In Defense of Modern Legos

(Yes, I call them "Legos," not Lego-brand blocks. Get over it.)

Like many of my generation, I've complained bitterly about how modern Lego sets are full of special-purpose blocks that can be assembled exactly one way, versus the old sets that were just a bunch of red, blue, yellow, and green rectangles that forced you to use your imagination to make anything. I figured it was a ploy to sell more distinct sets to a single kid, rather than just hoping the kid would want to grow his or her collection of abstract blocks. I think this is true, but recently when a catalog arrived in the mail for my son, I realized another reason why Lego had to go this way.

The Spongebob Lego contest sought Lego creations that looked like Spongebob characters. And wow, the winners were frickin' HUGE. It's a simple question of resolution. When you have a "pixel" that's at least a half-inch across, any expressive artwork is going to end up a couple feet across, not to mention unwieldy and expensive.

So when the Lego guys wanted to get into branded stuff, they probably tried building a Darth Vader out of regular blocks that was only a few inches tall, and it ended up looking like crap that even George Lucas would have rejected. They really had no alternative but to cheat by manufacturing a few special-purpose blocks to build a model that was both small and instantly recognizable. Scale that across a complete set and you end up with what we have today.

My objection stands: it sucks that my kids want more and more Legos rather than thinking of new ways to assemble the sets they have. But I am no longer sure that the Lego guys intentionally betrayed their original mission to sell sets of building blocks. Instead, I think it was fallout from a different decision (to get into branding) that happened to align perfectly with their goals of selling more stuff.