The Corporate Sell Out Of Lego

I love Legos. When I was a kid I could not get enough Lego sets. Every Christmas and birthday I would look through the Lego catalog and mark which ones I wanted. Usually the biggest set that my parents could afford. Inevitably I didn't get the one I wanted but a smaller set that was nearly as good. Soon I had amassed thousands of pieces that were kept in a giant plastic bin.

So when I had children I couldn't wait to get them started on Legos. It began when they were barely toddlers and I got them the Quatro sets. Sadly they don't make them anymore. Then they graduated up to the Duplo and then the regular Lego bricks. I had hoped that all this brick building would fire up their creativity and imaginations. Alas that hasn't been the case. The reason is that Lego has sold its corporate soul for a fast buck.

When I look at Lego sets now, I am astonished at the variety of pieces that they come in. Take for example the Ninjago sets that my son and almost all elementary school aged boys seem to crave. The figures are amazingly detailed and complex. They have special pieces just for the claws, teeth, or weapons. This realism was unheard of when I was a child.

Unfortunately it is because of this level of precision that makes Lego not fun anymore. When my son finishes building that model that's on the cover of the box, he pretty much puts the toy away. There is no more discovery and imagination when playing Legos. Who could blame him? As a child, I had to fashion swords and wings from flat rectangular pieces, using my creativity to make it work. Today, these bricks are so specialized they can't really be used for anything else. Looking at a Ninjago set, seriously, what else can you do with all those claws, fangs, and horn pieces? Nothing. There are so few general purpose bricks in each set that you are pretty much limited to what can be built pictured on the box.

When I told my brother about the trouble with Legos, he just laughed. He couldn't believe what an old stodger I had become. He reminded me about how I used to complain as a boy about the lack of special pieces that were in Lego sets. My models always looks squarish and clunky because I didn't have the parts that looked like eyes, or shields, or catapults. They looked like flat rectangular Lego pieces that were cobbled together to look something like the real thing. That is not a problem anymore for the new generation.

How do I know that the fancy sets won't help children with their play? Look at the master model builders employed by Lego. In their beautiful replicas of cars, buildings, and landmarks, they are able to fashion virtually the whole world with only rectangular Lego bricks. Animals, plants, humans, architectural landmarks, X-Wing fighters, you name it. With simple bricks the Lego builders can build anything.

Now there is even going to be a Lego movie. Watching the preview at the theater, I was dismayed by how complete the corporate sell out of Lego has become. It looked like a 90 minute long commercial for Lego sets. Is there any other reason for making a Lego movie? If the story line was any good, couldn't it have been made with animated or real live actors instead of computer generated Lego bricks? I am saddened by what has happened to my favorite childhood toy. In their successful quest to become more profitable, they have discarded the essence of what made them special.