Family Games: Luxury Lego

Lego has helped to entertain and challenge millions of young kids between the ages of about 3 and 7. Many kids will make little use of Lego thereafter, as a vast range of quick and easy alternatives take up most of their time.

However, for some kids the large, themed Lego sets are of most value for creating settings that support imaginative play and roleplaying. These kids will be more than happy to construct an entire Harry Potter’s castle, then keep it as it is for months while they play games based around the castle and its characters.

The chances are that such kids will welcome ‘Luxury Lego’ with open arms. ‘Luxury Lego’ basically describes specialist sets of Lego, which are sometimes expensive and often little short of spectacular when put together.

LEGO® Creator Taj Mahal (10189)

Perhaps the most remarkable of the currently available ‘Luxury Lego’ packs is the $299 Taj Mahal model. The commitment needed to complete the 5,900+ piece design is almost as great as the cost but the end result is remarkable.

LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (8547)

Many enthusiasts might get better value out of the Lego Mindstorms series, which takes traditional brick building Lego into the world of electronics and robotics. The Mindstorm packs equip Lego to offer a thorough grounding in designing and controlling robots and can, potentially, improve kids’ and students’ employability in areas such as programming and engineering. At $199 the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 is the current robot of choice.

Lego Architecture Series Set Of 6

A similar ‘real world’ approach underpins the design of Lego’s Architectural Series. These models offer masterclasses in the design and construction of some of the world’s leading buildings. There’s the Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, the John Hancock Building, Seattle’s Space Needle, the Guggenheim Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater to choose from. Though you can order the complete set.

LEGO Architecture Fallingwater (21005)

The pick of the Architectural Series is Lego’s take on Fallingwater. There could be few better ways to explore and ‘get inside’ the architecture of this inspirational building than by visualising and realising its construction as you put the pack together. The Fallingwater design is, perhaps, too ‘industrial’ to entertain youngsters but there’s a lot to learn for teenagers and students looking at careers as architects and engineers.