[HN Gopher] What Happened with Lego
___________________________________________________________________
What Happened with Lego
Author : sarthakjshetty
Score : 165 points
Date : 2020-02-22 16:05 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.realityprose.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.realityprose.com)
| smcameron wrote:
| When I was a kid, we couldn't really afford legos. But one year
| my brother got a big plastic bucket of Brix Blox[1], a lego clone
| (but not compatible). They were just as fun as Legos to us. They
| weren't a kit, just a bucket of bricks to build what you want. I
| think it might have come with a little pamphlet of suggested
| designs, but we made spaceships and weird little rocket-boat
| things and little stormtrooper-ish guys to ride them. It's kind
| of weird how I can picture those little guys in my mind so
| perfectly all these years later. Pretty sure I could build one
| right now exactly as we did then, if I had some brix blox.
|
| Edit: this is the bucket we had:
| https://www.cutetoyus.com/product_detail.php?c=town%20toy%20...
|
| [1] https://www.retrothing.com/2008/07/brix-blox---leg.html
| tudorw wrote:
| If you are in a better position now, then treat yourself to
| some genuine Lego, I get that the fun factor is similar, but do
| check out the engineering tolerance on the Lego bricks, it's
| been sustained over decades :)
| senderista wrote:
| Not sure about that. The Chinese-made Legos I've looked at
| have visible flash and sprue marks, which I never ever saw on
| the Danish-made ones.
| Brendinooo wrote:
| I've often wondered how many people prefer a bucket of bricks
| to the sets. I never liked the sets. I had a bucket of Lego and
| a bucket of Ramagon pieces and I had a lot of fun building my
| own stuff.
| techslave wrote:
| yeah. in my day there were sets but after my first (and only)
| one, i was left disappointed. "you can only build the one
| thing?" we didn't have money for it so max value meant
| bricks, not sets.
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| Well you can take it apart -- annoys me considerably that
| my kids just put the suggested model together and put it on
| a shelf. I'm like "you're doing it wrong!", but they don't
| want to listen and it's their choice how to play with their
| toys.
| theli0nheart wrote:
| Hah, I have the opposite "problem". I had tens of sets
| sitting on a shelf that I've built over a decade and my
| little one has been taking them apart one-by-one. As much
| time and energy I spent building complicated sets, I
| rather enjoy seeing how he reuses the pieces and
| components in new builds.
| pier25 wrote:
| As a middle class kid in Spain during the early 80s we didn't
| have Legos either. Spain was barely starting to enter the
| international market after the Franco era.
|
| But we had Tente which was amazing. I spent hours and hours
| building stuff (vehicles, space bases, robots, etc) and making
| up stories about these things.
|
| See some images here:
| https://www.google.com/search?q=tente+toy&tbm=isch
|
| Edit:
|
| The sets were fun for like 1 hour, but in the end all the
| pieces ended up in a huge bucket (actually a big wooden drawer
| hidden under my bed) and the real fun began.
| pjbk wrote:
| Tente! Those were amazing too. I had some space and alien
| sets. I could never remember the name of the company. Thanks!
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Did you guys have Meccano?
|
| On the other nice things in childhood front, I was always
| jealous of a country with Chupa Chups.
| pier25 wrote:
| Yeah we did have Meccano although I never had a set myself
| or knew anyone who did.
|
| You didn't have Chupa Chups?
|
| I also remember eating lots of square shaped Sugus although
| these are not from Spain.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugus
| selimthegrim wrote:
| In USA they were only available starting when I was few
| years old although mostly I remember their product
| placement in Zool
| darkwizard42 wrote:
| LOVED Meccano - so cool to be able to build real machines
| and the screws and parts got a little rusty / rough if you
| weren't careful with them but damn I loved my Erector sets
| andrepd wrote:
| You can still buy buckets of Legos. If you're unsure what to
| get your kids (or somebody else's) give them a bucket of Legos,
| or something from the City line.
| zoomablemind wrote:
| We've been fans of City line. A lot of cheap (under $20) sets
| that can yield more than one design. This stimulates the
| creativity and flexibility of kid's mind.
|
| Executing instructions and building discipline develop fairly
| easily, as long as kid has some mental joy to imagine playing
| with finished toy.
|
| But taking the next step in combining blocks into 'own'
| design takes a leap. Once the kid can design, the special
| sets are just as well can be substituted with the buckets or
| mixes or blicks from the old sets.
|
| I see Lego (or similar blocks) primarily as imagination
| fulfilment toys, not much of finished product toys. Meant to
| be torn and morphed. Instructions are just an invitation!
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Same here. We had a few buckets of Sears store brand legos, and
| spend hours and hours playing.
| timonoko wrote:
| "In 1958, the modern brick design was developed". Very strange,
| because I definitively had Lego bricks pre 1960 in Finland. I
| even had some special bricks with wheels and lamps. I tried to
| operate the Lego lamp from 220 volt wall socket, but it destroyed
| the lamp and burned the wires.
| hrktb wrote:
| I have a different perspective: I'd say Lego is having a hard
| time keeping its core principle (building stuff) while going
| along with the times.
|
| In particular Lego has a "Technic" and "Boost" series that in
| particular allows remote control, with motors, actuators and
| these recent years bluetooth hubs.
|
| The first saliant point: Lego doesn't sell the "Control +"
| bluetooth hub alone, and it's been a while now that the piece has
| been in sets.
|
| You're SOL if you break/lose the one from the set, there is no
| legit way to get one if you want to use it on other creations in
| parallel, even if it's arguably the central piece of a lot of
| constructions. It's not listed with the other bricks in the order
| site, and it's not handled by sites like bricklink.
|
| Then Bricklink: taken over by Lego, they got rid of most custom
| parts and anything that was extending what you could do with lego
| bricks ahead of what Lego publishes.
|
| Last, their whole latest Control + app has customizations for
| their specific sets. For the Top Gear one for instance there's
| specific mini games and efen the motor control is slightly
| tweaked to have a "racing" effect. This goes pretty far astray
| from having generic playing tools.
|
| In general their efforts in the Power
| Functions/Boost/Mindstorm/NXT/Control + area seem overly
| proprietary, limited and way too expensive for what we get. So
| much that at this point third party hubs are better than Lego's
| in almost every respect especially ability to use vanilla
| Scratch), but get limited by Lego stalling the whole ecosystem.
| Why is there even 4 different systems doing the same thing, it's
| insane.
|
| I guess the people staying on more classic sets feel it less
| heavily, but for me Lego is really lost in how they want to move
| forward, now that kids playing with gears and programmed parts
| has become realistic and commercially viable.
| lubujackson wrote:
| I couldn't disagree more as a parent of a 5 and 3 year old.
|
| I remember LEGOs being a big bucket of like 4 colors when I was
| a kid (80s) and never got too into them. Now there not just the
| designed sets but a whole community around the creative
| process, like Lego Ideas (fan made designs that get turned into
| sets for sale based on fan votes) and "3 in 1" sets where you
| can make 3 different things from the same set. My 3 year old
| loved the Queen Waterva "Build Whatever" set where there are
| instructions for about 20 different designs and he builds them
| with his brother over and over.
|
| There is something to be set for giving kids an entry point for
| creativity. First they figure out how blocks go together, then
| they build things from instructions, then they play with them
| and break them and rebuild them and learn to be more careful.
| Then they notice how the sets always design walls or ships or
| legs and start to modify designs for their own needs.
|
| A gentle introduction is best. If I dump 1000 legos in front of
| my kid he won't do anything, but if he has only 20 pieces I am
| amazed by the things he comes up with. I know some school
| actually use legos in the classroom for into robotics. It seems
| to me LEGO is doing very well engaging on multiple fronts and
| hitting different age ranges.
| stefanix wrote:
| I was about to answer with right I know, how comes my kids have
| almost zero interest in it. I used to play entire afternoons with
| it, especially the Technic kind.
| mml wrote:
| neither of my kids have any interest in lego. not for lack of
| trying, they have several 10's of thousands of bricks, and
| enjoy the movies. I think it might be because they have zero
| interest in the licensed properties they promote.
|
| I started lego in the mid 70s with my brother's Apollo lunar
| lander kits (pre-minifig), and enjoyed the heyday of the early
| 80's space ship kits.
|
| the lego city line is very enjoyable to me as an adult, and has
| very few "special" parts.
| adamredwoods wrote:
| Tangent note: I _really_ enjoy the Lego Ideas sets. Love to see
| innovative ideas and the sets are great quality.
| https://ideas.lego.com/
| carapace wrote:
| Those are so amazing!
| paulgerhardt wrote:
| [2013]
|
| I was checking out some of the Lego factories in China around
| this time and they were definitely making more than the
| "signature series" (what one thinks of as variations on the
| classic 2x8 bricks with no movie tie-ins).
|
| Lego absolutely is world class but they are not "best in the
| world". For plastic things made an Scale one can get better
| quality with Swatch and more quantity with McDonalds (the largest
| toy producer in the world.) At this same factory I saw a line
| where they were making kinder egg toys with not one, not two, but
| six different overmold shots of different plastic colors.
| Injection molding tools typically cost about $5,000 - that one
| cost about $2,000,000. It saved Kinder about $5,000,000 in labor
| that would have gone to paint and stickers.
|
| What I did like about the Lego line was they were all using
| Arburg injection molding machines and DuPont ABS. Most factories
| won't pay the premium for foreign plastics within China.
| altitudinous wrote:
| A super long article to identify the really obvious?
|
| - People who grew up with Lego over time are now adults and still
| a market.
|
| - Lego can serve this new market as well as the original market
| which still exists.
| [deleted]
| rolph wrote:
| my lego...it was parked in the attic along with about a cubic
| yard of comics i disenterred the lego when i discovered D&D the
| hindsight is killer if i took the comics as well [small fortune]
|
| but i didnt i took the lego and spraypainted it to look like
| stone
| liveoneggs wrote:
| for your D&D games? sounds cool to me
| Finnucane wrote:
| When I was a kid I didn't know there were sets. I had a big box
| of LEGO bits, and I made random things out of them. So I just
| assumed that's what was supposed to happen.
| [deleted]
| wolco wrote:
| I never understood why one huge set couldn't build anything.
| These specialist sets that do one thing goes against what I want
| out of a set which is true utility and flexibility.
| mcphage wrote:
| > why one huge set couldn't build anything. These specialist
| sets that do one thing
|
| Do you understand how Lego works?
|
| Or, to put it another way: I've got some great news for you:
| what you're asking for exists _and_ it's even the largest toy
| manufacturer in the world!
| [deleted]
| mcphage wrote:
| It's definitely one of the odder urban legends of the Hacker News
| set--that newer Lego sets are all licensed models that can
| basically be built only one way, but it's good to see an article
| debunking it.
| wagegrowthrow wrote:
| Fascinating stuff! I think that the author left out one crucial
| point: purchasing power. Per Pew Research[0], wages have not kept
| up with inflation. EDIT: Until recently! I do wonder if the
| creation. of a perception of increased expense has to do with the
| state of wages before the last decade.
|
| [0] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-
| us...
| lacker wrote:
| A bit of a nitpick but I think you are misrepresenting that
| link, it actually shows average wages rising a small amount in
| purchasing power, about 10%, over the time period analyzed.
| wagegrowthrow wrote:
| Thank you for the correction! I was bamboozled by the charts
| :) I do still wonder if actual purchasing power has really
| kept up - the article does note that the increase in benefit
| costs may eat into wages.
| DoubleGlazing wrote:
| The secondhand market for Lego can be crazy.
|
| A few years back The S*n would occasionally run promotions where
| they would give away free mini-figs. There was nothing
| particularly rare about them, and the packs were specially
| branded for the promotion.
|
| A colleague of mine hoarded as many as he could and a year later
| was selling them for EUR10.00 each.
| mdorazio wrote:
| I'm surprised the article doesn't actually investigate inflation
| vs perception. This is a common effect with pretty much anything
| that people last experienced a decade or more prior to looking at
| prices again. You remember the dollar amount of the price from a
| long time ago, then look at the dollar amount today and think
| "wow that's so much more expensive!". In actuality, inflation
| over that period was 20% or more, so of course it _seems_ more
| expensive than you remember.
| licebmi__at__ wrote:
| So the price has remained constant, even if just reduced a
| little. That actually surprises me more than any other change;
| Hasn't the manufacture process changed? How the royalties on sets
| based on 3rd party Intellectual Property play into the costs? How
| the logistics costs impact the price? Has there been any impact
| on the Chinese knockoffs?
|
| I recently bought some knockoff sets that are no longer made by
| lego. Not only they were cheaper than the second hand market
| which we can agree is crazy, but also they were cheaper than the
| retail price when lego sold them. I certainly don't notice
| anything wrong with the set quality, so I would expect the
| difference in price to be by not paying IP.
| cortesoft wrote:
| Yeah, I remember reading that Lego goes heavy with the IP
| licensing because that is the only thing they can do to
| differentiate; they can't patent or copyright the brick design,
| so knockoffs can copy any plain brick design.
|
| They do a lot of license agreements for IP so they can have
| unique offerings. I bet that is a big part of the price.
| yardie wrote:
| The designs are copyrighted and the manufacturing is a trade
| secret. This is the only thing preventing makers like Lepin
| from selling in the US/EU market. They'd rather rip off a
| popular LEGO design rather than invest the time, money, and
| marketing to come up with their own.
| kodablah wrote:
| My simple hypothesis for why Lego feels more expensive now: they
| are more expensive relative to other toys which have become
| cheaper (in every sense of the word).
| bloopernova wrote:
| I recently got back into Lego via buying _Avengers_ related sets.
| I 'm in my mid 40s and our kid has moved out.
|
| I didn't set out to do this, but I've found that assembling Lego
| sets and idly putting together my own creations has really helped
| with anxiety. Just being able to follow the instructions and sort
| through different bricks is an exercise in Zen and mindfulness
| that I hadn't realized would be so effective.
|
| Similar with jigsaw puzzles my wife and I assemble together, Lego
| takes me away from work and life stresses for an hour or two. PC
| games are also a source of escape, and reading too. All of these
| seem more effective than watching TV or reading/commenting on
| Reddit.
|
| I recently bought a Lego Avengers SHIELD Helicarrier second hand.
| It was already assembled but covered in dust. I've disassembled
| the whole thing and can't wait to spend a few hours putting
| together all 3,000 pieces :)
| https://rebrickable.com/sets/76042-1/the-shield-helicarrier/
|
| I think my current favourite "set" was a "MOC" (my own creation)
| designed by someone else that I bought the pieces for. The pieces
| were bought from a Danish and a German seller, and were very easy
| to get via Brick Link. Behold, the Lego Rocinante from The
| Expanse: https://imgur.com/gallery/1sCBWNe
|
| If you are looking for a hobby, getting into Lego is something I
| can recommend for those of us lucky enough to have disposable
| income. Once you start registering on www.rebrickable.com and
| www.bricklink.com you can catalogue your sets, see what your
| pieces can build, buy spare parts and discover thousands of
| amazing models designed by people all over the world.
|
| Have fun building!
| Kye wrote:
| This is how I got into digging big holes and filling them with
| structures in Minecraft while listening to podcasts. It's a
| good way to reset.
| GordonS wrote:
| I've got young kids, and regularly play with jigsaws and lego
| with them.
|
| I also find both these activities kind of "calming" and
| satisfying. Sometimes I think I enjoy it more than the kids :)
| LegitShady wrote:
| I bought a couple big technic sets and enjoyed putting them
| together but I don't really have anywhere to display them. I'm
| thinking maybe bringing them to the office is ok. They're sort
| of in our industry. Would that be weird?
| bloopernova wrote:
| I think that would be really cool, and a good discussion
| piece.
| dsego wrote:
| I love assembling those Revell scale models, it requires some
| patience and craftiness but the results are rewarding.
| wazanator wrote:
| Had a similar experience with gunpla. I put together a few
| model kits as a kid and liked it up until it was time to paint,
| glue and apply decals so I assumed model making outside of Lego
| was not for me.
|
| Fast forward to mid twenties and someone on a podcast mentions
| how fun gunpla is because it's model making but it is only as
| complicated as you want to make it. So I bought a basic RX-78
| for about $10 on Amazon and found it to be an incredibly
| relaxing hobby. I've now got my roommate into it and we're
| looking at putting together a portable painting booth so we can
| try our hand at custom paint jobs.
|
| If the idea of assembling mecha that do not require glue,
| paint, and minimal stickers (i actually don't bother unless
| it's a larger one) sounds appealing it's worth picking up an HG
| set on Amazon and some snips (there's some $10 starter sets of
| tools out there that are decent).
| agumonkey wrote:
| I wanted to buy old buckets of Lego Technics pieces because for
| tiny electromechanics project they're perfect prototyping
| material.
| city41 wrote:
| I also really enjoy just following the instructions and
| building a set. Very relaxing. But the sets started to pile up
| so I no longer buy any. I wish there was a good way to build a
| set, enjoy it for a week or so then return it. There is one
| LEGO rental company, but I never took a shot on them due to
| some bad reviews.
| lnsru wrote:
| LEGO offers instructions for all their sets, so having parts
| opens new possibilities: https://www.lego.com/en-
| us/service/buildinginstructions Of course, there are some
| special parts (like robot joints), one can buy them online or
| improvise with existing parts.
| city41 wrote:
| That's not a bad idea. It'd require keeping pieces
| organized, but that's also kind of relaxing in its own way
| if you have the personality for it.
| hrdwdmrbl wrote:
| Thank you for turning me on to bricklink! I wasn't familiar
| with that site and I was disappointing by what Lego was
| offering.
| wyxuan wrote:
| Lego owns bricklink so technically they still are offering
| this
| HeWhoLurksLate wrote:
| Lego purchasing Bricklink happened fairly recently.
| incanus77 wrote:
| When I was a kid in the early 80s, we couldn't afford all the
| toys and games that my brother and I wanted, but there was always
| room to squeeze in a LEGO set or two for birthday or Christmas.
| The rationale was, and I took it to heart, that I could build any
| _other_ toy that I might want. And I did. Knight Rider, GI Joe,
| M.A.S.K., even Transformers. Later, spy gear, project enclosures,
| rubber band guns, prosthetics, whatever.
|
| I still have every LEGO I've ever received, going back to 1979 or
| so. As it happens, my parents moved across country the summer
| after my freshman year of college (which was fairly local to
| where I grew up) and they offloaded the trunks and totes to me,
| originally intending to save them until I was "grown up", and
| I've hauled them around since, adding to the collection. Never
| even considered selling them off.
|
| I'm not crazy about all the cross-branding these days and still
| have a soft spot for a bit of creativity in building real-life
| parts out of more standard pieces. Last week I picked up an early
| 70s set (#730) at a vintage store for $20. It's amazing how basic
| the pieces are.
| milesvp wrote:
| I think this article predates a drop in brick quality which
| happened in the last 5 years. I bought a number of small sets a
| few years ago and every single one of them had pieces that split
| up the side after very little use. This may have been around the
| time they were trying to use plant based plastics, or possibly
| having issues due to new factories, but I now have a perception
| that they are not as durable as they used to be 30 years ago.
|
| I'm curious if this is reflected on bricklink prices. You'd
| probably have to be clever in how you do the analysis though.
| lawn wrote:
| There's at least one instance where brown bricks had errors in
| manufacturing and could shatter. I've personally never had a
| problem with brick quality though.
| semi-extrinsic wrote:
| Hmm, we've bought or received quite a few sets over the past
| five years, and I've never experienced a single piece to break.
|
| Sounds strange to me, even if the plastic was of poor quality,
| the sheer smallness of a LEGO brick means it is mechanically
| very strong (square-cube-law).
| danieldk wrote:
| _I bought a number of small sets a few years ago and every
| single one of them had pieces that split up the side after very
| little use._
|
| Strange. Our 6 y/o daughter has really massive amounts of Lego.
| She started collecting them after she switched from Duplo when
| she was ~3. She uses them intensively and we never had a single
| brick or piece break or split.
|
| I wonder if there are counterfeit sets on Amazon et al?
| freepor wrote:
| Did you buy all your sets in one purchase? Sounds like you got
| a bad batch.
| anthonyoconnor wrote:
| I've had some pieces break over time but you can order the
| pieces directly from LEGO and they will send them for free.
|
| https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/replacementparts
| algo_trader wrote:
| How much would it cost to 3d print a 100-piece lego-like set?
|
| Everyone who i know with a 3d printer pretty much doesnt use it.
| It hasnt caught on at all.
| hrktb wrote:
| There are a decent number of Lego alternatives, with perfect
| brick compatibility for way cheaper prices.
|
| I bought one of the Xiaomi sets when it was discounted, almost
| just to get spare pieces.
| gowld wrote:
| The quality (tolerance / fit) decreases very quickly with
| price.
| gowld wrote:
| You can't make anything near the precision tolerance of a LEGO
| brick with a 3D printer.
| burlesona wrote:
| Really cool article. My kids have just gotten interested in
| LEGOs, and I have to admit I thought they must have gotten more
| expensive, too. I think the authors point at the end is the best
| explanation for this perception:
|
| > As I showed before, LEGO has had $100+ sets for a while.
| However, only recently have they produced sets even more pricy
| than that. When we were kids, the $100 set was the pinnacle of
| LEGO. It was the set we all aspired to own. It was the set we all
| went straight to at the store. Of course we rarely ended up with
| that set, but that was our dream.
|
| > Now, the dream set is closer to the $400 range. It doesn't mean
| that LEGO doesn't make sub-$100 sets. They do, and more than
| ever. It just means that in comparison the $25 set looks a lot
| smaller than it did when the largest set was only $100.
|
| At another point in the article the author points out these new
| mega sets aren't really for kids, they're for the adults, and
| Legos targeted at adults didn't really exist 20 years ago.
| LoSboccacc wrote:
| > When we were kids, the $100 set was the pinnacle of LEGO.
|
| dunno I remember 90s technic to be quite expensive, I had the
| 8880 Super Car and the 8851 excavator set and I think both
| retailed above that.
|
| yeah I know op talks about basic lego but the new lego set,
| with their intricate pieces and purpose built part that only
| exist for one set, are closer to the technic boxes than the
| original bricks sets
| jeroen wrote:
| I have the same feeling about prices, but I also remember the
| excavator as a big set. It's only about 350 pieces. Even with
| the pneumatics, I can't imagine a price above $100.
|
| What changed since then is that the new Liebherr excavator
| has more than 4000 pieces.
| leokennis wrote:
| I was forever saving for that 8880 super car. It had a real
| gearbox...
|
| But it was just like saving for a Ferrari or something. A
| nice dream that was never to be for a 12 year old...
| lostlogin wrote:
| You mention that they seem to be targeting adults. While on
| holiday I came across the architecture range in a few tourist
| shops and was impressed, the sets look great.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Architecture
| chungy wrote:
| Lego has also gone through some very aggressive marketing in
| the past 10 years to push themselves into the limelight more
| than they've ever been before. They've even hit strides with
| massively successful games and films.
| tudorw wrote:
| I am glad they moved with the times and they deserve the
| success, while I lament the free form nature of the original
| limited palette it's great to see diversity in their ranges.
| So in amongst a sea of appalling franchised products not to
| mention homegrown eco-disasters like LOL dolls which seems to
| have a maximum waste formula, it's great to see them thrive,
| there will always be a place in my heart (and home!) for
| Lego.
| tudorw wrote:
| BTW an adult lego fan is apparently an 'AFL' pronounced
| like apple :)
| furyofantares wrote:
| It's AFOL (adult fan of lego)
| 28n75e wrote:
| AFOL... That sounds cool!
| TAForObvReasons wrote:
| > New sets can sell for up to $500 retail
|
| The current ceiling is $800 https://www.lego.com/en-
| us/product/millennium-falcon-75192
| thdrdt wrote:
| I can't remember the exact interview (I think it was a docu about
| the LEGO building designed by BIG on Netflix), where Kjeld Kirk
| Kristiansen told that the last decade LEGO is having a lot of
| competition from other toys, (game)computers and so on.
|
| That's why they were forced to start selling themed series and to
| explore other audiences.
|
| Edit: Netflix: LEGO house - home of the brick.
| andrepd wrote:
| What happened is they realised that franchise licenses are _much_
| more profitable that LEGO Creator or LEGO City sets. Marketing
| and selling sets based on media franchises turns out to be a
| goldmine, and more creative and imaginative toys less so. That 's
| why every blasted new set coming out seems like it's Star Wars
| branded, or Harry Potter, or facking Avengers... Likewise, it has
| shifted from an open-ended activity and mode of creative
| expression (see older adverts for Lego:
| https://s14-eu5.startpage.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=https%3...
| or https://s14-eu5.startpage.com/cgi-
| bin/serveimage?url=https%3...) towards more of a "build once
| according to strict instructions then set aside".
|
| It's all quite sad. But then again, at the same time, the company
| was in dire financial situation under the previous management.
| There is some chance that without this pivot towards franchises
| LEGO would not even exist anymore (though I doubt it honestly).
| rrix2 wrote:
| They still make a large assortment of non-franchised kits. It's
| not like they're only selling Marvel and Harry Potter kits,
| even in the big box stores. I was suspect when I noticed this
| trend in 2007-10, but as I've grown up, the bricks stayed
| mature. Heck, they still make the 800 piece motorised technic
| dirt movers that I lusted over in LEGO magazine as a child.
| smoyer wrote:
| My uncle bought me a set of limited edition gears for Christmas
| when I was seven or eight ... both my uncle and my father are
| engineers and it was several days before I got to touch my new
| toys.
|
| This article debunks the idea that the per-piece price has
| changed but one of the things I noticed when my kids were little
| was that so many of the kits came with special-purpose parts. I
| don't remember any kits like that when I was young - you either
| got more pieces or less pieces in a kit. Even my gears were
| simply "available" to build into whatever my imagination came up
| with.
| mcphage wrote:
| Sets with common, generic pieces are still available. But also,
| don't be to quick to decry pieces as special purpose, Lego is
| good at clever reuse.
| bathtub365 wrote:
| Making too many special-purpose parts around the late
| 90's/early 2000's is part of what almost drove them to
| bankruptcy. Making new LEGO moulds is incredibly expensive
| (plus the added logistics of producing and storing new
| pieces) and if they can't reuse a piece it's a sign of a bad
| design from a financial perspective.
| DanBC wrote:
| And children are creative, they'll quickly find ways to use
| special purpose parts in interesting ways.
| mcphage wrote:
| Yeah, exactly.
| tasogare wrote:
| > I noticed when my kids were little was that so many of the
| kits came with special-purpose parts
|
| I noticed that and I hate that change. Before a plane set was a
| plane, made of a lot of small parts [1]. Now, there is one or
| two giant hull piece that makes of the plane, with few
| traditional parts here and there [2]. This totally breaks the
| modularity of a set.
|
| [1] https://images-na.ssl-images-
| amazon.com/images/I/51TtoiWamRL...
|
| [2] https://shop.r10s.jp/shop-
| angelica/cabinet/imgdir/12/7557.jp...
| ryanbrunner wrote:
| There definitely was a period where there were a LOT of
| custom pieces, but in more recent sets they seem to be moving
| away from that. Things are still significantly more
| complicated than a set full of 4x2 and 2x2 bricks, but
| there's very few pieces besides maybe some minifig
| accessories that are genuinely unique to one or even a few
| sets.
| darkerside wrote:
| As the father of a Legophile, I can tell you that set is the
| exception, not the rule
| Nition wrote:
| The second one there isn't as bad as it looks in the photo.
| The main hull is made up of many separate pieces, as is
| visible in the instructions.[1]
|
| [1] https://www.lego.com/biassets/bi/4493625.pdf
| gitgud wrote:
| _> Now, there is one or two giant hull piece that makes of
| the plane... _
|
| Making cheap custom parts like that is a feat of engineering.
| But has a negative effect on the imagination of the users of
| Lego...
| organsnyder wrote:
| I've noticed that kits for younger children have more special-
| purpose parts--I'm assuming to make the builds simpler by
| having fewer, larger parts. The "older" the kits get, the less
| specialized the pieces become.
| karatestomp wrote:
| Modern kits have an absolute _shitload_ of tiny parts, too.
| IMO that's worse since at least the special parts can
| _usually_ be repurposed. My kids kits have way more parts but
| are like half the size of my old ones. So, so many short 1x
| and 2x pieces. We're drowning in those.
|
| [edit] oh and smooth, nubless pieces, too. Also often small.
| They love to cover everything in those now. You look at a
| modern set and a similar one from 20+ years ago and the newer
| one looks much nicer, in large part because it's clad in tiny
| little smooth bricks, while the old one had exposed nubs
| everywhere. One looks nicer on a shelf, one's nicer for
| modding and play.
| SirSavary wrote:
| I fondly remember receiving a bin of Lego roughly the size of a
| small microwave every Christmas during my early years. Inside
| was a green baseplate, a couple thousand assorted pieces, and a
| booklet with pictures for inspiration.
|
| Years later, I searched everywhere for a "Lego set" similar to
| these bins but couldn't find anything. Modern Lego feels a lot
| less like a brick building toy and more like a fancier version
| of what you'd find inside a Kinder Egg.
| mcphage wrote:
| I'm not sure where you looked, but walk down the Lego aisle
| at Target and you'll find tons of them:
| https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/classic
| goto11 wrote:
| Look for the "Lego Classics" line.
| 52-6F-62 wrote:
| Yep second. The Creator line is also good but centered
| around models but the kits are designed to build usually 3
| different models out of the same kit.
|
| I bought a set of classic bricks too just to have around
| for the odd idle day.
| thedance wrote:
| I don't know where they come from but my nearby used book store
| sells gallon-sized ziploc bags filled with random legos. Most of
| them are old, which is awesome. You get the old space logo. I buy
| them on my way home. My kids have built almost a whole LEGO City
| out of these. Really wish LEGO brand sets these days were less
| thematic.
| ChrisCinelli wrote:
| This is a very well researched article. Personally I liked when
| there were less type of parts and you could combine them with
| your fantasy. These days there is an overflow of types. Almost
| multiple special bricks for every set.
| css wrote:
| Is it just me or do all of the set links 404? I guess after 6
| years some link rot is to be expected.
| rm445 wrote:
| The linked site still works, the specific links are just dead.
| If you type the four-digit set number into the search box, the
| correct sets come right up.
| DanBC wrote:
| They 404 for me too. I think Bricklink recently got taken over.
| It's a shame all the URLs died, because there's a huge amount
| of work by a dedicated fan community that's lost now.
| bcraven wrote:
| Bricklink did get taken over, yes, but these are Brickset
| links.
| toyg wrote:
| Dude, I hate to break it to you, but January 2013 was more than
| 7 years ago... yes, we are so old.
| gattr wrote:
| Me and my brother also played with Lego since late '80s (and we
| too didn't have many sets). Once we moved from "Castle" to the
| simple "Technic" ones, I kept dreaming about getting one day the
| Supercar set or one of the largest ones with pneumatics... and
| then in, my later teens, I discovered programming - which turned
| out to be the ultimate, highest form of DYI activity.
|
| Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch people who kept working
| with Lego into adulthood; e.g., I spent quite a few hours
| watching Sariel's YT videos. Friction-operated automatic
| transmissions and whatnot...
| saluki wrote:
| Our family hobby is lego. We all collect sets and spend time as a
| family lego building. I did have some lego sets as a kid. But the
| sets now are amazing, and yes pricey, but the quality and
| enjoyment is worth it. Lots of great MOCs (My own creations) out
| there too that you can download the instructions for and order
| the parts on bricklink. It's an amazing community of Lego fans,
| young and old. We have a great lego city display and are getting
| in to lighting up sets.
| dowakin wrote:
| I'd say Lego is the best deal on market for fun/price ratio. Just
| try go to any toy-shop and notice how bad everything else is.
|
| Even if you going to buy RC car for kid - better buy Lego, it
| will be slightly more expensive but much better in quality.
|
| Like programming - buy Lego Boost. 120$ for programming robot.
| Seems cheap for me.
|
| Maybe for girls it's different, but my son do not want any other
| toys expect Lego.
| mortenjorck wrote:
| (2013)
|
| It's a fascinating analysis all the same, and it would be just as
| interesting to see if the patterns have held in the years since.
| martin_a wrote:
| Needs a 2013 in the headline. Also: All links are dead.
| hrdwdmrbl wrote:
| I'm still sad that they haven't released a generic space set in
| almost 2 decades. Only branded stuff like Avengers. I'm sad about
| that.
| morelisp wrote:
| Huh? Mars Mission, Power Miners, Alien Conquest, and Galaxy
| Squad were all 6-12 years ago; Atlantis is also nearly a "space
| set" in most of its design elements.
|
| One of the Master Builder lines was space themed. The Lego
| Movie lines are admittedly halfway "branded", but also have a
| lot of space designs.
| ipython wrote:
| I'm building the apollo sets now: the lunar lander and the
| Saturn V rocket- definitely not "branded"? Also I think an ISS
| set was just released?
| jnurmine wrote:
| This article is like 7 years old.
|
| Also, Lego is great. The reuse value is tremendous. The blocks
| can be reused so many times to build something new.
|
| I grew up with Lego. Didn't have a huge amount of them, but what
| I had, I passed on. The old blocks still work fine and it was an
| amazingly nostalgic feeling to see e.g. my Lego Fireboat (#4025)
| rebuilt. The first question after building it was the same as I
| had: "does this really float in water"...
|
| If you have your old blocks, the instructions are around the net.
| It's nice to build something from ones past.
| danans wrote:
| The OP mentions that change in perception of costs in childhood
| vs adulthood, but there is another psychological (or
| sociological) factor: desire for increasingly complex (== more
| blocks) Lego sets among customers.
|
| This is similar (obv. not identical) to the digital authoring
| tools available to everyone today were only available to
| sophisticated content creators in the past. Of course the digital
| tools I have seen a massive deflation in costs.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| Lego is simply a reflection of culture(s) at large. Years ago
| (read: when I was a kid), you played with Lego to take a pile of
| nothing and use your imagination to make something. There were no
| wrong answers.
|
| Today, Lego is high-priced branded 3D puzzles. Here are the
| pieces. They go together in a certain way. There's only one right
| answer. Thank you for overpaying.
|
| Sure the shareholder are happy. But as a barometer of broader
| trends is a sonewhat freightening trend.
| mcphage wrote:
| > Today, Lego is high-priced branded 3D puzzles. Here are the
| pieces. They go together in a certain way. There's only one
| right answer.
|
| I have no idea what you're talking about.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| It's all kits. Build the death star. Or whatever. Etc.
|
| That's not creativity. That's a puzzle.
| mcphage wrote:
| They're all Lego pieces. Putting a picture on the box
| doesn't make them any less creative.
| detaro wrote:
| The majority of kits pretty much always (certainly from
| since I'm old enough to remember Lego catalogs) had "a
| model" to build, the "bucket of pieces" packs always were
| just a small part of it, and you always could use the
| pieces of the former to build anything (with some themes
| obviously having some less universally useful pieces)
| [deleted]
| danans wrote:
| The article mentions that change in perception of costs in
| childhood vs adulthood, but there is another possible
| psychological (or sociological) factor: desire for increasingly
| complex (== more blocks) Lego sets among customers.
|
| This is similar (obv. not identical) to the digital authoring
| tools available to everyone today were only available to
| sophisticated content creators in the past. Of course the digital
| tools I have seen a massive deflation in unit costs.
|
| What would confirm this hypothesis is a graph showing the
| distribution of sets sold by # blocks per set, over a long period
| of time.
| platz wrote:
| So as long as you're dividing by the number of pieces, then that
| means the sets cost less?
|
| But actually the sets cost more, not less.
|
| The article also seems to assume that the price increase is due
| to intrinsic manufacturing costs of adding more pieces, and is
| not simply a marginal increase in the wholesale price. In other
| words, there is no reason to assume the piece count is causal in
| the price from a materials perspective. There could just as well
| be a correlation that they know they can charge more when the
| piece count is higher.
| HeWhoLurksLate wrote:
| Also, inflation, market forces, price of plastic, etc. I think
| their prices went up bit across the board around 2008 or so.
| gameswithgo wrote:
| I feel like you did not read the article. Price per set has not
| increased, per the article see: http://www.realityprose.com/wp-
| content/uploads/2013/01/reala...
| [deleted]
| golemiprague wrote:
| I was never a big lego user but as a child getting a new set of
| Lego was a celebration and not something that happened casually.
| For my kids it is just another toy they get here and there,
| sometimes on a whim while browsing for other things in the local
| Target shop or whatever. So I guess relatively it became cheap
| like all other commodities which are not a house. They usually
| just follow instructions and build it once and then abandon it,
| minecraft and sims replaced lego for doing more freestyle
| creative creations since it is faster and unlimited.
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