BUILD YOUR OWN WORLD

**** So how come I am writing about LEGO®? After all there is already plenty enough reviews about it? ****

This first box was a start of a life-time love affair. After the first set came others, purchased abroad or in special shops where you could buy Western goods for hard currency. I never got a Technic set (which were at the pinnacle of LEGO in my time), as they were much too expensive, so I was left to look longingly at the folders displaying Meccano-like bars, pistons and gears. Apart from that, I had most of other types and I played with my LEGO pretty much until puberty, probably at least until the age of 11 or 12. At some point I developed a pattern or a game whose objective was to utilise ALL blocks I had in meaningful way.

This review's intention is to present a factual summary of LEGO as construction toy, biased and hopefully enriched by my personal experience as a user in my own time as well as a parent of a budding new user.

LEGO is probably the best 'concept' or 'high tech' toy ever produced (apart perhaps from a PC but these were not designed explicitly for children to play with...).

LEGO company values include creativity, imagination, fun, quality and learning and for once I can say that the product seem to match the blurb pretty much to the word.

****Variety****

BABY (which, confusingly, used to be know as DUPLO)
...are, as the name suggests, designed for the smallest children (up to 18 months old). This range comprises many toys and only some very simple blocks with rather giant sized 'dots' which are rounded, presumably for safety. These are perfect for the little clumsy hands of toddlers and they fit together loosely, so they are easy to both put together and dismantle - this means of course that the constructions are not very secure, but a delight in demolishing a tower is often bigger than the pleasure of building one! There are also more 'normal' toys in the BABY range, but I would honestly say that unless you have *a lot* of money or are planning on many babies in quick succession, the expense isn't very justified, despite excellent quality.

NORMAL-SIZED LEGO is divided into:

- STORIES AND ACTION including Belville, Bionicle, Pirates, Harry Potter and many others. These are somewhere between LEGO construction toys and story-play toys of the Palymobil type. The construction element is reduced, albeit still present. I am not terribly fond of these sets, not that there is something wrong with them, more because I think their purpose can be accomplished more easily with other brands of toys (from Playmobil to Little People to McDonald's figurines). However, I would say that especially 'girly girls' might be more interested in sets from this range which still include some construction elements than in traditional LEGO building blocks.

Quality of design which means that LEGO bricks do what they are supposed to do and that the level of frustration is minimal.

But first and foremost, the quality of production which means that the blocks lasts for what is a very, very long time indeed. I have no idea what plastic is used to make LEGO, but it seems to be better than anything used to make other toys. It's neither brittle nor squashy, it seems to never break or split at the edges (so safety-conscious can be happy as well). The colour stays vibrant. Most of the bricks are virtually unbreakable: you would have trouble with a hammer. I don't know what the life-span of LEGO brick is, but you can comfortably play with ones made in the late 70's and notice *no* loss of quality. Using teeth to prise the blocks apart (particularly common with flats, and smooth flats) is something that is going to result in small marks, but that's about it, and even these marks will not be very noticeable. You can happily count on passing your own LEGO to your children (and factor in at least one or two other kids in between).

To be honest, you probably need quite a lot to have a real go. Nowadays LEGO markets 'pocket pods' and 'travel tubs' which are all fair enough, but I would say that a bucketful (6x6x9 inches) or about 1kg of bricks and simpler widgets (windows, wheels etc.) is when a serious play can start. Adding 'fancy' bits which are, of course, less versatile, means generally you will need more LEGO. Overall the more the merrier though once you get to certain amount the compulsion to buy more lessens.: it's nice to get new sets, but it's possible to just stick to what you have.

None as such, in my opinion. The most common criticism of LEGO is that it is expensive. Yes, if you consider the unit price it *is* expensive. However, considering the longevity of the blocks and the amount of time that they can be played with, the price fades almost into insignificance. The initial outlay doesn't have to be large. Buy a simple bucket for a tenner or less, or a good vintage set on e-bay for 6-8 pounds, or scrounge of friends and relatives. Then just slowly build up and don't go mad on fancy bits.

But of course not all children like LEGO. Some do and some don't and the ones that don't will probably not make it worthwhile amassing a large or even a medium sized collection. LEGO BABY are simply good toys, and while a bucket of QUATRO or DUPLO will not go amiss in a toy-box of most children, I would recommend waiting until the child acquires reasonable dexterity and ability to work in three dimensions (though a lot of current LEGO models proposed in their idea-booklets seem to be two-dimensional, actually) before deciding if LEGO is The Thing or not. A variety of LEGO existing today makes it more likely that some part of the range will attract a child, though in my personal opinion, LEGO is worth the money for building, the story-playing toys can be obtained from other makers at a lower price and with more realistic designs and bigger variety.

**** Why bother?****

Building with LEGO is in a league with other 'creative' activities, like painting, drawing, modelling with clay and sandcastle building. It develops three-dimensional thinking and , eventually, design skills. I think these are particularly useful now as so much stuff is two-dimensional on the computer or television screen. Playing out stories with built scenes/backdrops develops imagination and ability to construct plots. In the early years it also contributes to manual dexterity, while later on if and when the more sophisticated features are used it teaches about IT.

However, for all you Internet-enabled shoppers out there, there is a definite solution, or even two.

For vintage LEGO (often the best!) go straight to e-bay where a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of LEGO is sold and bought. There is usually a lot of interest so real bargains are not very likely, but some sellers have very reasonable Buy-Now sales. E-bay is ideal for little items (10 yellow roof bricks, 6 wheels etc), though I bough mixed bag of 800 g of assorted LEGO as well as one of the vintage (1983) sets and was very happy with both purchases.