Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[Toastie]

On 10/10/2022 at 11:49 PM, Murdoch17 said:

Now onto your question

Thank you very much for the write-up!!! I am just on my own here, so I never get into such things.

Alan Parsons - or better the project ... oh yes. They were here in Germany as well - and I was there.

Back then, for me, it was "Eve" and "I Robot". My (much later ) wife had them as vinyls, and they made me shiver every time they were turning on the table ... later on I got my hands on the "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" -  at the same time, I found out that "Philosophy" was an electable in my high school counting a lot towards the degree - even as much as German language did ... guess what happened. Decades later, I found out that the "rules" of German language are actually fascinating - mostly because they appear to be as complex as quantum mechanics is . 

"The Turn of a Friendly Card" is my favorite album - well it really is a tie between The Tales, Edgar Alan Poe, and the friendly card(s). When you are roaming about in science and research, you won't believe how many folks are actually waiting for that turn or seem to be within the Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather system - but should just play it out straight, no turns, no cards, just hypotheses and experiments and computational approaches combined. But well, it is what it is ...

Thanks again for explaining to me the parting out mechanism!

All the best,
Thorsten     

[LegendaryArticuno]

On 8/22/2022 at 10:20 AM, LegendaryArticuno said:

Speaking more broadly and in a 'make-a-wish' style post, this is the direction I would like to see Lego move towards completely based on my 100% biased and probably unpopular opinion:

1. Expansion of the Marvel theme:

a) Carve out and consolidate Marvel buildable figures, 4+, juniors sets with their own allocated budget and design team

b) Maintain the MCU team - similar to the above, have a separate team focused on generic appeal, i.e. latest movies/shows. Not much change to the overall design philosophy, create quick sets catering to broadest appeal for both kids and adults, meaning mechs, vehicles and occasional buildings with varying quality. 

c) Create a new team dedicated to comic books with mature themes and higher end display sets - team will be focused on creating UCS quality sets, such as, Daily Bugle 1-2 times a year, while pushing out sets catering towards older audiences but at a lower/medium pricepoint, i.e. dioramas and the Benatar.

I take this back Lego Marvel team doesn't need an expansion, they need to clean house and get new creative design lead. What a directionless and uninspiring team just lazily pushing out poorly designed sets one after the other with no end in sight.

Buildable figures, all BP2 sets, BP bust, Hulkbuster, endless cheap and poorly designed mechs... there needs to be some quality standards.

[Ondra]

For me is weight of set better metrics than piece count.

Many times it choosed set which is beefier than set with more pieces.

[Ondra]

1 .) I see modular building as collectibles.

Around fifth modular building I realise they are just collectibles for many buyers without any ending.

I also never find them to be perfect lego building, from front facade maybe, but interiors and back side are barebones, they still making progress in this but there is room for more. I was always hesitant to spend price for one for just three sides of basic lego bricks. And where is any kind of museum!

 

2.) There is no point for paying for older Star Wats sets, when they are doing reissues and some UCS sets even get another version and its better. Im not minifig or printed bricks guy, so I do not bother.

 

3.) Lego pursuit of Adult market can badly backfired. Adults have many necessary spendings, my bet buying every week 300 euro set is none of it. They seriously had better market strategy back in days, when we get like 7 big sets in year and still reasonably prized not mention these sets always have life span around four years so there was plenty of room to decide which one buy. Now every niche idea have 300 euro behemoth at lovest with life span 2 years and I seriously lost all interest in these.

[MAB]

11 hours ago, Ondra said:

1 .) I see modular building as collectibles.

Around fifth modular building I realise they are just collectibles for many buyers without any ending.

 

It is the same with all LEGO sets. They are themed and packaged similarly within a theme to highlight their similarity and to indicate which sets go well with which other sets.

 

[Ondra]

I dont know if unpopular but here in my country is official lego shop total joke.

Full exaggerated czech price (He had special tax for lego here, I dont know) only one solution to deliver is DPD .

It takes me few second to go to other online shops, that sells around 95% of lego shop sets and they always fighting for customer so even exclusives are resumably priced there. Not mention they use wide variety of local deliver companies.

Yes they dont get strictly exclusives and these bigger than moon sets... But with czech price, even driving to Germany or especially Poland is better solution not to be robbed!

Total joke!

[Ondra]

Adult oriented sets, I mean these with 18+ needs to have printed bricks. These prices suggest premium quality experience and that mean printing for me.

There is no excuse to pay 80 euro for Darth Vader helmet and get 4 lousy stickers, which are crucial. At least that set works without them.

 

Luckily I pay for that helmet 40 euro, and I still feel robbed with these stickers. That set will be perfect with prints!

[HeyComeMerryDol]

Perhaps LEGO should be more about mixing everything up and creating weird things from nowhere, like as a child, instead of building once and displaying as a collectable.

[Toastie]

3 hours ago, HeyComeMerryDol said:

Perhaps LEGO should be more about mixing everything up and creating weird things from nowhere

Oh they should, I fully agree.

But: They play this song 24/7 over in Billund:

Best,
Thorsten

[MAB]

4 hours ago, HeyComeMerryDol said:

Perhaps LEGO should be more about mixing everything up and creating weird things from nowhere, like as a child, instead of building once and displaying as a collectable.

What is stopping you from doing that, if that is what you want to?

They have been running this series of adverts promoting doing that for 3 or 4 years now.

 

[Ondra]

Lego had great idea, when they are making more collectable sets with exposed studs.

Firstly It screams LEGO miles away, no doubt when somebody sees it they just know. When is set too clean, it kinda fall into uncanny valley for lego set.

Second, for me its throaway to my childhood lego sets, which showed studs proudly.

Third, for example Star Wars helmet can be used as mannequin head for playing, just stick some dots on it and it looks less sinister.

I love it!

Edited October 20, 2022 by Ondra

[Peppermint_M]

Checkit: certified Stud Lover. I like some MOCs to be smooth, but others need studs to be LEGO!

[Ondra]

Lego needs to disband division that have apps in charge.

 

I bought mars mission set, which can be only build with app. I bought this set as piece donor mostly, but when I want to check that  app guess what, my mobile phone is not compatible. 

My phone is bit older, but every crucial apps like government, bank any other popular apps can be used without problems and they run like charm.

But lego decided, its old for some app with videos. When somebody have same problems, guess they gifted they child with space parts donor.

 

Whats even worse, there is not even PDF backup on official lego webpage. When they cut mission sets, everything is lost

 

 

This shows, how crucial are paper instructions for lego and these missions set are just kinda mistake.

[TeriXeri]

2 hours ago, Ondra said:

Whats even worse, there is not even PDF backup on official lego webpage. When they cut mission sets, everything is lost

This shows, how crucial are paper instructions for lego and these missions set are just kinda mistake.

I think the set isn't a mistake, but lack of alternative way to build the base model without app instructions was a mistake.

Mission sets themselves are great value parts packs imo, one of the better value City sets in current times.

I mean, Hidden Side , Nexo, or Vidiyo could be build via paper instructions, never need app at all.

Mario doesn't come with paper instructions but still comes with PDF, so this choice of no PDF at all is weird for those City sets.

Edited October 22, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Ondra]

13 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

I think the set isn't a mistake, but lack of alternative way to build the base model without app instructions was a mistake.

Mission sets themselves are great value parts packs imo, one of the better value City sets in current times.

I mean, Hidden Side , Nexo, or Vidiyo could be build via paper instructions, never need app at all.

Mario doesn't come with paper instructions but still comes with PDF, so this choice of no PDF at all is weird for those City sets.

I agree with you that these sets are great parts packs but, three minifigs, many interesting parts and playing scenarios are something I wish I had as kid.

But no instructions with badly optimized app, is just bad. What will be better is just instructions for main build and minibuilds and just freebuild on top.

[LegendaryArticuno]

Lego advent calendars are a complete ripoff especially the licensed ones. You're paying a big premium for the specialized cardboard box that will end up in the recycling bin.

 

 

[Ondra]

47 minutes ago, LegendaryArticuno said:

Lego advent calendars are a complete ripoff especially the licensed ones. You're paying a big premium for the specialized cardboard box that will end up in the recycling bin.

 

 

Hey, at least its good Minifig pack without needing to buy excessive amount of sets for main characters.

Last year Avengers was great offender, even full set of infinity stones and gauntlet.
This year Harry Potter was probably best one for me. Voldemort, Sirius, Tonks, Neville and sword in one set! Perfect!

Well but other hand STAR WARS ones are just garbages, these figures are mostly in christmas jumpers and these microbuilds, are just always meh...

[MAB]

3 hours ago, Ondra said:

Well but other hand STAR WARS ones are just garbages, these figures are mostly in christmas jumpers and these microbuilds, are just always meh...

The simple solution is don't buy it. I like the Christmas jumper characters, and don't want normal designs that appear in regular sets in an advert calendar. It makes the advent calendars stand out as different to regular sets. 

Some of the mini builds are crap but some are reasonably decent, especially if you add them to microscale builds.

[MaximillianRebo]

15 hours ago, Ondra said:

Well but other hand STAR WARS ones are just garbages, these figures are mostly in christmas jumpers and these microbuilds, are just always meh...

Personally I like the seasonal figures - it's an ADVENT calendar so at least they are following the theme - and the micro builds are always interesting for how they make a recognisable ship/vehicle with so few pieces. The only thing I find meh are the weapon racks (not an unpopular opinion at all) and how one of the figs is something they obviously have surplus of and are trying to get rid of.

[AFOLguy1970]

I am withholding judgement on this year's Star Wars advent calendar, but last year definitely missed the mark for me.  One quarter of the entire box was weapons and weapons racks.  As soon as you got a minifigure missing its weapon, you knew the next couple of days would be shot (pun intended).  You only had two that were specialized for Christmas.  Mando had a scarf and Grogu had a Christmas sweater, but he was quite small to be the entire entry for his given day.  I think you had a couple of army builders, and that was pretty much it.  

[Ondra]

Im furiously hating, as lego starting to shape trains future as ten studs wide statues. Hogwarts express now Orient express...

Maybe its actually time to celebrating, but I had no intent to rebuild my diorama to fit these ten studs behemoths. Because they are totally out of scale to basic lego stuff.

 

They are so obsessed with bigger models, that they totally lost the plot!

[MAB]

43 minutes ago, Ondra said:

Im furiously hating, as lego starting to shape trains future as ten studs wide statues. Hogwarts express now Orient express...

Maybe its actually time to celebrating, but I had no intent to rebuild my diorama to fit these ten studs behemoths. Because they are totally out of scale to basic lego stuff.

 

They are so obsessed with bigger models, that they totally lost the plot!

From what I have seen, a lot of adults like the larger detailed designs and prefer them as static display pieces rather than as model trains to drive around a track. And adults that want model train sets tend to buy decent scale models rather than LEGO.

LEGO has never really hit the mark with model train enthusiasts. Of course, there are LEGO train enthusiasts and some of them make amazing MOCs but it seems to be an area LEGO doesn't want to be involved in.

[Ondra]

34 minutes ago, MAB said:

From what I have seen, a lot of adults like the larger detailed designs and prefer them as static display pieces rather than as model trains to drive around a track. And adults that want model train sets tend to buy decent scale models rather than LEGO.

LEGO has never really hit the mark with model train enthusiasts. Of course, there are LEGO train enthusiasts and some of them make amazing MOCs but it seems to be an area LEGO doesn't want to be involved in.

Hogwarts express is massive piece of lego model, I would kinda like to have one similar just for looks. But Hey, I dont have too much space to show whole train in one piece. Classic lego train, no problem. But this?

I have playmobil RCE express, and hey its smaller albeit its G gauge. And still can be put into curve to save room. Hogwarts express has static boogies and cannot be fit into classic train tracks...

Well whats good on the other hand finally, speed champions have sparring partner. In some review, somebody put James Bond SC Aston Martin DB5 next to HE and its match made in heaven.

 

Maybe if I found room, which is impossible I would really like to have Orient Express. I ever dreamed of ride in this train.

[Feuer Zug]

I think the opinion that the train carriages are getting fat (10-wide) is a popular one among the train crowd. For those buying sets to decorate a shelf who want the details, probably an unpopular one. I'm in the "fat" opinion category. I build my trains to 6 or 7-wide, both locomotives and rolling stock. If LEGO would release some wider radius options, then the fatter trains might not be so bad. Until then, yes, I have third party track to give me better geometry options, but still would like to see official options and power to make them work.

[Unbrickme]

the lego technic zetros was one of the best technic sets