Oh my god Brickster, that thing is freakin' awesome! *y*

Check out this recent find on Flickr. It's a ship that uses two airplane tail sections. I'd say this is an excellent use of a large specialized piece:

Flickr Find

I'll never look at large pieces the same way again.

I'm not a big fan of Space sets, but I thought it was pretty slick. The photo-editing is superb as well. I'm always amazed at how expert builders can use pieces in such a way.

A wonderful find and an ingenious work indeed! It seems that with great imagination

and exceptional creativity a lot of at firsthand disgusting appearing parts could still

find their way into amazing MOCs.... :'-)

It seems that with great imagination and exceptional creativity a lot of at firsthand disgusting appearing parts could still find their way into amazing MOCs.... :'-)

And that's what makes Lego so great. It's only real limitation is your own imagination. Using large pieces in interesting and ingenious ways isn't really that different from using small pieces in interesting and ingenious ways.

i think the problem is more the size than the large parts. I can live with large parts if they're good. The city planes all have large parts, but they're not bad designs because of it.

However, they've been adding so many large parts in one set that many models have become very big in size. They become the big sets: sets with only 400 pieces or so, but large in size and with lots of big parts, and very often hardly with few small parts.

Why do they do it?

-kids love big sets

-kids want to play more than build, so they want bigger parts

-big sets are more attractive, the help profiling a theme in the catalogue

-big sets are commercially more interesting

-big sets with big parts are safer for small kids

-big sets are waaaay more attractive in a shop. Seen the boxes of other toys lately? they're big too!

The reason for sets getting bigger and bigger is in my opinion that the most sets which are available in "normal" toy stores aren't created for us AFOLs but mainly for kids. And the age of kids playing with Lego is getting lower and lower.

These two coments i beilve pretty much hit it on the nail. While AFOL may not care for larger pieces, kids do. Makes play time more fun cause the set can be built faster, and many times is much stronger. (a brick built passenger plane on the same scale as the last years passenger plane, probbly wouldn't stand the abuse as well that a 10 yr old would put it through). And then there's cost. Hate to say it, but the bigger peices are probbly saving the TLC some money as well. But thats not a bad thing. In the end, that savings can be passed down to us.

I agree with you, TheBrickster: Lego sets have actually got bigger.

I don't think that the new bigger parts and sets are of lower quality - but bigger really doesn't mean better!

Most of all the new big cars annoy me because they only look bigger but not nicer!

Look at the new next year's Truck With Fork Lift: It's very similar to http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/6367-1?showpic=1218 but the fact that next year's set is bigger is - in my opinion - not a criterion for that this new set is better than its old version - far from it! I like the old truck (though I don't own it) much more than the new one because it looks much lovelier because it isn't as big as the new one and because it has doors.

Of course I like the new truck, too, but the old one was nicer, I'd say.

My opinion is that bigger sets aren't better than smallish sets.

I wish that TLC brings back sets in the old sets style which include cars and trucks which are only four stuck wide and include doors!

I'd have to disagree with you on that one. One thing that i have noticed that with the sets getting larger, the detail has also gotten better. The set you gave as an example Klaus-Dieter is nice, but it doesn't compare in detail to the new cargo truck. Butin all hoestly, this is just personal opinion. The 4 wide trucks and planes of the yester years just don't do it for realisim. Yes, i understand that many beilve that lego's shouldn't be to scale, but there are a fair amount of use that do. I welcome the larger 8 wide trucks. I don't want a passenger car the same size as my big rigs.

I think it's all a matter of personal taste really.

I mean, personally, I like some of the larger sets we've had as much as some of the smaller sets. Similarly, I've not disliked sets because they were necessarily small or big.

Really, both have their plus points. The small sets are cheap(er), and are great for little parts packs, or presents, or impulse buys. But larger sets are an opportunity to include more figures, or more unique pieces/colours that smaller sets may not have. I mean, look at sets like the UCS ISD/MF or CC or castles or pirate ships, and say that you don't like big sets.

That's not to say we should only have large sets though. They're good but in moderation. In fact, thats why they're good- because many people can't afford to buy a large set every week. That's what makes them special, it feels good to be able to reach up to that big set you've been saving up for, and take it down, knowing that you've had to work towards getting it. Rather than just going into a shop with

I agree with you, TheBrickster: Lego sets have actually got bigger.

I don't think that the new bigger parts and sets are of lower quality - but bigger really doesn't mean better!

Most of all the new big cars annoy me because they only look bigger but not nicer!

Look at the new next year's Truck With Fork Lift: It's very similar to http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/6367-1?showpic=1218 but the fact that next year's set is bigger is - in my opinion - not a criterion for that this new set is better than its old version - far from it! I like the old truck (though I don't own it) much more than the new one because it looks much lovelier because it isn't as big as the new one and because it has doors.

Of course I like the new truck, too, but the old one was nicer, I'd say.

what.... X-O ................ X-O X-O Whaaat!? This is the last thing I'd expect anyone to complain about. The trucks were the nicest sets this year IMO. They were very detailed and realistic and by making them bigger lego added more detail, which did indeed make them nicer. I would take anyone of the 07 trucks over this fourwide truck any day. I do have to agree that the 08 truck is crap though.

My personal opinion is that sets have become overpriced ( and come to mind.) because of big parts and overall scales of sets. I hope lego ends with this nonsense soon and prices sets according to piece count. >:-(

Makes play time more fun cause the set can be built faster, and many times is much stronger. (a brick built passenger plane on the same scale as the last years passenger plane, probbly wouldn't stand the abuse as well that a 10 yr old would put it through). And then there's cost. Hate to say it, but the bigger peices are probbly saving the TLC some money as well.

But exactly this '(nearly) ready to play straight from the box' attitude which sometimes

seems to appear within the crude mind of some floppy TLC managers is pure crap IMHO.

I understand (but don

Am I the only one who has noticed that the cars themselves are still four-wide, while only the trucks and vans have grown to six-wide, vehicles which in real life are wider than normal cars? Don't try to reason with me that the wheel-arches make the cars wider, because in my eyes that doesn't count. I am happy that the cars no longer resemble golf-carts.

I do not miss the four-wide trucks either. And it has been a while since TLC designed four-wide trucks as well. Most trucks released in the 90's had a four-wide cabin, five-wide sleeper and aeroshield, with the trailers themselves being six-wide, with only the container freighters being four wide. With the new six-wide cabins, the new trucks released so far actually resemble what's seen on the roads (in Europe), which is all plusses in my book.

Somebody mentioned above using the new large pieces in new creative ways. The time-machine from Meet the Robinsons is an excellent example of how it can be done. I've also seen two examples using the rear-hull piece used as a hot-air balloon and a submarine. The rest of the plane have been used as trains, as we all know.

Besides, we all know that the sets targeted at us AFOL's have been using small bricks almost exclusively. Look at Caf

But exactly this '(nearly) ready to play straight from the box' attitude which sometimes

seems to appear within the crude mind of some floppy TLC managers is pure crap IMHO.

I understand (but don

Edited December 2, 200717 yr by 5150 Lego