To super glue together lego sets?

[Chickpeaohchickpea]

I've seen two lego sets my children would really love for christmas(sorry! I'm an early shopper!!). They are pretty expensive around, £40-£50. They are only 5 & 6, I'm rather nervous they'll dismantle it, loose the pieces and never be able to put it back together, I know they would have lots of fun playing with the set itself.
Husband has said I can't spend that much if he can't glue it together whilst he's building the sets with them!
Would we be unreasonable to glue together the actual structure, they can move around the other bits and build other things to go with? Anyone else do this?

Once you start getting more “sets”, it can be helpful to be a bit more careful so pieces don’t get mixed in. It’s perfectly possible and not awful and controlling. Ours tend to build a big thing, play with it loads, have it out for ages, and eventually take it apart and put it back in the box. Once we got loads and loads of sets, we got a large clear box for 3”each “type” eg all Star Wars lego sets and pieces in one box, all nexo knights in another, all technic in another, all marvel etc in another. That way they can be creative and build “Star Wars-y” things but all the pieces are together if they want to rebuild the originals - which they’ve also done.

It really isn’t a given that pieces will just disappear into the house. And if you lose the odd bit you can just order it.

We have a tub on the side for “homeless lego pieces” in case we find a random bit, and that’s always the first place to check if something is missing.

Ahh I'm quite pleased lord business' wife is on mumsnet and he is still alive and well

We have a few sets that remain but they arent played with. And ds is much older so they are technic lego Harry Potter etc
There is a huge box of all the other lovely sets with the arms pulled off the people
@Chickpeaohchickpea can you say what kind of sets they are and we can perhaps help find a corresponding toy that lasts better than lego?

They sound too young for intricate kits OP and even glued together they arent very robust - you'll just end up with something grubby, partially broken and covered in sticky stuff. Buy something age appropriate instead.

OP Don’t buy lego if you don’t understand it

There is no role for glue.

The whole point of it was to be able to use your imagination to build lots of different things, take them apart, build something else.

That’s still the whole point of it. There may be a more prescriptive starting point, but what you describe is still 95% of lego play in our house.

We have superglued Thomas train tracks and hot wheels parking garages because they can't go together any other way. I would never super glue lego. Growing up we had a giant tub full of it with all the instruction books at the bottom. Making anything required tipping the tub and searching, but that meant we'd usually find interesting pieces and use those too. So I think it actually made us more creative.

We have a big box of Lego. It’s useless despite having kept the instructions for all the sets. It’s impossible to piece back together and my DC have trashed every set.

Glue it.

as adults when at the pub chatting with friends about crazy things that happened when they were younger, your grown kids will talk about their Dad glueing their lego sets together and everyone will roll their eyes and sign in commiseration with them.

I think Lego sets get built and then after that they go off and exist as free range lego don't they? So your kids can use their imagination to build new stuff?

No. I would never do this. Why on Earth? You learn how to look after smaller items and then you teach the children. There are specific mats but a blanket would suffice. Glueing Lego together is ridiculous.

@AnotherDayAnotherCake

We have a big box of Lego. It’s useless despite having kept the instructions for all the sets. It’s impossible to piece back together and my DC have trashed every set.

Glue it.

I'm struggline to see anything useless about a box of Lego. What do you mean by trashed?

@AnotherDayAnotherCake how is it useless? Surely your kids can just make stuff from it?

My 10 year old still loves lego - it does get very expensive - he recently built an age 16 £120 set in less than a day. 😭 I never know whether to be super impressed or totally gutted. He keeps somethings on display but most are dismantled and used to build other things. He amazes me with the working models he builds from own designs, he couldn't do that if we insisted he kept things once built. I laughed out loud at the idea of glue. Does your husband have control issues? I would stick to things your children can build without his help - then he won't be so invested😂

Nonononononono.

No.

The whole point of lego - especially the kids sets - is that you build it once and then it gets trashed and incorprorated into the big box of lego so you can have actual fun with it.

People who glue their lego are as bad as people who buy toys but leave them in the original packaging, never to be actually played with.

Adult sets, if you want them to remain as they are you just need to put off limits for this activity. I have some of the architecture sets and they are not to be rebuilt, and the kids know it. They aren't glued though.

Ah! The Kragle!

I was dubious about getting Lego for my 4/5 year old as I thought she was too young. She now has about 15 sets, she has a few out at a time on her desk and the rest are stored in zip bags. Things get changed around but nothing gets lost. You can buy replacement parts if they do.

I actually built a complete Lego set in 1 day. Pretty impressive when you consider the box said 2 to 4 Years!

I've contemplated this! My girl has 4 Lego friends sets and you only have to look at them and they fall apart! I had to put them together for her as she couldn't read well enough at that time. She now won't play with them because they fall apart so easily

FYI you can build individual pieces of Lego on eBay and from Lego direct- for all those worrying about loosing a specific bit

@Ninkanink Please can you link that thread?? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

The peripheral bits will get lost even more easily.
Buy Duplo, Lego Classic or Playmobil.

@knittingaddict & @shouldistop useless because they are too young to make anything meaningful from the box of pieces.
Maybe in a couple of years will be able to use it again but for now it’s just sat in a box.
If it had remained intact then I’m sure they would play with it now.

It’s not really a present for the children if you do this, is it? I think you’re married to a lunatic.

Everybody suggesting Playmobil has clearly not lost the Very Important Spoon That I Must Have Right Now (that is smaller than a grain of fricking rice)

@AnotherDayAnotherCake how old are they? Ds1 is only 4 and can have hours of fun with a box of Lego.

@Penistoe

FYI you can build individual pieces of Lego on eBay and from Lego direct- for all those worrying about loosing a specific bit

unless they are old sets and unavailable or just out of stock

but yeah, I buy stuff from Lego Bricks & Pieces and Ebay

Husband has said I can't spend that much if he can't glue it together whilst he's building the sets with them!

Either you married Lord Bussiness or he needs to be told he doesn't need to help them rebuilt it every time and perhaps needs his own technical lego set.

I'd probably stick to cheaper sets for the moment and possibly ones they stand a chance of building themselves then let them play and build how they want.

I've seen my IL try and dictate how toys get played with supposedly how intended it lead to the children losing interest very quickly.

I've also seen my kids get frustrated with kits that are too old for them and again even when an adult "helps" build they've tended to again lose interest where as doable kits they get very excited about and seem to feel empowered about making.

Do it!
Then buy cheap bulk lego on ebay that they can build with