I see a News Ltd story claiming the faces on Lego characters are getting angrier to the point where some believe it will 'harm childrens development'

Obviously some people don't have enough to occupy what passes for 'their minds'

Every study done on this type of thing,books,TV, video games, music etc comes up negative on the question of inciting or inculcating negative or violent behaviour in kids. The most important influences on a child's development are the adults around them, particularly their same sex parent, the people who try to find other environmental factors do so because they are indoctrinated with materialist political "science".
The goal of the "Materialists" has always been the destruction of biological families and interpersonal relationships in favour of state controlled child rearing, these are the same type of people who used to train little kids to denounce their parents to the Stasi or Cheka if they saw political crimes being committed in the home.

Prax,

Don't worry too much. Yes the faces have been gaining more expression over the years, but LEGO gainfully upholds gender stereotypes in their products. They haven't caught up with the nasty feminists taking control of the world.

Here's the boy's selection.

http://city.lego.com/en-us/products/

Here's a selection aimed at girls.

http://friends.lego.com/en-us/products/41008-heartlake-city-pool/

(Scroll down for the "Heartlake Pet Salon" and the "Heartlake City Pool - amongst other things)

In regards to anger and children I have a wonderful daughter. When she was a little girl she made a crossword puzzle to give to Daddy for his birthday. The answers were anger, furious, grouchy etc. They were all cross words. Now she is a mother of teenage children, and her daughter told me she is fascinated by her mother's outpourings.

The Lego Techincal sets they put out in the late '70's have never been surpassed, my biggest criticism of the products would be the sets today are dumbed down. My little brother and I spent whole weekends building the grader, bulldozer, space shuttle and F1 car sets, it was valuable experience because you had to sort all the parts, follow the plan and then be able to diagnose and fix problems if you made a mistake or the model didn't work as expected. Then we'd do stuff like mess about with gear ratios to make them go faster or slower add modifications and do all sorts of experiments with them like pulling loads or the ever popular "crash testing" LOL.

LEGO is actually a fantastic toy. It's the only thing made of plastic that has any value (maybe apart from a bucket and spade). It's because it is reduced to many small parts which can be modified. A child can either follow the directions and make up the prescribed mode or - and this is the beauty of the product - they can actually use their own creative capacities and make whatever they like. In a world where toys are now produced to carry out a small number of tasks, it's great that something like LEGO is still going strong.

At the moment our dining room table is festooned with LEGO. Our son has taken it out again I actually think we might have too much as some of it was handed down from his much older sister who used to pick things like the pirates and knights, police station, etc.

We have a LEGO train track running the full circumference of the spare room, weaving around a chair and dresser.

Great stuff - who gives a toss about the expressions (and the only angry expressions I can note are a few "bad guys" amongst the collection).....

My favorites are when you combine Lego and biblical correctness...

http://twentytwowords.com/2011/03/03/10-disturbingly-violent-biblical-stories-depicted-with-legos/

I should amend the term "bad guys" to "bad faces". Some of them do have expression denoting that they are baddies, but they are only faces and they are only a very small percentage of the faces. You can fit any type of headgear or body on a head with a face. In the old days, all the faces were like this " : ) " . Even today, the "baddie" faces can be put under any hair (female too) and on any body (female too)....perhaps except the one's with beards.

Most of the faces host just ordinary everyday expressions and some are just as bland as those in the old days.

That's what we need, A smiling, kinder more compassionate Darth Vader.

Poirot,
These days it's Minecraft, it scratches the same itch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44jt-Fu19X4

Jay,

Yes, I think it does scratch the same itch psychologically. It's very popular.

My son has a version in which he just creates the world out of virtual cubes. In fact, I've even created a world - and when he asked me what I wanted to name it, I said "Brenda" as joke...so Brenda it is (I must go back and finish the village square)

I'll add that LEGO does assist small children with their fine motor skills, as manipulating the small pieces in "real" 3D (as opposed to virtual) is excellent for development in general.

Lol WmTrevor : )

I just had a good laugh at your photos of Lego biblical violence!
My favourites were the foreskin one, and Herrod with his insides spilling out.

Very clever indeed.

The foreskins could be the name of an Israeli drum quartet.

Escher LEGO:

http://startswithabang.com/?p=1167

Nerd Nirvana :)

Cheers,

Tony

Try searching for the "brick testament", a great many Lego foreskins and pixelated blood spills are depicted.

Rusty

Surely they would be mere "one-skins" in lego terms? A whole four would be terrifying in its implications!

Damned if they do and damned if they don't Poirot.

If lego is all about rockets and spaceships, it's criticized as excluding girls. Just like maths exams that dare to involve numbers.

When they make it more 'available' to girls and to their feminine interests, it's stereotyping.

They cant win.

PS: What's wrong with buying girls space lego, the option is still there.

Nothing wrong at all with that, Houellie.

I mentioned that about half of our son's LEGO was handed down from his sister who is nineteen years older. She used to buy the pirates and the knights and other things because back then there was hardly anything for girls in the LEGO range.

Of course the fact that all the pieces which she played with in the 80's are still viable and not distinguishable in quality from the current pieces is almost unheard of in a toy.

So you're right that the option is there for the girls to buy into the space ships, etc...funny how it doesn't go both ways. I can't see the boys buying into the girl's range, "Friends".

In fact, LEGO mimics life in society to that extent.

Sorry Poirot, you say "Of course the fact that all the pieces which she played with in the 80's are still viable and not distinguishable in quality from the current pieces is almost unheard of in a toy", but you are very wrong

My son played extensively with my Meccano set, & my Hornsby clockwork train set, both from the late 40s.

My daughter played with my farm figures, & the clockwork cars & trucks of the same scale, all from the early 50s. Although it had taken some time for these things to become available after the war, they were of excellent quality, & very durable, much more so than much of the plastic stuff sold today, LEGO & a few others excepted.

Hasbeen,

I agree with you.

....that's why I stated "....almost unheard of...".

Sorry Poirot I read that totally back to front.