Proposition for a new type of city set

[David Thomsen]

I was just thinking about the pros of cons of different kinds of city building set, which goes something like this:

Creator Set, for example 6754 Family Home

Pros: Lots of generic bricks for lots and lots of different buildings.

Cons: Doesn't come with any minifigs, minifig tools or particularly specialised pieces. More designed for creativity than play.

City Set, for example 7641 City Corner

Pros: Lots of minifigs, minifig accessories, and special bits to make lamp posts and such.

Cons: Comes with exactly as many pieces as is needed to make the one set of instructions. Not really put together with alternative models in mind. More designed for play than creativity.

Bricks and More, for example 6194 My Lego Town

Pros: Comes with minifigs and is quite definitely intended for the construction of multiple buildings and vehicles. Intended for both creativity AND play.

Cons: Extremely basic, all the buildings are small, chunky, garishly multi-coloured and only have one wall. Not really intended for adults.

Reading the 'ideas for new City sets' thread, where it becomes apparent that a lot of Lego collectors tend to rely entirely on what the Lego company puts out on the market (so they get upset when another fire station and airport are released instead of an optometrist or a derelict box factory), I think a range of sets that incorporate all of the best of the above would work well.

Essentially, what I have in mind is something like 'My Lego Town' but with older builders in mind. Enough 'special' pieces like minifigs and accessories to give the set detail, enough 'generic' bricks to be able to design multiple different buildings and vehicles.

I think City is the range this approach would work best with because other themes tend to be 'action' themes rather than 'world builder' themes.

[MetroiD]

LEGO is intended for kids. Us AFOLs have already got the Modular sets, exclusives and a bunch of other lovely sets that are wonderful for kids AND grown-ups (the trains of the last few years come to mind). I'm convinced that the current line-up of sets is more than adequate for anyone to buy the sets they need for their own town and, personally, I can't help feeling curious as to why the City line-up tends to create such a commotion among City fans every year. If you don't like the new fire station, you just don't buy it and instead spend your money on a Creator set with which you can build exactly what you have in mind...

[lifeinplastic]

LEGO is intended for kids. Us AFOLs have already got the Modular sets, exclusives and a bunch of other lovely sets that are wonderful for kids AND grown-ups (the trains of the last few years come to mind). I'm convinced that the current line-up of sets is more than adequate for anyone to buy the sets they need for their own town and, personally, I can't help feeling curious as to why the City line-up tends to create such a commotion among City fans every year. If you don't like the new fire station, you just don't buy it and instead spend your money on a Creator set with which you can build exactly what you have in mind...

I think a lot of the commotion may relate to a lack of originality in most cases. Also, I understand that it is easy to make new buildings as we please from sets like the creator house, etc, but the thing that frustrates most city fans is Lego doesn't offer new parts for city as much as it could. E,g. for licensed sets there are always new minifigures but in City and other System sets, the figures are those which have been issued already in previous sets. The merry-go-round/carousel is the best example of this and the reason I won't be paying for one. There was also no point in buying the City Minifigures pack really as people already had the same figs from other sets!

This brickfilm demonstrates this nicely!

Also, it's new moulds for things that can't be built that well from bricks (as David says 'specialised pieces'). For example, people are really excited about the pigs as they are new and look far better than a brick-built version. It's more items like this which we want. I would love to see a moulded wheelchair for a minifig like the red cargo trolley. It would look a lot better than a clumsy brick-built effort.

There is also the issue of variation. For example, new sizes and shaped windows and trees or bricks in differrent colours we haven't seen before (blue and green bikes and orange flowers please). Variety is the spice of life!

Edited September 26, 2009 by lifeinplastic

[Ralph_S]

Perhaps there would be a market for a set like that, but I have my doubts. I and most other AFOLs about which I know how they go about building city buildings tend to buy sets such as creator houses for the relatively cheap bricks and get minifigs, minifig accessories and other special parts from city sets, modular building sets and bricklink.

I liked the buildings in town plan, for instance, but they wouldn't fit in any sort of city that I'd ever build. It's full of fantastic stuff for making buildings that are more to my taste, however.

If people moan about 'yet another fire station' it's probably because they like LEGO's designs so much that they'd love to see LEGO do something else for a change. Of course, until the release of yet another fire station (set 10197, which I rather happen to like) that's exactly what LEGO was doing with the modular building sets.

Cheers,

Ralph