LEGO Brick 50th Anniversary

An anonymous reader writes "'The LEGO brick turns 50 at exactly 1:58pm today. This cool timeline shows these fifty years of building frenzy by happy kids and kids-at-heart, all the milestones from the Legoland themed sets to Technic and Mindstorms NXT, as well as all kind of weird curiosities about the most famous stud-and-tube couple system in the world.'" Of course, it all peaked in 1979 with the space set. These kids these days with their bionacle. bah.

Comments

too many custom parts.

[oliverthered]

Lego now has far too many custom parts, it's a bit more like building some flat pack furniture that a chance to be creative.

Re:too many custom parts.

[kryten_nl]

"LEGO, training future IKEA customers since somewhere-in-the-eighties."

Re:too many custom parts.

[CheeseTroll]

Having watched my two boys assemble half a dozen new Lego sets since Christmas (Mars Mission & Aqua Raiders sets, IIRC), my first instinct was to agree with you. But after a few weeks, they're finding ways to build some very interesting custom space ships, towers - you name it. I'm sure that as they get older and no longer care about how much work it took to create the original designs, they'll have even fewer qualms about tearing them apart completely to build more new stuff.

Re:too many custom parts.

[sarabob]

Sorry, but I call bullshit on that one.

There's been something of a renaissance in the last few years, what with the modular Cafe Corner (which has a whole blog devoted to it) and the creator houses. Not to mention lego's official 3d modeller which links in to their ordering system - design a model and they'll ship you all the parts for it in a custom box with a picture of your model on the front.

Re:too many custom parts.

[mlush]

Having watched my two boys assemble half a dozen new Lego sets since Christmas (Mars Mission & Aqua Raiders sets, IIRC), my first instinct was to agree with you. But after a few weeks, they're finding ways to build some very interesting custom space ships, towers - you name it. I'm sure that as they get older and no longer care about how much work it took to create the original designs, they'll have even fewer qualms about tearing them apart completely to build more new stuff.

I can't help but feel that people who claim 'Specialist parts have destroyed LEGO' have not watched any children actually playing with them. When my son is choosing a new set one of the key points he looks at are specialized parts as they allow him to build with far greater detail and/or on a far smaller scale then before (He has a very fine collection of minifig scale robots, aliens and monsters)

Re:too many custom parts.

[Chelloveck]

Lego now has far too many custom parts, it's a bit more like building some flat pack furniture that a chance to be creative.

You know, I had the same thought... My son, now 10yo, has been into Bionicle from pretty much the time they were introduced. Yeah, he essentially went from Duplo straight to Bionicle. In his mind, Bionicle is what LEGO is all about, though he does sometimes break out some of the other sets. And he has my whole collection of bricks from the '70s too, so it's not like he has a lack of standard bricks to play with. He prefers the Bionicle parts.

But you know, it's amazing what he comes up with with those "limited" custom parts. When he gets a new Bionicle set he first builds it according to the directions, and plays with it for half an hour or so. Then he rips it apart, adds it to the rest of the parts, and starts building new things. I don't think all the custom parts are hampering his creativity in any way. No, it's not the same as when we were kids, but it's still LEGO and it's still fun for kids to build new things.

(BTW, I was entering high school when the Space series was released, and I disdained it even then because it had way too many custom parts compared with the regular sets. So, all you young punks who think the Space series was the pinnacle of LEGO... Get off my lawn!)

Re:too many custom parts.

[Viceroy Potatohead]

A couple of years ago, I was playing with a friend's kid and wanted to change the directional plane of what I was building, so I took a "plate" type piece (the 1/3 thickness ones, or skinny ones or whatever) and stuck it edgewise on the face of what I had already built. (I'm not sure that I've explained very well, but I'm sure most people used to do this). The kid was pretty excited to use this new trick, and started to incorporate it into what he was doing.

The kid never needed to figure out how to change the building plane because of all the L-brackets, hinges etc that exist in modern Lego. There is still plenty of creativity and problem-solving possible, for sure, but it's now rarer for a kid to have to figure out fundamental solutions with limited materials. IMO, that's what earlier Lego taught kids: fundamental problem solving. Mix that 'teaching' with a kid's creativity, and interesting creations are bound to happen. It's an important skill to be able to create something with the wrong tools, or no tools at all.

It reminds me of a bit in Zen In the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The main character wants to fix a loose throttle with a shim made from an aluminum can, and his friend wants to use factory shims, which would be basically the same thing, but not currently available and costly. There's no basic understanding of the problem, and the solution is to buy some product to correct it. IMO, too many 'ideal' Lego pieces promote the same mindset.

Before the idiotic "legos" starts appearing...

[ratbag]

See Question 18 of http://ericharshbarger.org/lego/faq.html. A pre-emptive strike.

Technic's!

[afidel]

The height was Technics, just enough customization to build useful real world stuff without being so specific that it hamstringed you into just one thing.

Re:Technic's!

[hcdejong]

The Technic range is still going strong, with (still) a good mixture of custom elements and lots of generic bricks and beams.

Re:Anonymous?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I sent it.

Re:Lego people

[shish]

If you ever see a "white" person the same colour a lego model, I suggest you refer them to a doctor ASAP...

innovation? assembly?

[apodyopsis]

by selling a set with a plan to building the shape/figure on the front surely they are removing the element of innovation.

we used to get it by the box and be forced to think from day one about what we could build with it.

my civil engineering degree started with a room full of teenage would be engineers faced with huge amounts of Lego and a semi-serious challenge. whoever could build the lightest bridge out of the least bricks that would allow a 2kg train roll over it won the box of chocolates for their team. it broke the ice and got everybody talking to each other, lots of bridges collapsed in the testing zone that day.

and it got to engineers used to a career of sitting at a desk thinking about consuming chocolate.

Timeline is wrong!

[cvd6262]

The gray castle pictured as the first (1984) castle set is incorrect.

It should be this yellow one: http://guide.lugnet.com/set/375_2

Why do I remember this? Because I was so green with jealously as I watched my older brother assesemble the one he got for his birthday. Oooo, how I hated that castle.

Re:The space set was awesome!

[cvd6262]

I probably still have it (or at least my parents probably do) in a box in their storage unit.

I was at my parents' house for the holidays and my son (6) got some new Lego sets for Christmas. As he was putting them together he commented, "Dad, I'm better at building Legos than you are."

Now, I've heard some pretty insulting things in my time, but this one cut straight to the bone.

So, I walked (as calmly as I could) down to my parents' basement, found the two HUGE bins labeled "Lego," and dragged them up the stairs. I put down a blanket (so they'd be easy to spread out and clean up) and DUMPED out 15 years of disassembled creativity.

My son just stood there gawking for a few seconds. Yes, words can fail even a six-year-old. "I... I... I don't even know where to start!"

Custom parts expand creativity

[lag00natic]

With every new Lego set my son gets we first build the kit as per the directions. However, a few weeks later he's ripped it apart and built some completely original piece. The important thing as a parent is to encourage your child to experiment and mix-match pieces. I know some people that build the kits and then put them on a shelf - what a waste - where's the fun in that? Some of the stuff my son builds is some abstract I don't even know what it is, but so long as he's having fun and being challenged and creative - that's all that matters.

Re:The space set was awesome!

[0racle]

Ya, you sure put that punk ass kid in his place.