I got into a routine of buying a (small) set every weekend with my child, when he was about five years old.
The moment he first built a model from scratch, following the instructions and without needing me to help, was magical.
But every set eventually gets torn down and all the parts mixed together into our lego-bin. I think there are probably people who only follow the instructions, but most people probably build the expected thing and then later go on to play alone.
I have a lego tattoo, so I'm biased, but I think lego is still an amazing thing, even with the very expensive niche sets. 99% of the time my child plays with it, alone, with me, or with his friends, it's very random constructions purely from the imagination.
The moment he first built a model from scratch, following the instructions and without needing me to help, was magical.
But every set eventually gets torn down and all the parts mixed together into our lego-bin. I think there are probably people who only follow the instructions, but most people probably build the expected thing and then later go on to play alone.
I have a lego tattoo, so I'm biased, but I think lego is still an amazing thing, even with the very expensive niche sets. 99% of the time my child plays with it, alone, with me, or with his friends, it's very random constructions purely from the imagination.