grainy slopes

[anothergol]

Coming back to Lego after 20 years, I found it interesting to see what changed in the parts, for the good (lots of new useful parts, the old ones that got reworked, new brackets that are MORE than welcome & apparently changed the general design of Lego sets) and the bad (more visible molding holes, some low-quality hero factory parts, the disappearance of some key Technic parts, some joints too ratchetted for my taste).

But something that I don't understand: the grainy texture of slope parts. I can't imagine a use for that texture, surely it was just to give old (& I mean old even for me) roofs a texture.

But with the appearance of new smooth slopes & curves, why is it that those old parts still have the grainy texture? Worse, it looks like Lego can't do it properly anymore - they now generally have those fingerprint-like (?) marks on them (old Lego wouldn't have let this pass).

I don't know, I've always avoided those parts because I don't like the texture.

Worse, the 92946 version, which is more useful & didn't exist when I was a kid, has that texture too..

I also don't understand why Lego produces so many new parts for temporary appearance (minifig items mainly), while the Lego "system" could still use a massive lot of useful parts. Ok, I assume that temporary items don't need as many molds now renewing them, but still.. When I was a kid, 1x1 slopes didn't exist, and now they're in pretty much everything - lots of similar parts are still "needed" IMHO.

Even a basic stud invertor plate, I find it really weird that it still doesn't exist, 20 years later, while we still see those silly "compound" parts that don't seem to have any use (you know, like 60475, I can't imagine it having spared that much money, and it's not like it really makes it easier for kids either).

I like today's Lego, though. The minifig's look hasn't aged and is now a strong icon.

As Playmobil was part of my youth as well, I checked what it became as well, really surprised that it was still "big" (well, in Europe), even bigger than Lego in shops. But IMHO, Playmobil still has a strong "old german" feel to it, it doesn't have that international feel that Lego has.

I thought that videogames would have killed both Playmobil & Lego, well, looks like Lego embraced videogames, and that Playmobil survived for some reason.

Talking about videogames, while I hate the look (& not just the look) of Lego games & TV shows, I quite liked the movie, which was totally made for my generation (spot on, I must say, I grew up with Benny when he didn't have a name yet). Why can't Lego's TV shows look like, well, Lego?

Edited April 13, 2015 by anothergol

[antp]

It happened that they produce smooth slopes, but there were complains from what I remember.

And indeed, I am a part of those who like that texture on slopes: prevents from having shiny roofs reflecting light, that's more realistic.

[LEGO Historian]

Well LEGO sloped bricks were introduced in 1958 (in straight sizes)... and 1959 (in convex and concave types)... in red. And in 1960 blue was added to the sloped bricks "system".... as seen in this 1961 Retailer Glued Display model (as seen in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide)....

Although these parts are warped (since they were made of Cellulose Acetate, an unstable plastic, until 1962)... they show the "not smooth" sloped bricks that were available in a system of 13 different parts that worked nicely together. Now granted... the 1x1 "cheese slope" wasn't invented until modern times... but the 13 different slope types could build almost any house roof model.

Now granted.... in the 1970s and 1980s, as more colors of slopes became avaliable.... the level of coarseness on the slopes changed.... and some decades the slopes looked coarser than before.

But I think today the problem is not the texture of the slopes, the sloped bricks texture is pretty uniform, as compared to previous decades.... the bigger problem is getting enough of the different slopes you need for a construction... ALL IN THE SAME COLOR!!!

My biggest beef about LEGO today is the problem with the quality of the color... but also just as important.... getting a "system" together of parts in a single color to build what you want. Don't expect to find everything in a dark blue or a sand green or any number of colors.... that is very discouraging for builders today.

But in my opinion... nowhere is the worlds most popular construction toy more of a let-down... than in having a decent windows "system"! The 1956-87 classic LEGO winodws/doors gave you 9 different window elements that could function together to build just about anything imaginable. Today we are stuck depending on just a few colors for maybe 3 or 4 windows (1x2x2, 1x2x3 and 1x4x3)... and my biggest annoyance is using the back of headlight bricks as 1x1 windows.... like in the Ole Kirk Christiansen house.... what an abomination to have to revert to using parts for uses that they were never designed for!!

[anothergol]

It happened that they produce smooth slopes, but there were complains from what I remember.

really?

And indeed, I am a part of those who like that texture on slopes: prevents from having shiny roofs reflecting light, that's more realistic.

yeah, but the problem is when it's not a roof that you're building

..and even there, IMHO a roof built of such bricks looks pretty cheesy & uncreative, these days.

My biggest beef about LEGO today is the problem with the quality of the color... but also just as important.... getting a "system" together of parts in a single color to build what you want. Don't expect to find everything in a dark blue or a sand green or any number of colors.... that is very discouraging for builders today.

yeah but.. what's responsible for this is the huge number of different colors these days. But you named sand green, which is kinda a color that shouldn't even exist, in order to reduce the color count & have more chances to find parts of the right color.

Personally, my last little project needed lime parts, and I was really not expecting to find much in lime - yet the amount of parts available in lime really surprised me, considering I had never met any in the sets that I bought.

But yeah, some colors don't have much available.

[GallardoLU]

the issue with the smooth faced slopes was that they where more difficult to grip and remove from builds, depending on how they were connected of course. but there are now bricks far more annoying to remove than those (1x2x 2/3 round slopes can be a real pain) As for when building non-roof objects I tend to use other technics for smooth inclined surfaces (hinges and standard bricks, possibly with SNOTing)

[Vorkosigan]

..and even there, IMHO a roof built of such bricks looks pretty cheesy & uncreative, these days.

I gotta disagree on this point. Obviously there are a lot of good options for how to do a roof, but for some styles of building the oldschool slope style roof looks great. Also not everyone is into the excessively greebled look (not saying that all-non sloped options are like that though). Personally I think they should make a textured version of the cheese slope to fit in with the rest of the slopes.

I do agree in general that there are a lot of simple parts they could be making. As for colors, it would be great if introducing a new color required a core set of parts to released in that color. Even if they were only available from pick a brick online.

[alanyuppie]

I'd say grainy slopes is not suitable for stickers to be applied, hence they're deprecated?

[anothergol]

but there are now bricks far more annoying to remove than those (1x2x 2/3 round slopes can be a real pain)

true, but it's more because 11477's have a very strong stud grip (for some reason), but that's cool because those slopes allow for nice sturdy constructions. But yeah, when it's sturdy it's less easy to remove..

Still, I wouldn't change those 11477's, to me it's one of the best/major pieces there are.