[Opinion] Review of the new road plates system (2021)

[westracing01]

If building in detail, brick built is the way to go. That said, brick built is also cost prohibitive since you need a baseplate to build on, then a zillion bricks to pull it off. Curves are both easier (very customizable for different angles) and more difficult (getting them to line up well is very hard for me.) 

Kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't either way for Lego.

[Vindicare]

On 5/11/2021 at 1:30 PM, DBlegonerd7 said:

I finsihed building Diagon Alley set back in March 2021. I remember feeling nervous about lifting the four individual standalone buildings with my own hands because these buildings are pretty heavy. I think the new road plates may support standalone buildings. I mean, I wonder if modular buildings will have road plate eventually.

Just gotta grab them by the sides & all is well. I even pick them up two a time, for a short distance move, & it’s fine. Just give them a little squeeze to make sure they stay tight. 

 

I still don’t like these plates. Even though they’d mostly be covered by cars, the 2x4 tiles that connect them are way too distracting to me & make them look ugly. I don’t hate them as much as I did when I first heard about & then saw them...but I’m in no hurry to buy them. 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Vindicare

[Aanchir]

On 5/25/2021 at 7:07 AM, ArneNielsen said:

I am probably one of the only ones, who loved set 6600  6600-2: Highway Construction | Brickset: LEGO set guide and database - as there were both straight, curved, and elevated roads here, making for a lot of creative possibilities.

I was a big fan of that set as a kid myself, and it definitely disappointed me that LEGO never did much more with those road pieces in the following years. They did have some limitations, such as the outer edges being two plates higher than the road itself, but even so it felt like something that COULD have had more potential than the limited uses that we saw in sets.

That is also part of why I'm pleased to see this new road system being used more extensively from the start — it gives me confidence that LEGO has a stronger commitment using these roads in varied ways and/or expanding their potential with new parts, and not just using them in one or two sets before forgetting about them.

For every use of the new roads that we've seen so far, I can easily think of several more uses that could be possible in future sets. Some of those uses include ones that have previously been achieved using road baseplates (albeit often with different prints or molds than you'd see for standard "roads"): service stations, racetracks and pit lanes, garages, driveways, airport runways, waterways, and seaports. But there are also quite a few potential uses that traditional road baseplates would have been less-than-ideal for: bridges/overpasses, train station/freight depot platforms, parking decks, retail drive-thru lanes for banks and restaurants, multi-lane highways, roads with hills/inclines, basketball/tennis courts, and raised roads with sewer or subway access.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Aanchir