Lego Envy - Brickfest 2005
Wired News has an article on Brickfest 2005 with some amazing photos of what some “grown ups” have created with Lego.
I would have spent thousands of hours playing with Lego as a kid, and it really is one of the few toys that was as fun as it was practical. I think a lot of the problem solving skills I have now were pushed along by all those hours building spaceships, aircraft & whatever else I could think of. I was always very anal about having consistent colouring, which again is another skill Lego helped me develop (using colour, not the analness). I would spend hours looking for an elusive yellow ‘twosie’ block, just so everything would look perfect.
Being older now, I feel compelled to do an old man rant on Lego. The stuff you get in the shops these days has far fewer individual pieces, and far more custom pieces. Plus all the pop culture trimmings - Harry Potter Lego, Star Wars Lego, etc. It was much better fun when you had to build (or imagine) stuff you didn’t have single pieces for. That said, it would’ve been cool having Lego Ewoks and Stormtroopers. Anyway I’m sure it’s still good fun.
I wonder how many people now in technical and creative fields spent their youth playing Lego - maybe those who really got into it helped push them in that direction?