Aesthetics and sizes mean most?

[TakeaBrick]

As an AFOL, I must say I am more eager for the large sets that look aesthetically pleasing to me.

By that, I mean sets that are of certain size, have slick design and a great choice of colour and are nearly fully developed. A few play features would be nice but not necessary. I guess I am at a age at which sets are all about aesthetics and sizes. Thus, naturally, I am captivated by a lot of UCS sets instead of those smaller, kid-appealing sets. I enjoy every detail given by those great sets.

I just wonder if any AFOL here like me is all about aesthetics and sizes. Quality over quantity, that is the motto I kind of remind myself every time I am about to buy a set. I would rather buy a few yet quality sets instead of a lot of insignificant and cheap sets so as to make a holy and monumental temple instead of a chaotic and messy garage out of my collection.

To give you some examples, I own and am pround of 7784 Batmobile, 10226 Sopwith Camel, 70810 Metal Seacow and a few more others. I, for sure ,just like others, eye on 10179 Millennium Falcon as well. I even decide to sell the small sets which now look unattractive to me.

Please share your thoughts if you experience such a transformation as well.

[Lego Dino 500]

I think it's a natural evolution in the transition between KFOL to TFOL/AFOL. When we're younger, all we care about is size and play functions and imagination. We could give less of a crap the spaceship we made from a Creator/City car set looks like a color bomb exploded, we let our imagination guide play and we didn't care for further detail. As we age, we begin to build the talents and maturity required to fully realize our imagination (i.e., more access to bricks and better hand eye coordination) and we use it to advance our skills with Lego, school, jobs, and other hobbies. There's a reason a 7 year old can't build a P51 model kit and have it as good as an adult, and that's the reason. So ultimately it's because we learn to prioritize features and details and take advantage of our newfound talent and ability. I've had pretty much the same thing, I've gone from the playlets and vehicles and now I heavily focus on buildings, vehicles, and landscape and I make the most of my collection.

[Aanchir]

It's hard not to care about aesthetics, but to be honest I kind of care less about size than I used to as a kid. That's not to say I don't love huge sets, but I'm less likely to love or want a set just because it's huge than when I was a kid. And in fact, some of the sets I loved as a kid like 6195 Neptune Discovery Lab appeal to me a lot less now that I realize that their inflated sizes don't make up for their fairly simplistic designs. It's easy, as a kid, to get stuck in a "bigger is better" mindset, but sometimes creating something beautiful at a smaller and more manageable scale is an impressive feat in and of itself.

This year, one of the themes I've really enjoyed collecting is LEGO Ninjago. And truthfully, some of the sets I've enjoyed from that theme, like 70751 Temple of Airjitzu and 70738 Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty, are pretty huge sets! But another set that really stands out to me as an outstanding design is 70734 Master Wu Dragon. It's just a $40 set, but it uses all kinds of creative building techniques to create a unique-looking design.

Another of my favorite sets from this year is 70786 Gali - Master of Water from the LEGO Bionicle theme. This is just a $15 Toa set, and it's actually shorter than some of the old $10–13 Toa sets from 2006–2009. But her build, color scheme, functions, and proportions are much more appealing to me than any of those sets from that time period.

[AmperZand]

KFOLs are motivated by achievement (biggest, fastest, most guns, highest status), morality (right over wrong) and functionality (play features, articulation) while AFOLs are driven more by creativity and artistry (their own or an appreciation of others' including TLG's). TFOLs, as you might expect, are somewhere in-between.

A brilliantly designed LEGO mosaic of the Mona Lisa will be of greater interest to adults than kids. In contrast, a huge LEGO spaceship with loads of guns, working projectiles and hidden hatches flown by good-guy secret agents will appeal more to kids.

These are generalities of course and therefore not universally true, but they are based on observations of myself as a KFOL and AFOL, my young nephews, friends who are AFOLs and the wider AFOL community.