Why are there less reviews than before on Eurobricks?

[Freekysch]

You guys are right, the standards are very high here and when I joined the Academy I could see how much work involves making a great review. I made some reviews over the time - mostly Technic, but never got to do a review with the Review Academy for various reasons - lack of time, lack of a good camera, etc. However I try my best whenever I get a set I try to do a review of it because I always enjoy when I read other people reviews

[Andy D]

A so, so pictorial review is better than a good video review (IMHO), why? You ask.. Usually a video review just covers seeing the completed model and the some of the builder's comments and experience (maybe) building it. Sometimes the video reviewer was not the person building the model. A pictorial review includes photos from box opening to completed model and much in between. I enjoy seeing the different build stages and sometimes the build stages will point out areas that may be problematic in assembly.

I also enjoy reviews that are completely self contained in EuroBricks. I don't want to go to a YouTube video or external blog or site.

I also very much enjoy the discussion generated by a review on EB. Somehow we as a community need to encourage more reviewers to post pictorial reviews on EB. Reviews on EB are generally better quality than external reviews and if there is a purchase decision to be made from a review I always look for an EB review to help me with that decision.

Just to add here... I believe the reason for high quality reviews on EB is The Reviewer's Academy. They have high standards and even reviews by non Academy members seem to try to make their review of the same format and quality.

Just MHO, YMMV.

Andy D

Edited February 26, 2015 by Andy D

[Enrys]

I agree with Andy. Text reviews are easier to consume than video reviews imo. Good formatting means you can get your thoughts across easily, whereas a video review might lack that clear message.

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

The biggest two problems are that Youtube allows to easily monetize your reviews so people are more concerned with becoming a youtube celebrity than giving people informations about Lego sets and that the Reviewers Academy makes it look like you are not allowed to post any reviews that are not up to its standard so the only pictorial stuff we have are:

Many High quality reviews by academy members who are most of the time rather poor and only review smaller sets, often times making up to 10 reviews for the same set when it really isn´t necessary

A few mid quality reviews by random sets from regular members.

Quite a number of low quality reviews with tiny, blurry pictures made by people that most often don´t know what they are doing that are for many sets the only reviews they will ever get.

All CMFs and D2C sets because Lego sends out a dozen of them to every halfway-notable site.

The academy is still a good idea as it teaches people to correctly use things like photoshop that could come in handy in many aspects of life and it´s good to have a place with exceptional standards so the art of perfect reviews is not lost in time but some notes and tips for less complex/cheaper methods (like telling people large baseplates for backgrounds are perfectly fine if they don´t want to make a literal photostudio and less emphasis on written text as most of what the academy wants is mindless prose while the pictures tell you all you need to know) would definitely motivate more people to do at least something instead of giving up after the first paragraph.

As an Eurobricks Staff and regular reviewer, I strive to share LEGO Pictorial reviews whenever is possible. I still buy sets and I will share reviews as and when is appropriate in respective theme forums within Eurobricks, like the recent City Starter set, Ninjago 2015 sets, etc. Just that I am not sure if people are interested to see regular set reviews anymore? Or people are only awaiting for the upcoming hype of sets which is not available in market. I always personally find reviews to be an extremely valuable resource for a LEGO community which will aid in your buying decision or simply admire the set in greater detail for those who have not own or intend to buy the set.

Well, obviously everyone wants to see the reviews for the upcoming sets because they most likely buy the sets near to their release so that goes hand in hand which I also find sad because reviews of older sets are basically non-existent. 90s and early 00s stuff was barely reviewed as it is and the few reviews that were made start to disappear because the members leave the community and delete everything from their flickr accounts or used crap sites like photobucket and imageshack. I was on a binge looking for decades old sets that I may wanted to buy and nearly every review I found was a picture-less ghost town of a thread littering the site with shallow text. It wasn´t really problematic for me as you can still get an idea of any given set through Bricklink inventories and downloadable instructions but those are easily beat by an okay review.

P.S. Whitefang, please make your background less bloomy, anytime you photograph white parts they are practically invisible that you might as well could just write an additional paragraph of description and remove the picture for a better review, I already tried to tell you that in your CMF reviews, sorry.

If you look at the Star Wars forum, the three latest UCS sets Ewok Village, Sandcrawler and Slave I haven't got any reviews here. I also urge people to give as much support and feedback on Reviews as much as possible.

Why would we need reviews for those when Fbtb, Brickset, Brothers-Brick and countless others had their reviews of those sets up weeks before they went on sale?

I wish Lego could put as much effort into promoting normal sets as they do on the quarter year long campaigns for every D2C. Instead they actively hold off the release of pictures for normal sets until a week to a month before release with the Toy Fair with summer sets being the only exception.

I myself wanted to better the situation but I just came out of the habit of doing reviews after I realized how much money I could save by waiting for decent discounts instead of buying everything on full price like an idiot. So because of that and my generally lowered spending on Lego I don´t really have anything to review. Special stuff like CMFs and D2C sets get their reviews ages before I even see them in stores and with everything else it seems that the guy running Fbtb has the same taste as I do because he reviewed every single set I bought since January 2013 earlier than I could even get my hands on them. I doubt it will change any time soon but if I ever get my hands again on an unreviewed or bad reviewed set I will make one but otherwise it will just be redundant.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Navy Trooper Fenson

[Mikuri]

I'm planning to review the full last wave of Chima and the Elves sets. And since I speak french, a pictoral review would be easier for me :P

I'll try to meet the RA standards as much as I can, I probably only need to set up a studio for pictures and we're good to go.

[Andy D]

Great! I will look forward to you reviews!

Thanks in advance for helping to fill the review gap.

Andy D

[legoguy1984]

I also enjoy a written review with pictures. I can read it at my leisure so if I have to do something else I can always come back to it. Not so much with a video review. I read the reviews firstly to see if I like what the set will look like as TLG will often only use flattering angles to sell their product and secondly to get ideas for my own builds. I normally never post anything as I feel that I have nothing to add, especially if I would be the tenth to say nothing more than "Wow, great review." I do however realise that it takes alot of time and effort from the reviewer and will definitely be saying thanks from now on.