Chris Higgins
What Happened to Plain Old Lego Bricks?
by Chris Higgins - September 11, 2009 - 3:17 PM

The United Colors of Legotton

When I was a kid, my brother and I built all kinds of things out of Legos — spacecraft, buildings, pseudo-Voltrons, abstract art pieces, and so on. We kept all our bricks in a gigantic denim bag that so heavy it was hard for a four-year-old Higgins to carry. But even the bag itself was well-designed: when you opened the bag, it actually laid out as a flat circle on the floor, allowing easy access to a fantastic Lego collection heaped within.

As kids, my brother and I only had one or two “themed” Lego packs — one was a set of “moonscape” plates that you could presumably build a moon station on, and another had something to do with knights and castles. But in general, we just had a metric butt-load of bricks, no Indiana Jones, no Star Wars, no custom “only fits in one place” bricks from those sets that kids get nowadays.

So what happened to good old generic, non-themed Lego bricks? The New York Times says: Turning to Tie-Ins, Lego Thinks Beyond the Brick. From the article (emphasis added):

Even as other toymakers struggle, this Danish maker of toy bricks is enjoying double-digit sales gains and swelling earnings. In recent years, Lego has increasingly focused on toys that many parents wouldn’t recognize from their own childhood. Hollywood themes are commanding more shelf space, a far cry from the idealistic, purely imagination-oriented play that drove Lego for years and was as much a religion as a business strategy in Billund. …

In the United States, Lego’s biggest market and the biggest toy market in the world, games with themes like “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” were among the reasons Lego sales jumped 32 percent last year, well above the global pace. But experts like Dr. Jonathan Sinowitz, a New York psychologist who also runs a psychological services company, Diagnostics, wonders at what price these sales come.

“What Lego loses is what makes it so special,” he says. “When you have a less structured, less themed set, kids have the ability to start from scratch. When you have kids playing out Indiana Jones, they’re playing out Hollywood’s imagination, not their own.”

What Do You Think?

Do your kids play with Legos (or do you still play with them yourself)? How do you feel about the themed kits overpowering the general-purpose brick sets? I’d be particularly curious if anyone out there knows of good sources for buying just the regular bricks, as indeed they can be hard to find in some toy stores. (Note: if you search on Amazon for “lego bricks” there are some good options there, particularly the “Basic Bricks” set.) Leave your thoughts in the comments!

See Also…

The Early History of Lego, The Lego Lifestyle Home, and Stop the Lego Mania!

(Story via Kottke.org; photo “United Colors of Legotton” by Flickr user Guillermo, used under Creative Commons license.)

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Comments (59)

  1. I was initially resistant to the themed kits, but now that my children have amassed a wide variety of them, I’ve seen the same kind of creativity (or even more) that I had with basic Legos … they combine bits from various kits, repurposing pieces and all in all, creating their own (somewhat cracked) designs. Still, I see they use the more generic pieces up first, and the highly specialized pieces end up on the floor.

    As far as buying the basic blocks, I think the Lego store is the best source, but I don’t know how widespread these stores are.

    posted by Karen on 9-11-2009 at 3:26 pm

  2. I miss my Legos!
    When I was in high school my dad made my brother and I get rid of all our Legos because we were too old to play with them. Crazy! Luckily my boyfriend still had his (he clearly had nicer parents) so if I needed a Lego fix, I could always go there!
    But they are great tools – I actually use them in my (math, high school) classroom for teaching geometry proofs.

    posted by Daphn on 9-11-2009 at 3:28 pm

  3. I’ve thought the same thing about Legos for the last few years. The specialized local toy store up here does still have basic sets.

    I still miss the Technic one that I played with when I was about 12 or 13. That was the cool stuff.

    posted by Dave on 9-11-2009 at 3:32 pm

  4. My children are too old for Lego. I loved them myself as a child, but I never seemed to have enough bricks to build anything really big, just usually houses.

    A 15 year old son of a friend of mine has huge structures in his bedroom built from standard Lego blocks. (It appears to be a military installation of sorts). While there are a few special items in the piece, mostly it is from the 2×4 blocks that we all know and love. This is what it is like for children to use their own imaginations.

    posted by Gordon Daily on 9-11-2009 at 3:38 pm

  5. There is a trend recently, and it shows throughout all media outlets. We are becoming so lazy, that we don’t even want to imagine anymore. We would rather let someone else do it for us. Book based movies, video games, and even toys are structured so we aren’t required to use our imaginations anymore. Everything is structured for us and all we have to do is follow.

    I applaud your children, Karen, for thinking outside the blocks (pun intended), and creating their own designs.

    I’m with Chris on this one. My parents supplied me with sporting equipment, hot wheels customizable tracks, Lincoln Logs and lego blocks. He let my creativity take over after that. I only remember ever receiving a pirate ship theme box as the only real specific set. Other than that, it was the Lego Bucket and my fisher price football chest! My only complaint was the lack of specific colors. I could never finish something without having to mix another color in.

    posted by Steven on 9-11-2009 at 3:44 pm

  6. I LOVE Legos (never too old for Legos, I say), and build with them regularly now with my 6-year-old son.

    He has some of the themed Lego sets, too (presents from aunt and uncle), but plays with those as regular toys, not as building blocks. These newer types of Legos are OK for that, but for good old-fashioned creative construction, there’s nothing like the — as you call them — generic Legos.

    (You can still order those in pieces via the Lego catalog, by the way!)

    posted by Shirley on 9-11-2009 at 3:48 pm

  7. Regarding the creativity, that is highly dependent on the child. My own 6 year old son mixes all the parts around and generally has an equally creative experience as I did when I played with Lego. However, I’ve seen other kids his same age who build the kit and then put it on the shelf, never to be dismantled or rebuilt ever again.

    But my even bigger disapointment with the new direction Lego has taken is that they use fewer bricks and are generally more delicate and flimsy designs. The models may look cool, but they don’t stand up to actual play with little kids.

    posted by Casey Brown on 9-11-2009 at 3:49 pm

  8. This is a complaint that I’ve been hearing for at least 15 years in various iterations and has been going since before LEGO started doing licenses.

    I think that you may be misremembering how LEGO was sold when you were young. Theme sets have always been around. Now it’s Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but back then it was space and castle and pirates and city. (And note, all of these themes still exist alongside Star Wars and Indiana Jones.) But then, as now, you can find tubs of regular bricks sitting right next to all the theme sets. And you can find these tubs at the major retailers like Toys R Us or Target.

    I’ve little doubt that kids now have the same kind of mass of bricks you had, but coming from Star Wars and Spongebob sets rather than whatever sets you purchased.

    Nothing’s happened to the Plain Old LEGO Brick. It’s always been there, and still is there, staying reliable next to the fancy new sets.

    Also, LEGO’s only experiencing growth recently. Just a few years ago, they were bleeding out money and on the verge of bankruptcy. So it’s not like it’s all sun and roses for them; it’s been a hard fought path to get to the success they have now.

    Also, Dave, Technic is still out there and going strong. In fact, the new big thing that LEGO’s done with Technic is the Power Functions line that allow you to add all kinds of cool features to sets. Not to even mention the awesome stuff that Mindstorms can do.

    And I don’t work for LEGO in any capacity, I’m just an adult fan that’s loved them for almost my entire life and still play with them. If you want a source for plain bricks, then you have lots of options. You can find brick buckets at the store. You can also go to the source. LEGO has an extensive set of brick tubs on their website (http://shop.lego.com), or you can pick out what bricks you want from their online Pick-a-Brick selection (http://shop.lego.com/pab). If you want even more options, check out BrickLink (http://www.bricklink.com) where other LEGO fans sell their bricks. You choose exactly which bricks you want and can get stuff for a good price. It’s sort of like eBay stores for LEGO.

    posted by Jonathan G. on 9-11-2009 at 3:57 pm

  9. Actually, I saw some very cool Lego sets at Target the other day. They aren’t licensed, they aren’t particularly specialized, and they encourage some creativity.

    The sets use relatively generic pieces and provide instructions to build two or three different models using the same pieces. They were really neat, and I was actually tempted to get a set to put together, despite being a 33 year old with no kids.

    posted by Jon on 9-11-2009 at 3:59 pm

  10. Growing up, my brother and I mostly used the standard blocks. Like Karen’s kids, we’d mix and match the sets a little bit, but still preferred the originals.

    posted by nutmeag on 9-11-2009 at 4:00 pm

  11. My brother and I kept our Legos in a well-designed denim bag too! And if my dad hadn’t sold them at some garage sale without asking me, I would still have that bag today. I loved all the random stuff I could build with the generic blocks — the kits don’t really lend themselves to the same amount of creativity.

    posted by April on 9-11-2009 at 4:00 pm

  12. A couple people got points in that I’d also like to address:

    First, to Steven, I wholly disagree that kids today are less imaginative than we were as children. Having been to LEGO store openings and build events, I see kids being just as creative (or more so) than I was as a child with the bricks. Kids are still as excited to build with plain bricks as they are with sets.

    Second, to Casey, I also disagree that sets now are somehow flimsier than they used to be. The price per brick has certainly gone up, but that trend isn’t isolated to LEGO. (Though licensed sets, especially ones from Lucasarts, are likely to be pricier than their non-licensed counterparts.) If anything, sets feel better built and engineered now than I remember them being as a kid. They include more play features and look better while still being sturdy for play. Sure, you can’t throw them up against the wall without them breaking, but rough stuff like that would break sets 20 years ago, too. (Believe me, I know.) But that’s what’s great about LEGO: If it’s broken, you can rebuild it.

    posted by Jonathan G. on 9-11-2009 at 4:03 pm

  13. Heh, last one for now:

    Jon, here’s my advice for you: Buy the set! You’ll love it. I’m 30, and have no kids, but I still love buying LEGO. There are some really great stuff in the Creator line that you can build. And the price-per-brick on those is pretty good.

    It’s a common thing for people to love LEGO as a child, and for whatever reason, fall out from about ages 14 to mid-20s or 30s, then get back into it. The adult fan community even has a name for it: a person’s dark age.

    Jon, I think the brick is calling you to leave your dark age. :-)

    posted by Jonathan G. on 9-11-2009 at 4:07 pm

  14. There is a LEGO store close to me that has a wall with buckets filled with LEGOs sorted by color and shape. It looks like the M&M store! You pay by the pound and it is SO fun!! They also have the 2X2 and 3X3 “grass” things…forgot the name for them. But it is a FUN store!! Everyone shold visit them.

    posted by Megan on 9-11-2009 at 4:08 pm

  15. I majored in literature in college, and quickly discovered that I needed an imaginative, tactile outlet, so I started buying Legos again. Personally, I own a few sets of the “themed” nature, but mostly of the people and costumes — Star Wars characters, cowboys and indians, medieval knights, etc. They are the perfect “spark” for creative building with stacks and stacks of the basic blocks. At the time, I bought most of my Legos online — I think from a Lego store that sold all of the basic blocks by color and size — if you wanted 40 red roof pieces, you could buy 40 red roof pieces! I can’t remember the site now, though.

    During grad school, I found a paying job teaching mosaic art, which gave me the same outlet, but also brought in some much needed $$. I do miss the Legos, though.

    posted by Kristen on 9-11-2009 at 4:10 pm

  16. My kids have two large rubbermaid bins filled with them, and every piece originated from a themed kit.

    While I balk at the higher cost paid for them, they now pay for their own from allowances and birthday money, so it’s out of my hands.

    And, as mentioned above, they build them up into an infinite variety of vehicles and creatures.

    posted by Joe on 9-11-2009 at 4:17 pm

  17. Does anyone else remember Zaks? They were kind of like flat, triangular legos that you could make hollow 3d shapes from…I had those until I was nearly twenty…

    posted by brittany on 9-11-2009 at 4:24 pm

  18. My kids recently threw out all the Lego building instructions and now just use the various set pieces to build with their imagination. Down the street from us is a woman who easily has hundreds of thousands of Legos. She teaches with them and has even built furniture with them, her house being featured on While You Were Out as they de-Legoed one of her rooms.

    posted by Steven on 9-11-2009 at 4:25 pm

  19. I recieved a couple of themed sets as a kiddo (the castles and pirates – but alas, no enormous schooner), and it was kind of frustrating integrating those parts into something other than what was shown on the box, but it also provided me with a challenge that I loved trying to overcome.

    Admittedly, as I got older, I tended to only play with the white generic blocks because I liked the uniformity of color they lent to my designs.

    And now – brace yourself – I’m a modernist architect.

    Huh.

    posted by Megan on 9-11-2009 at 4:32 pm

  20. They took your Legos, they took your crayons, they took your creativity.

    If you miss your Legos, got to a store and get some. It’s worth it. Really. Target, Walmart, and Toy’sR Us have buckets of regular bricks. You don’t need any fancy set, though that Carousel is really pretty cool.

    If you can get to a Lego store you can get buckets of bricks of any kind they have available. Go to town.

    posted by Balun on 9-11-2009 at 4:33 pm

  21. My two pre-teen boys play with Legos, and have a good time with the theme sets and with regular bulk Legos. I think the theme sets are good, in that they teach children to read instructions and follow direction. My youngest son got the Speed Racer set this past Xmas and built the truck and took it apart several times before it all became incorporated into the mass Lego bucket. As others mention, he Frankenstein’s things together from all the kits.

    posted by Kelly - Sangria! on 9-11-2009 at 4:38 pm

  22. My son has been wanting Lego’s for a couple years, he’s 7, but he wants one of those Star Wars themed, build-a-kit ones and I don’t want multiple hundreds of Lego’s all over my house. Plus, getting a set kind of requires that you build the damn thing, which would be my job and not one I want to do so I haven’t gotten him any Lego’s.

    Well, fortunately, a few days ago, someone put a bucket of generic Lego’s, ie not a set, in the common laundry room in our complex so I snatched them up for my son and he loves them, plays with them and builds things, even his own version of a tie-fighter, every day.

    posted by Sarah in CA on 9-11-2009 at 4:47 pm

  23. I lovelovelove this post! Legos were such a big part of my childhood and now that I’m an aunt, I’ve often wondered about Lego kits.

    You can get regular Legos online at the Lego store (lego.com), though it seems you have to buy them individually at 10 cents a pop.

    posted by Erica on 9-11-2009 at 4:50 pm

  24. I had the castle one. It didn’t take long for me to tear it down, build a stage, and use it as some kind of “rock band” with the knights. The battle axes became guitars, built little mics and a keyboard (since I was rocking to Hall and Oates).

    Ah, LEGO, you make-a my dreams come true.

    posted by Pete on 9-11-2009 at 5:01 pm

  25. My 29 year old husband LOVES Legos there are some pretty cool kits out there. If your state is lucky enough to have an official ‘Lego’ store like our fine state of OK you can buy buckets of any kind of brick you want for 7-14 bucks a bucket (depending on the size). And as for kids being lazy by getting these kits there’s nothing lazy about them some of those Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and my husbands favorite Space Police kits are pretty intricate. For just how creative you can get with Legos look at http://www.brothers-brick.com/

    posted by Megan on 9-11-2009 at 5:39 pm

  26. I had so many Legos when I was a kid…initially they were kept in a large dress box, but when that finally broke, we stored them in these chairs that I had with removable seats that looked like crayons. I never had any of the themed sets (I didn’t care, I had enough Legos to make anything I wanted), but I always told my parents that when I grew up, I was going to get all of the Indiana Jones ones and put them together and display them on a sand table with added landscaping for full effect. Well, I’m all grown up now and haven’t done that yet, so I guess I will have to settle with playing “Lego Indiana Jones” on my DS.

    posted by Mary on 9-11-2009 at 5:54 pm

  27. Way back when I was a child, I would have killed for Lego bricks, however, they were way too expensive for my parents who had 7 kids to contend with. So instead, twice a year (birthday and Xmas) I got a basic set of Tinkertoys. The creations that I made with those far dwarfed anything Lego in size, creativity, and outright fun. Tinkertoys also laid the foundation for my understanding of geometry, mechanics, and engineering.

    posted by Hawaiian on 9-11-2009 at 6:19 pm

  28. We LOVE Legos. My son builds, rebuilds and combines kits. We buy the sets new, but we’ve also bought Legos by the pound off eBay. Mixed lots are great because you get such a mix of parts you never knew existed. http://www.Bricklink.com is a great site if you are looking for specific parts and http://www.brickartist.com is amazing. What we REALLY need is a good storage system for the bricks and for the building directions. They have taken over most of the playroom. We do both Kinex and Legos, and I like both, but I had Legos when I was a kid so I can’t help liking them a little bit more.

    posted by Bonnie on 9-11-2009 at 6:28 pm

  29. Loved legos as a kid, my kids love them, and even now if one of them is building I’ll jump in. Best source for plain old lego blocks is a lego store….just like buying bulk candy, but less fattening! We had 4 big rubbermaid tubs…..whittled that down to two and sold the other two! keeping the rest forever!!!

    posted by Sandie on 9-11-2009 at 8:33 pm

  30. So where do people get the bricks to make those really big LEGO displays you see from time to time? You know, fantasy cities and the like? You’d have to spend a fortune buying mixed bricks by the bucketful in order to have enough of the right colors.

    posted by Pam on 9-11-2009 at 8:48 pm

  31. We bought our boys’ first set of legos as a non themed bucket set. Since then we have added enough sets (both themed and non-themed value packs and from yard sales and thrift shops) to completely fill a large rubbermaid tote.

    While every themed set has been put together once (when brand new) they very quickly become dismantled to build this or that. I keep the instruction booklets on the off chance that someone will want to rebuild something specific, it rarely happens.

    That being said, I think my children have gained invaluable attention to detail and instruction following skills. When you are following the instructions (that are written almost entirely pictorially) it can be quite puzzling from time to time! You learn to back tract and account for each step when you have to correct a mistake.

    posted by chance on 9-11-2009 at 9:14 pm

  32. My brother and I are from the genaration of kids started with the old sets then got themed sets. We always got the Harry Potter sets, we’d make them then take them aparet and make new stuff. My favorite pieces are the complex little things.
    We still have them in this huge four foot by one and a half clear plastic box, that thing is so full that we have a hard getting the lid on.

    posted by Anne on 9-11-2009 at 10:18 pm

  33. I amassed a drawer full of Legos when I was a kid; those and Star Wars were my all-time favorite toys. I GAVE AWAY my Legos when I was in high school because I didn’t play with them anymore! Can you believe that! I was so stupid; I’d give anything to have those back. I have bought the occasional set here and there over the years, and now have about two buckets worth of bricks. My wife is pregnant with our first children, twin boys, and they WILL play with Legos! I will make sure they have a room full of them, and I might just end up playing with them more than the boys!

    Also, I’d like to know how many people like me are Lego snobs. No MegaBlocks, no Kinex, they have to be Legos. It’s not one of my better qualities, but that’s just how I am.

    posted by Justin on 9-12-2009 at 1:28 am

  34. I do back the basic premise that the simple blocks focused building more in just imagination and creativity. But you should see the stuff my kids build. A frustrating aspect of most of the spaceship type Legos is that they are not structurally sound for playing with. As a result, they fall apart. Which is very disappointing when it happens. Eventually, my kids quit tying to keep the original ship together, and the pieces mix in with everything else. They build amazing stuff. I am continually surprized at what they come up with. The kits really haven’t taken away the drive to use one’s imagination.
    As far as a Lego snob… not really. But in my approach is that you pick one or two building ‘systems’, and then you get lots! Much better than a little bit of everything.

    posted by Jane on 9-12-2009 at 4:48 am

  35. I likewise played with LEGOS (and still do…) The themed sets do NOT ruin creativity, not in the least. With all the special peices it actually lets people build things even more detailed. Some of the new sets nowadays made me look at lego peices completely differently.. Add a star wars lightsaber handle to a camera block and you have a machine gun, or things like creating a fire hydrant. Things you could never build in the old style of legos.

    With the traditional block LEGOs you may have used your imagination more simply because you had to, because using just squares and rectangles nothing would look like you tried to make it look, minus houses and other buildings. With the new peices you can do so much more and with all the odd shaped peices you end up having to use more creativity to try and get things to fit right and subsequently look right.

    And every set still has plenty of normal blocks. You can’t build much without them. The special peices are just another tool to help.

    posted by Michael on 9-12-2009 at 6:46 am

  36. I still have most of the Lego’s that I had when I was growing up. I had A LOT of the classic “brick” style legos, but also a few themed sets.

    Nothing as elaborate as the Indiana Jones or Star Wars stuff though, usually just a car with one minifig or something along those lines.

    I did enjoy playing with the classic “bricks” more than the sets, but combining the sets to make some sort of Old West futuristic time warp town was pretty fun…

    I played with Legos from the mid-80′s to the late 90′s, and still have most of the sets.

    I still have the Lego Shuttle set in my room today (fully built).

    http://guide.lugnet.com/set/?q=6339_1&v=z

    Link goes to picture of Shuttle set.

    posted by Mike Brown on 9-12-2009 at 1:53 pm

  37. Growing up, I had mostly themed lego sets. While I did usually build what the instructions told me to, I also created personalities, etc. for the characters. I think it’s similar to playing with a dollhouse – you have different situations your little lego people can get into.

    However, my brother and I would use our Duplo legos to build obstacle courses, mazes, and mysteries for our characters to do, and that required some ingenuity.

    posted by Case on 9-12-2009 at 3:37 pm

  38. I still play with my Lego bricks – my mom got me a big honkin’ box of basic bricks one year for Xmas. I was um, 22. The next year I got the Lego Soccer Stadium which comes with a whole team of minifigs.

    However, even with my vast and varied imagination, the basic bricks (and soccer field) were not enough (no wheels? WTF?). LUCKILY for me, my local mall has a Lego store! And for $10 or similar, you can get what appears to be a Big Gulp cup and buy Lego pieces a la carte. It’s GENIUS. Wheels and bricks and people and pink things and trees and doors and windows and more wheels and STUFF! It’s a Lego nerd’s dream store, is what I’m getting at.

    So look for your local Lego store and have at it, or maybe email me with a list of what you want/need and we can work out some kind of courier agreement. Heehee!!

    posted by Rachel on 9-12-2009 at 4:03 pm

  39. I worked at a Lego store during the summer (when not away for university) and as far as I can tell, the “newer” non-traditional bricks haven’t hindered kids’ creativity in the slightest. However, parents and kids both come in specifically looking for the licensed sets (especially Star Wars), and a lot of times we get parents complaining that their kids don’t keep the sets together after they build them (instead, their kids are opting to break the sets apart and use them for more creative designs).

    So, in my experience, a lot of the issue is that parents spend their hard-earned money on (admittedly pricey) Lego sets, and then want to make sure their kids are “getting the most” out of it by following the instructions and keeping the sets pristine like models. I think if everyone realized that building, destroying, rebuilding and redestroying is a central part of the way Lego sets can be used (and a main way that kids want to use them), then a lot of the complaints would go away.

    I also think Jonathan G. had some great tips up in his first post ( http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/34200#comment-195140 ). There are places online (like Lego’s own PAB site, and the fan-operated Bricklink) that let you pick and choose what bricks you want. Of course, if you have a Lego store near you, that’s usually a more convenient resource (since they’ll have a PAB wall), but not everyone has that luxury. I can’t speak for third-party retailers (or really, any retailer, even Lego ^_^’), but it seems in some cases they do sell Creator or some of the brick buckets, so that’s another option.

    Jonathan also mentions he’s an adult fan– these folks are also sometimes called AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego) and commonly organize conventions and meetings for people who enjoy Lego building. If you ever see some of the insanely creative things they make (search Flickr for photos of “Brickfest” or “Brickworld”, or even just “AFOL”), then you’ll know that there is more than enough hope for the imaginative possibilities of non-traditional bricks. If you or your kids need inspiration, just attend one of those conventions and you’ll be filled with ideas!

    posted by S on 9-12-2009 at 6:42 pm

  40. I only dislike the bionicle line that doesn’t even vaguely resemble traditional bricks. That’s what they sent my son for this month’s brickmaster set – lame! He loves to get and assemble theme sets, but always takes them apart to make his own creations. This bionicle thing may as well be a cheap fast food toy, it’s worth well <1 hour of entertainment.

    posted by K on 9-13-2009 at 11:14 am

  41. brittany – I have a whole bucket of Zacks! My kids play with them occasionally, but legos rule at my house. I have 3 boys (ages 3, 6 & 7) and 2 of them LOVE legos. I was fortunate to have a large box of legos (mostly the original bricks) given to me by a co-worker who’s boys had grown up and moved out. We have a few themed kits, buy my kids play with the standard much more. I do agree that the themed kits don’t allow for as much imagination, but they do teach kids how to read and follow directions.

    posted by LuMaSa on 9-13-2009 at 12:41 pm

  42. My brother, sister and I had Legos when we were younger. I don’t like the themed sets, mainly because there were none when we were younger. They require no imagination.

    posted by Sara in AL on 9-13-2009 at 2:46 pm

  43. Hey Justin…I have to admit I am a lego snob…for sure. Although the kids did have megablox occasionally they really weren’t allowed to mix with the lego….Now is that stupid or what! All that’s left in my two tubs now is pure lego, and nothing but!

    posted by Sandie on 9-13-2009 at 8:53 pm

  44. Don’t forget the humble north American MEGABlok! Less costly and compatible with regular Lego, ya knows?

    posted by biffeh on 9-15-2009 at 1:09 pm

  45. I agree and disagree, while I do think that the themed sets can limit imagination, it was the theme or rather the video game (Lego Star Wars) that got my son interested in Lego’s to start with. and as another coment stated once you have a bunch of different sets your possabilities open up
    Think about this, Darth Vader and the country Farmer battle Indiana Jones, and the Firemen.

    posted by Aidan's Dad on 9-15-2009 at 2:02 pm

  46. If I come off as a LEGO snob with this post, then so be it…

    But I have to come down pretty hard on using Megablocks and other knockoffs. I’m all about generics and being cheap, but you really lose out when you get the knockoff construction toys. And I’m not just saying this because I’m a LEGO fan.

    To save costs, the plastic that these companies use isn’t the good ABS that you get in a LEGO set. It’s far more prone to snapping, warping, and doesn’t mold as cleanly as LEGO does. So you find that when building, the pieces don’t come together very well. On a pretty small set, it may not be an issue, but if you try building anything medium or large, you’re going to find that it could come apart as you go, and that the “grid” of studs doesn’t line up as you get larger. Not to mention that these other companies use far more specialized bricks and elements than LEGO ever has, so if the complaint is “what happened to plain old LEGO bricks?” then you’ll find the problem much worse with the knockoff companies.

    Among my LEGO tubs are bricks I played with when I was a kid over 20 years ago. And it’s great because they snap in place with everything else as though they were brand new. But even brand new knockoff bricks don’t work as well as my 20+ year old LEGO bricks.

    It’s really more than worth the extra cost to buy actual LEGO because the difference in quality is huge. I think the cheap bricks, with their lower-quality use for building, would be more discouraging to a kid’s imagination. When you try to build something, and it doesn’t hold together because of the nature of the plastic, then how likely are you to try it again?

    For LEGO store openings, they build giant 8-foot-tall characters of bricks. And they’re build on the spot without glue. (For the most part. There are usually about 5 parts (making up less than 1% of the actual model) that are glued together. These usually have the LEGO logo painted on, have to do with internal electronics, or something like that. But they’re an EXTREMELY small part of the model.) You simply could not make that with knockoff brand parts. They wouldn’t hold up to that kind of building. They wouldn’t hold up to the 2-foot scale model that was built, either.

    So, parents, it’s worth it to go with the good stuff when it comes to construction toys. LEGO is more expensive, but it’s worth it. Especially if you’re kid’s like me and is still playing with them at age 30.

    posted by Jonathan G. on 9-15-2009 at 2:29 pm

  47. WOW – I have always loved Legos, and after a hiatus during college, have picked them back up again – having 4 children running around the house is a good excuse to relive the “glory days” of brick building.

    I was raised with some of the themed sets… I remember a moon base (probably the same one Chris mentioned in the original post) and a big Mars rover thing with an fliptop cockpit and 6 of the biggest Lego wheels ever made. Lots of fun there, but I have never been successful in reusing the windshield from that set. My dad also bought one of the many airport sets one year (and glued it together – WHAT WAS HE THINKING!!)

    The thing that gets me is the vast number of colors available today. My kids just got a set recently with pieces in two different shades of green – 2 SHADES OF GREEN!!!! WTF! I would have killed for brown, tan, orange, light green, dark green, or cream colors when I was a kid – WOW the sheer plethora of color available is mindblowing.

    posted by Justin L on 9-15-2009 at 2:54 pm

  48. When my older brother and I were kids, the majority of our legos were the basic kind, and any ‘special’ ones were inevitably mixed in with the rest of them until we forgot exactly which piece came with which set. Now our little brothers have inherited the same huge box of Legos, and while they’ve added a few more Star Wars or Indiana Jones sets, I’m proud to say that they still love to experiment with the legos and build their own ‘spaceships’ and whatnot.

    After all, what kid will keep his latest Star Wars starfighter, etc intact for long? It’s only gonna take a little while for him or her to disassemble it and combine the pieces with other ones.

    posted by Erin on 9-15-2009 at 3:28 pm

  49. I feel that you have reached the pinnacle of your career if you have had a minifig made in your likeness. Hats off to Harrison Ford, you can now leave with grace that you have not one but two minifigs in your honor.
    Legos rule !!!

    posted by lindseyu on 9-15-2009 at 4:23 pm

  50. First off, I want to say how much I love Legos (and I have the bike from Indiana Jones set with both Junior and Senior Jones on my desk…yay for Sean Connery as a minifig)!

    That being said, I was a fan of Legos 15 years or so ago, as a kid, and had girly pink Lego sets called Paradisa or something like that. They weren’t Star Wars, they weren’t Harry Potter, but they were definitely themed and had many weird shaped blocks. Once I made it to college, a friend of mine and I were discussing what caused us to go into Japanese as our language, and for him, he wanted to know if the Japanese on his Ninja Lego boxes were actual words. We discussed this at length, and he also had more sets than he did just brightly colored bricks. Therefore, I’m sure the themed sets have been around for 20 years or more. (As an aside: his name was Zach, and if anyone remembers the old commercials, from that day on he became Zach the Lego Maniac in our eyes, haha)

    To all of those “Lego Snobs” out there, I agree that MegaBlocks and the like may not be quite the quality that Lego is, but K’nex really do cut the mustard. I was much more creative building machines out of K’nex than I ever was with Lego, and with the gear kits and motors I had to learn a lot about how simple machines worked to make things work the way I thought they should. To this day, my K’nex get pulled out at least twice as often as the Legos do, and my husband and I play with them more each time as well. (Yes, we have no kids to use as an excuse, but have a good time together, so who cares??)

    posted by Amauriel on 9-15-2009 at 8:09 pm

  51. Well, when I was a kid I had regular Legos but I also had the Lego Soccer kit. I used to use the goal posts as lightsabers and play Star Wars anyway, so I think that the “theme” kits don’t really take away creativity. If anything, they add to it, because not only do you get to imagine something and create it, you get to see how something works and then change it to something that you create.

    posted by AlexK on 9-15-2009 at 9:56 pm

  52. My five year old son and I play with Legos all the time(I think you are never able to outgrow Legos to start with). He has many of the themed sets and what we do is put it together per the instructions once, then tear it down and he builds what ever he wants to from there on. Some of the most creative works he has made came from combining TIE fighter parts and Lego City blocks. I do miss the “basic set” which can be found at any discount retailer, but only because we haven’t added it to our collection yet. Bring on the Lego Guitar Hero!

    posted by Terry on 9-16-2009 at 8:29 am

  53. Has anyone noticed how much smaller the new legos are? Or maybe it’s just I’ve grown so much since I last played with them. I love the original bricks, but my children have only had the newer ones – you know, the kind that clog up your vacuum. Too much money for my taste and they aren’t using their imaginations as much.

    posted by Elizabeth on 9-16-2009 at 4:47 pm

  54. I loved Lego as a kid. Every once in a while I still break out the few that I still have around. I used to play with Duplo blocks, too. Those were the bigger bricks for littler kids. My cousins got them from my family as hand me downs. I remember when he made something that he called the “Chicken of Science!” Duplo blocks and Bill Nye? Kid after my own heart.

    posted by KT on 9-22-2009 at 5:27 pm

  55. Thanks to Jonathan G. for his links – Bricklink is exactly what I was looking for. I’m in Ireland so things on ebay cost more as shipping is higher. With Bricklink I found people/shops nearby with whatever I want. Thanks.

    posted by RD on 10-9-2009 at 5:45 pm

  56. Yeah, what the hell? I’ve been searching EVERYTHING to find just legos. Even at “LEGO” they don’t have just legos. I don’t want dinosaurs, Indiana Jones, Star Wars I II III IV OR V, airplanes, bulldozers, castles, space stations, islands, bob the builder, Dora, Handy Manny, Monsters Inc., Toy Story, or any other such junk. Just the rectangle blocks that lock together so with some imagination, you could turn them into something. You would think that would be a simple thing to find, but no, it’s not.

    posted by Michael Oakland on 12-27-2009 at 1:17 am

  57. Anyone used the LEGO digital designer? The ‘brick pallette’ in the computer version of LEGO gives you everything you could possibly want in the way of basic blocks. So why can’t we have physical sets which match this kind of pallette? ‘Cause it’s not just the square bricks you need – you have to have the thinner baseplate pieces, the bevelled, triangular and all the other generic shapes.

    posted by Evan Lohning on 3-23-2010 at 9:56 am

  58. oh man I remembered the feeling when i saw my creation after building with legos for hours… I know what im buying from walmart tomorrow!

    posted by Erick on 5-10-2010 at 2:35 am

  59. I totally agree with this blog post! I am searching for lego blocks right now, and I thought I would start with the lego website. WTH! I can’t even find any basic blocks! So, I guess I will go with Amazon, as that is the only way I can find basic.
    My kids play with basic wooden blocks and large-ish size legos right now and they are ready for the small size legos. I will NOT hinder their imagination by buying these hollywood sets!

    posted by jennifer on 10-31-2010 at 7:29 am

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