I am just a little bit too old to have had my own Lego building sets when I was a child. My brother, who is two and a half years younger than I had Lego bricks, but my childhood building sets were American Plastic Bricks, Erector Sets, and Lincoln Logs. I had a significant quantity of American Plastic Bricks. I used the red and white bricks to construct buildings to accompany my model railroad layout. My brother’s Lego bricks were a better-designed building set. They interlocked in a way that made the structures more sturdy and less likely to topple. His sets, however, were a far cry from the Lego bricks that are available today. Like my American Plastic Bricks, his sets consisted primarily of red and white bricks, mostly two sizes. While he had some special bricks for doors and windows, the toy was designed to construct buildings.

By the time our son was playing with building sets, Lego bricks had become very popular and the variety of sets and individual bricks had expanded dramatically. He had several sets that were pirate-themed, including one set that enabled him to build a pirate ship with masts and tiller and other details. There were mini-figures, the classic Lego characters with hands that could hold lego bricks. Over several years of building with the bricks, he collected a very large quantity of bricks and was able to build some impressive constructions.

Now our grandchildren are collecting bricks and Lego sets. Some of those sets are really fantastic, with all kinds of colors, lots of different characters in addition to the mini figures, and specialty bricks that enable wheels to turn, gears to mesh, and other mechanical functions to be performed.

There are Lego sets that enable children to learn about robotics, including computer programs that teach programming to children so that they can control their creations.

There are, however, things about Lego building sets that surprise and sometimes confuse me. One thing that I don’t understand are the high-end sets designed and sold to adults. For example for a mere $679.99, you can buy the 9090 piece set to build a model of the Titanic ship. $499.99 will get you the 5201 piece Avengers Tower. The Eiffel Tower set has over 10,000 pieces and will set you back $629.99. The Orient Express Train has 2540 pieces and costs $299.99. Those with more limited budgets might consider the Red London Telephone Box for $114.99 with 1460 bricks. I know all of these sets exist and their prices because my grandchildren pour over Lego catalogues and, in addition to sets designed and priced for children are pages and pages of adult sets.

What I don’t understand about these adult sets is that they appear to be designed to construct a single thing. Observing our children and grandchildren playing with Lego bricks, one of the joys of their mode of play is that once they have followed the instructions that come with sets and built the set as illustrated on the box, they can take the bricks apart and make new things with them. They can use their imaginations and construct the things they choose. Our son, when he was a bit older, started keeping the instructions for his sets in a 3-ring binder. Our grandchildren can view those instructions and can recreate those sets from the large supply of bricks that we have kept. It is not uncommon for them to engage me in searching for some of the special and less common bricks as they are building. And, when a specific brick cannot be found, they use their imaginations to construct the set in a different way, perhaps with a different color or with a variation in shape. It is all great, creative fun. Building a set and then just putting it on a shelf to look at seems to lack something by comparison.

I have noticed that our 13-year-old grandson now has several sets that he has constructed that he has not take apart and which he displays in his room. Perhaps he will one day purchase some of the more expensive sets and build them for display. Our granddaughters enjoy building the sets and then engaging in imagination play with the sets, moving the figures around and setting up scenes. Sometimes they leave a set constructed in nearly the same fashion as the original instructions, but make small changes and rearrange things as part of their play.

Another thing about the culture surrounding Lego bricks that I don’t understand are the various competitions. Building to satisfy judges instills a sense of right and wrong ways to construct sets and, in my opinion, limits creativity. But Lego competitions are very common. If you subscribe to Hulu you can watch the more than 50 episodes of Lego Masters, in which twelve teams of two compete against each other in ambitions brick-building challenges. The television series has set off a host of imitation competitions. The Whatcom Museum in Bellingham is advertising a Lego building contest for early April. Participants fill out an online form to enter the competition. As I understand the competition. entrants make their creations at home and bring them to the museum where they will be displayed and judged to determine the winners.

I’m interested in whether or not one of our grandchildren discovers the competition and will enter the competition. I’ve decided not to mention it to them, but leave it to them to discover and respond however they choose. I have mixed feelings about turning creative play into competition. Of course I will wholeheartedly support a grandchild who chooses to enter, but I have no desire to encourage them to do so. I find their free play with the bricks to be good leaning and creative time for them.

And, as I commented to them last week as I joined them in looking over the catalogues, I am not inclined to place an order for one of the expensive adult sets. I’ll leave those to others.