I posted a few days ago about how I returned home bearing gifts and I also posted a little while ago about the difference between authentic Lego and the alternatives. You might remember my direct example using two Formula One model cars - one authentic and one made by a competitor. To be fair, there were advantages and disadvantages on both sides.

Starting with Younger_Rah you might recall that I brought him back a toy Gordon from the Thomas and Friends series, as Gordon is his favourite. This is a very similar model.

For Older_Rah, I brought him back a Lego set from the Marvel series because he really likes the Spidey Team stuff. He already has Spidey's motorbike and Rhino with a kind of Pizza oven that can shoot small Lego Pizzas. This time bought him Spin (one of the other members of the team of three) on a quad and Electro on a motorbike. Coming in at 124 pieces it was this one.

What really impressed me in just a few months, since his birthday, is how much Older_Rah's capabilities have grown. With his original Spidey bike, I pretty much had to build it for him as it was too challenging, but this time round he pretty much built it himself, despite it being a bit more complicated. I think that all I did was pushed the wheels into the tyres as they were a bit stiff for him and show him the correct way to put the red spikes on the quad, as somewhat intuitively he wanted to put them the other way round.

All was good and the boys were happy - or so I thought!

Then Younger_Rah started to get a bit upset that he didn't have a Thomas to accompany Gordon. My first thought was "Oh No!" I wanted him to be happy and not to upset him after all. Being creative as he is though he came up with his own solution when he decided that the detachable coal truck could be Thomas instead.

Can you imagine his surprise, and mine, when just a few days later he got a package from a courier? Grandma and Grandad were aware of how upset he was and sent him a Thomas (from the same set as the Gordon) and additionally another smaller Gordon and James. So now the lucky boy has four engines and he is absolutely delighted.

They were so thoughtful that they didn't want Older_Rah to miss out and at the same time he received a 6-in-1 set of Lego-compatible blocks. He was so happy. Initially, it looked like all six models could be made but we quickly discovered that this wasn't the case and especially if building the big truck - the main model.

Comprising of 1000 pieces, it is quite a set, but challenging to use. One of the things I discussed when describing the Formula One cars was the idea of "snapability". In other words how well the pieces click together. This became a bit of a challenge and I had to explain to Older_Rah that the best way to click the pieces together was to align them at 45 degrees and then click them together from one side if you get what I mean. One of the other things, given the versatility of the different vehicles that can be built a significant number of the pieces were what I called "oners" and "flat oners" as a child:

At times this made the structural integrity of the builds delicate to Older_Rah's frustration. And I am sure you can imagine that if snapping these pieces together is challenging then "unsnapping" particularly the flat ones and especially the smooth ones is pretty difficult - even for an adult.

Older_Rah is often asking me to use my Lego-Nail!

But, all in all, it was really nice and thoughtful how they came in to rescue Younger_Rah in his moment of distress when he was missing Thomas and for them just as equally to ensure that Older_Rah didn't feel left out and it showed how easy it is to inadequately prepare a present even when you think it has been thought through

In the end what they got makes a perfect complement to what I brought them back from England and that's all that matters:)

As always, stay safe and well my friends.