The Fire Within (The Last Dragon Chronicles #1) The Iron Trial (The Magisterium #1) Gregor the Overlander Boxed Set #1-5 Wings of Fire Boxset (Books 1 - 5) The Ascendance Trilogy #1: The False Prince The Golden Compass Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition Chronicles of the Red King #1: The Secret Kingdom Percy Jackson and the Olympians Boxed Set (Books 1-5) The Spiderwick Chronicles (the Complete Series) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Sign In or Join to save for later Genre: Family and Kids Running Time: 100 minutes What parents need to know Parents Need to Know LEGO Batman: The Movie -- DC Superheroes Unite LEGO: The Adventures of Clutch Powers LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu Top advice and articles What parents and kids say This question already has an answer here: Why do LEGO boxes have a maximum age limit? Why do LEGO sets have a minium age rating?
Can you explain the rationale behind age recommendations for various Lego products? For example, what makes a 4-7 rating different from a 6-8? Is it unreasonable to buy a set labelled 12+ for my very advanced six year old if I will be building it with him? Is there some guideline that explains the complexity or number of pieces? Is it related to the durability of the finished project? marked as duplicate by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇, gev, Móż, Ambo100 This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question. The complexity of the model and the expected time to complete it will increase with the recommended age. Lower aged sets, like the Juniors line, feature builds that rely heavily on standard stacking and more basic bricks. As the age recommendation goes up, you'll see more advanced building techniques such as offset stacking (think stair stacking), studs not on top (SNOT technique), thinner walls (think 1x4 instead of 2x4), more plates instead of just bricks, and more.
Sets for younger children are also designed for the type of play those ages engage in. And they tend to feature brighter, primary colors, which also appeal to those age groups. Looking at set 10672, LEGO Juniors Batman: Defend the Batcave, we can see evidence of these things: The set uses large pieces for structure, which is a very basic and easy technique. The set features a car, the Batmobile, which is low on detail but structurally will hold up to the more rough play of 4-7-year-olds. Cars are very, very common for these types of sets The set is very open, so it's easy to access from many angles for an age range still developing motor control We see a lot of bright colors, including a blue Batman instead of a black or earth (dark) blue Batman suits we normally see Now, we can contrast this with a slightly higher age range set, 75099 Rey's Speeder. The Batman set was ages 4-7, and this Star Wars set is ages 7-12: The Star Wars has more pieces, 193 vs. Batman's 150
The set itself is smaller in size, because it makes use of smaller pieces (which require more fine motor control to properly place) The set does not come with a play area, although that's not always the case The speeder itself features the sideways building techniques, where the tops of the elements don't point up The color scheme is more muted, featuring dark reds and and more grays, although this is also common with licensed sets You won't necessarily be able to apply these attributes universally across sets, especially since the age-ranges sometimes overlap, as seen in 60043 Prisoner Transport, which has an age range of 5-12. None of this is to say that younger kids can't assemble and enjoy older-ranged sets, but the ranges given are typically where the most enjoyment and least frustration will be found. Something else you won't see on the box is the difference in styling of the building instructions. For the Batman set's (PDF), we see there's only a single task per page, and they're often broken down into smaller steps or have large, clear arrows indicating placement.
In the Star Wars set's (PDF), we see that each page has two numbered tasks and placement is less likely to be indicated by arrow for simple tasks. These differences in instructions are because of the expected abilities and attention spans of the intended audiences. Again, this is to reduce frustration and enable the children to be more successful building the sets without relying too heavily on the adults to help. The LEGO company does a lot of research into what types of play are better for children at different ages, because it gives them a better product. You can seem some of the information they provide parents about types of play on their Parents website, and more involvement with child education from their LEGO Education company. This answers comes from my experience as a consumer of LEGO product for different age ranges and as a previous customer service representative. I was asked questions about the recommended age ranges on a weekly basis, and the answer I provided to customers was similar to the answer here.
The age classifications are not related to the durability but to the longevity of the finished project to remain as a build. Kids 5 and 6 can build kits for 8 year olds, they can also build kits for 12 year olds with occasional help. What they cannot do is keep the final build in one piece as they constantly take them apart. It is impossible for a 6 year old to leave a finished build alone. If you are ok with that, then disregard the age classification. You will end up with boxes of many Lego pieces. Once a year, try to rebuild sets using the instructions. But the sorting of parts is my definition of insanity.Browse other questions tagged building durability safety or ask your own question. With more than 300 new Lego kits unveiled at this year's New York Toy Fair you may be a bit lost as where to start. We had a hands-on tour of the Lego booth and compiled this comprehensive low down on everything you need to know from the show.Some additions to the line were to be expected: the City range was expanded again, as were Ninjago, Friends and the collectable Mixels.
But new this year we have licensed kits for Scooby Doo, Jurassic World, Minecraft, Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel's Ant-Man and of course Star Wars. Also added was an easy access Juniors range as well as retro styled (and instruction-less) Classic sets.One of the most anticipated sets was Lego Scooby Doo. Seeing each of the characters in Lego mini-figure form was reminiscent of the Simpsons sets from last year. Here though things felt better suited to Lego's play style.The Mummy Museum Mystery, Plane Adventures, Mystery Machine, Haunted Lighthouse and Mystery Mansion each focused on certain Scooby episodes and looked great.The Lego Jurassic World sets take different scenes from theJurassic World film and recreated them in brick form. With the film not out until 12 June it was interesting to see some of the plot recreated in physical Lego form.The kits themselves were interesting, not least because of the huge scale of the dinosaurs but also as they revealed more tangible details of the genetically engineered dinos in the film, along with the different modes of transport and hero characters.
In particular it was interesting to see leashed dinosaurs fighting alongside the human minifigures. The six sets will be available in MayThis also hinted at more details that would come to the Lego Jurassic World video game with big-fig dinosaurs and character mini-figs on display that are likely to be seen in TT Games' Lego gaming experience.Minecraft is always a popular video game, and that is as true with its Lego kits. This year we will see sets includingThe Dungeon, The Snow Hideout, The Nether Fortress andThis year these Lego Minecraft sets were still in prototype form, with bricks marked with numbers for paint effects and finishing details.The original six sets are still available and the four new sets will release in August.Lego Mixels have been hugely popular since launching alongside a co-developed TV show. This year we will be getting three new sets of Mixels to collect. Series 4 has just been released and will be joined by Series 5 in June and Series 6 in October. Each of these releases includes a tribe with glow in the dark elements.
Lego City is one of the most long-standing series and continues to be popular. This year's new kits extended the build-and-play focus while injecting some real-life heroes. There were more than 30 new sets in this section and it was one of the biggest expansions. This year's Lego City series offers a range of sub themes -- Swamp Police, Demolition, Space Port, Town Transport and Sea Exploration themes.Heroes and villains continue to be strong for Lego and that means Marvel and DC Comics character tie-ins. This year we have sets for Marvel'sAvengers: Age of Ultron and Marvel'sAnt-Man. There are also more sets for Lego Super Heroes: DC Universe including two new Batman and five Justice League sets.There were no sets on display for The Force Awakens, it seems to ensure no details of the film leaked -- something true across every toy line at the show, with Disney being super careful to keep its powder dry.However there was still a lot of Lego Star Wars inspired by classic Star Wars films and the animated television series Star Wars Rebels.
Along with these were some slightly strange large constructible figures. These provide classic characters like Luke and Darth Vader in super-sized figure form.Although some parents question the need to annex off girl focused Lego, the Friends kits have always sold well. The sets continue to focus on lifestyle role play including the Vet Clinic, Tourism and Pop Star sub-themes. Despite reservations the Vet Ambulance, Air Balloon and Recording Studio each looked very good and are complemented by television content through the year.Taking a similar form to the Lego Friends kits but in more interesting ways is the new Lego Elves theme. This transforms the Lego Friends mini-figures into a fantasy theme complete with keys to collect and portals to open.The story here is that Emily needs the help of the elves to return home after falling through a hole into the world. Eight sets, with accompanying digital content, will offer fantasy role-play and story starters including Farran and the Crystal Hollow, Elves' Treetop Hideaway and Pegasus Sleigh.The overarching theme offers better coherence and a distraction from the pappy lifestyle theme that the original Friends sets get caught up in.
Lego Ultra Agents was the antithesis of life-style frippery, and extended the agent's hunt for the super villain wanting to destroy Astor City. The sets get a nice refresh, but more interesting is a new app that uses special carbon fibre AppBricks to interact with the tablet screen.As a whole it was impressive and the app managed to both integrate with the theme of the series while also extending story-play in intelligent directions.Eight new Lego Ultra Agents sets were unveiled this year, with a focus on water This included the Invisible Gold Getaway, Agent Stealth Patrol and UltraCopter vs.As Chima comes to the end of its run, Lego Ninjago took centre stage. The saga continues with new television episodes on Cartoon Network and over 20 new sets. Along with flying Airjitzu action toys are more traditional building sets like the Titanium Dragon, Ninja Mobile Base and Lava Pit Battle.Lego Pirates returns with five new sets based on high seas adventure. Skull Island, Soldiers Fortress and Brick Bounty Pirate Ship are instantly familiar although reconfiguring thePirates theme with fresh building challenges.