MY FAVOURITE TOY!!! (Lego in General)

Member Name: moog27

Product:	Lego in General
Date:	03/05/08 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: durable, high quality, good value for money, fun, educational, encourage imagination and creativity

Disadvantages: none other than slight pain experiences when you tread on the bricks with bare feet !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lego
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lego is a toy that most of us have grown up with and now that my youngest brother is 5 I have the chance to play with it again, purely so that he doesn't have to play alone of course! Lego has developed so much in recent years with new shapes and new things to build. Lego in my mind is one of the best toys available because it encourages creativity and imagination, the two essential ingredients of a happy child.

In order to write this review I have borrowed my brothers Lego. Due to the large age group between my brother and me, we have a huge collection of Lego. Currently is in one of those really long boxes which slides under a bed for storage and the box is filled to the brim. Now that I have opened that box I believe that this review will take me rather a long time to write as I cant resist the odd play!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So what exactly is Lego?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In simple terms Lego consists of various coloured bricks, which come in different shapes, these bricks are made from moulded plastic and have studs on the top and tubes in the base of the brick so that the bricks can easily be joined together. The main Lego blocks are as described below:

8-studded block - this block is just over 3cm in length, 1cm in height and 1.5cm in width. It is the most common of the Lego bricks and comes in a wide variety of colours.
4-studded block - this brick is half the size of the 8-studded block and also comes in a wide variety of colours.

6-studded block - this brick is in my mind the most peculiar brick, as it is not used as much as the above blocks. The brick has 6 studs and also comes in various colours.

In addition to the basic building bricks there are a variety of different length, width and shaped Lego bricks. There are Lego doors and windows which can be used when building a house, there are different sized platforms which consist of lots of studs to that Lego can be build on them. There are wheels which are attached to bricks so that vehicles can be made, there are sloping bricks, circular bricks, and pretty much any shape you would need to build whatever you wanted. As I delve deeper into the box of Lego in front of me I have also found Lego trees and flowers, Lego people, Lego cogs and all sorts of fascinating shapes.


Over the years many different Lego kits have been created, these include the various pieces needed to build a certain construction such as a pirate ship and then instructions of how to do so. The advantages of these kits are that you are not limited to just making the construction intended as the new bricks and shapes can be used in conjunction with your previous Lego to make all sorts of wonderful creations!
Some of the newer Lego sets available include star wars sets, Harry Potter sets, train sets, Bionicles (scary looking moving robot things which you create!), spider man sets, bob the builder sets and so on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A block of history
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Lego Company was established in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen who was a carpenter and joiner in Billund, Denmark. In 1934 the company adopted the name 'Lego'. In Danish the name LEGO comes from the words "Leg Godt" which means "play well" and in Latin it means "I put together" so it is actually a rather clever and appropriate name! In 1947 Lego brought a plastic injection-moulding machine and created the first automatic binding brick with either 4 or 8 studs, which is the basic Lego brick, we still use today. By 1966 Lego was being sold in 42 countries and in 1969 the DUPLO series was created (these are the larger sized bricks for under fives). By 1990 Lego was one of the worlds 10 largest toy manufacturers and in 1999 the first online Lego store opens on the Internet. In the year 2000 the Lego brick was named 'Toy of the Century' by the British Association of Toy Retailers. Now Lego products are sold all over the world and it is estimated by the company that during last 40 years more than 300 million children and adults have played with Lego which is a pretty amazing figure!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some Lego facts and what they mean
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The official Lego website gives many interesting facts about Lego and during my time browsing the site I came across a few which I wanted to include in my review in order to explain some of the advantages of LEGO.

FACT: More than 400.000.000 children and adults will this year play with LEGO bricks.

WHAT IT MEANS: This incredible figure shows just how popular Lego is and therefore it must be good for that many people to be playing with it!

FACT: To build a LEGO tower that reaches the moon would take 40.5 billions LEGO bricks.
WHAT IT MEANS: Ok so this doesn't really mean anything its just an interesting Lego fact!

FACT: A Lego set is sold across the counter somewhere in the world every 7 seconds!

WHAT IT MEANS: again this shows how immensely popular Lego is and the fact that people are still buying it constantly assures us that the quality and play potential must be good otherwise no one would be buying it!

FACT: Children all over the world spend 5 billion hours a year playing with Lego.
WHAT IT MEANS: Firstly, this shows that Lego is a very multicultural toy and is not culturally bias as children from all over the world enjoy playing with it. It also shows again how popular Lego is.

FACT: There are 102,981,500 ways of combining 6 eight-stud bricks of the same colour

WHAT IT MEANS: I simply couldn't leave this fact out because it is so amazing!! It just proves how much play potential Lego bricks actually have!!

FACT: When Lego bricks are manufactured, accuracy is measured to 2/1000 of a millimetre

WHAT IT MEANS: This shows how high the quality of Lego is. Apparently legos quality control standards are as tough as the toughest external standards. This needs to be done as Lego is being sold in all countries where quality standards vary greatly so Lego make their products to the highest possible quality so that they cover all the necessary quality control standards.

FACT: Lego is the largest manufacturer in constructions toys.

WHAT IT MEANS: Again this shows the success and the popularity of Lego products.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interview with a five year old
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This review so far has mainly been an expression of my own opinion on Lego so I have also conducted an interview with my 5 year old brother to find out how he feels about Lego.

Q: Do you think that Lego is a good toy or a bad toy?
A: Good
Q: whys that?
A: because you can build lots and lots of things with it and even make guns.

Q: What do you think the best things about Lego are?
A: You can build what ever you want and also the bionicles are fun.
Q: Do you prefer playing with the Lego where you can make your own things like the bricks or the Lego where you need to make up things like the bionicles?
A: Both really. The bricks are fun because you can still make lots of things the the bionicles are fun because you can fight with them.

Q: Do you prefer to play with Lego on your own or with other people.
A: I don't really mind because if I'm on my own I can concentrate and build stuff and if I am playing with other people we can fight with the stuff we make and have competitions.
Q: What is your favourite thing to make with Lego?
A: Monsters to fight with!

Q: Do you think there is anything not so good about Lego?
A: no

Ok well that's as far as I got before he walked off and went to play with the Lego I had left out!!! Basically I think it shows that children do really enjoy playing with Lego and the wide range of possible play ideas such as the basic blocks and the building kits give such good play potential that there is something that every one will enjoy!


~~~~~~~~~~~
Price
~~~~~~~~~~~
There is a huge range of Lego products available but the prices are very good considering the fantastic quality and the play potential. A set of 52 basic Lego building bricks costs just £3.99 and a bucket full of 200 Lego pieces costs just £4.99 although currently on the Lego website they are on sale for just £2.99! A huge 1000 piece box set of Lego pieces of all shapes and sizes costs £19.99 and also contains a booklet with ideas for creations.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An Evaluation of Lego
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the best things about Lego is that the more you have the more your imagination can run wild. The more Lego you have, the more things you can build and so the more play potential there is. Saying that, even if you have a relatively small amount of Lego, there is still unlimited play potential.
A huge advantage of Lego is that it appeals to both boys and girls, when I was younger I would build houses and all sorts of animals etc, where as my brother would build vehicles and weapons!

With many other construction toys you will hear children say 'oh I cant make what I want to' and become frustrated and bored but having worked with children, when they are playing with Lego, nothing is an impossibility. Lego provides hours of quiet, educational, imaginative and creative play and it isn't just for children either! Although perhaps a little ashamed to admit it, at the age of 17 I still enjoy playing with the Lego and I know my dad does too!
Lego is of an impressively high quality as much of the Lego my brother has today is stuff that was played with by other people before I was even born and it is still in immaculate condition. The bright colours of Lego are another thing, which makes it more attractive to children, and allows more creative constructions to be made.

Having worked with children with language difficulties and those who cant yet speak English it is interesting to see how Lego actually helps bridge the language gap. Children will play together with the Lego and can communicate and understand each other, which helps children who do have language difficulties to feel included in play.
Although it is clear that Lego is developing in terms of the new sets, which are being sold, the basic original bricks are still widely used which is rare for a toy as it has not gone 'out of fashion'. My brothers Christmas list this year consisted of various Lego items, which Father Christmas brought him and he is made up with them!

Many toys these days tend to inhibit creativity and imagination because they 'do' everything for you, but Lego really is a brilliantly fun and educational toy which has no real age limit. I have wracked my brains trying to come up with a disadvantage of Lego but it is pretty much impossible to fault. The only real negative thing I would say about it is that it hurts a bit if you tread on it with bare feet!
All in all it is definitely my favourite childhood toy because it gave me so many hours of creative play and I still have an excuse to play with it now, which is great! Lego is fantastically high in quality, great value for money and one of the most fun toys to play with!!

Summary: with some lego it is not possible not to enjoy yourself!