DS is about to turn 12 and he is soooo still into Legos. He's clearly headed for a career in engineering, that's been obvious since he was maybe 4 hours old lol. He's also not exactly prodigiously approaching puberty or hormone-related things such as thinking about girls yet. So he's asking for a Lego train set for his birthday and my dh is determined that we shouldn't get it for him because dh thinks he'll outgrow his love of Legos soon. I agree, considering the books he reads, the thoughts he has, all that, Legos seem a little out of sync. OTOH, he loves them, he creates with them, his imagination is on high drive when he's playing with them. DH is just concerned that other kids his age are rapidly aging out of Legos if they haven't already.

I, otoh, have vague memories of still enjoying Legos, oh, maybe just yesterday lol!

So is it something older kids are still interested in or should we gently ignore and hope he outgrows it soon? Socially he struggles just a bit because of lack of self-confidence that stems from his 2E challenges... and he is really shy about making friends... so if there was a magic bullet we could order up for a birthday present that would fit in line with what other 12 year olds are interested in I guess I'd want to get that (and maybe the train set too....)

I think what's bugging dh is that it's the train set he's asked for. DS has NXT stuff, belongs to a robotics club that does challenging NXT programming, and he also is really into Legos Star Wars.

Thoughts?

polarbear

ps - he's also asked for a Perplexus - does interest in those really last very long?

Our children are younger but everybody in the house is into Lego. Have you had a look at lego.com? The segments by the Lego designers are quite interesting. Perhaps if your husband saw these adults who are passionately into Lego and gainfully employed in creating with it he wouldn't be so concerned? Just a thought.

Have you heard of the First Lego League? It's a robotics program sponsored by Lego, and using their pieces. It might be a natural segue for your DS...
http://www.firstlegoleague.org/

Some adults continue to enjoy Legos, as described in a recent WSJ article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203503204577038164225658328.html
For Some Grown-Ups, Playing With Legos Is a Serious Business
One Adult Fan Left a Six-Figure Job to Build Models; the $20,000 Apartment
By DANIEL MICHAELS
Wall Street Journal
NOVEMBER 17, 2011

HOBOKEN, Belgium�Dirk Denoyelle got his first Lego set when he was 7 years old. Today, he has nearly three million pieces. In between, he earned an engineering degree, learned several languages and became a stand-up comedian.

Mr. Denoyelle is a proud Adult Fan of Lego, or AFOL, as aficionados call themselves.

"Ten years ago, nobody admitted it," said the 47-year-old Belgian, sitting in his studio next to a giant Lego model of an apartment complex that a developer here paid him about $20,000 to create. Nearby are life-size Lego busts of Charlie Chaplin and Michael Jackson and a vast Lego mosaic depicting a homeless man on a London street.

The artistry of the works�and their fat selling prices�earned Mr. Denoyelle a prized spot among AFOLs. Three years ago, Lego Group anointed him a Lego Certified Professional. It's an elite group consisting of two New York artists, an Australian computer specialist and just 10 others world-wide.

"I meet a lot of really jealous kids who want my job," says Certified Professional Sean Kenney, a New Yorker who left a technology job at Lehman Brothers in 2002 to build Lego models full time. "Their parents are often really jealous, too."

Parents�including some famous ones like David Beckham�and some childless adults today brag about the complex Lego models they are building. Grown-ups forked over more than $1,000 for a recent 5,922-piece Lego Taj Mahal and equally big bucks for rare vintage kits. Lego is catering to the booming market with offerings that make youngsters yawn, like bricks in subtle pastel hues and models of Frank Lloyd Wright houses.

But grown-ups also flood the company with more product feedback than it can handle and produce Lego-size guns that the company itself won't make. Lego survived the rise of video games and its own brush with bankruptcy. Adults present a new hurdle.

"We still see ourselves as a toy company, but the world is challenging us on that," says Tormod Askildsen, a senior director at Lego headquarters in Billund, Denmark.

<end of excerpt>

Take a look at the website for makezine.com for project ideas that might strike the peer as cooler than legos. If you are comfortable with airsoft guns there is unlimited tinkering opportunities as well as serious cool peer factor. Potato cannons are also interesting to tween males....good luck!
Grinity

My DH is an engineer. He has multiple colleagues who fit the profile of Bostonian's WSJ article. They not only still build with lego, they display them in their offices. My DS7 loves to go visit the $400 Death Star a few offices down from my husband. Some people never outgrow their legos.

Legos are great for all ages. They now have an "architect" series that you can find at Barnes and Noble. My 9yo has been a serious lego builder since age 4 and doesn't show any signs of disinterest with age! I recently discovered "enginos" which are similar to legos for the "builders" out there. Here is a link to their site- I purchased a set for Christmas at Amazon.com so I can't give a full review on whether they're a hit or not-but I'm thinking they will be!
http://engino.com/mega.html

I am in my 30s, and I still love lego.

I would love to buy the Taj Mahal one, but it's too expensive to buy the retired set.