Would you let your kids play with old Lego sets or pieces?

malachirobertson

I have several sets from when I was a kid. These come from the 1970s-1980s. My mom has a bag full of pieces that didn't make it into my hands. She lets the grandkids play with them. I have let my son play with an incomplete police headquarters from the 1970s. I also let him have the cars from my old Exxon gas station playset and an incomplete Technic Parts Pack (when it was still called Expert?). I am curious what others on this forum do with old childhood Legos? I should note that some pieces haven't quite survived being in the hands of a new generation.

Robb

I don't have any childhood sets, but I let my son play with my new sets. I know that some AFOLs would not want to do this for fear of a child wrecking or losing pieces, but I figure that Lego is meant to be played with. If he loses a piece or two, we can always rebuild it with some other bricks. It may not look like the pristine model on the box, but, for me, Lego is more for building than it is for displaying.

It just depends on the mindset. Clearly, I'd be a lousy professional collector.

Willhorner

my kids play with my late 70s/early 80s sets daily. but i believe lego only fulfills its divine purpose by being played with. but then i dont even keep my boxes :)

legoDad

Definitely meant to be played with. And as they get a little older, help them get new pieces for those incomplete kits. There's fun in reconstructing too for them

vwong19

I let my 3 year old play with my LEGOs, but with a few rules....

1. Never in the backyard or on dirt.
2. I remove all cloth capes or cloth accessories (until he gets older).
3. I do not apply stickers to my sets, except for some cheap ones.
4. I substitute chromes with flat versions (i.e. light saber hilts).

Otherwise he can play with them. If a piece gets messed up I can, in most instances, replace it with a new one.

jb15

Hasn't anyone seen Toy Story?

bluelion3

I have a two year old. He has his own Duplo in one room and my LEGO is in another room that he can't go into without me. I have a number of small cars and boats that he can play with on a little table and the rest of the collection is on shelves that he can't reach. He likes LEGO cars and pizzas right now. He can play with common City minifigures but not collectible minifigures. I have a bunch of classic space minifigures that he has shown an interest in (pyew pyew). He can play with a few that do not have much gold printing left, and the good ones are kept hidden away. He's too young to build anything now, but I'm not sure what I will do when he is old enough to want to build his own stuff. I will probably keep my current collection for myself and buy him his own collection of new stuff to play with!

MinifigsMe

^^ lol! yes. lego is to be played with! I don't have kids yet, but my niece and nephew can play with any of my second hand lego (and my childhood stuff they have at theirs anyway) New stuff like modulars, they can look at, but to be honest I have so much, there's no need for them to play with the big expensive sets (they're only 3+5). The CMFs to my mind are for kids to play with - my niece loves them, and it's not that hard to put them back together after she's messed them up.

The tough one is fabuland - I started collecting it as I thought it was ideal for my niece, it's quite girly, a good size to bridge between duplo and lego...but it's worth so much, I'm tempted to take the little accessories out of the box...but that goes against the whole point of having it!!! *dilemma* She's definitely only going to get copies of the instructions, no the originals (in fact it's tempting to do that for any of my sets the kids can play with...)

(also I bought all the dicounted toystory lego for my future kids - I figured that would be a nice distinct collection that is 'theirs')

emilewski

I don't have any vintage sets, just having started back into the hobby. But my 3 1/2 year old loves playing with my sets. She has her own large box of bricks, but she regularly wants to play with the fire brigade and green grocer and Winter Village Toy Shop. They are like little doll houses for her. She knows they stay in my office and she is very good about not losing pieces or damaging anything. If things break apart I help her put it back together until she learns how. Lego should be played with and if anything gets lost there is BrickLink.

tommyboa

Spread the joy, they maybe future AFOLs.

madforLEGO

I don't have any childhood sets, but I let my son play with my new sets. I know that some AFOLs would not want to do this for fear of a child wrecking or losing pieces, but I figure that Lego is meant to be played with. If he loses a piece or two, we can always rebuild it with some other bricks. It may not look like the pristine model on the box, but, for me, Lego is more for building than it is for displaying.

It just depends on the mindset. Clearly, I'd be a lousy professional collector.

That and I am sure BrickLink being available to find pieces helps a great deal

vwong19

The one set that I stopped letting my kid play with though was my Batman Tumbler. The price of the model and minifigures got so high, that I didn't want him ruining it. At last, I sold it so there wouldn't be any temptation.

I'm very glad now that LEGO Superheroes are coming back and now we can play with Batman and the rest of the DC world. This time I'll make sure I get stunt doubles for all the minifigures.

oldtodd33

The only set my children are not allowed to play with is my Santa Fe train for obvious reasons. The rest are fair game as long as we don't abuse them it's fine.

AETerry

Hasn't anyone seen Toy Story?

Indeed I have and for that reason, I have no problems with allowing my daughter (currently 4) play with the LEGO sets. She's got Duplos from when she was was 1-3, but last Christmas with the Toy Story 3 Duplo sets, that was the last year getting her Duplo... she's fully graduated to the "regular" LEGO sets with classic minifigures.

She'll play with my Fabuland minifigures and asks if we'll ever get any more. For that, I'd have to hunt on e-bay for them. And I have put together my old Riding Stable set for her to play with. For the most part, we share the LEGOs and she's currently amassing her own collection as there's sets and pieces that are part of Mama's collection and "special" due to my setting up displays and trying to sort pieces to rebuild more of my older sets and better organize the bricks.

Fatteh

I have twin two year old girls, and two boys aged three and six. They have a big tub of duplo, all my vintage lego from when I was a kid (thanks Ma and Pa) and now an ever increasing mountain of new lego to play with. I'm running out of cupboard space to stash new sets because I don't want to spoil them rotten. Just me. It's freakin everywhere. They love it. I love it. Their mother not so much because it does cause a bit of friction between the lads and I've spent too much coin on it lately.

The really old stuff doesn't see as much action as the newer, more varied pieces. But the classic space gets daily use. I used to get a bit shouty when the odd piece was broken, but it's inevitable with 30 year old plastic bricks. I'm just amazed at how durable most of it is.

I think the nostalgia and desire to preserve my childhood sets just gradually wore off as I watched my kids making increasing intricate and cool things with the pieces. Guess I'm not much of a collector.

broxi

Simple answer yes.....lego is a childs toy, gets them thinking and creating stuff and becomes a fun family experience, my kids play with old sets and all there new sets, including exclusives like cafe corner, green grocer etc....thats what it is for, i get my pleasure from builing the big sets and watching/ interacting with the kids

richo

I just this week finished a big MOC castle, and my daughter was playing with it this afternoon. Would rather have playing time with Lego than non stop television.
The only exclusion would be if a set was still MISB and I wanted to keep it that way for a bit, as I wouldnt see any value in opening it given I have so much open lego already that is available to play with.