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Comment by maffyoo | Hacker News Reader

Im a real cynic when it comes to lego. it has increasingly become a product that is sold to parents and then foisted upon children. I know a few parents who claim their kids love lego but empirical evidence seems to be far from that. We bought lego for our kids but they were (briefly) only really interested in the characters and we built a few things but minecraft is a way more interesting way of doing the same thing. Secondly isnt Lego just a business that becomes obsolete because of technology and 3d printers. How long before you can just print the thing you want - plastic or not. It seems to me lego is destined to only have made sense during the late 20th and early 21st century. we should all get over it... maybe they should have bought minecraft?

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I loved lego as a kid, and I had access to a PC by 8.

The key, for me, to keep lego interesting was to have a lot of generic legos. In my mind, lego has done a disservice to the power of their own invention by focusing more on the lego minifigures and things like bionicles -- which you use to build that one set piece and then don't use much beyond that.

If you focus on the bigger sets and sets of just the standard bricks, the limit is your imagination. In my mind, if you're using instructions, you're doing it wrong.

I think there's a nice middle ground in there. You can make the pirate ship, or the TIE fighter or whatever... And then make a pirate tie fighter, with wings and a sail! What I never got was the "make a set and then glue it all up and put it on the mantelpiece" attitude. That's doing it wrong to me.

IIRC sets used to have instructions for multiple models you could make, which helped to support the idea of making different things. My kids want to make the model and put it on the shelf - they're deaf to my protestations.

That's why you gotta ignore the instructions from the get go.

The instructions are good at teaching you a variety of ways the bricks can be used, help understand how to make larger structures from them, etc. And hell, following the instructions is fun, too.

> IIRC sets used to have instructions for multiple models you could make

They still do sometimes—they even have a line where every set has instructions for 3 different models.

What I never got was the "make a set and then glue it all up and put it on the mantelpiece" attitude.

On the other hand I used to love making Airfix models.

Bionicle always had an issue balancing "re-usable pieces" and "one-of-a-kind pieces". The original single-piece torso[1] is a great example of a piece that has almost no other uses.

Things slowly got better with more re-usable pieces until the 2008 a of Matorans, which consisted of 2 feet, 2 hands, 4 limbs, 1 body piece, 1 translucent head, 1 mask, and some combination of single piece weapons - most put together with ball joints.

I personally think this move from technic like "composable" pieces to ball-joint only single purpose pieces was the downfall of Bionicle, but there's probably a thousand other factors involved ;)

[1] http://img.bricklink.com/PL/32489.jpg

Bionicle was one of the worst things to come out of Lego, with Ninjago a close second. Lego really loses its way every couple of years, and then somehow they go back to their roots and they prosper.

I think most kids will choose screens over Lego any day. But we try to limit the time our kids spend on screens and Lego is almost always their go-to toy to play with for an afternoon. I'm always amazed at the creativity it fosters.

I'm an adult and was given a small Lego kit as a gift. Only took me 20 minutes to put it together but it was so fun to problem solve and manipulate things in real life. 3D on the computer will never match the experience for a long time.

You should come and try to take some Lego away from my youngest sons. I wish you much good luck and hope there won't be any sharp objects nearby. Also: up your life insurance ;)

Not all kids are different, some will take to Lego like fish to water, others don't care. In my family almost all the kids (girls and boys both) like Lego. This in spite of Lego doing what they can to destroy their image with all the fads an the horrible sets they put out every couple of years until they find their 'true North' again.

> Secondly isnt Lego just a business that becomes obsolete because of technology and 3d printers. How long before you can just print the thing you want - plastic or not.

To get something approaching the build quality and strength of a lego brick, you're going to need a mighty expensive printer.

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