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I would agree, but also LEGO of today is not like LEGO from 30 years ago. Kids today almost never get raw brick sets and let their creativity loose. Instead,

by senko 2y ago

I would agree, but also LEGO of today is not like LEGO from 30 years ago. Kids today almost never get raw brick sets and let their creativity loose. Instead, the focus is on specific sets, which you complete, then play around with as ordinary plastic toys. Yeah you could disassemble and do crazy stuff but in my experience that doesn't happen as often. Compare with Minecraft creative mode. Kids and I logged hundreds of hours doing silly stuff, goofing around and embarking on "impressive" (for us) builder projects. I'd say for current kids Minecraft is what LEGO was for us a few decades ago.

kleiba 2y ago
It's amazing that you've been able to put in words exactly what I have observed ever since I had kids of my own. Lego used to be such a big part of my childhood, a creative outline bar none. The amazing realization that with a few basic blocks, you can build so many different things - letting your creativity go wild and build your own worlds. But like you said, today, you buy a box set and it comes with a whole bunch of super specific pieces. Sure, the result will perhaps look much more real if your race car model now has an appropriately bend fender piece instead of a step approximation. But you'll never be able to reuse that piece for anything else. But what's worse is that I do not see any desire in my kids to even try and come up with their own creations. It's exactly like you said, they enjoy following the instruction and build the exact thing this box was meant to be, and that's it. Play with it and then it gets dissambled again after a while. They might build it again, yeah, sure, but always exactly like it was predesigned by the company. Instead of fostering creative kids, we're breeding robots. I thought it was just my children so I'm very interested to read someone else having had the same experience. No wonder that Minecraft then has taken over that niche. My kids are too young and don't know the game yet, I've been trying to reduce screen time. But if the real world and tangible toys aren't inspiring them as much as they did when I was young, it makes you wonder if you shouldn't allow them to express themselves at digitally at an earlier age.
crazygringo 2y ago
30 years ago I never saw raw brick sets in the stores and certainly never had any. The sets were filled with space pieces like satellite dishes, city pieces like garage doors, medieval castle pieces, and so forth. Once you built the set you got bored of it within a few days and its pieces went in the pile that you built new things out of. That was your raw brick set. The garage door became the ceiling of a spacecraft. I don't see why it would be different with the sets now. They're just as themed as they were 30 years ago, the only difference is that they've gone from generic themes like "space" to branded themes like "Star Wars". And if there are a few more custom pieces per set, I don't think that prevents their reuse in other ways. If anything has changed, it's just that kids have a lot more options now. If kids play less with Legos, that's not because the sets have changed.

by senko 2y ago

kleiba 2y ago

It's amazing that you've been able to put in words exactly what I have observed ever since I had kids of my own. Lego used to be such a big part of my childhood, a creative outline bar none. The amazing realization that with a few basic blocks, you can build so many different things - letting your creativity go wild and build your own worlds. But like you said, today, you buy a box set and it comes with a whole bunch of super specific pieces. Sure, the result will perhaps look much more real if your race car model now has an appropriately bend fender piece instead of a step approximation. But you'll never be able to reuse that piece for anything else. But what's worse is that I do not see any desire in my kids to even try and come up with their own creations. It's exactly like you said, they enjoy following the instruction and build the exact thing this box was meant to be, and that's it. Play with it and then it gets dissambled again after a while. They might build it again, yeah, sure, but always exactly like it was predesigned by the company. Instead of fostering creative kids, we're breeding robots. I thought it was just my children so I'm very interested to read someone else having had the same experience. No wonder that Minecraft then has taken over that niche. My kids are too young and don't know the game yet, I've been trying to reduce screen time. But if the real world and tangible toys aren't inspiring them as much as they did when I was young, it makes you wonder if you shouldn't allow them to express themselves at digitally at an earlier age.

crazygringo 2y ago

30 years ago I never saw raw brick sets in the stores and certainly never had any. The sets were filled with space pieces like satellite dishes, city pieces like garage doors, medieval castle pieces, and so forth. Once you built the set you got bored of it within a few days and its pieces went in the pile that you built new things out of. That was your raw brick set. The garage door became the ceiling of a spacecraft. I don't see why it would be different with the sets now. They're just as themed as they were 30 years ago, the only difference is that they've gone from generic themes like "space" to branded themes like "Star Wars". And if there are a few more custom pieces per set, I don't think that prevents their reuse in other ways. If anything has changed, it's just that kids have a lot more options now. If kids play less with Legos, that's not because the sets have changed.