Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[Aanchir]

3 hours ago, smazmats said:

…or it gets the full “Ninjago treatment” with a host of expensive tie-in network tv shows, interactive apps, etc with the hopes that it would match the success of Ninjago.

Honestly, I don't think it's realistic to blame this on Ninjago's continued existence. LEGO has always tended to market new themes with the same strategies that they've found to work in recent years. It's like how in the 90s, most themes would get promoted with magazines, truck tours, and sometimes audio dramas and picture books. Or like how in the 2000s, basically any new theme got marketed with Flash-based online games, videos, and comics. Or how in the early 2010s, new themes would also get a mobile app game (although at that time, "interactive" apps were still an experimental thing relegated to small, dedicated product lines like LEGO Life of George or LEGO Fusion) and short mini-movies on LEGO.com and YouTube. As soon as LEGO has evidence that a marketing strategy is both effective and within their means, it gets added to the toolbox for how they might promote the next new theme.

In other words, even LEGO did end up abruptly ending Ninjago, they would likely continue making apps and animated series for any new themes aimed at kids. The only thing that would stop them from doing that is if 1) those approaches for marketing to kids stopped being effective and 2) newer, more effective marketing strategies emerged to take their place.

[MAB]

8 hours ago, Aanchir said:

It's like how in the 90s, most themes would get promoted with magazines, truck tours, and sometimes audio dramas and picture books.

And adverts for specific themes broadcast during ad breaks in kids' TV shows.

 

I agree, apps, games and TV series are really there to replace the advertising now kids tend to consume old style advertising less than in the past.

[Peppermint_M]

Indeed, once upon a time there would be an advert page in The Beano, a promotional flyer in the newsagents that sold LEGO (those were such treasured places in my childhood!). Now there are lots more places to advertise, but there are also new rules to work within.

[The Island Chronicles]

I think I'm going to be one of the very few people here to have this opinion, but I miss the four stud wide systems they had for City vehicles as simpler looks were just better for the generic theme. Last time I saw a symblance of four stud wide vehicles was in 2023 with the motorcycle chase and family home. I know Lego may not bring this back to City as the former designer for Speed Champions has taken over the theme. But if the buildable road plates are still being manufactured, I would like them to at least consider bringing four stud wide vehicles back. City is a generic theme after all where simpler vehicles were just better all the way around. If kids wish to have well-designed cars, they can always give Speed Champions a peek or two. 

Edited December 25, 2024 by The Island Chronicles

[SpacePolice89]

13 hours ago, The Island Chronicles said:

I think I'm going to be one of the very few people here to have this opinion, but I miss the four stud wide systems they had for City vehicles as simpler looks were just better for the generic theme. Last time I saw a symblance of four stud wide vehicles was in 2023 with the motorcycle chase and family home. I know Lego may not bring this back to City as the former designer for Speed Champions has taken over the theme. But if the buildable road plates are still being manufactured, I would like them to at least consider bringing four stud wide vehicles back. City is a generic theme after all where simpler vehicles were just better all the way around. If kids wish to have well-designed cars, they can always give Speed Champions a peak. 

I also prefer the four stud wide vehicles. I think that they look better than the six stud wide ones. The six stud wide vehicles are often too big for city builds and road plates (both old and new) and they make sets unnecessary expensive. I don't mind the occasional six stud wide specialty vehicle like 6484 but I strongly prefer most vehicles being four stud wide. The picture below is from my Lego city I had in the early 2000s and it illustrates the perfect size of four stud wide vehicles.

[The Island Chronicles]

1 hour ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I also prefer the four stud wide vehicles. I think that they look better than the six stud wide ones. The six stud wide vehicles are often too big for city builds and road plates (both old and new) and they make sets unnecessary expensive. I don't mind the occasional six stud wide specialty vehicle like 6484 but I strongly prefer most vehicles being four stud wide. The picture below is from my Lego city I had in the early 2000s and it illustrates the perfect size of four stud wide vehicles.

.....and it looks amazing! I love how you made that little dump truck and the small green flatbed truck there. The green flatbed truck kinda reminds me of one of those Mitsubishi Fuso trucks from the 90s. Love the Harry Potter reference on the silver office building there too. But yes, four stud wide is just better through and through. 

Edited December 25, 2024 by The Island Chronicles

[SpacePolice89]

3 hours ago, The Island Chronicles said:

.....and it looks amazing! I love how you made that little dump truck and the small green flatbed truck there. The green flatbed truck kinda reminds me of one of those Mitsubishi Fuso trucks from the 90s. Love the Harry Potter reference on the silver office building there too. But yes, four stud wide is just better through and through. 

Thanks! The green truck is from 4561 and the red one is from 4564.

[RenLUG - Central Florida]

20 hours ago, The Island Chronicles said:

I think I'm going to be one of the very few people here to have this opinion, but I miss the four stud wide systems they had for City vehicles as simpler looks were just better for the generic theme. Last time I saw a symblance of four stud wide vehicles was in 2023 with the motorcycle chase and family home. I know Lego may not bring this back to City as the former designer for Speed Champions has taken over the theme. But if the buildable road plates are still being manufactured, I would like them to at least consider bringing four stud wide vehicles back. City is a generic theme after all where simpler vehicles were just better all the way around. If kids wish to have well-designed cars, they can always give Speed Champions a peek or two. 

I'd love to see Lego introduce wider roads. Many of us build wider ones to accommodate the 6 wide cars.

[The Island Chronicles]

7 hours ago, RenLUG - Central Florida said:

I'd love to see Lego introduce wider roads. Many of us build wider ones to accommodate the 6 wide cars.

The road baseplates were wide enough too. 

[JesseNight]

I always had a love/hate thing with 4 studs wide vehicles (not that 6 wide was any better). It made no sense to me for only 1 person to fit in a car and I couldn't help being bugged by that, even as a young kid already.

[Trekkie99]

5 wide is the way.

[The Island Chronicles]

 

2 hours ago, Trekkie99 said:

5 wide is the way.

Hmmmm.......... 

Edited December 26, 2024 by The Island Chronicles

[Trekkie99]

11 hours ago, The Island Chronicles said:

 

Hmmmm.......... 

I definitely prefer 4 over 6 if I had to pick between the two, but 5 is perfect for scaling to a minifig.

[Kit Figsto]

On 12/21/2024 at 6:47 AM, SpacePolice89 said:

I grew up with late 80s and 90s Lego and prefer the style from that period but feel that around 2010 there was another "golden age". Junior ization was gone, we had Castle, Space, City and Pirates during that period and the sets looked like real Lego sets again, which 7213 is a great example of.

But some of them are very good like 60422. I think that there is not much innovation nowadays, most themes are licensed and Ninjago, Monkie Kid and Dreamzzz are too similar to exist at the same time. These three sets (all from 2024) are from those separate themes but look very very similar in every aspect: Ninjago: 71821, Dreamzzz: 71485, Monkie Kid: 80053. It is totally irresponsible to have three such themes concurrently and they should kill off Dreamzzz and Monkie Kid immediately

I do agree that the set designs were excellent during that 2007-2012-ish period, and I think it's interesting that now, stuff like City has a weird identity happening, where some of the sets are very reminiscent of either classic town with a modern aesthetic (like that harbor you linked), or the late 2000s City style of larger vehicles/buildings with a lot of detail, but some are much more <insert that tiresome argument>.  About half of the City line on shelves could probably be placed in with the City sets from 2011 without much issue, and the other half just seems completely different in both style and aesthetic.  

I somewhat disagree about the Ninjago/Monkie Kid/Dreamzzz point.  While those sets specifically are similar, I think Dreamzzz is pretty distinct otherwise, most of the vehicles and locations are purely fantasy - a narwhal hot air balloon, crocodile car, flying school bus, giant plush bunny, etc.  I've never been a huge Ninjago/Monkie Kid guy outside of a few sets, but it seems as if Monkie Kid is largely to appeal to the Chinese market (and evidently it does?), but I noticed Ninjago getting way more attention in the US in terms of marketing and shelf space in stores.

[MAB]

13 hours ago, Kit Figsto said:

... but I noticed Ninjago getting way more attention in the US in terms of marketing and shelf space in stores.

I'm not surprised at all. LEGO's unlicensed offering for kids now splits into essentially two to four themes depending on how you want to count. There are City and Friends for real life play (and i dont think these need too much advertising as it is obvious to kids and parents what these are), and the choice depends on whether the kid likes minifigs or dolls, and Ninjago for pretty much everything else based on story telling, mainly fantasy based and covering history to futuristic tech. Then there is Creator for kids that prefer bricks to figures. The shorter-lived  Dreamzzz, Hidden Side, NK, Chima, will come and go but near enough anything they offer looks a bit like Ninjago with different characters and colours because Ninjago covers everything.

[The Island Chronicles]

36 minutes ago, MAB said:

There are City and Friends for real life play

Another unpopular opinion; City space doesn't feel like real life play anymore. That was kinda unalived when martians were introduced. 

[Autumn]

4 hours ago, The Island Chronicles said:

Another unpopular opinion; City space doesn't feel like real life play anymore. That was kinda unalived when martians were introduced. 

Yeah, it's cool and all to see a bit of a more "classic space" approach, but City is supposed to be grounded in reality for people who want something a bit more normal and everyday. Would be better if they were separate themes.

[The Island Chronicles]

5 minutes ago, Autumn said:

Yeah, it's cool and all to see a bit of a more "classic space" approach, but City is supposed to be grounded in reality for people who want something a bit more normal and everyday. Would be better if they were separate themes.

A lot of stuff about City sets feels unrealistic, but I won't get into that topic as I have unintentionally started wars on this forum over that. However, if you were here during the early 2020s, you would've seen a few people around the Lego community whining about not bringing classic space back and this was simply Lego's way of shutting that side of the community up. So in a way.....I kinda understand why they brought martians. Also, this type of space doesn't seem to be based in the city like previous space waves, but rather......far out into the cosmos. 

[Aanchir]

5 hours ago, The Island Chronicles said:

A lot of stuff about City sets feels unrealistic, but I won't get into that topic as I have unintentionally started wars on this forum over that. However, if you were here during the early 2020s, you would've seen a few people around the Lego community whining about not bringing classic space back and this was simply Lego's way of shutting that side of the community up. So in a way.....I kinda understand why they brought martians. Also, this type of space doesn't seem to be based in the city like previous space waves, but rather......far out into the cosmos. 

Counterpoint: in the late 2000s/early 2010s I remember a number of complaints here on Eurobricks that themes like Mars Mission, Space Police 3, and Alien Conquest didn't feel like true Space themes — despite including features like space aliens and mysterious energy crystals — because they were too near-Earth or near-future compared to far future, deep space stuff that could conceivably represent an interstellar society entirely separate from our own.

Part of this was probably because back before Eurobricks had an "Action and Adventure Themes" subforum, discussion of themes with a roughly 20th/21st century setting like Adventurers and Agents took place in the Town subforum, regardless of whether they included sci-fi or fantasy elements. But even today, if the current City Space stuff WERE branded as its own theme, I could imagine similar complaints about aspects like the astronauts eating Earthling foods like sandwiches and pizza, watching Earthling sports broadcasts/recordings, cultivating Earthling plants, etc. — stuff that you would never see in an 80s or 90s Space set.

 

For my part, I think sets like these can work pretty well either as part of the City theme or as a theme of their own. After all, the earliest LEGO Space sets included lots of rockets, satellites, forklifts, rovers, launch structures, and gadgets that looked fairly similar to contemporary American or Soviet technology. It was a few years before even sci-fi staples like walkers/mechs and robots/droids started to show up in Space sets. And the cratered surfaces included with some of the sets could just as easily belong to Earth's moon as to some distant planet. So there's nothing about LEGO Space as a theme that strictly needs to be any more remote or more futuristic/high-tech than what we see in the current City Space sets, or even the NASA-inspired City Mars Expedition sets.

But also, it's also hardly unheard of for Town/City sets to deviate from strict modern-day realism if it means matching kids' imaginations more closely. Consider how City crooks wear prison stripes and domino masks almost as a rule, even when "on the lam", how some City Jungle Explorer sets have included giant carnivorous plants or ancient ruins full of dazzling treasure, or how the Arctic sets back in 2000 included meteorites containing frozen extraterrestrial creatures! Given that encounters with alien species are a situation many kids like to imagine as a possibility for real-world astronauts, including alien species in City and Friends space exploration sets (or even Creator ones like 31107) could be considered a similar sort of creative license.

Edited December 27, 2024 by Aanchir

[MAB]

7 hours ago, The Island Chronicles said:

A lot of stuff about City sets feels unrealistic, but I won't get into that topic as I have unintentionally started wars on this forum over that. However, if you were here during the early 2020s, you would've seen a few people around the Lego community whining about not bringing classic space back and this was simply Lego's way of shutting that side of the community up. So in a way.....I kinda understand why they brought martians. Also, this type of space doesn't seem to be based in the city like previous space waves, but rather......far out into the cosmos. 

City is very unrealistic but for tghe most part tends to have roots in real life. City trains and buses are completely unrealistic, they'd never make money with so few passengers, the way cops and robbers go at it with dynamite is not very realistic either. I imagine 2024's space sets were there because it was "space year" just like next year is "racing car year" and they try to make these special sets a little wackier than normal. I thought I read in a set description that the City space sets were supposedly set in the future.

[Lyichir]

To be honest I sort of understand why they went a little more speculative/sci-fi with the latest Space series... here in the U.S. at least, our current "era" of real space travel is not particularly exciting, with progress outsourced to private companies and frequently beset by delays, accidents, and other mishaps (not to mention non-space-related misconduct by the very vocal figureheads of those private spaceflight companies). So it maybe makes sense for Lego to go a little beyond near-future tech in the optimistic City theme, given that there's a not-insignificant chance of the real-world inspirations for that tech becoming a disappointment if not an outright disaster.

In any case, I'm certainly not complaining—this iteration of City Space is quickly becoming one of my favorite "space themes", and I hope the spaceship set next year bodes well for it to continue even further despite the "year of space" being over.

[The Island Chronicles]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

City trains and buses are completely unrealistic, they'd never make money with so few passengers, the way cops and robbers go at it with dynamite is not very realistic either

....and some of the fire trucks having water shooting pistols instead of ladders and hoses. Lol

Edited December 28, 2024 by The Island Chronicles

[Gorilla94]

I don't know how popular or unpupular my opinion is, but I prefer 8 Stud wide cars like the Mystery Maschine and Ecto-1

[Lyichir]

On 12/28/2024 at 3:14 AM, Gorilla94 said:

I don't know how popular or unpupular my opinion is, but I prefer 8 Stud wide cars like the Mystery Maschine and Ecto-1

8-stud is not a bad scale, especially when you want a reasonably scaled/detailed interior (which is a part of why TV/movie vehicles like those two opted for that sort of scale even before themes like Speed Champions did).

I feel like the disagreement about what scale is best for vehicles like this is a good highlight of how "fuzzy" the concept of minifigure scale is, since the scale that works for one set of priorities may not always be the best scale for all others, even with a common factor like minifigures. So in this case, for somebody who wants the most accuracy possible in vehicles the larger scale tends to be preferable, but for people who are on a budget or people who don't want their town layouts to have to grow proportionally, smaller vehicles might be preferable even if they're more of an abstraction of what real-world vehicles tend to look like.

[Gorilla94]

@Lyichir a very reasonable analysis

I guess, this is pretty much it. I allways work with the sentence "go hard or go home" in mind. I am aware I do not have money and space to build a whole city with the level of detail needed for me to enjoy it without thinking about neccessary imorovements. That's why I stick to small displays with like a vehicle and the characters, but those get tuned to the limit including custom printed parts and so on.

Edited December 30, 2024 by Gorilla94