Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[Peppermint_M]

11 hours ago, MuscoviteSandwich said:

Oh yeah totally...All the poor, poor, companies that shamelessly steal and profit off the MOCs from the AFOL community

Those are the bootleggers, who steal whatever they fancy. Not the legit competitor brands. Seeing as TLG shamelessly stole the original idea of the plastic brick with studs (only admitting it decades later while suing Tyco...), it is probably best to say that other brands these days keep LEGO on their toes. As neithan said, bluebrixx is absolutely fine and Zuru have also produced some fine quality products (also some not so great, but win/lose right?). Having more stuff out there is better than a monopoly. 

[MAB]

There has also been some trouble with bluebrixx. There were those three IDEAS 10K sets that had to be removed from the bricklink designer program because it was found that bluebrixx had already released them. LEGO's rules should have meant they could not be commercialised for three years after being advertised on the IDEAS site (and rejected), but the designer and bluebrixx obviously made a deal to create them without LEGO's knowledge and the submissions were then removed from the BDP once LEGO/ bricklink were informed.

[zoth33]

10 hours ago, MAB said:

So why don't you buy a complete set in one go? So many resellers do that now, often at or very little more than RRP.

The downside of identifying and picking the individual ones you want is that other people may also want those in multiples, and take the lot. Especially ones identified as going to be popular and good for resale. It seems to happen much more these days than it used to, from day 1. And this leaves a very unequal distribution and hence complaints.

How on earth are you going to get a whole set if they are in boxes it's just a crap shoot at that point.  And as far as the figs I'm looking for those are the ones I want why would I buy something I'm not going to use just to sit on it forever or wait till I find someone to trade with.  

[Lyichir]

5 hours ago, zoth33 said:

How on earth are you going to get a whole set if they are in boxes it's just a crap shoot at that point.  And as far as the figs I'm looking for those are the ones I want why would I buy something I'm not going to use just to sit on it forever or wait till I find someone to trade with.  

I think they were referring to ordering a complete set of figs on the aftermarket, by resellers who had already identified and sorted them.

Honestly for blind-bag sets that I've wanted to complete (most recently the latest series of Super Mario character packs), I've been ordering complete sets in that fashion for a while. Especially with a pandemic I really don't want to waste time loitering in stores to feel out the figures I'm missing, and the prices for a pre-sorted complete set of figs usually aren't that much more than buying them each individually would be. Add in the convenience of not having to feel for them yourself and or worrying about wasting time feeling for a fig that might already have been pulled from a picked-through box, and I'd definitely consider it to be worth it.

[zoth33]

3 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

I think they were referring to ordering a complete set of figs on the aftermarket, by resellers who had already identified and sorted them.

Honestly for blind-bag sets that I've wanted to complete (most recently the latest series of Super Mario character packs), I've been ordering complete sets in that fashion for a while. Especially with a pandemic I really don't want to waste time loitering in stores to feel out the figures I'm missing, and the prices for a pre-sorted complete set of figs usually aren't that much more than buying them each individually would be. Add in the convenience of not having to feel for them yourself and or worrying about wasting time feeling for a fig that might already have been pulled from a picked-through box, and I'd definitely consider it to be worth it.

You obviously didn't see the prices on the viking and the tournament knight.  Then your going to buy them on bricklink and pay out the butt on shipping no thanks.  This is going to be a mess.  I'd rather go get them myself it's just a preference.  I just don't see this working out how some people are saying it's going to.  The cheapest troll form series 24 in a decent quantity is 8 dollars.  The cheapest BF falconer is 9 with someone that has enought to buy from.  

[MAB]

15 hours ago, zoth33 said:

How on earth are you going to get a whole set if they are in boxes it's just a crap shoot at that point.  And as far as the figs I'm looking for those are the ones I want why would I buy something I'm not going to use just to sit on it forever or wait till I find someone to trade with.  

Now the cases contain a whole number of "sets" (complete series). So resellers buy whole boxes and sell three complete series. Quite a few collectors now buy complete cases, take out their set, and sell on the other two sets. Now they will have to open to check and will nto be able to sell individual sealed boxes.

9 hours ago, zoth33 said:

You obviously didn't see the prices on the viking and the tournament knight. 

Yes, those two in particular were bad. The Viking in the UK started off at about £15 when still on shelves, and quickly went to £20-25. No wonder the shelf boxes got cleared of them because they can be felt for. That type of thing did not happen a decade ago. There were always popular characters, and they always sold for a bit more. But it was still quite easy to buy them relatively cheaply on the secondary market when they were on the shelves. I remember paying £3-4 Roman Soldiers on ebay and BL when they were current. I was a little late in collecting Spartans, but even towards the end of their shelf life they were still only £5 or so including postage. This was when figures were £1.99 RRP, but could be had for ~£1.20-1.40. The profits were not so huge that it was worth spending time grabbing every popular figure from every box but that is what the market has evolved into. That is why I genuinely don't mind that LEGO are making these truly blind. There is still a simple way for AFOLs to buy a complete set, and LEGO have facilitated that market by having a whole number of series per box. And now there will be a genuine chance of getting a random figure when opening an individual box, rather than getting a "lower class" figure as the valuable ones have been removed. If putting them by tills to stop people opening them is required, I doubt that is that big a deal to anyone buying a couple at a time.

[Vindicare]

On 2/18/2023 at 10:43 AM, Killian said:

If Lego are determined to do CMF as boxes going forward, they should go back to having a unique barcode number for each character, then people who don't want to risk duplicates or unwanted figures are happy, but kids/casual buyers still get the surprise experience.

This is the best case scenario in my opinion, best of both worlds.

On 2/18/2023 at 12:56 PM, zoth33 said:

I'm sorry but not all of us can trade figs and I would rather just go pick up the ones I want.  I'm not sure about trading figs and whats the point if you can just get the ones you want without having to spend on shipping to someone you don't know and rely on the mail to get it right.  The boxes are going to hurt their sales in my opinion.  I'm not spending $5 on a fig I don't want.  The only trading option I have here is a bricks and minifg store and they rarely have the figs I'm looking for.  I'm just not buying this on hope alone.  

The only reason I own three of the Vidiyo ones is because I stumbled upon a full box & looked up the order of them. Boxes, unless marked, would be the end of me buying CMF’s unless I can manage to find a fresh box on the shelf. 

[zoth33]

15 hours ago, MAB said:

Now the cases contain a whole number of "sets" (complete series). So resellers buy whole boxes and sell three complete series. Quite a few collectors now buy complete cases, take out their set, and sell on the other two sets. Now they will have to open to check and will nto be able to sell individual sealed boxes.

Yes, those two in particular were bad. The Viking in the UK started off at about £15 when still on shelves, and quickly went to £20-25. No wonder the shelf boxes got cleared of them because they can be felt for. That type of thing did not happen a decade ago. There were always popular characters, and they always sold for a bit more. But it was still quite easy to buy them relatively cheaply on the secondary market when they were on the shelves. I remember paying £3-4 Roman Soldiers on ebay and BL when they were current. I was a little late in collecting Spartans, but even towards the end of their shelf life they were still only £5 or so including postage. This was when figures were £1.99 RRP, but could be had for ~£1.20-1.40. The profits were not so huge that it was worth spending time grabbing every popular figure from every box but that is what the market has evolved into. That is why I genuinely don't mind that LEGO are making these truly blind. There is still a simple way for AFOLs to buy a complete set, and LEGO have facilitated that market by having a whole number of series per box. And now there will be a genuine chance of getting a random figure when opening an individual box, rather than getting a "lower class" figure as the valuable ones have been removed. If putting them by tills to stop people opening them is required, I doubt that is that big a deal to anyone buying a couple at a time.

Where I am the Spartan was cleared out everytime everywhere I went.  The High demand figs were always gone first.   I only have one viking and my youngest has one and we have 8 of the tournament knights between the two of us .  The Elf fig was really hard to get also in the early series.  You had to be lucky and get a fresh box or when they restocked the blind bag section at Walmart or ToysRus when it was still open.  I understand your point but I really think this is going to backfire and sales will be down for CMF's once the boxes start.  I mean I've helped many kids and parents get the figs they were  looking for now that will be impossible and these parents aren't going to spend 5 or maybe 6 dollars on something their kid may or may not like.  Things are getting more and more expensive and eventually things like lego are going to feel the pinch as people will not buy things like this anymore.  Don't get me wrong I know lego is expensive and I do side jobs and save my money to get the sets I want but your main customer base is not going to keep shelling out money like this as eggs, meat, milk, toilet paper, paper towels, etc are getting out of hand and it's only going to get worse so my point is this will not be as profitable as it was in the past.   But I may be wrong and CMF still makes the same as it has been making but I just don't see this working.  

[MAB]

Yet people buying random boxes will actually have a better chance of getting the sought after ones than when they are in bags.

Many kids don't get whole sets, and are often happy with whatever they get when buying a one off. When my kids were younger and they got one each, both were happy so long as they each got one of the right gender (I have a boy and a girl). In that sense, I'm a bit surprised that they have never gone down the route of playmobil blind bags, and do a boy series and a girl series, marked so they get the 'right' ones.

[Alexandrina]

7 hours ago, zoth33 said:

The Elf fig was really hard to get also in the early series.

Maybe that's location-dependent? I know I've never encountered people hoarding the 'good' figures near me. I remember getting my elf in WHSmith when it was either the last or second-last figure in the box.

You say you only have eight of the tournament knights. I'm curious: did you buy those on the aftermarket, by feel, or by blindly buying and getting lucky? Because I would argue that people buying that many of desirable minifigures is part of the reason those figures are so hard for kids to get. If there's no way for people to know what figure they're getting, kids have the same chance of getting a good figure. Eight is by no means a small amount of tournament knights to have.

[MAB]

14 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

Maybe that's location-dependent? I know I've never encountered people hoarding the 'good' figures near me. I remember getting my elf in WHSmith when it was either the last or second-last figure in the box.

You say you only have eight of the tournament knights. I'm curious: did you buy those on the aftermarket, by feel, or by blindly buying and getting lucky? Because I would argue that people buying that many of desirable minifigures is part of the reason those figures are so hard for kids to get. If there's no way for people to know what figure they're getting, kids have the same chance of getting a good figure. Eight is by no means a small amount of tournament knights to have.

The issue stems from different people wanting different things from the product. Some people want one of every figure. Of those, some buy a whole set in one go whereas others believe they are buying random sets and hoping for a complete set. Some want to be able to buy a couple of random ones and not get duplicates. Some want to buy large quantities of one figure. 

I've been mainly in the latter camp (I used to collect them all, but also army build individuals.) I used to buy any Roman soldier I found when i was shoping, but I'd like to think I did it in an ethical way in that I didn't sweep every store every day checking for new boxes and remove all the valuable ones. Whereas now people are willing to pay large sums for popular figures while the series is current, I think this has led to the much more widespread scalping of them. If you can find just two popular figures in an hour, the profit made per hour is higher than a low paid job. It is no wonder the boxes are stripped clean of the popular figures now. I know some people go as far as asking sraff for more boxes to be brought out, and even hide existing boxes so more stock is brought out, so they can be cherry picked. I think the change was inevitable. 

Of course there were other things LEGO could have done. If they thought a character was going to be popular, put it in a set instead, or better still in a battle pack. The Viking, for example, stick three similar figures in a battle pack for £15 or in a bigger set. They could even repeat the same or similar figure or parts of a figure in CMF and regular sets (like the troubadour and falconer), which partially helps stop the army building fuelled scalping of the CMF.

 

 

[zoth33]

10 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

Maybe that's location-dependent? I know I've never encountered people hoarding the 'good' figures near me. I remember getting my elf in WHSmith when it was either the last or second-last figure in the box.

You say you only have eight of the tournament knights. I'm curious: did you buy those on the aftermarket, by feel, or by blindly buying and getting lucky? Because I would argue that people buying that many of desirable minifigures is part of the reason those figures are so hard for kids to get. If there's no way for people to know what figure they're getting, kids have the same chance of getting a good figure. Eight is by no means a small amount of tournament knights to have.

Did you not read what I wrote that the tournament knights were between me and my son.  And yes I got them by feel.  Also yes I'm saying where i am people buy up the figs they want and it's mainly the fantasy/castle/sci-fi ones by where I live and have been doing so since the CMF started.  

[LegendaryArticuno]

Ninjago is Lego's best original theme of all time (even better than Castle or Space).

Also one of the most consistent themes in pushing out a great balance of well designed sets, minifigs, and fun sets for play. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

This is the right place to rant, right? Not sure how unpopular my take is, but still

2023 is such a huge letdown. I was willing to give it the crown of “best year so far” based on what we knew at the beginning of the year, but after everything we learned in the last few days, I take it back.

It’s not a terrible year by any means, but it still sucks how much they dropped the ball here.

The good: 

• Rivendell
• Some of the HP sets
• The Disney 100 CMF series
• The three Indy sets we’re (maybe?!) getting

The bad:

• Cancellation of the other Indy set(s)
• The aggressively mediocre 2HY SW offerings
• The third(!) UCS X-Wing
• The lackluster 2HY Marvel stuff
• So many MCU characters they just skipped
• Too many buildable objects, it’s getting out of hand!
• Too many $500+ sets. Quality over quantity

The ugly:

• SW mechs. What were they thinking?!

And the unknown:

• The Mando and Ahsoka sets. Depends on the minifigs. Don’t have high hopes anymore
• NWH Statue of Liberty. They may still screw up the minifigs, who knows
• 2HY Disney 100, Jurassic Park, Mario, DC, and Minecraft sets

The unknowns will likely be added to the “good” list, but overall the scales are still favouring the “bad” side. Some stuff just weighs heavier

Edited February 22, 2023 by BrickBob Studpants

[MAB]

2 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

2023 is such a huge letdown. I was willing to give it the crown of “best year so far” based on what we knew at the beginning of the year, but after everything we learned in the last few days, I take it back.

It is an "appreciate what you already have" year!

 

[Scorcher43]

Mars Mission is a lot better than many people on this site give it credit, I would even argue it is one of the better space themes. Between its excellent vehicle designs, the impressive atmosphere and the excellent colour pallet, I think it well outshines the themes issues. Even the poor alien drone design is not without its merits when placed in the context of the Alien vehicle design philosophy. 

This isn't even mentioning the supporting material in the form of the themes broswer RTS and Lego Battles, which fleshed out the themes story and gave excellent context to the sets. Personally, I also like the conflict in a box formula, it offers more far more options for play and allows for two unique faction philosophies to be contained in the single set. Those two philosophies are also excellent BTW. 

 

[danth]

14 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

SW mechs. What were they thinking?!

I'm actually looking forward to these. Mainly for the unbridled ridiculousness of it. I'm hoping R2 gets his own mech! Hell, how about a Jabba mech? The possibilities are hilarious!

Actually I was hoping we'd get legit Stormtrooper mechs in the sequel trilogy. Mech suits seem like an obvious thing the SW universe should have -- I mean there are robots, walkers, cyborgs -- how are actual mech suits not a thing?

Anyway I hope the SW mechs aren't lanky like the Marvel mechs. I'm hoping for something more squat and bulky. They'll probably use the new arm/leg pieces though, which might limit the possibilities.

[LegendaryArticuno]

Why can't we get a licensed theme where mechs actually make sense. Please Lego, Evangelion, Escaflowne, Gundam or even Pacific Rim.

Cheap mechs just screams lowest effort to maximize profit. It's when you don't want to pay your designers to spend the time needed to design something with quality.

[Peppermint_M]

Cheap Mechs look like an easy way to sell Minifigures without encroaching on whoever has the Action Figure license for the IP.

LEGO got into hot water back in the beginning (Yellow Star Wars figs era) for selling "sets" that were just minifigures with a stand. Whichever manufacturer had the license to make Star Wars action figures were able to successfully argue that these were infringing their license and beyond TLG's license terms as a minifig or set of minifigs depicting Star Wars characters without any significant construction element were just Action Figures and TLG were not licensed to do that. 

If TLG can just slap a figure into a basic build then it is not just an action figure. I think this is why there is also no Star Wars CMF series, even if Marvel and DC have CMF series (though the Batman one was LEGO Batman Movie related). I think an argument can be made that it is a surprise blind bag collectable toy, so there might be hope for the future.

[BrickBob Studpants]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:12 AM, BrickBob Studpants said:

The unknowns will likely be added to the “good” list, but overall the scales are still favouring the “bad” side. Some stuff just weighs heavier

Yeah, the JP sets are definitely on the good side now

Currently, this is how I rank this year’s upcoming sets by levels of excitement:

1. Disney 100 
2. LOTR
3. Harry Potter
4. Jurassic Park
5. Minecraft
6. DC
7. Super Mario
8. Ideas
9. Indiana Jones
10. Marvel
11. Star Wars

My most unpopular picks are definitely the low placements of Indy and Star Wars, but both of them fully deserve it at this point  Marvel at #10 is probably a common placement after the recent reveals. When you think that Indy used to be my #1 and Star Wars #4 or #5… Oh well

Minecraft is also higher than on most people’s lists I assume, but they gave us a frog, a shulker, and the Warden, which are all excellent mobs that have been requested for a while. That’s more than can be said for themes like Marvel

The only changes I expect once we have more information or pictures is for…

• …Mario to rise one spot if the Zelda set gets released this year, or two even if minifig sets are coming!
• …Mario to drop one spot if none of the above happens, unless the D2C is something special, in which case it keeps its position
• …Marvel to rise if the unknown sets are good enough
• …SW to rise if we get at least a handful of minifigs on the level of the last few 2HY waves. #6 is still in reach, but then they have to deliver

[Killian]

On 2/21/2023 at 11:13 PM, LegendaryArticuno said:

Ninjago is Lego's best original theme of all time (even better than Castle or Space).

Also one of the most consistent themes in pushing out a great balance of well designed sets, minifigs, and fun sets for play. 

I have no interest in the Ninja, but their good selection of alternate facial expressions are useful for custom minifigs. Ninjago has awesome villain minifigs though. 

[Lyichir]

15 hours ago, LegendaryArticuno said:

Why can't we get a licensed theme where mechs actually make sense. Please Lego, Evangelion, Escaflowne, Gundam or even Pacific Rim.

Cheap mechs just screams lowest effort to maximize profit. It's when you don't want to pay your designers to spend the time needed to design something with quality.

Designers design "quality" mechs all the time (see: Ninjago and Monkie Kid). But the thing about cheap mechs is that they're, well, cheap. They're affordable, entry-level sets with a lot of play value. They aren't being churned out just because they're easier or cheaper to produce (they really aren't, no more so than any other set that size anyway), but because they're popular and kids like them.

[BrickG]

"What makes sense" isn't cool builds that wouldn't sell. Sorry anime fans, Evangelion isn't mainstream enough in most areas to "make sense". Gundam? Same thing. Yeah, Gundam is pretty big but not nearly as big in many regions. These, in no way, "make sense" though they'd be fun builds.

If there's going to be anime sets, it would be the ones that are a hit in places like the US too. I guess Dragon Ball is beyond it's prime but it could have had potential (might still... maaaybe). Same with random animes that have been hits outside of Asia like Naruto or whatever the heck is CURRENT (I'm massively outdated on anime).

 

Anyways...

 

BLIND BAGS ARE A FORM OF GAMBLING AND SHOULD NOT BE BLIND!

[MAB]

1 hour ago, BrickG said:

BLIND BAGS ARE A FORM OF GAMBLING AND SHOULD NOT BE BLIND!

Then they wouldn't be blind bags. They have to be blind to be blind bags.

If they are no longer blind bags, then they are no longer really a collectable series. If they identify / name them on the packaging, then completing a series would be much harder since it is even quicker and easier than having to feel for them to grab all the good ones as soon as a box is opened. So LEGO might as well just do away with them completely. Selling them as a complete series is rather boring, removes the 'collecting' aspect, and defeats the point of them being pocket money priced packs. Identifying individual characters means the less interesting ones will remain unsold and the interesting ones will only be available on the secondary market at high prices.

 

[Yperio_Bricks]

But it is already known long before release which figures will be the interesting ones that everyone wants to armybuild and/or put into mocs. And these are the "history" minifigures like the Falconer and Orc or the "nostalgia" minifigures like the astronaut. People want more Falconers and Orcs than the rest of the figures combined. So there is no need for blindbags when it is clear to everyone what will happen after release. Also the desirable figues should be produced in greater numbers than the rest