Next time you are at your local Walmart, Target, or Toys "R" Us store... take a stroll down the toy aisles and you will be amazed at what you find. Look specifically at the LEGO section. The kinds of legos that kids have today will blow you away. I remember back in the 90's when "Aquanauts" came out and that was the must-have lego set for a year or more... they didn't even really do anything special, it was just a massive community and it looked down right cool!
Fast forward to today and you have this...
Not sure if you can tell from the picture above but that batmobile is actually "shooting" tiny legos out from the front of it... yes you read that right... it can "shoot" legos. Not only that, but it can "shoot" them pretty far!
My stepson was on fall break this last week so we decided what better time to sit down and put together his new lego set that he got from his uncle (my brother) for his 10th birthday. This was a very nice lego set, not something we would normally buy for him so it was a pretty big deal that his uncle got it for him.
As you can see, this is nothing like what I grew up playing with... my set of legos looked something a lot more along the lines of this:
But hey, since we didn't have instructions I guess that made us "Master Builders", right ;)
We got to work reading the instructions and building away. It was a little too complicated for my stepson so I was doing most of the work to start with. Getting the foundation built while having him hand me the pieces I needed. We made a pretty good team as I was able to understand the directions pretty well and he was pretty good at finding all the little tiny pieces in our big pile of legos.
After about an hour or so we were just about half way done... I decided it was time for a lunch break. My stepson decided he wanted to keep working, so he picked up where I left off. He continued on for the next hour or so not really needing my help so I let him go for it and I just checked in from time to time to see if he needed any help. After a couple more hours, he proudly showed me this:
And not long after, this:
I was really proud of him for being able to basically finish that all by himself. Let me assure you, the instructions for building something like this are a lot more like building a house or an airplane than what we used when we were younger.
Isn't it amazing the kinds of legos that exist today compared to what we played with when we were kids? The batmobile pictured above can literally "shoot" tiny legos and also transform into an entirely different vehicle, all without taking anything apart. I can't imagine what kinds of legs my stepson's kids will play with in the future... :)
Live well my friends!
This has been an original story by @jrcornel.
All images used in this post are my own, feel free to use them!
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classic lego was cool, not that licensed Star-Wars and Batman commercial stuff kids have to play with today.
I have had this exact conversation with my own son. He doesn't know how lucky he is. I'm a bit older so all of my lego guys and the plain smiley face. How the hell are Knights supposed to be tough and fight each other with that stupid smile on their faces?
haha! That is hilarious! I had a castle lego set once... it was pretty neat. You put the little fire lego in the dragons mouth when he was breathing fire... now they actually shoot little fire legos out of their mouths! It really is awesome stuff!
Original is way better, now they just ride the trending to be more sellable because now kids are used to complex constructions, scifi and related, I was happy If I could build an house
Maybe I am the only one, but I only like the old school pirates and knights series!
Those ones were great, but can you imagine being able to shoot the cannon balls now?! :)
I think it is true they are a lot cooler!
They really are! Did you play with legos as a kid?
Yes but they were a lot more basic than now.
Toys that embraces creativity will always be cool, it's just that they evolved.
I agree. It is great to teach kids creativity and building and even following instructions. They are just so neat now :)
It's not just you, they are way cooler. He needs to get a raspberry pi installed in that thing though :)
Haha! Yes he does! :)
LEGOOOOOO it's the best toys :D
They really are! Did you play with them as a kid?
@jrcornel - no - it isn't just you -
I find 'em much cooler, too now
and way more fun to play with!
They really are! I still am in shock that they can "shoot" things across the room now...
The kits are certainly cool with all the licensed products LEGO has. What is even cooler is the multitude of pieces our Junior master builder have to choose from why building there own creations. my Son @frobear has joined Steemit but he is still too shy to post his LEGO creations.
You should get him to! I'd love to see them!
My feelings on Lego(r) from my first set 1970s to today.
The stuff I made way back when was much cooler than what I can build today. Not in a neat, intricate, color matching, special parts way, but in a generic you could build things to play with way.
The pieces you had back in the 70s are not produced today. And they are missed. They were much more generic, and as such, much more useful.
For me, the magic is gone. And I am not sure if it is the Legos, or that I can build real things now.
Which pieces do they no longer make?
Ummm, are you serious? Almost everything. I am sure there are Lego fan websites that have lots of images.
Wheels used to have a metal pin that stuck out, and went into a 2x4 axle block.
There were 3 sizes of toothed gears. The largest was about 3" diameter. (and they went on the wheels)
There weren't any of the flat pieces (1/3rd height).
All the pieces that are now used as control panels and such used to be roof pieces.
And they had large, full height building plates.
And lots more. Things I recognize instantly, but are hard to describe in words.
Haha! That very well might be... especially if you are building castles ;)
I don't know, they are so much more expensive!!
Yes they are... that one right there was close to 3 digits! Glad his uncle bought it for him ;)
LEGO is always cool if you move away from the "instructions" and make something original. Guess the amount of different parts has skyrocketed since I last played with them ~17y ago maybe.
LEGO Space, Star Wars and City series are the best!
The diversity of the new legos is amazing (as said in other comments). We were happy with very basic stuff (like castles, spaceships, etc...) made of a few species of blocks. Now... Much more shapes, colours, etc...
I actually recovered a few months ago huge boxes of legos (that was dying somewhere at my parents') that I was playing with as a kid, and my 5 years old son is now the happiest kid on Earth ^^
I loved my Lego as a kid. I used to make buildings and space ships. We didn't have all the cool parts, or even the mini figures, but we used our imaginations to make it look better than it was
Legos are definitely way cooler now than when we were kids! Then again, some of us have not outgrown them...like my husband. And I swear if I step on one more I'm keeping them to myself and tossing him out! LOL
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I went to a Lego sculpture display earlier today, got a lot of nice pictures I'll be uploading later. Most of these sculptures used over 10,000 individual Lego bricks and they all stood out in the open thru the Botanical Gardens here in town...they even made a treasure map game of it to send people looking in the right direction. It was a very kewl experience, I haven't been that fascinated with Legos since I was a kid!
I always love your posts - so positive. Just like, here is my life, this is the best I'm making out of it.
Good for you!
It truly is amazing how Lego has been able to evolve successfully with the times.
Yes my 1970's legos are nothing like they have today but they all still have the same trait, they hurt like a bitch when you step on one barefoot.
Haha so true!
i love LEGO!!It was my favorite game as a kid....
I know. I remember as a kid plunging into the lego box and coming up with hap-hazard houses and crazy vehicles that flew and drove and floated on water. And no directions to any of it. Just imagination. In some ways, I think the OLD legos were better. For that reason alone. My brother would come up with some of the coolest inventions, and no instructions told him what to do.