Doll Houses Aren’t Just For Girls

The dollhouse market is inundated with toys and miniatures geared towards young girls. In every toy store across the world, you can find dollhouses of various styles and sizes all built towards the girl who wants to imagine and “play house”. There is nothing wrong with any of these houses, and they foster healthy play and enjoyment.

However, fifty percent of the population seems may seem somewhat forgotten by the majority of the dollhouse market: boys.

When you think of boys’ toys, the assumption is that boys need trucks, action figures, or sporting goods like a new baseball, basketball, or hockey stick. Yet, there is a small market of boy’s dollhouses.

Many of these “dollhouses” are described in a way that would appeal to the rough-and-tumble boy who likes to imagine he is a superhero, a firefighter, a cowboy, an astronaut, or anything else. You won’t find any of these dollhouses in the regular toy section as you’d find the normal dollhouses. They are cleverly camouflaged in the action-figure aisle under the guise of a fortress or a space base.

Over the years, "dollhouses" for boys have taken on themes such as Castle Grey Skull from the He-Man series and the G.I. Joe Command Headquarters Command Centre. Both these fortresses contained some of the same imaginative elements as a regular dollhouse: functioning doors, moveable pieces, and places to sit your “action figure” down after a long day.

Even today, you can find a boy’s “dollhouse” in the form of Captain Jack Sparrow’s ship, The Black Pearl, from the Pirates of the Caribbean series. The trick to getting boys interested is focusing on the elements that they enjoy.

You can find farms that can foster the development of your young future cowboy. Give him a hat and a lasso, and the rest will take care of itself. There are no rules in how you have to play with a dollhouse. NASA even has model space stations, shuttles, and action figures for your would-be astronaut.

The only limitation in knowing what can be considered a boy’s dollhouse is the extent of one's imagination. Sometimes finding a "dollhouse" that’s directed towards boys’ tastes takes a little thinking outside the box and changing the way we see things.

The next time you think about dollhouses as a gift, don’t forget about all the young boys in your life. You may be missing out on a great toy that the boys will never stop thanking you for.