Adult Collecting vs. Play

[JimBee]

I've thought about this many times, as well. I came to a simple answer- adults lose a lot of their imagination by growing up. Kids are kids, and they don't fully understand the world and it's aspects. So, they use their own minds, without the limits of knowing about the world. For example, an 8-year-old might create a battle between stormtroopers and Indians- they find it fun just because they're kids and for the reason above. Adults, however, don't waste their time with these sort of things because there's no way a stormtrooper could be in the same dimension as an Indian, and that it's just stupid.

That's not say that adults aren't creative at all, though. Obviously, there are plenty of ingenious MOCs and other sorts of Lego creativity across the AFOL fan base.

That's the way I see it.

By the way I COLLECT Lego, and build with it. I will pick up my X-Wing and swoosh it around once in a while, though.

[Peppermint_M]

This is all very negative currently isn't it?

I suppose 20 is far from adult in comparison to my many fellow members, however I (at least according to law and family et al) am "grown up" (scary thought that). I haven't lost any of my imagination, I excersize it daily. The world is full of wonder no matter how much you know about it, there is always something just over the horizon that you haven't seen yet, a taste untasted, a smell never before encountered, an experince you haven't had. I think many poeple let "adulthood" cloud them in a protective fog of sameness and mundanity. They plod in the carefully trod lines they set out years before and daren't leave the path lest danger befalls them (whether physical, social or phsycological). If you approach the world as it is, a great big globe of untried things then one's imagination runs wild.

Sadly it all starts from a very young age, the hemming in of imagination and the stemming of creativity. When correcting a child the parent/teacher always starts with "No.." so growing up becomes a series of limits and barriers that we are happy to remain inside due to social conditioning. This doesn't mean I endorse the too radical ideas some have, but I prefer to live my life in wonderment and persuit of knowledge, to imagine what could be behind the fence and beyond the horizon.

Play and imagination don't have an end unless you enforce one.

[badboytje88]

What an interesting topic!

I'm a teacher in elementairy school. And I've been tought that Playing is a way for children to develop theirselves. This happens via roleplay. Children see adult doing stuff and they want to reinact what they see the adults do. Since Lego is a construction material, kids can reproduce situations from their every day Life in Lego form. This also includes stuff they see on tv. Wow I could go on and on about this topic, but I find it very difficult to do so in English.

[chongcheng]

Interesting topic

I am new here, but certainly not new to LEGO. Today was cleaning some of the old remnant bricks I had - after washing twice, they still had some permanent marks there. Could even see there are like two era - one is very badly damaged; the other was still looking OK, but not spared from some of the lesser scars. I was wondering how differently I handled LEGO when I was young and now - certainly I don't damage the bricks anymore. The batch of old bricks came from the days where I was before 12; the badly damaged ones probably was from the age 7 or 8.

As a kid, play is quite without limits - sometimes wanton destruction to them is actually quite fun. A lot of things don't come to mind; parents gave me them and I will play. Only till the time I started realize my next new set may take a year or more to come; I started taking care of them. Unfortunately playing still cause damage to the bricks, no matter how little.

Now still playing; but being more careful and also lesser time to build and dismantle due to other committment. It is still a lot of fun; like the way I see dwarves should actually be allies of the trolls - different from humans. A world you dictate the time, the story and just about every details of your imagination springs to life. The only thing less was the carnage; I am no longer breaking all the swords, plates and shields and causing irreversible damage to the bricks. Escaping into a world no one in the reality would acknowledge to be in existence; a good way to relax from the hectic life. I am a kid at heart I guess.

[allanp]

Great topic idea, gonna give this one some thought but for now the first thing that comes to mind is that when you build a yellow castle as a kid, you are probably not as aware that a castle is not, in real life, yellow. Or square. Or have perfectly smooth sides. Or have regular, perfectly shaped bricks and so on. This allows you as a child to fully submerge your imagineation into the model and become a part of a story. To a child, a perfectly square, yellow block, no roof and a few knights is a castle, they don't know any better. Now I would like you to imagine what kind of model castle would really get you excited and spark your thirst for play. It would probably be 6000 peices, have a completely irregular shape, have green hilly foundations that make the shape even more irregular, be several shades of grey with dashes of brown, have 100 mini figures and you could even have a dragon, as long as it was detailed enough to allow you to forget , just for a moment, that it's made of lego, that's the key. To allow your imagination to be fully submerged into the model it has to be realistic and detailed enough to fool your own mind on a subconscience, very basic level that it is not a model but in fact the real thing. I think it's possible that as adults this is harder simply because we know much more about the world we live in than a child. Just my 2 cents!

[Lord Admiral]

I've been wanting to reply to this topic for a long time now.

Personally, I don't think I play any different than I did in my youth. Today, I have them set up for "display," only occasionally moving them around to change up the scenery. I did pretty much the same thing, when I was young, but I spent more time doing it, and I did it more frequently. Putting my toys away, for lego anyway, meant putting them back on display. You can way the process of changing the positions was a little more convoluted, with the vehicles going through a bit more roundabout way before reaching their final destination, but the result was the same. I never used to break my sets, though I did occasionally drop them and end up having to rebuild it, but that's rarely done intentionally. I think the difference between then and now comes down to time. I don't have the time to really play with my sets anymore, so I just take them through the shortest route to rearrangement, which is to say, I pick them up and move them to their respective new locations and leave it at that. And I do it far less frequently, though if I have time, I do have a little fun with the sets anyway (hmm, that sounds kind of dirty).

I occasionally get a chance to watch kids play with Lego bricks now, and they definitely do not play the same way as I did. Their pieces are all over the place. They build the set, then take it apart, and then build various little things with the pieces that get destroyed in the play process or the cleanup process. Or they let the set fall apart, or borrow the pieces from the sets. Nobody really has the sets out for display. Cleanup means dumping them into a box or bin with other pieces from many other sets. And I can see how this behavior would change over time. I never did these things with my sets, though I did have a lot of basic buckets for that purpose.

And while I don't take the bricks everywhere I go anymore like I used to, I do go to the PAB wall and pick up a cup of bricks and play around with them, building what I may with what I have. My only gripe with that is the insane amount of time I need to fill up a large PAB cup. I don't really put those on display like the real sets; I just leave them lying around my work table where I can just pick them up whenever and build whatever I feel like at the moment. (Which is why I also lament the change in how Technic is nowadays. I'd love to play around with the cogs and gears and other gizmos and just make something that does something in my spare time, but Technic doesn't play like that anymore.) But interestingly enough, it's the same sort of play as I used to do.

Once a child, always a child I guess.

[CP5670]

And while I don't take the bricks everywhere I go anymore like I used to, I do go to the PAB wall and pick up a cup of bricks and play around with them, building what I may with what I have. My only gripe with that is the insane amount of time I need to fill up a large PAB cup. I don't really put those on display like the real sets; I just leave them lying around my work table where I can just pick them up whenever and build whatever I feel like at the moment. (Which is why I also lament the change in how Technic is nowadays. I'd love to play around with the cogs and gears and other gizmos and just make something that does something in my spare time, but Technic doesn't play like that anymore.) But interestingly enough, it's the same sort of play as I used to do.

I do this with Technic all the time, just like I did when I was a kid. It's a lot of fun to just make something mechanically interesting and try out different things with it, even if it's not intended to be a part of any "serious" MOC.

[Raphy]

I don't think one's ever too old to play, even by oneself, not playing with your kids. I think everybody is obsessed with trying to say they don't play because they're obsessed with trying to appear grown-up.

Why, think about it: The world's most talented professor, who's studying a piece of Mesozoic rock, is playing. He's studying it because he's interested in it, someone who wants to drive really fast in a car is basically playing, too. Anything you're interested in and you're doing something fun to do with it, you're playing. Anything fun you do because you want to is playing.

That's how I see it in my eyes, at least. I play with my models all the time.

[Lord Admiral]

A lot of it comes down to time and money. The patterns of play are the same or very similar, if you factor in the decrease in time and increase in money as we grow older. Of course, life experiences can change us subtly sometimes, drastically other times, and the changes can result in a different way we play. But these are external factors that we have no control over.

Anything you're interested in and you're doing something fun to do with it, you're playing. Anything fun you do because you want to is playing.

This is true. I suspect though, people lose the ability to have fun, or at least lose the ability to know what is fun, as they grow up. I'm certain there are social pressures and influences as well to make people eventually forget what they truly enjoy or forget that they actually enjoy what they're doing.

And then, just like that, they'll find it again as they grow even older.

[Luke McAwesome]

I collect and play, basically.

I mean, sure, when I'm bored, I'll take my Lost World MOCs and have a T-Rex or two attack the trailers.

Why, just yesterday I did this. And I can say that I was holding the trailer up over the side of the bed with one hand, and working the minifigs with the other, and it was hard, but I would say one of the funnest "play times" I've ever done! It was amazing getting to trash my creations, and know I have the knowldge to put them back together in minutes. Getting to have a Mercedes-Benz ripped apart piece by piece by an angry T-Rex is fun!

Those of you who don't play, should try it again.

I also have my friends over, and we build wacky creations, and wacky adventures, and wacky minifigures.

But it's fun, and I treat my LEGO with care, I don't play in the "slam a spaceship into a wall" thing. Sure, maybe the couch, or something soft, but I would never use pressure on my poor LEGO bricks. They're too special to be treated like garbage.

As for collecting, I do that too. I'll take a look through the catalog and see if there's any sets I'd like to save up for, but I just don't have the money for modular buildings and most larger sets.

But sure, I can afford the medium ones at times. And I swoosh my Space Truck Getaway and I'm proud of it!

[Emperor Claudius Rome]

I like Mocing with my Bricks, but sometimes, I'll be feeling nostalgic, so I'll build a little moc, and I'll use my Imagination, and act like a kid again. Does anybody else do anything like this?

[Siegfried]

As a 13 year old you are a kid, for this reason this could be the most perplexing topic ever.

(Urge. Erg is a way to express energy, like Joule.)

[Big Cam]

Absolutely. I find myself getting lost at work when posing a few select fig's I have there.

I find myself usually just imagining what I would do with them, sometimes I'll be building and just get lost while I space out thinking of what I could do.

You're never too old to play.

LOL, EDIT: To clarify my stance since Sieggy posted, I'm 28 and occasioanlly catch myself wanting to play with my LEGO's

[Siegfried]

LOL, EDIT: To clarify my stance since Sieggy posted, I'm 28 and occasioanlly catch myself wanting to play with my LEGO's

Yeah, I get the erg all the time. I recently got the Shuttle Adventure and I've been doing launches; this included dropping the boosters and deploying the satellite to spy on my wife.

[Follows Closely]

I play LEGO with my 9, 7, 5, 4 and 4 year old all the time. I have not by myself though. Now, if I had more time....

[Emperor Claudius Rome]

As a 13 year old you are a kid, for this reason this could be the most perplexing topic ever.

(Urge. Erg is a way to express energy, like Joule.)

Yes, but thanks to EB, now I have the habits of an AFOL, curse you!

Sorry, urge is a word I don't use often.

[Stash2Sixx]

I get the erg all the time. I do it at work more often than I should. I do it at home too.

Yup, I know this is starting to sound dirty...leave it be!

[Emperor Claudius Rome]

I get the erg all the time. I do it at work more often than I should. I do it at home too.

Yup, I know this is starting to sound dirty...leave it be!

It's your faults. You and your dirty AFOL minds! Kidding, I love you all!

[prateek]

To break a new set in, I always play with it. Take it out on an adventure if it's a vehicle, or if it's a structure, I act out a scene. Pretty fun stuff if you ask me

[Brickdoctor]

To break a new set in, I always play with it. Take it out on an adventure if it's a vehicle, or if it's a structure, I act out a scene. Pretty fun stuff if you ask me

Me to. I have to do it for the Playability rating in reviews anyways, and I figure since I scrap sets for parts I'll never get the chance to do it again.

Sometimes I do play with my MOCs, but most of the 'fun' ones are too fragile. The T-47 only takes light swooshing, the Venator shouldn't move quickly anyways, and everything else is display. Oh, except for the 74-Z, but it's too small to be a good swoosher.

[Erdbeereis]

Usually I only do if it has wheels, or if it's a ship of some sort. I definitely enjoy rolling some cars around once in a while.

You can't do a whole lot though with some of the more minifig-oriented sets.

[nismogrendel]

In between pulls while raiding on World of Warcraft I would mute my microphone and drive my LEGO cars all over my desk.

Everytime I get a new set I get a flood of scenarios that the new minifigs would fit in. Last set I bought was the Atlantis portal, while building that I kept thinking of ways I could use the bad guy figs in my Space Police MOCs. When I was building the Lunar Limo, I was envisioning Brick Daddy as some sort of kingpin. I still have some vignettes floating around in my head that I need to build because of that.

Good to know I'm not the only adult that still plays with my LEGO instead of just building MOCs to put on display :)

[Jargo]

When I get the chance and I'm alone I play with my lego cars. car chases and slow motion crashes. Sometimes I even make noises like screeching tyres or explosions. I swoosh areoplanes around my room. And I have some 'stunt' minifigs with loose legs who play the part of accident victims or drivers flying out of crashing cars.

Play is essential to keeping an active mind. I'm almost 43 but I don't think I'll ever stop playing. If I do that I feel like I might as well book my funeral and just quit living.

[-zenn]

I imagine what it would be like if my hoverbikes could really fly... so yes I sometimes do.

[fenrir]

It's strange, but I never play with it.

I build it, look at it, admire it. but never play with it again.