Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[Classic_Spaceman]

Just now, danth said:

I called it trans neon yellow forever. I didn't know Lego considered it yellow! I guess we're not crazy then.

The official name is “Transparent Florescent Green”, but I can see why PAB filed it under yellow. 
 

[SpacePolice89]

57 minutes ago, danth said:

I called it trans neon yellow forever. I didn't know Lego considered it yellow! I guess we're not crazy then.

Here's a screenshot from pick a brick

[Yperio_Bricks]

5 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

Here's a screenshot from pick a brick

That picture made me curious. Just looked the lightsaber blade up at PAB online. Anyone has an idea why the piece exists as standard AND bestseller at the same time?

[SpacePolice89]

3 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

That picture made me curious. Just looked the lightsaber blade up at PAB online. Anyone has an idea why the piece exists as standard AND bestseller at the same time?

For some reason the same piece is available from both the warehouse in Billund as well as Poland. Maybe it used to be a bestseller and then got downgraded to standard and they still have stock left in Poland under the bestseller label? 

[TeriXeri]

8 hours ago, danth said:

I called it trans neon yellow forever. I didn't know Lego considered it yellow! I guess we're not crazy then.

Same here, as it made more sense , before transparent bright green lego even existed or was considered, calling it neon yellow goes all the way back to something like neon markers, which usually already come with a different type of green.

Edited May 16, 2024 by TeriXeri

[Lego Mike]

Over here, it seems that customers (I would assume mostly children, but I think I'm wrong) have found the boxes easier to sort through than the blind bags -- they've just been popping up the corners of the boxes and peeking inside. D'oh. But in response, some retailers have started putting packing tape around the boxes, which, if you don't remove the tape, renders the boxes unrecyclable. Also, I feel bad for the clerks who have to tape all those boxes up.

[Yperio_Bricks]

Everyone new that this would happen (ripped open boxes). Well, Lego obviously did not knew

[JesseNight]

Did not know or care?
In 2024 this just doesn't work anymore as a fun and social trading game between kids like it was once intended. People do anything to get what they want.
It's obviously a business model that still works.

[Ropefish]

4 hours ago, JesseNight said:

Did not know or care?
In 2024 this just doesn't work anymore as a fun and social trading game between kids like it was once intended. People do anything to get what they want.
It's obviously a business model that still works.

in the end lego makes money either way, the optimist in me says they will try working on a workaround for it... the pessimist says its working as intended, after all the scalpers sell on bricklink which lego has its grips in now.

[Space Coyote]

You know they did those Rock Raider fig boxes with the included figure printed on the box. Would Lego really lose that much money if people could just get what they want on purpose? Then again if there's one fig that becomes heavily wanted it'll be even tougher to find. You already see this now, it took me weeks to finally score my brown spaceman. So why not let everyone be on equal footing with this stuff.

[cosmic]

On 10/6/2022 at 10:05 AM, living_off_lego said:

Lego has a problem with diversity

to start this I would like to state that I am a Hispanic POC,

why does a head that represents me only come in overpriced sets?

why does lego only strive to put diversity in expensive sets?

why do realistic tan skin-toned heads only come in expensive history?

why do I have to buy either a $60 set or a $249.99 to represent myself in lego?

why do all of the expensive sets that lego puts out have diversity, except the ones on the cheaper side?

the only truly diverse lego set that contains someone close to my skin tone is namor in the black panther sets that came out on October 1st

the 3 big lego themes (marvel/harry potter)only contain tan skin tones when it's an unnamed character or their respective license trying their share at diversity (except Starwars because they're doing well) but that's still 1/3 

example: harry potter is FULL of non people of color the only named person of color is Kingsly, in one set, every single other set, only has unnamed background characters lego even saw this, and in the $500 ucs Hogwarts express, the only POC are unnamed background characters or course this isn't as much legos fault as it is jk Rowlings or the castings for the harry potter movies, but still, the only person of color that was relevant enough to be included is Kingsly.

marvel isn't as bad they have multiple named characters in their sets, namely America Chaves and namor, both tan people of color that are named, and included in relatively cheap sets! of course, namor is close to my skin tone but his cheek bones stand out a lot.

in conclusion, lego, make a diversity battle pack, for 20ish dollars and just put every Minifigure piece in the foosball table, in the battle pack, please.

 

I respect where you're coming from. Don't be shy to check pick a brick online for some of the head and torso pieces that would usually come in more expensive sets. It's an affordable way to build your own figures, and many of the flesh tone characters are available through this method!

I will say, in regards to the unlicensed figures being "neutral", many are "coded" to represent certain cultures. The Series 6 CMF Flamenco dancer is a clear nod to Spanish and possibly even Roma culture, the Series 24 Potter is African coded based off her head wrap, the BAM Chinese New Year figure is... well clearly Chinese. Not to mention the Series 7 and Series 21 Tribal Warriors are clear nods to Indigenous American tribes, the Series 11 Islander is a reference to Pacific Islanders, and so forth. They may not be perfect, but there are some options out there to choose from. Hopefully we see more culture nods moving forward. And don't forget to check pick a brick if you want to affordably obtain some of these flesh tone pieces.:)

[MAB]

16 hours ago, Space Coyote said:

You know they did those Rock Raider fig boxes with the included figure printed on the box. Would Lego really lose that much money if people could just get what they want on purpose? Then again if there's one fig that becomes heavily wanted it'll be even tougher to find. You already see this now, it took me weeks to finally score my brown spaceman. So why not let everyone be on equal footing with this stuff.

That is essentially what happened with series 1 and 2, with scanable barcodes. Spartans were very hard to find unless you got to a box first.

[Karalora]

The fact is that any tool regular collectors can use to find their desired figs more easily--barcodes, QR codes, raised-dot codes, hypersensitive postage scales, even feeling the bags--is a tool scalpers can use to ply their exploitative trade more efficiently. For some reason, this seems to be a tough pill for some AFOLs to swallow.

[Yperio_Bricks]

Spartans, Knights, Goat herders, Bat Lords, Orcs, Falconers - if only we knew beforehand which minifigures will see a hugh demand. Oh wait....

With so many AFOLs interested in (armybuild) minifigures nowadays, i feel we are at a point where the whole CMF 'system' is screwed. Regular battlepacks would be the way to go imo.

[JohnTPT17]

30 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

With so many AFOLs interested in (armybuild) minifigures nowadays, i feel we are at a point where the whole CMF 'system' is screwed. Regular battlepacks would be the way to go imo.

It really is bizarre that Lego seems to have gotten allergic to traditional Battle Packs over the pack decade (with a few random exceptions here and there). If anything, I would think those are fantastic "gateway" sets to getting into new themes. And if they wanted to test the waters/limits the releases, just keep the packs exclusive to lego.com and don't do full retail releases with them (which they kinda did with some of the Build a Minifig options, but that doesn't work for those of us who live far away from stores).

At worst, Lego could just go back to the old minifigure chessboard strategies, especially for something like Castle. 32 minifigs, even with repeats, if a great way to quickly fill out numbers. But, no, we have to play the Pick a Brick restock waiting game to maybe be able to get the figures...

[Black Falcon]

15 minutes ago, JohnTPT17 said:

It really is bizarre that Lego seems to have gotten allergic to traditional Battle Packs over the pack decade (with a few random exceptions here and there). If anything, I would think those are fantastic "gateway" sets to getting into new themes. And if they wanted to test the waters/limits the releases, just keep the packs exclusive to lego.com and don't do full retail releases with them (which they kinda did with some of the Build a Minifig options, but that doesn't work for those of us who live far away from stores).

I don´t think they are "allergic" to it, since it isn´t that long ago they did those for the Harry Potter theme. Aside from that I think they always only made them for people to be able to add more figures to other sets of a theme, and as they are not doing the classic themes like castle or pirates as themes anymore they are doing less traditional battlepacks.

 

15 minutes ago, JohnTPT17 said:

At worst, Lego could just go back to the old minifigure chessboard strategies, especially for something like Castle. 32 minifigs, even with repeats, if a great way to quickly fill out numbers. But, no, we have to play the Pick a Brick restock waiting game to maybe be able to get the figures...

Honestly, once the first waves of avaiability at pick a brick are over you can order them quite well, no need to play a waiting game you just need patience till resellers and army builders have their stocks filled with the first waves.

[JesseNight]

5 hours ago, Karalora said:

The fact is that any tool regular collectors can use to find their desired figs more easily--barcodes, QR codes, raised-dot codes, hypersensitive postage scales, even feeling the bags--is a tool scalpers can use to ply their exploitative trade more efficiently. For some reason, this seems to be a tough pill for some AFOLs to swallow.

Of course. Because someone who just collects Lego as a hobby and has limited hours a day to put into it (and possibly a limited budget) ends up paying insane prices for collectibles because of these people.
Of course it's smart what they do from a business point of view, but it keeps some collectibles always out of reach of people who collect for fun.

As for the discussion about diversity... I'm 100% for diversity but I think it's opened a big can of worms. This was never a discussion when all the heads were still yellow. And while I personally am a fan of skin toned minifigs, there's always going to be people out there who don't feel represented bc diversity is just too big an area to fully cover.

Edited May 18, 2024 by JesseNight

[Karalora]

11 minutes ago, JesseNight said:

Of course. Because someone who just collects Lego as a hobby and has limited hours a day to put into it (and possibly a limited budget) ends up paying insane prices for collectibles because of these people.
Of course it's smart what they do from a business point of view, but it keeps some collectibles always out of reach of people who collect for fun.

My point is that people will gripe about packaging changes that make it harder to find their desired figures but then in the next breath complain about scalpers snapping up all the good ones. My guys...you are operating using the same playbook.as them. At the extreme end, if LEGO stopped using any kind of blind packaging at all and just sold CMFs or battle packs or any other "just the figs" concept with complete transparency...the scalpers would still make a killing at everyone else's expense. It's just the nature of the beast when a retail product is in high demand.

The best way to defeat the scalpers is honestly more "blindness" in the process. Don't let buyers pick them off the shelves at all--keep them behind the counter and on the website, limit quantities, and have the employees do the picking. It would be frustrating for everyone, but more so for the scalpers because they're the ones trying to operate at scale.

[Space Coyote]

6 minutes ago, Karalora said:

My point is that people will gripe about packaging changes that make it harder to find their desired figures but then in the next breath complain about scalpers snapping up all the good ones. My guys...you are operating using the same playbook.as them. At the extreme end, if LEGO stopped using any kind of blind packaging at all and just sold CMFs or battle packs or any other "just the figs" concept with complete transparency...the scalpers would still make a killing at everyone else's expense. It's just the nature of the beast when a retail product is in high demand.

The best way to defeat the scalpers is honestly more "blindness" in the process. Don't let buyers pick them off the shelves at all--keep them behind the counter and on the website, limit quantities, and have the employees do the picking. It would be frustrating for everyone, but more so for the scalpers because they're the ones trying to operate at scale.

You're right. I would happily give up being able to scope cmfs and have them kept behind the counter if it meant more availability for everyone.

[DonQuixote]

I like stickers.....

[JesseNight]

40 minutes ago, Karalora said:

My point is that people will gripe about packaging changes that make it harder to find their desired figures but then in the next breath complain about scalpers snapping up all the good ones. My guys...you are operating using the same playbook.as them. At the extreme end, if LEGO stopped using any kind of blind packaging at all and just sold CMFs or battle packs or any other "just the figs" concept with complete transparency...the scalpers would still make a killing at everyone else's expense. It's just the nature of the beast when a retail product is in high demand.

The best way to defeat the scalpers is honestly more "blindness" in the process. Don't let buyers pick them off the shelves at all--keep them behind the counter and on the website, limit quantities, and have the employees do the picking. It would be frustrating for everyone, but more so for the scalpers because they're the ones trying to operate at scale.

I'm afraid more blindness would not solve it, and nothing really would when we assume people won't play it fair.
tore workers who happen to be collectors/scalpers would have the advantage, as well as family/friends of store workers. That's how life works, if you have connections you get in front of everybody else.

I'm against all the blindness. If there would be open minifig packs, I would gladly buy them and I would gladly pay Lego a bit more for it too when I know what I get.
Scalpers have nothing to earn in this case, except when it's limited edition and limited runs. That's where they benefit most in the end.

[MaximillianRebo]

4 hours ago, Karalora said:

My point is that people will gripe about packaging changes that make it harder to find their desired figures but then in the next breath complain about scalpers snapping up all the good ones. My guys...you are operating using the same playbook.as them. At the extreme end, if LEGO stopped using any kind of blind packaging at all and just sold CMFs or battle packs or any other "just the figs" concept with complete transparency...the scalpers would still make a killing at everyone else's expense. It's just the nature of the beast when a retail product is in high demand.

Reminds me of the 501st pack in 2020 - readily available through all normal channels but in Australia I never saw a single set on shelves for the entire length of its run. eBay, Bricklink, 3rd party Amazon though all had them though for double the price. So yeah, a standard commercially available set that was impossible to find because of incredibly high demand.

[Space Coyote]

3 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

I like stickers.....

You know I don't hate them either. It's kind of thrilling, you really only get one shot at application (maybe more than 1 if you're super careful) and when I nail it dead-center it's super satisfying.

[sporadic]

4 hours ago, Karalora said:

The best way to defeat the scalpers is honestly more "blindness" in the process. Don't let buyers pick them off the shelves at all--keep them behind the counter and on the website, limit quantities, and have the employees do the picking. It would be frustrating for everyone, but more so for the scalpers because they're the ones trying to operate at scale.

Nope, the best way to defeat scalpers is no blindness or artificial limitations at all.  The only thing scalpers trade on is rarity and difficulty of obtaining.  It's only when something is 'hot' and limited that profiteering occurs.  If the CMF collections weren't limited time and limited quantity and 'random', then scalpers would have nothing.  For a commonly available commodity, there is no scalping.  Only when there's a restriction, such as holidays (must have by Christmas!) or a set retires (there will be no more!) or there is a perceived scarcity (the run on toilet paper at the start of the pandemic) do the vultures swoop in to extract money from the situation.

Unfortunately, artificial limitation is the name of the game when it comes to 'collectibles'.  Collectors start because they love a thing, sure, but they keep collecting because having the thing that's rare and special makes them feel good.  Remove the rare and special, make it possible for everyone to get a complete set, and somehow the sheen wears off for a lot of collectors.

And the producer doesn't want that either.  They want to encourage the thrill of the chase, the pleasure of opening that loot box and finding the special whatzitz that makes a person buy 3x what they need to get the 1 they want.  They need that artificial limitation to make the product artificially more desirable than it would be if it was commonplace.

It's really easy to get rid of scalpers.  Just keep making the thing until supply equals demand.  Problem with that is, the product has ceased to be a 'collectible' at that point.  It's just another commodity.

[Black Falcon]

6 hours ago, sporadic said:

Nope, the best way to defeat scalpers is no blindness or artificial limitations at all.  The only thing scalpers trade on is rarity and difficulty of obtaining.  It's only when something is 'hot' and limited that profiteering occurs.  If the CMF collections weren't limited time and limited quantity and 'random', then scalpers would have nothing.  For a commonly available commodity, there is no scalping.  Only when there's a restriction, such as holidays (must have by Christmas!) or a set retires (there will be no more!) or there is a perceived scarcity (the run on toilet paper at the start of the pandemic) do the vultures swoop in to extract money from the situation.

That wouldn´t solve the problem. They will always be timelimited, as every Lego-Set is - sure a longer run would make them better avaiable but in the end it wouldn´t solve anything. Neither would "no blindness". High demand minifigures will always be the first that are gone. If you can see what is inside it would just make more people able to get what they want, as not everyone knows about the codes or is going to use them. But at the same time there would also be more people that would be picking the more favourable figures and would IMO increase the problem as you would still need luck to get there when they are placed - else the best will be always gone.

Now you are planning to increase the time to solve this, but for how long are you planning to have them on the shelves to reach that? With people collecting several and in some cases hundrets of a figure for Army building, it would take a very long time to reach that point. And we shouldn´t forget that the other figures would still be sitting on the shelves so which retailer would order more boxes, to sell 1-3 favourable figures and sit on a mass of the rest?

So IMO, the main "problem" is that there are more and less demanded minifigures, which you always will have. So to solve it you would need more figures produced of the high demand ones. and less of the others.

That beeing said, the equal distribution isn´t a bad thing on one side, especially for those wanting a complete series and oder them to share the minifigures. And of course they won´t change it. So to solve the issue IMO they would have to either sell them through Pick a Brick. Or let people preorder them so they can produce the demanded figures. Both won´t happen either of course, but that really is the only way I would see how you could get Army-builders and resellers out of the Shops.