And it is not only the variety of pieces, but also that the number of colors has exploded. Lego is becoming more like Playmobil, with the advantage that you have extra fun putting your sets together, and with the disadvantage that they will disintegrate and be hard to put together again.

I find myself "helping" my kids keep their built sets whole after playing with them, as once the sets become pieces it is too tedious/frustrating for the kids to find all the pieces to put them back together again amongst the pile. Also because the manuals are very much step by step, it is very clear what piece you need for the next 1 step, but not what you need for the next 10 steps. So searching ahead is not so easy for the kids.

But regardless of all my opinions, the kids are huge fans of lego. I have also noticed that as the sets are much larger, it is quite nice to buy a set second hand, build it once and then sell it again. I found out there are even people renting out the top sets for like 10€/week. So these sets are more like puzzles to me, where the joy is in building them. Such a contrast with when I was a kid; I never kept my sets built, I was always building my own designs.

Recently my kids got something called plusplus. A 3d building block where all blocks are identical (shaped like ++) and in limited colors. They were having fun building their own designs from the start. Limitations really spark creativity