No more roadplates in City sets?

[Legoist]

There are three large-sized City sets coming out in 2009 and none of them has a roadplate:

7633 Construction Site

7641 City Corner

7642 Garage

Do you think it might be a new LEGO policy for the upcoming years, not to include roadplates in sets and instead to sell roadplates separately?

I think it might be true, and I actually like it.

It lowers the price of such sets probably by a good 5$/5e.

It allows the design to be unconstrained by roadplate size, although this may be something that many people don't like (see Garage and previously the Fire Station).

It's good for people who already have many roadplates and don't need more.

It's good for people who prefer older types of roadplates over the current ones.

What do you think?

[Captain Zuloo]

What I find interesting, is the new sidewalk standard seen in sets such as Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Market Street and Town Plan. It doesn't really leave room for a roadplate without the hassle of moving all the sidewalk tiles from one plate to the other.

[Colonel]

Yes, and therefore TLG should consider designing new road plates so that we do not have double sidewalks...

[Eilif]

Since I don't use roadplates in my layout, I should be neutral on this, but I wish they would include roadplates in sets. I assume they have stopped for the same reasons that blue baseplates haven't returned in any of the pirate sets.

However, with all the sets that have built in sidewalks, I wouldn't mind seeing lego roadplates that were 16x32, comprised of just the road, with perhaps one or two lines of studs on each side. Then TLG could save money on the size of the plates, and let the builders decide if/how to incorporate sidewalks, parkways, etc.

[BlueBard]

I was also wondering about the critical lack of roadplates in the last City sets...

I suppose the simple answer is economical: if TLC sells roadplates in the main sets it doesn't sell roadplates sets. You never ask yourself why TLC used to sell, for example, straight roadplates packs years ago and now they only have straight and crossroad packs? (being the second one a bit useless if you only have one straight... ) The straight ones are also terribly difficult to find in BL so if you want to have some decent City roads you must buy five or six 7280 or 7281 packs. That's the trick!

But I think sometimes they exagerate a bit: the new City Corner set or some Construction one ask desperately for a nice roadplate, doesn't they?

[Hinckley]

Yes, and therefore TLG should consider designing new road plates so that we do not have double sidewalks...

Wider lanes for those massiv trucks they build us. No one likes 4-wide cars, anyway.

[MetroiD]

No one likes 4-wide cars, anyway.

I'm starting a new club, "4wide4life"

[Hinckley]

I'm starting a new club, "4wide4life"

I will be your nemesis club "4wide is stupid"

[MetroiD]

Did I mention that I meant 4 wide, as in 4 wide bikes?

[legotrainfan]

What I find interesting, is the new sidewalk standard seen in sets such as Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Market Street and Town Plan. It doesn't really leave room for a roadplate without the hassle of moving all the sidewalk tiles from one plate to the other.

I don't care so much about this. I'm considering just moving those buildings as close to the roadplates as possible. Then I'd simply go for extending the pavement, thus creating a large pedestrian area by adding tiles.

I suppose the simple answer is economical: if TLC sells roadplates in the main sets it doesn't sell roadplates sets. You never ask yourself why TLC used to sell, for example, straight roadplates packs years ago and now they only have straight and crossroad packs? (being the second one a bit useless if you only have one straight... ) The straight ones are also terribly difficult to find in BL so if you want to have some decent City roads you must buy five or six 7280 or 7281 packs. That's the trick!

As far as I know there's a rule that for each theme there is a specific number of sets that can be produced. So if all the four different types of roadplates would be sold separately, that would make four sets, thus reducing the number of other city sets. Instead, there are only two sets of roadplates. Unfortunately, they are mixed, but that's better than a reduction of the number of the other city sets. Why don't you phone the customer service to ask if they could sell you some straights only? Maybe it's possible, maybe not. Just try!

I don't care about this issue, because I have old light gray roadplates with bike lanes only; and I only buy those. I've never understood why TLC has to release new roadplates every few years. That's pretty annoying.

[Grrr]

However, with all the sets that have built in sidewalks, I wouldn't mind seeing lego roadplates that were 16x32, comprised of just the road, with perhaps one or two lines of studs on each side. Then TLG could save money on the size of the plates, and let the builders decide if/how to incorporate sidewalks, parkways, etc.

I agree, though curves would be difficult - you would need to have negative plain baseplates as well (ie, an inner curve and an outer curve baseplate), perhaps similar to the old belville brick bases:

http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6162

I'd quite like roads to be a bit like train tracks, so you can create roads in non-parallel layouts - the only thing is that I also want to be able to have footpaths over the roads - which is difficult.

[Loganwan]

I am a fan of the roads... sort of. I like having roads that are TLG sanctioned. I like that they fit most of the vehicles. The only real problem I have is the mix of plates in the "sets." What on earth am I going to do with so many intersections? I don't need them. What I do need is many more straight road pieces coming off of each intersection. In building a town or City, am I really going to be putting in that many curves? Probably not. As others have said, the sidewalks are a bit wide. Since there are so many sets now that include the sidewalk, shouldn't the roads reflect that?

[Legoist]

However, with all the sets that have built in sidewalks, I wouldn't mind seeing lego roadplates that were 16x32, comprised of just the road, with perhaps one or two lines of studs on each side. Then TLG could save money on the size of the plates, and let the builders decide if/how to incorporate sidewalks, parkways, etc.

This would be really nice, and it would also allow to create multiple-lanes highways. But then it would be quite hard for the curves, and it would require also a new road piece to connect straights together and create X and T intersections.

[Hinckley]

Did I mention that I meant 4 wide, as in 4 wide bikes?

Let's join forces then!

[MetroiD]

Deal! I just looked at that last motorcycle I uploaded and it actually IS almost 4-wide... or at least part of it is - almost as wide as a small car I made a couple of months ago. I guess we do need some wider streets....

[Section8]

There are three large-sized City sets coming out in 2009 and none of them has a roadplate:

7633 Construction Site

7641 City Corner

7642 Garage

7633 has vehicles so large they wouldn't fit on a roadplate. The modular nature also doesn't need a plate, in my opinion

7641 is a corner, and therefore would need three plates to make it useful. This would raise the price quite a bit.

7642 is in desperate need of plates. It seems so disorganized and sprawled. There's a huge sprawling repair center in the 260 Idea Book that they managed to fit on plates, so why not this set?

It seems that LEGO City has outgrown their baseplates, with 6-wide vehicles being the norm.

[Eilif]

I agree, though curves would be difficult - you would need to have negative plain baseplates as well (ie, an inner curve and an outer curve baseplate),

This would be really nice, and it would also allow to create multiple-lanes highways. But then it would be quite hard for the curves, and it would require also a new road piece to connect straights together and create X and T intersections.

I think you are both right, I didn't think think the curves through. It's pretty much a moot point though, as I think that Section 8 may have the best explanation of the situation.

It seems that LEGO City has outgrown their baseplates, with 6-wide vehicles being the norm.

I think this pretty much sums it up, especially when not only are 6 wide the norm, but 8 and even larger are frequently appearing.

[Klaus-Dieter]

That's a very interesting topic, Legoist!

I personally am very glad that TLG does not include road plates in new City sets (until now - and I really hope that this won't change!) since I prefer much more the old light grey baseplates since 1. they look much nicer 2. you can buy the road plates you need from Ebay and do not always have to buy two different road plates in one pack of which you do not need one of them (e. g. when you want to buy some new dark-grey straight roadplates you always have to pay for a crossing roadplate, too, even though when you do not need the crossing roadplate but only the straight rod plate) and 3. simply because the old road plates are much cheaper.

Btw: Welcome to EB, Legoist!

Klaus-Dieter

[5150 Lego]

Wider lanes for those massiv trucks they build us. No one likes 4-wide cars, anyway.

Werd! 6 and 8 wide for life!

[Minifig Lecturer]

I only like 4 wide cars!!!!

I break up my 6 wide ones and reverse engineer them!!

[Basiliscus]

I only like 4 wide cars!!!!

I break up my 6 wide ones and reverse engineer them!!

Consider yourself crossed off my Christmas card list!

Regarding the question: I think it's probably for the best that road baseplates are not in sets. I actually like the new style of road baseplate and they are readily available on S@H (as of last time I checked). As mentioned previously, it reduces the cost of sets and removes a rather limited use item.

You can probably just fit a 6-wide car on a baseplate anyway (hurries off to check...)

[Section8]

I personally am very glad that TLG does not include road plates in new City sets

I see your point, and agree to some degree, Klaus-Dieter. I too like the old ones (specifically the ones introduced in 1987) as that is most of what I have and all my town-themed plates have the same road widths. I could have forgiven the various color changes, from grey to green with grey roads to dark grey IF they kept the widths the same. Also, the opposite would have worked for me, different sizes but all the same few colors (the green specialized ones were quite a nice change). But the fact that each generation seems to mesh less well with everything before it was quite annoying. So yes, it's better to some degree they aren't making them so much anymore. However, that means we miss out on new, unique plates, like they had for the racing and rescue sets and others. Also, we haven't seen much of the sweetness that was the space landing plates in a long time. Remember those?

I only like 4 wide cars!!!!

I break up my 6 wide ones and reverse engineer them!!

You're more ambitious than me. I just avoid purchasing sets with 6 wide vehicles in it.

[legotrainfan]

You're more ambitious than me. I just avoid purchasing sets with 6 wide vehicles in it.

Since I don't want a mixture of 4- and 6-wide vehicles in my LEGO town, I also avoid buying them.

[Legoist]

Since I don't want a mixture of 4- and 6-wide vehicles in my LEGO town, I also avoid buying them.

This strikes me as slightly odd... What's wrong with having a mixture, as long as there is enough sense within such mix?

Personally I don't like cars wider than 4, but I found that a 6-wide truck looks more proportionate alongside such cars than a 4-wide truck.

On the other hand I can't accept 8-wide trucks even if the overall design looks cool.

Obviously, I don't expect others to agree with my own taste... but it just sound odd to me that you reject the idea of mixture a-priori. Note that I also do not like a mix of widths for vehicles of the same type, so I wouldn't gladly mix 4- and 6- cars together or 4- and 6- trucks together or - the horrow! - have 6- cars and 4- trucks together.

Let's say my "golden rule" is: bikes <= cars <= trucks <= trains (boats and planes are out of the equation because they can have much more size variety)

Edited March 5, 2009 by Legoist

[legotrainfan]

Note that I also do not like a mix of widths for vehicles of the same type, so I wouldn't gladly mix 4- and 6- cars together or 4- and 6- trucks together or - the horrow! - have 6- cars and 4- trucks together.

That's why I don't buy them: I have several 4-wide trucks, and I don't want to place a 6-wide truck near them. The only 6-wide truck I have came with train set 4565. Quite an early specimen of a 6-wide truck; that set was released in 1996.

Edited March 6, 2009 by legotrainfan