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LEGOs Sold in US Built Differently Than Europe
http://abc7news.com/hobbies/legos-in-us-built-differently-than-europe/467812/Thursday, January 08, 2015
Legos are popular with kids and parents across the world, but the toy company is now revealing there are some differences between products sold in the U.S. and Europe.
Lego researchers tell Business Insider that American parents generally don't like toys where they have to step in and help their kids play with them. So Legos sold in the U.S. are easier to set up.
European parents apparently like to sit on the floor and spend more time with the kids.
Lego researchers say the difference could be because American parents want their children to be more independent.
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Comments
This section from the FC article stands out in particular: Actually, telephone is just the wrong descriptor. Pretty sure it's just flat out shoddy plagiarism.
More likely dad's watching the game on TV, and don't want to be interrupted.... while mom is on Facebook playing Farmville..... hehehe.... I'm "half" kidding.
But for some odd reason LEGO in Europe has in the earliers years been geared to both parents and children alike... while not so much in the USA.
Here's the earliest known LEGO commercial (from my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide chapter on LEGO TV commercials. All the family was involved in building the different basic sets of the 1957 era (700/0 (largest) thru 700/6 (smallest)... in conjunction with the 1956-62 Masonite 50s Town Plan board.
Seeing parents involved with LEGO building was always common in Europe in the early years, such as this image from the 1960-65 Building Idea Book Nr.1 (238)/....
Or in this 1963-65 Architectural Building set brochure....
Even LEGO boxes of the early 1960s had adults playing along with LEGO with their children....
Ironically one of the new chapter coming out in my next edition of my computer desktop collectors guide, gives an in depth look at the phenomenon of parents playing with LEGO with their children.
This chapter (all future updates will be free to current owners)... is still a work in progress... but so far it shows how much TLG was marketing LEGO to European parents and their kids....
http://www.youblisher.com/p/781819-Chapter-74-Adult-Children-LEGO-Displays/
Is there any difference between the instructions included in US and EU sets? That's partly rhetorical, but I have to admit I don't know for sure. I know the EU sets don't include part count on the front of the box, but I thought that was the biggest difference.
http://www.businessinsider.com/lego-future-lab-discovery-about-parents-2015-1
The author still gets it wrong and shows an obvious lack of effort to understand how LEGO sells sets. Outside of some small promos, I can think of very few sets in recent memory that were available in one market and not to other. She "almost" gets it, but fails to connect that the discussion is about marketing, not product distribution.
When I saw the article, I initially thought that there were specially targeted sets in EU that aren't available in the US.
It's clearly based on the Business Insider article but that doesn't necessarily make it plagiarism btw. Business Insider seems to be an Associated Press member, so the tv station is legally entitled to take the story and rewrite it. Most national or international stories in a local newscast originate with the AP or the network.
The exception we have seen is with the holiday sets. We do use those as family builds. the Haunted House was also a family build where everyone was involved in different aspects of created our holiday displays.
I have found the time my kids have wanted family to engage with Lego is after the build. At that point my son at younger ages would then want us or siblings to engage in pretend play with the characters of the new set.
#10681 Creative Building Cube
#10663 Creative Chest
#10664 Creative Tower
#4630 Build & Play Box
#5749 Creative Building Kit
#6053 My First LEGO Town
#6131 LEGO Build and Play
#5512 LEGO XXL Box
#5529 Basic Bricks
#5623 Basic Bricks Large
#5589 LEGO Giant Box
I think the availability differences between Europe and the US support the author's claim fairly well.
That said, the derivative article is horrible. It's worded in a way that implies the same sets are different between markets, the US versions being somehow easier to build than the European versions.
@blarghiflargh - You're right. Plagiarism is technically not accurate, since they probably have access to copy/rewrite content. Maybe not to butcher it though :)
1) When I was a child, we played with LEGO that was older than we were. My father had LEGO bricks before he had children. He liked to build houses. (He might have had a pipe also, so I guess he matched those set images pretty well.)
2) Last week I was laying on the floor playing with my 4 year old nephew. We were not playing with LEGO, but it could have been. In this case it was a completely different plastic construction toy. Following the instructions for our build was difficult, an often he found it difficult to see how to start something, but the child actually built most of the model by himself. I had a lot of fun helping him to build something that I could have made within 5 minutes.
and built everything from the set (we had two, one for each boy). Those junior sets are really great for 4 year-olds and I love crawling around on the floor trying to help find pieces.