Boys love Lego and Guns!

As a boy, I always wanted to build the baddest, meanest Lego construction I could. I created monster trucks, space fighters, mother ships, and James Bond-style supercars. OK they were just little plastic blocks but in my imagination they were hyper advanced technology (like KITT), and always bristled with exotic super weapons. And now specialist company Brickarms has an online boutique supplying custom weaponry for LEGO minifigs. They offer both historical weapons as well as fantastic ones, like this M41A Pulse Rifle used the Colonial Space Marines. Even better, they're all cheap—about a buck apiece. (via BoingBoing)

A Computerworld columnist writes:

There are a couple of truisms: Lego just goes on and on, and on… and, when it comes to guns, boys never really do grow up.  Some comments posted on the Brickarms forums: “I want human-sized Lego weapons”; “As a child, I always wished that Lego would come out with some grenades for my dudes to throw at each other”… and so on in similar vein.

Here's a snippet called Fathers & Sons from the Wall St Journal:

I can't shake the sense that boys are supposed to become manly. Rather than neutering their aggression, confidence and desire for danger, we should channel these instincts into honor, gentlemanliness and courage. Instead of inculcating timidity in our sons, it seems wiser to train them to face down bullies, which by necessity means teaching them how to throw a good uppercut. In his book "Manliness," Harvey Mansfield writes that a person manifesting this quality "not only knows what justice requires, but he acts on his knowledge, making and executing the decision that the rest of us trembled even to define." You can't build a civilization and defend it against barbarians, fascists and playground bullies, in other words, with a nation of Phil Donahues.

Comments

[ZenTiger]

My boys are into Lego big time. We probably have more stock than a small toy store.

Lego have indeed moved with the times - the Bionicle series is great (although we collect just about everything else too).

I've just finished a series of books based on the Bionicles as nightly bed-time reading to my youngest.

See them here: Bionicle Web Site

[Psycho Milt]

That Brickarms stuff is great! I wish I'd known about them a few years back.

[reid]

Did you see the Herald article on this subject?

[peter]

Reid

Go buy yourself a bucket.

School holidays coming up!

[dad4justice]

peter why don't you go and buy yourself a Bible you miserable creep.

[fugley]

Poor dadio, missing me are you?

I bought a bible once, but it had things in it I didn't understand, like how god loves me and yet wants to punish me for things done before I was born

Tangles, tangles, tangles I was in
I was born in tangle town
Because of adam's sin...

what stoobloodypidity this god business is.

Still, nice to know one Englsih city ios forcing priests to ead a disclaimer before each mass!

[dad4justice]

fugly - you are beyond ANY hope and you should be held in contempt as a low life scoundrel.

You are a sickening creature full of venom and poison.Have a nice day on slime city creep.

[ropata]

Great link, thanks reid!

[peter]

Lego also has a strong following from GIRLS, if they are given a chance with it.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/07/business/legocopy.php

NZ is already turning out more women doctors than men. I have heard that they are around 50% of engineering graduates (when women engineers were almost freaks 30 years ago)

Just have to be wary of any attempts to stereotype. Boys do not HAVE to be aggressive - many are not. On the other hand you would not want to be in dark alleyways if some women were roaming about!

[reid]

Goes without saying peter, but I think there's clear evidence from society and science and common-sense, that the pendulum has swung far far far too far in the wrong direction and needs to swing back. Almost every boy I've ever known aren't even close to being metrosexuals peter, and if you think they should be, maybe it's you that's wrong, wrong, wrong.

Fugley, you obviously didn't understand the Bible to draw the conclusions you did, so I suggest you keep trying. It's not hard to, you just have to approach it with an honest heart and mind. Until you do, you will never understand its message, which is unbelievable. And don't mistake your failure to understand, and reach a conclusion that there's nothing there. Because if you do, then you're a fool and more importantly, you're missing (walking right on by) the most important understanding you could ever have, bar none.

[peter]

The point is that every boy has the right to be the kind of boy he wants to be, and the kind of boy he is cut out to be.

Sterotyping is very unhelpful. Also the swinging pendulum analogy is archaic. There is no pendulum.

You need to meet more boys. In the academic streams of school and university you will see the non macho.