When Legos fall apart, so do I.
I sat up suddenly in bed early Sunday morning; I thought I’d heard something downstairs. Something terrible.
“Did you hear that?” I asked my husband.
“What?”
“Legos. Legos falling …”
Legos make a very distinct noise when they fall on a wood floor — something between a thud and a clatter. It’s the sound of time dying. Of hours eating themselves.
I got up out of bed and found my 6-year-old standing over a massive shipwreck on the stairs. I’m pretty sure he would have been using every bad word he knew, if he knew any. “Oh, man,” he kept saying. “Man.”
“Don’t worry,” I promised, “we’ll rebuild it.”
I should have said, “Don’t worry, we’ll spend the next two days rebuilding it. And every time we rebuild it, we’ll have a few extra pieces left. Pretty soon, you’ll have enough extra pieces to build a whole new ship!”
An obscene number of Legos arrived at our house Saturday morning. (Under mysterious circumstances, there being no chimney). It’s not just my house, right? Every little boy I know is obsessed with Legos.
My son thinks Legos make everything better. He doesn’t want to dress up like Batman; he wants to dress up like Lego Batman. He doesn’t want a Star Wars party. He wants a Lego Star Wars party.
For a long time, my husband and I just ignored all this want. We were like, “You can pretend to be Lego Batman, that’s fine. But real Legos are time-consuming choking hazards, and also they’re phenomenally expensive. And? They don’t look like that much fun.”
I was never much of a Lego kid. (I was no Zach/Zach/Lego maniac.) Maybe because I was a girl, maybe because Legos were totally different back then.
You didn’t see many Lego kits (Like today’s Lego Hogwarts or Lego Millennium Falcon). People usually had Lego assortments, boxes full of loose Lego pieces in various sizes and colors.
I would play with Legos if there was nothing else around, but I could never build anything cool and I didn’t get anything out of the creative process. I’d rather play with a car than build one. (This same personality trait keeps me from enjoying Mongolian grills. Yes, I’d like chicken curry. No, I don’t want to make it.)
Today’s Legos have more in common with models than building blocks. You buy specific kits — castles, spaceships, etc. — and they come with thick construction manuals.
I actually like the building phase. My son and I both love puzzles and, oddly, following instructions.
But once the Lego sets are built, he wants to play with them. Like they’re action figures.
I applaud his imagination, obviously. I’d hate to watch a $60 Lego set gather dust on his bedroom shelf. (Sixty dollars only buys you a medium-sized set, by the way. The ventis go for $100 and up.)
But Legos are not action figures. They’re allergic to action. Enthusiastic looking makes Lego sets fall apart. If you think about them from a distance, they start to shed pieces.
And if you play with them — if you swing the spaceships around the room like … like spaceships — just forget about it. They’ll fall apart in ways that defy explanation.
Which is why I made a Target run on the day after Christmas specifically to buy glue.
I know it’s gauche to glue Legos together, and that Lego purists might mock my son someday for cheating. “If you glue them, you can’t play with them again,” they say.
But if I don’t glue them, he won’t be able to play with them now. We’re a few “Oh man”s away from a box full of random Legos.
And nobody wants to play with that.
I was your boy many years ago. I got my first Legos set (yes set, lots to choose from), it was a space ship. I loved it and wanted more. Every birthday and Christmas all I wanted was more space Legos sets.
When I got my first paycheck from a job watering lawns at 12 I went and purchased more Legos. I would save up for the bigger sets.
When I turned in to a teen I wanted to try the Techno Legos sets, the plastic version of the Erector set. I could build fully functional cars, dragsters, helicopters, and cranes.
The imagination went wild. I was building space cities with command centers for space frontiers. I spent days, months, years trying to figure out 4 wheel drive with all wheel steering using the techno gears.
When I hit my 20′s and had my 2 kids I was buying them Legos and sharing mine. My son(14 now) didn’t take to them as much as I did and have since lost most of the old Legos (small tear running down my cheek). I have an 18 month old girl who likes the toddlers building blocks and large Legos. Will this last, I’m crossing my fingers it does.
The toy was my doorway into drafting, architecture, computer programming (today’s career). These all involve creativity and logical thinking. This creativity kept alive by playing with Legos.
Here’s my suggestion for you and your son. Let him destroy his creation and rebuild it or create something new. Allow his mind to study the steps of how things fit together and come apart. This is brain developement for maybe a NASA Rocket Scientist. Don’t glue them. Buy the sets as long as he keeps playing with them. There will be months he doesn’t touch them that doesn’t mean he is done. Cowboys and Indians, sports, computer games will take his attention from time to time. Then again maybe he won’t stay with it and he will ask for help at the Hu Hot when he is 30.
Hi Rainbow..your little guy sounds like he might enjoy Playmobil better just now. They have that Lego look, but not all the falling apart deal. They are pricey, but so are the big Lego kits!
Too late! The glue has set. Actually, we ended up just gluing a few key pieces that were chronically falling off.
Sandy, it’s funny that you mention Playmobil. I love Playmobil toys so much that I started buying them on clearance years before my kids were born. We gave our oldest son his first set when he was about 5. And he’s just not interested!!
It’s so frustrating because we have an entire Playmobil world in our attic. (Hello, eBay.)
Part of the problem, I think, is that none of his friends have Playmobil. He wants to play what they’re playing. I agree that he seems too young … I relented on the Lego issue when I realized that he could follow the instructions and put them together by himself.
I’m still tempted to buy the Playmobil sets. Toys R Us have a circus line that’s ridiculous. I would have loved Playmobil when I was a kid; my favorite toys were Fisher Price Little People.
Our last name is Lego. Really, truly, but pronounced with a “long e”. Our grandson LOVES Legos and foregoes all human contact to play with his other grandparents’ collection in Miami. Needless to say. we roared all the way through this and I mailed it off to my daughter immediately. Wish we had royalties to the toy, but no such luck.
You’re not the only one who’s applying glue to Legos in this town — my sister in law plans to glue together the Lego barn that my nephew got for Xmas. I spent an entire day playing Legos with him (he’s 3) and am surprised that there was only one meltdown when things literally fell apart.
As for me — I’d LOVE the Hogwarts Lego castle or the Star Wars Death Star. Did you see that the Death Star even has Princess Leia w/ her hairbuns hairdo?! Alas, I am 32, and buying Legos for myself would be a bit ridiculous.
I was pushing so hard for that Hogwarts castle …
My husband handed me your article about Legos as I was repairing a new “Atlantis” Lego my son received for Christmas. I related completely to your take on the dominance of Legos in a household. When my son begins a project, we cringe when we hear something hit the floor. We wait through a brief pause…then a scream followed by tears. Legos stress kids out!!! And parents!!! But we continue to invest hundreds of dollars (maybe thousands-right?)because they can provide hours of bliss and determination. I have been a bit of a Lego nazi trying to give each masterpiece its own container. However, my son has taken to “combining” projects and quite frankly, I have almost given up. My goal is to keep them together to sell on consignment once he outgrows them-although I know of adults who still build with Legos. From Power Miners to Indiana Jones, and Atlantis to Space Police, from Spongebob to City, we probably have a nice investment in our retirement. Should we mention Trio-oh that’s another article!
Deb Coniglio
aka: egg shell walking mama
I know that pause!
Separate containers … I hadn’t thought of that. I think if he wants to start combining them, I’ll just let that happen. He’s already started modifying things.
I can’t imagine that our sets will survive two boys and still be sale-able. Good luck! (That was a sincere “good luck,” not a sarcastic one.)
My 9 year old son is totally addicted to anything Lego! His room looks like a Lego bomb exploded and no system I have tried to contain the madness has ever worked. I would swear the Legos breed at night! I would love to hear how everyone else stores/contains the mess. As for the built creations falling apart…very hard to accept at first but now my son almost expects it and enjoys the modifications he can make.
Adam Reed Tucker
Nathan Sawaya
Sean Kenney
These three men have made careers from building with Lego bricks.
As for the constant destruction… well, look at it this way… a kid breaks a toy, and you (or more likely, him) can fix it instantly, without glue. If he gets bored with it, he can build something else.
I got hooked on space Legos when they first “launched”, and my friends instantly turned them into Star Wars figures (the antennas made great light sabers). Now, with the licensing, Lego has a variety of sets, and they’ve even tapped into the “action figure” gene of boys by creating the “Hero Factory” line!
As for controlling the chaos… stackable plastic boxes would probably be best. If you have space, an old coffee table is ideal, off in a corner of the basement or rec room where the bricks can be stored. Don’t place the table against the wall… you want to be able to walk around it while you’re building. Ziploc bags are handy as well. A solid, neutral carpet or rug under the table will keep bricks from bouncing away and make those bricks easy to find when dropped.
Otherwise, download the Lego Digital Designer. It’s a program which allows you to build with (an unlimited amount of) Lego bricks on the computer, like an engineer. You can also have that virtual creation produced as a kit, with building instructions!
I was never stressed playing with Lego. We just figured out a solution to what we wanted to build, or we built something else. Of course, we didn’t have these Technic-style sets like Atlantis… it was the “creator” (everyday) bricks, then the City/Space/Castle sets when we got older. Our instructions were sheets… not comic books! But that’s part of the fun… you learn new techniques.
And don’t tell him, but… Legos are also educational! (The NXT line evolved from a project developed with MIT!)
I grew up with ‘a random box of Lego’, I came from a big family (6 kids) and full sets were a rare treat so the family hand-me-down with no instructions and probably countless long lost pieces was all we had to share.
It’s still my favourite toy ever.
Playing with the models is great fun, but so was the pure joy of letting the imagination run wild and making multicoloured houses and spaceships and whatever came to mind. The few sets we did get were inevitably broken up, mixed in with everything else and became part of countless further creations.
The joy of Lego is that when you do drop it and watch your model smash, you can always put it back together. Or improve it in your own way. Encourage your child to experiment with Lego and they’ll love it all the more and learn a great deal whilst they do.
As for poor commenter Amy, buy that Death Star, 32 is a perfectly good age to be buying yourself more Lego. I sure stil do!
Parents shouldn’t tell kids how to play with their toys. Especially if they don’t like the toys to begin with (don’t get me started on the commenter who sorts her kids toys in order to sell them later, poor kid).
Most toys have a set way of playing with them; fashion toys, war toys, whatever. Lego is one of the few toys that encourages kids to deviate from the instruction manual and be themselves. Love your kid. Don’t tell them how to play with their toys (assuming they’re being safe) and for Heaven’s sake, don’t glue the kid’s Lego. Just buy a model if you want to do it that way.
As a former LEGO kid, I was disappointed to hear that you’re gluing your son’s LEGO.
1) It’s decreasing the play potential. What’s great about LEGO is that a couple years from now, when he’s no longer excited about “LEGO Batman”, all the elements from his old Batman LEGO sets will still work with whatever LEGO thing he’s into next. If you glue them, and keep them assembled as “the thing that the instructions said to make”, it will become a fad toy that’s put aside rather than staying versatile.
2) It’s also hurting the resale value. I see above that you’d contemplate selling your old Playmobil on eBay. As a LEGO hobbyist, I have to say that glued sets are worth virtually nil in the aftermarket. (But I WILL concede that “complete” sets with all the parts ARE worth a lot more than loose LEGO bricks.)
3) I’d be concerned that gluing encourages rougher play (IE, less reward for being careful), and also encourages less use of imagination. Part of what makes LEGO a great educational toy is that it teaches a lot of positive things through the process of assembly and re-assembly. Not just technical and spatial relational skills, but also things like memory, patience and tenacity.
As noted above, he may still be a bit on the young side for LEGO, or it could be that it’s simply not suited to him as a toy. But I’d still recommend that you to hold off on gluing any more of them.
DaveE
Well it’s true that Lego constructions can sometimes be delicate. But generally Legos are meant to be a construction toy, so I think they don’t have to be as durable as action figures.
The whole point of having Legos is to built and if the bicks were stucked too hard it would be diffict to rebuilt the model. And then Legos would lose their primary purpose.
@Deb Coniglio. Maybe you should let you son mix the bricks (that’s the biggest fun), keep original boxes & manuals (some people will pay a lot for those) and sort the bricks out just before putting Legos on ebay? You can alway check each set’s inventory on the internet or in the manuals.
OK, I hear you guys on not gluing the Legos. (Or the Lego — somebody told me that Lego is its own plural.)
But isn’t it also creative — or at least, imaginative — play to actually pretend that the Legos are what you’ve just built?
I didn’t realize until we started buying them just how fragile some of the new models are. There are large pieces with only a few locking Lego bumps. My son has AT-AT an walker that wouldn’t even stand up until we glued two or three connections.
I think we’re missing a real win-win situation here when the LEGOs fall apart.
1) LEGO model falls apart. Parent and child spend time together rebuilding.
or
2) LEGO falls apart. Child spends time rebuilding it themselves or building something completely different exercising their creativity and imagination.
Sounds like a Win-Win to me.
Trying to keep LEGO from falling apart or keeping the LEGO parts separate is completely against the purpose and spirit of the LEGO process. LEGO models are never intended to stay assembled, on a shelf, in a box, etc. The entire purpose of LEGO is to be built, unbuilt and rebuilt into something completely different.
If you’re only buying LEGO for the one toy on the front of the box, you’re overpaying for one toy rather than getting an amazing deal on many many toys built by your child.
One last point. To a few of the commentors regarding young aged children. The age recommendations on the side of the box are very inentional based on childrens developmental processes. You can fudge them a bit, but if your child is younger than the recomended age, you’re in for alot of building it yourself and rebuilding, and rebuilding and…
Another thought on whether 6 is too young for Lego — the rec. ages vary depending on the complexity of the kit. Really hard to advise a kid who thinks all Star Wars Legos are the same. I find that my 6 year old can handle even the more complex construction, but we still usually do them together.
You got me there. Almost all LEGO Star Wars are 7+, and Star Wars wonderment definitely begins before the age of 7. I use LEGO in an educational setting and even sets that are savely within the age group, kids usually need an instructor.s help every couple of minutes.
For kids who don’t want to take apart and make something new, or to accept that a set breaking is not the end of the workd, a step in the right direction is often providing extra pieces (from a basic LEGO kit or a set they’ve forgotten about) and encouraging them to improve by adding a new weapon, cockpit, etc, etc.
Before you know it, he’ll be taking them apart and building from a box full of random LEGOs.
And what’s not to like about that?
@Def I absolutely agree, don’t tell your kids how to play with a toy.
So if a kid enjoys building something, and then enjoys playing with it, and then doesn’t want it to fall apart — why not glue? Wouldn’t it be worse to tell the kid, “Sorry, but you’re violating the Spirit of the Lego.”
I declare this not a black-and-white issue. My son (grateful for the glue) also enjoys modifying and rebuilding his Lego ships.
If your kid likes Lego Star Wars — but doesn’t want to be locked down to one design — I recommend the Lego Brickmaster set. You get Lego bricks and patterns for more than one ship. It’s cool. And seems more creative.
“My son has AT-AT an walker that wouldn’t even stand up until we glued two or three connections.”
I don’t mean to sound presumptuous, but if that’s the case, it was built incorrectly. LEGO has released 6 different AT-AT models since 2000, and they all stand up with absolutely no problems– no gluing needed.
Notice that the listed age range for the large AT-AT is 9-14, whereas the small Star Wars battle packs are for for ages 6-12. There’s even an “Imperial Shuttle” set out there at the moment for ages 16+. And trust me, they’re not kidding around with the 16+ thing! It’s a difficult build.
Of course, the more experienced your child is at building with LEGO, the less important that age limit is– but it really sounds like he’s too young to be building the AT-AT. There may be a lot of subtleties in the instructions that he’s missing.
“So if a kid enjoys building something, and then enjoys playing with it, and then doesn’t want it to fall apart — why not glue?”
It’s by no means the ultimate evil or anything– but I guess I would hope that as the adult, you’d value the longevity of the toy more than the child’s immediate gratification. In other words, “You want a LEGO toy? That’s fine. LEGO means it’ll fall apart, and you’ll have to deal with rebuilding it, but it will be useful for years to come.”
“Wouldn’t it be worse to tell the kid, “Sorry, but you’re violating the Spirit of the Lego.””
I suppose I see that akin to, say, playing hoop-and-stick with a Blu-Ray copy of Toy Story 3 (obviously a more extreme example). I mean, it’s your choice and all– if your kid has their heart set on using a particular Blu-Ray disc for hoop-and-stick, that’s your call. But it seems like kind of a waste to me.
But I guess the thing that concerns me is you and your son’s seemingly high aversion to the task of repairing and rebuilding with LEGO. And the fact that as journalist, you’re propagating the idea that it’s a daunting task. The attitude seems to be “It broke? … oh MAN,” when instead, I would hope it to be “It broke? Let’s fix it!”
DaveE
Oops, sorry. It’s an AT-ST, and he built it correctly. (And rebuilt it correctly twice with my help.)
I just can’t see how a few glued connections hurt the value of the toy. He’s been playing with his Legos nonstop since we bought them — isn’t that all that really matters?
“Oops, sorry. It’s an AT-ST, and he built it correctly. (And rebuilt it correctly twice with my help.)”
Well, I assume you mean the AT-ST set 7657 (~$20 from 2007, age 7-12), and not the AT-ST from 8038 (~$100 set from 2009, age 9-14), or the older ones (I can think of 4 earlier ones). But really, it doesn’t matter which one it is. All I can say is that the model, as intended, stands up no problem. I’ve built each AT-ST model that LEGO has come out with (and all but one of the AT-ATs), and they’ve always had no problems standing, even on a carpet.
I assure you that LEGO tests these things to no end, and would NOT release one that didn’t stand up. In fact, LEGO was originally slated to release an AT-AT (not an AT-ST) back in 1999, but did NOT, because their testing showed that many kids had difficulty standing the model up (the joints were too weak). So LEGO canceled the set. Then, in 2003 they came out with a stronger hinge piece to correct the problem, finally released the AT-AT. I know several of the LEGO set designers myself, and I’ve heard stories about the testing processes that they go through.
All that said, if your copy doesn’t stand up without gluing, it’s either incorrectly assembled, or it contained faulty pieces. But from my experience, it’s more likely the assembly.
“I just can’t see how a few glued connections hurt the value of the toy.”
Don’t get me wrong– Unlike some of the more vehement LEGO purists out there, I’m not suggesting that you’re utterly destroying the toy or anything. It IS hurting the resale value– and if your son (or another child) wants those parts some 2 or 3 years from now– they’re glued. Is it a huge deal? Not really. But then again, putting it back together shouldn’t be a bid deal either.
“He’s been playing with his Legos nonstop since we bought them – isn’t that all that really matters?”
Not to over-dramatize things, but a child that’s given a diet of chocolate and candy canes is pretty happy! … But that’s not all that matters. It’s up to you as a parent to have the forethought necessary to see what matters tomorrow. Children don’t typically have the experience to plan that far in advance. And again, apologies for making it sound like it’s a huge developmental problem– it’s not. It’s a just a LEGO set.
Ultimately, on a personal level, it’s your call. Maybe he’s not the type to have the patience for building things, and maybe he never will be. And if that’s the case, so be it– gluing won’t be all that bad. I just want to make sure that you’re considering the value of LEGO as a building toy. Your son may not be thinking about that at the moment, but I hope you do.
And most importantly, since this is at least somewhat in the public eye, I want to make sure that OTHER parents take this into consideration before they start gluing their LEGO.
DaveE
@DaveE: You sound very much like the adult version of my oldest nephew.
Now almost 14 and preparing to enter high school in fall of 2011, the one toy that has remained consistent in his life has been LEGO. When he was younger his birthday and Christmas lists consisted of Disney movies and Hot Wheels cars. Now his requests have grown to iTunes gift cards (for his iPod) and a new cell phone. Regardless of the advances technology has made throughout his life, LEGO always seems to make it on his lists no matter what his age.
I would love to sit down with him one day and count every LEGO building block he has – just because I’m curious as to what the final tally would be. (Enough to build a wall that would make China’s Great Wall jealous, no doubt).
Fortunately, he has combined his love of building with creativity and his ever growing imagination and has decided to become an architect. He has started taking basic computer aided drafting (CAD) classes at his middle school and just adores them. He’s very excited to see what the “high school level” CAD classes will bring.
Now if he could only learn to embrace mathematics…
@Rainbow: I don’t think it’s wrong that you want to give your son the satisfaction of being able to play with his LEGO action figures once they’ve been put together — even if with the assistance of glue. As a parent, your main responsibility is to ensure their safety and happieness. What good is a toy to a child if he or she can’t play with it?
I do not have children yet but if I might make a suggestion: explain to Little Boy Rowell that glueing the LEGO means he cannot take them apart anymore. If this is ok with him, by all means, invest in Elmers. However, maybe if you tell him his spaceship today could be an airplane tomorrow and a secret fortress for his Army men the next day, this might persuade him to be less enthusiastic regarding the glue.
Glue LEGO Batman now so that he can be enjoyed. As Little Boy Rowell grows older, and if his affection for LEGO continues, he’ll learn their value and purpose and I’m guessing, at some point, you’ll be relieved of your glue purchasing days.
Happy building! =)
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