If you didn’t grow up with Legos, I’m really sorry you missed out. Being older and everything makes me think of my childhood (as seen in last week’s article), and I just wanted to talk about these toys (are Legos considered toys?) I spent my days with.
All Legos are Lego (duh). But many different worlds were sets and sometimes even TV shows. The three I grew up with were Lego City, Lego Friends, and Lego Ninjago. There are many, many other Lego worlds out there, but I’ll focus on these since I know them best.
Lego City
I could be wrong, but this feels like the most common kind of Lego set. There are all sorts of options from houses, stores, cars, trucks, boats, planes, and anything you’d find in a city. This makes Lego City super broad around the world, and you’re guaranteed to find a set that you love. My brothers had an entire COLLECTION of these sets. In other words, their own Lego city.
Although I didn’t really watch their show when I was younger, I’ve heard each episode is stand-alone with its own storyline. A lot of Lego sets (like their police ones) have “mini movies” which highlight the set. I think this is a great way Lego brings its sets to life and popularizes them.
Lego Friends
This was personally my go-to growing up. My first ever Lego set was the Lego Friends Olivia’s Treehouse. I can’t tell you where the pieces went, but I know they’re somewhere. Olivia was my favorite character—we both have brown hair and brown eyes—although I have all five main characters as minifigures. Most of my sets are disassembled, but I kept a few bigger ones (like Olivia’s house) intact.
Their show had episodes that were stand-alone as well, but the same five girls in all of them. Eventually, Lego did create a series and storyline along with new designs for Lego Friends.
Lego Ninjago
While I was growing up on Lego Friends, my brother loved Lego Ninjago. Because siblings share worlds with each other, I knew a good deal about Ninjago, too, and have a couple of small sets of my own. The sets for the Ninja are usually warlike or something, but they have really cool designs.
Their show, which I believe is ongoing in a spinoff series, had a plot for each season, and each season followed the previous one. Towards the end, you definitely notice things coming full circle. Honestly, I’d say I enjoyed this show more than Lego Friends. Despite technically being for kids, looking back, their storylines were pretty impressive with a LOT of plot twists.
So that’s another piece of my childhood. I really hope the next generation gets to experience these sets the way I did.