Lego my… Lego!

Today is the day! My kids have finally become old enough to enter the world of the LEGO building block! Not the huge mega blocks or the other lesser building blocks, but the original, and in my humble opinion best, LEGO.

I can remember as a child having all kinds of toys. You name it we probably had it. I can remember my first electric train set, board games and later video games and various and sundry action figures. Between my brother and I we probably had enough Star Wars toys to begin our own rebellion against the Empire! But by far the most popular was the box of LEGO. No matter what else came into the house, we always went back to the LEGO blocks. I remember I used to love the feel of the blocks and how they fit together. That solid feel they had when the blocks were assembled into a building or person. The effort it took to take some of the blocks apart. (Many or our blocks had teeth marks, and I see that now my children's do too.)

Now my own children have their own LEGO. In a rudimentary attempt at social experimentation (and what better reason to have kids than for experimentation!), I purchased two distinct kinds of LEGO. First the newer, moulded character LEGO. You know the ones. You can make cars and planes with the pre-moulded pieces and there are all kinds of different little LEGO people to go with the vehicles. Some people even make LEGO movies. The second type I bought was the original plain old blocks. You remember these as well. Everything you build has sharp corners and no rounded edges. The ones that hurt like hell when you step on them in the dark in the middle of the night. I wanted to see which type would win out.

After the initial wonder at the little people and their various planes and cars, the kids went for the old school blocks. Building the cars and boats and helicopter were fun at first but they soon found the restrictions of these pieces too confining. Now as they happily build replicas of the Aztec ruins, the little LEGO men and women lie in a tangled pile of little limbs and vehicles, like some sort of terrible LEGO world disaster.

I guess in this case, as far as pre-moulded versus original LEGO, less really is more. And best of all – I get to play too!