… as a grown-up
by Jeff Salter
If any of you thought some of my favorite toys (as a grown-up) would be things like turbo-charged ATV four-wheelers and one-man helicopters, you’re wrong … but only because I can’t afford them. Ha.
Toys I HAVE enjoyed – besides the ever-popular power tools, of course – are some of the most basic components in the toy collections of any … uh, kid. Yeah, I still like kid toys.
My all-time favorite has to be the larger category which many would think of as Lego blocks … though Lego is only one brand among many. My original favorite was Brix-Blox, constructed on the same principle, but marketed (in their day) only by Sears. Unfortunately, none of the Brix-Blox will interlock with any of the other brands.
So my new favorites are the sets of various sizes within the Lego family. One is the same general dimensions of Brix-Blox, but Lego also takes it two and three times LARGER.
One set is called Lego Duplo and I think those are the ones which offer the most possibilities for structuring things. Unlike Brix-Blox, with never had anything longer than a “single”, the Lego Duplo sets have a small percentage of blocks which are doubles, triples and quadruples (i.e., four times a long as a single) … and some even have a few small rectangular platforms! You can build masterpieces with those specialty items that you could never dream of with Brix-Blox … unless you glued them together.
So that’s it: some of my favorite toys as a grown-up … are building blocks. No wires, no batteries. No tedious instructions to read. Just sort and start building!
What do I most like to build? Towers, bridges, castles, forts, houses … whatevers.
Oh, and I nearly forgot to include on my list of favorites: M&Ms, Snickers bars, Hershey chocolates of various kinds, and … well, you know.
Question:
So what are YOUR favorite toys … as a grown-up?
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
Well, now, Jeff, you must come to my place.I can’t even guesstimate the number of Legos in this house.My sons had an incredible number,( which we kept), then my great nephew gave some of his to my grandson, who has also received many as gifts…you name it, we have it from Knights and Pirates, Star Wars and Harry Potter, to space ships and submarines and a million(?) buildwhateveryoulike pieces…oh, and we have a number of platforms, as well. The welcome mat is rolled out!
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Well, Tonette, I’d love to visit even if I didn’t get to keep any of your Lego toys.
Some of my grandkids like those sets where you build something specific, like a pirate ship. But I always wanted the generic blocks myself.
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Yep. Just like Tonette’s sons, nephew, and grandson, we’re a Lego household. My sons inherited two tackle boxes full of Legos from their dad and have accummulated many more. We’ve got the Star Wars, Harry Potter, and now Lord of the Rings. (I’d swear my husband had a moment of prayer to thank God for the creation of those.) That 3803 piece Star Wars Death Star? A gift from Santa that was technically to my older son, but I’m pretty sure Dad was just as eager to build that thing which survived the move from Texas to FL. I guess Legos never get old.
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One of my grandsons got a $400 lego set, which (I think) was that Death Star thing. As I recall, he had it together in 3 days.
I still have the Brix-Blox set which I purchased in the early 70s. Of course, it’s mixed in with all the others I got later.
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Oh, yeah, Micki! I forgot that Frodo and Gandalf are in our house, too!
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Jeff, we had the over-sized interlocking building blocks,(which I thought were the Duplo).I finally gave them away.I tend to hang on to too many of the kids’ toys. I found a box I had moved from Denver in early 1994 last Spring…THEIR kids had fun finding treasures in there. I have finally bitten the bullet,put a few of the sets,(not Lego), together and given them to charity.I still can’t part with stuffed toys.I have some of mine from when I was a kid, and the rest are gone not by my hand!
The only reason I can part with the rest is that I know how expensive the sets can be,I know people are on hard times.Kids need decent imaginative toys and frankly, I have other things to do than to be picking them up.My grandgirls seem to think that spreading toys all over my house is the thing to do.Yes,I try to get them to pick them up, but …they need to do something more constructive with their time, anyway…we’re going towards crafts now.
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some of our grandkids like “doing crafts” with Denise. In fact, when she re-did her craft room, she designed little spaces (with their own stools) for two of them.
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Ugh! Interconnecting blocks of any kind. Went through them with my kids – but never bought the model-building sets. Just let my kids build what sparked their imaginations. My grandkids like them, too. Me? I’ve morphed into electronics – music and movies and the devices that play each. And, of course, my assortment of cameras – digital and film – and my latest toy, a digital picture frame with (so far) over 1000 pictures flipping through at 5 seconds per photo.
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oooh, cool…I want it; I want it!
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ohh, that digital picture frame gizmo sounds uber cool.
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Do you have LEGO Land in the US ? That’d be paradise for you. My girls love lego too and I remember having fun times with lego when I was a kid, yet, Playmobil was the choice of entertainment most of the time 😉
Nowadays …. hmmm …. I still like the good old fashioned puzzle (jigsaw?) or playing a boardgame with the family. Does that count ?
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We’ve gone through periods where we’d always have a jigsaw puzzle going. Then long periods with none. Yeah, I enjoy them.
With boardgames, or even card games, I find that I can still enjoy them at times, though not when there are many other stimuli clamboring for attention (or toddlers crawling in laps).
Some of my grandkids have been to one of the Lego Land spots. I think it would be cool, but I still prefer the simple bricks that can be used to make ANYTHING … than the specialty bricks that all fit together to make one single complicated thing.
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I agree, Jeff.Although the characters are cute,(Like the Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter ones), I would rather see the kids use their imaginations….which, thankfully, all mine do,(sometimes after they put the thing together the ‘right’ way, but try as they(we) might, there is no way for them to stay together…of course, many times I DON’T try.
Jizsaws? Yep, always trained the kids to think logically with them, but someone once lived with us and would go nuts if the puzzled they insisted on buying didn’t go together immediately.I would have to drop everything and help; read:finish it. Kind of soured me on the big ones.
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with jigsaw puzzles, it’s best to do them with people who share your temperment and motivation
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Absolutely! That hasn’t happened any time in many years, though, except with the kids.I do love teaching them how to pick out the edge pieces, the shapes needed; to realize the picture and the color variances. I love it when their eyes light up with their successes. I think it is good for their judgement and logic skills.
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Ahhh, a lego man as opposed to a leg man? I like it!! What a fun hobby!
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LOL, Jillian. Actually … I’m both.
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I somehow knew that!
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LOVE it!
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We love Legos in our house! Those and wooden Thomas train sets. I loved Lincoln Logs growing up too. I want to get Jude some of those soon. I hate junky toys that take batteries most of the time. I like/liked stuff that takes a little more imagination and those are the toys that Jude is drawn to also.
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Yes, Liz. I also enjoyed Lincoln logs, but there were such a small number in the kit we had (when I was a kid) and the kit we bought (when Dave was little) that you could hardly build anything more than a corrall.
And, like you, I don’t care for battery-powered toys. Kids can make their own motion. And, as you noted, it’s the imagination which matters most.
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