Ben Fogle Claims Lego’s Rigid ‘Box Ticking’ Discipline Has ‘Ruined The World’ And Stunted Kids’ Natural Creativity

Former Lego ambassador Ben Fogle has made the shocking claim that the toy giant is largely responsible for “ruining the world.”

As claims go, it’s a pretty big one. Lego has been described as many things, but not usually as a world-destroying super villain, but there’s a first time for everything, including Armageddon.

The plastic brick building from has been a surefire hit with children and parents everywhere for generations.

Yet Fogle, who was appointed as spokesman for the Danish toy Colossus in 2012, believes the brightly colored plastic is toxic to a child’s development and stunts their creativity with its rigid step-by-step instructions.

The Express reports, that Fogle, who is good friends with Prince William, unleashed an unprecedented attack on the Lego brand in a speech to 200 private school head teachers at the Boarding School Association.

Talking to the assembled teachers, the father-of-two was rather damning of Lego’s “evil” influence on susceptible minds, even if he at first called Lego the “toy of aspiration.”

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful to the Danish company that makes 19 billion bricks a year.

“Lego for many parents is the antithesis of the high tech world.

“We are desperate to wean our little ones away from the tablets and into the bricks. It’s a toy of aspiration.”

The adventurer then argued that Lego has lost its way and become corrupted by conformity.

“Where once Lego offered a whimsical form of escapism into the world of the subconscious, encouraging creativity and imagination, it’s transformed into a rigid ‘box ticking’ discipline where children are encouraged to build by conformity.

“One misaligned or one tiny lost component can spell disaster. I’ve watched my son fall apart because it didn’t work. ‘I can’t do it daddy,’ he wails. ‘It doesn’t look like the picture in the box.’

“By selling cookie cutter kits they have cheated youngsters and their parents out of any chance to be truly creative.”

Fogle explained that if he was asked to write a critique on the education system his dissertation title would be, “How Lego ruined the world.”

Which is something of a surprise because a lot of people in the U.K. would probably write a critique of the education system along the lines of “How fee-paying schools ruined equal opportunities for the nation’s young.”

Also, if a kid falls apart because he can’t make his Lego set look like the one on the box, maybe he’s a little bit stressed out from the burden of high expectations and the whip crack of over-achieving.

Such calamities and minor breakdowns in a nation’s young have got less to do with Lego, but more to do with a culture of rigid perfectionism and the ill-fitting straitjacket of bland conformity.

Hasn’t Fogle ever heard of the concept of being a Lego “master builder?” There’s no school for that, and only one initiation rite. You tear up the instructions, smash up the bricks, and rebuild in the spirit of fun. And it’s not Lego’s fault if kids are failing at the first hurdle.

And lastly, if a young mind relies solely on Lego to fuel the fire of its imagination and stoke the coals of its creativity, then it’s got problems.