AIBU or is LEGO just a crap toy now

[RockyAddict]

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!

Well, I think it has two functions. There are the kits which children who are mad about HP or Star Wars or what have you will love. It's a challenge to build a complicated model. The kits are excellent present suggestions when relatives ask.

Then there's free building, but can either be done with Creator sets or broken up models.

We do have a bunch of models that DS didn't want to break up and they just sat collecting dust - but he loved making them.

We also have a massive box made up with some models but mainly Creator or randoms.

You can get loads of Lego in quite a small tub which is perfect for evenings out.

What's the point of a lego model if you don't make it yourself? I recommend tool/machine chests for organising large amounts of lego.

My DD#2 who is 3 loves her lego. She's completely bypassed Duplo and gone straight for the small bricks.

She mostly has old buckets of Creator from Ebay which DH refuses to build with as it has kits mixed in with it. I don't remember building stuff from instructions when I was a child.

I had a massive bucket of Lego and the houses I built were McMansions as opposed to the house kits -- more like Sims houses.

Piprabbit, I feel the same way your DD does. Is it just me or are there more DSs than DDs mentioned on this thread?

I keep all the bits together where possible - I even go through the parts lists on the back of the instructions to make sure they're all there. DS (6) has all our 1970s lego from when we were kids to do his own creations. I LOVE lego as I can just leave DS to it and he'll do it on his own. DD (4.5yrs) isn't quite the same and still screws up on the instructions so I have to 'fix' a lot of her wee things that she does and it requires more effort from me.

I even have my own Christmas Lego (Winter Village Toy Shop) that I get out each year and build. Well, DS builds it and I get to look out the parts for him. But I'm precious about it and it doesn't get mucked about with and must all go in the box to get sealed up for next year. Lego is serious stuff :-P

oh and if lego goes up the hoover then that's tough. I tell DS if he leaves it lying around downstairs I can't be responsible for sure every bit is picked up.

We have 2 sets of lego in our house.

1 - Kits of the less expensive variety that DS (6) builds, takes apart, makes in to anything and everything.

2 - Better kits that DH makes for himself DS and live completed on a shelf in DS bedroom

DS love love loves his Lego and has hours of fun making all manner of crap creations. He also loves the challenge of refinding all the bits to remake something he has previoulsy destroyed.

DH is vey precious about his creations but at least has the decency to leave DS be with his hybrid versions!

I don't mind Lego but once my ds has built it what's he supposed to do with it (apart from leaving them all over the place)?

The kits are so expensive they should be in a big box so you can start again after you've made something. Do they not know that kids ned to use their own imagination?

I prefer the KNEX kits, my ds has 2 big boxes which he can make things out of and then break it up to make something completely different another day.

Ds1 absolutely loved lego and had some for Christmas/birthday every year for years. Ds2 as well but less interested than his brother. The sets are good too as they sometimes made them as they were supposed to be and sometimes made their own spaceships/spacestations etc from the pieces so plenty of scope for imagination. We had to keep the lego sorted as there was so much of it. The spare Star Wars stuff had to stay together in one box, the Bionicles in another and the Harry Potter in another (though most of that stayed up all of the time as it was supposed to be - I extended the castle to make all sorts of other bits ). For the other sets/regular bricks, I separated them out into colour and kept them in shoe boxes. Black and grey as there were so many of them got split into size too (just big, medium and small - I didn't get the ruler out to measure them ). Friends and family used to laugh at this but the boys were very grateful if they wanted to put a set together (they kept their instructions in very good condition so knew what colour they were looking for) as they could just look in the relevant colour box.

Ds was able to sell all of his bionicles for a decent price as he'd kept both the boxes and instructions in such good condition. We still have most of the Star Wars and Harry Potter lego up in the (converted) attic so dd goes up to play with the HP stuff.

I wish I was as organised and tidy now and I was then!

Do hate treading on it though.

I love Lego. DS2 Loves Lego. We have vast amounts of lego. He's just got the space rocket for his birthday - it's amazing. The Star Wars stuff is a bit boring I have to say and having bought loads of it and made models etc he then decided that he wasn't in to Star Wars anymore (GRRRRRR). I think he got pissed off that the bits dropped off. However, he creates his own stuff - the lego operating theatre was a particularly memorable model . The Medieval village is fab - we got it for Christmas and had a very happy time building it and it is still as is on his chest of drawers. I bought two sets of wheelie cheapie filing drawers and colour coded his lego and chunks of lego - ie, chunks of space ships in the bottom drawer, bionicles in the middle etc etc. This then makes it easier but took me ages to do. Actually, what he likes playing with are the little people. Now he is 11 I have said that that is IT and there is to be no more because the boxes are taking up so much room. I have to say that anything that keeps them off an electronic gadget has to be a good thing.

DS loves building lego kits. He follows the instructions really carefully and can do kits aimed far above his age.

But give him a box of random pieces and he doesn't know what to make. He wants to follow instructions. Possibly down to his Aspergers.

We love lego; good job too with 4 boys! It's creative, can be stored in a masive tub and reused in a myriad of different personality led ways (fish or robot led depending on which older boy set them in this house )... it's just great.

They don't feel the need to bring out sets for every film; they compete for lucrative merchandising chances, they almost went under not that long ago. We don't ahve to buy them all! The boys get one or two sets a year, Christmas and birthday, that's fine.

Willow ds1 (AS) used to be like that but at 11 can now work a ittle more freely: took DH a lot of input to get there and more severe ds3 won't manage it.

Oh and storage- we use those big plastic tunbs you can get in bright colours with rope handles: green for regular lego, red for technical.

DH and DS2 have this.

They love it. Great tool for learning about engineering etc which is a family hobby (not me, I'm useless at it).

When new kits come out they often release teh characters to the make your own lego man centres in lego shops, at a few quid each they then make up their own Indiana Jones site / HP castle / etc. Well worth it! And they think they have had a magical treat, for the cost of the Cardiff park and ride- fab!

My DS has gone through all the stages. 1. Built his own easy stuff 2. Got kits which were too complicated to build alone. 3. Got old enough to build kits on his own. 4. Frustration when kits broke, frustration with re-building kits when specific pieces couldn't be found. 5. Stopped playing. 6. Made own stuff with all random pieces. 7. Rebuilt all kits. 8. Stopped playing. 9. Rebuilt kits, with ease, substituting pieces as required.

Lego enjoyment seems to ebb and flow. I'm delighted he's back playing with it again at the mo, because he hasn't for at least a year before now.

I have been to hell and back with storing lego. The guilt I have felt when pieces have whizzed up the vacuum! 1. Tried keeping in boxes. Doesn't work. 2. Divided into colour/size. Doesn't work. 3. Keep all lego in two boxes. That works. The only thing I would recommend is keeping all the Instructions in a plastic folder. That's easy!

There endeth my Lego sermon!

YABU. There are few toys that beat it.