Leggo of my bits! Lego in general. (Lego in General)

Member Name: GillMN

Product:	Lego in General
Date:	21/05/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hardwearing. Infinitely changeable, Huge developmental learning for children.

Disadvantages: It hurts when you stand on it. Prices of the big kits.

Lego is my favourite toy and I, allegedly, am a grown up!
Lego was just starting to get popular when I was a kid, it was far more basic then than it is now. You got bases, wall bricks and roof tiles! That was it! No Captain Plastic and his Floating Fortresses then, no little flowers to drive yourself crazy putting the heads on! You were lucky if you got a little man to sit in the rather strange looking sofa you had just made for him. But I loved it! Sindy with her growing hair was consigned to the attic when Lego came on the scene! (Which, considering that my brother had drawn a moustache on her, was no great sacrifice!)

I built farms, zoos, barns, houses, more zoos, furniture for the houses. I was a regular little Frank LLoyd Wright. If I wasn't reading I was building what I read about. Mallory Towers was attempted but I ran out of tiles for the roof.

The thing about Lego then and now is that it can be whatever you want it to be. That is it's abiding strength as a toy.

Most toys nowadays are not really toys. They are replica 'things'. Miniature ironing boards, little cars, talking and singing phones, guns, Bratz buses etc. They are very specific and to a large extent direct the way the child plays with them. Most have a very limited time span for their use to play with. A toy car behaves like a toy car, it brum-brums up and down the furniture and floor for a bit and then the next shiny thing shouts for attention.

Lego presents a child with the opportunity to think, imagine, build, manipulate, get frustrated, find another way, concentrate, achieve, destroy and rebuild. All whilst the child is playing! Show me a McDonalds toy that can do that!

The advert's for Lego used to state "A different toy every day!" and this was one advert that was actually understating it's case. Lego can be a different toy every ten minutes if the child wants it to be.

Each brick in Lego can be fastened to other pieces in an in almost infinite number of different ways. The bricks are sturdy, fasten together well, (sometimes too well!) brightly coloured and almost indestructible. If you don't suck it up the vacuum cleaner it tends to last forever. (And I have been known to sift through the dust bag to retrieve a policeman's helmet for a wailing child!)

The only real downside of Lego is the excruciating pain it can cause when you walk on it in bare feet! Oh, and the trips to casualty when bits get swallowed or pushed up noses. (don't ask!) Otherwise the initial high outlay is made up for by the enduring quality of the stuff. I have bought quite a lot from car boot sales, brought it home and washed it and added it to the collection!

The range of sizes means that a child can be incredible precise if it wants to, or not, if it feels like fastening a long bit to a short bit to make an instant gun!

Lego, bought new, is not particularly cheap. There is a huge range of Lego kits available. Most come in the form of a box of pieces and the instructions to make whatever is illustrated on the box. From a simple motor bike to a more complex pirate ship. Lego inc' are no strangers to merchandising opportunities and are continually producing new kits to tempt us.
Often the instuctions are lost and the models adapted to be other things before being put with the rest of the Lego for general and less specific use. They are no less good value for money despite that.

I have a huge tub of Lego, accumulated over the years, sitting in my work room. Occasioally my therapy clients use it to help them to express themselves. The local kids come into my cabin if I'm not working and make a beeline for it.

In a few short years I shall be lying on the floor with my (soon to be born) granddaughter, building farms and zoos. Building dreams and imagination, building bonds between us, building anything we can imagine.

That's the beauty of Lego. When we get down on the floor with it with our kids, we can be kids again and learn and play together.

Summary: A toy for all seasons and all places.