Lego - Where do I start? Please point me in the right direction

[DomesticDisaster]

In our house we are addicted to Duplo. It is by far the best thing we have and the children absolutely love it.

My DD1 is nearly 5 and DS2 is 2.5 and I'm now thinking that it's time we upgraded to proper lego as DD is creating more and more intricate models and I think Duplo is just not cutting the mustard any more.

I have no idea where to start - please help!

Am I right in thinking there are lots of different sets - how do you start/choose? Or do we just get a job lot of random bricks. I should say that Duplo-wise we have a farm set and random bricks and the children love making random stuff rather than the farm as it's supposed to be.

As far as I can see, proper lego seems more complex with loads more options so I'd love some advice from lego aficionados please!

bump

Lego is very popular in our house! There are mixed boxes you can buy which has instructions for building things, and you can also buy boxes that make something in particular eg a boat. Prices vary from £10 for a small set e.g. Bike to hundreds of pounds. Try amazon as they had some good reductions recently!

ime, 5yo is way too young. Stick with Duplo. Lego appropriate for age 7+.

I got DN (4) a blue bucket from Argos for Christmas. Every time i visit I'm dragged to his room to build something with him.

Best £12 ever spent :o

Basically I agree with AdventuresWithVoles. Duplo is fantastic as long as you have enough of it. Even dh and I still play with it. But if you only have one or two sets, then that is very limited. You are better off looking for second hand bags of mixed Duplo.

Lego is very expensive. Again, start looking for mixed bags, second hand, either in charity shops or on ebay. Look for mixed bags of basic Lego, and special pieces such as roofs/windows/doors. Look for figures and animals.

Basic blue / pink box from Argos is as good a bet as any, the cheapest biggest box you can get. And yes of course a Duplo-mad 5 year old can play with Lego

My 4 year old has been obsessed with Lego for the last 18 months or so. He loves the Lego city range and Star Wars Lego (loves Star Wars!!). I have bought him a blue box of assorted Lego for Christmas because then he can use his imagination to build things, rather than the specific thing in the City/Star Wars ranges.
Although it's always my job to do the building and he plays with it after. I love it!!

duplo was a huge hit in our house, especially the Zoo sets.

Then everyone in our large family got ds (5.5 at the time) lego for Xmas and he never played with it, didnt like it.

we have police station, garage, fire station, city, several star wars sets - and he never really played with it, think he prefered the animal type duplo sets.

if I did it again I would start small to make sure they actually like the next step as it not guaranteed!

We've only just moved onto lego, dd1 (7), dd2(5), ds approaching 3. I would say the two youngest probably love it most, but they are both more into construction anyway. Ds is a bit too young to be able to put pieces together sometimes, but he loves acting as architect with a willing big sister/parent/random person who is more dextrus than he is.

I would say at that age either get one of the tubs, or get some basic sets. Mine also love the mini figures, we have mainly the friends ones, which are all girls but more shapely than the standard ones. Also try raiding your parents lofts. Mine was all given away long ago, but we got a good haul from dh's loft.

I would say maybe get one of the little sets too just to see if your child is one of the ones who likes to build and leave, or build and destroy (mine are the latter). The sets are less flexible and less value per brick, and ime they just take them apart and build something different. A friend though has 5 yr old ds and he likes to build and then play with the resulting castle/ lighthouse etc (until dd visits and decides to re model them!!). As long as the little one doesn't still eat things it will be fine, and ds much prefers it to the big stuff.

Buy a big box of basic bricks and couple of boards then when anyine asks what the dcs want for bday and xmas say Lego.

5 is most definetly not too young. I know a 3yo who plays with legi for hours.

You can get lego from the likes of Asda, around £10 for a large box. I got my 5yr old some and he absolutely LOVES it. It helps so much with creativity. Lego was the first present I was given for Christmas when I was 6 months old. Needless to say it took a couple of years to appreciate it, but lego is fine once kids stop putting stuff in their mouths. You can get large lego boards, which are ace for building houses etc on. My son is currently using his as an airport . Enjoy!

Dn has just got into Lego and so given lots of MrNC's childhood lego for his 4th birthday. Sometimes he doesn't have the finger strength to separate the two-bump-across pieces but loves it anyway.

The big basics tubs of mixed blocks are a great start - often you can buy similar bunches of blocks by the kilo on Ebay.

Forgot to say - storage for Lego is vital! Lots of takeaway boxes are being devoted to the stuff in our house atm.

There is also a thread on MN at the moment discussing best Lego storage techniques and, as an extra, the little LACK side tables from IKEA are perfect to glue lego base boards onto (think yiu can fit at least 2 on top) then voila you have a little Lego activity station.

5 year old should have no trouble with lego. Apart from little sibling pinching bits....

There are range of small vehicle kits that are good starters.
www.lego.com/cars/en-gb/products/default.aspx#8200

or a brick box.

The Creator kits of Lego are quite good. You can get small packs from Sainsbury's, and the same bricks can be used to make cars/helicopters etc.

The individual packs of minifigures are good fun.

That's great everyone. Many thanks for ideas - keep them coming if you have any more! I think the basic tubs sound a good place to start. I will check out the minifigures too as our duplo farm people are a hit.

We have only recently got Lego as we had a baby but now we have duplo and lego. My 11 year old plays with the duplo more and my 7 year old with the lego more. DS1 makes amazing things out of duplo still.

I would stick to duplo for as long as you can tbh. Lego is expensive, tiny and easy to lose. When you do buy it get some general boxes and then the kids can do what they like.

I have 3 DC aged 8,5 and nearly 3.... they all love lego. one of our fave weekend activities is to tip it all out over the carpet( yep we mix the sets up!) and all make stuff!!

ask around families/ parents for what they have in the loft. most of the lego we have now was DH's as a child.

get a big box of general blocks and steer clear of "branded" sets like star wars or harry potter for as long as possible!

I like the bags of minifigures... my boys love them and they are "unisex" iyswim. we got a cavewoman recently DS1 age 8 was a bit at first but then made her a really cool cave thing

Ours (11,8,4) love lego and DC3 has been able to do it since aged 2, simply, I think because he has always had it around!

They have always loved the random boxes if bits, although DC1 has got into the proper complicated models from about aged 10.

Have a look at ebay for big mixed bundles of lego close to your home to save on postage

Lego has saved my sanity over the last really wet half term..we averaged 5-6 hours a day!

havent read all the other suggestions but thought id add my own.

my DC's are 10,7 & 22mths, plus me Shhh!
big lego fans, i started of with the big police station around 3yrs ago. cost a bomb - took so long too build on christmas that kids lost interest waiting! any way a few days after it was built it kept breaking. was fed up fixing it so i broke it up and put it in a box so they can play free building.

bought that great box from argos ive seen mentioned above. the problem with the sets and models is that they either get broken or theres lack of space to display them. but this is in my experience.

I buy the DC's loose lego off ebay (if new and a bargain) and the lego shop on line for bulk as ebay sellers can often put a couple of quid on something thats cheaper on legoshop.com

the lego characters are great, you may have seen the £1.99 packets of lego figures (1 fig per pack) these are good. ebay & lego shop both sell various characters & animals.

I would let them build with their imagenation and buy small box sets then build up the collection. there is a lego ideas book that tells you the pieces and how many things you can make with them. one of our best buys. bought from asda 2011, have seen it about still.

good luck :)

I think you can get a Lego advent calander too for christmastime.

The brickmaster sets are good if you dcs are just starting out in lego. And I would just go to ebay and buy a half kilo of mixed lego and then see what arrives.

My DD6 has a mixed box - got it from Tesco I think.

Supplemented with my old lego that was in the loft. I love lego.

Another one who would recommend the mixed blue tubs - DS, now nearly 4, got one at Christmas (quite a big one from toys r us) and he loves playing with it even though his building capability is still limited. He's getting a generic mixed vehicles set for his birthday as he likes making different vehicles, but there aren't many wheels in his mixed box.