Mylenium

It's ultimately an academic discussion. There is per se no intrinsic reason "The System" could not have this and that element and wacky, uneven offsets or weird angles. The real issue is that in order for any of that to be useful you'd always need a second element to undo these irregular operations and then it simply gets too specific. It's no longer a universal connection and it ends up in a mess that is snowballing into an avalanche of single-use special parts. A case could probably made that their could be a sub-group of dedicated road-building elements as per the OP's request that allow to do this using sideways building with gap-less slopes plus tiles, plates and bricks without grooves, but even then you run into that simple problem of people getting creative and wanting to use this for other stuff and then you'd have to explain to them why they can't use it or implement technical counter measures that prevent these from connecting with the regular ones. It's really a catch 22. Mylenium

One of those nonsense "solution in search of a problem" apps. The time he spends spreading out the pieces and scrolling through the lists could just as well have been spent sorting stuff manually. Mylenium

Never? It's one of those weird things where LEGO's design philosophy figures in. They rather invest in seemingly redundant molds of existing pieces turned upside-down to keep the build experience simple (in their view). I also mentioned in another thread that those direction inverters could be problematic in terms of internal tension in the elements, elements grinding on one another and of course disassembling stuff. Based on those criteria it's unlikely we will ever see this. Mylenium

I can understand pretty much all your points. I'm just not there yet. Due to my health issues getting worse every year I have considered just stopping and selling off my stuff, but I still enjoy it. It's more a case of not being able to live out that hobby as I would like. Mylenium

Agree with the others. If you buy so rarely, it probably isn't even worth pondering over it. Just get whatever you want at the cheapest price and/ or when there's a good deal with some extras thrown in like with the upcoming "Endurance" set where in theory you could get three GWPs. Mylenium

Most people likely never make that much. I'd have to look it up, but if I remember correctly you get 3 Cent for a 1000 views plus the share of the ad revenue. Arguably a lot of smaller creators never make back what they invested or barely break even. Shilling for someone or something isn't exactly a new concept, is it? Thank god I'm old enough to no longer care, but I've seen those circle wanks enough in software and creative communities and can without shame admit to have been a troll and fanboy myself far too many times, but ultimately it's just a stupid waste of time to defend stupid corporate decisions or "geniuses" that are terrible human beings or company drones. In any case, it's a natural thing and it just takes time until you wise up. Sometimes people have to learn this the hard way when the mask comes off on their favorite influencer, but it's a repeating pattern and will happen again. Mylenium

Though that always is one of the biggest points of contention and a personal pet peeve, TBH. You know, it's easy to go out and buy another 200 Euro set on your own dime when you have gotten five others for free and saved the money... Mylenium Not sure if it's entitlement, but simply some form of non-considerate ignorance (as in being ignorant of circumstances, not dumb). I have this picture in my head where you just click on some form on the LEGO LAN web site or get a mail where you just need to confirm that you want the latest release and then it's easy to just always click and say yes. After a while you just may not think about it anymore... Mylenium

Allow me to trim your words and make them even more generalized. Especially in the last two years things on YT seem to have turned sour for many creators. The arbitrary rule changes, the continued abuses, copyright battles and their highly dysfunctional reporting system make it a struggle to have your content on the system let alone work on expanding your channel and getting it promoted by the algorithm. I know several creators who have been on there for years and do excellent content, yet the system simply works against them. That's why everyone is begging people to sign up to Patreon or other alternative platforms with regular, predictable monetization because YT is simply kaput and doesn't work for them. Mylenium

At the end of the day it's one of those "You don't dump where you eat." things. Most sponsored reviews are simply too positively biased, period. You just need to look at the respective sites to have that verified. I'm not accusing anyone of doing this consciously, it's just simply psychology getting in the way no matter how much they claim to be "neutral". When you're getting stuff for free via the Ambassador Network literally almost every week you just live in that world and take on a certain view of things. Same with others. Arguably there is no harm in getting free stuff, but you need to be self-aware enough that it will influence your decisions. That said, I've long tuned out of that creator I think you are referring to because he's generally quite too soft on that stuff IMO and let's LEGO and the others get away too easily with terrible products, so it probably won't skewer the scales much one way or the other. Mylenium

White space is the oxygen of any print design or for that matter even classic paintings. Nothing wrong with that per se. Yes, they could have used a different style and framing, but overall it's okay. But then again they clearly have used more than one software and there may have been other restrictions and preset requirements. Somehow your comments feel like you don't understand much of the technical side of print production and package design and you also don't seem to acknowledge that at the end of the day the client is always right. The design actually even tells the story in a way - standardized package size and placement of elements to keep things cheap and the dark brown text just didn't work in this case, but would be just fine on a red rose or whatever other flowery stuff they may have. I'm certain the designer was fully aware of this. It was just a restriction that the client imposed. Mylenium

Yeah, it looks okay for a 5 dollar job. Not sure what you expect. Not every design job is luxury brand level where you spend weeks with meetings and design iterations. Many times it's really just a job done by a freelancer who needs to fire out twenty designs in a week to make a living and who works with clients that don't appreciate the finer points. They just want functional packaging that communicates the selling points at as low as possible cost. And let's be real: LEGO's box designs won't win awards, either. Given how much money the company throws around I'm always baffled by how bad some of that is. Mylenium

And you appear very defensive of it. I won't use certain words here, but your stance doesn't make it any better, either, no offense. Really depends on how you think about that stuff. That's an eternally ongoing debate in creative circles and at the end of the day there's no satisfactory resolution to the dilemma. I work in the graphics business, but I've never cramped my megablocks over someone copying/ imitating my work and to a degree I don't even mind them making money of it. It's just a matter to what extent. Sure, getting ripped off without even a mention sucks, but I'm not losing sleep over it. There's more to life than worrying about this and it's a matter of whether you are in it for the joy and fulfillment you get out of creating stuff or if you are just doing it for the money. At least in the creative industries there's also a self-cleaning effect and those hacks that just rely on copying work will only get so far. I would apply the same logic to brick-built projects. Why would I care about some weird company at the other end of the world using my designs when I have no way of getting to them or it is too much of a distraction to even hunt them down? I got better things to do. Mylenium

CaDa has had such beams since the beginning of eternity (and by extension other alternative brands that copied CaDa), so your interpretation doesn't make much sense. I would agree, but ultimately we have to take the facts for what they are: LEGO are weaponizing the protected designs exactly for that reason. It's the old debate of whether it's an inevitable, natural technical solution or a conscious decision to pick this exact design. And since this is based on the "first come, first served" principle, it's all an effed up mess. Whoever beats the others to the punch can basically dictate what's right and what's wrong and abuse the system. That's why we are in this mess, after all. 10000 % agree. It's just disappointing that so far no court has ordered LEGO to even provide a FRAND licensing option and spare the legal system all that annoying trouble and cost. Mylenium

I don't think so. It's not his responsibility to know all of the hundreds or thousands of products. That is up to some sub-sub-sub wholesale manager or whoever. Likewise, it's not their responsibility to check the package design of a competitor. This is once more a case where LEGO are simply pulling the "nuclear" option based on questionable claims. One can only hope that the court shows some measure of common sense... Mylenium

https://brickset.com/sets/5002801-1/Friends-Brick-Light-(Purple) Only LEGO-fied keychain pendant I ever bought. Only did so as sort of an emergency solution when MAGLite mini broke while I was on medical rehab back in 2013. Couldn't walk those beach paths at the Baltic Sea without some extra light in the middle of November when it was getting dark early... Still have it today, but of course the edges are all rounded off and I apparently had to change the batteries once or twice. Mylenium