Lego frustration

[Artifex]

Hi there!

This just crossed my mind - Have you got any frustrations about Lego? Anything?

If you do, feel free to take it out of your heart!

I, for one, don't own any Pirate set. That's right. I don't have a single Pirate set. I was always in love with the Classic Pirate ships and sets (and the newest ones too), but I never got one. As a kid, I'd always go for City and Castle sets, but for some stupid unknown reason I never went for Pirate.

But I plan to change that now, as an AFOL. Paying your own bills and ebay must count for something.

I did get a couple of bluecoats on ebay last year. So I guess eventually my Lego-related frustration will go away. Oh, and I hope I can MOC half as well as people around here. Sometimes it gets into my nerves that I just can't spare the time to MOC or try this or that technique...

What about you? Any Lego-related frustrations? Now is thet time! Put it out!

[The_YongGrand]

Hi there!

This just crossed my mind - Have you got any frustrations about Lego? Anything?

If you do, feel free to take it out of your heart!

I, for one, don't own any Pirate set. That's right. I don't have a single Pirate set. I was always in love with the Classic Pirate ships and sets (and the newest ones too), but I never got one. As a kid, I'd always go for City and Castle sets, but for some stupid unknown reason I never went for Pirate.

But I plan to change that now, as an AFOL. Paying your own bills and ebay must count for something.

I did get a couple of bluecoats on ebay last year. So I guess eventually my Lego-related frustration will go away. Oh, and I hope I can MOC half as well as people around here. Sometimes it gets into my nerves that I just can't spare the time to MOC or try this or that technique...

What about you? Any Lego-related frustrations? Now is thet time! Put it out!

I have some of the Pirates, some of the Castles and some of the City sets. Most of the Pirates and Castles set were destroyed. One of my frustrations.

Also, for City sets, I do not have a tiled road sets yet. Also, I do not have any of the ambulances or staff doctors. All I have now are Police and Fire brigade sets.

Might get those one by one. Not gonna be easy. :)

[Jargo]

I don't really have any frustrations but it does occur to me that Lego could avoid shoving the same minifigs in multiple sets by simply changing the colour of the plastic used and the colours used to print. I'm thinking about City sets particularly.

Take this torso for example.

switching to different colours would expand the city minifigs without the need to create a new graphic. it would also reflect reality where clothes come in various colours.

In the classic town sets you can find several minifigs using the same torso design in different colours so it should work for modern City minifigs.

Say, this torso in different colours.

Or this one.

[davee123]

I don't really have any frustrations but it does occur to me that Lego could avoid shoving the same minifigs in multiple sets by simply changing the colour of the plastic used and the colours used to print.

Part of why they do that is to save money. If they change the colors, it's a different element, and needs to be treated very differently. It also helps allow them to include MORE minifigures per set if they're using figures that are already in production.

What they *could* do would be to include different combinations of heads, torsos, legs, and hair/hat elements. That would probably cost them very close to the same amount of money. But it probably doesn't solve the issue for you, because you're really just looking for a wider variety of elements, not distinct minifig combinations.

DaveE

[Gryphon Ink]

This just crossed my mind - Have you got any frustrations about Lego? Anything? If you do, feel free to take it out of your heart!

Not enough women. One woman per theme might be more than enough for TLG's main target audience, but not nearly enough for me, or for my daughters. Especially when the token female only comes in one of the more expensive sets.

[Jargo]

I don't see how putting a tonne of red plastic instead of blue into the hoppers can cost more. similarly changing ink colours. it would use the same moulds and print heads but would only require them to be cleaned which Lego must do as regular maintenance anyway.

[mikey]

I don't see how putting a tonne of red plastic instead of blue into the hoppers can cost more. similarly changing ink colours. it would use the same moulds and print heads but would only require them to be cleaned which Lego must do as regular maintenance anyway.

I agree with your suggestion, it would be good to see more variations in torso prints. But, once a particular element is recoloured it then becomes 'a different element' - it may cost the same to produce, but needs to be stored and handled separately, and then picked and selected for a specific set. And at the end of the day a large percentage of the target market probably don't care that much, as they will not accumulate loads of clone torsos in the time they play with Lego.

My biggest frustration is sorting. As soon as I have it how I want it, I get more pieces which don't fit nicely in the system. So I have to reorganise, and have boxes of 'nearly sorted' and 'overfill'. That's my biggest problem with buying sets - the pieces that I don't 'need'. I prefer Bricklink, but the 'good and new' pieces are always to expensive when they first come out, so I buy a few sets and end up with stuff I don't really want.

[Zeya]

My main frustration is lack of time. I don't get to do nearly as much MOCcing as I would like. I buy from about 3 themes (if you count CMFs). It's about all I can do to make the sets I buy, break down the old ones, and sort all the parts away. I can't find enough time among house/dogs/girlfriend upkeep to MOC. I guess it's like most other pleasures in life; duty and responsibility comes first.

Money is a distant second frustration. But I find if I'm patient and spread my spending throughout the year, then I can get most everything I really want. Besides, I knew I was going to be giving up my old life of carefree spending when I shackled myself to a mortgage loan, and I only have myself to blame for that.

[22kane]

Yes. The latest wave of sets in the large retail stores. There really isn't anything that just came out that's really catching my eye. Right around spring and after so many good sets hit the stores, now there is just a bunch of Star Wars and Alien sets I don't want. I'm really hoping to see some good stuff come out early next year. How about more trains?

[1974]

Any Lego-related frustrations?

I had a large Lego collection from the mid 70's to 'bout '89-'90, including just about all town, space, castle, train and technic .. that my parents threw in the trash

But such is life ..

[Oky]

Lego Frustration? Is that a new theme?

The only frustration I have with Lego is that it's too addicting and that I can never have enough of it!

[Ralph_S]

My main frustration is lack of time. I don't get to do nearly as much MOCcing as I would like. I buy from about 3 themes (if you count CMFs). It's about all I can do to make the sets I buy, break down the old ones, and sort all the parts away. I can't find enough time among house/dogs/girlfriend upkeep to MOC. I guess it's like most other pleasures in life; duty and responsibility comes first.

I cab relate to this. I still manage to build a new model a month, on average (usually for he monthly LUGNuts build challenge on flickr), but besides that I have no time, which is probably more than many people manage, but I've got many more ideas. I see so many different people doing cool stuff and would love to do some of it myself, but at the moment can only manage a few hours of building during the weekend. Work is sapping most of my time and energy at the moment.

I don't build sets I buy, but there are some that I would like to put together eventually. I've had a Taj Mahal and a Grand Carousel sitting in their boxes for almost two years now and still haven't gotten around to building them. I also have about a growing backlog (about a dozen) of other sets I bought for the parts and a few partially disassembled MOCs sitting around that I haven't had time to part out/ sort yet.

Cheers,

Ralph

[lightningtiger]

Gee, frustrating.....hmmm, okay....small range of minifig tools, etc., goodness I've being dying for a wheel barrow for my council workers (somewhere for them to sleep when there isn't enough shovels ) and some new kitchenware to make a fantastic kitchen....my own Swedish Chef....here chichy, chichy !

Yes, frustration leads to madness......then you become an AFOL......and what's really frustrating - the lack of money to buy more Lego !

Keep on being frustrated !

[davee123]

I don't see how putting a tonne of red plastic instead of blue into the hoppers can cost more. similarly changing ink colours. it would use the same moulds and print heads but would only require them to be cleaned which Lego must do as regular maintenance anyway.

Well, it may sound small, but the cost is in terms of:

1) Time/effort to reset the mold for the new color

2) Time/effort to adjust inks for printing

3) Loss of raw material during molding change (dunno how much)

4) Addition of new Part Numbers (new bins for storage, additions to part availability)

5) Additional time for bin switching during packaging and assembly processes

Basically, injection molding is made cheap by gross volume of the same thing over-and-over again. The more time you spend changing things (colors, molds, prints, etc), the more it costs. That's why, during a particular year, you'll see a lot of the exact same part/color combinations appear in multiple sets across LEGO's entire lineup-- they're trying to be efficient, and save as much money as possible. If the savings were negligible, I'm sure you'd see a lot more variety in parts produced.

DaveE

[ziljin]

Not having enough money to buy as many castle minifigures Madoka has!

I can start now, but most of the minifigures are already mangled up in garbage dumps or in AFOL collections. And since they are used there is also a certain amount of damaged/faded minfigures with missing plumes and other accessories.

But the only real gripe is the CMF series. If only they could just sell those minfigirues directly isntead of at random. Then I could collect an army of elves, evil dwarves, and etc without forking over 8 dollars a piece... Going to cost like 1000USD just to get 100.

[K-Nut]

The only frustration I have with Lego is that it's too addicting and that I can never have enough of it!

You're gonna eat our Legos? Eat those Jellybean Knights from KK2. I never liked those.

Not having enough money to buy as many castle minifigures Madoka has!

Signed.

My gripes are that some pieces (coughshinyprintscough) fade too easily, print quality is very inconsistent, and that It costs too much. Other than that, nothing.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

My only frustration is that much more minifigures that I want are released each year than I can pay... As a result I have a huge lag that I'm trying to eliminate. It's been hard. Giving tutorships and all to fill the gap Still a long way to go.

[HighFlyer]

I have 2 main frustrations:

- Lack of money (I'm sure most people come across this)

- Lack of space. I do not have sufficient space in my house to create a big town layout

[brickmack]

One of my main frustrations is the play features in recent sets. Some are pretty cool but others just seem stupid (Sound bricks) and cost extra money for parts I don't even want, plus many of them take up space in the set that could be used for adding in more detail. Another thing I don't like is sorting. I get all my parts PERFECTLY organized (clip parts for example), and then this year LEGO goes and releases like 5 new clip parts and I don't have room in my current system for them, so now I have to come up with a new system, get the new containers I will need for that, and shift my entire sorting setup around, while I still have a 20 pound bucket of parts not sorted, just because I stupidly didn't think to add extra sorting space in.

[Niku]

The more I get. The more I need.

[SilentMode]

Definitely agree with the lack of sets that catch my eye, as well as the lack of variation in minifigure parts (especially for City sets) - one wonders how they decide which combinations to use.

But probably my biggest source of frustration is designing a model in LDD, trying to use as few parts as possible, and making the best use of the parts as I can... only to find that a key part isn't available in a certain colour, or that getting hold of said piece will be expensive. The most recent incident involved a 2x2 convex brick in light bluish grey - fortunately I had one in light grey.

[badboytje88]

My only frustration is that the more LEGO I buy, the more containers I need to buy to store the LEGO in, which results in less money for LEGO.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Lego Space has taken up all my space

[MightyMegs]

The sets I buy, go on sale exactly 1 week after I purchase them.

[brickmack]

My only frustration is that the more LEGO I buy, the more containers I need to buy to store the LEGO in, which results in less money for LEGO.

Same here. A few hours ago I filled up my entire drawer (which is like 2.5x1.5x0.8 feet big) and also my overflow bucket for basic bricks. I'm going to have to start sorting by type of brick soon for the basic parts.