Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[Lion King]

It looks like licensed themes are tipping off 50:50 ratio - Fornie, Wednesday, and Wicked will join the shelves later this week. 

Of course, we are waiting for Modular Building, Winter Village, and a few unlicensed sets to be revealed. But I still think it’s not 50:50 ratio myself. 

[Lion King]

I like molded creatures like dinosaurs from Jurassic World, animals from City and CMF, magical creatures from Harry Potter (minus Ukrainian Ironbelly and Hungarian Horntail).  I’m not really into buildable creatures like Ninjago drago and Harry Potter dragons. I wish Lego would do some molded, mid-sized dragons for old time’s sake. I don’t care if they only produce new molded parts like heads and wings, I prefer the whole molded dragon like Queztacoatlus from JW.  It’s my unpopular opinion for sure. 

[Murdoch17]

57 minutes ago, Lion King said:

I like molded creatures like dinosaurs from Jurassic World, animals from City and CMF, magical creatures from Harry Potter (minus Ukrainian Ironbelly and Hungarian Horntail).  I’m not really into buildable creatures like Ninjago drago and Harry Potter dragons. I wish Lego would do some molded, mid-sized dragons for old time’s sake. I don’t care if they only produce new molded parts like heads and wings, I prefer the whole molded dragon like Queztacoatlus from JW.  It’s my unpopular opinion for sure. 

I'll take that a step further: I want to see the 1990's dragon and / or the classic dinosaurs (from the Adventurers - Dino Island wave) return! They had a classic Lego feel, and are timeless. Also, according to the book "The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks", the dragon was originally supposed to be able to shoot water from it's mouth, but they forgot to mold a hole in it's mouth for the water to come out! (This is why the underside has a hole as well) Now, imagine if after over 30 years, they were able to correct this mistake!

Edited August 5, 2024 by Murdoch17

[DonQuixote]

5 hours ago, Lion King said:

I like molded creatures like dinosaurs from Jurassic World, animals from City and CMF, magical creatures from Harry Potter (minus Ukrainian Ironbelly and Hungarian Horntail).  I’m not really into buildable creatures like Ninjago drago and Harry Potter dragons. I wish Lego would do some molded, mid-sized dragons for old time’s sake. I don’t care if they only produce new molded parts like heads and wings, I prefer the whole molded dragon like Queztacoatlus from JW.  It’s my unpopular opinion for sure. 

I like molded dinosaurs too. I replaced the brick build T-Rex from T-Rex escape with a molded one . The diorama looks so much better now.

[MaximillianRebo]

6 hours ago, Lion King said:

I like molded creatures like dinosaurs from Jurassic World, animals from City and CMF, magical creatures from Harry Potter (minus Ukrainian Ironbelly and Hungarian Horntail).  I’m not really into buildable creatures like Ninjago drago and Harry Potter dragons. I wish Lego would do some molded, mid-sized dragons for old time’s sake. I don’t care if they only produce new molded parts like heads and wings, I prefer the whole molded dragon like Queztacoatlus from JW.  It’s my unpopular opinion for sure. 

I'd be interested to know where the numbers fall on moulded vs brick built. At least on the Star Wars forum there seems to be a strong preference for moulded creatures - no idea about HP or JW. Personally I'm a fan of brick built creatures because the medium we're working with is Lego, although I do make exceptions for anything smaller than minfigs eg. dogs, cats, goats etc.

[Black Falcon]

11 hours ago, MaximillianRebo said:

I'd be interested to know where the numbers fall on moulded vs brick built. At least on the Star Wars forum there seems to be a strong preference for moulded creatures - no idea about HP or JW. Personally I'm a fan of brick built creatures because the medium we're working with is Lego, although I do make exceptions for anything smaller than minfigs eg. dogs, cats, goats etc.

Especially for Jurassic Park/World I think the majority tends towards moulded ones - I can see why they made the one from the Diorama Brickbuilt but overall I do prefer the mouded ones - and same does go kinda generally, though it might also depend on the size - and of course how well it is done. If we are looking back at the fantasy Era for instance, they had really great dragons and the same goes for smaug from the Hobbit. On the other side we do have the Ninjago Dragons, and they have a certain size where they work well beeing brickbuilt, but also use moulded parts, like for the head - and other example for that would be fluffy from HP, but that one looks really bad to me and should have become a moulded figure, instead of just a headmould.

Anyways, that beeing said, I am not sure if it really is an unpopluar opinion.

 

[Karalora]

I like them to be built enough to be poseable, but I find a bit of an uncanny valley effect when there's a scene with minifigures and "animals" that look about as animate as a mailbox.

[Stereo]

I have nostalgia for the horse and dragon from the 1990s, zero interest in anything modern, it just doesn't look like Lego to me.  Though the smallest brick-built animal I can think of, that I actually like, is the shark in the Creator Pirate Ship.  Smaller than that, like various birds, it's neat that they try but it isn't selling it for me.

 

I also think it's neat that the dragon shared subparts with the crocodile at the time.

Edited August 6, 2024 by Stereo

[DonQuixote]

Unpopular opinion : I think Lego is cheap 

[Yperio_Bricks]

10 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

Unpopular opinion : I think Lego is cheap 

I think Lego must be super bad at what they are doing (producing plastic toys) because it is so expensive (compared to all the other companies)

If you want to create a economy of scale chart for Lego you need a big bump on the right side for "inexplicable" costs

[Lion King]

Yeah when I saw Great Eagle and cave troll from Lord of the Rings and alien speices from Star Wars in 2010s, I thought they looked great than brickbuilt verisions (not for LOTR yet). But I agree that Fantasy Era has great molded creatures.  They would look great next to minifigures and other smaller molded creatures (fantasy, prehistoric, extraterristal and/or nomral ones). 

So I’m waiting for mid-sized dragon (the size of Queztacoatlus from Jurassic World)…

[MAB]

3 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I think Lego must be super bad at what they are doing (producing plastic toys) because it is so expensive (compared to all the other companies)

If you want to create a economy of scale chart for Lego you need a big bump on the right side for "inexplicable" costs

I'd interpret it the other way, they are doing what they do very well. 10-15 years ago, it was easy to get 30% off most sets aside from relatively few exclusive sets, and discounts of 50% were not unheard of as sets were clearanced. They have since put prices up, and now more people are willing to pay high prices and heavy discounts are rare. 

[Yperio_Bricks]

Haha yeah, I once read in an article that Lego is as profitable as a luxury brand. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Lego...

Here's another unpopular opinion or dream of mine. A coordinated world-wide Lego boycott for half a year. So they have enough time to think about the prices for plastic toys.

Yep, it's true, i love the bricks but have quite the opposite feelings for the company

[Toastie]

57 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I once read in an article that Lego is as profitable as a luxury brand.

That may be true. But I guess they meant: TLG is a luxury brand, which is extremely profitable.

And, as it is with all profitable luxury brands: Their customers have enough money to buy what they offer because ... it is luxury stuff.

Wait, where the heck is my Rolex watch? I mean, these are atomic clocks, so I have heard. Atomic is per definition expensive.

Well, I just call it a successful strategy, in a rich women's and men's and everybody else's world

Best,
Thorsten 

[DonQuixote]

5 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Haha yeah, I once read in an article that Lego is as profitable as a luxury brand. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Lego...

Here's another unpopular opinion or dream of mine. A coordinated world-wide Lego boycott for half a year. So they have enough time to think about the prices for plastic toys.

Yep, it's true, i love the bricks but have quite the opposite feelings for the company

Do what I do : buy alternative building bricks. They are not bad anymore. Some of them are pretty close to Lego quality and some brands have more and better prints. I also buy Lego because of great designs and cool minifigs but I am not brand loyal. If it's too expensive, I wait for a sale or I don't buy it at all. Some brands have their own minifigs who look completely different than Lego minifigs. And yes ,that's legal. But they are butt ugly. Most people who visit my home can't see the difference between Lego sets and other brands bricks. They are all displayed together in my brick room(Lego and other brick sets) And I populate my alternative brick sets with Lego minifigs so it's even harder to tell what is Lego and what not.

[Classic_Spaceman]

On 8/5/2024 at 5:42 PM, Murdoch17 said:

Also, according to the book "The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks", the dragon was originally supposed to be able to shoot water from it's mouth, but they forgot to mold a hole in it's mouth for the water to come out! (This is why the underside has a hole as well) 

I am not sure what you are referring to - The classic dragon can shoot any colour of (old mould) flame elements, as it has a connection hole on the bottom jaw. 
 

[Lyichir]

32 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

I am not sure what you are referring to - The classic dragon can shoot any colour of (old mould) flame elements, as it has a connection hole on the bottom jaw. 
 

I believe it was meant to be able to shoot ACTUAL water, like a water gun or similar squirting toy.

Water features ultimately were not exactly a common feature for Lego sets, apart from floating boats and the occasional bath toys in themes like Duplo and Primo, so it's interesting to think of whether that would have been the case if the dragon mold had had such a feature and it had caught on.

[Classic_Spaceman]

2 hours ago, Lyichir said:

I believe it was meant to be able to shoot ACTUAL water, like a water gun or similar squirting toy.
 

Oh! That is an odd choice, and the first I have heard of it! Also, I shudder to think what would have become of all the cloth capes and flags from that era!! 😬
 

[SpacePolice89]

On 8/7/2024 at 12:01 AM, Yperio_Bricks said:

Here's another unpopular opinion or dream of mine. A coordinated world-wide Lego boycott for half a year. So they have enough time to think about the prices for plastic toys.

That would only lead to CCP controlled companies taking over the market and Lego having to close factories in Europe. I know that the Lego Group has its faults (especially prices but I rather pay more for stuff made in Europe) but in general they are not that bad. They give a lot back to the community through the Lego Foundation that owns 25% of the company. They have also given millions of dollars to Ukraine to help kids and left the russian market because of the invasion. Meanwhile the CCP companies are busy supplying the russian market and many of the Chinese bricks are probably made under dubious conditions.

https://www.lego.com/en-mx/aboutus/news/2022/august/the-lego-foundation-donates-an-additional-us-13-6-million-to-support-ukrainian-children

[DonQuixote]

8 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

That would only lead to CCP controlled companies taking over the market and Lego having to close factories in Europe. I know that the Lego Group has its faults (especially prices but I rather pay more for stuff made in Europe) but in general they are not that bad. They give a lot back to the community through the Lego Foundation that owns 25% of the company. They have also given millions of dollars to Ukraine to help kids and left the russian market because of the invasion. Meanwhile the CCP companies are busy supplying the russian market and many of the Chinese bricks are probably made under dubious conditions.

https://www.lego.com/en-mx/aboutus/news/2022/august/the-lego-foundation-donates-an-additional-us-13-6-million-to-support-ukrainian-children

Yes, and it is true. But Lego is so expensive (especially with life prices going up) that kids of poor families cannot experience the creativity of building with bricks. And there fore alternative building bricks are good. And it would be sad if kids cannot experience this due to the high prices. All they do nowadays is swipe, swipe and swipe.... 

[Horation]

Solid points you make @SpacePolice89, and I know some users here will dismiss it, but those concerns about workers' rights are valid.  At least if you don't like Lego, buy from someone who makes their stuff in Canada (Mega Bloks) or Poland (Cobi), since I can guarantee you that those are close to Lego and of similar quality.

And @DonQuixote the whole "but if we don't buy fakes from China, the poor children won't have any toys" thing is silly, since there ARE toys that don't cost that much (and if you can afford some electronics, you can afford a few toys).

 

[DonQuixote]

22 minutes ago, Horation said:

Solid points you make @SpacePolice89, and I know some users here will dismiss it, but those concerns about workers' rights are valid.  At least if you don't like Lego, buy from someone who makes their stuff in Canada (Mega Bloks) or Poland (Cobi), since I can guarantee you that those are close to Lego and of similar quality.

And @DonQuixote the whole "but if we don't buy fakes from China, the poor children won't have any toys" thing is silly, since there ARE toys that don't cost that much (and if you can afford some electronics, you can afford a few toys).

 

Electronics are actually cheaper than Lego. Why? Because they are produced in China. Playstation is a Japanese brand but is manufactured in China. I worked for an American company for 12 years but than they decided to move the production to China. More and more stuff are made in China for big brands. Especially electronics. And often famous clothing brands produce their shoes and clothing, or at least the fabrics in Bangladesh and so on. That's globalism. You can't escape it. 

Edited August 8, 2024 by DonQuixote

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, DonQuixote said:

More and more stuff are made in China for big brands. Especially electronics.

Including some LEGO bricks, but for sure electronics!

But honestly, how many companies in the "western world" ^^ don't do mass production in China? Even at moderate unit numbers; people "think it out" in WW countries - and then - off to China. They have a) the technology and b) the price tag, we like. And yeah, believe it or not, in this game called capitalism, the Chinese actually look at what the WW world figures out. Another surprise: They can do that as well and make it better.

Oh: Yes, using them is fine. Just have it adonll done in the WW countries and see what the price tag becomes.

And then proceed to @DonQuixote concern about not so well "funded" families.

Best.
Thorsten

 

 

[Karalora]

Maybe someone (hey! We're someone!) should organize a charity that supplies genuine LEGO bricks to poor children. Got inventory on BL you're having trouble selling? Donate it!

[MAB]

On 8/6/2024 at 10:01 PM, Yperio_Bricks said:

Here's another unpopular opinion or dream of mine. A coordinated world-wide Lego boycott for half a year. So they have enough time to think about the prices for plastic toys.

Boycott of using LEGO or boycott of buying LEGO? Two very different things, even though each feeds the other.