a bit.