Legos and Me

By the way, we've moved on from things under the bed. The clarinet is kept in the hall closet, and the Legos are from a box in a different closet.

Here is a smattering of Legos. Some of them are 'vintage' - like the strange dude with black hair - you don't see them anymore. I don't have a ton of them, they live in that box, which lives in a bigger box. Mostly they're a random assortment, although there are a couple of instruction booklets to make a boat and something else. And there are a couple of small Phantom Menace sets.

I've been told that Legos are no longer sold in just packs of random pieces, but rather, only in sets with instruction booklets, and that this lack of allowing kids to be creative will lead to the downfall of Western civilization as we know it. Well, let's find out if the first part of that is true.

Okay, I just searched for 'Lego' (without the S even) on Amazon and the first result was a tub of Legos, the "Ultimate Building Set", which says it "features a great assortment of LEGO bricks and elements." While it does contain instructions and photos for 'inspiration' this is similar to what I had as a child with my Tinker Toys (hm, where are my Tinker Toys?). So so much for the downfall of Western civilization. At least from the Legos 'problem' side of things.

I played with my Legos a fair amount, making homes with yards (thank you weird Lego tree  you can see in the picture) and vehicles. I never really had enough people to satisfy me though. I generally stuck to Barbies in terms of permanent games, ones that wouldn't get put away. This wasn't because I was necessarily more interested in dolls, it was just that I could tell myself stories more easily with the Barbies since there were more of them.

A couple or three years ago I started babysitting for this kid who was about five and, no joke, was slowly building the full sized Death Star kit, that was at least four times the size of his head and, upon completion, would weigh more than him. He was getting some help from his parents, but I 'helped' him one afternoon, and it mostly just involved me picking out pieces for him, because as a tall person, it was easier for me to survey all the different pieces that had been laid out on the dining room table.

I definitely want my kids to play with Legos, but I think I'll get one of those tubs to compliment my collection that I'll pass on. It's plastic, which I don't like ... but I'll just recycle extra hard when the time comes.