A letter to lego

Thoughts about innovations, kids and creativity.

Lately I saw this Lego AR video. With the help of a mobile device you see and interact with additional stuff around your out-of-the-box lego object. You can sit around this object with up to 4 devices and experience this together. It has very good visual quality and the scene that was shown had some nice little stories to tell. 

Friends told me: Tino look at this - you will love it. Why? Because I bought my 3 and 1 year old sons more than 30kg of lego. I play with lego since I am 6y old and since that I felt no need for another toy. That’s why I wanted to show this world to my boys as soon as possible. And ok. I needed a reason to play lego again. 

So I had a look into this video. And I was very disappointed. Even a little bit angry. I thought why is lego doing this? But I wasn’t sure what exactly bothered me so much. 

I talked to friends and family. Thought about my idea of lego and now I’m writing this to sum up my point of view. 

Lego is about creativity. It is the ultimate story engine. It helps children to visualise their ideas and stories. But the toy itself, the bricks, never tells something. It is an overwhelming toy, just because of its options. It’s a toy where you get better with playing while playing. You learn things like endurance, planing, construction, design, efficiency and so much more just by building what you have in mind. 

And that is the point. You have to have something in mind. Sometimes a color is enough sometime it’s the biggest spaceship. But you need an idea to start. 

What happens when you put a visual and interactive but abstract layer in between the child and the toy? The toy as a real touchable object, that can be manipulated becomes more and more a complex static QR code. 

No mom, I can’t use the bricks of that house because I want the app working.

Sure lego’s idea was to build another inspirational thing. Like they did with Ninjago, Nexo Nights, Chima and so on. But this time they crossed a border. They step in between the child and the play. That destroys the written effects because it’s pre defined, easy to consume content (like ninjago as well) BUT this time it replaces the (real) playing process. This AR idea isn’t a inspiration. It’s showing things so that you don’t have to imagine them and it acts in a way where you think you are playing by yourself. 

This imagination is so important that I have to write this down. Because I know from myself and my sons that you have to train your imagination. It takes a while to see the bricks behind a lego object. But with this AR idea I say it removes this learning process and with that it kills the fuel of lego - imagination. 

Lego is going this path since some years. My 16 years younger brother used lego in a way I haven’t known before. He got a new pack, read the manual, build the object and was done. 10 minutes of playing and that’s it. From that point it was standing around attracting dust. Once I said to him. Let’s destroy this Star Wars thing there and build something cool with it and he said: ?But than it‘s damaged“. 

For me lego was the only toy where it’s not possible to damage it. This was the first time I recognised a change in the perception of lego. They started to sell toys you build but never destroy. Simply to sell more. Until now I was ok with this because I also think that there are a lot of kids who just like that one time building and playing thing. Some of them will destroy and build something new some of them not. The choice is theirs and lego left the choice. I made the choice to not buy pre defined boxes with manuals. My kids just have a tone of bricks and sometimes an image that I’ll print out if they wish. 

Last week we got visited by neighbor kids and they ask for a lego manual. The reason these kids aren’t able to build something out of their mind is because they never learned how to use their imagination together with lego. 

So we already reached a point where families with lego aren’t using the full potential of the toy because the industry tries to sell more pre defined boxes. And now they come up with an idea that makes this even worse :(

For me this AR abstract layer leads to less imagination. Less lego destruction. Less real lego experience. 

Why is lego not developing ideas how they can sell more bricks, sorting systems, mods of packs, stickers, stones that can be painted, new manuals combining new and old boxes. Why aren’t they selling fuel of imagination? 

Not to mention the fact that the ?multiplayer“ idea is a farce. Lego is already one of the best multiplayer games. Why is it a good idea to make a child to child interaction abstract, pre defined, digital? This is never a good idea. Sorry to say: this is just bullshit. I mean look at that picture...

What do you think? Am I to critical? Or can lego do better?

In love Tino