Citations › Citation ID: 88

C88. BOOK: Daniel Konstanski, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Inside Story of a Design Icon (Unbound, 2022), p. 153.

The first fundamental change was a drop in the target age range for LEGO Town most day-to-day subject matter. Sets that would previously have been intended for children who were a minimum of eight years old were recalibrated for children as young as five. Those three years are a major period for brain development and there are enormous differences between what a five-year-old can do versus an eight-year-old.

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Enacting this new approach meant completely revamping the complexity level of many LEGO Town stalwarts, beginning in 1997 with firefighter sets. Some techniques were deemed too advanced for the new target age group, such as the use of windows with smaller bricks filling in the spaces in between. Instead, large, specialised elements were developed, while at the same time the level of detail was simplified. The garage-door elements that had been introduced a decade earlier were not age-appropriate so, instead of being enclosed, garages became partially covered parking spaces.

In 1997, in an attempt to maintain an audience despite competitive digital toys, The LEGO Group shifted their age targets lower, resulting in simpler sets aimed at younger kids. This resulted in larger, more specialized parts.