Old-fashioned LEGOs

[SteveDallas]

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.)