How much Lego does one child need?

 

There is no doubt that Lego is about the coolest thing any little boy can own. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be so expensive. Thanks to a good friend of ours, who decided he didn’t need his Lego anymore when he joined the army, we are now in possession of literally thousands of pieces. They came in a big blue box, somewhat reminiscent of a giant sarcophagus. Except, instead of a mummified body, it held plastic pieces in all shapes, and various sizes: small, ridiculously small, and a size better know as: ‘you can’t be serious’.

At this point, I literally don’t know what would be worse, an actual mummy, or this pile of remnants from numerous sets: Potter, Star Wars, Batman. Still, four-year-old children seem to like it; my son carries one piece of Lego wherever he goes. This means you can never walk around barefoot, unless you enjoy stepping on a miniature Harry Potter broomstick or perhaps a Viking sword.

I think the reason Mendel enjoys Lego so much is exactly that size; he has always preferred small things. I have bought him a giant fire truck, red, with a siren and all the bells and whistles a little boy could want. Once a month or so, he pushes one of the buttons, and a listless voice exclaims: “help, fire” with the enthusiasm of a housefly in a glass of water. Then it’s back to the miniature toy car, or the miniature plastic animal, a small bit of crayon, a piece of string.

Lego pieces aren’t for building either; it’s best to just carry around one piece, preferably a head. So my wish to vacuum is preceded by half an hour of crawling on my hands and knees lest I accidentally suck up a Lego head.

Actually, I lied, I don’t do that; I just vacuum them up. They make funny little sounds when they go up the tube. Plus, he owns at least a hundred heads, it’s not as if he’s going to miss one or two. Besides, he doesn’t build: he will never put all the figures together and say: “Hey, I seem to missing two heads, a torso, and a leg! Have you seen them?”

And since he only needs one lousy piece at the time, we can rest easy in the knowledge that he has enough Lego to last him 500 years, which coincidentally is much shorter than the amount of time it takes for one Lego piece to break down.

For more info, check the official Lego site