Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/22/legos-60th-anniversary-fun.html
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Another great idea from Lego. I avoid buying my hyper-prolific Lego-builder son co-branded Lego sets for the same reasons they seem to be embracing here. I stick to City, Technics and a few of their more imaginative in-house branded sets like Ninjago. Basically, the more variety of pieces, colors and themes a set has and less co-promotion, the better. I also really like the Creator series as they are designed to build more than one model per kit.
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First thing you should do, is bin the instructions.
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I’m planning to give my big bucket of LEGO to my daughter for her 3rd birthday. It’s going to be a surprise, andI think I’m anticipating the day way more than she ever could. *tries to reign in expectations, fails*
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Could it be that they updated the spaceman’s helmet to make it less likely to crack at the bottom?
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So, here’s the thing. My old legos terrify me. Some dated back to the early 60s, as I inherited from an older cousin in the early 80s. I know most plastic makers changed how they formulate their plastics at some point, moving away from pthalates and such, or at least from the grossest ones. But I am not sure at just what point. Or how much was ever in them in the first place. So I’ve gone ahead and just invested in new legos, and landfilled my fear of old pthalates (as brought to me by my toxicology degree).
The only thing I’d insist get tossed is Mega Blocks, as those things have been found to have lead in them.
3 year olds and legos. There go the bottoms of your feet!
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Your concern is not without merit:
Also, mega blocks, better blocks, etc are rubbish (not even going to bother looking up the correct spellings). We inherited a cubic foot of bricks a few years ago and about 30% of them were off-brand. I meticulously went through every damn one and recycled all non-Lego pieces. It took about 6 hours iirc, and I discovered two interesting facts: a) most blocks are recyclable with agencies that accept #5 plastics and b) all Lego bear the logo somewhere, or at least I didn’t find one that didn’t.
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we are such a killjoy
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DUPLO blocks might be a bit easier for a 3yo to manipulate. They make some pretty fun sets, now. And as kiddo gets older, regular LEGO can be connected to DUPLO. (Standard-height 2x2 LEGO, minimum.)
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This may have been a record in terms of how quickly a bb post led to me parting with money…
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That was my favourite detail in the movie 
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Except that over the years the instructions have included some pretty cool building techniques that folks might not stumble upon by themselves. A better idea, might actually be to invest in a couple of third-party “idea” books to learn what some of the indie builders and user groups do to achieve their designs.
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I tried to track down some dates on when they’d updated manufacturing, but didn’t find anything concrete (I
'm a Spring chicken in BBS terms, so most of my LEGO are from the late 80s to early 90s) but did find this quote from a LEGO rep:
“We have had a policy not to use phthalates for a number of years,” says Mr Trillingsgaard. “Sometimes in the past it was difficult to source components, such as external wiring…and we had to compromise our own policy by using ordinary wires because phthalate-free plastic wire coating was not available on the market.” But the EU phthalates ban has helped, he says, and now alternatives are available on the market.
Huh, that’s weird, regulation actually expanding the ability of a company to do business the way they’d prefer to. It’s almost like taking health, safety and quality of life issues out of the hands of the er, invisible hand levels the playing field and can even create pressure for innovation.
ETA: Also, just for fun, that article had multiple pullquotes were from folks with a double “a” in their name and also had a typo of “staandards” in it…power of suggestion!
https://chemicalwatch.com/779/lego-on-the-sensitivities-of-chemical-hazards-in-toys
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I was at PaxEAST couple years back and bought this.
It’s quite playable, but damnit, I bought it for the clever build techniques.
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Fantastic research!
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