When I was a kid, I always wanted Legos for my birthday and Christmas and I received quite a lot of them. Most of the sets I got were basic or general themes such as trains or underwater. I loved it when the technic Legos were released. The gears were one of the things that influenced me to become a mechanical engineer. The mindstorm sets have improved on technic even further. It is a shame that Lego is also producing so many custom movie themes where the parts are too specific. Maybe my imagination is not as good as when I was a kid because I think it would be hard to create something non Harry Potter related with parts from a Harry Potter set. I will definitely buy Legos for my kids (if/when I have them).

Below is a great example of what can be done with Legos, patience, imagination, and some programming knowledge.