Don't enjoy Lego sets

[Quiteenjoyable]

My child is nearly 4 and madly in love with Lego. Does anyone else just love a big jumble of Lego rather than all the sets? When I was a child it was rare that anyone had the sets. I remember being very envious of a friend who had a Lego castle set with knights on horses. I had a tub of mixed bricks and absolutely loved it anyway.

At the moment we have a smallish box of just jumbled bricks, pieces, wheels, and little mini figures. It seems like the sets absolutely dominate the market now though and he'll eventually start asking for them. We got him one Lego digger and he's heartbroken if bits come off and go missing, but with the mixed box he just gets on with building things and taking them apart to build new things. It's much freer and more enjoyable.

Any older kids still enjoy just playing with a jumble of Lego pieces or is it all about the sets now?

Both have a place. Yes the big jumble is nice for imagination but there are also skills in doing those big sets and my kids are always so pleased with themselves when they’re done. Most of our big sets get put away in zip lock bags with the instructions and they get made again and again in the half terms.

DD has a mixture of both. She’s 7. She loves having all the bits as she likes making her own cafes etc. But she also loves working through the bags and instruction booklets for a bigger build. It’s nice for her and her dad to do something together.

I was going to say this. We are lucky enough to have a Lego shop about 45 minutes away from us, so if we want to buy Lego for our dgc, that's where we go. We buy a selection from the pick a brick wall and also usually add a few people to it. You can make your own people , often on offer , so we try to base the characters on the dgc or other family members. My own dcs had Lego just when the kits were beginning to appear, so mostly had random buckets of it, DH and I both had Lego in the early 60's, when it was very basic indeed. I think the wonderful thing about lego is the ability to be creative, not following instructions for something somebody else has cream.

This. We have a big box of Lego bits, but my DS also likes doing the sets again and again. The finished sets go in ziplock bags with the instructions, then broken up in the bags and put back in the original box. We do occasionally lose a piece or two, but we usually manage to find a substitute bit in the big box.

It depends on the child and also in a way how you show them to play with Lego.

I grew up with a huge wooden chest with various compartments (made by my uncle who was a carpenter) and build and build for ages.

DD - we got the chest before she was interested in Lego Friends. We sat down with her and did small things, houses, vehicles etc and she played a bit but she definitely got more into Lego when the sets came along.

She build additional stuff but only to go along the sets.

The only people I knew with a random assortment when I was a DC were friends who had been handed down a box of broken up sets from an older sibling. I have vivid memories of the rows of sets in the toy shop, as I spent every Saturday inspecting them and ordering them in my mind into which were most wanted, which were realistic birthday/Xmas requests, which I might be able to buy with some saving etc etc. So I don't think focus on sets is a new thing - I am early 40s for reference and we weren't a well-off family.

How the Lego is used depends on the DC IME:

I was (still am TBH) a huge fan. I had quite a lot of sets as a kid and no random assortment of bricks. I would build the sets and play with them, then use the sets to create new combinations/versions or something completely different. Then, when I got bored with that, I'd rebuild the original sets and play with them again.

My DCs have a mixture of new sets, some of my old ones, and a load of random bricks. All get played with.
DD1 loves playing with sets, but hates building them (she struggles translating the 2D instructions to the 3D model in front of her, and gets frustrated), so I happily oblige when she asks me to do it for her! She will modify the sets as part of her games (and then ask me to rebuild/fix them when she's done) and enjoys free-building with the random bricks.
DD2 loves building and playing with sets. She is the polar opposite to DD1 when it comes to building sets, and managed to build the 18+ Dr Strange house set alone age 6. However, although she happily plays with them afterwards, she never modifies them and gets upset if they get damaged. She enjoys free-building with the bag of bricks though, so isn't totally against imaginative construction.

This was my experience. Building half a house because I had neither the imagination nor the right amount of bricks for anything else.

I adore my lego sets and really take my time building them much to my adult son's disgust.

Am currently building my Christmas present of Gringotts Bank and have done 20 out of the 30 or so bags.

It's consumerism at its best. Lego is a success story in creating something that can be made into anything but then getting the market to want sets that are made into (mainly)1 thing.

I would say easily that amount here too in our day.

Yes! When we were kids, we had a massive box of random Lego we got for £5 from a newspaper ad. That was it. My kids have lots of sets - they love putting them together, and it's brilliant for spatial awareness and for them practising following instructions independently. However, after a few days the set they've built gets broken down / cannibalised into something else. ...And then the bits all end up a massive box of random Lego that definitely cost more than £5😂

I don't!
Son is autistic and I'm not even allowed to touch it.
I once knocked a T-Rex over and knocked the head off and the meltdown lasted a week..

I don't hoover, clean it or touch it!

My DS does have a few sets now that he keeps for display, mainly star wars. But some is on blankets stuffed into corners, some is in lidl bags, some in big plastic storage boxes.

A lot is grey and beige due to the star wars influence.

One day he will leave home and take every piece with him 😁🎉🎉🎉

What's amazing is that he can find a head or a piece from amongst several million pieces when he wants it for a build.

And despite the fact that movies and computer games have taken over, I still hear him rustling through his lego on the floor when he has a movie on in his room.

(disclaimer, my house is very clean and tidy. But anyone with a neuro diverse teen who is chaotic and refuses any change to their room will understand why his room has its own micro climate and possibly life forms uder the bed with the lego)

My DS spent his 10th birthday (I think) building the Jurassic Park gates. He spent 11hrs in the sitting room, came out for lunch and went back to the coffee table. He had it built by bedtime and it was probably 30 bags.

He would chuckle at the idea of making a set last more than a day 😊

@Ilovelowry

And despite the fact that movies and computer games have taken over, I still hear him rustling through his lego on the floor when he has a movie on in his room.

I absolutely love this

@Quiteenjoyable you mentioned Lego masters a bit ago - loved the UK series, but did you know there’s a longer running USA series too? It’s much louder and shoutier than the UK one and more adults not kids, but still great for Lego-ing. Think it’s on channel 4 catchup.

when younger i had the mixed parts and made x items, now im older and see the costs of sets its omg, and now i like the lego technic models but only get them second hand

There's an Australian version too.

It doesn't surprise me that it is shoutier 😂 I think I'll introduce my son to the uk one if it's still available online

Don't forget that your DS is only 3, nearly 4. They have no idea yet about creating their own C3PO or the thrill of opening a new bag of bits 20 times over, following the instructions and having a new racing car for their collection. Lego evolves over time with the person, in the same way as their drawing skills, reading, sporting ability etc also grow & change.

This is my point- I'm dreading it!

We have a small house. Where's it all going to go?! I'll be strongly encouraging imaginative creations and breaking things up to make new creations.