Thursday, July 31, 2014

Lego Lingo: AFOL's and ALE's and ALH's, Oh My!

Before we dive into the bricks, I'd like to take some time to introduce you all to some of the acronyms, slang, jargon, and terms used by Lego fans.

So, who are those fans, anyway? Why, AFOL's , ALE's, and ALH's, of course! Isn't it obvious?

Well, actually, it really isn't. Hence this post.

Basically, Lego fans can be divided into two categories based on age: children and adults. Because of the age difference, what a typical child wants from a Lego set tends to be rather different from what an adult wants from a Lego set. The most widely-used set of acronyms for Lego users is based off of this age separation. AFOL stands for "Adult Fan Of Lego," and KFOL stands for "Kid Fan Of Lego."

To those two categories, some people at a third, TFOL or "Teen Fan OLego." This is used to acknowledge that fact that kids who are older than 10 or so have a third distinct set of expectations from their Lego's. Trouble is, the upper limit of "teen" isn't really clear. Does it stop at 18, when the Lego fan is legally an adult? Or does it stop when they are no longer teenage; that is, once they turn twenty? For instance, I'm nineteen as of today, but I'm competing in Lego competitions with adults, building slightly ahead of the curve. Which am I, teen or adult? So, while I acknowledge the usefulness of the teen designation, it's just too vague for me, so I don't really use it myself.

Some builders take their hobby very seriously. They don't like to be called "fans," which does sound a bit undignified. But what they do call themselves tends to vary based on what they like to build. People who work with Lego train layouts, town layouts, and the like tend to prefer ALH, for "Adult Lego Hobbyist." Pretty much everybody else uses tends to use ALE, for "Adult Lego Enthusiast." There are also a few who appreciate the pun on the alcoholic beverage and use the acronym for that reason.

Personally, I like the ring of ALE better, but I generally use AFOL instead. Why? Because almost all the major organizations of Lego users (trust me, such groups do exist, and eventually I'll write about them, too) use AFOL. So if I want to be sure people will know what I'm talking about, I need to use AFOL myself.

Happy building!

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