Rant: the trend of hoarding LEGO and the pivot to showpieces

[Toastie]

6 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

Not sure that's good evidence of your point.

Maybe not - I just randomly picked a set called "Free Style" - maybe there are better examples. Or possibly not - it could all be a "good old days" biased feeling.

I for sure though do remember the "parts packs", allowing me to build roofs - "large" roofs ... whatever that means to others.

Best,
Thorsten 

 

[TeriXeri]

I remember the big bulk boxes like this:

 

And then the earlier 80s had sets with just roof tiles or windows/doors.

While I myself did not had that many of those parts, a friend did, and we built a lot of things with just basic parts, from houses, to railway pillars, to machines where a marble would go through a sloped maze.

The current Classic sets don't really have the same feeling.

3-in-1 hasn't done basic larger houses with sloped roofs in a while so roof tiles in bulk via sets aren't as easy to get unless you get multiple smaller sets. 

Currently there is the Home Alone set which has a lot of parts for a "house" but it's an entirely different category of price set, even far above modulars.

Edited March 16, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Toastie]

14 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

While I myself did not had that many of those parts

Thank you very much @TeriXeri! I actually had those - in limited < 5 numbers and over many years of "acquisition" (= birthday, Xmas, ...), but that is what I was referring to.

Yes, today, 3-1 is my target as well - seldom though.

Best,
Thorsten 

 

[TeriXeri]

26 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Yes, today, 3-1 is my target as well - seldom though.

Best,
Thorsten 

Yeah to me it really depends on the set, for  2022, the Ninjago Dojo + Training Center looks to be one of the better "parts pack" types of sets (and you get a full set of ninja+wu+pixal with those 2 sets) , as 3-in-1 doesn't really have a house this year yet.

Of course it depends what you want to build, but this ninjago dojo set does have some nice colors for rocks/wood and Tan plates are versatile enough.

Anyway, back to the main topic.

I am currently still displaying most of my sets as-per-instructions but plan to mass-deconstruct a lot of them to start MOCing at a larger scale.

I've become a lot more selective on what sets to buy (I've never been into Licenses , and only been "completionist" on a few waves of themes)

Long term the main set I'll probably keep as-is would be the Barracuda Bay ship (my largest model).

Edited March 16, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Toastie]

On 3/15/2022 at 9:43 AM, globalbrick said:

I feel that that kind of sets take away some of the experience that is LEGO: build and play.

What LEGO "is", depends entirely on your very personal perception and interpretation. For me, it is a world of my very own - I never want to miss.

LEGO though is foremost (yeah, sure) a company. A company does things to prosper. For their very own workforce - and for the owners. Whatever the split is: So be it. Lets call it capitalism (or the "free" market) - the entire LEGO thing builds on just that. From carpenter to world-wide operating enterprise ... it is what it is: A money making operation.

Now, the customers have their very own perception: Carpenter, caring family in Denmark, toys for learning how to create. Hey: We create! So all is good, as creating is good.

It all depends: When does the company - or The Group, as they call themselves - alter our feelings and impact on our experiences - and when do we simply let it happen. Or even accelerate that development by our very own behavior. "Build and play" is certainly not anymore the target of TLG; it is "New Customers" buying as expensive as possible sets. As it has been in the past: Depending on returning = getting older and grumpier customers does never make any sense - not in capitalism. The system simply does not operate on sustainability, it works on growth. I know: No news here.

Nothing wrong with that, particularly when it comes to a toy manufacturer, and not a weapons goon.

The really cool thing though is: Capitalism encourages competition. "Parts packs" are just one click away. The good old LEGO world is just around the corner. I am mostly moving into that direction. And why are "they" doing this? Because in a capitalistic world, "they" can make money this way. Not because they are any "good" or "worse". Or promoting build and play. 

Believing in "making the world a better place" has become a bit rusty, as far as I am concerned. And also a bit out of reality. So: Do it your way. Make the world a better place with your very own actions.

In a rant, I always see a reason for doing so. I really want to thank you for posting your rant here on EB!

All the best,
Thorsten 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Toastie

[Mylenium]

On 3/13/2022 at 9:42 PM, globalbrick said:

The oether thing that bothers me about current LEGO is that there are more and more showpiece sets: sets you build and then put on display. What is the fun with that? Lego is meant to be built, taken apart, and then built again in a new form. Combined with the high prices, I wonder if LEGO is not losing its way as a creative toy. Sets like the Titanic, if I would buy it, I would be reluctant to destroy it and build something else.

One can complain about LEGO's insane pricing and at the end of the day we all do, regardless from which angle we see things, but the other points don't make much sense to me. There have always been a lot of LEGO sets that clearly were intended to be built once and then displayed or played with without ever being disassembled and combined into something new. You just need to look at some Technic stuff from the 1990s and early 2000s. That and the number of people who actually build custom stuff (in a meaningful way where it's presentable, not just random kit-bashing) has ever only been a fraction of the whole demographic. I guess it really has a lot to do with in which sub-bubble of the LEGO community you move and that informs your perception.

On 3/13/2022 at 9:42 PM, globalbrick said:

While people have been collecting for ages, I am seeing a trjnd on Instagram and Youtube where people are going to the LEGO store and buy the expensive sets as if they are bottles of water. I get that people are collecting LEGO but most of these people are more like hoarders.

Yeah, sure, it's annoying, but just let them. Being poor as a mouse I choose to not get worked up over it too much, though of course there's a certain jealousy when someone who perhaps may not appreciate what treasure he has in his hands and he just stashes it away or brainlessly builds it why I'm sitting here drooling and regretting that I can't afford the same...

On 3/13/2022 at 9:42 PM, globalbrick said:

What is the point of spending so much money on instant gratification.

What is the point of any such scheme then? Is buying some clothes or new shoes then just as bad? I tend to disagree on that point. Most humans' minds are just not set up in a way that would allow them to resist the temptation. That's just basic psychology and this has been thoroughly researched to the point of how such things become genuine addictions and vices. Can't blame people for their monkey brain being susceptible to all those marketing tricks, which LEGO all too well knows how to play at...

Mylenium

 

[MAB]

8 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

The current Classic sets don't really have the same feeling.

True, but that is because lego has changed to survive. I am sure some people would be happy if lego only produced parts in colours availability in 1975, or maybe 1985 for early minifig fans. But if they only produced the same range that was available decades ago, I don't think they'd still be around to produce them.

In the late 70s I had a bucket of mainly 2x4, 2x2 bricks, 8x16 bricks for bases, roof slopes, plus windows and old style wheels with studs. When I look at photos of what I built and what my kids built at the same age, my kids' models are much better due to the range of parts and colours available.

While lego don't sell monochromatic boxes of parts, for anyone that has heard of Bricklink, it is easy to get them.

[Alexandrina]

14 hours ago, Toastie said:

Maybe not - I just randomly picked a set called "Free Style" - maybe there are better examples. Or possibly not - it could all be a "good old days" biased feeling.

I for sure though do remember the "parts packs", allowing me to build roofs - "large" roofs ... whatever that means to others.

Ah, I'm on the same page now! I think the days of parts packs are long past now (they feel like a 70s thing to me, but that could just be my perception). The basic buckets of today are much the same as the basic buckets of the late 80s/early 90s - a lot of bricks, a cross-section of the Lego colour palette and the standard brick range - it's just that both the amount of colours and the amount of bricks have increased vastly.

I believe the sets you're referring to - those boxes full of roof tiles, or windows, or 4x4 corner bricks, or such - evolved into the Service Packs that faded out in the late 90s, and later what Bricklink calls the Bulk Bricks sets. It's a shame that they're not produced any more, I agree - based on the timing, I'm guessing that they were sort of replaced by Pick a Brick and Bricks and Pieces. Presumably once they had the ability to make up orders of bricks to the purchaser's specifications, it no longer made sense to try and guess which bricks they should pre-package into bulk lots. Intuitively to me, it seems there's a difference between the demographic who want specific bricks in specific colours (MOCers, most likely and the demographic who just want a vague amount of bricks in any colour at all (parents of young children who are just being introduced to Lego for the first time)

[hoppa]

I am not sure what would be wrong with building for display. What I do find a tad distasteful is some of these YouTube channels with their monthly haul videos stressing that they, again, spend 3000 dollars. That is not unique to Lego however and can be found a million times over in different areas, that is just social media and online content for you. I am not even sure this is not just me being jealous :)

[Toastie]

On 3/17/2022 at 1:55 PM, Alexandrina said:

Ah, I'm on the same page now!

Thank you very much for this very kind reply, @Alexandrina!

I really value your reply very much. Yes: This is mostly what happened.

With very best regards,
Thorsten