Lego: Amazing Then, Amazing Now!
I received my first Lego set on my fifth birthday and a lifelong love was born.
A good while later (it must have been a year or two at least) one of the parts in my first Lego set broke. It was one of the hinge pieces that allowed a ramp to close up into the body of the spaceship … this is to say it was a piece that was central to the set and also unique. My mom tried gluing it back together, but it either froze the hinge or could not make a tight enough bond, no matter what she tried. Mom decided to mail (yep, mail … no email in those days!) the Lego company and see if they could send us a catalog for replacement parts or if we could do a one-off purchase of just a few pieces. She made sure to explain how important the piece was to the set. Much to our surprise we received a box from Lego a few weeks later. They sent a replacement piece and a nice letter saying how glad they were we liked Legos and that they wanted to make sure we could keep using the set.
I received the unexpected box from Lego and a lifelong love of the company was born.
Over the years of my kid-hood I collected many sets, had a ton of fun, and happily sent a good pile of money Lego’s way. I saved nearly all of my old Legos in a big box … my mom was kind enough to hold onto them when I left for college, keeping them through two moves. She was certainly hoping they would hang around for grandkid(s) to arrive.
Eventually the box wound up in my closet and soon after a magical pairing was born—Star Wars and Legos! Unable to resist, I embraced my inner nerd and purchased several Episode IV-VI era sets around the time Episode I was released. I have enjoyed the odd set here and there, slowing adding to the pile of money Lego has gotten from my family over the years.
I started looking at the age ranges of the Duplo sets before my daughter was born. I made sure to get some for her second birthday, and we play with them often. I was poking through the Lego website this weekend when I saw some pretty amazing specials on some older Duplo sets. I happily ordered them but then noticed the price increased between the time I placed my order and the time my order was acknowledged a day later at lego.com.
All it took was one email, and the issue was resolved. Things went much faster than when I was five, but it was just as satisfying. The Lego Company, quite simply, rocks. Hard.
Every once in a while I hear people complain about how expensive kids’ toys are, but when I think about the constant quality of my Legos, the creativity they unleashed in me as a boy, the fun I have had (and will continue to have) with my daughter, I realize they are worth every penny.
Not that I don’t mind a good discount, mind you. I can’t wait for the new sets to arrive!
