Buy him normal Lego, in my experience. A Creator bucket is a good idea - the Harry Potter/Spiderman figures are teeny and fiddly. Ds was 3 when he got his first lot. Still does play with Duplo at 5 though.
In fact, a possibility for your ds if he is a Lego newbie is the Duplo Knights' Castle, which looks really good and definitely aimed at the pre-school market.

duplo is so much easier for little hands. I know woolworth do a big bag (about 100 pieces I think) for about £10-£12.

have you/will you have any other kids? we held off buying small lego because dd2 was born and they play happily together with the duplo.

"Play happily"? As opposed to trying to crown each other with it? Mind you, dd can also dismember a Bionicle in under 30 seconds, not bad for someone who is one , and a very good skill to have IMO.

My eldest started playing with 'small Lego' at this age, and ds2 was even younger. My main advice is get a very basic set, with basic brick shapes, rather than lots of fiddly extras. And if you can, buy a BIG base plate - they seem quite expensive and not very exciting, but they do make the Lego much easier to play with.

Lego do put age guidance on their boxes now, which should aid your choice. We had loads of Lego as gifts, or passed on to us, and I sorted through it and initially just gave them all the simple square and rectangular blocks, until they learned the concepts of building.

Have fun! Lego is by far and away the most played-with toy in our house, and has been for some time. (Dss are 5.5 and 7 now)

PS Don't buy cheap versions of Lego (Megablocks or similar) the quality is NOT the same.

DS will be 4 in February. I just put his Duplo in the loft this weekend. He has started on the lego (4+ range and Creator stuff) and will be getting the Pirate Ship for Christmas. Admittedly he is limited in what he can achieve with it but plays with it with DH a lot. In fact the start of his collection was some of DH's stuff and we have DH's technics waiting in the loft for when he's a bit older.

My kids 10 and 9 STILL play with Duplo. More so than they do Lego I think, although it goes in phases. I've often thought it's a bit odd, but we have got a very large box of it, with lots of animals and things and you can get quick results with Duplo. They tend to re-enact fairly elaborate fantasy stories, so are probably not using it so much in the traditional 'construction' sense. We got our lot second hand and it's been such a success I think I'll keep it for the grandchildren rather than get rid of it (and there's not much else I'd say that about).

We got 'normal' size Lego for DS at Xmas when he was 3 1/2. He loves it (& so do I !).
Noticed today the buckets were reduced in ELC (£10 bucket selling for £6)

I think Lego made a mistake in making the figures in "small" Lego so teeny and un-detailed. I think the diddy Harry Potter figures are really unappealing. They seem to have discontinued the Jack Stone range, which had slightly bigger and much more detailed figures, ds plays with these a lot.
But it is such a fab toy overall. Happy building Furball, it was a special day for me when I could pass on all my Lego to ds. It was the ONLY toy my parents held on to

ds is 6 and still enjoys playing Duplo with dd who is 3. They love the buckets and playsets and combine them with other figures - Bob, Thunderbirds ect - to play more imaginative games. wE ahve the base too whcih is great for allowing them to constrcut buildings which stay put.

Many of the models for older kids would be too fiddly - you'd have to make them up and he probably would either get frustrated if they broke up or just play with them as is. There used to be a range called Jack Stone which was a good halfway house between the two - proper Lego but with figures and buildings which were less complicated to make up - which I think has now been branded as something else but has police car, helicopter, plane, fire engine and so on.

DS aged 9 LOVES lego he has Harry Potter, Star Wars, Orient Expedition and the new one Knights Kingdom.

He saves up his pocket money to buy the new sets
and every christmas and birthday.

He spends hours designing and building with the regular bricks all his friends love building with it.

IMHO buy the little bricks and it will last for years and years and years.

IMO Duplo is much better for a 3 year old than Lego. I have dss 8 & 3 and the 8 year old plays with both about equally - the duplo is much quicker to construct but the Lego is more challenging. Depends what mood he is an at the time as to which he wants. But for the 3 year old Lego is a real pain. Don't get me wrong - he loves it but he can't build as quickly with it so is constantly asking me to make things - which then fall apart with the slightest touch or he breaks them apart etc. etc. With duplo he can do it all himself.

The thing about duplo or even molto is that child can easily make a big thing very fast, but Lego takes ages. DS is 5yo, just got loads of little Lego for his birthday, and really , he is too young to follow the instructions or make proper models. He does enjoy it... but certainly the Duplo is fine for his 3yo sister.

Argos are selling a big,big box of Megablocks at a good price at the moment. Or at least they are in our's - big cardboard box of several shown in window.

Ds is nearly 3 and has had Duplo for a while. He loves it and it really seems to have triggered his imagination; he'll play with it while making up stories to himself - its lovely to hear. He has got some normal lego, but finds it a bit fiddly, whereas he can fit the Duplo bits together himself. I have bought a fair bit for him very cheaply on ebay - might be worth having a look there.

My children have recently found a small box of lego and they love it. I wanted to get some for dd age 6 for christmas but I'm not sure what to get. When I was a kid I used to like building houses and things with the ordinary bricks but now they do all these fancy things and I'm not sure what to get. Any ideas?

You can still get traditional basic sets - with things like the roof tiles, windows ands so on. It comes under the Lego Creator brand. \link{http://www.theentertainer.com/pws/ProductDetails.ice?ProductID=1253\This} sort of thing.