wri t es Simon says
by Simon Hastelow
© LEGO House
"I hate LEGO!"
That’s quite a statement for someone who grew up sticking little plastic bricks together, and who still owns a box full of LEGO that I had as a child. But let me explain… LEGO sells itself on ‘stimulating creativity’, but if you look at it properly they have done the exact opposite. Sure you can still buy a box of generic bricks but 99% of their business comes from selling kits, often conveniently themed to a popular movie or game of the time.You open it, blindly follow the instructions and build the kit. Then what? I look back at the various kits my boys have had over the years, most of them sit unplayed with, and unloved once the kit has been assembled. I should have really given them a pile of wood, plus hammer and nails, if I wanted to truly stimulate creative construction. The moment of realisation for me was the first LEGO movie. Characters and vehicles which featured in the movie, ostensibly all built from scratch with random parts and a creative mind, suddenly appeared in kit form on the toy shop shelves. The company had translated ‘free-form creativity’ from the film into 'do-as-you-are-instructed' kits. Hardly creative!
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THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE
