Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[MAB]

50 minutes ago, Karalora said:

Can I just say that I despise the term "kidult?" What a miserable portmanteau that is, both aesthetically and in the implied judgment against what some people choose to do with their time and money.

So do I, and in fact I don't think many adults are "kidults" in the sense of being interested in stuff that is marketed towards children. Especially in terms of LEGO, many of the products adults are buying are now specifically marketed towards adults not children. LEGO may have traditionally aimed products at children but that doesn't mean that all their products are toys or for children.  An adult creating a MOC or following instructions to build a model using LEGO is no more a kid than an adult doing the same thing with Meccano, or scratch building, or creating art with felt tip pens. I also play a lot of board games, often aimed at 14+. Those are also typically grouped in with toys yet they are very different to kids playing a 15 minute game aimed at young kids. But then, video games often get classed as toys too even though some of them are 18+.

Edited February 2 by MAB

[JesseNight]

I'm no fan of portmanteaus in general, but I'm not offended by it either. We live in a time that adults who openly show having Lego collections are generally accepted, so I'll just wear the title with pride 
 

8 minutes ago, MAB said:

I also play a lot of board games, often aimed at 14+. Those are also typically grouped in with toys yet they are very different to kids playing a 15 minute game aimed at young kids. But then, video games often get classed as toys too even though some of them are 18+.

Nothing wrong with short board games. I love long ones but sometimes there just isn't time for it.
And don't worry about the age indication, we'll remain 14+ for life!

[MAB]

17 minutes ago, JesseNight said:

I'm no fan of portmanteaus in general, but I'm not offended by it either. We live in a time that adults who openly show having Lego collections are generally accepted, so I'll just wear the title with pride 
 

Nothing wrong with short board games. I love long ones but sometimes there just isn't time for it.
And don't worry about the age indication, we'll remain 14+ for life!

I agree, short games are fine. It was more the "aimed at young kids" part. A game of 'Love Letter' is very different to a game of 'Pop to the Shops'.

 

[The Reader]

10 hours ago, Mr Hobbles said:

Just to point out, in this context share of the market is in terms of revenue, not in terms of number of participants. It could be that only 1% of the audience is kidults and 99% are children, but the kidults are spending a lot more.th

I quoted the press release because I wasn't aware that one third of TLG's revenues comes from adults. TLG was a toy company but seemingly have changed their portfolio massively. I just didn't know to what extend ...

[JesseNight]

7 hours ago, The Reader said:

I quoted the press release because I wasn't aware that one third of TLG's revenues comes from adults. TLG was a toy company but seemingly have changed their portfolio massively. I just didn't know to what extend ...

A lot has changed in society too. 
Decades ago, parents would still join their children in play or help them build stuff, but wouldn't talk about it in any other context than a parent-child moment, while I am sure parents had fun doing that too. But even then, on expositions we'd see massive scale high detailed buildings in Lego which I'm sure weren't built by little kids.
Nowadays it's okay to publicly show it and talk about it and Lego would have been a fool if they hadn't played into that market because adult stuff is obviously aimed at much higher budgets.

[danth]

Licensed sets don't sell. Especially Star Wars. They're just not popular with kids.

You know how I know this? I was at Target this past weekend, and basically every 2025 Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter set was on sale. 

I guess kids just don't like those sets. Especially Star Wars.

 

 

(And anyone who's familiar with my post history knows I'm being facetious and poking fun of people who say some variation of "X sets must not sell because I saw them on sale once". I see those posts ALL THE TIME. And it's NEVER licensed sets they say this about, because they apparently have very "selective" vision).

[JesseNight]

Think that has more to do with the fact that these specific franchises have been milked dry (especially Star Wars and Harry Potter). A few improved versions of older sets is okay, but you can't keep people forever entertained re-releasing the same stuff over and over without new movies/series introducing new content to the franchise.

[Dolor]

Almost 4 hours of testing + talk ...

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Dolor said:

Almost 4 hours of testing + talk ...

I wonder what viewing figures are going to be like for that one. When he gives his opinion in the title, are people really going to watch for four hours just to find out he doesn't like them? Even if played at 2x speed, I could still watch a movie instead in that time. And I'd still know that he doesn't think much of the Smart Bricks.

[danth]

1 hour ago, Dolor said:

Almost 4 hours of testing + talk ...

Damn, they even lost DuckBricks? That's bad. Although he still bought 3 copies of each set...

[icm]

I watched maybe five minutes of that one and I skipped around to see a few angles on the sets I hadn't seen before. Duck is far too long-winded for me. I wonder how much of a "watch" that counts for in his monetization of the video?

[Dolor]

That is a great video BECAUSE Duck is testing those sets, models, figures. He might even like it... 

[Johnny1360]

TLG really cares about what I think, they must, every time I have any sort of interaction with them, they request I fill out a brief survey.

[JesseNight]

On 3/4/2026 at 5:30 PM, danth said:

Damn, they even lost DuckBricks? That's bad. Although he still bought 3 copies of each set...

Sweet irony, right? Money talks, and if people who publicly state not liking it already buy 3 of each... that's how nowadays many product failures still turn out to be financial successes.

[Yperio_Bricks]

On 3/6/2026 at 10:26 AM, JesseNight said:

 [..] if people who publicly state not liking it already buy 3 of each... [...]

That's actually what I hate most abot the Smart Brick. All those influencers and youtubers who buy the sets just to make content. They know beforehand the sets gonna suck. Why not keep your integrity and say "I am not going to support the Smart Brick and I won't buy any of the sets."?

On 3/6/2026 at 10:26 AM, JesseNight said:

Money talks

Yep, that's why.

[JesseNight]

25 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

That's actually what I hate most abot the Smart Brick. All those influencers and youtubers who buy the sets just to make content. They know beforehand the sets gonna suck. Why not keep your integrity and say "I am not going to support the Smart Brick and I won't buy any of the sets."?

Channel monetization, so they need to have something to show because people want to see actual products and not just a talking head for 10-20 minutes.
The answer there is again "money talks". And all those content creators and influencers (especially the bigger ones) are the main and cheap way for manufacturers to advertise their goods nowadays. Even if a review is negative, it still works to some extend.

[MAB]

5 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

That's actually what I hate most abot the Smart Brick. All those influencers and youtubers who buy the sets just to make content. They know beforehand the sets gonna suck. Why not keep your integrity and say "I am not going to support the Smart Brick and I won't buy any of the sets."?

Yep, that's why.

I don't agree with they way it is sold, with the smart brick in some sets and not other sets when they could have sold the sets without the smart brick and the smart brick separately. However I have heard from a couple of families with younger kids that these are a great hit with them. I doubt it is the game changer LEGO was making it out to be, but from what I have seen, they look quite fun. 

There is also the issue that when a few of the bigger influencers say they don't like something, everyone else seems to fall into line. I guess they fear mocking and nasty comments and people not subscribing if they dare say anything different. 

[Black Falcon]

7 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

That's actually what I hate most abot the Smart Brick. All those influencers and youtubers who buy the sets just to make content. They know beforehand the sets gonna suck. Why not keep your integrity and say "I am not going to support the Smart Brick and I won't buy any of the sets."?

Well that is pretty much what they do all the time though. And seriously, how would it help your intergrity if you just claim the smart brick is shit but you didn´t even test it. 

What I dislike most about the brick personally is that there are many people online that know that the brick is bad without even trying or knowing what it even does, based on some comments online. In the end, when we are looking at the critcs on Hidden Side and Vidiyo the smart brick actually gives parents what they wanted, that no smart device is needed to play. And in the end all the critism I´ve seen so far is basically from an adult point of view, so it still needs to be seen how kids will play with the brick in the long run.

1 hour ago, MAB said:

I don't agree with they way it is sold, with the smart brick in some sets and not other sets when they could have sold the sets without the smart brick and the smart brick separately. However I have heard from a couple of families with younger kids that these are a great hit with them. I doubt it is the game changer LEGO was making it out to be, but from what I have seen, they look quite fun. 

There is also the issue that when a few of the bigger influencers say they don't like something, everyone else seems to fall into line. I guess they fear mocking and nasty comments and people not subscribing if they dare say anything different. 

It probably makes sense to include them in some starter sets now, but I would expect to see it sold seperately in the future.

[MAB]

6 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

It probably makes sense to include them in some starter sets now, but I would expect to see it sold seperately in the future.

From an e-waste point of view, I'd hope they would sell the brick and the charger separately. Getting a new charger with each brick will be wasteful. 

8 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

What I dislike most about the brick personally is that there are many people online that know that the brick is bad without even trying or knowing what it even does, based on some comments online. 

It is a bit like Galidor. So many people slag that off without ever playing with it. I bought some for my kids years ago, and it got a lot of use. Especially when they worked out you could build your own limbs and heads.

[Yperio_Bricks]

1 hour ago, Black Falcon said:

so it still needs to be seen how kids will play with the brick in the long run.

Yep, that's something I really really would like to know. How many minutes do random kids play with the smart brick on average? How often will they play the cantina sounds for example? Do parents think the brick is worth it compared to a set of the same price with double the amount of bricks and pieces when they know the kid will only play with the smart brick X (see question no 1) minutes? Do parents think the smart brick is a better toy compared to a regular set of the same price with double the amount of bricks and pieces? I would like to read a paper about this.

[Toastie]

8 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

on average

That's the thing, isn't it? I don't favor the plain average approach though. There should be a "time elapsed from first exposure" (temporally resolved) related study, as you like a paper coming out ;)

Best
Thorsten

[Yperio_Bricks]

47 minutes ago, Toastie said:

That's the thing, isn't it? I don't favor the plain average approach though. There should be a "time elapsed from first exposure" (temporally resolved) related study, as you like a paper coming out ;)

Best
Thorsten

Yeah, you are right! It makes no sense to measure the average play time when one kid playes for hours with the smart brick and 100 kids play for one minute with the smart brick until they find it boring  Maybe I don't understand kids at all, but I can not imagine one kid playing the cantina sound more than a couple times  Or babbling minifigs?

Even Light & Sound back in the day was better in that regard. It is far more logical and true to life to have a construction site on the road that is secured by beams with blinking lights or a fire truck to make continuous lights and sound.

 

Edited March 9 by Yperio_Bricks
typo

[JesseNight]

10 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Yep, that's something I really really would like to know. How many minutes do random kids play with the smart brick on average? How often will they play the cantina sounds for example? Do parents think the brick is worth it compared to a set of the same price with double the amount of bricks and pieces when they know the kid will only play with the smart brick X (see question no 1) minutes? Do parents think the smart brick is a better toy compared to a regular set of the same price with double the amount of bricks and pieces? I would like to read a paper about this.

In an ideal world, everybody would indeed think and consider and conclude this isn't a great deal. But reality tends to be different. Kids want the newest and the coolest. If the smart brick is appealing to kids, it will work. And then the parents will just have to consider whether they really wanna watch their purse and risk their kid being less cool among their friends.

I agree that Light & Sound was better in many ways. Not just the application, but also that it still works today and will work as long as we have access to replacement 9V batteries. Once the smart brick's internal battery has lived out its life and its recharge cycles, it's over. That's typical 21st century attitude I'm afraid. We're all aware we gotta reduce our waste, and yet manufacturers keep feeding us more to throw away.

Edited March 10 by JesseNight

[Black Falcon]

23 hours ago, MAB said:

From an e-waste point of view, I'd hope they would sell the brick and the charger separately. Getting a new charger with each brick will be wasteful. 

Especially since one charger can load two bricks that would make no sense, so if they are going to be sold seperately there will likely be packs with charger and bricks and bricks alone. But for now as they will roll out to other themes like Pokemon they will surely stay with starter Sets, so it will be more interesting to see what will happen next year.

23 hours ago, MAB said:

It is a bit like Galidor. So many people slag that off without ever playing with it. I bought some for my kids years ago, and it got a lot of use. Especially when they worked out you could build your own limbs and heads.

Well, at least I don´t need to try them out to say that they look ugly to me ;).

11 hours ago, JesseNight said:

In an ideal world, everybody would indeed think and consider and conclude this isn't a great deal.

Why? Because you think it is bad, in an ideal world everyone hast to think so? Personally, for what you are getting I actually don´t think that the smart brick sets are actually that expensive compared to normal Star Wars Sets. And if you are looking back at Light and sound and compare those with normal Sets, that system wasn´t cheap either.

In the end if the kids have fun with the Smart Brick Sets it will be worth it for parents and if not and the brick ends in a corner after few days, probably not. Since in the first case they are likely to buy more and in the second not, time will tell how well the bricks really are received.

[Yperio_Bricks]

1 hour ago, Black Falcon said:

Well, at least I don´t need to try them out to say that they look ugly to me ;).

Hey, that is unfair! That is exactly what you criticized me for doing. How is this different from my opinion on the smart brick without me trying it out? 

Anyway, time to move on from that smart brick thingy. At this point I don't even want to spend one thought about it anymore