The best Lego sets aren't just the ones that will make your kids squeal with delight once they see the box. The true mark is how they put it together and how long they enjoy it once the initial building is done. Most sets give a blueprint with simple, step-by-step instructions. While some kids follow these instructions to the letter, others see them as guidelines and free-build their way to something completely unique."The beauty of Lego is that you can do both: you can slavishly follow the set instructions, one step at a time, or you can chuck them aside and create something entirely new," says Dr. Jon Sutton, a Lego enthusiast and the managing editor of "The Psychologist" for the British Psychological Society. "Some people bemoan the fact that the sets [are] more about building the latest movie tie-in than it used to be. I'm not sure I agree: it's good for kids to have the opportunity to do both set and free-building, and in my experience they do. And when I see how my boys play with Lego -- together, constructively, literally building on each other's ideas -- it makes all the money I've spent on Legos feel worthwhile!"
While the branded sets come and go based on popularity of movies and licensed characters, the best ones are the free-building sets that keep kids and adults coming back, according to Karen Nolan, who handles public relations for Lego. "Lego City, Lego Friends, Lego Star Wars, Lego Duplo and Lego Classic have been some of our best sellers this year -- in fact, year over year."Pick up some of those top toys, or try one of these best Lego sets for kids:1) Lego Juniors Fire SuitcaseThe Lego Juniors Fire Suitcase is a great carrying case for fun with vehicles and mini figures on the go.2) Lego Juniors Pirate Treasure Hunt SetKids get a quick start and lots of imaginative play options with the Lego Juniors Pirate Treasure Hunt Set.3) Lego Classic Medium Creative Brick BoxStart your kids' collection with the 484 assorted pieces, a storage box and building ideas found in the Lego Classic Medium Creative Brick Box.4) Lego Education Community Mini FiguresCreated for the school setting, the Lego Education Community Mini Figures set satisfies even the most Lego-obsessed kid out there, letting them build their own people to populate all of their worlds.5) Lego Education Vehicles SetStart at the beginning with all the transportation vehicles your children can imagine in this 934-piece Lego Education Vehicles Set.
At just over $100, the price tag seems hefty but you'll never have to buy a Lego City set again.6) Lego Friends Heartlake Shopping MallA complete experience for hours of building and pretend play, the Lego Friends Heartlake Shopping Mall is perfect for a kid who's into shopping.7) Lego City Camper VanImagination and adventure await with the Lego City Camper Van, which also comes with a canoe.8) Lego Magikus Board GameBuild and play the best Lego Magikus Board Game, which also happens to be magic-themed.9) Lego Superheroes Batman: Man-Bat AttackEvery Batman fan needs a Batcopter and Batman figure. The Lego Superheroes Batman: Man-Bat Attack comes complete with villains and a crisis scenario.10) Lego Creator Treehouse 3-in-1Treehouse, lakeside hut, farmyard barn -- let the kids decide with the Lego Creator Treehouse 3-in-1.11) Lego Creator Power MechThe Lego Creator Power Mech features 3-in-1 transformation from a giant robot to a helicopter and a pickup truck.12) Lego Superheroes Knowhere Escape Building SetKids dig deep into "Guardians of the Galaxy" with the Lego Superheroes Knowhere Escape Building Set.
It includes a trap door, catapult, poseable figures and lots of weaponry.13) Lego Star Wars AT-AT SetFans of Star Wars will love creating their own interactive armored snow vehicle, complete with weapons and snow troopers, in the Lego Star Wars AT-AT set.14) Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention SystemThe hefty cost prices this amazing programmable Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System kit off the mass market but it pops up in schools and organizations for an introduction to robotics.15) Lego Master Builder Academy Set Robot & Micro DesignerThe helps your kid become a master builder with handbooks filled with tips and tricks from the actual designers at Lego."Lego is so easy to put together that even very young children can do it," says Dr. Sutton. "Immediately they are in a world of order and chaos, rules and no rules, where a collection of simple studded bricks can become a dragon, a racing car or a double-decker couch!"Want more toy suggestions? Check out the toy guides at Citrus Lane for suggestions that are sure to be a hit with your little one.
Cara Stevens is a freelance writer living in Connecticut with her husband and two children. She has authored several books for children and writes frequently about parenting, hair care, DIY crafts, food and healthy living. Lego Boost robotic sets announced, designed to teach kids coding Programmed by iPhone, Android app. Lego has announced a new range of robotic sets designed to teach children the basics of coding. Lego Boost, which launches later in 2017, is programmable via an iPhone or Android app. It's intended as a simpler version of the existing Mindstorms range. Short commands can be chained together to form longer sequences, but there's no typing involved. Like Lego bricks themselves, Boost's coding language is built from small chunks which can be snapped together to form more complex structures. A range of sets will be available, each containing their own Move Hub processor, including a ROB-like robot, a car, a cat and a robotic guitar. Special bricks included with the kits can detect colours and distance between objects.
Here's the Wall St. Journal with a video revealing the range, which will be showcased this week at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. Lego Boost sets won't be cheap, however - each costs around $160 (about �130). Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chattingGizmag's pick of the 10 coolest high tech toysChristmas is just around the corner and the hunt for the best kids toys out there has never been more exciting. With iPhone-controlled toys, customizable robots and smart toys that aim to teach kids life skills while entertaining them, the latest breed of high-tech toys have a lot to offer. Even books and pens, augmented with a little technology can read to kids or coach them to write. If you're looking to surprise junior with toys that feature a delightful technological twist, Gizmag's top 10 coolest tech toys for kids should give you plenty of ideas.The Sphero 2.0 robotic ball is what every little ball might aspire to be, if it could but dream.
You can take it for a jog, see it swim or glow, race it under furniture, launch it off ramps and even use it as a game controller.Apart from the fun games one can play with a ball that zips around the floor at a blistering 7 ft (2 m) per second, this smartphone-controlled toy really comes to life when you start downloading apps that let you play augmented reality (AR) and mixed-reality games with it.For instance, when you view your kitchen floor (or any setting) through your device's camera when it's running the AR based Rolling Dead app, you'll see zombies spawning under the kitchen table that can be destroyed through a fireball shooting Sphero. In reality, the robot ball rolls on the floor towards invisible zombies. In mixed reality golf, players swing their phone to putt the Sphero into a virtual hole.More than just a powerhouse of fun, this programmable ball lets kids as young as 8 years learn coding, if they're of a mind to program it to do simple things like follow a preset course.
The Sphero 2.0 is available for US$99.99 right now from Amazon.Remember the sassy smart car "KITT" of Knight Rider fame? Well, the Anki Drive smart cars may not be life size or have all those bells and whistles, but they can sure drive by themselves; they also evolve unique personalities the more they are played with.Take them out of the box and pair them to smartphones (iOS only for now) via Bluetooth and they are ready to zoom off on a vinyl race track. The inbuilt artificial intelligence keeps the cars on course, letting you maneuver them by tilting the phone. You can play against other people or the AI (which gets other cars to nudge, slam or box you in) or both. The fun really begins in the battle mode where players get to fire virtual pulse weapons or tractor beams at other cars on screen which disables or slows down the real-life cars.At the end of the race, players are awarded points based on performance which they can use to beef up their cars with new weapons, expanded capabilities and more.
These become permanent facets of the cars personality enabling players to build formidable self-driving race cars over time that race a certain way no matter who plays with them.The starter kit retails for $149.95 on Amazon and additional cars are $69 each.Ever wished that creating things with electronics could be as simple as snapping a few blocks together? littleBits makes it so. The littleBits building blocks are color-coded circuit components that you can attach to each other, and you don't have to know any electronics to create cool stuff with them.What's more, you can combine them with ordinary objects to make uncommon things like an animated holiday hat that displays a ghostly Santa flying his reindeer when tapped, or a bow tie that jiggles at the sound of your voice.You can grab the Base Kit for $99 and watch your kids unleash their imagination. Premium and Deluxe kits retail for $149 and $199 respectively.Ubooly puts a fresh spin on plush toys by having your iPhone or iPod Touch zip into the cuddly body of a stuffed animal.
Activate the Ubooly app and Ubooly's face appears as you swipe the screen and awaken it.The toy listens and responds to a person's voice and falls asleep when ignored. Part of its ongoing charm is the fact that it can constantly be updated with new stories, jokes, games and songs to keep kids engaged.As well as being uber cute, the toy is a win-win proposition for both parents and kids – parents can rest easy in the knowledge that their smart device is safe from harm in a furry casing, while kids get to play with their parents' gadgets to their heart's content.The toy is pretty inexpensive too, with a small Ubooly priced at $29.99, and a Jumbo version at $59.95. The app is free to download.Remember sitting in front of a Lego pieces piled willy-nilly on the floor? Now imagine putting them together to create functional robots you can program to do your bidding, after you finish building them.Lego Mindstorms EV3 gives you the ability to piece together truly awesome robots like the fierce cobra bot R3PTAR and the scorpion like SPIK3R.
You can control your creations with a remote or from your smart device via Bluetooth, and do things like have the cobra bot strike out by moving your device the same way. There's also an app with animations to help you with the build process for the five EV3 robots in the set.Programming the finished creation is as simple as dragging and dropping instruction modules into a visual workspace and hitting play at the end. The bots also come with pre-written programs that showcase their more advanced capabilities, such as shooting red balls at infrared targets or navigating around obstacles.With 594 bricks and a variety of sensors, motors and components, the EV3 offers a robotic programming playground that's extremely addictive. Buy now on Amazon at $349.99.If you enjoy reading stories out loud to kids, but find the fact that you might not always be available (or inclined) slightly troublesome, here's a high-tech alternative instead. Just clip the Sparkup Reader to a book and read the story out once into its microphone.
The device captures the audio for each page which kids can playback later. They'll just need to attach the reader to the book, and turn to the page they want read, to hear the recording. If you balk at the thought of yet another rendition of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the Sparkup Reader will take care of it for you. It's available for $59.99.Small enough to use a lemon as a launch pad, the Nano-Falcon is one of the most adorable remote-controlled (RC) helicopters we've laid our eyes on.It's the world's smallest RC helicopter according to the Guinness Book of Records, weighing a mere 11 g (0.38 oz). You can get it to hover, rotate, execute turns and fly about with the aid of an infrared controller. With a range of 5 m (16.4 ft) and a continuous flying time of about 5 minutes, this tiny toy comes recommended for kids above the age of 6 years. It's priced at $49.70.Having a robotic avatar hanging on your every word can be kind of engaging and that's what you get with WowWee's RoboMe. You can give the customizable robot a face by sliding your iPhone or iPod Touch into RoboMe's robotic body and play around with individual features on its face, such as its eyes, hair, accessories or more, to create distinct looks and even expressions (like gazing at you with lovestruck eyes).
Aside from giving it any personality you like, it's easy to program all kinds of quirky behaviors into it, such as having it dance if anyone shakes its hand or run away when hearing a key phrase. It understands voice commands and is smart enough to move through a room or any setting by itself without running into things; a remote control also gives you control if you desire it.Things get even more interesting when you experiment with RoboMe's "remote visual telepresence" feature. Paired with a second iPhone, it transforms into a robotic spy – you can see and hear whatever RoboMe does. Sounds like an argument for getting one of your own, don't you think? Just to pop by and see if the kids are really doing their homework.RoboMe is currently going for a bargain on Amazon at $44.99.Not stopping at teaching young kids to read, Leapfrog's LeapReader Pen also helps them learn how to write stroke-by-stroke. The pen instructs kids via a built-in speaker as they trace out letters in the provided workbook and eggs them on with encouraging words, flashing lights and sounds.
The paper in the workbook incorporates embedded ink, which means a child just needs to press down with the pen to make a stroke. The pen doesn't write on any other paper or surface apart from the special paper provided in the workbook, which means you don't have to worry about kids using it to scribble on walls.To access the pen's reading features, kids simply need to touch the words in specially printed picture books to hear them spoken out aloud. Designed for kids 4-8 years, the pen is priced on Amazon at $28.99.Say goodbye to batteries forever with the OWI 14-in-1 Educational Solar Robot Kit. This innovative kit lets you build 14 different robotic creatures and things, all powered by the sun, capable of moving on land or water.At the entry level, kids can try their hands at building a crawling beetle, a tail-wagging dog, a floating boat and more. The more advanced (level two) projects take the form of a walking crab, a slithering robot and even a zombie chaser, to name a few.It's a great toy to get kids interested in renewable energy sources while training them in hands-on robotic building.