I was never into Lego as a kid, but in university I met lots of guys who had big fond memories of spending hours building stuff (that’s what happens when you major in engineering). I’m sure they all still had (have?) massive bins of colour-coded blocks in their basement.
One of the things they often complained about is how “Lego these days” was killing the imaginative free-play of their youth. Too many pieces were pre-formed for custom uses, and the Lego now comes in sets with these pre-formed pieces that suggest that you build this one thing — a pirate ship, say, or a rocket — and that’s it. They’d go on and on about how they could use the basic pieces to build whatever they wanted, whereas modern whippersnappers would open the box, build the one thing, and that would be it. Then they’d pop their false teeth in, throw back a shot of prune juice, and ask Evelyn if she was interested in hitting the sock hop later.
I guess I agreed with them, but a couple of weeks ago, Captain Jelly Belly got this set as a gift from his grandparents. It’s a Duplo set that is meant to construct Cranky, the crane from Thomas The Tank Engine land. We actually recommended the Duplo set to Ba and Dada because buying the “real” Cranky, the moulded plastic one, costs at least twice as much as the Duplo version. We really didn’t expect the Captain to do much other than build Cranky and leave it at that, but Cranky is a good piece to have when you’re playing trains, so there was still plenty of play value there.
To my surprise, though, he’s been really imaginative with it. Although all the pieces are very specific shapes — Cranky’s base, or Cranky’s face, or Cranky’s lifter hook thing — he’s managed to build all kinds of different things. He’s made a coal hopper and a water tower and an engine shed. He’s put Cranky’s head on wheels to make a funky car and he’s used the luggage to make a rockslide to challenge his trains. In fact, Cranky has spent very little time as the actual Cranky. The Captain finds it much more entertaining, and hilarious, to break up the crane and build exciting new constructs.
So I guess that goes to show that Lego is Lego, no matter what. The geezers I knew in university can rest easy — the imaginations of today’s youth live on!
TurtleHead 
I completely echo the sentiments of the people you mentioned at the beginning (maybe I’m one of the people you were thinking of?). I’m sure you can still get creative and all, but I remember when I thought Lego had lost it. I grew out of Lego in my early teens, I think, but in my 20s I shared an apartment with a guy who was still really into it. He got all excited when he got some big pirate ship set for Xmas, but when I saw that the whole thing was built around this gigantic one-piece hull, it really seemed to defeat the purpose for me. I’m sure you can still engage in a lot of creative play with it, but is it substantially different from what you would do with a gigantic pirate ship not made out of lego?
Maybe this is a natural evolution though. Certainly even the box sets I had as a kid (the police heliport and the rocketship were the big ones I remember) had some specialized pieces, though they didn’t play such a prominent role like the hull of the pirate ship does. I guess it’s natural to try to keep getting bigger and better somehow.
I also suspect that the stuff for the lower age groups is less specialized too. And who knows — maybe all the specialty stuff just challenges you to be more creative.
I’m fairly sure I was one of those people too, and I agree with ole Planet there. I own a few small sets and a big bucket of “real” lego. I have made small things for my nephews for Christmas and birthdays which they seem to enjoy even though they are made of such low-tech pieces.
Personally I attribute my spatial skills to all the lego-building of my youth. Just ask barky_shark about my ability to pack a suitcase as evidence of the power of lego!
It was definitely the pirate ship set that I remember people holding up as an example of what was wrong with Lego today — so I assume we’ve had this conversation before :). I guess what surprises me is that the Captain seems to have enough imagination and rule-breaking ability to be able to take specialised pieces, like a ship’s hull, and use them for something new. Having seen him play with his new Lego set, I’m convinced that if he had the pirate ship, that hull piece would become a hat, or a mountain, or the back of a dinosaur. It’s interesting to see that even with the specialised pieces, Lego still has a lot of versatility.
Oh, I’m sure we’ve had this conversation before. I remember when we were in university, I had this little Lego set of like, 25 pieces, and it was meant to build (I think) a car, so I built the car, and that was that. And then one day you came over, and took the car apart, and built like, 30 different things from the pieces! I was amazed — it’s not just the building, it’s the visualisation that I think Lego teaches you, the ability to come up with new ideas.
Plus it’ll make you an awesome Dad :).
You might find this interesting, not the least for the direct lament about custom pieces…