Things that changed Lego forever

[vexorian]

I really agree with the chrome change. Restricting it to collector items makes sense when you consider that the slightest usage of chrome pieces makes the chrome fall off. Becomes clear with chrome swords, just change the sword's owner periodically, and you'll see what happens to the handle...

[owl]

Hello

To offer something different, I think that changing technic models to a mostly stud less design was a huge change. The new models (I'm back into Lego after a good few years away) are so different to my old studded tech sets in looks and construction.

[SilentMode]

I have to agree unreservedly about the minifigures being a major game-changer: without them I don't think Lego would be existent today, let alone as popular.

Speaking of minifigures: one thing I would add is the way minifigures have been sold. With a few exceptions, and even excluding BrickLink, we don't have to buy a specific model or set just to get hold of figures. Although we don't have as many packs of minifigures as there used to be (I fondly remember getting the space pack, with the Ice Planet/Spyrius/Unitron figures), there's the build a minifigure thing in the Lego shops, as well as this new collectible minifigures thing.

(While people have mentioned fleshies, I've looked and there doesn't seem to be a brown female head.)

[Arigomi]

Hello

To offer something different, I think that changing technic models to a mostly stud less design was a huge change. The new models (I'm back into Lego after a good few years away) are so different to my old studded tech sets in looks and construction.

I was also surprised when I came out of my dark ages this year. The Technic beams completely changed Technic on a fundamental level. A lot of functionality found today wouldn't be possible with the classic Technic bricks because of their weight and dimensions. The curved styling elements in Technic sets were also foreign to me.

One trend that I've noticed in current set design is the heavy use of clip+bar constructions to create hinges. I'm surprised by how often it is used.

For the future, I suspect that TLG is working on finding a way to redesign the headlight brick. A versatile piece that has a long history of use, headlight bricks are unfortunately prone to cracking because they have points of structural weakness. Many sets now prefer to use the sturdier 1x1 brick with stud on the side wherever possible.

[Ravenclaw2010]

I think that Toy Story changed LEGO for the worse. I think that the figures from Toy Story sets can hardly be called LEGO, because of all the new parts. Take Woody for example. He has longer limbs than normal figs, a nose, ears and his hat can't come off. And the Dinosaur(I don't know it's name) is just like a toy a child would buy on it's own, as you don't even build it.

(I may have made a few mistakes, as I don't own any of the TS sets. Please correct me if I'm wrong about anything.)

[prateek]

I think that Toy Story changed LEGO for the worse. I think that the figures from Toy Story sets can hardly be called LEGO, because of all the new parts. Take Woody for example. He has longer limbs than normal figs, a nose, ears and his hat can't come off. And the Dinosaur(I don't know it's name) is just like a toy a child would buy on it's own, as you don't even build it.

(I may have made a few mistakes, as I don't own any of the TS sets. Please correct me if I'm wrong about anything.)

But that was only for one theme, so I don't see how it would affect Lego now on in.

[Brickdoctor]

But that was only for one theme, so I don't see how it would affect Lego now on in.

And it's not as if those proportions hadn't been used before. For the most part, I think Toy Story is a successful theme. If you're going to complain about the bigger minifigs, blame Jack Stone.

[vexorian]

I don't mean to hijack this thread (so please don't rant), but what if TLG swapped all yellow heads to a mix of nougats, to correspond better to the world's diversity of skin tone?

The whole point of yellow skin is to make minifigs race less and not be alike any of the normal skin tones not to give a bias.

If LEGO switched to fleshies in all themes I would just stop buying any set with minifigs. I already avoid any set that contains fleshies not to increase their sales. For licensed sets I guess it kinda makes sense to have fleshies (it does not stop me from avoiding those sets like the plague though), but for normal themes, forcing a race into them would just make everything worse and kind of make LEGO figs less universal and appealing and it would suck.

As for all the race-less colors you could pick, I think yellow is by far the best. Compare with cobi's gray minifigs and it is pretty clear why yellow is superior. I think orange would be too close to human skin and the other tones are either too dark or too pale. Yellow is great.

[Aanchir]

(While people have mentioned fleshies, I've looked and there doesn't seem to be a brown female head.)

I know. It's a problem I, too, have observed. But given the licenses LEGO has done, I can't think of an obvious remedy. Perhaps the problem is that real life needs a wider range of races for lead females in family-friendly adventure movies?

I think that Toy Story changed LEGO for the worse. I think that the figures from Toy Story sets can hardly be called LEGO, because of all the new parts. Take Woody for example. He has longer limbs than normal figs, a nose, ears and his hat can't come off. And the Dinosaur(I don't know it's name) is just like a toy a child would buy on it's own, as you don't even build it.

(I may have made a few mistakes, as I don't own any of the TS sets. Please correct me if I'm wrong about anything.)

Nonsense. The Toy Story figs didn't change LEGO at all. None of the specialized parts from them have carried over to regular LEGO sets (even though IMO, the hardly-specialized-at-all arms and legs should definitely make appearances in other themes).

You could just as easily make those criticisms about Star Wars-- after all, Star Wars was the first theme to use specialized head pieces for non-human characters. Every criticism you made of the Woody fig also applies to the Yoda fig besides the new arms and the hat. Should Yoda have used a generic minifigure design with regular-sized legs, no nose, and no ears? Or how about Dobby? Again: nose, ears, specialized leg piece.

Also, Rex (the dinosaur) is no less complex than most LEGO animals (cats, horses, dogs, etc). The only difference is that, like Yoda, he's sculpted to look like a particular character rather than a generic tyrannosaurus rex. The same charge could be made against the troll from the Harry Potter sets or the Wampa from the Star Wars sets, but nobody claims that either of these changed LEGO for the worse-- they were small decisions without any lasting impact whatsoever.

Real change, I would argue did come from the Star Wars theme because it changed what we thought of minifigures. Star Wars, as the original licensed theme, introduced specialized minifigure heads for species that looked sufficiently "alien", the first height variance in minifigures (besides that small variance created by shoulder accessories), and the first molds that were specific to a single non-LEGO brand (while nobody would argue the lightsaber mold is useless outside of Star Wars, some would certainly make that charge against the Kaadu mold or Jar-Jar Binks head mold). Did they change LEGO for the better, or for the worse? That's a matter of opinion-- some may feel it was a bad move in the first place, others might have no qualms about it, and as has been seen in this very topic, some feel it was OK at the time but can be taken a stage too far.

[LegoDad42]

I think Lego is perfect the way it is now, but hypothetically, what changes are left to make that can improve the toy but make everything before it incompatible in some way?

I think we'll see in the near future from LEGO are bricks with electronic chips that will have a wide range of possibilities when each one is snapped to one another. Music, sound f/x...even bricks with small screens to show animated images and when building, can form a larger digital image. I'd say to start, bricks the size of Duplo's and standard 2 x 4's.

[Nakara]

(While people have mentioned fleshies, I've looked and there doesn't seem to be a brown female head.)

Not to derail the thread or anything, but there is a brown smiley face head from that one Slave 1 set that could theoretically be used for a black female.

[SilentMode]

Not to derail the thread or anything, but there is a brown smiley face head from that one Slave 1 set that could theoretically be used for a black female.

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't see it.

[Solitary Dark]

For me the most significant event was the near collapse and restructure of the company in the early Noughties. I remember really loosing interest around that time because none of the sets appealed, everything seemed to be made of large, bulky parts with almost no re-usable value, and the themes were just un-inspiring. (Knights Kingdom jumps to mind!) Only Harry Potter and star Wars seemed to get any attention - Look at the trains then - Horrid!

My understanding is that the restructure led to a massive reduction in the brick palette, and the designers had their budgets controlled and curtailed. And it drove creativity,(My opinion), both in terms of the product design and the MOC community. I bought nothing but a few small star wars sets (for minifigures) until 2005, when my wife gave me a Clone Turbo Tank for my Birthday, simply because everything looked awful!

Now look at sets like Cafe Corner - Mostly standard brick palette parts and colours, being used in an incredible creative way. How would that set have looked 5 years earlier - I'd argue it never had a chance of being produced before the collapse, and it paved the way for Market Village, Emerald Knight, Grand Emporium, Diagon Alley, all of which were designed and are being bought for a different market that now exists.

[Zarkan]

One change I've noticed revolves particularly around the Town theme. Until the City rebrand in 2005, yearly waves of town sets generally involved a few big ticket items (ie. fire and police stations) and a bunch of other random sets. Once 2005 rolled around however and the entire line was rebooted, we immediately saw a much more organized apporach. Set waves were now arranged around specific subthemes, with the end result being a wider range of sets based around a similiar subject but less overall variety. Sets that didn't conform to the theme were often made store exclusives, or were incorporated into the overall marketing theme in some other way. An example of this latter practice is the summer wave of 2009, which featured a larger variety of subjects than average that were all labeled as "Traffic."

I'd say the most noticeable result of this change is the much larger influx of Fire and Police sets. Whereas in the days of classic town we usually got a police station or fire station every few years, plus one or two other vehicles, now we get a whole wave organized around one of those two subthemes. 2011 is proving to be the most blantant example of this, with no less than NINE sets based around the Police theme in some way. But in general, this principle applies to City as a whole.

[BrickArtist]

I have only skimmed this topic, but has the switch of trans bricks, representing windows from that real-looking(IMO) color, to the blue one they used now.

[user]

What about the invention of the lego brick, has nobody mentioned that? Before all lego was was just wooden pullstring ducks and stuff like that. I think that's probably the biggest change of all.

[Cinderbike]

I agree with the minifigures perhaps being one of the bigger changes.

I would add: the slow but continuous trend towards licensed themes (now with POTC actually displacing a non-licensed one).

Gray to Bley... I think this was more of an indication of TLG's cost cutting evolution, as are the so-called "inferior" Chinese parts.

I think the biggest change I've seen, and it's certainly a "for the better," is the complexity and advanced building techniques. For me it started with Medieval Market Village and the modular building sets.

It's true, Big Cam, that people might notice the difference between minifigures first, but show them a typical LEGO building from the 70s and compare it to, say, Green Grocer.

I came out of my dark ages this year, and was surprised to see much more complex sets than when I was a kid. The part count may be about the same, but the amount of detail in the sets is quite a bit higher, and I'm not just counting the AFOL-targeted sets. Just compare a car from the current City theme to a car from the 90's. Much more realistic.

And the reflection/pupils in the eyes, more detailed minifig face/torso printing, back and leg (and even arm, sometimes!) printing... there's just more detail now, I think.

[Kumpelkante]

I really agree with the chrome change. Restricting it to collector items makes sense when you consider that the slightest usage of chrome pieces makes the chrome fall off. Becomes clear with chrome swords, just change the sword's owner periodically, and you'll see what happens to the handle...

yep, thats another good reason for the change to pearl. Heck, i even have (well i threw it away the last time i sorted my collection) one of the first chrome swords from 1995 and the chrome did entirely peel off while i stored my lego in the cellar for about 10 or 12 years. The other advantage of pearl is, that pearl blends in better with the other colours Imho.

So for me there are two good reasons, why i prefer pearl gold/silver instead of chrome:

1. it blends in better with the other colours

2. it does not fall of like chrome.

[CP5670]

I came out of my dark ages this year, and was surprised to see much more complex sets than when I was a kid. The part count may be about the same, but the amount of detail in the sets is quite a bit higher, and I'm not just counting the AFOL-targeted sets. Just compare a car from the current City theme to a car from the 90's. Much more realistic.

Yes, I think TLG puts a lot more into the set designs than they used to. Most sets of the past had a conservative feel in their design that we see much less of today. Things like the modular buildings would have had no chance of being produced 10 years ago, but even the regular, non-AFOL targeted sets have higher piece counts and considerably more detail than their old counterparts did.

On the other hand, this has come at the expense of reduced brick quality, and it is clear that TLG's attitude towards that has changed over time. I think they have found that high quality set designs simply sell better than high quality parts. (in contrast, the early 2000s era of Town Jr. saw some of the worst sets but in many ways had the best parts ever)

I really agree with the chrome change. Restricting it to collector items makes sense when you consider that the slightest usage of chrome pieces makes the chrome fall off. Becomes clear with chrome swords, just change the sword's owner periodically, and you'll see what happens to the handle...

Some pieces seem much more sensitive to this than others. I have some 90s parts that have gotten some use but look perfect (such as Aquazone knives), and other parts (Model Team antennas) that have flaked off all over the place despite just sitting in a built model.

I don't like the pearl colors at all though. The metallic gold and silver they used for a while were a lot better.

[Erik Leppen]

Two little words:

Studless Technic

[Ravenclaw2010]

Nonsense. The Toy Story figs didn't change LEGO at all. None of the specialized parts from them have carried over to regular LEGO sets (even though IMO, the hardly-specialized-at-all arms and legs should definitely make appearances in other themes).

You could just as easily make those criticisms about Star Wars-- after all, Star Wars was the first theme to use specialized head pieces for non-human characters. Every criticism you made of the Woody fig also applies to the Yoda fig besides the new arms and the hat. Should Yoda have used a generic minifigure design with regular-sized legs, no nose, and no ears? Or how about Dobby? Again: nose, ears, specialized leg piece.

Also, Rex (the dinosaur) is no less complex than most LEGO animals (cats, horses, dogs, etc). The only difference is that, like Yoda, he's sculpted to look like a particular character rather than a generic tyrannosaurus rex. The same charge could be made against the troll from the Harry Potter sets or the Wampa from the Star Wars sets, but nobody claims that either of these changed LEGO for the worse-- they were small decisions without any lasting impact whatsoever.

Real change, I would argue did come from the Star Wars theme because it changed what we thought of minifigures. Star Wars, as the original licensed theme, introduced specialized minifigure heads for species that looked sufficiently "alien", the first height variance in minifigures (besides that small variance created by shoulder accessories), and the first molds that were specific to a single non-LEGO brand (while nobody would argue the lightsaber mold is useless outside of Star Wars, some would certainly make that charge against the Kaadu mold or Jar-Jar Binks head mold). Did they change LEGO for the better, or for the worse? That's a matter of opinion-- some may feel it was a bad move in the first place, others might have no qualms about it, and as has been seen in this very topic, some feel it was OK at the time but can be taken a stage too far.

Okay, okay, I was wrong about most of it. Although I still stand by what I said about the noses and ears on Woody and the rest of the TS gang, as they could have had a normal head, as they are meant to look like a human, and LEGO humans don't have ears and noses, where as Dobby and Yoda need to have them to look like the characters they're supposed to look like.

[Sirens-of-Titan]

The minifigure has become the centerpiece of sets today; hands down. In the 80's and early 90's it might have seemed they were there as generic bots to fill the human role, but now they have personality and charm. The move to a more story-driven production has made the figures literally fill archetypes and many collectors these days collect solely figures, something that's hard to do with old classic minifigs.

I would also say that the incorporation of inferior or what people call "Chinese" plastic has made quite a change in recent years. Lego used to be synonymous with the highest quality building toy, and with the lesser plastics have left people wondering things like; "what kind of plastic will this set include", and waiting for a go-ahead from a review before placing an order, as we have no indication as to which sets will, and which won't contain it.

[vexorian]

Some pieces seem much more sensitive to this than others. I have some 90s parts that have gotten some use but look perfect (such as Aquazone knives), and other parts (Model Team antennas) that have flaked off all over the place despite just sitting in a built model.

I don't like the pearl colors at all though. The metallic gold and silver they used for a while were a lot better.

Metallic is great, but it is fragile. Not as fragile as chrome but still. I really regret putting millenia's slizer head on warm water because it ruined the piece :(.

You could just as easily make those criticisms about Star Wars-- after all, Star Wars was the first theme to use specialized head pieces for non-human characters. Every criticism you made of the Woody fig also applies to the Yoda fig besides the new arms and the hat. Should Yoda have used a generic minifigure design with regular-sized legs, no nose, and no ears? Or how about Dobby? Again: nose, ears, specialized leg piece.

I have to mention something. Although I like the specialized heads in SP3 villains, I still prefer snake's design. Because it is just a minifig head with special printing and he is even still yellow. For that reason he is got far more compatibility with other minifigs than the other villains. For example, the torso can be used as a tatooed body for a city fig. And the head can use other hair and helmets

That's also one of the reasons I really, really hate megabloks figs. They aren't compatible with each other. A big source of fun recently for me is to use the minifig system to create new characters and it is very fun to swap accessories together. It is less fun with Kranx than with Snake because you can put a mime's hat on him...

So, I think that although some heads with different molds are fun once in a while, I hope they stay a very small minority.

Edited December 26, 2010 by vexorian

[Grrr]

The proliferation of stickers. It seems very few town sets now include specialist printed parts, and stickers simply don't last in the same way. I'd like to see a return to printed parts like the 1x4 Auto Service Bricks from 6670 which still look like new.

One other thing that changed Lego forever is the Internet. I believe one of the factors Lego did not expect in the late nineties and early two-thousands was the advent of eBay, Bricklink and the likes.

The internet provided a way to get older Lego easily and rapidly. A far cry from yard-sales and classified advertisements. In the early years, I remember paying more for freight than Lego purchased online, and spent nothing on new Lego for several years.

Lego has upped it's game and has convinced most of us to buy new sets...

[Kumpelkante]

The proliferation of stickers. It seems very few town sets now include specialist printed parts, and stickers simply don't last in the same way. I'd like to see a return to printed parts like the 1x4 Auto Service Bricks from 6670 which still look like new.

One other thing that changed Lego forever is the Internet. I believe one of the factors Lego did not expect in the late nineties and early two-thousands was the advent of eBay, Bricklink and the likes.

The internet provided a way to get older Lego easily and rapidly. A far cry from yard-sales and classified advertisements. In the early years, I remember paying more for freight than Lego purchased online, and spent nothing on new Lego for several years.

Lego has upped it's game and has convinced most of us to buy new sets...

Well i do not think that the increase in quality of set-design needs to be a result of the internet and its new possibilities to get older sets. The complexety of sets was very low in the late 90s and early 00s. I like many others thinks that it was part of an attempt to increase the mass appeal and compete with action toys by reducing the complexety and the building time (which still isnt very much today, but thats another topic). I think TLC upped its game because they concentrated more on its core product wich is the bricks and building in general.

About the DSS: every single thing has its advantages and disadvantages. as already mentioned, the prints last longer. ...if you treat the peaces well, there are some torsos from the late 80s, where the prints are torn of. With the DSS you can decide yourself, wether you apply the stickers or not. In most cases you can take them off later, but unfortunately i do not know how to "store" them if you want to reapply them again. But as it became commonplace in MOCing to build small details by bricks, stickers or prints are not needed that much anymore... except for figs, which are still printed.