Happy Birthday Lego

Who would have thought that a plastic click-together building block would turn in to the phenomenon that would span a half a century? When I think about it, my brother played with them when he was a kid 30 or more years ago, and now my own kids have them, too. Specifically, I have grown up five kids...with the youngest still playing with Legos. I have had Legos in my life for all of it. I remember my brother making armies using the single line four or five tab bricks and stacking with different colors to signify different armies.

That was creative back then. Now, Legos has churned out bricks for Star Wars, Bionicle, and even techie ones that move with batteries, pink one's for girls, they have made people, houses, critters, and all kinds of transportation. The sky is the limit - it seems - actually it is the floor. The whole floor. The late night, screaming kid, dark hall, dark room, matted eyes, searing pain of hard plastic in a soft foot that goes with Legos. My favorite part of Legos is when they are all cleaned up (just kidding). Oh sure, they are really cool and my son loves them.

That aside, His favorites are his Star Wars Millennium Falcon, Jabba's Sail Barge, and the Slave I. I dug out the boxes to read what came in them for your amusement. For more information you can go to Lego.com or look the set up online and read the descriptions for a more detailed review. Another good source is by going to Amazon.com and actually reading the reviews from those who have purchased the sets.

Anyway, details...The Millennium Falcon set isn't the $500 one, but is almost as impressive. It consists of nearly 900 pieces, is for kids 9-12, and sold for a bit more than $120 2 years ago. I can never find this set in stores. It came with the wookie, the golden idiot (C-3PO), a snow trooper, Han and Leia. It had some moveable parts and some tubing that simulated the blue turbo speed. Put together this set was amazing, but fell apart easily - which is why it never got put back together. The Slave I seems to always be sold out on Lego.com, but we found it in one of the department stores. It touts that it is for ages 8-12 with 537 pieces and sells for about $49.99. It has a cockpit with rotating wings for flight and landing simulation and includes Boba Fett, Han Solo in carbonite, a Bespin Guard, and a couple other things. It also has some parts that really fire - add imagination and you have something. Jabba's Sail Barge consists of 781 pieces for kids 8-12 years old and retails for about $75. I like this one personally because it comes with another ship and a sarlac pit - who wouldn't like that?! Ok, the run down: It has Jabba, Luke, Han, Lando, Leia, Boba Fett, and a couple other things. This thing is big and lends to a great imaginary world because of the real inner chambers and such. It is cool.

These are his three favorite sets. Not all still together as they were supposed to be, but they are his favorites. He owns those three plus a ton more. One of the most recent sets he bought was a Mars set in which little aliens are included for him to shoot through teleporters like the tubes at the bank that suction contents back and forth. That one (I admit) is pretty cool. As far as a parent is concerned, this ranks high on my list of toys because of the hours of imaginative fun that can be had. Building new vehicles or other things opens the imagination to anything you can dream. It gets the kids away from the idiot box and allows them to develop stories of their own. I rank Legos in the top 10 of toys for kids.