2018 City Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Brick Dangerous]

On 28.10.2017 at 1:26 AM, Vindicare said:

Oh wow, it is them, that’s fantastic! Continuing storyline...have they done that before?

Hm, I think I actually would've prefered some new minifigs. If I present them side by side in my city, it's actually messing up my continuity. Or moves the whole place to the Twilight Zone.

On 28.10.2017 at 11:54 AM, LegoFan117 said:

WHY DO ALL THE POLICE SETS SEEM TO HAVE NET LAUNCHERS.

I understand playability, but it seems like LEGO are just adding too much playability.

That statement strikes me as somewhat AFOListic.

[Tom Jurassic]

Just now, Brick Dangerous said:

Hm, I think I actually would've prefered some new minifigs. If I present them side by side in my city, it's actually messing up my continuity. Or moves the whole place to the Twilight Zone.

That statement strikes me as somewhat AFOListic.

It's not AFOListic - it's a statement that I think most people would agree with.

When I was a kid, I would've hated having Police Vehicles with Net Launchers as they don't make sense. A child who loves Cops and Robbers is likely to feel the same - they will want fast vehicles to chase the crooks and then handcuff them.

I have nothing against play features - I always sit and play with sets I build to test them out, but it just feels like it is crossing too much of an extreme.

[SollX]

I NEED!!! that Claas tractor and transport truck.

I dont care for the helicopter but as a heavy haul truck that thing is amazing.

Lego clearly had some Mammoet inspiration.

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by SollX

[koalayummies]

1 hour ago, Brick Dangerous said:

AFOListic.

That is an awesome -ism, has it been used before or did you come up with it?

I agree, there has been a lot of 'AFOLism' lately; adults imposing their desires via critique on sets that are for children. These sets aren't made for AFOL, the boxes are clearly marked ages 5-12 and any features one doesn't like are easily removed and changed because its Lego. 

This is the type of police 4x4 Lego offered when I was a kid. If I was a child today I would be ecstatic about 60172, I would be less ecstatic about inheriting the world's insane problems that all the adults have left in their wake while they simultaneously question an entire generation's imagination, but I would be excited about the direction of Lego if I were a kid.

Old and busted (1992):

New hotness:

Regarding nets on police vehicles: "'[This] concept is absolutely fantastic,' Lon Bartel, the President of the Peoria Police Officers Association, told Fox 10. 'If that thing holds up the way it appears it's going to [be a] huge advantage for law enforcement.'"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3907694/The-Grappler-invention-help-police-safely-stop-high-speed-chases-revealed-Arizona-inventor-Leonard-Stock.html

[Brick Dangerous]

^ Copyright 2017: me. 

I wasn't really serious about it, but yeah, my thinking went along the same lines as yours. Given the fact that we're talking about childrens' toys here and keeping in mind that us AFOLS are only a fraction of the target group, I find it a little absurd to complain about too many play features. I don't think that is something most children would be aggravated by.

[sebitsena]

30 minutes ago, Brick Dangerous said:

^ Copyright 2017: me. 

I wasn't really serious about it, but yeah, my thinking went along the same lines as yours. Given the fact that we're talking about childrens' toys here and keeping in mind that us AFOLS are only a fraction of the target group, I find it a little absurd to complain about too many play features. I don't think that is something most children would be aggravated by.

I watched a report on TV today that said we represent 10% of the customers for TLG ;)

[Brick Dangerous]

Yay! Way to go, AFOLS! 

[DeanLearner]

If that’s 10% of customers, I wonder what percentage of revenue is accounted for by AFOLs...

[K_Tiger]

I'm not a fan of the launcher myself, but eh, it's LEGO. Take it off and plate/tile over the spot.

[sebitsena]

18 minutes ago, DeanLearner said:

If that’s 10% of customers, I wonder what percentage of revenue is accounted for by AFOLs...

It was not discussed. The other information was: most AFOL spend 250-300€ per month and up to 1000€ per month for AFOLs who build big projects (for example: massive cities/diorama for exhibition).

 

[DeanLearner]

1 hour ago, sebitsena said:

The other information was: most AFOL spend 250-300€ per month

Woah! I don’t know whether I should be relieved (I pretty sure I’m spending <£100/month) or outright scared! That’s a lot of money!

[BrickJagger]

6 hours ago, koalayummies said:

This is the type of police 4x4 Lego offered when I was a kid. If I was a child today I would be ecstatic about 60172, I would be less ecstatic about inheriting the world's insane problems that all the adults have left in their wake while they simultaneously question an entire generation's imagination, but I would be excited about the direction of Lego if I were a kid.

This is remarkably true. 

Not too keen on the net shooters. I get that City's target market is small children, but the police sets are getting to the point where they resemble Juniors more than the main brand.

[Legocityfan1998]

On 10/29/2017 at 2:47 PM, SollX said:

I NEED!!! that Claas tractor and transport truck.

I dont care for the helicopter but as a heavy haul truck that thing is amazing.

Lego clearly had some Mammoet inspiration.

Dude I feel the same way. I have to have this truck. Ever since I was a kid I've always been a fan of the tractor-trailer/cargo sets. They're my absolute favorite type of city sets. The helicopter though makes a great vehicle used as cargo to be transported.

Edited November 4, 2017 by Legocityfan1998

[Fenghuang0296]

Do we have any actual pictures of the mining sets?

[*thomas*]

Now that I've seen the actual sets and not some blurry catalogue pictures, the sets are growing on to me.

The Claas Tractor is AMAZING and will be a very nice addition to all the farm and logging sets I've collected over the years (and which are still MISB ).

Apart from the helicopters and over-sized tyres on many vehicles (not the monster truck, ofc), they are nice sets. I've never understood why LEGO feels the urge to produce helicopters ALL the time. Ok, they are cool and yes, as an AFOL you can just 'not buy' the set and get over yourself, but if I were a parent, I would want TLG to offer something else for my kids.

The statement above about the awesomeness of 60172 has baffled me a bit. I was born in '88, so got into LEGO (well, my parents got me into LEGO) when I was 4 or 5 and I remember that everytime we went to store to let me chose a set, I always wanted something that I had seen in real life and looked familiar to me. A crane, a lorry, a pizza shop and I never understood why classmates were so hyped about 'weird' and over-the-top looking sets.
I also know that my parents chose 'special' sets. F.I., there had been police stations for many years, but when the harbour police set came out in 1994 I think it was, I got that set because it was different, but still true to real life.

[lightningtiger]

It seems logical for rehashing police stations and helicopters all the time, they must base the theory that children grow out of Lego after two or three years and then the next lot of kids come along and it starts all over again.

[K_Tiger]

5 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Do we have any actual pictures of the mining sets?

Just the catalog preliminaries.

[Tom Jurassic]

No qualms about the AFOL nature - sorry if it came across that way 

I am interested to see if we get more Hospital stuff in the future - we've had a Helicopter and a Plane now, and LEGO know we want it!

[bzcat]

It seems LEGO has given up on making 4-wide City vehicles... I get 6-wide gives much more detail and you can only do so much with 4-wide but some of the scale of the 6-wide trucks are way off. They are bigger than most City buildings.

[koalayummies]

 

15 hours ago, *thomas* said:

The statement above about the awesomeness of 60172 has baffled me a bit. I was born in '88, so got into LEGO (well, my parents got me into LEGO) when I was 4 or 5 and I remember that everytime we went to store to let me chose a set, I always wanted something that I had seen in real life and looked familiar to me. A crane, a lorry, a pizza shop and I never understood why classmates were so hyped about 'weird' and over-the-top looking sets.
I also know that my parents chose 'special' sets. F.I., there had been police stations for many years, but when the harbour police set came out in 1994 I think it was, I got that set because it was different, but still true to real life.

Care to elaborate how the statement baffles you? Its was a pretty straightforward anecdotal comparison. It really shouldn't need explaining but I was not saying I am interested in it nor that it is awesome, what was said was: "if I was a child today" then 'I would be ecstatic about it' which was part of a larger contextual discussion about the set's merits. And now you can say you have seen true to real life police dirt bike unit and a police pickup truck so the concept is no longer weird or over the top.

7 hours ago, LegoFan117 said:

No qualms about the AFOL nature - sorry if it came across that way 

Get this member a free net launcher! 

[Joebot]

14 hours ago, bzcat said:

It seems LEGO has given up on making 4-wide City vehicles... I get 6-wide gives much more detail and you can only do so much with 4-wide but some of the scale of the 6-wide trucks are way off. They are bigger than most City buildings.

Lego seems to have solved that problem by simply not making buildings anymore. [rimshot]

I too lament the death of 4-wide vehicles. I don't like 6-wide vehicles, let alone the 8-wide stuff that we see now. If you look at that new Dirt Bike Chase set for next year, I think the police truck is actually 10-wide if you include the fenders and wheels. That's just madness. 

I also take issue with Lego's unquestioned assumption that "more detail" is "better." I think Lego has long ago lost a lot of the style and charm that was unique to Lego Town sets. When I look at the two police trucks that koalayummies posted above ... I gotta say, I love that old set 6533. To me, that's what Lego Town looks like. It's cute and charming and approachable in a way that the current Lego City line lacks, with their huge, aggressive vehicles.

I also grant you that I'm old, and nostalgia is possibly a factor in my viewpoint. Now get off my lawn!

 

[Tom Jurassic]

What kind of structure do we think the Police Station will be?

I think we may be getting it on a Mountain/part of a Mountain.

[K_Tiger]

We've seen the preliminary of the station. It's partially built into rock. Doesn't look very good.

[AFOLguy1970]

My guess is that the jail cell(s) would have some kind of escape feature as this seems to be a requirement of all police stations in the City line.  Perhaps, instead of the usual breakaway wall, it could be a secret tunnel dug out of the side of the mountain (think Shawshank Redemption)

[K_Tiger]

Looks like a breakaway cell again.