As I write a post about Lego (not Legos), I start to hear the long-ago voice of my seventh grade English teacher, Miss White, warning me not to pick such a broad topic. I would always think it would be easier to do a ten page paper about, say, the Civil War, but she would tell us that it would be easier to pick something like the Battle of Gettysburg, or even better, the South’s retreat from the Battle of Gettysburg. With that in mind, let me be clear that the subject of this post is not Lego, but the sheer variety of Lego. Brightly-colored interlocking blocks from Denmark, available since 1949, and with quality control to make them snap together but still come apart with the strength of a child’s grip, have spread to playrooms in every country.
There are 62 times as many Lego pieces as there are people in the world, and Lego is the largest producer of (very small) vehicle tires. Now, however, there are many, many Lego toy assembly kits: Star Wars, Harry Potter, SpongeBob, Ferrari, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bionicles, trains, Mindstorms robots, Indiana Jones, Bionicle, Hero Factory, Toy Story – and more coming out every year. So how do you know which ones to get? That’s the easy part: every Lego set is designed for children of a certain age range, has a set number of pieces, giving you an idea of how complex they are to build. Check out the Lego Web site to get an idea of how you can slice and dice their vast universe of products so that you end up with something that is perfect for the child’s skill level, interests and costs exactly what you want to spend. For example, my son is 8, and I like trains, I want to spend about $100, so I think I’ll order the Emerald Night …
… except, wait a minute, it’s for age 14+. I’ll guess I’ll just have to help him play with it.