Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[icm]

3 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

I don't know if they're necessarily "unpopular," (especially here) but you could definitely call them "hot takes."

1. Lego Star Wars fans/investors more or less ruined this hobby.

2. TLG buying Bricklink was catastrophic.

3. TLG focuses far too much on licensed slop instead of original creativity.

4. TLG would rather be an adults-focused luxury brand than a toy company.

0. These are very cold takes within this thread. 

1. Blame game, pointing fingers, meh. 

2. Yeah, BDP is great, but all the other changes to Bricklink since the takeover have clearly had Big Corporate interests at heart rather than hobbyist concerns. Seems like Lego would be perfectly capable of doing a BDP-like program without having bought Bricklink if it really wanted to. 

3. Again, an ice-cold take within this thread. 

4. Yeah, it was pretty cringe when some exec said they wanted to be a lifestyle brand. Also, the rebrand from Creator Expert to 18+ and then to Icons did start in 2020, like you said. At the time I thought it was a meaningless change in marketing to go from "Creator Expert" to "18+", but in hindsight it has been a pretty big change and the size and frequency of D2Cs has dramatically increased. I'm not complaining about that in principle, since there have been a lot of smashing good dream-come-true D2Cs since then, but now there's too many for me to keep up with. I believe Mike Psiaki said in 2018 or 2019 that they wanted to limit the number of Modular-style buildings and big Creator Expert-style vehicles to one a year because they didn't want fans of those lines to feel like they couldn't afford to keep up, but that philosophy has clearly gone out the window. This year alone there are already four Icons-style vehicles and one yet to be unveiled.

[GameyRaccoon]

15 minutes ago, icm said:

0. These are very cold takes within this thread. .

Ha, I suspected. I did put "hot takes" in quotes, after all. 

17 minutes ago, icm said:

there have been a lot of smashing good dream-come-true D2Cs since then, but now there's too many for me to keep up with.

I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling this way. I missed out on the El Dorado Fortress, Blacktron Renegade, and Orient Express, which just kills me. I'm sure I'll also miss out on Rivendell and the Shire by the time I scrape up the disposable income for more Lego. Keeping up with the modulars is also starting to bite more than it used to, thanks to inflation. Shopping Street is MORE expensive than Assembly Square was!? (For 600 fewer pieces, no less.)

[danth]

2 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

I missed out on the El Dorado Fortress, Blacktron Renegade, and Orient Express, which just kills me.

You're in luck with the Renegade, it's still easily available for less than retail from the usual places. 

[SpacePolice89]

I hope that the Smart Brick experiment will fail so that we'll get rid of that thing as soon as possible.

[GameyRaccoon]

27 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I hope that the Smart Brick experiment will fail so that we'll get rid of that thing as soon as possible.

TLG's obsession with gimmicks (like smart bricks, like mobile phone apps, etc) these days reminds me a lot of the gimmicks they kept trying in the early 2000s. Difference is modern LEGO is too-big-to-fail and they don't necessarily have to worry about failure after failure because they have the money printer that is LEGO Star Wars.

[Black Falcon]

15 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

TLG had done a small handful of big D2Cs a year long before they bought BL, that much is true, but after 2019 there was a huge uptick. Icons launched the next year. Its obvious that TLG started putting more effort in exploiting the AFOL market around then.

They have been doing Modular Buildings since 2007 and other adult focused sets since 2000 and from that point on their number has been increasing and as the adult market igot bigger, of course the number of sets got higher too. Bricklink surely is part of an strategy to focus more on the demand of adults but I really don´t see how they are exploiting it.

15 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

When I was a kid, I had a LEGO Minifigure Sticker book that had minifigs from all sorts of early 2000s themes. Later I had the LEGO Minifigure Encyclopedia they put out around 2013. These books exposed me to all the original themes I missed out on, (like Adventurers, Western, etc) and I remember really wishing I could play with those themes instead of what was being offered in the store. (star wars, super heroes, city.) I didn't recognize any cynical aversion to capitalism or brand tie-ins, I just wanted to play with fun toys. Also, what kid isn't interested in pirates or knights or cowboys or generic sci fi? Do kids today not read books? Do they not have imaginations? 

Well, in the end there is always a limit of what you can pull out on the shelves, and even though Lego has a very high number of sets in production and on shelves at the same time, it is impossible to please everyone, so in the end they make the sets and themes they think will be best received, or bring new costumers. That beeing said, while there are for sure kids that would love castles, western, pirates, there might be more that love Harry Potter (and I think many actually still read those books ;)) and as Ninjago is highly popular too you shouldn´t underestimate that kids also tend to like stuff their friends like too and if they get Ninjago toys the kid would probably want it too - for castle and pirates they still seem to see demand, just not for an own theme, hence they are making the creator sets,  and space got a own city line just recently.

15 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

I mean, how diverse are we talking? If you want an original, action theme, you have the choice between an Asian-inspired techno-martial arts fusion IP... and an Asian-inspired techno-martial arts fusion IP.  City and Creator have to be the home of anything else non-licensed that TLG puts out these days. Which, by the way, ends up meaning present-day scientific researchers (or gimmicky police/fire sets that cost too much) in the case of city, and the occasional 3-in-1 set in Creator's.

City is far more diverse than you give credit for, you got fire, police, emergency sets, construction, trains, a wide varity of exploration sets from dessert, jungle, sea or ice, we got space sets, racers, city life sets like food trucks and stuff.

15 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

And say you're a kid or parent and want something that is branded. You actually have less choice than you think. Does your kid like video games? If he wants Pokemon sets, you can get him an adult-level sculpture of one for 300 dollars. If he wants Zelda, it's a similar story. If he wants Mario sets, he'd better be stoked about the electronic gimmick that makes the sets cost far more than they should. So really, they're left with Sonic.

Pokemon will get more sets also at cheaper price points. And unlike adults I don´t actually think that kids really care about if something is an external IP or not. If they like Ninjago they want Ninjago Sets, if they like Harry Potter they will want HP sets - then they might just want a City Set because it includes an excavator or a Star Wars set because it looks cool, even though they have no idea what it actually even is. In the end there are so many different things on the shelves, IP or not, that especially kids shouldn´t have a problem to find something they like.

15 hours ago, icm said:

2. Yeah, BDP is great, but all the other changes to Bricklink since the takeover have clearly had Big Corporate interests at heart rather than hobbyist concerns. Seems like Lego would be perfectly capable of doing a BDP-like program without having bought Bricklink if it really wanted to. 

Well AFOL Designer Programm started before Lego bought Bricklink, so they had something like this without buying it.

[GameyRaccoon]

1 hour ago, Black Falcon said:

I don´t actually think that kids really care about if something is an external IP or not.

They absolutely do. When I was a kid I had zero interest in Spongebob sets, for example, because I had never seen the show. Same story with superhero sets. The whole point of making branded sets is to appeal more to fans of that external IP, is it not?

[Toastie]

3 hours ago, GameyRaccoon said:

Difference is modern LEGO is too-big-to-fail and they don't necessarily have to worry about failure after failure because they have the money printer that is LEGO Star Wars.

I really do agree with your general notion, but I won't focus so much on Star Wars. I believe that TLG is still using that horse until they have ridden it to death, but as far as I digest their program, it is much more "everything" adult oriented. Yes, I believe SW still pulls in a lot of money. But so do all the flowers, BIG sets, the cars, the (totally dumb) replicas of Nintendo boxes, shoes, typewriters, super cars camouflaged as Technic.

Which is essence is an absolutely successful business model, nothing to add. Creativity? Hey, we have AI now. 

Best wishes
Thorsten

[icm]

5 minutes ago, Toastie said:

the (totally dumb) replicas of Nintendo boxes

To be fair, they seem to try hard to put interesting mechanisms in the game console replica sets. There's as much interesting Technic in the NES box and TV set, in the Pac-Man console, in the set of Mario riding Yoshi, or in the Nintendo Question Mark Block as there is in a lot of sets in the Technic theme.

Edited Monday at 09:24 PM by icm

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, icm said:

To be fair, they seem to try hard to put interesting mechanisms in the game console replica sets.

That is true. Absolutely.

As a vintage technology lover though, I can get the originals in full working condition for less than what LEGO asks for the replica sets. That's the part I simply don't get.

But that is just me.

Best
Thorsten

[Yoggington]

On 4/12/2026 at 10:22 PM, GameyRaccoon said:

3. TLG focuses far too much on licensed slop instead of original creativity. (Bit of a manifesto, forgive me.)

4. TLG would rather be an adults-focused luxury brand than a toy company.

I feel like these are contradictory points.

• The first point boiling down to "being back Space / Pirate / Castle / other sets from my youth that I'm nostalgic for".
• The second boiling down to "why does Lego cater to adults more than to kids?"

I don't buy that kids would care too much about a classic theme revival. Some adults would go nuts for it of course. If Lego did roll back the themes, then they are even worse for catering to adults over kids. If they reduce catering to adults then fat chance you'll see the themes you pine for.

[GameyRaccoon]

37 minutes ago, Yoggington said:

I feel like these are contradictory points.

• The first point boiling down to "being back Space / Pirate / Castle / other sets from my youth that I'm nostalgic for".
• The second boiling down to "why does Lego cater to adults more than to kids?"

I don't buy that kids would care too much about a classic theme revival. Some adults would go nuts for it of course. If Lego did roll back the themes, then they are even worse for catering to adults over kids. If they reduce catering to adults then fat chance you'll see the themes you pine for.

More or less. I agree with what you're saying, but I don't think my points are contradictory. 

What I mean to say is this. Kids these days certainly wouldn't care about a literal revival of a classic theme like Atlantis or Adventurers or Agents or whatever, but I bet you more than you think would be interested by new yellow-faced themes. Ninjago is a perennial success for TLG, and Monkie Kid and Dreamzzz seem to be as well. I think TLG shouldn't be afraid to try even more original themes. 

And what I was trying to say with the second point was that TLG makes enough money selling kids mostly licensed themes and selling adults the non licensed stuff. If you believe that kids don't want to play with a pirate ship or a castle, of course it makes sense to just make enormous D2Cs for adult fans.

But what I believe is that modern kids do want to play with pirate ships and castles, whether TLG knows it or not. I was a kid really not that long ago compared to most Eurobricks users and based on my personal experience (and conversations I've had with some of my friends who were Lego fans as kids), there was significant disappointment even among kids when Lego stopped doing original action themes. (Just as there was with AFOLs)

But again, perhaps the current generation really is different. I don't have kids and neither does anyone I know, so I can't say for sure.

2 hours ago, Toastie said:

I really do agree with your general notion, but I won't focus so much on Star Wars. I believe that TLG is still using that horse until they have ridden it to death, but as far as I digest their program, it is much more "everything" adult oriented. Yes, I believe SW still pulls in a lot of money. But so do all the flowers, BIG sets, the cars, the (totally dumb) replicas of Nintendo boxes, shoes, typewriters, super cars camouflaged as Technic.

Which is essence is an absolutely successful business model, nothing to add. Creativity? Hey, we have AI now. 

Best wishes
Thorsten

I'm trying to think of what the best way to put this is, but it's almost like all the "Adults Welcome" style stuff has brought in non-AFOL adults, and very successfully, it seems. They don't just want to sell another modular building to existing fans, they want to sell a botanical set or Pokemon sculpture or fine art replica to someone who has little to no existing experience with Lego. 

[SpacePolice89]

I think the biggest problem with Lego nowadays is that they are not primarily making themes and sets for people that like Lego but are instead trying to make products for anyone else except people (both kids and adults) that like Lego. They make sets for sports fans, movie fans, music fans, video game fans etc. but not for Lego fans. That is absurd but it is also happening elsewhere, sports are being marketed to punk kids that only watch streamers on social media and also to businesspeople, they don't care about their own fans anymore. That is why I stopped watching the NHL, there are too many ads everywhere and everything feels fake in sports nowadays. It even applies to cars, Ford couldn't even leave the iconic Mustang alone, they had to make it a soccer mom electric minivan-crossover. 

[GameyRaccoon]

4 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I think the biggest problem with Lego nowadays is that they are not primarily making themes and sets for people that like Lego but are instead trying to make products for anyone else except people (both kids and adults) that like Lego. They make sets for sports fans, movie fans, music fans, video game fans etc. but not for Lego fans. 

Nail on the head. Did anybody ask for an Adidas shoe replica?

[SpacePolice89]

3 minutes ago, GameyRaccoon said:

Nail on the head. Did anybody ask for an Adidas shoe replica?

I believe that some high level executive thought that the shoe would bring in more teenagers that normally wouldn't like Lego as customers.

[JesseNight]

4 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I think the biggest problem with Lego nowadays is that they are not primarily making themes and sets for people that like Lego but are instead trying to make products for anyone else except people (both kids and adults) that like Lego. They make sets for sports fans, movie fans, music fans, video game fans etc. but not for Lego fans. That is absurd but it is also happening elsewhere, sports are being marketed to punk kids that only watch streamers on social media and also to businesspeople, they don't care about their own fans anymore. That is why I stopped watching the NHL, there are too many ads everywhere and everything feels fake in sports nowadays. It even applies to cars, Ford couldn't even leave the iconic Mustang alone, they had to make it a soccer mom electric minivan-crossover. 

I think they know by now that majority of their fans are loyal anyway. So the aim is obviously to make non-fans more aware and appeal to them in as well. Sounds like normal marketing practice to me.
And despite us not liking it... I seriously doubt it'll make us entirely step away from Lego.

[SpacePolice89]

3 hours ago, JesseNight said:

I think they know by now that majority of their fans are loyal anyway. So the aim is obviously to make non-fans more aware and appeal to them in as well. Sounds like normal marketing practice to me.
And despite us not liking it... I seriously doubt it'll make us entirely step away from Lego.

I think that they are missing a huge amount of sales by not catering to their own fanbase. Nothing wrong with appealing to new customers but totally mistreating loyal customers and fans is very wrong.

[Karalora]

2 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I think that they are missing a huge amount of sales by not catering to their own fanbase. Nothing wrong with appealing to new customers but totally mistreating loyal customers and fans is very wrong.

No one is being mistreated. (Or at least, long-time fans aren't being mistreated over and above anyone else, :coughcough: pointedly in the direction of shrinkflated sets.) Not seeing your #1 preferred product line on the shelves very often isn't the same as being wronged.

LEGO seems to be in a hardcore experimental phase right now, throwing all kinds of things at the wall to see what will stick and bring in new customers. And in many cases, it's working! Botanicals and LEGO Art sets have proven to appeal to many adults who previously considered LEGO just a toy for children. (I also don't see many complaints about those themes from long-time AFOLs, perhaps because if nothing else, they are excellent sources for small tiles, flowers, and other specialty parts in a variety of colors.

Question for the long-time AFOLs here: assuming the company isn't going to bring back the Classic themes any time soon except for the occasional one-off...what would you consider the next best thing? Or I guess...is there anything new TLG is doing these days that you actually like?

[SpacePolice89]

37 minutes ago, Karalora said:

Question for the long-time AFOLs here: assuming the company isn't going to bring back the Classic themes any time soon except for the occasional one-off...what would you consider the next best thing? Or I guess...is there anything new TLG is doing these days that you actually like?

To be honest I have very little interest any of the new stuff maybe because I have almost no interest in popular culture related products. Only a new in house theme that isn't all over the place could revive my interest in new Lego sets. This has happened before. In the early 00s I lost almost all interest in new sets and only focused on old sets from Bricklink and MOCs. In the late 00s I regained interest in new sets but then lost interest again around 2015 and went back to Bricklink and MOCs. I feel that they are totally disregarding their fans because there are no Space, Castle or Pirates themes anymore and not even new fresh in house themes like Atlantis or Power Miners. There are only Asian inspired sci fi mech themes in bright colors and licensed themes available (+City which is actually quite good). Ninjago is a good theme but not for me while all the Ninjago clones like Dreamzzz and Monkie Kid are totally unnecessary and takes spots in the lineup from other themes that are not Ninjago clones.

Edited Tuesday at 02:16 PM by SpacePolice89

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, Karalora said:

Question for the long-time AFOLs here: assuming the company isn't going to bring back the Classic themes any time soon except for the occasional one-off...what would you consider the next best thing? Or I guess...is there anything new TLG is doing these days that you actually like?

Same as @SpacePolice89 wrote.

TLG has entirely lost me with their new stuff. I was a hardcore LEGO "electronics" buyer - but that was essentially wiped-out with the end of the last "real" programmable brick, the EV3. I even don't have that one, as I was still experimenting with my two NXT bricks (and 20+ other PBricks of the original Mindstorms line-up). All that SPIKE and so on stuff - nope, not for me. Powered Up was OKish regarding the City and Technic hub as well as the motors w/ built-in tacho. But that happened only, because some smart people created non-LEGO programming environments (they simply can't and will never compete with highly motivated folks going fully open source). Using a cell phone/tablet for "programming" was too much for me as well. 

The other theme I was interested in for decades was Technic (mixed with all sorts of things, absolutely not confined to "studless" Technic, some call real Technic). But that line has gone (super) car. And I was out, the few remaining sets just did not connect with me.

Finally, when it comes to LEGO, I only buy old/used stuff. Not for collecting but using. That means that pricing is usually more than "OK". Other do better in many regards with current stuff, including quality and pricing (that's a logical and).

In summary: No, TLG is not doing anything today I like (and liked for 50+ years).

All the best
Thorsten 

[Wolfpack]

1 hour ago, Karalora said:

Question for the long-time AFOLs here: assuming the company isn't going to bring back the Classic themes any time soon except for the occasional one-off...what would you consider the next best thing? Or I guess...is there anything new TLG is doing these days that you actually like?

No. There has been no lego set that would interest me since 2024 and lego is doing nothing I actually like these days, but in the 1990s I would have the whole catalogue (except town). I never liked town (too realistic) or Ninjago, so there is nothing for me. And it is not just about me, it is even hard to buy a gift nowadays. Kids love original themes, trust me they do, but except for Creator you have to buy them old sets or GWPs on the internet, because all castle, pirates, space etc. are sooo big and expensive (and mostly 18+, although many are realistically not that hard). That is exactly the reason I started the debate in this topic that spurred so much controversy.

I do not care for foreign IP and licences, if I would then I would buy their original books, movies or whatever. And I do not want to support Disney, J.K. Rowling or FIFA. I mean compare the new Sports theme with proper lego football from 2000. The latter was an actual fun original play theme based on a real activity (football), the modern one is just some Ronaldo Messi slop to profit from the World Cup.

As SpacePolice89 said: Only a new in house theme that isn't all over the place could revive my interest in new Lego sets. So it is not all about reviving classic themes, as some forum members stubbornly and continously try to plant us. On the contrary, I want lego to create new themes, particulary new historic and scy-fi themes. But there is no such theme on the horizon. In the old days there were numerous new themes each year, now the last original theme was... Dreamzzz in 2023? Imagine that, the last theme lego introduced already retired. And then some people have the nerves to say that lego is catering for the non-licenced themes fans just fine.

I would maybe even satisfy with BDP, if just they had instructions and if the designers had a little more freedom about the palette. I mean just keep the basic assortment of hats in production and maybe enable some recolours and torso prints. If there are hundreds new for all the CMF and BAM minifigures, why could not each designer have one torso print for his set?

[icm]

When I was a kid, the builds I was most envious of on Brickshelf were the minifig-scale military airplanes, especially the ones by Ralph Savelsberg. So, for me as an adult, the aviation and space-related sets like the Concorde, Boeing 747 space shuttle transporter, and DC-3 are the kinds of things that I've wanted ever since I was a kid. Same goes for the Tintin rocket. I guess you could say Lego is catering pretty well to the 1990s kid in me right now, except that the 1990s kid in me wants more Adventurers sets. But I was never super into in 1990s Space, 1990s Aquazone, etc. So I guess you could say that, from the perspective of a lot of you folks, I'm the problem  Sorry about that!

[danth]

4 hours ago, Karalora said:

No one is being mistreated. (Or at least, long-time fans aren't being mistreated over and above anyone else, :coughcough: pointedly in the direction of shrinkflated sets.) Not seeing your #1 preferred product line on the shelves very often isn't the same as being wronged.

"Neglected" or "ignored" work. 

4 hours ago, Karalora said:

Question for the long-time AFOLs here: assuming the company isn't going to bring back the Classic themes any time soon except for the occasional one-off...what would you consider the next best thing? Or I guess...is there anything new TLG is doing these days that you actually like?

 I recently bought:

• City Space 2024/2025. Unlicensed Sci-Fi space with few stickers.
• Education Space 2026 sets. Unlicensed space, no stickers, not necessarily "Sci-Fi" but close enough. Not really a theme though.
• Some Sonic and Animal Crossing sets, since the designs are good and there are no stickers. 
• Other random licensed sets if they don't have stickers. Like Baby Rocket's Ship and (if I'm allowed to go back 5 years) the 2021 Tie Fighter.
• The 2023 City Modified Race Cars and Combo Race Pack were literally perfect sets
• Izzie's Narwhal Hot-Air Balloon was amazing
• Creator Castles
• Tudor Corner
• The BDP Mushroom House & Alchemist's Shop

[GameyRaccoon]

5 hours ago, Karalora said:

Question for the long-time AFOLs here: assuming the company isn't going to bring back the Classic themes any time soon except for the occasional one-off...what would you consider the next best thing? Or I guess...is there anything new TLG is doing these days that you actually like?

The most recent stuff that TLG did that really excited me was the 90th anniversary stuff, and I continue to collect modulars and the occasional winter village set. I second SpacePolice89 and Wolfpack in saying that a new in-house IP always gets my head turning, though the last several attempts have been misses for me, personally. (Dreamzzz, Hidden Side, Monkie Kid, Nexo Knights, Chima...) A proper space theme in the vain of Space Police III, Galaxy Squad, or even something like Alien Conquest would be nice. (Though as far as I know the Disney Star Wars contract literally forbids TLG from doing this?) The recent city-space-not-futuron stuff was a step in the right direction but a little too safe. 

[Darth_Bane13]

On 4/12/2026 at 4:22 PM, GameyRaccoon said:

We do have your choice of 3 expensive Indiana Jones sets, though. 

I'm nitpicking here, but two of them were on the cheaper side and quite good value.

 

Anyways my unpopular opinion is that I want Lego Western back over any other classic theme. I don't care that it's "offensive" or whatever, as I've heard some people claim.