Lego: a toy that grows with your children

Lego has to be one of the best toys available for kids, and it’s a toy that grows with your child and lasts a lifetime. Both of my sons have always played with some form of Lego, and now at 9 and 14 they enjoy a lot of the older Lego themed sets like Technic and Mindstorms.

I had a chance to try the new LEGO Pirates so I thought it would be great to look at some of our favourite sets, old and new.

Because they’ve always been sort of obsessed with Lego, we have more Lego built in my house than you can imagine. Both of my sons keep their sets built so they can always play with them, and now that my oldest is 14, he just likes to have his sets out on display on a massive shelf in his room. I figured by 14 he would want to put them away, but he still likes to display them and I love that he hasn’t outgrown them. He even has dreams of being a Lego designer when he grows up.

My 9 year old is always into one of the current Lego themes. We have sets from almost every theme made in the last 9 years, and one of his favourite things to do is make a huge Lego village and combine all his sets on the floor so he can play for hours.

I’ve built many Lego sets in my lifetime, so when I was given the Lego Pirates Soldiers Outpost to review for Best Buy, I was ready to sit down and put it together. I didn’t have to try too hard to get the boys to help out, and we had a great time building it.

Lego Pirates Soldiers Outpost

With my boys help it didn’t take us long to put together the Lego Pirates Soldier Outpost. What impressed me the most is that Lego has really stepped up their game on the accessories pieces. The octopus is so lifelike you half expect it to get up and crawl away!

I loved the octopus, but the boys loved all the weapons that come with this set, especially the muskets, swords and cannon. In this set the pirates are out to steal the chest full of jewels from the soldiers.

They have their raft with crow’s nest and catapult while the soldiers have their tower with cannon to fire back.

Anything pirate themed is usually a hit with boys too, and there are many more sets to add to the outpost. This is definitely a set that my boys would put together and keep together.

Marvel Lego Sets

Like many boys, my sons love anything superhero themed, so we have a big collection of the Marvel and DC sets. All superhero loving boys and men will love these sets especially because they come with those exclusive and really hard to find Lego Mini Figure superhero characters.

Whenever a new movie is released, they release new Lego sets, and over the years we’ve bought some cool Iron Man sets, a few Incredible Hulk, and even an original Marvel’s Avengers set. My 9 year old now has his eye on the Attack on Avengers Tower, and we think Lego has done a great job creating the Thor and Ironman mini figures. The tower has windows that blast out and stud shooters so you can take aim at the bad guys. I can’t wait to try this one.

DC Lego Sets

My boys are Batman fanatics, so we can never wrong with a Batman set like the Riddler’s Chase.

My oldest son has the 2006 version of the Batcave that his brother has taken over as his own, and he loves to blend in his current superhero sets with it and have a superhero showdown. The BatMobile is awesome in this set, and it’s sturdy enough to easily drive around during playtime.

Minecraft

You might not think Minecraft has been around that long, but it was released in 2009. I wasn’t surprised to hear Lego and Minecraft were uniting to make Minecraft Lego sets a few years ago, and both the older sets and the new releases are a regular fixture on my son’s Christmas list.

Out of all the Minecraft Lego sets, the Ender Dragon set was the one he wanted most and the hardest to get. Even I had to admit this set looked amazing, and the Endermen are so realistic looking!

Lego Friends

I love that Lego came out with Lego Friends a few years ago, and now they offer Lego Elves as another option for girls to play with.

I would have loved to have the Lego Friends and Lego Elves sets growing up. I have always been drawn to elves and the magic and mystery of them, and I know I would have had a blast with the Lego Elves Treetop Hideaway when I was younger. Growing up most girls love to play dolls at some point, but if they wanted to play with Lego, they had to play with regular bricks or the boy’s sets , so I’m glad to see there is Lego oriented for girls too.

Lego

Mindstorms

For kids who love robotics or want an extra challenge building, Lego has been offering different levels of the Lego Mindstorms sets. These sets have it all—a processor that acts like a robot brain, USB for Wi-FI connectivity, and a remote control or infrared system to control your robot. You can also use these sets to build different robots, so you never stop creating.

There’s even an option to have a computer program control your robot of choice. My 14 year old would love this option since he is passionate about computer programming and building. Some of the robot designs have the option to shoot, and I don’t know any boys who wouldn’t love this function. With Lego Mindstorm the possibilities are endless, and Lego lovers young to old will have a blast building and playing with it.

Lego Technic

Lego Technic is great for the older child/master builder, and while they don’t come with mini figures, they are definitely more technical. These sets are built with beams, pegs, gears, and sometimes rubber bands. My oldest has a drag racer similar to this Technic Record Breaker, and it has a pull back function that works great.

Lego accessories

Now that there are so many old and new Lego sets available, I’ve really come to appreciate the Lego brick separator. Those little tools work amazing! It’s nice to not have to tell my boys to stop using their teeth to separate their bricks.

I have two younger brothers, now in their early twenties, and they were both obsessed with building Lego when they were younger. They’ve been nice enough to pass along their older, outgrown Lego to my kids, it’s awesome to see the blend of old and new. That’s the beauty of Lego—the “old school” Lego pieces are just as great to play with as the new sets. It’s amazing how durable it is and after years of play the pieces still look great. Plus, because Lego has stuck to the same design over the years, the older blocks fit perfectly into the newer blocks.

I’m sure my kids are going to look back at their childhood and remember all of the great times playing with Lego. Maybe they’ll even pass their sets onto their own children someday (hey, a mom can dream, can’t she?)

To see more options Lego has to offer check out Bestbuy.ca.

Heading picture credit @ http://www.tcmupstate.org