Sponge Bob Christmas Lego Nightmare

[Nomad V]

OK, my boy is 4 and he loves all things Sponge Bob (heaven forbid). He wanted a Sponge Bob Bikini Bottom playset, but after hours searching the internet all that popped up were Lego playsets. Did I mention that my son was 4, and Lego kits are for older children? After visiting relatives on Christmas my wife and I spent a diligent 4 hours (each) putting together the "Pineapple", the Chum Bucket and the Bikini Bottom Express. We got to bed at about 130am and the kids woke us at about 630am.
Then came Christmas morning. Our beautiful constructs lasted every bit of 15 minutes before the nematodes had devoured our creations. By the end of the day the boy was saying that he hated Legos. Needless to say it wasn't our most successful Christmas in the toy selection category. We are currently in the reconstruction phase. I've read about the sin of using glue on Lego bricks, but what the heck. They will make more Legos and I want the boy to enjoy the playsets for more than 15 minutes before they disintegrate. We chose Elmers Glue-all as the semi permanent answer to our predicament. We figured that at least that won't melt of disintegrate the plastic of the Lego brick. Some people, on the net, have recommended PVC pipe glue, but that does melt the plastic. Are there any words of wisdom out there other than live by the age recomendation on the package, that one I already got. By the way Happy Holidays everyone.

 

[Trippy]

I've never glued the sets together, but Lego sets were a nightmare until my son wa 6 or so and could build simple set on his own. Now he's 10 and can build them all!

The sets themselves still don't last forever, but then he makes something creative out of the pieces so it's all good

 

[CmdrAJD]

I don't have any gluing advice, but you definitely have my sympathies. My in-laws gave my 9-year-old son the 1400 piece Lego Star Destroyer for Christmas, which I ended up building for him. I now cringe everytime he moves the thing in fear that it's going to be destroyed.

That's been my problem with these Lego sets based on an established property. Instead of just building whatever he wants, my kid has been doing everything he can to keep the sets intact. Isn't that kind of missing the point of Lego?

 

[Mallory]

That's been my problem with these Lego sets based on an established property. Instead of just building whatever he wants, my kid has been doing everything he can to keep the sets intact. Isn't that kind of missing the point of Lego?

That's my opinion as well. I always enjoyed seeing what my son would come up with next. It was good to see him put his imagination to use.

 

[Trekker4747]

I don't have any gluing advice, but you definitely have my sympathies. My in-laws gave my 9-year-old son the 1400 piece Lego Star Destroyer for Christmas, which I ended up building for him. I now cringe everytime he moves the thing in fear that it's going to be destroyed.

That's been my problem with these Lego sets based on an established property. Instead of just building whatever he wants, my kid has been doing everything he can to keep the sets intact. Isn't that kind of missing the point of Lego?

I've the 5000pc Millennium Falcon Lego set. It took me the better part of two weeks to put it together. It's currently sitting on display on a crappy folding card table in my "dining" room. If that thing ever breaks I'll likely kill myself. That thing is NOT very easy to move either. There's no good place to pick it up without risking major structural collapse.

 

[Miss Chicken]

That's been my problem with these Lego sets based on an established property. Instead of just building whatever he wants, my kid has been doing everything he can to keep the sets intact. Isn't that kind of missing the point of Lego?

That's my opinion as well. I always enjoyed seeing what my son would come up with next. It was good to see him put his imagination to use.

When my sons were growing up I refused to buy them Pirate Lego, Star Wars Lego etc instead I bought Basic Bricks and Supplementary Sets. They had as many bricks and other Lego as they needed but weren't restricted by the mindset of "this has to be built this way".

 

[JonathonWally]

I don't have any gluing advice, but you definitely have my sympathies. My in-laws gave my 9-year-old son the 1400 piece Lego Star Destroyer for Christmas, which I ended up building for him. I now cringe everytime he moves the thing in fear that it's going to be destroyed.

That's been my problem with these Lego sets based on an established property. Instead of just building whatever he wants, my kid has been doing everything he can to keep the sets intact. Isn't that kind of missing the point of Lego?

When I was a kid, I would build the set, admire it for either a few minutes or a few hours, then tear it apart and build what I liked.