Where have all the Universal Sets gone?

[trekman]

My seven year old received a couple of technic sets as presents recently, namely 8262 quad bike and 8048 off road buggy. He has built the alternative model for the quad bike and plans to build the others. I had purchased a surplus set of Lego Technic 8062 Universal set with carry case and I gave it to my son just recently. I did not realise what a little gem this is! Technopedia sums it up very well. There is such a variety of models from one set with only 403 pieces. My son is presently building the grabber/loader. There is excellent functionality with a great selection of gears, worm gears, u-js and lift arms. If anything, it is a better transition into TECHNIC from CITY or CREATOR sets.

Whilst the newer Technic studless sets are very nice in their appearance, I seriously doubt if they can match the variety of mechanical and engineering principles which are presented in 8062. Which leads me to ask "Where have all the universal sets gone". Surely a new generation of engineers would benefit from such reworked sets. Let me know what you think.

[DLuders]

As you already pointed out, Blakbird's Technicopedia reviews all 24 of the Technic Universal Sets ( http://www.ericalbrecht.com/technic/universal.html ). I agree with you, "Where have all the Universal Sets gone?" I don't want to sound cynical, but it could be that The Lego Group doesn't want to create such sets anymore, because they "use up" many future set ideas that they can sell. In the Technic theme, they only issue a certain number of sets per year, and (thus) keep the demand high for more. If they issue more "Universal Sets", TLG may reduce overall demand because folks may just by it and nothing more.

Although the Universal Set building instructions are not available on the Lego Customer Service website http://us.service.lego.com/en-US/BuildingI...ns/default.aspx , they (along with many more) are available from BrickFactory at http://www.brickfactory.info/set/index.html . It could be that you already have all of the necessary parts to build other sets, without having to hunt for the sets on Bricklink.com or on eBay.

[CP5670]

I miss the universal/multi-model sets too. Apart from the idea books, these universal sets were the main source of unusual model concepts that had unique and clever mechanisms but might not have been marketable as standalone sets. The 8062 set you mentioned has a guy rowing a boat for example. The last set of this type was probably 8479, back in 1997.

I think the disappearance of these sets is part of a larger trend we've seen over time, where the emphasis of Technic has shifted from exploring different kinds of mechanisms to creating realistic reproductions of vehicles. Some of the Mindstorms sets have taken the place of universal sets in the sense of having non-vehicle models and encouraging free-form building, but their focus is more on the programming aspects and they lack the mechanical complexity of Technic.

[Blakbird]

Whilst the newer Technic studless sets are very nice in their appearance, I seriously doubt if they can match the variety of mechanical and engineering principles which are presented in 8062. Which leads me to ask "Where have all the universal sets gone". Surely a new generation of engineers would benefit from such reworked sets. Let me know what you think.

They're not quite gone. After the "official" Universal Sets, there were a couple of other sets which fit the bill like the Control Center (8485), the Code Pilot (8479), the Giant Model Set (8277) and the Fiber Optic Multi Set (8456). More recently, the >2 models per set concept seems to be gone from Technic but is still present in Creator. The Creator walking dinosaur (4958), for instance, is basically a Technic set and has instructions for 3 models.

[Brickthus]

My seven year old received a couple of technic sets as presents recently, namely 8262 quad bike and 8048 off road buggy. He has built the alternative model for the quad bike and plans to build the others. I had purchased a surplus set of Lego Technic 8062 Universal set with carry case and I gave it to my son just recently. I did not realise what a little gem this is! Technopedia sums it up very well. There is such a variety of models from one set with only 403 pieces. My son is presently building the grabber/loader. There is excellent functionality with a great selection of gears, worm gears, u-js and lift arms. If anything, it is a better transition into TECHNIC from CITY or CREATOR sets.

Whilst the newer Technic studless sets are very nice in their appearance, I seriously doubt if they can match the variety of mechanical and engineering principles which are presented in 8062. Which leads me to ask "Where have all the universal sets gone". Surely a new generation of engineers would benefit from such reworked sets. Let me know what you think.

My favourite was the 8074 Flex Universal Set.

It teaches the builder the difference between struts (axles) and ties (flexes).

Bring back the flex system TLG!

Mark

[allanp]

The flex system was pretty awesome, wonder why they don't use that anymore?

For me, a universal set has to have at least 3 or 4 models to qualify as being a universal set but they were different in ways other than just offering more that two sets to build from, so I don't think they were using up other ideas for other sets. I find that regular technic sets usually have roughtly equal emphasis on form and function, whilst the universal sets offered more emphasis on function than on form. They didn't usually look as aesthetically pleasing but alot of the smaller universal sets had TONS of gears and levers and sometimes motors for their size.

I wonder if todays target demographic is too pre-occupide with the false sence of "cool" that the more streamedlined sets give to be interested in a proper universal set.

Edited March 12, 2010 by allanp