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FOR generations of American children and their parents, Legos were the ultimate do-it-yourself plaything. Little plastic bricks, with scant instructions, just add imagination.
在乐高的复兴，打造多媒体巨头的过程中，公司的高官也表现出了了不起的想象力。但是，一些家长和研究人员也有担心，担心公司的盈利会以儿童消费者的损失为代价，降低了对孩子想象力的要求，而发挥想象力正是使乐高品牌闻名世界的关键因素。 Even when actual bricks are involved, today’s construction sets are often tied to billion-dollar franchises like “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” — and the story lines therein — and invite users to follow detailed directions, not construct their own creations from whole brick. It’s less open-ended, some parents and researchers say, and more like paint-by-numbers. 今天，即便是实物积木，通常也与《星球大战》(Star Wars)和《魔戒》(Lord of the Rings)这样数十亿美元的电影主题——以及故事主线——连系在一起，要求玩家遵守详细的说明，而不是用积木自己进行创造。一些家长和研究人员说，这种玩具设计自由发挥的空间变小了，更像是按编号填涂颜色的游戏。 “When I was a kid, you got a big box of bricks and that was it,” said Tracy Bagatelle-Black, 45, a public relations consultant in Santa Clarita, Calif., north of Los Angeles. “What stinks about Lego sets now is that they’re not imaginative at all.” “我小时候，就只有一大盒积木，仅此而已，”45岁的特雷西·巴加特勒-布莱克(Tracy Bagatelle-Black)说。她在洛杉矶以北加州圣克拉里塔担任公关顾问。“现在的乐高积木之所以令人讨厌，就是因为它们一点想象力也没有。” Not that she can resist the hue and cry from her children. For Hanukkah, Molly, her 11-year-old daughter, got two Lego products, neither of them blocks; her son, Alex, 5, got even more, including a Lego Darth Vader Clock, a Lego board game, a Lego sticker book — at the top of his list — and a Lego “Ninjago” video game. 然而她还是无法抗拒孩子的哭闹。光明节(Hanukkah)时，她11岁的女儿莫莉(Molly)收到了两个乐高产品，但没有一个是积木；她五岁的儿子亚历克斯(Alex)收到的礼物更多，其中包括一个乐高的达斯·维德钟表、一副乐高棋、他最想要的乐高贴纸，以及一个乐高“忍者系列”(Ninjago)电子游戏。 Oh, yes, and he also got some traditional Legos, sort of: a Lego Super Hero Captain America and Lego Marvel Super Heroes set, both of which come with detailed instructions. 对了，他还收到了一些传统的乐高玩具礼物（从某种程度上来说是这样）：一个“乐高超级英雄美国队长”模型和一套“乐高奇迹超级英雄”套装，两个玩具都有详细说明。 For their part, officials at Lego — a privately held, Denmark-based company — say their efforts in books, television and video games are still creatively minded and aimed at driving kids “back to the playroom.” 乐高是一家总部在丹麦的私人公司。公司主管表示，他们开发图书、电视和电子游戏产品的努力仍然是着眼于开发创意，目的在于让孩子们“回到游戏室”。 According the company’s research, parents “don’t mind the video games, they don’t mind the books, they don’t mind the TV series because it’s intensifying their child’s desire to build,” said Michael McNally, the director of brand relations for Lego’s American operations, based in Enfield, Conn. “And they love watching their kids build.” 根据乐高的调查，家长“不排斥电子游戏，不排斥图书，不排斥动画片，因为它们唤起了孩子想要搭建积木的欲望，” 康涅狄格州恩菲尔德美国乐高的品牌关系负责人迈克尔·麦克纳利(Michael McNally)说。“他们也喜欢看自己的孩子搭建积木。” And so does the Lego Group, which nearly melted down financially in the middle of the last decade, with layoffs and huge losses. The company has since turned things around, reporting a 17 percent increase in revenue in 2011, with product lines based on “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Harry Potter” performing “considerably above expectations.” 乐高集团(Lego Group)也是一样。2005年前后，乐高几乎要破产，亏损严重，不得不裁员。从那以后，公司扭转了局面，2011年创造了17%的收益增幅，其“加勒比海盗”(Pirates of the Caribbean)和“哈利·波特”(Harry Potter)系列产品的销售“非常出人意料”。 “Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes,” for instance, was the No. 1 video game in June, selling 450,000 copies in the United States alone, according to NPD, a market research firm. (Collectively, Lego brand games have been among the top five best-selling game franchises in each of the last five years, according to NPD.) 市场调查公司NPD的统计数据显示，去年6月排名第一的电子游戏“乐高蝙蝠侠2：DC超级英雄”，仅在美国就售出了45万套。（NPD称，总体来看，乐高旗下的游戏连续五年都位列系列电子游戏销售榜单的前五名。） Then there is Ninjago, with Lego figures as martial arts masters, which was the biggest launch in company history. The animated “Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu” series on the Cartoon Network ranked as one of the top cable shows in America last year among boys ages 2 to 11, according to the Nielsen Company, going toe to toe with the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants (which also has a Lego version). 此外还有“忍者系列”，该游戏里的人物都是武林高手，这是乐高历史上规模最大的游戏。根据市场调研公司尼尔森(Nielsen Company)的统计，卡通频道播出的动画版《幻影忍者》系列是美国去年最受2到11岁男孩欢迎的有线电视节目之一，与《海绵宝宝》(SpongeBob SquarePants)之类的节目不分上下（海绵宝宝系列也有乐高版的产品面市）。 Of course, lots of toy companies have gone the multimedia route (see: Barbie). But for parents and some researchers, there’s a narrative twist with Lego, which engenders such good will from parents because of its education-centric reputation. It was, literally and proverbially, a building block. 当然，很多玩具公司都在走多媒体路线（比如芭比娃娃）。但是对于家长和一些研究人员来说，乐高有一套自己的逻辑，它以其寓教于乐的声誉赢得了家长的好感，不仅作为一种说法，而且名副其实地，乐高都应该是积木。 “Parents are confusing the brand with the product and, more important, what it delivers” said Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at the University of Washington, whose research focuses on the impact of interaction with various media on children’s brains. Regarding the evolution from open-ended toys to multimedia and bricks with specific building plans, he added: “Depending on how far it goes, it could wind up, quite frankly, as the opposite of blocks.” “家长分不清品牌和产品，以及（更重要的）它实际传达了什么，” 华盛顿大学(University of Washington)儿童健康、行为和发展中心(Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development)的负责人迪米特里·克里斯塔吉斯(Dimitri Christakis)说。他主要研究与各种媒体的互动对孩子大脑所产生的影响。提到从开放性玩具演变为多媒体和具有特殊拼装规则的积木时，他说：“这要看它会发展到哪种程度，坦白说，它很可能会走向积木的反面。” Dr. Christakis led a study, recently published in The Journal of Pediatrics, that found evidence to suggest that when small children play with physical blocks, like traditional Legos, they are doing more to stimulate the release of chemicals in their brains associated with learning than when the children watch videos. 克里斯塔吉斯博士主持的一项研究，最近发表在《儿科学杂志》(The Journal of Pediatrics)上，研究发现，幼儿玩真实的积木，比如传统的乐高玩具时，大脑会接受更多的刺激，释放与学习有关的化学物质，观看视频时，这种刺激则较弱。 The book business has also been good to Lego. In the week of Dec. 9, 4 of the top 10 children’s chapter books on the New York Times best-seller list were from Lego, including “The Lego Ideas Book,” which has been on the list for 32 weeks, and carries the tagline: “Unlock Your Imagination.” Simon Beecroft, publisher of the licensing division of DK Publishing, a division of Penguin Books, which published “The Lego Ideas Book,” said the brand was “associated with creativity and with the development of useful skills, building and thinking logically.” 乐高的图书销售业绩也不错。在去年12月9日那一周，《纽约时报》列出的十大儿童系列畅销书中，有四本来自乐高，其中包括《乐高积木概念指南》(The Lego Ideas Book)，这本书已上榜32周，它的口号是：“放飞你的想象力。”西蒙·比克罗夫特(Simon Beecroft)是DK出版社(DK Publishing)特许出版部门的一个出版人，DK出版社是企鹅出版集团(Penguin Books)旗下子公司，出版了《乐高积木概念指南》一书。他说，乐高品牌“注重创造力与实用技巧的培养，比如动手能力和逻辑思维的能力。” Joe Meno, the co-author of “The Cult of Lego,” said that Legos could still be used as a way to learn — and teach — about basics of engineering, design and even robotics. But he conceded a seeming emphasis on “a storytelling angle.” 《乐高神话》(The Cult of Lego)一书的合著者乔·梅诺(Joe Meno)说，乐高玩具依然可以用来帮助儿童学习有关工程、设计，甚至是机器人科学的基本概念。但他承认，乐高玩具很强调“讲故事”。 “Instead of building things because you wanted to build, there’s a story going on and you want to enter that story,” he said. “It’s ‘assisted imagination,’ for lack of a better term.” “你不是随心所欲地搭建积木，乐高的玩具包含一个故事，你想要融进那个故事里，”他说。“我们没有更好的词，姑且称它为‘辅助想象’。” For his part, Mr. McNally said that while he was “not trying to make the case for playing video games’ being an educational experience,” he said Lego video games — which often involve problem-solving and riddles — “are not completely frivolous,” likening them to following instructions to assemble a Lego kit. 麦克纳利说，虽然他“不想说玩电子游戏等于接受教育”，但是乐高的电子游戏“并非一无是处”——游戏中常有涉及解决问题和猜谜的环节——这就好比让孩子们根据说明搭建一套乐高积木。 “It’s the same as building instruction: where do I have to put the brick in order to turn the page?” he said. 他说，“这就和搭建说明一样：我需要把积木放在哪里才能进行下一步？” 本文最初发表于2012年12月23日。 翻译：陈柳、张薇 |
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