[fastball]

I loved lego as a kid, and I had access to a PC by 8.

The key, for me, to keep lego interesting was to have a lot of generic legos. In my mind, lego has done a disservice to the power of their own invention by focusing more on the lego minifigures and things like bionicles -- which you use to build that one set piece and then don't use much beyond that.

If you focus on the bigger sets and sets of just the standard bricks, the limit is your imagination. In my mind, if you're using instructions, you're doing it wrong.

[fphhotchips]

I think there's a nice middle ground in there. You can make the pirate ship, or the TIE fighter or whatever... And then make a pirate tie fighter, with wings and a sail! What I never got was the "make a set and then glue it all up and put it on the mantelpiece" attitude. That's doing it wrong to me.

[pbhjpbhj]

IIRC sets used to have instructions for multiple models you could make, which helped to support the idea of making different things. My kids want to make the model and put it on the shelf - they're deaf to my protestations.

[mcphage]

> IIRC sets used to have instructions for multiple models you could make

They still do sometimes—they even have a line where every set has instructions for 3 different models.

[fastball]

That's why you gotta ignore the instructions from the get go.

[mcphage]

The instructions are good at teaching you a variety of ways the bricks can be used, help understand how to make larger structures from them, etc. And hell, following the instructions is fun, too.

[tonyedgecombe]

What I never got was the "make a set and then glue it all up and put it on the mantelpiece" attitude.

On the other hand I used to love making Airfix models.

[daxterspeed]

Bionicle always had an issue balancing "re-usable pieces" and "one-of-a-kind pieces". The original single-piece torso[1] is a great example of a piece that has almost no other uses.

Things slowly got better with more re-usable pieces until the 2008 a of Matorans, which consisted of 2 feet, 2 hands, 4 limbs, 1 body piece, 1 translucent head, 1 mask, and some combination of single piece weapons - most put together with ball joints.

I personally think this move from technic like "composable" pieces to ball-joint only single purpose pieces was the downfall of Bionicle, but there's probably a thousand other factors involved ;)

[1] http://img.bricklink.com/PL/32489.jpg

[jacquesm]

Bionicle was one of the worst things to come out of Lego, with Ninjago a close second. Lego really loses its way every couple of years, and then somehow they go back to their roots and they prosper.