I think there's a bit more to this toy than simply 'pink it and shrink it' as they say in retail.
The story + building is the innovation - meeting girls where they are and presenting construction/engineering themes through something other than a jumble of Legos. (This coming from a girl who loved Legos but didn't end up as an engineer)
Agree with TWAndrews. At the end of the day, if there are girls out there who would not be interested in playing with the boy-oriented sets but WOULD be interested in playing with GoldieBlox, and from there learn that engineering is cool - then the toy accomplished what it set out to do.
The ribbon is actually a functional belt drive. It starts with spinning one animal/spindle, then builds up to spinning all five at once, the way a belt drive would.