My older son is a Lego aficionado. No, that doesn't mean he completes Lego sets with a snifter of brandy and a fine Cuban cigar. He can't get Cuban cigars because they are illegal and he's a Good Boy.
His Lego enthusiasm makes him long for the biggest, most complex Lego sets available. At least he's still focused on the sets, and he's not planning to spend years designing his own gigantic replica of famous landmarks, like OSU stadium, i.e. "The Shoe".
His first request was the Taj Mahal. This little beauty used to cost a mere $300. Then David Beckham said he works on a Lego Taj Mahal to relax, and the price skyrocketed to nearly $1,000. Thanks supply and demand! Sorry Max...
But it's OK, because my son also wants the London Tower Bridge set. This is much more affordable at $214.99 on Amazon.com. (NOTE: The Tower Bridge is not to be confused with London Bridge, as I learned earlier this year on a trip to England.)
He also wants a remote control helicopter (he actually wants a real helicopter, but I talked him down), a ripstick (a mutant skateboard designed by the insurance industry as a way to expedite the denial of accident and injury claims), and cold hard cash.
My younger son is a different matter. The first item on his list:
A robot snake.
"Where did you see one of those?" My wife asked him, hoping to get a head start on her shopping.
"Nowhere," he said. "I just thought it sounded cool."
As if keeping up with with commercials, ads, and grade-school fads isn't enough, now we have to satisfy the unbridled imagination of a seven-year-old boy.
Fortunately, my wife, being the ultra-pro shopper that she is, found a robot snake. We're still working our way through the rest of the list...
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13 comments:
For my first job out of college, I worked on designing a robot snake. It was actually a crawler to go inside coiled tubing - full of powerful magnets and such (so much fun when one of those suckers got stuck to the pipe wall).
I say you just get them each a lightsaber and call it a year.
And, yeah, those ripsticks look like skinned knees, burst bursa sacs, and death.
We already have more lightsabers than the Jedi council.
You should take your robot snake to the Great Pyramid and try to get through the air shafts, past where the other robots got stuck...or does it only work with metal?
Oh my gosh! My 7-year old daughter asked for a remote control snake too! I found an Animal Planet one at the toy store. She also wanted the AP shoulder monkey, lol.
We were into building the Harry Potter Lego sets when my now 17 year old son was younger.
Suzie- My wife found our robot snake in the Discovery Channel store...it may be the same one.
I think I want a shoulder monkey, that sounds like fun!
And now I want a robot snake too. :)
Sue- The one we got him has a remote control, it looks like fun. I probably won't be able to get it free from the packaging before 2013 if it's like your standard kids' toy, though.
Oh how I wish I could be there xmas morning!! Love, love, love my nephews!!!
We're fascinated by Legos. I can see why Beckham plays with them to relax. We want to do something truly amazing with Legos. But to do so means spending a ton of money. So we'll do a scaled down version instead.
Sharon- I've been thinking about getting a digital video camera, if I do I can at least email you a short video of the boys Christmas morning. That's when the real magic comes into play...
Stephen- When I was a kid my Legos were just a cardboard box with a zillion bricks of all shapes and colors. I never had the cool sets like my kids have with actual instructions to make something cool.
I live vicariously through my boys now, and I've logged some hours helping him with his different projects (Harry Potter sets, Space Police sets, Lego City sets, etc.).
Hi Gang,
My son was into Legos as a kid, and at the time it was the Castle and Knight stage, Robin Hood, etc. Now his son is into the "Great Pyramid" phase and my sister was lucky enough to score a great deal for the set on Black Friday. Thank goodness for Aunties who like to shop......
Your kids are so much fun! Will keep eyes open for robot snake.
Hey! I saw a robot snake today while I was out doing my Christmas shopping! (I had the tricky task of finding a space station and astronauts. I should have called your wife and got her to help me.)
Wendy- Not only could she have found the item, she probably could have found it on sale. Her shopping senses are uncanny.
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