The Hulk Buster (LEGO) Experience — Some Insights

Abstract

I recently bought the LEGO Hulk Buster, for my kids to build and started building it together with them. I wanted to share with you the experience both as a father and an engineer.

Background

My name is Omid Vahdaty, am 43 years old highly introvert persona, married with 2 kids at the age of nine and ten. I have been working a 80 hours week job for the last 25 years. To me, family and work life balance would time was always a challenge, However the true challenge was not finding the time, whereas finding ways to connect with my kids.

Be that as it may, I never stopped looking for ways to connect with my kids so when I do spend time with them it will be will be a memory for us to hold dear and hopefully and the experience will embolden them as it did me for generations to come.

After years of searching for ideas and innovative ways to have fun and connect, the insight was simple. Simply being by their side, and finding things you all enjoy doing made the differences.

For example, watching cartoons and super hero movies together via Netflix, we made into movie night with popcorn. Come hell or high water every week, we would take an hour watching shows together and talk about the scene. Even when when I was abroad on business trips, we would open a zoom session and watch together. It was our thing.

So why choose LEGO to spend guilty time with todays kids where all they care about is their tablet?

Up until today, I remember quite strongly the hours spend building LEGO products as a 6 year old child. More importantly, The time and effort my dad put to sit with me, and teach me how to work with technical lego products.

The second reason, was by darn lack. As a family we went to a toy store, and saw the LEGO tumbler 76240, and some other LEGO models.

What caught our attentions, was the super hero theme, and the complexity of building this products. The product mentioned it was designed for age 18+ “kids” and contains 2040 pieces. Naturally, we didn't buy it at the time, Simply because my kids were nine and ten year old. We estimated we wont be able build it as a family and it would take weeks so the kinds would lose patience, and I would end up building a very expensive LEGO toy by my self :)

We were quite wrong…

A year passed, and we kept talking(!) about that insane LEGO product and we started discussing ways to train and work our way up all on via smaller LEGO challenges (500, 1000, 2000 pieces) to get to that desired LEGO products.

By chance, my bussines trip last week was to the US, and came a cross a LEGO store. Naturally, I went in to see whats new. I came a cross the several interesting LEGO products

1. Batman Batmobile Thumler : https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lego-dc-batman-batmobile-tumbler-76240
2. Hulk Buster : https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/hulkbuster-76210
3. Black Panther: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/black-panther-76215

The fact that the LEGO product clearly marks that it was designed for ages for 18+ concerned me so I wanted to ask around about this. Talking to this nice LEGO expert there, she explained the, few interesting facts which made the purchase quite easy:

1. One is the obvious choking hazard. so pay attetion.
2. Seconds, she explained the instructions are not step by step inside the box, but rather assume some kind of experiences in understand LEGO schematics, and I could use the LEGO builder Android App to have step by step instructions.
3. Thirdly, some of the parts are smaller, making it a challenge for small kids to connects, hense the adult supervision.

The amount of parts, implies about week worth of work, However, the packaging was built in such a way, One could divide the work to about ±20 play sessions. As each play session is clearly marked by a numbered plastic bug contains only the relevant pieces for this play session. The entire complexity of building the product becomes as easy as building 20 different LEGO products of 200 pieces!

From there it was simply a matter of choosing the right LEGO theme for us. Naturally I consulted with my kids, the eldest mentioned, she unlikely to build a “Boys” LEGO, and youngest, was so excited he could not think straight and he left the decision to me…

Choosing the right LEGO Product for your kids

Knowing I had to choose between three super hero theme lego made my life easy, simply because I compared, price, amount of pieces, complexity, colors, size of product upon completion. and here is how I finally decided:

1. Complexity of building for kids: all Family experience, one adult 2 kids, is totally adequate.
2. the Playability with the product AFTER it was built. as the black panther hardly has moving parts, and tumbler wheels only move back and forward like a 2 year old cars and some minor door opening. The Hulk buster has some joints the kinds, can move and shape it to any position they like.
3. the correct theme is EVERYTHING, in attempt to intrigue my Eldest I got her a 360 pieces LEGO product that builds into a flower and some chicken. This brought her sit with us while we build the Hulk buster. and stayed with us for the entire 20 play sessions.
4. The amount of time I want to spend with my kids. Here is my timing formulla based on experience of building the Hulk Buster with my kids. The Packages contains 4049 pieces, divided into ±20 plastic bags, of ±200 pieces and each is clearly marked by the step number (1 to 20). each plastic bag took us about 2 hours. totalying in about 40 hours for the Hulk Buster.

Some product remarks for “must know it all before” fathers like me

1. pay special attention to the unboxing process, keep the plastic bugs marker with the step number, in case your child gets tired mid play session, so you would be able to continue next week, while parts are safely secured and clearly marked.
2. Download the LEGO builder app, even though there is printed version inside, todays needs need some sort of technology reference to make the experiences more interesting, and above all, they can zoom in/out so you can show them how to validate the completion of complicated steps.
3. You can play in parallel with several kids, be prepared to manage the process for the them, as some play session including waiting for the previous plays session to be over so they can be connected. :)
4. Be prepared to loose parts, even if you don’t complete the product, focus ±40 hours quality time with your kids.
5. While building, Ignore the expensive pricing, focus ±40 hours quality time with your kids.

Some remarks for the LEGO designers of hulk buster

1. Please DO NOT have more than one plastic bug, with the same number, it was quite confusing in the unboxing process.
2. Please consider for such complex products, to have built in trays which are reusable, or even closed reusable box instead of plastic bags, this will double the quality time, if you consider the way back: i.e disassemble such a complex product, and putting it back to the box. and building it in another time.
3. Please consider more safe guards, to straighter the connection so the parts, as the product easily disconnects.
4. In 2023, I would expect a lot more technological features in a product that cost as much as a new Apple Iphone. For example, augmented reality app, once the product is built, the child and uses the app to “Animate” the static posture of hulk buster. Further more, and VR like experiences of of putting the bricks together or at least rotating the image in the app, instead of a borring old school static image.

Summary

1. I really enjoyed the quality time with my kids, it was a true pleasure. I believe the LEGO user experiences is instrumental in todays post covid-19 world, where the only common options to play for kids is a tablet / TV screen.
2. The LEGO price tag is a bit too much, it always has been. It is a shame because most families wont be able to afford more than one product in the 600$ price range. A decent tablet cost 600$, and last for about 3 years, with thousands of hours of endless fun and educational options. In today’s world it simply make LEGO a “rich” kids experiences. So I would expect the number three ranked brand in the world, to find ways to make the LEGO experiences more accessible to less unfortunately families for the very least reusable.
3. LEGO has helped shaped me to the builder/engineer I am today, and I am grateful to have been profoundly been impacted by the LEGO experience. I was thinking of disassembling the product back to its original state, and donate it back to more unfortunate families, so their families would enjoy as we did. wish me luck :)

Hope this blog helped anyone,

Thanks

Omid Vahdaty

P.S feel free to add me in linked in and talk :)