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Comment by JKCalhoun | Hacker News Reader

I'm no longer in my "Lego phase" but still found the article reading like a taxonomy of plastics in general.

Like if you were to create a (okay, not-so) Periodic Table of Plastics, you might as well populate it with Lego parts because most of us are familiar with the bricks and their characteristics.

(And, crazy, who knew Lego used Bakelite at one time?)

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which lego phase?

the kids want toys and build whatever comes to mind phase

or the adults get childhood memories phase

or the adults get elaborate expensive models with a few thousands of bricks that are to complex for kids phase

yes

I never understood the point of making sterile models. Legos, trains, or otherwise.

I want to sit there and play with them. Create elaborate worlds. Have crazy car crashes, recreate die hard, and have plane crashes and other nutty things.

The sad part is I'm in my 30s.

No one should gatekeep how you enjoy recreational time.

fortunately with each generation this becomes less and less of a problem

I get the impression that when people are buying a Lego model of e.g. the Millennium Falcon, they aren't so much interested in building the model. They just want a model of the Millennium Falcon, to display on their shelf; and the one that best optimizes appearance + affordability for them, just happens to be one that comes as a kit of small modular parts that they must assemble. It's less "a building-toy set that happens to build into a model" and more "a model that happened to be released by a building-toy company." The making part of these sets is secondary.

depends, i find the building part the most fun. once a model is built, it's less interesting. which is partly frustrating. i want to do more than just build a model and put it on a shelf.

The single model sets are more 3d jigsaw puzzle than building blocks.

Fun to make and all but limited "replay value". It's a different kind of satisfaction.

This must be true since models with limited replay value other than gazing at its built state and maybe mesmerizing the fun of making it (cfr the ikea effect) seem to do well. It puzzles me.

"The sad part is I'm in my 30s. "

The sad part is, many who are in their 30s, forgot how to play and have fun.

I get the sentiment, but at some point, the novelty wears off. Building a new set just isn't exciting because the process is almost exactly the same as building the last set.

Huh? But you can recombine them in infinite ways..

not everyone has the creativity for that. i am struggling too. the best i manage is to take existing models and fix flaws in them. the struggle is to find the right kind of abstraction. there are some people who create really awesome looking scenes. and every time i look at one my fingers itch. but designing something like that takes time and patience. i think i'll revisit that topic when i retired and less mobile.

That's me right here. Sandbox entertainment, with no goal or point of reference, gives me anxiety attacks. A slightly directed sandbox is entertaining for a few hours, after which the thought that it's all arbitrary hits me and things stop being fun. Something in my mind broke, but I don't know when and why.

You are looking for deeper meaning. That's probably not to be found in Lego, unless you use it to teach kids about engeneering/robotics (a shame they stopped the mindstorms). And coincidently, that is how I enjoy Lego nowdays. Building a big castle for myself would also feel like a waste of time, because I see so many problems in this world (my personal as well as the bigger one) that I can relate to not having fun with simple things that used to be fun, because I think I could do something more useful. (and then I don't play, but also don't do something useful - and that is then a waste of time)

Some of us have the same experience with real life problems. It's fun to work on the problems for a little bit, but then the realization hits that it's arbitrary and it all seems pointless.

For some, there is no deeper meaning to be found.

At that point, you can either choose to sit and do nothing (die), or engage and play (live). Since the choice is meaningless anyway, you might as well follow the path that gives you happiness. Life is simply more pleasant that way. Along this road lies the pleasure of enjoying things as you did when you were a child, while also uncovering and solving new mysteries (as you did as a child).

When I start feeling this way it's always my cue to read up on philosophy and religion and briefly reject my nihilistic views.

This is literally the plot of the LEGO movie.

> The sad part is I'm in my 30s.

I'm 50 but I've got an eight-years old daughter. So this week-end we're building the Lego Ducati Panigale bike (bought new) and we also ordered two used Lego "elves" sets.

My daughter is really into Lego.

And it's a blast from the past to see her play with my very own original space sets from the seventies (I think they're from the seventies).

So yeah: having a kid (or niece/nephew) is the perfect excuse to play Lego again!

Have a kid, then "fucking around" becomes "being a good parent" or at least "practicing how to engage with the child's interests"

You're forgetting the adults take out their stash of blocks from the expensive models to help their own kids build whatever comes to mind phase :)

there is also the: don't touch these, play with your own bricks phase

And, as a parent, after stepping on a brick for the 20th time: never again will I ever buy any more and am gathering them all to donate right now phase.

Taken to the extreme as: glueing the pieces together with kragle to build an entire Lego city/world only for your son to free the Lego people from their boring repetitive prison and connect with his father on a whole new level.l when they start building a world and stories together.

Sounds like a great plot idea for a movie about Lego.

There isbalso the take all my old, half assembled, sets from the 80s and have fun phase.

i did that with my kids, although it was all completely disassembled. we had stored our stuff at my parents place, and when my dad sent the boxes (each 10kg) he said he could not find one box. so he bought another from ebay to make up the difference. then he found the lost box. my kids got more lego than i ever had. and they still wanted new stuff...

I guess PVC is not in the list because it can contain residues of its poisonous mono molecule.

Yet we use it in plumbing. Madness.

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