Saturday, April 14, 2007

LEGO people marching


LEGO people marching
Originally uploaded by toyblogging.
LEGO's are some of the most fun, expansive toys you can buy. We recently got a big box of LEGO's that span a couple of generations. Problem is, when you get these old sets there are a lot of pieces missing. The other, bigger problem, is that you get a lot of flat "base" pieces. These are the flats that come with small sets, but you can only use them as a base (they don't have the female brick side on the bottom-- it is just flat).

So if you are first introducing your kids to LEGO, after stepping up from Duplo, we recommend you strip out all those confusing ray guns, hinges, and flat pieces. Stick to blocks! The little tiny buttons are cool, but tough to build with. The long, skinny flat "connectors" are useful, but will only aggravate kids who don't yet understand how to connect things.

But if the LEGO set is a bunch of blocks? You can't go wrong. People are nice too, but our daughter spent her first round with them ripping off their heads and stacking them. Cute, but annoying, as we then had to put them all together again so none got lost!

Stick with blocks and kids will spend hours just building stuff.

9 comments:

Kidazy said...

I couldn't agree more, I'm a HUGE Lego fan and always have been but recently I remembered just how frustrating all of those "extra" pieces can be! I was reviewing a Lego car kit and I can tell you those extra gear shifters and oddly shaped pieces made for an interesting...and EXTREMELY long review video.

Jim said...

My boys love Legos. My oldest age 7 loves to make space ships and cars. My other boy age 5 loves the people the most. Together we often build the bigger sets so I can help them. I have other suggestions for great toys at. http://3boystoys.com/creative.html

Melanie said...

Great!! Lego..My kids favorite...

ToyGeek said...

Great advice, I totally agree with you. I remember playing with Legos as a kid, and I never really liked the extra pieces. I just wanted to build something as tall as I could!

Unknown said...

Oh my yes! I have been selling new and used toys in Austin, Texas since 1989. The lego market has always been strong...but with youtube and animation, it seems hotter than ever! I recommend starting with small sets..a car, a tiny helicopter and then moving to larger sets. It builds the childs confidence to master the smalls first..as the large sets can be overwhelming. We sell bulk bags of used legos in the store..so I agree that a bag of lego bricks without the fancy elements and instructions can also be a good starting point. If you're interested, I hope to add used legos to the online store soon. http://www.annastoydepot.com At this point I'm selling them primarily out of the Austin location.

Unknown said...

Oh BTW the store name is Anna's Toy Depot and we are a good resource for used lego bricks and used lego mimifigures that we sell for $1.00 each. Thanks to The Toy Blog for being a forum to talk Toys and Legos!

MIniBrickToys said...

Great tips for introducing children to LEGO! We get lots of friends wanting to introduce their friends to LEGO, but then confess, they want to help build it themselves.

One of our most popular sets has been the basic bricks, as there are no figures, and it requires lots of imagination:
http://www.minibricktoys.com.au/categories/Basics/

kpaul said...

Here is a look at the History of LEGO over at Toys Timeline.

kpaul said...

I also have new news of the Hobbit LEGO sets for 2012