Old-fashioned LEGOs
 

Over the past month or so, I've gotten birthday presents for my daughter and for a couple of her friends. In picking out stuff, I've noticed something about LEGOs: Every box of what I think of as the "classic" size LEGOs (not the extra-chunky ones for the preschool set) has a purpose. It makes a Star Wars ship, or a Harry Potter Scenario, or a Mars base, or something. Some kind of character or story is displayed on the box, and that's what you make with the stuff inside.

They no longer seem to make (or at least the toy stores don't carry) just a big old honkin' bucket of LEGOs that you can use to build whatever the heck you want, with no preconceived suggestions. For some reason this bothers me. Am Ijust pining for the paraphenalia of my youth? Or do I have a legitimate beef (stifling creativity, too much structure, etc. etc. etc.)

Re: Old-fashioned LEGOs
 

I believe they still call those Duplos.

I'd say you're right though, kb. I can remember in the mid 80s that most of the Lego stuff you saw was sets. They were neat mind you, but I didn't see the big general bucket o' parts very often.

Not to mention, those damned sets could be confusing as hell to build. The diagrams weren't always the best, and I'd be 3/4ths into a set, and discover it wasn't built right. Curse you Lego!

No, you aren't just pining. Oddly enough, there is a Lego store here in Minneapolis in the Mall of America. There at least, you can purchase a box of multi-colored, multi-sized, no-purpose Legos. Unfortunately, the box is only a gigantic one, and it costs about fifty dollars (US). Bunk. You can still find them on the lego homepage as well.

Creativity is subversive.

Re: Old-fashioned LEGOs
 

It's certainly an issue others have identified. Read the article from <i>Fast Company</i>: "Why Can't Lego Click?"

<blockquote><i> Ethan, an 8-year-old boy from New England, is standing in front of a huge display of Lego kits: arctic adventurers, jungle explorers, and the Lego dinosaur adventurers -- a series of toys that has particularly captivated Ethan. The boy gazes longingly at the Lego Dino Research Compound -- 612 pieces. The box shows a Lego scientist in a Lego jeep in hot pursuit of a Lego T. Rex. It's all inside the box.

Ethan is in one of Lego's half-dozen company-run retail stores in the United States -- this one in Orlando, at Downtown Disney. Ethan's grandmother comes up holding an enormous tub of Lego bricks -- 1,200 pieces. "With these," Grandma says, "you can do whatever you want. It gives you examples right on the front."

Grandma is funding this present. Ethan is picking. And although the dinosaur compound is $79.99, and the tub of bricks is $19.99, price isn't the point of difference. Play is. "He and I have very different ideas about Legos," says Ethan's mom, Lisa Gates, a dean at Wesleyan University, who is in Orlando on vacation. "I prefer the free-form bricks, where he can make his own universe. Ethan is most drawn to the theme-based scenarios. He has an Egyptian-pyramid-dig set and some Star Wars sets. He's fixated on the directions -- when he builds it, he wants it to look exactly like it looks on the box. That introduces a note of anxiety into playing with Legos -- did I do it right?"

The tug-of-war between Ethan's view of playing with Legos and his mother's view is a miniature of the problems that Lego itself faces -- internally and in the wider world. ( Ethan, for the record, goes home with the dinosaurs. ) In fact, the shelves of the store in Orlando display all of the opportunity and confusion that exists in the modern world of Lego. In the beginning, there were bricks -- and kids built whatever they imagined. The addition of roof tiles, windows, wheels, and trees allowed you to make more-realistic creations. Buckets of bricks are available in the store, but they attract almost no attention.

After the bricks came the themed sets -- town and farm first, followed by space ( almost 10 years after the moon landing ), and then castle and pirate lines later. The theme sets added a dimension: You built it, the theme provided inspiration ( and sometimes instruction ), and you could play with what you'd built in the classic role-playing scenarios that kids dream up. The construction was less inventive, the play more so. ..</i></blockquote>

I think it is sad that Legos have become more and more theme oriented - or more precisely - fashion and movie oriented. It destroys something gender independent of these toys. I've always found it amazing, how innovative and neutral Legos are. Both boys and girls can find new worlds endlessly to play from a set of generic bright colored bricks.

Are children becoming unimaginative?

david and i had little "briefcases" with legos in them. the plastic briefcase-shaped containers opened up and closed with a simple snap action. those were awesome. i think the only theme legos we had were two yellow ones with eyes and numbers on them, and i don't recall from which kit they came. i wish i still had legos, or rather, it was acceptable for me to play with them. unfortunately, i don't have enough time to do so. but legos are awesome.

lincoln logs are still cool.

~james

<a href="http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/"><b>Eric H</b></a> kicks ass! His skyline and SanFran murals ae awesome! I'm sure Lego doesn't sell a kit for these creations (...yet).

I recently finally sold all my lego, 3 huge boxes worth built up over many years. I grew up in the ago of the lego you're talking about and i didn't find it limiting. Sure it was cool to make the thing in the box but the beauty was being able to act out your own stories and make your own set with a mixture of kits and your own fantastic creations. All the same i do think lego is in trouble.

I discovered today by accident that Target actually has 1000-brick "generic" sets for $19.99. I should get one. It never even occured to me to look there; I assumed that the various toy stores would have better selections.