There's a sort of zen pleasure in putting pre-designed Lego sets together, especially the more sophisticated ones where you discover along the way the little bu

There's a sort of zen pleasure in putting pre-designed Lego sets together, especially the more sophisticated ones where you discover along the way the little building tricks or "easter eggs" included by the designer. Lego bricks certainly aren't "useless for actually creating things." You can make lots of cool things with Lego, and there's lots of creativity to be found in the Lego community, beyond just following the directions. I do agree with GP that the listed ages on LEGO sets are absurd if taken as difficulty levels. My elementary age kids have no trouble with "18+" LEGO sets. I think the ages instead serve a marketing role: the 18+ rating gives adults permission to buy a toy.