2 minute read
SIMON SAYS
by Simon Hastelow
© LEGO House
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!
Which leads me onto a very tenuous link with 4x4s ...
We’ve had a few new vehicles added to the collective wish-list recently: Suzuki Jimny, New Defender, New Bronco, etc. which has spawned myriad reviews, and many thousands of comments from armchair experts. But one theme I have seen repeated recently that attracted my attention is judging the vehicle’s performance or usefulness ‘as it left the showroom’.
Sure, we can all argue about the best off-roader, but almost everyone will modify their vehicle at some point, so you can’t say Vehicle X is the best car ever, if you’ve basically redesigned it and re-kitted it with a massive list of accessories.
I could drive a Vauxhall Corsa anywhere your Toyota Hilux will go if I modified it enough.
I did say the link to LEGO was tenuous!
Vehicle manufacturers are like the suits at LEGO HQ, they want you to leave your cars alone, you’re encouraged to order over-priced options in the showroom, but your DIY spanners must then be locked away.
Manufacturers have been pushing for years to prevent us from modifying our vehicles. They win some battles and lose others, but their determination to kill the aftermarket industry has not gone away, even if it isn’t being reported.
Some EU countries already have strict anti-modification laws which will ultimately be suggested again here, even after we’ve left the EU. So keep modifying and keep arguing that your rig is better than all the others. It’s how it was meant to be.
Building an overly expensive LEGO kit and locking it away in a display case never to be touched again is NOT what LEGO should be about.
