Yep. That’s why we say Legos instead of referring to each one individually.
Bah, it’s Lincoln Logs or nutthin, you kids with yer newfangled bricks. Get off my lawn!
I still don’t get why there is so little competition in this industry. Is Lego patented or something? Can you copyright something so simple as a brick?
Legos > Tinker Toys > Lincoln Logs
They even make a little Lego washing machine I hear … also they have a net you can put your Legos in and wash them in mild detergent or wash them by hand, but either way I recommend you wash the used ones before using.
No telling where they’ve been 
If I were betting, I think it is just difficult to make the pieces cheaply with the necessary precision. There are definitely competitors such as the above mentioned kreo, mega blocks, but both are also expensive as hell.
Was, isn’t any more. The last patent expired in 1989, apparently.
They tried to extend it on trademark grounds, but that got slapped down a couple times, most recently in 2010.
(Also, looking up this information, it was Tyco Super Blocks I was thinking of before, not Mega Bloks. Sadly, Mattel, who’ve since bought Tyco, don’t seem to make Super Blocks any more.)
Gnagh! This reminds me of one of my biggest angry moments as a kid…my brother and his buddy used probably a quarter of my legos/super blocks to make a car, and glued it together. Disassembled one of the spaceships I’d built the day before (and hadn’t gotten a chance to play with it beyond putting it together) to do it, too.
The best way is to buy them over time. Each set brings joy as you build the stuff it’s supposed to be able to make, and then you can add it to your collection and do more with it. That repeated joy each time you add a set is the best. Plus you can start them off with Creator, or some of the themed sets, and as they graduate or show interests in specific types of sets(like the Technic, Bionicle, or Architectural lines) you can grow the collection along with the kid.
My best recommendation is to take them to some place like the container store and get them a sorting bin or a case that they can keep the pieces in. This not only keeps them off the floors and out of your feet, it keeps them handy for when the kid wants to be creative and try something out. It’s very frustrating for a kid when they want to build something but can’t find the parts. I’d start with something small and easily customizable, like this adjustable divider case.
I’m afraid you’ve mixed up a Lego Space Shuttle themed building set with a Space Shuttle Model Set. Lego sets are at their best when they look nothing like what is on the box.
That’s amazingly cool, but at $25 a month, you could have a pretty awesome Lego collection pretty quick. I guess it has it’s niche, the people who see Legos as puzzles to put together instead of building materials to create with. In a couple months when work gets less crazy I may try them out and rent one of the Death Star type sets just to make a family project out of building it. That may be fun and it’s nice to have that as an option. I just don’t see myself being willing to send them back. 
I’ll throw in my favorite, Brickset. They have a great interface and have a feature where they monitor the pricing of various stores, Amazon, the Lego store, Toys R Us, etc. and let you know what is on sale when and what kind of deal you’re getting. They also have links to eBay on a per-set basis. So if you saw a set you wanted you could search for it on Brickset and it would show you the set, usually give you a downloadable PDF of the instruction manual/parts list, and link you to places to buy it(with a reference retail price so you can decide if it’s a good deal).
Enjoy,
Steven
You kids will know the difference and resent you… 