Lego dimension packs, for non-gamers

[anothergol]

It's not really a review but a little rant, against those Dimensions packs, for people who don't care about the game itself. I am a gamer, though, but a PC one, so even if I wanted to play Lego Dimensions (& I don't really care for Lego's games which look too much like coin collecting to me), I wouldn't be able to.

So it's not a fair rant, because I will neglect the digital content, but this said, Lego knows well that if they put exclusive parts in a box, non-gamers are gonna buy it as well.

So, because of the price drops everywhere, a lot can be gotten at half price these days. And I'm sorry to say that even at the current prices, it's still a big ripoff. I got Portal 2, BTTF, 2x Ghostbusters & The A Team packs.

I think Portal 2 is the biggest ripoff. Aside from the exclusive minifig, not much else for around 15eur. The portal gun is very poor, it's rubber not even molded right, the handle is slightly too thick for a hand, requires force and mine nearly broke (even though it's rubber, yeah).

The Stay Puft minifig is.. ok.. print is minimal.. not even a drawn "belly" like some minifigs do have. The ghost from the other Ghostbusters pack is.. small & more like something you'd find in a Kinder egg :(

Emmet Brown from the BTTF pack is kinda nice.

For all packs, the parts & builds are rather poor (but ok, those parts are for several builds).
Even the booklets in those boxes don't include instructions. Yeah, it's just ads, and you have to look for the instructions online.

The only good surprise is the A Team pack. Mr T's minifig is nice, and the van is a pretty nice little build. Is it worth the 8eur reduced price? Hell no, but it's nice.

It's a pitty that Lego won't sell those without the content. Pretty ironic when you think of those boxes that went out with their tags empty, I'd buy those at the prices of minifig bags!
So for those of you who are still hesitating about buying Dimension packs for the parts only, I'd say.. don't bother.
I'd really like to get some of the recent packs, like the Adventure Time ones, but it's pretty sad that it's the only way to get those minifigs.

 

Edited December 3, 2016 by anothergol

[gamejutzu]

To a lot of people the price is worth it. Heck, some would even buy at a higher price.

I'd say not all the packs are "outstanding". But there are a few gems, like the Adventure Time packs. The Sonic pack looks really cool as well. Sad there most likely won't be more characters from there though.

Edited December 3, 2016 by gamejutzu

[anothergol]

Sure, and a lot a people will buy a minifig for over 10eur on Bricklink, but this is no aftermarket, it's Lego officially selling a minifig + 10 parts for like 15eur, well knowing that many will buy it for those parts alone.

[Blondie-Wan]

10 hours ago, anothergol said:

Sure, and a lot a people will buy a minifig for over 10eur on Bricklink, but this is no aftermarket, it's Lego officially selling a minifig + 10 parts for like 15eur, well knowing that many will buy it for those parts alone.

(Putting aside that I think all of them have more than 10 additional parts) yes, but... so? They're not selling just the minifigures (and the other parts), even if that's all that some of their customers want. They're selling parts of the game experience, as well. What are they supposed to do, have everyone who buys a LEGO Dimensions pack declare whether they're going to use it in the game or not, and get a big discount if they promise use it only for parts?

Note also that some of these licenses would surely never exist in LEGO at all if not for their inclusion in the game. It's only because of the game material produced that the minifigures exist at all.

[anothergol]

17 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

17 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

What are they supposed to do, have everyone who buys a LEGO Dimensions pack declare whether they're going to use it in the game or not, and get a big discount if they promise use it only for parts?

No, they can simply release sets (or minifig blind bags, which are -already- expensive for what they are, but not nearly as expensive as Dimension packs) with those exclusive parts.

Half of the Dimension packs are re-using past set parts. And guess what, those are the packs that are discounted the most, today, proving that the value is a lot in the parts.
 

Quote

17 hours ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Note also that some of these licenses would surely never exist in LEGO at all if not for their inclusion in the game. It's only because of the game material produced that the minifigures exist at all.

 

Well, what could be the reason Mr T exists as a pack? Lego Ideas, thanks to the many A Team entries that people voted for, that's the reason this strange license (that "no one would have otherwise asked for") came in. Probably the same for Portal 2, Adventure Time, etc.

Edited December 5, 2016 by anothergol

[Blondie-Wan]

2 hours ago, anothergol said:

No, they can simply release sets (or minifig blind bags, which are -already- expensive for what they are, but not nearly as expensive as Dimension packs) with those exclusive parts.

Half of the Dimension packs are re-using past set parts. And guess what, those are the packs that are discounted the most, today, proving that the value is a lot in the parts.
 

Well, what could be the reason Mr T exists as a pack? Lego Ideas, thanks to the many A Team entries that people voted for, that's the reason this strange license (that "no one would have otherwise asked for") came in. Probably the same for Portal 2, Adventure Time, etc.

Technically, Mr. T doesn't exist in a LEGO Dimensions pack; B. A. Baracus does. And The A-Team hasn't actually been particularly big on LEGO Ideas; unlike those other two franchises; there's never been an A-Team project that's gotten enough votes to reach review.

Doing the characters and franchises introduced in the game via a blind-bag series might be problematic. It's one thing when we have something like the Disney Minifigures series, which has nine different franchises represented, but ones which are all Disney-owned and can be handled as a group. A series for the various LEGO Dimensions franchises would be an unwieldy mishmash of properties belonging to Warner Bros., Universal, Fox, the BBC, etc. - some of which are shared with other rightsholders (J. K. Rowling, the Saul Zaentz Company, the estates of J. R. R. Tolkien and Terry Nation, U-Drive Productions, etc.), alongside LEGO's own homegrown IP. And LEGO would have to shoulder this all by themselves, something they didn't do with the game - remember, LEGO Dimensions is itself a Warner production, and I suspect it's actually Warner licensing all these properties, not LEGO, or at least not LEGO by itself. And I think the economics that allow all that for a multi-year videogame simply won't work the same way for a limited-release blind-bag series that's around for a few months.

[julesvincent]

Please put into consideration that if you buy a dimensions pack you not just buy Lego minifigs and parts but also a world in the game that needed to be programmed, servers that need to be maintained, license fees etc. Sure, people that don't play the game have to equally pay that, if they want the figs. But without the game we would never have the minifigs of many of those franchises

[Captain Nemo]

I don't see why we need this admitted rant thread. 

If you buy a product and don't use it as advertised, then yeah, you could be disappointed with the results. Dimensions clearly has a defined use; buying its packs for the purpose of only part of that use means you won't get the full value out of your money spent.