The Lego Group is a private Danish company that produces a range of plastic toys called Lego aimed at helping children develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Of course, having them around could also entertain anyone as you can use the interlocking plastic bricks to build a variety of gears, mini-figures, and other structures and play with them. You can dismantle and repurpose anything you build using Lego parts, which allows you to create new items. So, you know that having the Lego shops at home wouldn’t just distract your kids, but it could also foster their learning skills.
Since 1932, when The Lego Group first began their company, the brand has become one of the most popular toys, and it has spawned games, films, tournaments, and eight amusement parks called Legoland. The company has made six hundred billion Lego parts, which shows just how big the company has grown.
But among the many kinds of Lego toys and games out there, which one should you get for your children? Please read on to learn more about some of the best Lego products and other Lego toys, along with their uses and pros and cons.
Table of Contents
A Quick History Of Lego
We don’t blame you if you’ve never stopped to think about Lego and how the company came to be, as it has a long history that spans nine decades. But before we look at the best Lego toys and games, we thought you’d like to check out how the company started and how they became one of the most iconic toymakers today. We promise you wouldn’t get bored of reading their 90-year history as it is fascinating, and we made it brief for you.
The Early Years Of Lego – It Started As Wooden Toys
The Lego Group started in 1932 at the workshop of a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen, who originally made wooden toys. Lego’s name is from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” which translates to “play well”. In 1947, Lego expanded and started using plastic to make their toys, creating its interlocking bricks.
Godtfred Christiansen, Christiansen’s son, had become the Lego Group’s junior managing director by 1954. He saw the potential in Lego bricks as a system to allow their users to play with their products. On January 28, 1958, a patent for the contemporary Lego brick design was filed in Denmark, followed by patent applications in several other countries over the next few years.
Since Lego’s newer toys were patented, the company has released many other versions of their products. One of these products is Duplo, a Lego product with blocks twice the size of ordinary Lego blocks, released in 1969 and aimed at younger children. Lego has also released the first minifigures in 1978, which have since become a standard feature in most Lego kits that allows children to play and become more creative with their Lego world.
Lego’s Impact – It Is One Of The Most Powerful Brands
The popularity of Lego as a brand, item, and company allowed it to become a classroom tool. Of course, Lego has also made it into pop culture, including literature and art, and one of the most recent ones that the brand has managed to cross over is films with 2014’s The Lego Movie. According to the annual Brand Finance Global 500 Report, the movie helped propel the toy brand into a more relevant brand and helped it surpass Ferrari as the “world’s most powerful brand” in February 2015.
After nine decades of being in the business, Lego is a certified pop culture giant with an estimated worth of $5.7 billion. While it dropped from the top spot since 2015, Lego has maintained being in the top 10. In 2021, it was the world’s 7th strongest brand, with a Brand Strength Index score of 90.2 out of 100. No one can’t deny that the company has taken the right paths that led it to become one of today’s most well-known and recognizable brands.
15 Things You Didn’t Know About LEGO
The Best Lego Sets You Should Get For Your Kids
Now that you know why Lego is a force to reckon with as a company and a toy brand, you should know which ones would be best to get for your family. If you’re ready to get some Lego, shop at home, and just wait for them to arrive. Here are some of the Lego sets that you should consider, along with their pros and cons:
Lego’s German Squad WW2 Mini-Figures Set
If you’re into history and acknowledge the importance it plays in shaping children’s minds, especially in the advent of banned Holocaust books like Maus, you should get this set. The German Squad WW2 Lego is one of the best Lego World War 2 sets out there as it has mini-figures that can hold and maneuver different weapons.
The only downside is that the expressions on the toy soldiers’ faces look a bit uptight, which might give your children nightmares, so make sure you supervise your kids and tell them about history while they’re playing with this set.
Lego’s Friendship Tree House
If you’re looking for Lego houses to build your children’s critical thinking while allowing them to have fun, this one could be the perfect set for them. You can play with it in numerous ways, as kids can create bird boxes while allowing their mini-figures to relax in the treehouse they built. The inside of the house also has an office, living room, kitchen, bedroom, and more. Besides building and playing with the house, your kids can control the elevator and the railing to allow the other mini-figures to climb up. Then you can send them going down the slide or push them on the swing. It’s a Lego set that could make anyone creative with its 1,114 pieces, but you have to make sure not to lose any piece so you can continue having fun with it.
Lego’s Fashion Shop
Emma’s Fashion Shop allows kids to play in style and role play as fashionistas. The set has a store and tailor’s studio where kids could pretend to design, sell, and buy clothes or costumes using the two mini-figures. The top floor is removable to play separately with the store and studio areas and the revolving changing room. This 343-piece Lego set is ideal for girls and boys who enjoy fashion or building something; it’s like having your Lego shop at home.
Lego Education Spike Prime Set
Lego’s SPIKE Prime system assists children of all learning levels develop their confidence and other essential skills, including critical thinking, data analysis, and complicated problem-solving. These skills would have real-world use as it fosters creativity, social skills, spatial awareness, and more. While it’s not the cheapest Lego set, it would undoubtedly be a good investment for your children’s future.
Let’s Go, Lego!
Of course, watching movies and reading with your kids would help them learn more about the world, but they would need something more stimulating to allow them to build and assume roles. Playing video games or sports is a fun option, but it’s not something every child would enjoy, which is where Lego sets could come in. Indeed, there’s no better way to turn your kids’ playtime into a learning time as well. So, get a Lego shop at home or a Lego treehouse and Lego World War II set.
Disclaimer: This article contains relevant links to Amazon products which allows us to earn a small commission to fund our blog at no extra cost to you.
