There was
once a world where Legoland did not exist. I know, what a terrible thought. In
this time long ago Lego was not a cult for fifty-year old men to worship the latest
Star Wars model or collect superhero figures. This was a time when Lego was
just a series of plastic blocks which were the nemesis of vacuum cleaners and
stockinged feet all over the land. A time when Lego was only a step up (or
down) from the humble wooden brick. Alas those days seem to be long gone now
and these days the mighty Lego reigns supreme with its own kingdom.
You may
have noticed from this that I’m not a Lego fan. To be honest I’ve never really
got Lego. I remember playing with it as a kid and having a little fun making
things – usually shapeless masses of coloured bricks that I’d call a monster -
but somehow building with Lego seemed so limited. Small coloured building
blocks that clipped together one at a time to make things. Ooo Yippee. Yes, you
could make anything that you wanted, just as long as it had corners and was
pretty uniform in shape, but it was the sculptural equivalent of the
Etch-a-Sketch and organic it wasn’t. Making a Lego banana was quite a
challenge.
The Lego I
remember didn’t come with instructions, you just made stuff from those tiny
pieces of brittle plastic that came in a pretty limited variety of block shapes
– twos, fours, eights, singles etc. I remember the platforms, which were useful
for starting the build, and windows, good for building houses (yawn), but the
Lego with all those stupid characters that so many people rave about today was
still decades away contained within the nightmares of some clever
yet-to-be-born marketing people somewhere far away in another universe.
From what I
understand the Lego experience isn’t about building stuff these days anyway. Making
your own unique blocky statement isn’t really the point any longer and using your
imagination without the need for instructions isn’t the name of the game.
Parents all over the country don’t have to ask: ‘What is it?’. They can tell
what it is from what it says on the box and the instructions. Lego has become
just another model making kit, not so very different from a bit of Ikea
furniture or the contents of a Kinder egg. The Lego sets of today are no more
than uncomplicated jigsaw puzzles with all of the decisions about where to
place the pieces taken away by those bloody instructions.
I’m
overstating the case I know, but it’s yet another example of a company selling
their souls and the souls of our children by changing direction to make lots of
money and killing creativity in the process. Lego sell sets now, not a block
building experience. If you lose a piece you are screwed, if you lose the
instructions you are screwed. To be honest it’s probably better not to open the
boxes just in case something goes missing because you are screwed when that
happens. Gone are the days of my old shoeboxes full of random Lego pieces just waiting
to become an unrecognisable cubist masterpiece of pure downloaded
consciousness. Lego is just another thing to make and put on a shelf, not an
experience.
I always
found Lego limiting anyway, not flexible enough to satisfy my creative
indulgences, glue and papier mâché
suited me far better.
But then, I didn’t really like Airfix Kits either. I’ve always hated following
instructions. I don’t think there will too many potential da Vincis playing
with Lego, mind you da Vinci was pretty mechanical; he’d probably have liked it
and it would have been the ideal Christmas gift for the young Piet Mondrian. Lego
is a recipe for conformity. Dali might have done something with it though;
twisting and burning it until it melted to his will.
I read a
comment from a teacher about Lego somewhere. She said it was a really good tool
to train children to follow the rules, keep to an agreed process, and end up in
with the expected result. She meant it as a good thing.
And with
that awful thought I will finish.
No comments:
Post a Comment