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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU or is LEGO just a crap toy now

142 replies

RockyAddict · 29/08/2011 11:02

I have spent the morning playing with my six year old DS2 and his Lego. But my God, it's infuriating. He has collected lots of 'kits' which my DH puts together for him, but once they are broken apart and the pieces put into the 'Lego tub' that's it. You can never put them back together again. We keep the instructions but I have just spent half an hour looking for a few of the same bits to no avail. I was a real Lego kid in the 70's and I loved it, but now the bits are so small and the kits so complicated that I lose the will to create anything.
And don't get me started on the cost! £10 for a tiny Star Wars space ship and a couple of Storm Troopers.
AIBU?

I thank you for reading my rant!

OP posts:

SiamoFottuti · 29/08/2011 11:29

Lego is great, but some children lack imagination with it, and have to follow the kit instructions. Better to just get on with it.
But there is no better toy than Lego.

fedupofnamechanging · 29/08/2011 11:29

candy lego. Why don't we have that ?

bubblesincoffee · 29/08/2011 11:30

My ds's love lego kits, I think they get a lot out of following the instructions to build something specific.

The ones they like the best stay together, the others get broken apart and mixed up for imaginative use.

Both ways of using lego are great.

grubbalo · 29/08/2011 11:32

The Lego website is great if you have lost instructions though. I got a lego helicopter with petrol a few weeks ago and promptly lost the instructions - a quick google search brought them up much to my relief

But yes agree the best models are the ones made from imagination - DH is fantastic at that thank god.

Millie1 · 29/08/2011 11:33

Brilliant toy! Our kits get made, played with then chucked into one of three (!) big boxes. I've just heard one being tipped out so the boys are playing with it now. They do keep the instructions but, more often than not, build something that they piece together themselves. Lego really has kept our boys busy form hours on end this summer.

OriginalPoster · 29/08/2011 11:42

We have 2 large tubs of Lego with several big base boards which was £7 from the car boot sale. It has a lot of space Lego bits, and motors which the dcs make space buggies and ships with, or cities, houses etc. We take photos of the best ones! On eBay there are pictures of old models on boxes including some space stuff which you can print out and copy.

We get the kits for presents sometimes, but they are less imaginative than doing your own thing.

bubby64 · 29/08/2011 11:45

My 2 ds's are both 10 and they LOVE lego, in any shape or form. Yes, we have had the big kits, which were built and played with for several weeks before they got taken apart, but they have spent endless hours playing with it, and have used the specialised bits to build parts on new spaceships, speeders, forts etc, which is the whole point of the toy. One of my ds's is now so good at making new things that last term his headmaster has said he thinks he may end up as an engineer or designer in the future! Yes, I hate treading on the little bits left around the house, but as a toy to fuel kids imagination, it has all other beat!

dribbleface · 29/08/2011 11:48

My Ds and Dh love lego, once kits have been made we tend to sling them in the general box.

TheBride · 29/08/2011 12:13

I just bought DS a massive bucket of Duplo for his first birthday.......basically so I can play with it. There's something SO SO therapeutic about clicking it all together.

Duplo and Lego still rock. Megablocks are rubbish though. Not clicky enough

EdwardorEricCantDecide · 29/08/2011 13:15

Duplo and Lego still rock. Megablocks are rubbish though. Not clicky enough

completely agree mine is still too young for lego but has loads of duplo, i bought him megablocks to start with but you cant really do anything with it as its too big, and i also get a strange satisfaction from the "click"

Melly20MummyToPoppy · 29/08/2011 13:18

Because Americans have all the cool foods Karma

LaLaLaLayla · 29/08/2011 13:20

No!!! YA so BU . Lego is awesome.

UsingMainlySpoons · 29/08/2011 13:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsDistinctlyMintyMonetarism · 29/08/2011 13:26

We have lots of lego and my children really enjoy it. Except the fucking Star Wars lego.

The models look great, but my ds (6) who laboriously builds it with my help then wants to play with it and bits drop off. Gah.

So now we are only building our own stuff and not buying kits.

(Unless you are my mum in which case Harry Potter Lego is the default gift)

Muckyhighchair · 29/08/2011 13:27

Lego rules

Best toy ever

Muckyhighchair · 29/08/2011 13:31

Mrs distinctly

I want to be your son! Harry potter Lego

Love love love!

SardineQueen · 29/08/2011 13:32

We got 2 free kits recently and totally agree with sentiments in the OP - fiddly, silly one-use pieces that only attach to a special other piece, load of rubbish.

When we were kids we had two massive boxes of assorted lego and you just built whatever you fancied. We will be going that way later with ours (if they like lego). We have quite a bit of duplo (DCs are little) and so far I have found that to be fantastic and how I remember lego being when I was little - have a load of bricks and make whatever you fancy. The animals and stuff with duplo are great too.

ragged · 29/08/2011 13:34

DS is ace at rebuilding kits (with or without instrux), he also knows which pieces he's seen before in other kits and can swap them around as needed.

DS took no interest in Lego at age 6, though, and only sort of "got it" at 7. I really think the kits should wait until they are older, min. age 7.

kerrymumbles · 29/08/2011 13:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SummerRain · 29/08/2011 13:42

SIL got my kids the police station when they were 5 and 3 (sobs)

The main frame of it is still in one piece (they're 6 and 5 now) but there's a big tub next to it with all the bits that have fallen off. All the pieces are so specialised they can't build anything else with them.

When I was younger the kits were still 70-80% bricks with just a few specialised pieces, so when they fell apart you could chuck them into the tub with all the other lego and all the bits were useful for building new creations.

WilsonFrickett · 29/08/2011 13:54

Kits are great - DS and DH sit down and build them and really bond over it. I then keep the instructions in a 'special' box, but the lego itself ends up in the general box and gets re-made into all sorts of things and often back into the kit form too.

We used birthday money to buy a sorter though - couldn't believe the price (40 quid!!!!!) but as I am Sorter-In-Chief and Finder-Of-The-Tiny-Pieces it has been well worth it IMO

It is expensive though, but we tend to suggest it for gifts and he gets most of it that way.

KurriKurri · 29/08/2011 13:56

I think the concept has changed, it used to be a construction toy, with the pleasure being in the building and design of things built. Now the building seems to be a time consuming step on the way to the end result, which is a play scene/ pretend play kit. i.e. it's trying to be Playmobil.

No objection to lego being used as a pretend play toy, but the age appropriatness of the construction element is often mismatched with the age group of the children who want the playset result.

IgnoringTheChildren · 29/08/2011 13:58

YABU! And so is everyone else going on about pieces that only have one use. Yes there are more "interesting" pieces than there used to be but they can still be used in lots of different ways.

Plus the instructions come with different ideas for what you can build so even for the imagination-challenged there are alternatives to the main kit idea.

If you can't find the bits you need to rebuild something it's because you didn't put them away properly last time!

If you get frustrated with the model falling apart then you're probably too young for it!

It is too bloody expensive though! :)

carocaro · 29/08/2011 14:02

Lego rocks, both my DS's make amazing things out of all the Lego they have.

You should go wash your mouth out!

TennisFan · 29/08/2011 14:03

My DC love Lego, we have some of the expensive kits, but usually it all ends up in 2 or 3 big boxes and then they just make interesting stuff out of it.

Agree it is expensive, and hate that most of it seems to be targeted at boys - my DD loves it too (only not the horrible pink stuff)

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