Everything LEGO thread!

Licenses also helped drag them out of near bankruptcy. It's an interesting case to look into, no reason for me to rehash it here.

The Creator line is an odd/bittersweet thing to me. Lego had four main lines going back to the 80s: town, pirates, castle, and space. Town has become the City line, and the other three have fallen out of regular production only to have singular releases as Creator 3-in-1 sets. Lego has confirmed this as the plan moving forward. The majority of their production now focuses on licensed media/pop-culture themes rather than in-house ideas, with the primary exception being Ninjago.

Every set also used to come with alternate build ideas on the packaging and instructions. Technic sets used to have additional instructions for alternate B-models. These were meant to inspire kids to be creative with the bricks they have and come up with their own creations. These have now been abandoned for a deeper focus on the set model itself. There are the Creator brick boxes that have small build ideas for the included bricks, but these sets are a very small fraction of Lego's overall catalog. The focus now is on collecting all of the cool things from your favorite franchise rather than individual creativity. Again, Lego as a company have basically confirmed that the Creator line is the dumping ground for "old Lego" concepts, for lack of better terms.

I'm even seeing this shift in my local LUG. The focus used to be on MOC building and creative ideas, but Lin recent years has almost completely switched to collecting the latest and greatest sets. Said shift in focus coincided with a growth in the club and change in leadership and membership. More people just want to build sets, with MOC builders sort of being sidelined. (And then we're prodded whenever the club needs something to display or make them look good...)

Yes, set designs have become significantly more detailed and complex even in the smaller price ranges. No, the old sets weren't necessarily better and indeed were similar in design and parts count. Yes, I am definitely approaching this essay from a nostalgic perspective. I've been a fan of Lego for over three decades, and things change with time. I'm not saying it's necessarily all a bad thing - I'm glad Lego didn't run themselves completely into bankruptcy. It's just different. A company that built itself on creativity after the advent of the Lego brick seems to have now reduced themselves to churning out an ever growing mountain of collectibles, and they're succeeding for it.

There's my ham-fisted, alcohol-fueled rambling. Just something I've been thinking about lately.

 

I was a Pirate line collector as a kid. Always wanted the large ships but the parents never had the money for the Black Seas Barracuda or the Imperial Flagship. You’re spot on about the alternative B models on the instructions. I miss that. The pride of my childhood collection and one I’ll probably buy soon for nostalgia’s sake was Forbidden Island (6270).

 

Oh man, I think we just became friends...





And I still enjoy building ships

 

Holy shit!

Edit: I see a Forbidden Island in there, nice!

 

Black Seas Barracuda is what started this whole obsession so many years ago. Finally managed to add Skull's Eye Schooner and Caribbean Clipper to the fleet in 2020

Yeah, Forbidden Island was also a childhood favorite. You have good taste, sir.

 

heck, yeah
i have all the SW Lego games since they came out.
can't wait for the Skywalker saga....a lot of rehashing all the same stuff, but they put spins on them each time

 

FIFY

(Edit- fix typo and grammar as I would want folks to think they’re made by Sear87 )

 

Ha, got me there!

 

(Must be read with the Indiana Jones theme running through your head..)

https://twitter.com/legoideas/status/1489297679398187008?s=21


Choose wisely

 

I’m thinking of waiting for the Digital Instructions for this one:

https://www.brickmania.com/p-47d-23...er-group/?mc_cid=ee86241978&mc_eid=601a260897

She’s a beaut!

 

That is incredible!

I visited the Tuskegee Airman National Historic Park in 2019 and if you've never been but have any interest in WWII and that part of American history it's a must visit. I'm afraid that price is a little too rich for me though.

 

Yeah, Brickmania pricing has long been questioned but they make some valid points:

• They buy their LEGO parts retail
• Time to design and test out their models
• Packaging
• Advertising

If you haven’t checked them out yet, their Digital Instructions are terrific. You get the Instructions and parts list for uploading to your LEGO parts source.

They’ve been releasing more and more instructions so it’s good to see what’s out there already.

 

Built me a little off road truck with my boy.

 

Anyone from the co area :Various Lego Sets - toys & games - by owner - sale (craigslist.org)
I was searching for construction blocks and a lego posting came up.....

 

Nothing wrong with that approach at all! Don't stop collecting sets if that's what you enjoy - just look at my collection. Don't get discouraged when trying to build your own stuff (I could learn from my own advice...) Next time you do, post pics! Either way, not everyone enjoys building MOCs or has a large collection. Honestly, I find it more difficult to build small MOCs with limited parts - it's a skill I need to practice.

This aside, it just feels like Lego as a company has lost sight of a formerly core ethos of theirs. Look up scans of old catalogs from the 80s and 90s. Backgrounds were photos of elaborate displays of the sets available, and sometimes non-set builds. Lego had released a series of idea books (https://brickset.com/library/ideasbooks) over the years - I have #260 from 1990 - with the same concept: what can you come up with using your bricks? Lego as a company used to promote and encourage creativity beyond the set contained within the box.

I have more thoughts and conflicts that I've tried typing with little success. I could probably go on for hours, but there's no need and most people probably wouldn't read it anyway. I'll always love Lego bricks, and I'm glad the company is doing well and people still have fun with it. Things have just taken a turn that I'm not so thrilled about for more reasons than what was already stated, and I'll probably be buying fewer sets as a result. Not that my wallet minds...

 

https://youtu.be/n83cSg3wohU