What the Unholy Lama thinks of modern LEGO

[Mister Phes]

The Unholy Lama is a good friend of mine. Its a name I've devised for him over the years, but that story is not relevant to this thread.

What is relevant is he used to be a fan of LEGO and he has every catalog from 88-98 sans 97. I paid him a visit to see if I could get scans of these catalogs, but alas they were in storage so I'll have to wait until such a time when he gets them out.

However, I took the second 2004 and 2005 catalogs for him to have a look. His responses were rather amusing as he's not affraid to speak his mind, so I'm going to share what I remember:

"What's this s*beep*t? This isn't LEGO."

When he saw the Clikits for the first time...

"Look at the size of those pieces... How big do they need to be these days? They're bloody ridiculous!"

Counting the <insert that tiresome argument> pieces of 7047 Coast Watch HQ with his finger he continues...

"There's a big piece here, and big piece here, and another one here - it looks like Match Box car set. CRAP!"

When he saw the Alpha Team and World City pages.

"Sport... Come on... Now they're struggling for ideas..."

"Basket Ball? What a stupid idea for a set that is..."

Itself self explainitory as to what pages he's lookng at there.

"Bloody Spider Man LEGO? Really..."

And after that he's had enough of 2004...

"Now lets see if they've improved in a year" he flips through the 2005 catalog "Nope, obviously not"

It was quite amusing to watch but doesn't translate as well into text, the facial expressions and the way it was said really sets it off. But I'm affraid to say I had to agree with his negative opinions completely.

[Mr. Lego-builder]

Well, I hope he enjoys the 2005 catalog! Seems like he hates the products in 2004 so far...

And I feel sorry for your unholy lama. Transitioning from the classic ways of LEGO to modern design is hard.

[The Middleman]

I think 2005 LEGO is better than LEGO has been in YEARS. Look at:

- Knight's Kingdom 2 (Ankoria only - the first wave was horrible, but this new one is fantastic)

- City (a complete throwback to original Town!)

- Star Wars (great, less <insert that tiresome argument> models, with tons of pieces and color-coded soldiers)

- Vikings (a historical theme! Sure, it has some BIONICLE pieces, but so do the great Ankoria sets.)

- Harry Potter (a graveyard! A ship!)

Personally, I love 2005. And so does everyone else - LEGO is reporting that its problems have reversed. Far from not selling enough LEGO, they're selling too much - the factories can't keep up!

[Mister Phes]

Being almost a decade older than Bloody Jay he's going to have a different perspective of what LEGO should be like, so therefore his tolerance of juniorisation will be less. Also given the fact he was bombarded with an entire catalog of recent sets would have been harder for him to take than me for example, who gradually got weened into this whole juniorisation thing.

Plus he hasn't seen the Viking or Harry Potter sets yet, but what he did say about the 2004 Harry Potter sets was:

"There's just not enough generic pieces. How can you make anything else out of these?"

As for the City being a throw back to the old Town theme - we had a discussion about that a while back in the The Latest World City Sets thread or "City" sets as you pointed out. It seemed that these sets were alright but the general consensus seemed to be there was still too much juniorisation and specialist pieces preventing them from being as good as the old ones.

[Mr. Lego-builder]

Remember...World City is NOT the same as City...

City has a modern, yet classic feel to it. I, as a City/Town fan from the day I first looked at LEGO, I should know. Having my uncle, now a AFOL, he was also a fan of Town, passing down his sets to me, and yes, I do agree that the older Town sets were superior to the City line nowadays, but give TLC some time and the new sets might, I(n) M(y) H(umble) O(pinion), surpass our (or at least my) expectations, as far as City/Town sets go.

[Mister Phes]

Remember...World City is NOT the same as City...

You forgot to articulate A(dult) (F)an (O)f (L)ego...

And yes, I did acknowledge that in the line "or 'City' sets as you pointed out" in reference to Bloody Jay making the exact same point in the thread I had just linked.

[Mr. Lego-builder]

Sorry if I misunderstood you, Mr. Phes.

BTW, what did the Unholy Lama say when he saw the dreaded 4+ Pirates?! :o

I hope it's not too devestating to hear! :oo

[The Middleman]

As far as Harry Potter goes, I can understand for the merpeople set, but for the graveyard... it's a fantastic model. And it's going to be $15 under piece/price value! The dragon set (link) has the <insert that tiresome argument> dragon, but the rest is great - mountain pieces, wood planks, etc.

And sure, the ship uses the 4+ hull, but the pieces are fantastic.

[Mister Phes]

Not sure what I think of those two sets based on pictures of the box... I'll reserve judgement until later.

Do you happen to have any pictures of this ship you speak of?

[Hobbes]

This one?

I save my comment(s). I agree completely with mister_phes' friend.

[Mister Phes]

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! MY EYES!!!

Nope. This isn't what the Unholy Lama was looking at. It was the Harry Potter page of the 2004 catalog. I think what caught his eye was Hogwarts Castle.

But for this boat I'll create a new thread so it can be discussed in more depth.

[The Middleman]

Dude, Hogwarts Castle from 2004 is a GREAT set. Tons of great pieces, and actually very good construction. A lot of fun in every way.

[Mister Phes]

Dude? It sounds like you're telling me this. This aint my opinion. Its the Unholy Lama's. If you want I can give you his Email address and you can tell him how great it is.