Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[danth]

• Just because a theme was discontinued as planned after two years doesn't mean it "didn't sell"
• Just because a set was retired doesn't mean it "didn't sell"
• Just because you saw a set marked down in price at the store doesn't mean it "didn't sell"

I swear, people offer up these turds of thought like they deserve a Nobel prize in logic. Lego actually plans theme and set lifetimes. And sometimes, stores just need to clear out stock.

Edited April 9 by danth

[Aanchir]

2 hours ago, danth said:

• Just because a theme was discontinued as planned after two years doesn't mean it "didn't sell"
• Just because a set was retired doesn't mean it "didn't sell"
• Just because you saw a set marked down in price at the store doesn't mean it "didn't sell"

Big agree on these ones!

Similarly, it's not really any surprise that licensed themes like Indiana Jones, Cars, Toy Story, The Lord of the Rings, and Minions tend to get full waves of sets around when a new movie is coming out, and then STOP getting full waves of sets shortly thereafter. Sure, there are always more sets that LEGO could make for those themes, but a full wave of licensed sets is generally gonna be more profitable when people are already surrounded by marketing and hype for that particular series than when LEGO has to do that heavy lifting themselves.

[Autumn]

On 4/8/2025 at 8:53 PM, Aanchir said:

I don't mind minifigs (or mini-dolls), but it does frustrate me sometimes how quickly people disregard a LEGO set or theme if it DOESN'T have minifigs, or treat a set with both minifigs and brick-built characters as if only the minifig characters matter.

Many people put way too much value on minifigs, even more so when it's licensed (and even more yet when it's Star Wars). Even Lego when they lock a character or unique variant of a character to a super expensive set.

On 4/9/2025 at 2:14 PM, MAB said:

Nothing is stopping you building like that. You can use regular torsos like that if you want to. You can also buy plain heads for little money or wipe the prints from printed heads.

I'm unsure if you detected my sarcasm or not. I was taking a jab at the previous commenter that was essentially saying "old = good, new = bad."

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Autumn said:

Many people put way too much value on minifigs, even more so when it's licensed (and even more yet when it's Star Wars). Even Lego when they lock a character or unique variant of a character to a super expensive set.

The alternative view is that some people don't value minifigs as much as they should! The reality is different people value minifigs (and parts) in different ways. People valuing minifigs is great for parts collectors as they pay high prices for them. I've bought multiple copies of a set in the past and sold off all but one set of minifigures to enable a bigger build with the extra parts. If you buy in at the right price, the extra parts can be free thanks to the people that value minifigs so highly.

[danth]

2 hours ago, Autumn said:

I was taking a jab at the previous commenter that was essentially saying "old = good, new = bad."

Huh, I wasn't saying that at all.

We have new brick built dinos. We have new brick built big figures in Mario and Wicked sets. The brick built sails in the Creator Pirate ship are pretty new. There are brick built wings in a brand new Creator Dragon set.

Is it that weird for Lego fans to want to build things out of bricks?

Edited April 11 by danth

[Aanchir]

On 4/11/2025 at 12:40 PM, danth said:

Huh, I wasn't saying that at all.

We have new brick built dinos. We have new brick built big figures in Mario and Wicked sets. The brick built sails in the Creator Pirate ship are pretty new. There are brick built wings in a brand new Creator Dragon set.

Is it that weird for Lego fans to want to build things out of bricks?

Yeah, I can definitely relate to this opinion on a lot of levels, even if it is unpopular!

That said, I don't know if brick-built solutions can effectively take the place of cloth or plastic film parts in all cases. For example, a brick-built cape on a large large figure model tends to impede posability more than a cloth cape. Brick-built sails can't be raised or lowered for different play and display options like the cloth sails in Pirates of Barracuda Bay. And using materials like plastic film or cloth for dragon or glider wings not only reduces their weight (which can be a big help depending on what sort of hinges you want to use), but also can allow for a posable wing membrane in some cases like https://brickset.com/sets/70593-1/The-Green-NRG-Dragon, without needing highly specialized rubber wing molds like those used for the molded Smaug in the Hobbit sets.

From a MOCist perspective, flexible cloth and plastic film parts can also be repurposed in very clever ways, since they can be bent into different shapes than in the original set. So for example, cloth dragon wings can become sails on a ship or a dress on a brick-built figure, and cloth minifig capes can become sails on a raft, curtains on a dressing room, etc.

None of that is to say your preference is bad — brick-built approaches have plenty of obvious advantages of their own, after all! And it's definitely super exciting seeing either LEGO or MOCists come up with brick-built solutions for stuff that we're used to seeing tackled with these sorts of flexible materials! But those varying advantages are a big part of why I like seeing varying approaches in sets.

[danth]

What's weird is the new Creator Horse Knight Castle leaked pics show surprisingly nice-looking brick-built horses, while the Creator Unicorn Castle leaked pics show a surprisingly not-brick-built, molded foal.

[imposter]

Too many LICENSED themes

[BrickBob Studpants]

5 minutes ago, imposter said:

Too many LICENSED themes

You will have to pry them from my cold, dead hands, TURTLE.

[MAB]

22 minutes ago, imposter said:

Too many LICENSED themes

Themes are just badges to collate similar items together. If they were rebadged with a higher level in the hierarchy then the number of overall themes drops massively even though the number of sets stays exactly the same. For example, have a Movies theme and a Video Games theme. That reduces the number of licensed themes even though the choice of sets is exactly the same.

Having enough choice of what you like is important, rather than diminishing the choice of what other people like.

 

[imposter]

Themes are not just badges. They are obviously the HEART of LEGO.

[Karalora]

I've been mulling this one over for a while and I can't remain silent any longer:

Many AFOLs are too hung up on impressive size, visual accuracy to source material, and complex detail when creating MOCs and judging the MOCs of others. This attitude often comes at the expense of whimsy, charm, and especially accessibility--newcomers to the hobby find it nearly impossible to get helpful feedback on the smaller, simpler creations that they are capable of when they start out, and this hampers their ability to progress. IDEAS and the BL Designer Program are heavily biased toward big, expensive sets, restricting the number of people who can afford to engage with the fan-driven content. Sometimes it seems like those of us who haven't been consistently building since we were nine years old have no change to catch up.

[MAB]

5 hours ago, Karalora said:

I've been mulling this one over for a while and I can't remain silent any longer:

Many AFOLs are too hung up on impressive size, visual accuracy to source material, and complex detail when creating MOCs and judging the MOCs of others. This attitude often comes at the expense of whimsy, charm, and especially accessibility--newcomers to the hobby find it nearly impossible to get helpful feedback on the smaller, simpler creations that they are capable of when they start out, and this hampers their ability to progress. IDEAS and the BL Designer Program are heavily biased toward big, expensive sets, restricting the number of people who can afford to engage with the fan-driven content. Sometimes it seems like those of us who haven't been consistently building since we were nine years old have no change to catch up.

Designers of (successful) large sets make significantly more money than designers of (successful) small sets. LEGO make more money when they sell out the quota of large sets than when they sell out the same quota of small sets. It is no wonder that bigger sets get promoted more and LEGO allows piece counts to increase with time and recently even break their published thresholds.

As for getting feedback, new (or old) designers/builders can post on sites like this. However, some people ask for feedback even though they have already submitted to IDEAS or BDP. In that case, asking for feedback is just promoting their submission.

I think both programmes have grown too much, although really it is the money behind them that has grown too much especially for BDP, that has turned it into being a competition for independent designer/advertisers making it a full time or almost full time job for some. They are not really fan designers doing it for enjoyment but essentially freelance workers that need to maximise publicity by posting in as many forms and get as many blog mentions as they can to promote their submissions. I think that is just as damaging to "fan designers" that work on a design and submit it, as they are up against semi-professional designers submitting multiple designs every time. 

[Lyichir]

8 hours ago, MAB said:

Designers of (successful) large sets make significantly more money than designers of (successful) small sets. LEGO make more money when they sell out the quota of large sets than when they sell out the same quota of small sets. It is no wonder that bigger sets get promoted more and LEGO allows piece counts to increase with time and recently even break their published thresholds.

As for getting feedback, new (or old) designers/builders can post on sites like this. However, some people ask for feedback even though they have already submitted to IDEAS or BDP. In that case, asking for feedback is just promoting their submission.

I think both programmes have grown too much, although really it is the money behind them that has grown too much especially for BDP, that has turned it into being a competition for independent designer/advertisers making it a full time or almost full time job for some. They are not really fan designers doing it for enjoyment but essentially freelance workers that need to maximise publicity by posting in as many forms and get as many blog mentions as they can to promote their submissions. I think that is just as damaging to "fan designers" that work on a design and submit it, as they are up against semi-professional designers submitting multiple designs every time. 

I'm not sure that first paragraph is fully accurate. Larger sets do cost more and have more profit per unit, but smaller sets are produced and sold in much higher quantities overall, and often through more retail channels, so it's not quite as simple as "full production run of large sets makes more profit than full production run of small sets." As far as promotion is concerned, it is true that big sets make a bigger impact when it comes to impressing people in store windows and shelves, drawing more customers in to buy big and small sets alike. Of course, another aspect of Lego's own promotion is that the largest sets are the ones that tend to be exclusive to Lego Brand Retail, making promoting those a big deal for those "official" channels—the sets promoted by other retailers or through mass-market avenues like TV advertising often favor mid-size sets more.

Large projects getting more attention on Lego Ideas/Bricklink Designer Program is indeed something I'd consider a bit of an issue. It's not universal an issue for Lego Ideas, which gets plenty of projects past the review goal and lets Lego make the final call on what gets approved (which to this day includes a mix of larger and smaller builds, with the Pixar lamp being a recent example of a smaller project). But Bricklink Designer Program definitely seems to attract more support for large builds.

I think a part of this is not just bigger builds impressing people more, but also the limited, individual approval process for these sorts of sets—if a set making it through the process only guarantees that one set, it can be tempting for fan creators to try to cram as many of the details they would want into one build. This is less of an issue for Lego's own designers, who can either get a whole theme order at once or can otherwise limit the size of sets in the hopes that strong sales will result in follow-ups. So the fierce competition of Ideas/BDP themselves contributes toward the trend toward larger builds.

[Stereo]

4 hours ago, Lyichir said:

I'm not sure that first paragraph is fully accurate. Larger sets do cost more and have more profit per unit, but smaller sets are produced and sold in much higher quantities overall, and often through more retail channels, so it's not quite as simple as "full production run of large sets makes more profit than full production run of small sets."

That's about BDP in particular, which has the same limit (currently 30000 I believe) no matter how large the set is.  If it was higher or unlimited then smaller sets could probably perform just as well on earnings...

Edited May 12 by Stereo

[Lyichir]

5 hours ago, Stereo said:

That's about BDP in particular, which has the same limit (currently 30000 I believe) no matter how large the set is.  If it was higher or unlimited then smaller sets could probably perform just as well on earnings...

Oh yeah, in that sense Bricklink Designer program would definitely be more profitable for larger sets (at least as long as the limited quantity of each set continues to sell out consistently). Sorry for misinterpreting.

[MAB]

I know one person's vote makes no difference at all, but I'm only voting positively for BDP designs under 1000 parts, and 'not for me' on anything above that.

[GeoBrick]

As I understand it, the BDP team tries  to choose sets regarding to size and theme, so there's no real need to downvote large-sized sets.

Not that their method always works out, as Series 4 proved.

[MAB]

13 minutes ago, GeoBrick said:

As I understand it, the BDP team tries  to choose sets regarding to size and theme, so there's no real need to downvote large-sized sets.

Not that their method always works out, as Series 4 proved.

If many smaller models got more positive feedback and fewer large ones did, then maybe they would shift the balance of large vs small sets that they choose. This is kind of an extension of what karalora was saying - that people tend to sway to big and detailed because they are big and detailed at the expense of smaller designs.

[GeoBrick]

9 minutes ago, MAB said:

If many smaller models got more positive feedback and fewer large ones did, then maybe they would shift the balance of large vs small sets that they choose. This is kind of an extension of what karalora was saying - that people tend to sway to big and detailed because they are big and detailed at the expense of smaller designs.

Mmm okay, I see what you're getting at. Maybe the BDP team should start a 500-750 pieces bracket. Maybe it would be a good starting point for the less self-assured designer.

[Yperio_Bricks]

There are too many people advertising their Rebrickable shops at Eurobricks and in the Lego community in general. On the first page of the EB Star Wars forum alone there are ads for 19 (if I counted correctly) rebickable models. I wish my adblocker would filter all Rebrickable ads out so I would not waste my time clicking on the threads! Rebrickable ads are everywhere. So annoying

 

 

Edited May 16 by Yperio_Bricks

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

There are too many people advertising their Rebrickable shops at Eurobricks and in the Lego community in general. On the first page of the EB Star Wars forum alone there are ads for 19 (if I counted correctly) rebickable models. I wish my adblocker would filter all Rebrickable ads out so I would not waste my time clicking on the threads! Rebrickable ads are everywhere. So annoying

 

 

The only way I have found to filter them out is to add the user to your ignore list. You still see the thread but if you click it then it doesn't show.

I do it for anyone with low post counts that are here just to post threads with links for IDEAS votes, BDP votes or paid for instructions at rebrickable (those offering free instructions is not an issue). It is not so bad if a long time user posts it as a MOC and has a discreet link at the end. But for people that only post to get votes / sales, I just stop reading or looking when I come to the link.

For rebrickable links, I think there should be a rule that the user has to at least put the price of instructions into the post as they are here to sell so should be upfront about it. Other trades and sales have to be in the right place, and these posts are really just sales posts. At minimum the costs should be made clear.

[zoth33]

On 4/15/2025 at 3:44 PM, danth said:

What's weird is the new Creator Horse Knight Castle leaked pics show surprisingly nice-looking brick-built horses, while the Creator Unicorn Castle leaked pics show a surprisingly not-brick-built, molded foal.

I think the foals are meant as Minifigs in this specific case.  Basically like My little Pony

[Lion King]

On 5/18/2025 at 9:12 PM, zoth33 said:

I think the foals are meant as Minifigs in this specific case.  Basically like My little Pony

Correct, which I like that. 

[ForgedInLego]

On 5/16/2025 at 6:55 AM, Yperio_Bricks said:

There are too many people advertising their Rebrickable shops at Eurobricks and in the Lego community in general. On the first page of the EB Star Wars forum alone there are ads for 19 (if I counted correctly) rebickable models. I wish my adblocker would filter all Rebrickable ads out so I would not waste my time clicking on the threads! Rebrickable ads are everywhere. So annoying

 

 

Fair criticism, I try to keep it as unobtrusive as possible when I do have instructions available. I get a lot of comments asking for instructions otherwise.