When I was a child I loved my LEGO. It was the prized toy. With so many possibilities and it has certainly notched up a gear since I last played with it.  When LEGO asked if we wanted to review some of their newest kits I of course leapt at the chance.

First I shall share with you one of the most tragic moments of my young life.

I was given the LEGO Pirate Ship for Christmas one year. It was amazing, huge, with rigging delicate rigging, cannons that fired little LEGO cannonballs, it even had a parrot. It was the best.

My mum must have spent hours building it for me.  I played with it so carefully, putting back together any bits that came off, putting it away every evening, enjoying every moment with it.

Then came that day, the day all small children dread, the day your parents MAKE you play with those kids you don’t like. In my case dad had a client visiting the house, he had an office at home, it was quite normal, but on this day, with this particular client he bought his two boys with him.

My sister being a girly girl had nothing that interested them, but my LEGO was fair game, in the unfairest of ways. The played rough, they broke things, they wouldn’t stop and we could never ever put that Pirate Ship back together the right way. You can tell I was crushed, as here I am, 32 years old and still gutted!

I will not allow this to happen with L’s LEGO. If he breaks it and can’t fix it that’s on him, but if he doesn’t want the mean kids to play with his toys then we’ll keep them safe for him.

The lovely people at LEGO sent L two lovely sets from their latest range,  an amazing Marvel’s Spider-Man Hideout set (rrp £27.99) and really fun Family House set (rrp £24.99) with a little dog and a pool.

The second they arrived he was sooooo excited, he couldn’t wait for me to make them up. At this stage I should mention that the sets he was sent are from the  Juniors Range with a recommended age range of 4-7. L of course is only two but he’s not interested in more age appropriate blocks, Duplo isn’t his thing, don’t even get me started on Mega Bloks.

The reason for the age range on the Lego Juniors is of course the small parts and the fact he can’t build it all himself, it is a fair age grouping, but he loves it, so much and he plays with it so nicely, yeah I have to watch him like a hawk, but he’s two, I have to do that anyway! I would happily by from the Juniors range again for him, but it’s down to personal choice at the end of the day, this is just my opinion.

I was worried these sets would take me hours to build but the some parts of the Juniors range come partially built, like the helicopter body, the rest are covered by the brilliant instructions. They are also all pre-bagged in little numbered chunks in the box, so you can work through it bit by bit without having to search through every single item. A simple but brilliant idea.

The detail in each set was mind blowing. With opening mailboxes and letters. Little cupboards and ovens. Opening visors and much much more.

What I love about watching L play with LEGO is how his mind works and how it stretches his imagination. I loved watching the wheels being popped off the police car and it becoming a boat. How the swimming pool became a dog bath. How the family sat down to eat tea (grass from the garden) with Spider-Man because he was hungry. It’s so sweet to watch.

Of course he used all the sets in ways you would expect them to be used too, the dog eating his bone from a bowl, the people going to bed upstairs and watching TV in the living room. Spider-Man flying his helicopter and catching things in his web.

That is the joy of LEGO, it gives you a base idea, a set of things to be played with quickly and easily, but how the play and the story progresses is entirely up to your child and you.

My only two niggles are the price, which seeing the detail is actually OK, but at first glance it’s a bit of a shocker. Also how very pink the Family House box is, there is no need for this to be so gender stereo typed, a house is a house, both men and women live in them, when you unbox and build it, it’s fairly  neutral, though still pinker and more floral than I would like, so why put kids off before they even open it. It would have put me off as a kid, I shunned all things I deemed girly and it certainly didn’t grab L’s attention in the same way the Marvel set did until it was all unpacked and built up.

We loved our sets and I would give them 10/10.

Disclosure – we were gifted our sets for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.