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I have a 3 year old, who has a 101-year old great grandmother from my wife’s side. Had 4 generations simultaneously playing with classic Lego a month ago. This

I have a 3 year old, who has a 101-year old great grandmother from my wife’s side. Had 4 generations simultaneously playing with classic Lego a month ago. This toy just sparks creativity with no measures of wrongness. I’m going to put off buying new sets as long as I can. New Lego, get off my lawn.

chris_st 5y ago
> New Lego, get off my lawn. Indeed. My grandson has a ton of lego, and the "old" stuff (you know, brick-shaped bricks) is all used in his various creations. So when we go to play together, he has a bin of "available" parts, except they're all weird one-offs that don't have studs on top. Once you use one on something, well, that's it, no building above that. Really frustrating, and amazingly hard to put even something really basic together.
elteto 5y ago
If you want just bricks you can buy just that. If you want sets then go for it. Both are ok. No need to gatekeep fun. People tend to overestimate how attractive their own lawns are.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  It's a weird balance between variety and uniformity. The whole key to Lego is that you can connect just about every piece to every other piece, either directly or indirectly. It's a system, not just a toy. But at the same time Lego tries very hard to put something unique in their new sets so that you can't make the design unless you buy the official set (or the one unique part at some ridiculous mark-up through set breakers). The trick then lies in being able to simulate the unique pieces with assemblies of ordinary pieces or pieces that you already have (not always possible), and to use those unique pieces that you do have in new and creative ways to start treating them as ordinary Lego. Some builders have taken this to an entirely new level, for instance in this castle there are all kinds of bits that have been used in ways that they were definitely not intended to achieve a novel effect: https://twitter.com/jmattheij/status/1016382615417389057 https://twitter.com/jmattheij/status/1016382615417389057
  - elteto 5y ago
    Good points. I’m not entirely bothered with the current state of affairs re: lego variety and uniformity. I think both people who enjoy building from scratch and those who enjoy sets can be satisfied with the current Lego offerings. What I intensely dislike is people putting down other people just because they enjoy a _toy_ (something meant to elicit sharing and enjoyment) in a different way than theirs.
    - richardw 5y ago
      Why do you intensely dislike words on a website? I have an opinion about a toy, I’m not intensely disliking people who use it differently. I said nothing about those people. When she’s older, we might be those people. Play the Lego blocks, not the man.
      - elteto 5y ago
        Good question. It’s because it relates to previous, real life experiences when people have tried to gatekeep things from me, or passed judgement on me for doing something “different” when the subject at hand was completely inconsequential, like whether I play with lego sets or not.
        richardw 5y ago
        Sorry, didn’t mean to do that. I was honestly self-mocking in how it needs to be done how I did it, obviously the innovation allows so many more ways to play. Another friend’s wife buys the more complicated sets and admits they’re actually for her, not for her kids. All good, they’ll grow into it :)
        elteto 5y ago
        Hey, this was a very good conversation by Internet standards :) Thanks for trying to understand where I was coming from. I should have done the same perhaps, I totally missed the self deprecation in your original comment. Text is such a poor substitute for real life conversations... but on the other hand we never would have interacted if it wasn't for this "text". Sometimes I feel so ambivalent about the Internet...
- richardw 5y ago
  Yeah that’s why I’m being partly tongue in cheek. As a kid I enjoyed both models and Lego. Now they’re combined. I’m very sure it’s a killer profit driver, you need tons of sets and enthusiasts want the Death Star. Go wild. It’s just less creative, more exacting, can’t as easily have the experience we all had together. Get a set of blocks and you almost can’t stop yourself from clicking stuff together. A friend got sets for her 4 year old. She builds them, kid breaks them. She builds them, kid breaks them. She is bored with building them, but it’s a jet (or whatever) and kid wants the jet, so…she builds them. She now wants the classic sets so the kid can play with the toy instead of the built model. Friend’s kid just put lights on his millennium falcon. Awesome! I’m not trying to be the Lego police. It’s just a different toy.
checkyoursudo 5y ago
Sorry, but I'm going to have to report the great grandmother on the wife's side to the Lego police. The boxes clearly state ages 4-99. wee ooo weee ooo https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lego+box&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lego+box&iax=images&ia=images :)

chris_st 5y ago

> New Lego, get off my lawn. Indeed. My grandson has a ton of lego, and the "old" stuff (you know, brick-shaped bricks) is all used in his various creations. So when we go to play together, he has a bin of "available" parts, except they're all weird one-offs that don't have studs on top. Once you use one on something, well, that's it, no building above that. Really frustrating, and amazingly hard to put even something really basic together.

elteto 5y ago

If you want just bricks you can buy just that. If you want sets then go for it. Both are ok. No need to gatekeep fun. People tend to overestimate how attractive their own lawns are.

jacquesm 5y ago
It's a weird balance between variety and uniformity. The whole key to Lego is that you can connect just about every piece to every other piece, either directly or indirectly. It's a system, not just a toy. But at the same time Lego tries very hard to put something unique in their new sets so that you can't make the design unless you buy the official set (or the one unique part at some ridiculous mark-up through set breakers). The trick then lies in being able to simulate the unique pieces with assemblies of ordinary pieces or pieces that you already have (not always possible), and to use those unique pieces that you do have in new and creative ways to start treating them as ordinary Lego. Some builders have taken this to an entirely new level, for instance in this castle there are all kinds of bits that have been used in ways that they were definitely not intended to achieve a novel effect: https://twitter.com/jmattheij/status/1016382615417389057 https://twitter.com/jmattheij/status/1016382615417389057
- elteto 5y ago
  Good points. I’m not entirely bothered with the current state of affairs re: lego variety and uniformity. I think both people who enjoy building from scratch and those who enjoy sets can be satisfied with the current Lego offerings. What I intensely dislike is people putting down other people just because they enjoy a _toy_ (something meant to elicit sharing and enjoyment) in a different way than theirs.
  - richardw 5y ago
    Why do you intensely dislike words on a website? I have an opinion about a toy, I’m not intensely disliking people who use it differently. I said nothing about those people. When she’s older, we might be those people. Play the Lego blocks, not the man.
    - elteto 5y ago
      Good question. It’s because it relates to previous, real life experiences when people have tried to gatekeep things from me, or passed judgement on me for doing something “different” when the subject at hand was completely inconsequential, like whether I play with lego sets or not.
      - richardw 5y ago
        Sorry, didn’t mean to do that. I was honestly self-mocking in how it needs to be done how I did it, obviously the innovation allows so many more ways to play. Another friend’s wife buys the more complicated sets and admits they’re actually for her, not for her kids. All good, they’ll grow into it :)
        elteto 5y ago
        Hey, this was a very good conversation by Internet standards :) Thanks for trying to understand where I was coming from. I should have done the same perhaps, I totally missed the self deprecation in your original comment. Text is such a poor substitute for real life conversations... but on the other hand we never would have interacted if it wasn't for this "text". Sometimes I feel so ambivalent about the Internet...
richardw 5y ago
Yeah that’s why I’m being partly tongue in cheek. As a kid I enjoyed both models and Lego. Now they’re combined. I’m very sure it’s a killer profit driver, you need tons of sets and enthusiasts want the Death Star. Go wild. It’s just less creative, more exacting, can’t as easily have the experience we all had together. Get a set of blocks and you almost can’t stop yourself from clicking stuff together. A friend got sets for her 4 year old. She builds them, kid breaks them. She builds them, kid breaks them. She is bored with building them, but it’s a jet (or whatever) and kid wants the jet, so…she builds them. She now wants the classic sets so the kid can play with the toy instead of the built model. Friend’s kid just put lights on his millennium falcon. Awesome! I’m not trying to be the Lego police. It’s just a different toy.

checkyoursudo 5y ago

Sorry, but I'm going to have to report the great grandmother on the wife's side to the Lego police. The boxes clearly state ages 4-99. wee ooo weee ooo https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lego+box&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lego+box&iax=images&ia=images :)