Existing literature highlights the gendered worlds of children’s toys, Lego City and Friends included, which target boys and girls respectively. The current article critically examines City and Friends home pages, since these act as a concise introduction to their online and offline spheres. I am particularly interested in how the two home pages differently summarise the sets and represent ‘reality’ for users; by this, I refer to the toys’ relationship with users’ real-life existences, both regarding the modality of their represented worlds and how users are encouraged to interact with the toy. Analysis indicates that, although both explicitly position themselves as toys to be used in viewers’ worlds, Friends and City present disparate realities and relationships with users. Friends promotes both real-life and imaginary friendship for consumers through interacting with its girl friendship group, whereas City emphasises action-oriented relationships where users are elevated to a heroic status in the imaginary city. I show how these relationships are realised through different semiotic resources, including visual modalities, linguistic choices and website format. I consider the intricacies of their semiotic choices and conclude by discussing the potential implications of these choices for shaping how children interact with and emotionally engage with the toys.

中文翻译：

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阅读关系、世界与现实：乐高城市和乐高朋友主页的多模态分析

现有文献强调了儿童玩具的性别世界，包括乐高城和老友记，它们分别针对男孩和女孩。当前文章批判性地审查了 City and Friends 主页，因为这些主页是对其在线和离线领域的简要介绍。我对这两个主页如何以不同的方式总结集合并为用户代表“现实”特别感兴趣；在这里，我指的是玩具与用户现实生活的关系，包括它们所代表世界的形式以及如何鼓励用户与玩具互动。分析表明，虽然两者都明确将自己定位为在观众世界中使用的玩具，但《老友记》和《城市》呈现出不同的现实以及与用户的关系。Friends 通过与其女孩友谊组的互动为消费者促进了现实生活和想象中的友谊，而 City 则强调以行动为导向的关系，将用户提升到想象中的城市中的英雄地位。我展示了这些关系是如何通过不同的符号资源实现的，包括视觉形式、语言选择和网站格式。我考虑了他们符号学选择的复杂性，最后讨论了这些选择对塑造儿童如何与玩具互动和情感参与的潜在影响。包括视觉形式、语言选择和网站格式。我考虑了他们符号学选择的复杂性，最后讨论了这些选择对塑造儿童如何与玩具互动和情感参与的潜在影响。包括视觉形式、语言选择和网站格式。我考虑了他们符号学选择的复杂性，最后讨论了这些选择对塑造儿童如何与玩具互动和情感参与的潜在影响。