Introduction to Lego Duplo Sets

The Lego Duplo system first became available in 1969. This newly developed system was targeted towards younger children. Lego Duplo bricks are much larger than Lego bricks, making them safer for very young children, but the two systems are compatible: Lego bricks can be fitted neatly onto Lego Duplo bricks, making the transition to the Lego system easily made as children outgrow their Duplo bricks.

The name Duplo comes from the Latin word duplus, which translates literally as double, meaning that a Lego Duplo brick is exactly twice the dimension of a Lego building brick (2" height by 2" width by 2" depth = 8" the volume of a brick).

Lego Duplo bricks are designed for smaller hands. Lego Duplo Sets offer the same benefits of Lego, but they are easier to manipulate and do not pose the potential choking hazard that can be a risk with the smaller Lego Sets.

Lego Duplo People

The Lego Duplo Community People Set, Dolls Family Set, and World People set are interchangeable with each other and with other Duplo sets as well. These sets allow children to role play family life, community life, and to make their characters interact with each other to play out scenarios and stories.

Used alone or with other sets, these Lego Duplo people are easy to hold, easy to manipulate, and will offer hours of imaginative play for little ones.

Lego Duplo Construction Sets

Lego Duplo construction sets allow children to build realistic structures or to create fanciful pieces from easy to connect bricks. While children are creating with the Lego Duplo XL Bulk Set, or Lego Duplo Early Structures Set, they are practicing spatial relations skills and honing their fine motor skills, all while making decisions about what goes where.

The Lego Duplo Tubes Experiment Set allows children to explore dimensions, shapes, input, and output, while experimenting with cause and effect. These Lego sets are all interchangeable with the other Lego Duplo sets and, alone or combined, make for hours of creative and experimental play.

Lego Duplo Communities

Playing and building with Lego Duplo communities sets is a wonderful way for children to role play adult roles and occupations, to learn about how people interact with one another, to imagine and play out stories based on various themes, and to practice collaborative play and negotiation with other children. The Lego Duplo Police Station and Fire Station Sets allow children to be heroes to a make believe community.

The Farm Set and Wild Animals Setslet children explore classifications of animals. The Lego Duplo Playhouse Set lets children practice family roles and act out situations and interactions among friends and families. Finally, the Hospital Set lets children see how people work together to help others. All of these sets complement the other Lego Duplo sets, and the possibilities for imaginative play are endless.

Lego Duplo Machines

Children can practice making decisions, determining how different pieces work together, and enjoy creating a masterpiece of engineering and design with the Lego Duplo Tech Machines Set. Complete with tools, this set encourages children to follow directions and to learn how different elements work together to create a whole.

Lego Duplo Transportation Sets

Children seem to be drawn to things that go. The Lego Duplo Push Train Set, Lego Duplo Community Vehicles Set, and the Lego Duplo Brick Runner Set give children plenty of opportunities to put vehicles into action. Building roadways and train tracks help children to plan and to use spatial relations and linear thinking skills. As with all other Lego Duplo sets, these sets fine tune fine motor skills as well.

Lego Duplo Letter Set

The Lego Letter Set should appeal particularly to children who are hands-on learners. The set comes with building plates and upper and lower case letter tiles (plus blank tiles for special characters) and helps children learn basic early literacy skills. Fine motor skills are also challenged and refined as children manipulate the tiles.

Lego Duplo Accessories

All Lego Duplo sets are great for on-the-go activities and can be enjoyed on the floor or tabletop just about anywhere. However, Building Plates Sets provide a firm foundation for creations and are perfect for setting up buildings and communities. These sets are available in a variety of sizes for nearly any building need. The Playwall set is a wonderful addition to a home or classroom; playwalls allow children to leave their creations in place and store extra pieces in bins beneath them.

Lego Duplo tables and fliptop tables make convenient surfaces for large building projects. The fliptop tables allow for Duplo play on one side and System brick building on the other. The 3 Seat Play Table comes with 3 chairs and three surfaces for building as well as a storage bin for Lego bricks in the center. This set can accommodate up to 6 children at once.

Finally, children can complete their Lego Police and Duplo sets with the accessories found in the Special Elements Set: wagons, flowers, grass, flags, windows, doors, and much more will enhance both realistic and whimsical Lego Duplo constructions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the recommended age range for LEGO DUPLO?
A: The Duplo construction toy is designed for children aged 1 to 6 years old. Duplo bricks are twice the length, height and width of traditional Lego bricks (eight times the size in volume), as a result being easier to handle -- as well as being far harder to swallow -- by younger children. Despite their size, they are still compatible with traditional Lego bricks.

Q.What materials are used in LEGO products?
A. LEGO elements are molded with the highest quality plastic material (primarily ABS or Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), by precision equipment so that they are durable and long lasting. We use only the highest quality materials and each design is thoroughly tested internally and by third party labs for safety and good play value. All our toys meet or exceed any required toy safety standards.

Testimonials

"Lego Duplo is top-notch!" - Justin
LEGO DUPLO has bright solid colors; the pieces feel very sturdy with a highly-consistent quality. As a reference, my LEGO blocks are still in superb condition after 20+ years. They've been washed and my daughter loves to play with them at granny's house!

"A MUST for pre-schoolers" - Shelly, Pre-K teacher
In my opinion, simple Lego Duplo building blocks are among the best toys for children because they: encourage creative play; help children learn colors, shapes, sizes, dimensions, balance and more; develop fine motor skills (especially pincer grasp); strengthen the hand muscles, and develop social skills--pour out a bucket of blocks for a group of children and they need to share the pieces while interacting with one another's building project with Lego Duplo.