For any of you that know me personally or have followed me for any amount of time, you know that I love Legos! In fact, our family as a whole are Lego maniacs. My son and I tend to border on the line of obsession with Legos, but my wife and 8 year old daughter get in the game as well. My 13 month old daughter desperately wants to grab Lego pieces, but they’re choking hazards, so she’s kept a great distance away from our ‘Lego’ room. Remember to keep your kids safe everybody!!
Recently, I got the opportunity to review The LEGO Technic Idea Book Series written by Yoshihito Isogawa.
When I first opened the box that the books arrived, two things popped into my head. First, my son is going to love these books, and two, BEAUTIFUL. The pictures are big and very detailed. The Lego pieces Isogawa uses to create this contraptions are a perfect contrast of colors and allows readers to figure out how he crafted them.
Each of the books are self explanatory in what they cover, Simple Machines, Fantastic Contraptions, and Wheeled Wonders. They all have their focus, and there really isn’t one that is better than the other. If you like vehicles, you want the Wheeled Wonders. If you want cool little catapults type things, you want the Fantastic Contraptions. The Simple Machines book is the closets you’ll get to a beginner type book.
There are two things I wish were a bit different. In the Lego world, you get used to buying sets and having step by step instructions to get to your final product. In Isogawa’s introduction, he says he doesn’t have those step by step instructions to promote creative ways of building these contraptions. Although, I agree with what he has to say, I also believe that it’s important to provide a bit of confidence in each young builder. I would’ve loved to see a quarter of a book dedicated to building one of the really cool machines with step by step instructions. Once they get one or two of these built, they can innovate and begin trying to build other technics.
Second, I wish there was a pack of commonly used Lego pieces. He uses a lot of gears and other mechanical based Legos that are not always included in your typical Lego set. Well, not in the quantities needed for his machines. We have a Lego store here in Houston where I can pick and choose a variety of pieces to purchase in a big bucket, but there are so many out there without that luxury. Yup, you read that right, luxury :). Anyhow, if there was a bundle of some sort with a pack of Legos and the books, that would’ve been much more appealing to me.
Regardless, my whole family thoroughly enjoyed the books. If you’re a Lego fanatic, you’ll love them too. 
The author of this post was provided with complimentary copies of the books reviewed, but the opinions expressed are his own.
Anhtuan Doventry is a dorky dad to four of the greatest kids and a silly husband to the most wonderful wife. He lives in Kingwood, TX, and does IT management work for his day job. Otherwise, he spends his time reading, writing, and coaching as many sports as he can. He also spends a little bit of time researching and reading about tech items (although I think others in the family would argue that it’s a tad bit more than a “little bit of time”).
Anhtuan is excited about contributing to The Father Life. To find out more about Anhtuan, go to http://www.aquickremark.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/aquickremark.