Your opinions in design tendencies of late

[Xfing]

I've been observing recent Lego System and Technic sets, all the while buying for myself older Technic sets to observe trends in design.

In recent times we can observe an amalgamation of sorts of Lego System and Technic, mostly the older, studded variation. I remember someone posting some data which told us that the percentage of Technic pieces in System sets has grown significantly over the years from around 2-3% before to over 10% today. And today many sets, especially the larger ones, have started including studded Technic bricks quite liberally - either to be used on their own or even with pins and axles to form mechanisms. By contrast, studded Technic pieces in recent sets seem to be at an all time low - only used where they provide functionality that the studless beam doesn't (which is pretty seldom).

I've been watching some speed builds of large models on the BrickBuilder channel on Youtube, and I've noticed that Lego System and Technic are being amalgamated in very creative and satisfying ways in many sets - sometimes extending beyond even the studded Technic pieces naturally capable of combining with System pieces, and also featuring genuine studless mechanisms. We're therefore noticing an interesting tendency - old, studded Technic didn't actually die, it just slowly changed domains and got reincorporated into System, while studless Technic developed further away on its own.

Do you think a Model Team revival is headed our way, or at least a theme that tries to use System, Studded and Studless pieces more or less evenly? Do you think Lego will ever again go for a mixed approach with Technic, as it did in the years 2000-2005 (counting from 2000 as this was the year the actual studless axle was introduced)?

What do you think of this overall design direction? Are you happy with it?

Edited June 10, 2015 by Xfing

[JonnyRainbow]

Couldn't be more happy with it. It's opened up doors to more creative builds, both commercial and MOCs.

[Legocity2713]

I'm happy with it, that's the way i build all my mocs.

Ditto.

Couldn't be more happy with it. It's opened up doors to more creative builds, both commercial and MOCs.

Ditto again.

[Lyichir]

I love the recent sorts of designs, and many of my favorite themes (Exo-Force, Ninjago, Space Police, Power Miners, etc.) owe a lot to those sorts of designs. I think the next step in that design evolution should be greater integration with ball joint-based "constraction" building styles—I'd love to see the return of minifigure-scale Bionicle "playsets" that integrate the CCBS (Character and Creature Building System) with smaller, System-based structures.

[alanyuppie]

I love these new designs as well, it does break the mundaness on stacking one part on top of another. But my pet peeve is... the number of technic pins contributes to the final parts count ... and I have tons of such pins to begin with.