h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a child I was filled with immense excitement at the sight of
piles of differently shaped and coloured Lego bricks just waiting to tempt my creativity. However, the sets of Lego pieces carefully packaged along with detailed instructions to make a specific house design for example were less of a joy. Somehow it felt wrong to use those same bricks for anything else and a thrill of disobedience could be obtained even from the simple act of building the house two dots to the right of the foundations marked out on the base.
Was it just me or do the ever more complicated Lego systems actually detract from the imaginative potential of the basic boxes of bricks?
I've not heard of the Lego Mindstorms, (I'll have to go check out that website) but that does sound like a move back in the right creative direction.

I agree!

I can remember searching for hours for that ONE brick that I had drilled through to make the last part of this workable lift I had (probem was as it was made of so many spare blocks, no three blocks were the same colour....) Lego has to be the most creative toy I have had...

I have to confess my guilty secret: I tend to be more of a "collector of" Lego than a "player with", which means I often just build from the instructions, think "That's nice!" and put it on a shelf. I should use my imagination more often, but I'm afraid to mix sets together incase I lose pieces!

I don't behave like this with Lego Technic, however. I have trays with individual compartments for the separate pieces which means I can find them easily when I want them.

I love complicated Lego sets, perhaps just because of the time and effort that has to go into building them, even from the instructions. In my opinion Lego is ruining their product by introducing loads of large pieces (e.g. "wall" elements and "truck trailer" elements) which are only one solid piece. I believe this restricts the imagination more than anything else.

Anyway, thanks for replying to my article!
R25968

Organised! Wow!

Your right about mixing up the peices , I tended to be unable to re-make one once id had it for more than a week

Yep, that's exactly what I mean. When I was a little kid (i.e. 5 - 8; I am only 15 even yet!) I used to try and take models apart and mix them with other sets and see what I could build then. Unfortunately, this behaviour lost me quite a few of my bricks, seemingly forever. Now, as a Lego "collector", I am terribly upset that my older, and therefore more precious to me, sets are missing bricks. I'm having an awful time trying to track down replacement bricks. Nowadays I stick to only dismantling one set at a time if I want to be "creative"!
R25968

I keep all my 'sets' in a huge plastic chest under my desk, but I no longer collect so that doesnt seem to make much odds. This is not, however because I believe lego is bad, I love it, I just dont have the time (or the money) to get around to that sort of thing anyway. I also got into 3d moddeling on the computer, so that may explain a few things....

Being 15 I really ought to be doing a lot more homework and revision for tests than I am actually doing. I still like my Lego, that's the problem. Despite this, I never seem to have enough time to do with it what I want.

This is but one of life's great paradoxes, and I don't expect ever to get to the bottom of it. I will still "play" with my Lego, and perhaps, like you, I too will one day discover something which intersets me more. I'll just have to wait and see.

Yours faithfully,
R25968

P.S. Lego has apparently been named "Toy of the Century" according to the (British) news! It beat Barbie dolls and even Teddy Bears!

Yes!!!!1

It beat barbie!!

(Notice how barbie does not earn its own capital letter... )

Have you ever discovered sticklebricks?

Yep, it beat barbie (I think you're right about that capital letter). I did discover sticklebricks when I was a really small kid, but I could never really be bothered with them for some reason. Don't get me wrong; I'm not insulting sticklebricks, I just never got into them. What I did notice was that if you put one in your hand and closed it in a fist, after about three minutes you got this really groovy pattern on your palm - the fact that it hurt like anything didn't seem to bother me at the time.

Yours sincerly,
R25968

Really? Shame.

I found that you could get around the pain by using *someone elses* plam, but that may have just been me

Actually now I just degrade to good ol' pen and paper! (for the constructing, nt the plam thing!)



Tim

You must have been a cruel, cruel child. No offence.

R25968

Oh, none taken, none taken... (Evil grin)