My boy is four years old and loves his oversized building blocks (MegaBlock, mostly), although he is starting to get frustrated by the small number of them. I think it is time for him to move on to actual Lego.
Because of his age, I think it will have to be Lego Basic, for now. Maybe Lego City for his 5th B-day.
Reading the reviews of the different Lego sets out there, the most common complain is that they bring way too many small bricks (1x1 and 2x1). Many suggest getting some extra larger blocks.
I am now thinking that maybe I should just buy a ton of 2x3, some wheels and maybe a few extra longer pieces pieces, plus a board or two.
The basic Lego brick is 2x4, though 2x3 bricks can be useful. I’d suggest a collection of the basic bricks (e.g., http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=5574) and a set that you can use to make multiple vehicles (e.g., http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=6187). The bricks in sets like those will continue to be useful over many years of Lego building.
I’d say just go with a bucket full of bricks. Looking at the site, looks like the large bucket comes with a small base piece and a figurine. After that, supplement with smaller sets.
I’m not a huge fan of legos because they’re mostly marketed as model kits with tiny parts and they’re expensive for what you get. They end up in a big pile with other kits eventually so I would look on ebay for used buckets of them.
Get him started calling it “Lego” no “s” on the end :mad:
I agree with Magiver, all my kits got merged as soon as I got bored with what I build from the basic instructions. Why not leap ahead and get a large bucket full of the basic bits on Ebay? Often sellers separate out the big and small bits, but it may not be economical to buy lots of small bundles to make one big one.
Yes, buying secondhand Lego on Ebay is an good economical way to get stuff. However, for a 5-year-old’s birthday, I think a new set or two is more appropriate – though you can buy unopened sets on eBay as well as mixed assortments of Lego bricks.
When I was a kid, I liked having the big bucket of generic bricks as a supplement to the dedicated kits.
I have to say, though, that Lego kits don’t seem to be nearly as cool now as they were when I was a kid. Too many of them look like they’re put together with just a handful of big, proprietary pieces. And the Lego People aren’t generic enough.
The Space Police, Pirate, and Knights sets from the 90’s were awesome.
Is there a way to see the actual breakdown of what pieces are in there?
My brother and I never followed any instructions for any kits. Pieces were all together in one box and we built whatever we wanted (cable cars across the room were popular). I am definitely more inclined to get him started on basic sets more than specific kits. More so because of his age, I am not sure he can follow the instructions to make the kits.
I was planning to get a set for Kid Kalhoun’s girlfriend’s little dude who will be 5 this week. I was thinking the Indiana Jones set. Is that inappropriate for the Dude? I didn’t think the exact instructions would matter…he can grow into that. His mom said he’s really into them lately, but I think he’s a novice.
This might be a bit too young for him, but if you’re worried about the pieces being too small, but maybe you could start him off with duplo, which has bigger chunkier pieces.
Wow, you guys all say that your kits got mixed up as if that was a bad thing. For me, the fun part about legos was creating my own crazy things out of my imagination.
I say get a big box of basic bricks with a few wheels and windows and stuff. This would be awesome, though I’m sure the smaller kits would also be a good choice.
He has plenty of duplo-sized pieces (from other brands). When I say that a kit has too many small pieces, I mean it in the sense that it has too many 1x1 and 1x2 that are not really useful to build basic stuff at his level, not that the pieces are too small.
So, if I went to buy separate pieces, besides 2x4 and wheels, what should I get?
One of the big bases, by which I mean one of these, not a fortification. But with the base plate he can build a fort later, or anything else static he fancies.
I bought my son his first lego set (a beginner’s assortment) when he was about to be three; he is now well past 41 and still loves lego. In 1970, there were few specialized parts, although there were kits that had just the pieces needed to build a certain thing, but mostly didn’t use special shapes that were not used for much–if anything–else. Then came all the special sets, which were very expensive and the parts useless for other things. But he (and, let me admit it, I) mostly enjoyed designing and building our own things. So I think buying used sets is a good idea. We didn’t get any duplo until a younger brother came along and we started him at around 2, but he never got obsessive about it.
It’s not that, it’s the cost of all those little kits. They’re not a good value from the perspective that you want children to create stuff on their own. That’s why we’re advocating a bucket of used stuff. As kids outgrow LEGO toys it’s a win/win to sell them in bulk. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
On a side note referencing the small parts involved. When I was a kid in the early 60’s I had an erector set. What was great about this toy was that it used actual nuts and bolts to assemble stuff. I was learning how to take stuff apart and fix it before I knew I was doing it. I wish they would bring this toy back in it’s original form using real world parts.
I got a ton of Lego when I was a kid and it all ended up in my Lego-box (formerly a ski-shoe-box), with the schematics for the different models “safely” kept in a pile. And you can probably get the schematics online these days
That (and the Star Wars models) is the only things I demand my parents keep around for when they become grandparents.
Well, there’s no such thing as too many wheels. Wheels, sloping bricks, and clear blocks were absolutely coveted when I was a kid.
Duplo was fun, too. Even after my brother and I graduated to Legos, we still broke out the Duplo bucket when we needed to build something that reached the ceiling.
My boys at 12 and 8 have pretty much nothing but Lego now for toys. Boxes of the stuff!
We get the kits (or big boy does as he’s the mad about Lego one) and makes it as directed. Then he eventually breaks it up and mods it with other stuff until its entirely personalised.
We bought stacking plastic CD drawers for all the loose bits - even big bits of dinosaurs etc will fit in them but they are not too huge that they can’t find the tiny parts. Stuff does end up all over the room but I just ignore it till my two weekly or so clean when I demand that all loose bits go back in the drawers and all works in progress go on the shelves so I can vaccuum. We got big files for the instructions which are printed on incredibly flimsy paper, punched holes in them and put them in the files so they don’t get lost or shredded.
The kids seem to know which bit is from which kit - the 12 year old recently made a car from scratch about two years since he’d first made it, and it had gradually disintegrated and gotten into any one of about twenty boxes.
I have to say I love Lego, it’s unlimited as to what you can make. I hope they go on playing with it forever!
Watch for after Christmas sales at Kmart type stores. When my older son was into certain set collections, like Star Wars or Ice Planet, we would buy the set for his next gift after Christmas for 75% off at ShopKo.
It depends on the kid. I hated that my kits got mixed up. Bricks that were bought as the big bucket of random Lego were one thing. But I strongly felt, and still feel, that the thing that was bought for a specific kit should stay the specific kit. If that was not what it was designed for, the kind people at Lego would not have printed layer by layer instructions.
Sadly, I had to share with a little brother who liked the “mix it all together” way of playing and my painstakingly built castle (and assorted castle accessories) was lost forever.
