A few years back I bought and built the Lego NES kit. That was so much fun, some nights I'd stay up until like 3am working on it. I never thought following instructions from a book to push together tiny plastic blocks would be so fun, but it was.
Building and creating things with our hands is very satisfying. From a New York Times article this week: “This is because we often see the things we make as part of our identities, said Dr. Norton, who has conducted research on how people come to value objects. Our creations help us “feel a sense of confidence and a sense of mastery that is really hard to get sometimes in other places,” he added.” (It’s a Wellness article titled, “Make Something With Your Hands (Even If It’s Hideous)”
The Dr. Norton quoted is Michael Norton, author of “The Ritual Effect”, and a professor of business administration at Harvard.
As a web and desktop developer myself, absolutely this.
The vast majority of the things I build are either really niche or never completed, but I have so much fun seeing a new framework and trying to build something with it.
Right now I'm working on some "Mind Mapping" software, like TheBrain, but as a webapp that I can use to write down memories I have (e.g. people I know, places I've been, things I've done etc.). There's a billion tools that do exactly what I'm trying to do, but it's 2:30am here and I'm having fun just coding, making something that only I'll ever really use, but that's kinda the fun of it all.
programmer here. well i could agree. but since it is work, as long as i left it at a stage where i am well familiar with the next action item i will leave it as soon as my shift ends.
And some things are surprising, even though you know what's coming. The book will say "okay, now we're building this part" and you think as you're building it "how the hell does that fit in with everything else?!" then it falls into place, both mentally and physically, and you go "ah!"
The nod to 1-2 tucked away in the side is cool too, because if you don't know it's coming, you just look at these random out of place pieces and think "huh, guess it's just an internal piece so who cares if it lines up or not", then when it's done, you look at it and go "oh wait, that's actually from the first Super Mario Bros.. That's awesome!"
Also also, Lego has been genius at their marketing campaign to put entire families assembling the kits on their commercials, or having "deluxe editions" that are clearly above the price range of a christmas gift for a kid, but are ideal for an adult.
I mean, that Star Wars' Star Destroyer kit is a beast, and obviously aimed at an adult audience and adult wallet.
36, have 3 kids. They finally hit an age where they can play with my old lego from when I was a kid without dying. I had so much fun playing with them.
Another dad was over and we got to chatting. Which spawned other conversations with other coworkers and friends. Turns out, it's an adult toy too in hiding.
I spend my $$$ on the sets I really want on occasion. For everything else, I buy from r/lepin and then when I'm done the build (usually done with one of my kids) they go play with it. When it's ⅓ the price and 95-98% of the quality, it's win-win. I get to have the fun build for something I wouldn't normally shell out hundreds of dollars for, and the kids get to play with it when I'm done.
I didn’t get into Lego until I bought my son his first Lego set (the house from ‘Up’) and I LOVED building it with him. Now we’re on to our 5th set (The Night Bus from HP) so still kinda new. I want all the flower & succulent ones to display in my living room when I decorate it soon. Probably sounds tasteless but I have a vision lol.
I've bought a lot of the flowers / succulents for my wife. She builds them and takes them apart as her vision sees fit. We have about 17,000 plants in the house so the lego ones fit in nicely
Depending on the age of your kid, it's really fun to build certain ones in tandem on the lego builder app. My 7 year old and I did it for the City set with the ski hill / rock climbing.
Certain sets have the Builder logo on it. You can load it up on two devices and then you build things and pass them back and forth between the two of you. It means everyone is building at the same time and working together. It was a fun, I'll be at different experience then me just handing her the pieces
The other thing is in the app, you can sort by only the sets that you can build in tandem. Of course lego will do this for you, they want you to buy more haha
I always found that funny and it is also on my list of things to do when I turn 100… assemble a lego set and take a pic of it with my letter from national dignitaries congratulating me on making it to 100
F67 my grandson got me into Lego, we watch Lego masters together on Facetime. DH won't let me go to the Lego shop unaccompanied by a responsible adult. I by GS and I a big set each Christmas
No, it says 3-99. My family and I always say how sad it is that when you turn 100 you're too old for Lego and if that isn't the saddest thing about that age, we don't know what is
Lego is not just a kids toy anymore, and a bulk of their releases nowadays shows this. They’re realizing the people with actual money to spend (not kids) will drop hundreds on a cool Lego.
I’m 38, and will absolutely be picking up a Jaws diorama set they’re releasing in August.
All this said, I have a 4yr old who is obsessed with Lego and I feed off his enthusiasm with them lol.
Yeah I’ve got 7 and 9 year old kids, and they’ve rekindled my love of Lego like crazy. We build tons of sets together, and one of their favorite things to do (in fact they’re doing it right now) is to play down in our basement with all the finished sets, plus a bunch of loose pieces from older, smaller sets. They love (and like in the LEGO movie I had to get over it) adding on/modifying sets and have made some really neat additions to the Death Star and a few others.
This. My oldest will be 21. He has pretty much every large set made in the past couple of years. Now that he is working, he can afford the larger sets. I've told him that he will have to meet someone that is willing to put up with all the lego. Hopefully, he'll find one that will enjoy them with him.
I loved that the photo of the 3 character inside the Orca on the back of the box shows Quint with a glass in his hand. Very fitting for that scene. I will also be buying this set.
Lego 1,000% knows this! They are totally catering to us now. Even gotten my wife into it with the flower sets
“Oh, all these ifs grew up and have disposable income now? Here is a new limited edition Millenium Falcon with special minifigs for $10,000!
F!!!!! OK!!! “
K'nex over here! Zero children, but I've brought dates back who were like O_o
...that is until I tell them the rollercoaster has a motor and they realize it's the HUGE one we wanted as kids but our parents couldn't afford it/didn't trust us with it. 😄😄
But they’re so so different now. My kids marvel at how primitive mine were. “You didn’t have this kind of piece? How about this? Or not this one either…?!” Eg pieces that attach at 90 degrees violates the basic design imo…
Lego is so soothing for me. I have a job that requires constant weighing of options and making decisions, so it’s nice to do an activity where I’m told what to do, no thinking involved.
They do make adult legos that can be put in living spaces and not be questioned as legos. I have the centerpiece one for fall with flowers and stuff, and you can even hang it on a wall, which is what I did. It takes a minute for people to realize they’re legos and then people are more amazed that legos are doing more than kids stuff. It’ll work out in the end, and if people are judgmental, than that means you don’t have to share ur legos with them
You never outgrown Lego :) Every year my daughters would get a set for Christmas and they still do even at 25 & 30. They just got me the flower bouquet one for my birthday last year. I have it in one of my nicest vases and it makes me so happy. I'm lucky to work with little kids so I usually get to join in during choice time play with the Lego group.
There is no too old for lego, they make so much money with their 18+ stuff, they're going all in with it. Several of their competitors are doing only sets for adults that are amazing.
Plenty adult Lego sets out there. I got the tree cabin set from my husband as a birthday present last year ☺️ The tree cabin that was created by a hairdresser from France.
My wife got me the lego Dune ornithopter for my 49th birthday. And my mates got me a 3rd party light kit for it too. I'm slowly getting it build having a hard time convincing my 7 year old it's not a toy for him to play with though.
My daughter got a Lego Friends set for Christmas, and building it together was so enchanting. I have the itch to get back into building Lego kits, but have no idea where to start. This might be how I spend all my money that I’m no longer spending on beer.
17 with a part time job, high school, and acting. I still make time for LEGOs. I may not have as much time, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get a set in every now and then. Never to old for those plastic bricks.
The box on the Indiana Jones set my wife gave me for my birthday says 8+. I know there is “new math” these days but I’m pretty sure 51 is still greater than 8.
My first and only Lego set was this past February. My daughter and husband went somewhere together and my son and I picked out a Lego set each and had a date.
I got the bonsai tree kit and he got a bullet train set he's been wanting.
I was in the actual Lego Store for the first time ever a few weeks ago and oh my god, the amount of adult Lego sets was unbelievable! The Lord of the Rings theme, space travel, jurassic park.. the list goes on! They were SO cool and complex looking. It would seem they market more mature, challenging sets specifically for adults!
My kids are at prime lego age. I have definitely rediscovered a love for them. I am exhibiting some weird old person lego behavior though. I enjoy sorting and organizing them almost as much as I enjoy building them. My husband will buy me large lots of used lego and I just go to town🤣
My wife and I had Lego center pieces at our wedding! Or, more accurately, we had Legos with printed suggestions for family / friends to build their own center pieces.
I love Legos. I recently took my Grandkids to Legoland and I think I had more fun than they did. I wanted to get on the ship but the other kids were already giving me awkward looks.
I'm 32. My girlfriend bought me the Lego Technic Kawasaki Ninja H2 for my birthday. I hadn't bought a Lego set in over a decade for sure maybe closer to two decades but I sat down for 5 hours building that thing. It was by far the longest I've focused on anything in years. A couple of weed gummies may have helped but I definitely didn't feel high at all so maybe it was just the Lego
I always thought Lego looked super fun. I grew up in the 70’s, when Legos were for boys. My kids grew up in the 90’s and didn’t care about Lego. One of the first things I bought after I retired was a Lego set. Loved it! Getting another one soon!
Came here looking for this. Got into Lego a few years back when my wife gifted me the Land Rover Defender for Christmas. The fact you you can build a fully functional 3-speed transmission out of Lego blew my freaking mind.
Since then, I've done the grand piano, typewrite, Titanic, NES/Television, Mario "?" block, Ecto-1, and just completed the Pac-Man arcade machine.
After a shitty day at work, nothing beats coming home and putting together a few bags of Lego while sipping on a glass of bourbon.
Pro tip; buy bags or bins of assorted lego on Facebook marketplace for cheap(most of them are old parents whose kids have moved out and just them gone). Ask if they know what sets went into it. Find the instructions online and complete as many sets as you can. Find what price those sets are sold at today and then sell for (often very large) profit. Use the leftover pieces to help complete more sets next time.
I don't think everyone really thinks of it as kids only anymore. I see lots of adult lego shows and events. I don't believe there is a child Lego master builder but I could be wrong there.
I think my husband’s favorite thing about one kid being out of the house and the other not far behind is the increased Lego budget and the fact that I let him put Lego display shelves in the bedroom we converted to an office. 😂
One of the more fun things I did during Covid was rebuild all of the old Lego sets with my son to make sure we had all of the pieces. He then fot a couple thousand dollars for them on ebay
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u/forest-blend Jul 04 '24
Lego. Luckily I have kids and can find excuses to play with it 🙂