Saturday, August 8, 2009

Another Item for the Wish List

Near my home growing up was Williams Variety, sort of a family run Target. It was a popular destination on the day I received my allowance, when I would ride my bicycle up to the store (something I could likely never do today without fearing for my life on the busy road I traveled, sigh). Once inside, it was straight to the Matchbox car display, where I would pick out a new one for my collection.

Back home, I would add it to the rest that I had accumulated and might turn my attention to my other favorite toys, Legos. Man, I would spend hours building and rebuilding a variety of structures. I think it appealed to my organized nature and the clean crisp edges and the like. And evidently Mrs. BA has a thing for the block as well - she often "helps" LBA with his Lego projects. SoBA particularly enjoys his MegaBlocks as well.

Well, I nearly wept with joy when I saw the link in Marginal Revolution that pointed to an article in Wired Magazine that described some new Lego sets that are now available. The Lego Architecture series allows kids (both big and small) to build Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, museums and other major landmarks. So where do I get these? Or where do you nice people buy these for me? Click Here.

From the Wired article, here are a few Lego Fun Facts:
  • Worldwide, seven boxes of Lego are sold every second.
  • Heo Young-Ho of South Korea left Lego on the top of Mount Everest in 1987.
  • According to Lego, even just two bricks give 24 different combinations.
  • All Legos are made equal. Every brick is compatible from the first brick made in 1958 (the year before the Guggenheim was completed and Wright died) to those made today.
  • The Lego minifig was born in 1974, and it took another 30 years for them to get proper, skin-colored faces when licensed figures dropped yellow for flesh-tone.
  • Kids waste around 5 billion hours a year playing with Lego.

6 comments:

J in PA said...

So the big question is, how many of those legos and matchboxes do you still have? My brother (the pack rat of the family) has all of ours, and his kids have been enjoying them for years - proof that recycling is fun!

Brave Astronaut said...

J - I do have some of my old matchbox cars. My Legos went to my nephew many years ago and they are long gone.

Unknown said...

"Kids waste around 5 billion hours a year playing with Lego."

Waste???? No, no, no. Playing with Legos is USEFUL and EDUCATIONAL. (Shhh... just dont' tell the kids they're learning math and physics while playing.)

Brave Astronaut said...

I just report the facts. I tend to agree that playing with Legos is not a waste of time

Lana Gramlich said...

Williams was the place that burned down, wasn't it? It was replaced by a Modell's or some such? If so, I remember the smell of that place (& how it was like a Heaven to Randy & I.)

Brave Astronaut said...

Lana - it was. Along with the Farmers Market in Hicksville. But Williams Cyclery opened a few years after the fire up the road.