[HN Gopher] How Lego builds a new Lego set ___________________________________________________________________ How Lego builds a new Lego set Author : sohkamyung Score : 315 points Date : 2023-12-15 12:25 UTC (10 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.theverge.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com) | tapland wrote: | Fun, but I really wish I could keep reading without having to | scroll through unknown amounts of pictures horizontally. | cezart wrote: | especially because on a Mac scrolling horizontally coincides | with the back/fwd gestures. I never even realised this until | this article... | ensocode wrote: | Thanks. Came here to comment exactly this. Not very UX | interested but are there more people who are annoyed by this | horizontal scrolling image galleries? Same with the movie | streaming websites... For me it seems to be counter intuitive | to go horizontally while navigating vertically. | silverwind wrote: | Rule #1 of web development: Don't mess with scroll. | eagleusr wrote: | Product pages that require 50 revolutions of the mouse wheel | to reach the spec sheet due to some embedded animation is the | most frustrating web experience. | ryanjshaw wrote: | The scrolling makes me feel uneasy; in my head the columns are | all offset by the scroll amount and I'm reading some weird zig- | zag layout. | nicklecompte wrote: | News organizations across the board have gotten into this | bizarre arms race with "interactive" multimedia... and I | genuinely have no idea why they think readers want it! The | Verge in particular always has dozens of comments complaining | about how distracting and unreadable some of their UI choices | are. | | I suspect part of the answer is similar to Facebook's "pivot to | video" - some unscrupulous company has gaslit news executives | into thinking that "interactive content" is the future of | journalism, and are selling frameworks / consulting services / | etc. (Though part of the problem with The Verge is Nilay Patel | himself. Nilay seems like a good egg, but he has been obstinate | and arrogant about The Verge's UI changes. Can't argue with | taste...) | boesboes wrote: | Ah, there was more to the article? I gave up after a few | photo's.. | crazygringo wrote: | Seriously. I probably in the HN minority in that I don't mind | when vertical scroll results in animations that break up the | text (e.g. Apple product pages or fancy NYT articles)... | | ...but when the animations turn into _horizontal_ scrolling | while I 'm moving my fingers vertically on my trackpad, I | _hate_ it. It breaks my brain and makes me angry at the | designer. | bluetomcat wrote: | How Lego went from designing playthemes for creative play and | building in adventurous imaginary worlds, to replicating real- | world 1:1 objects like cameras, typewriters and vintage game | consoles as collectible plastic pieces sitting on the shelves of | bored adults... | jacquesm wrote: | Fortunately they also still sell the creative play and building | blocks and not all kids built canned sets. | | The problem is that Lego somehow had to survive and they had | some pretty tough times, this was their solution. On the one | hand I'm disappointed, just like you. On the other I see my | kids make the most fantastic stuff with regular bricks so I'll | forgive them. | otabdeveloper4 wrote: | Bionicle/Hero Factory was by far the best they had for | creative play. They cancelled it many moons ago, and now we | have to buy 'em used for our kids. | | On the whole it's a disappointing downward trajectory. | jacquesm wrote: | Funny, you couldn't pay my kids to play with those! But | they never seem to have enough 2x4s... | otabdeveloper4 wrote: | Emphasis on "creative". Bionicle was was their product | line that was simple enough for a child to have a | complete mental model of it, and at the same time complex | enough that they could build their own "real" adult sets, | something that isn't obviously a throwaway pile of | bricks. | ryukoposting wrote: | > Bionicle/Hero Factory was by far the best they had for | creative play. | | I disagree with this premise. Play comes in countless | forms, and I think this statement places roleplay above | other forms of youthful creativity. For some kids, the | roleplay of Lego action figures was a huge draw. Other kids | play in different ways. | | Some kids (like me) enjoyed Bionicle at first, but got | bored of action figures by age ~8. Bionicle's lack of | compatibility with most other Lego products meant that I | was left with a bunch of parts I never really played with | much (except for the ripcord disk-launcher things. I still | get a kick out of those!) For me, the next chapter was | Technic, because I liked making things that move. Fast | forward a bit, and Technic led to Mindstorms, Mindstorms | led to FIRST Robotics and Arduino, and now I'm a firmware | engineer. | | Does Technic have less creative value than Bionicle? I | think that's an impossible question to answer. It depends | on the kid. Any given object has as much creative power as | a child's mind projects into it. | | > On the whole it's a disappointing downward trajectory. | | Yes and no. | | On one hand, today's Lego action figures are pathetic | compared to the Bionicle/Hero Factory heyday. It's also | easy to mock cheap, commercialized dust collectors like the | Brickheadz series. Part of me is sad to see Mindstorms | dying off, but I also recognize that, even at its peak | (NXT), it was totally inaccessible to most kids. | | On the other hand, some things have gotten _a lot_ better | than they were 20 years ago. Lego 's "Friends" theme is by | far the best girl-targeted product line they've ever made. | Belleville was the "girl" product line of my youth, and it | was was cynical, condescending trash that was so | thematically paper-thin that even my 6-year-old little | sister saw straight through it. | madarcho wrote: | Almost identical pathway here, except with some Spybotics | thrown in around the same time as Bionicle. I sometimes | wish Mindstorms had that level of world building... | seb1204 wrote: | My kids when 7 or older played more creative with Dublplo | blocks than their Lego sets. | jacquesm wrote: | Duplo is interesting, it allows kids to quickly build | pretty massive stuff if they have enough of it. But mine | were done with it relatively fast and we ended up donating | it to other people. | bombcar wrote: | Primo and Quattro are also interesting but much more | rare. | jacquesm wrote: | Modulex, that's rare!! | | If you find some keep it. | dsego wrote: | We have a large box of duplos but my three-year-old isn't | interested at all, maybe showed some interest a while | ago, but mostly to build the tallest tower. Now it's time | for the real legos, but I'm not sure if we'll even get | any if she won't play with them. | AuryGlenz wrote: | My 2 year old daughter hasn't really shown any interest | either. | | It's weird, as a kid I wasn't really into building stuff. | Lego, wood blocks, etc. The only exception was "forts" in | my woods. I could play with my Power Rangers toys for | hours. | | As an adult, though, I'm into it. | ochrist wrote: | Duplo is also from Lego. It's basically just larger blocks: | https://www.lego.com/da-dk/themes/duplo | Tomte wrote: | And it's compatible (2:1). So if you want to fill | something large in a color or do some vast ice landscape, | just get Duplo blocks and build away. | paradox460 wrote: | There's also quattro, which is 2x duplo, and compatible | Cerpicio wrote: | Side note, have you seen Magna-Tiles? My 4yo son loves | them. They have magnets along the edges so you can easily | stick pieces together and build structures. They are bigger | than regular LEGOs, more along the lines of Duplo. And they | can be pricey, but they are tons of fun for little ones! | Especially when their favorite thing is to knock down | whatever you build. | manojlds wrote: | Odd comment in the context of the thread since Duplo is | also LEGO | AlanYx wrote: | Even as an adult, Duplo is underrated. It's a lot of fun to | noodle around with creating things in Duplo because there | are more constraints and you can build a rough simulacrum | of something in only a few minutes. | patwolf wrote: | Duplo seems much more in the spirit of Lego sets from the | '80s. Builds used fewer, but larger pieces. I enjoyed | playing with the older sets because you could tear them | apart and put them back together much more easily. | | Newer sets look nice, but IMO are much less fun to play | with. My kids still like building Lego sets, but our Duplos | get played with more often. | mrweasel wrote: | Sadly what I see is Lego producing sets, even for kids, which | consists of an endless amount of tiny bricks which is | impossible to build stuff with quickly. It's absolutely | wonderful when you want to build highly detailed | reproductions. | | What you can do, as you say, is to go get sets/buckets of | classic bricks and use those, but the sets are getting | annoying. As a kid I have pretty large number of various Lego | sets and I mostly mixed and matched to build rough castles, | space stations, house whatever, but you can do that with | modern sets, to many tiny tiny bricks and very few blocks | suitable for a five year old who just wants to build a house. | | I get that Lego would have gone out of business if they had | continued to produce the type of sets I played with in the | 1980s, but it's barely a children's toy any more. Don't get | me wrong, it's great that they can make things that brings | joy to adults but I just feel that they've done it at the | cost of the youngest children. | | Also, the display pieces are often terribly unstable and a | pain to keep clean. The Lego flowers are basically junk and | you shouldn't buy them. They aren't nearly stable enough to | have on display and they will certainly break when you try to | clean them. | Tomte wrote: | You're looking for the Minecraft sets. If you don't | especially like Minecraft, throw away the one or two | figures and enjoy the cool 2 by 4 bricks, just as they were | in your childhood. | | Bonus: every detail is printed, no stickers anywhere. | jacquesm wrote: | The best way to buy Lego is just to buy bulk dumps from | families that stopped playing with them. It's going to be | piles of unsorted bricks of all kinds and that in itself is | a stimulus for creativity. | | Just go on ebay or the local equivalent and search for | 'pounds lego' or 'kilo lego' and you should be all set. | threetonesun wrote: | You can think of the advanced ones as more like puzzles you | can display once you're done. Kids still like them. Even | the finicky themed ones in our house get built then torn | down to be rebuilt into fantastical mashups from my kid's | imagination. | | I think a lot of adults have overly fond memories of using | the basic blocks to build relatively basic things. Also | kids today can (and do) that in Minecraft now. | the_mitsuhiko wrote: | > On the one hand I'm disappointed, just like you | | What exactly is the disappointment? That they also target | adults? | dragonwriter wrote: | > Fortunately they also still sell the creative play and | building blocks and not all kids built canned sets. | | Also, after being build as canned sets, the canned sets can | become more distinct parts for creative building. | | At least, that's what happens with my kids. | loceng wrote: | Entertained all the way to a totalitarian state. | solids wrote: | Absolutely agree... I think in early 2000 they found a nice | sweet spot where you bought a set to build a particular object, | but all of them featured a fairly common set of pieces. So | after a while of having it in the shelve it could be | repurposed. | bena wrote: | This is from the Ideas line where they take fan submissions and | turn them into sets. Complain about what you perceive to be a | change in direction, but unless you were buying older sets, you | are part of the reason for that change | gyomu wrote: | Well yeah, you gotta grow the business, as any good visitor of | this site knows. You can only sell so many $30 buckets of | loosely assorted pieces intended for children. | | There's much more money to be made in $200 sets with the | popular IP of the day or $500 collector sets for adults. | robertlagrant wrote: | > Well yeah, you gotta grow the business, as any good visitor | of this site knows | | Well. You have to exist, which means you compete, which might | mean you grow. | aqsalose wrote: | >Well. You have to exist, which means you compete, which | might mean you grow. | | Why _growth_? At some point you would eventually hit | perfect saturation anyway, the steady state where everyone | already is buying your product to the extent anyone can buy | it. I get that losing business is bad, and it 's better to | "overcorrect" to growth, but as long as you compete enough | to keep approximately same market share against other | competitors, selling inflation adjusted $30 buckets of | bricks to each generation of kids with profit sounds like | perfectly good business. Owner of the business would | receive steady income selling the inflation adjusted $30 | buckets. | | I'd imagine you'd hit problems when the buckets of bricks | you are selling are ~eternal and number of kids is no | longer growing, so nobody needs new ones. | AuryGlenz wrote: | As long as the population is growing, if your business | isn't you're effectively shrinking. | | Plus image of Megablocks did Harry Potter, Star Wars, | etc. They'd overtake Lego in a minute. | robertlagrant wrote: | You'd have to grow because there are competitors that | would do your thing and the new thing, so customers would | go to them instead. | em500 wrote: | The classic brick buckets are still widely available, right | next to all the themed sets and the replica sets (which are | explicitly marketed to adults). Not sure what the complaint is | here, that the general public don't share your taste? | manojlds wrote: | Nah it's just the usual cynical HN comment. | bluetomcat wrote: | Even the assortment of pieces in the Classic 1000+ piece | buckets doesn't allow you to build interesting custom | creations resembling buildings or vehicles. Instead of a | large number of doors, windows, roof elements, wheels and | sidewall elements, you get mostly purple, orange, pink, cyan | and bright yellow 4x2s and 2x2s, and a large number of tiny | specific pieces. | | The themed playsets aimed at 5+ children are leaning towards | detailed modeling with many tiny 1x1 pieces. | | The one-off nostalgia-driven sets like the Lion King's | Castle, the remake of Eldorado Fortress and the Galaxy | Explorer are intentionally released as one-off sets with a | time distance in the release date, and not as a part of a | regular play theme. | AlanYx wrote: | There are some good, versatile Classic buckets. The | recently announced Creative Vehicles (11036) comes with | instructions for 8 vehicles and instructions for another 10 | vehicles will be available on the website. It'll be | fantastic for kids who love building different types of | cars, buses, etc. | wharvle wrote: | Every now and then I see a set that looks like it's | actually for kids to play with. More exposed nubs, spaces | big enough for kid fingers to fit into (so many feature | only _tiny_ spaces now, even for a kid!) and builds that | don't look so fiddly that they'd be impossible to repair | after rough play or accidental damage without starting | over. | | But yeah, even like 90% of the ones that appear to be | marketed to kids suck for kids to play with, now. They look | nice on the box, and on a shelf, though, and I guess that's | what shifts units. | watwut wrote: | The age recommendations on lego kits are pretty accurate | in my experience. As in, kids in that age range can | handle the kid without trouble and it suits their | interests. | | For example, they really like those tiny little inside | thingies. | FireBeyond wrote: | > Even the assortment of pieces in the Classic 1000+ piece | buckets doesn't allow you to build interesting custom | creations resembling buildings | | One of the more interesting experimentations was Lego | Architecture Studio. | | All white (well, some translucent for glass/windows), 1200+ | pieces, no instructions, but a book discussing some general | architecture and building principles particularly with | respect to Lego: | | https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Architecture-Studio-Building- | Blo... | | One of my favorite sets, though architecture in general is | a particularly interest/hobby of mine. | agumonkey wrote: | I share part of his sentiment, there was a different culture | with lego before. Now, afaik, LEGO cannot make enough money | this way so they pivot into marketable sets with higher | profits or sales figures. But this still causes a brand | perception shift. | anonymous_sorry wrote: | The patents for their core IP expired. You can legally sell | generic compatible lego blocks now. So to maintain | mindshare they have to do licensed movie tie-ins, their own | movies and other such stuff. | | I get why but it feels less timeless than it used to, | perhaps with less emphasis on creativity-led play. But what | do I know - I'm a grownup. | wharvle wrote: | In the age of Megabloks, Lego still had the moat of their | pieces _actually being fit for purpose_. Megabloks were | ass, and even a kid could instantly tell. | | And their directions were always a ton better, for sets-- | though they used to be more like spot-the-difference | puzzles than they are now, which I credit with my burying | the needle on a spatial reasoning test in high school, so | I'm kinda sad they lost that perhaps-accidental | pedagogical value in the shift to the you-can-follow- | them-in-your-sleep, modern style of directions. | | But maybe the knockoff competitors aren't as obviously- | shit as they were in the earlier days? | andruby wrote: | The knock-offs I've handled recently are still terrible. | They don't fit well. No satisfying click. The colors feel | off.. | | I wanted to like the cheaper brands but none of them have | the same Lego engineering quality. We dusted off some of | my old lego and the bricks still fit perfectly with the | new bricks 30+ years later! | amatix wrote: | Even today the LEGO-compatible knock-offs are complete | junk, my kids occasionally end up picking up a loose bag | for PS1 from the local charity shop. Pieces don't stick | together properly (with each other, let alone LEGO | pieces); legs, arms, and hands come off the minifigs; | etc. You can instantly tell -- even ignoring the assault | rifles that would never make it in a LEGO box. | agumonkey wrote: | I'm often stumped by the high level engineering that went | into these "toys". | wander_homer wrote: | Nowadays there are several "knock-offs" on the market | with higher quality and at a cheaper price. | agumonkey wrote: | yeah that's what i meant, we're aware of their struggle, | but without shooting them, it also feel different | ReactiveJelly wrote: | It bugged me 20 years ago as a kid. I just wanted more | stuff like Rock Raiders. | | "They're miners... in space! They mine green Energy | Crystals!" That's all you need. There was a K'nex mining | set about the same time. Good stuff. | | Then I realized that most of the catalog was like, Lego | Harry Potter. Yeah, I really am complaining about what | everyone else buys. I was up to my nose in Harry Potter | merch already, I owned all 7 books. I wanted more Rock | Raiders and Insectoids. | monknomo wrote: | Same, except I wanted more m-tron. Put space rocks in a | box, lift it up with a magnet, fly off. Great fun! | | Heck, my kindergarten daughter likes that formula. I'm | pretty sure there is a marketable business somewhere in | there, but maybe not at sufficient scale | watwut wrote: | Kids are playing wrong. They use lego as toy and not as | classroom educational item. | chongli wrote: | These sets are not creative play toys, they're highly-detailed | 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzles. That is their appeal, and you can | make the same argument about a traditional wood/cardboard | jigsaw puzzle: | | "Kids should be learning how to paint with oil paints or | watercolours, not snapping together these pre-painted jigsaw | puzzles!" | | I think the real difference here is that we've transitioned | from more of a mixed/manual labour economy to a | mental/emotional labour economy. People get off work and they | just want to come home and do something relaxing and not | mentally taxing. Putting together a Lego set is like that. It | takes more thought than watching TV, but not much. Coming up | with something interesting and creative from a bucket of random | Legos is different, and most people lose interest. | AmosLightnin wrote: | I think your argument in quotes is a good one. :) Following a | set of pre-defined instructions is not a creative act. It's | not bad to build a puzzle, but I would argue that it's not | nearly as meaningful of an experience as painting - or any | other creative activity for that matter. | bena wrote: | No, but building sets does have other benefits. | | There's some zen to the act, like model or puzzle building. | But you can also observe and learn techniques to add to | your own builds. | | Knowing all the ways Bionicles are put together can help | you turn a Porsche into a full transforming Autobot Jazz. | chongli wrote: | I think learning to oil paint could be a very meaningful | experience. Relaxing to watching Bob Ross videos and paint | along with him. | | I do also feel there is this sort of "cult" of self- | improvement going around. Like if you're not spending every | waking minute of your life learning some new skill or | marketing yourself or trying to get a promotion, then | you're wasting your time. It's very toxic. | | Doing things that you find relaxing should be accepted, | even if they don't teach you anything or improve you in any | way. | MisterBastahrd wrote: | It isn't even a puzzle if you've been given the | instructions on how to build it. | boesboes wrote: | If only they had all kinds of different product line for | different people! | SteveGerencser wrote: | My granddaughter and I build a ton of 'boring adult sets' | together, and then she gets to take them home, tear them apart, | and make anything she wants with the pieces. But she also loves | Minecraft (she's 8) and we buy the Minecraft specific sets as | well. It is quite possible to do all the things, it's not | necessarily an either/or scenario like many people like to | present as their argument against something. | _fat_santa wrote: | I don't think they went from one to the other, more like they | expanded to include sets that adults would be interested in. | The way I look at it, the higher end collectable pieces | subsidize the lower cost sets and "brick boxes" for the younger | generation. | watwut wrote: | When kids grow up into adults, they do not always become | massively different persons in their core. Oftentimes, creative | kids grow up into creative adults. Their hobbies often remain | or they still look back fondly on their old hobbies. And when | they are bored, they sometimes go back to their old hobbies, | due to nostalgia. You see it everywhere, in music people listen | to, books they read, etc | | All of that is ok. Plus, majority of lego kits go to kids. | toxican wrote: | Why do you think they stopped designing sets for creative play? | They still sell bulk lego. They still sell non-licensed play | sets like space, city, castle, etc. And even the licensed sets | are great for creativity because I doubt a kid's not going to | shatter their set and start making their own damn spaceship | because it has "Star Wars" on the box. None of that has stopped | just because they also sell display pieces that are wildly | popular and intended for adults. | | Like seriously go to any store that sells Lego and you'll see | that a good 80% of it is bulk or play sets. There are a lot of | things to be critical of lego for...the pricing, the over- | reliance on licensed sets, too many god-damned stickers, etc. | But this really isn't one of them at all. | dakial1 wrote: | I wonder when are we going to see a LLM to build Lego Sets out of | a prompt. Maybe is already out there? | codegladiator wrote: | llm to 3d printer ? | WillAdams wrote: | Perhaps using something like: | | http://flatfab.com | andrewfromx wrote: | surely you've seen all the LLM generated fake lego images? | | https://www.core77.com/posts/126450/People-Easily-Fooled-by-... | | https://www.instagram.com/lego_rick_/reel/C0HaaoRLNG9/ | krisoft wrote: | quote from the instagram you linked: "I had a LEGO employee | tell me that they had 10 customers ask about "upcoming" LEGO | sets that ended up being AI." | | Sounds like an excellent way to validate demand then? | Feathercrown wrote: | I would totally buy that metal press | ensocode wrote: | Not quite there but close :-D -> ChatGPT 3.5 Promt give me | instructions on how to build an iPhone 15 Pro out of lego | bricks | RandallBrown wrote: | There's a company that makes sports stadiums out of "brxlz" | (brick pixels) and at first I thought they were just knockoff | legos. | | After building a stadium I figured out it's basically just a | low resolution 3d model of the stadium that you sort of 3d | print layer by layer. | | https://www.foco.com/collections/brxlz | | Not nearly as nice as lego, but the final product is pretty | cool. | _giorgio_ wrote: | I've purchased a lot of Lego Duplo for my nephew, really fun | sets. | | _Duplo_ come from the latin word "duplus", which means | _double_. | | Duplo bricks are double the size of lego bricks. This make the | sets compatible. | | https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fg... | | https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/6m4wsm/mind_blown_30_... | jgtrosh wrote: | Obligatory quatro is twice bigger yet (and all are compatible | together!) | | Also Wikipedia mentions duplex and not duplus, but whatever | bendoidic wrote: | And the short-lived LEGO Quatro brick was...you guessed | it...four times larger than a regular LEGO brick. Still | compatible with both other sets. | | https://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/QUATRO | 123pie123 wrote: | I think these are biggest ones you can buy (or used to) not | sure on the size comparison - at a guess x8 to x10 | | 45003: Soft Starter Set | https://www.rapidonline.com/45003-lego-soft-starter- | set-70-1... | | I had loads of fun playing with these in the lego centre | (forget the kids!) | loudmax wrote: | That softness is critical. Not for the kids, but for the | adults who have to clean up after them. | | Stepping barefoot onto a Lego brick hurts, but stepping | barefoot onto a Duplo brick is much worse. Those things | look innocent enough, but in the dark they turn into | veritable caltrops! | ofrzeta wrote: | You think so? The Lego bricks have sharper edges and also | I think that you put the same weight (of your body) on a | comparatively larger area on the Duplos, so less pain. | But, well, who am I to argue about your experience. | (Never stepped on either of these in our living room | although we had both systems). | jedberg wrote: | They have those soft ones at Legoland. They put them in the | water park (they float!). I'm not sure they're compatible | with regular bricks though. | genocidicbunny wrote: | They are probably partially compatible. With Duplo for | example, it's easy enough to stack Duplo on top of | regular LEGO bricks, but not the other way around. For | stacking regular bricks on top of Duplo, you need to have | bricks of the proper multiple in each dimension -- they | need to be full height and a multiple of 2 in the other | dimensions. The Quatro bricks are compatible in the same | way -- you can easily stack them on top of Duplo or | regular bricks, but not the other way around; You | probably also need to do a transition layer from Quatro | to Duplo to regular bricks. | | I've seen people use Duplo and Quatro for space-filling | when they needed a large amount of structural brick | somewhere that won't be seen in the final model. Think | having a LEGO city setup that has an underground level. | leipert wrote: | Checkout the compatible "Marble Run" from Hubelino. Good build | quality and loads of fun. Not affiliated. | | https://www.hubelino.com/products/hubelino/marble-run/ | bluescrn wrote: | 3D printing similar parts is a fun option too: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb1c3VqqfTE | JoshTriplett wrote: | As an aside, standard marbles are almost exactly 2 Lego studs | wide, which makes it easy to build marble runs using just | standard Lego pieces. For instance, you can build a marble | lifting tower for the start of a marble run that uses a | 2-stud by 2-stud hole in a 4x4 (or 6x6 for strength) tower. | tills13 wrote: | I mean the System in LEGO System in Play extends to the entire | LEGO universe. Shouldn't be a surprise that they are | compatible. | ryukoposting wrote: | > offering both fame and a small fortune -- 1 percent of net | sales -- to anyone who can convince 10,000 peers and The Lego | Group that their set deserves to exist | | This isn't entirely true. Plenty of LEGO Ideas designs get to the | 10k threshold, then LEGO vetoes them for one reason or another. | The decision process is completely opaque; more often than not, | they basically just say "the design didn't pass internal review." | Never mind that most Ideas sets get a significant design overhaul | before reaching production anyway. | bombcar wrote: | That's why it says "and the Lego Group" - you have to do the | 10k _and_ pass internal design review. | nicklecompte wrote: | "Lego is 'proud' to announce Lego McLegoface Mark XVI. | Apparently you guys still think this joke is funny." | ryukoposting wrote: | "Convincing" the Lego Group implies that there's dialogue. | fshr wrote: | I don't think it implies that. The 10k votes, parts list, | photos, impetus, and lore/background is the "convincing". | | A speech, a monologue, can be convincing. | mcphage wrote: | There is, but it seems like it's between Lego and the | rightsholder. | eloisant wrote: | But then the 10k is meaningless. | | "Anyone who can convince the Lego Group", that could be said | of any product/company! | | It's like saying "anyone who can convince Netflix can launch | a new TV Show". | The_Colonel wrote: | It's just screening the clearly not-good-enough designs so | that Lego employees don't have to review everything. | em-bee wrote: | it also shows the market potential: 10000 people would | buy this set. sure not all of them will buy it, but it's | certainly a useful metric. | nkrisc wrote: | It's not meaningless, it's just an initial filter to show | there's at least some amount of interest in it. | | No sense reviewing proposals for sets that can't even get | 10,000 people interested. | billfor wrote: | I'm still waiting for my Saturn V Gantry. https://ideas.lego. | com/projects/a88109ec-9970-4fe1-98b4-9bd5... | tills13 wrote: | BTW: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idMode | l=1603... or other, similar models there. | | Bricklink is perhaps secretly (or perhaps not) owned by | LEGO itself so they can have their hand in the pocket of | the used / resale market. People will upload full MOCs (My | Own Creation) there and you can purchase the sets piece- | wise. Usually even more expensive than if you wait and buy | a set through LEGO but for stuff like this it's worth it. | C4stor wrote: | Bricklink has been acquired by Lego 4 years ago, I don't | think that's a secret at all ! | jerrysievert wrote: | which was one of the better things that could have | happened after Daniel Jezek passed. lego has been a good | steward of it since. | bena wrote: | Some of that is due to reasons they cannot say. They've | developed a policy of "no current IP currently produced by the | Lego Group". So even if a set gets past the 10,000 mark, if | it's a minifig scale Death Star, it's not being made. | | So if it's a set they currently have IP rights for, but have | not announced sets for, they'll generally turn it down. But | they can't say it's because they've recently acquired the IP | rights to Sonic the Hedgehog. | | They also have a loose "no contemporary war toys" policy. I say | loose because the Indiana Jones line kind of pushes on that a | bit. But that's right around the cutoff for them. But you | definitely won't see an F16 fighter jet anytime soon. | AlanYx wrote: | They did recently produce a set loosely based on the F-35 | Lightning ("Blue Power Jet"). | bena wrote: | Exactly. It kinda, sorta is close to one and there's no | ordinance. | | Not too long ago, they yanked a V-22 Osprey set because of | their "no military vehicles" policy. | WillAdams wrote: | I'm still baffled that the Coast Guard didn't go all-in | on that --- maybe if they had, it would have been | acceptable in that livery. | throwanem wrote: | Nothing baffling there. The Osprey isn't very good for | its design use case that happened once in 1980, but it | makes up for that by being even worse at everything else. | cainxinth wrote: | According to gpt-4, a minifig scale Death Star I would be | over 2 miles in diameter | Ringz wrote: | Seems reasonable to me. Let's start building. | dhosek wrote: | The problem is that according to Science(tm) | (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20578627) with a tower | of 2.17miles you start to get materials failure on the | bricks. You might be able to engineer around this, but I | suspect that the minifig-scale deathstar would cause the | bottom bricks to melt. | | Bummer. | whythre wrote: | Maybe in this hypothetical we could reduce weight by | making it the 2nd Death Star? A lot of that was skeletal | superstructure. | thrtythreeforty wrote: | That's true if you build the station on the planet, but I | think the station is designed to be constructed in orbit | in the first place. Its self-gravity should be | negligible. Problem solved! | thesnide wrote: | That's no moon... | lifeisstillgood wrote: | I think we can get support for a 2 mile large Lego Death | Star hauled up by NASA and assembled in orbit - write | your congressman now ! | mcv wrote: | I'm really starting to run out of space in my home for | these big Lego sets. | monknomo wrote: | a 2 mile deathstar gives you the chance to flip this | around - get space for your home in a big lego set | HenryBemis wrote: | I had the same thoughts when I was thinking of "how can I | make myself an Enterprise 2 years back. I hope that a Lego | AI* will help me get the individual parts needed AND the | manual to build it myself, and to work around the IP issues | name it "Green Spaceship" (and I will simply order the Grey | pieces instead of the Green. | | I see on my bookmarks I got a https://ideas.lego.com/projects | /a056ebf2-163e-4aa0-b005-02b0.... I remember finding out who | that C3Brix is and contacted him, but never got a response. | | People will have better chance coming up with their own | generic design than an IP-owned. | | > But you definitely won't see an F16 fighter jet anytime | soon. | | Considering some Lego AI* that will be 'smart' enough when | fed the full library of Lego bricks dimensions, it should be | able to build ANY 3D design or using 'many' 2D | (photos/drawings) of a 'thing' and generate the 'shopping | list' and the manual. | | I don't know how happy would Lego be then (as Lego bricks | must be somehow their IP), but it would be GREAT if someone | built that.. I would happily pay $100 to generate stuff some | some Star Trek iconic designs (Dyson sphere, all the | Enterprises, the Voyager, etc.) | | Space Fights are good, but Space Trips are better!!! | (https://xkcd.com/1563/) | | *ACTUALLY, now that I'm thinking about it I will try with | Bard and ChatGPT and see what comes out | | EDIT: I saw others had the same idea in other comments.. I'll | add a reminder on my Calendar in 6 months from now to see | what's been going on for this topic | | EDIT2: I just asked Bard and it came up with 5 suggestions, | listed below: | | _1. Mecabricks Mecabricks is a web-based software that | allows you to create LEGO models from scratch or import | photos and dimensions. It has a large library of LEGO bricks | and pieces, and it can generate step-by-step instructions for | your models. Image of Mecabricks website Opens in a new | window www.stonewars.de Mecabricks website | | 2. Rebrickable Rebrickable is another web-based software that | can help you create LEGO models from photos. It has a similar | interface to Mecabricks, but it also has a feature that | allows you to search for existing LEGO models that match your | photo. Image of Rebrickable website Opens in a new window | www.reddit.com Rebrickable website | | 3. Brick-A-Pic Brick-A-Pic is a web app that converts photos | into LEGO mosaics. It can be used to create custom LEGO | artwork or to recreate logos, portraits, and other images. | Image of BrickAPic website Opens in a new window wired.jp | BrickAPic website | | 4. Art4Bricks Art4Bricks is a company that specializes in | creating custom LEGO mosaics. You can upload a photo to their | website and they will create a custom design for you. They | will also sell you the LEGO bricks and instructions you need | to build the mosaic. | | 5. LEGO Mosaic Maker The LEGO Mosaic Maker is an official | LEGO product that allows you to create LEGO mosaics from | photos. It comes with a set of 4,702 LEGO bricks in 5 colors, | and it includes instructions for creating 15 different mosaic | designs._ | | I will start checking them out later today.. | eriktrautman wrote: | The idea of a Lego AI sounds amazing... just thought of | what might happen if you took a photo of your pieces then | said "I like original Star Wars, make me a series of | spaceships from that" and it outputted step by step | instructions to create them. So cool. Sure, something seems | a bit lost in the creative flailing that is the growth path | of young Lego-ists, but it would be really cool. | dhosek wrote: | As for the IP around lego bricks, an instruction set would | be copyrightable, the brick system is patentable (but the | patents on most of the bricks would be expired now which is | why there are generic brick sets available), and they can | do a trademark that would provide limited protection, but | mostly for the brand, not for the bricks themselves (I | remember being at the Lakland workshop back in the 90s and | they were talking about how the Fender lawyers came and | told them how they needed to redesign their headstock as to | not violate Fender's trademarks/design patents on the | headstock shape, and there would be some similar protection | potentially available to Lego, but again, the existence of | generic bricks tells me that it doesn't apply to the | bricks). | | So the bottom line is that Lego cannot keep you from | publishing plans and parts lists for your own Lego sets. | Heck, you could even, if you were sufficiently funded, | manufacture the set yourself. You just couldn't use the | Lego brandname at all. | myspy wrote: | I don't know if you're interested but this company makes | Star Trek sets | | https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/sets/star_trek?gad_source=1 | hinkley wrote: | I assume they don't have infinite capacity either. So even | without rights conflicts, if they can only ramp up say 10 | sets at a time, and they're working on eight for a new | campaign, they're going to be pickier about the final two. | | Lego may sell a hundred different sets at the same time, but | if they run out of one they aren't going to get more | tomorrow. It's on a manufacturing schedule. They may have all | of the yellow 1x6 bricks you could ever need, but they still | have to fire up the part picker, the bag sealers, and order | new boxes and booklets from the printers. Plus there's that | weird part that is only in three current sets, they have to | make more of them, and the first gap in the schedule is next | Thursday. | greenpizza13 wrote: | I think it's possible you did not continue reading the article. | This is all covered. | jk_i_am_a_robot wrote: | "Never mind that most Ideas sets get a significant design | overhaul before reaching production anyway." | | You've answered your own question -- selection criteria extend | beyond physical design. | mcv wrote: | > most Ideas sets get a significant design overhaul before | reaching production anyway. | | Often it's an improvement, but lots of people are disappointed | that the new Orient Express[0] is nothing like the original | Ideas design[1]. | | [0] https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/the-orient-express- | train-... | | [1] | https://ideas.lego.com/projects/568ee861-3b62-413a-9432-ce1d... | ItsMattyG wrote: | This is literally what the whole article was about. Not only | does the quote itself contain that context "and the lego | group", but the very next paragraph is "And then... nothing. | The Tintin votes dried up, and Lego rejected both his fan- | favorite Avatar and Polar Express ideas. The company never says | why it rejects an Ideas submission, only that deciding factors | include everything from "playability" and "brand fit" to the | difficulties in licensing another company's IP." | panzi wrote: | Also the final product often looks very different (usually a | lot smaller) then the submission. | jesperlang wrote: | Why aren't we building "products" from lego rather than seeing | them as toys? The promise of 3D-printers haven't really played | out, but it would be interesting if we had a material like lego | to build some of the things we need. Lego is infinitely | customizable and each brick would be potentially useful in any | product that you would build. Of course there are some obvious | downsides but I think the idea of an ecosystem of standardized, | "open" and adaptable materials is super interesting. | AmosLightnin wrote: | Me too! There have been a few experiments in this but none have | caught on. Here's a nice article that explores the idea: | https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2012/12/how-to-make-everyt... | jesperlang wrote: | Thanks, this was exactly what I was looking for! | spockz wrote: | The concrete walls of my house already resemble a 4x2 block, | although slightly higher in the body relative to the "pins" on | top. | | Or are you referring to something else? Lego is plastic. Houses | need wood or concrete and all kinds of isolation etc. | ryukoposting wrote: | I would guess the commenter is referring to prototyping. | cush wrote: | Lego is heavy, bulky, expensive, and falls apart when you move | it. What are you thinking we'd manufacture from it? | amelius wrote: | > The promise of 3D-printers haven't really played out | | Huh? | vGPU wrote: | I assume he means in the idea of printing daily household | items instead of buying them, printing houses, etc. | amelius wrote: | 3D printing is much more versatile than LEGO. Take just a | random example: a cup holder for in the car. Using 3D | printing, it would look and work similar to the ones you | can buy in a store. Using LEGO would make it very bulky, | aesthetically not so great, and also it would fall apart | easily. | | I think the original commenter above has simply never used | a 3D printer for anything practical. | internet101010 wrote: | Which doesn't make sense, either. 3d printers are the | ultimate bracket makers. I've used mine numerous times for | things like broken sliding light switches or really | anything small and made of plastic that breaks. | krisoft wrote: | > The promise of 3D-printers haven't really played out | | I don't know what you think the "promise of 3D-printers" was | but if you think it hasn't played out then probably you had | unreasonable expectations. | | > Why aren't we building "products" from lego rather than | seeing them as toys? | | Would you buy such a product? They would be much larger than | the same thing not made out of lego. They would shatter in your | bag during transportation. They would be more awkward to use | because of the rectangular shape of the bricks. They would | collect dirt in all the crevices/studs. | | Look around your home or recent purchase history, which | products would be improved by making them out of lego? | crazygringo wrote: | Could you give some examples of things you envision being built | this way? | | And could you give some examples of where 3D printing isn't | working for you? | | It's hard for me to figure out what's motivating this | suggestion without specific examples. | WillAdams wrote: | The expense. | | That said, I have made a couple of things as prototypes, mostly | for archery: | | - spine testing jig (had to use a bunch of washers on a bolt | for the two-pound weight though) | | - fletching jig | | Also some small desk accessories --- a tablet stand w/ pen | holder, a rack for a CD-player --- the two stacks of bricks | holding up a wooden shelf are still on place though. | wmeredith wrote: | There are tons of plans available online for LEGO "products". | Stands for smartphones and tablets and headphones are the first | thing that comes to mind and I've seen a lot of those. Pencil | holders and such are popular as well. | wtracy wrote: | Jekca dabbles with this idea. They sell Lego-like parts that | lock together with a tiny wrench: | | https://www.jekca.us/ | | At one point they sold a set around building toddler-sized | furniture that could be disassembled and repurposed as the kids | grow up. Now it looks like the closest thing they offer is desk | organizers (which is still cool). | pimlottc wrote: | > Jekca dabbles with this idea. They sell Lego-like parts | that lock together with a tiny wrench: | | Interesting, I hadn't heard of that before. This page has an | illustration of how the locking system works: | | https://www.jekca.us/pages/introduction-of-jekca | makeitdouble wrote: | I actually toyed with the idea with the Technic "bricks" that | give much much more flexibility. | | I can vouch for the versatility, it kinda works for a headphone | hanger, or a cup holder, small foldable desk racks etc. But | then these components are too light and don't have enough | strength to keep shape for months. Many of the parts bent over | time, some broke under abuse. | | Also for these kind of use pieces are big and finding a compact | build is really a chalenge. I ended up using a ton of custom | built third party pieces. | | I'd definitely try with a 3d printing next, it will allow for | smaller parts at least, and probably cost way less in materials | (Lego are overpriced for that) | notjes wrote: | The article is fine, but the image implementation on this website | did dampen the experience somewhat. | datadrivenangel wrote: | The scroll-jacking images are disorienting. Kind of reminds me | of some of the more egregious scrolly-telling visualizations. | mkoryak wrote: | I couldnt figure out how to scroll them the first time around | snoutie wrote: | I am confused by the statement about "frames", where each design | team gets a limited amount of "new" bricks they are able to | introduce. Yet all of the internaly come in all colors available. | | This, the colourful internals, are what defines lego for me | nowadays. I wonder: had they kept the system of gray and black | axels, one for even length unit one for odd, and the standardized | blue and black pins while keeping every other part the default | black, would they have more frames available for "custom" parts? | | In my mind having two blue bricks where there should only be one | is unacceptable for the price that lego is inevitably going to | charge. | mcphage wrote: | > Yet all of the internaly come in all colors available | | Since those already exist, they probably don't count as new | frames. It seems like you "spend" frames on _new_ pieces you | want to introduce, but there 's a large stock of evergreen | pieces you can pick from. | flutas wrote: | Yeah, I think the best way to think about the frames is "do | we already have a mold for this piece / have we done the | engineering for it" if so then it's not new, just a new | colorway. | CrazyStat wrote: | According to the article, a new color requires spending a | frame: | | > Want a part in a different color? That costs designers a | frame. A new piece? Spend some frames. Bring back an old | out-of-print piece? That's a frame, too. | | This makes sense, since a new color requires dedicated | storage space (which frames are intended to control). | genocidicbunny wrote: | > I am confused by the statement about "frames", where each | design team gets a limited amount of "new" bricks they are able | to introduce. Yet all of the internaly come in all colors | available. | | LEGO has a large part catalog -- a lot of different molds that | define the shapes. They also have each part available in some | selection of colors. If you need an existing part in a new | color, it's not terribly expensive to spin up a production line | for it because the molds are ready. There may need to be | adjustments to the color chemistry for the specific part (some | colors are more brittle/fragile, others may require different | processes -- transparent parts for example.) | | If you need to spin up a new mold, that's where it gets | complicated and expensive. | | As for the internals, they largely come from the existing | part:existing color matrix. Over the years LEGO has created a | lot of colors, but in reality not every part is available in | every color, and if you buy enough LEGO sets you notice that a | lot of the internals tend to actually use similar color | schemes. Technic axles and pins are now even largely | standardized to specific colors. High friction 2x pins are | always black, low friction 2x pins are beige..etc. | | > In my mind having two blue bricks where there should only be | one is unacceptable for the price that lego is inevitably going | to charge. | | LEGO used to do a lot more custom one-off pieces for sets in | the 90's and early 2000's, and it was one of the factors in | them nearly being bankrupted. Reducing their part catalog and | going to using more small pieces to build up assemblies instead | of just molding them as a single piece helped them get out of | that predicament. And as an AFOL, I prefer that they use more | pieces to 'brick build' things -- not only do you see some | really cool building techniques, but there's also so much more | that you could possibly use them for. There's also a large | spectrum of complexity in the sets. Smaller sets for younger | children will use larger simpler parts and less complicated | building techniques. The sets that really go all out on details | with tiny pieces are usually designed for adults (and a few | very lucky kids.) | | > This, the colourful internals, are what defines lego for me | nowadays | | The internals used to be much more monochrome, but one of the | things LEGO tries to improve is the build experience. It's much | easier to tell which pieces is supposed to go exactly where | when they're all different sizes and colors. Heck, it's still a | problem sometimes with sets that heavily use a single color, | like some of the batman ones in recent years. There are places | in the instructions manual where it's almost impossible to tell | the placement of pieces because it's just one big nearly-black | mass of bricks both on the table in front of you, and in the | pictures in the instructions. | jerrysievert wrote: | > LEGO used to do a lot more custom one-off pieces for sets | in the 90's and early 2000's, and it was one of the factors | in them nearly being bankrupted. Reducing their part catalog | and going to using more small pieces to build up assemblies | instead of just molding them as a single piece helped them | get out of that predicament. | | it was hard to collect and build through that period, | especially as so many specialty parts just kept appearing | with every set. the intervening years, except for the | constant changes of motors and electrification, seemed to put | this into check and make for some fun and interesting builds. | | unfortunately, from the perspective of someone who puts | together 10-12 sets/year, it appears that we are heading back | into that specialized time again; maybe not as bad with | intricate specialty parts, but the number of new (2023) parts | in the last two sets that I've put together has been quite | high. those sets were the bat cave shadow box and the orient | express. | | I understand the appeal of SNOT, but the sheer number of new | SNOT elements is craziness. | | > The internals used to be much more monochrome, but one of | the things LEGO tries to improve is the build experience. | It's much easier to tell which pieces is supposed to go | exactly where when they're all different sizes and colors. | | they've also improved the printing of the instructions over | the years, as well as better differentiation through outlines | of what is new. that was very obvious when my father and I | put together 7 holiday sets I had collected over 20 years | last holiday season. each newer set was a good improvement. | genocidicbunny wrote: | > they've also improved the printing of the instructions | over the years, as well as better differentiation through | outlines of what is new. that was very obvious when my | father and I put together 7 holiday sets I had collected | over 20 years last holiday season. each newer set was a | good improvement. | | They have, but they still have problems with sets that have | large chunks of the same color, especially when it comes to | stuff like tiling or greebling, like the UCS Batman | Tumbler. And certain colors still seem problematic. The old | UCS Sandcrawler set is the one that stands out in my mind, | that reddish-brown color made a lot of the instructions | very difficult to read; That was like 10 years ago now, but | even the more recent Bonsai tree also had that problem. | jerrysievert wrote: | > They have, but they still have problems with sets that | have large chunks of the same color, especially when it | comes to stuff like tiling or greebling, like the UCS | Batman Tumbler. | | the batcave shadow box definitely suffered with it a bit, | but at least it was an interesting and challenging build. | unlike the new orient express train, which was ... not | what I'd expect from lego. | genocidicbunny wrote: | > unlike the new orient express train, which was ... not | what I'd expect from lego. | | Incidentally, this is how I've felt about a lot of the | bigger sets from LEGO recently. A decade or so ago, I | used to basically buy every >$100 set LEGO put out every | year, sans a few themes -- I've got a few large storage | bins filled with just the instructions from these sets. | But some of the massive sets LEGO has been putting out | recently, like the Coliseum or the new Eiffel Tower set | just don't seem like particularly fun builds. I think the | first time I noticed this was putting together the 10253 | Big Ben set. It just didn't feel like fun stacking those | tiny pieces together, repeated like 30-40x for each | little subassembly. But since then, there has definitely | been a creep of the builds for larger sets being a little | less fun and more tedious. It can be a good way to relax | if you just want to kind of zone out for a while and do | stuff with your hands, but that's not my style. | | Of course, then they put out something like the Concorde | which looks like a very fun build, so at least some of | the LEGO designers got their heads on straight. | jerrysievert wrote: | I have mostly built the modular sets (and designed my | own), but missed a couple in the 2010's. also a big train | fan (have built many of my own train cars), or have built | more fun things like the ghostbusters fire station and | car. I never got into the architecture sets though. | | I plan on taking some time one of these weekends to build | a large outdoor track layout to run on, but am waiting on | some more after-market track to arrive. | genocidicbunny wrote: | By outdoor track, I assume you mean still a LEGO one? | What after-market track are you using? | Tomte wrote: | Those extremely expensive sets depicting famous things | are all beginner sets, building-wise. | | If some regular person just had their first and only trip | on the Orient Express, or has always dreamed about making | that trip: this is the target market. You cannot in | general expect these people to have build a single Lego | set, yet, so they are huge, sprawling, expensive, but | totally uninteresting if you've ever built more than "put | this 2 by 4 brick on that 2 by 4 brick". | lordfrito wrote: | Lego nearly went bankrupt in the early 2000s. Part of the | problem is that they had way too many colors of way too many | bricks (and way too many patterned bricks). Each unique | brick/color/pattern had to be binned/stored separately. So the | inventory took up a lot of space, all those warehouses cost | $$$. | | So Lego re-tooled to reduce the overall number of bricks in | inventory. Instead of building bricks in many colors and | patterns, they now build bricks in a fewer colors and even | fewer patterns. | | A big part of what they do to plan for the year is figure out | what bricks/colors/patterns will be used. The designers are | then told "design sets using these color bricks". If you pay | attention, you'll notice that the colors of the Modular City | sets change yearly, mainly to keep up with the colors being | chosen for the other new Lego sets. | | This is why there are so many stickers in the newers sets. Lego | can't afford to make every part in a printed pattern -- it's a | lot cheaper for them to keep sheets of stickers on the shelf | than full bins of printed bricks. | | This is where the idea of "frames" comes from -- it's their | internal credit system that lets the designers budget for what | bricks/colors they really need, and at what expense to the | other sets they're making. | | The designers likely spend big on special parts for the new | Star Wars or Marvel set. As I said before, this comes at the | price that the other sets have to be designed using the bricks | that are on hand. | bombcar wrote: | It's part of the great "brick reduction" done in the early | 2000s because the number of simultaneous parts was getting too | high. So they hand out "chits" called frames to the teams that | they can "spend" to get a part in a color that isn't available | yet, etc. | | The teams can swap and barter frames if they convince another | team it would be useful. There was a good description of it in | https://unbound.com/books/lego - the Secret Life of Lego | Bricks. | SillyUsername wrote: | Lego have stated that they have to keep using oil based plastic | (ABS) because their attempt at "sustainable" plastics has failed. | Specifically they've said they need Lego to "last generations". | That sentence should set off alarm bells for environmentalists, | it's not recycling if Lego is mostly dumped after a kid grows up. | | Lasting generations sounds like BS to me given the arguments | against fossil fuel plastic production, banning forever plastics | from the environment, and sea and environmental pollution caused | by items like bricks or bags. | | Why should Lego last generations? A PLA type plastic would be non | toxic, break down easier and importantly for Lego, also encourage | replacement purchases. | | Lego that lasts 10-15 years, with a discount replacement | programme, to my mind, is better than 100+ year old Lego killing | animals that eat it, or taking up space in landfills. | | Anecdotally, most kids don't want old Lego, (just look online at | the moms selling old unwanted Lego cheap without instructions or | boxes) they want the latest sets, so the justification isn't | there either. | altairTF wrote: | Because they build a reputation of good quality plastic pieces | that fit very snug together for, like they said, generations. | New type os plastic seens to not be like that and the final | product was not really good. If its really true or not, i don't | know, but that was their justification. | diffeomorphism wrote: | Further context: | | https://www.ft.com/content/6cad1883-f87a-471d-9688-c1a3c5a0b... | | The footprint over the lifetime is higher. Seems like an | entirely reasonable decision. | marvinblum wrote: | Bricks also do get worse with time. I remember getting some old | Lego as a child and finding the pieces barely stuck together. | Having old bricks mixed with new ones, my designs would often | "fail" at older pieces first. | avalys wrote: | Lego is basically irrelevant when it comes to fossil fuel | consumption or environmental plastic pollution. I'm glad they | decided not to make their product worse for no point. | | I wish "environmentalists" would keep their focus on things | that will actually make a difference, as opposed to insisting | on these performative sacrifices that make our world poorer, | duller or less capable without meaningfully helping the | environment. | Spivak wrote: | The fact that Lego is making a decision that is directly | against their own financial interest should unring the bell. | Making quality things that last forever is the Reduce and Reuse | of the recycle triangle. _All_ of my childhood Legos are now | owned by my nieces and nephews. | | > But Lego has now revealed that after more than two years of | testing, it had found that using recycled PET didn't reduce | carbon emissions. | | > It said the reason for that was because extra steps were | required in the production process, which meant it needed to | use more energy. | | [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66910573 | cush wrote: | Exactly. Reduce and Reuse Are the only valid paths for | plastic and Lego is the most reusable. Recycling plastic is | bullshit and single-use plastics should be banned. | SillyUsername wrote: | That's a really good point, it had crossed my mind. I do | wonder if at some point Lego will change to some sort of | subscriber model to keep shareholders happy. The Lego company | seems to be one of the last "good" companies to not want to | fleece customers, and that would be down to their part family | ownership I suppose. Pessimistically I think "all good | things...". | eichin wrote: | Fortunately, the "shareholders" are a couple of the | grandchildren of the founder; it is entirely family owned, | not publicly traded. | arcade79 wrote: | Oh wow. Not often I get as triggered by a comment where someone | is _wrong_ on the Internet as this. This has to be some of the | dumbest drivel I 've ever read in a comment about Lego. | | The Lego sets I got as a kid in the 80s, have been built and | has been (and is!) being played with by my ten year old | daugher. Classics such as 6080 and 40567. Or lego space stuff | such as 6980, 6940, 6783 or a variety of the others she's been | playing with. | | One of the big appeals of LEGO is that it's generational. It is | that the plastics produced 30, 40, 50 years ago is just as good | today in 2023, as it was in 1986. The utter baloney you're | coughing up would ruin one of the main great points about LEGO. | It would render it not generational toys but yet another bunch | of bollocks that expires after a few years. | | And shove your anecdotes. I doubt you've got kids. | ceejayoz wrote: | Yeah, my kids visited their great-grandmother in Australia a | few years back, and out came the 1960s legos. Great fun was | had. | SillyUsername wrote: | How mature. I doubt you're older than 15 with a response like | that. | | 15 years is not "bunch of bollocks that expires" - that's a | pretty good lifetime for any modern plastic toy, and if the | plastic is something like PLA, will just break down to | sugars. | | What you fail to understand is the ABS plastic is just adding | to the pool of what will all become trash eventually, in 100 | years we'll have a larger pile of this junk, whereas using a | biodegradable plastic the total amount may remain the same or | have declined. | | You do you though, continue to buy new plastic bags at the | supermarket, favour plastic packaging, plastic cup straws, | all because you can "re-use" them. Oh wait, they've banned | them for a reason. | arcade79 wrote: | I'm 44. | | Since '86, I've noticed that I've lost a 3 gray 2x1 full | size bricks for the Castle, two bricks for one of the | spaceships. Every single other model has all their bricks. | | I despise the "planned obsolesce" bollocks some folks are | hell bent on pushing into everything. I cheer on lego not | to subscribe to it. I, and lots and lots of other | brickheads would probably abandon them in an instant if | they did. | pjc50 wrote: | ? It's the one toy that does have a substantial long term | resale market. Not everything needs to be ephemeral. It's just | ABS, it's not asbestos. | dudul wrote: | Your anecdote is not an anecdote, it's a made up fact. | | My son is way more excited by my old sets with pirates, | astronauts and castles than he is by the latest franchised crap | like marvel, Harry Potter and all. | | Here, at least mine is a real anecdote. | SillyUsername wrote: | My son is not. He'd prefer the Batman and Spiderman sets as | opposed to the random old pieces his grand parents keep | offering him. Any kid who tells you they'd prefer old stuff | to new is lying, otherwise Lego'd be selling that old stuff | rather than the cross franchising they do today. | dudul wrote: | Maybe you should then question your parenting. I would be | so distressed if my kid was incapable of creating original | play without the support of a franchised movie. | | Also, no my son is not lying to me. | dragonwriter wrote: | > He'd prefer the Batman and Spiderman sets as opposed to | the random old pieces his grand parents keep offering him. | | Good for him. | | > Any kid who tells you they'd prefer old stuff to new is | lying, | | The issue isn't preferring old stuff to new as much as | preferring what Lego used to make more of vs. what they | currently make more of, but, no, neither of those | preferences is nonexistent in individuals. | | > otherwise Lego'd be selling that old stuff rather than | the cross franchising they do today. | | No, _aggregate_ market demand, weighted by who has money to | spend (and people who aren 't even kids), doesn't indicate | any kid with contrary stated preference is lying. Humans | aren't mental carbon copy clones in slightly different | fleshsuits. | crazygringo wrote: | > _...if Lego is mostly dumped after a kid grows up... | Anecdotally, most kids don 't want old Lego_ | | This is entirely wrong. | | Nearly all the toys from my own childhood wound up in the | garbage or Goodwill at one point or another... except the | Legos. Kids want to build gigantic castles and spaceports of | their own -- 20x larger than any sets Lego sells -- and those | gigantic environments require having a ton of random assorted | pieces. | | Legos seem to be the one toy that _doesn 't_ get dumped. | | > _just look online at the moms selling old unwanted Lego | cheap_ | | That actually shows the opposite of what you're trying to say. | They're not tossing them in the garbage, they _are_ selling | them, because they 're still perfectly desirable. (Because not | everyone winds up with grandkids to give them to, or wants to | hold onto them until then.) | cush wrote: | It's true that on environmental timescales, all plastic is bad. | But Lego is probably the most durable and reusable use of | plastic for entertainment we have today. | | Whatever logic brought you to the conclusion that reselling a | thing means it's no longer wanted is completely backwards. The | fact you are seeing tons of Lego for sale online is because | it's so damn desired and valuable. Landfills are not filled | with Lego. They're filled with textiles from the fast-fashion | industry and single-use plastics. | fleeno wrote: | Lego has got to be the lowest on the list for me as far as | concern about plastic use. Who throws away Lego? Post a couple | pounds of Lego on FB marketplace and see how fast it sells. | | Some of our Lego is from the 1950s, and my daughter is the | third generation playing with it. Surely 60+ years of use is a | pretty good run for something made of plastic. | 303uru wrote: | They'll get there, the first stab just wasn't great. That said, | LEGO truly is multi-generational. My kids are playing with my | childhood LEGO and it looks close to new. | andruby wrote: | I've put my old lego in the dishwasher (you can use a "net") | and it comes out like new. | gaogao wrote: | I remembering learning about Polaroids from Lego Magazine's "no | Polaroid pictures" for submissions back in the day, so really | neat to see it as a set now. | dhosek wrote: | This is so odd to me as someone who grew up in what was perhaps | peak Polaroid era. I remember house-shopping in the early 90s | and taking a Polaroid camera with me to take pictures of the | houses I saw. The other place it was really wonderful was when | I traveled to Chiapas and Guatemala at about that same time | with a Polaroid and was able to give family pictures to | Guatemalan refugees on the spot as a way of providing some | small joy for them. | nimajneb wrote: | Interesting read. | | I guess I'm out $90 Jan 1st, lol. This set is amazing. | CodeNest wrote: | Verge article on Lego Polaroid stuff? Yeah, it's got details but | kinda skips the tough bits. Marc, the dude who made it, got lots | of no before this one clicked. They ain't show much how tough it | is to kick off your Lego idea. Sort a paints a wonky picture for | peeps thinkin' 'bout jumping into Lego design. | Waterluvian wrote: | The use of colourful bricks in areas that won't be seen is an | amazing improvement I discovered when my kids began getting Lego. | | Last week I rebuilt two of my most cherished childhood sets[1] | and oh my goodness how did I ever do this as an 8-year-old? Every | step in the booklet is a minigame of "figure out what changed" | and then an eye exam of determining precisely where each piece | went. | | [1]: https://imgur.com/v0fL4Xz | andruby wrote: | Oh my. I remember those sets! They were glorious indeed. | | Do you have the lego number of those sets? Or the name? | | Ps: I'm now taking a picture of every lego box I buy for my | kids. That way I have an archive with all the numbers. That way | we can always download the booklets years later, or catalogue | the collection with rebrickable | Waterluvian wrote: | Behold in all their glory: https://www.toysperiod.com/lego- | set-reference/space/ice-plan... | | And: https://www.toysperiod.com/lego-set- | reference/space/space-po... | cide1 wrote: | I agree, the instructions have improved greatly over the years. | I just rebuilt some of my childhood sets from the late 80's and | early 90's (mostly Town theme) and I was struggling at times. | My 6 year old son does well with pretty much all the modern | instructions regardless of the age (City, Batman, Speed, | Technic, Jurassic Park themes). | monknomo wrote: | love the snow space lego sets, I had that one too | andersrs wrote: | I detest what Lego has become. I cringe when I see most of the | sets are a movie themed fad which won't fit well with the rest of | your Lego. It's very clear Lego profits more when the planet is | filled up with more plastic crap. So I stick to the classic ones | which are timeless and versatile. I guess the themed sets are | designed for man-children collectors. | philips wrote: | Have you seen the "space" theme for next year? | | It is the closest thing to a return to form I have seen in | recent years with focus on play features and story telling | without media tie in. | | https://ramblingbrick.com/2023/12/03/there-is-space-for-ever... | grammers wrote: | Lego is so simple, and yet so genius. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-12-15 23:00 UTC)