Digger of Bricks

LEGO City 2020 - Rumors, Speculation, and Discussion

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29 minutes ago, fordtruckin said:

I agree with you that they are similar in play features but 2014 version looks more modern and realistic to me. 2020 looks more "plain" and "simple" to me personally. And when putting the whole 2020 subtheme of police against the whole 2014 police subtheme, 2014 overall looks way better to me.

I don't think any of them are really realistic. But they contain all the essential play features a kid would expect in a toy police station. They move bits around from design to design, but the features are very similar - the jail cells (always placed to be broken out of), the glass office areas, the barriers. The main difference is the floorspace, which is in line with the gradual reduction in the number of larger plates. The other obvious difference is the lack of the pull down garage door.

Personally, I think there was a bigger jump between the 2011 and 2014 sets than 2014 and 2020 sets. But then there was the intermediate 2017 one

60141-1.jpg?201611300919

which again had that more substantial building section, but again the feeling is mainly down to space. If I was in the market for one, I'd go for this one now rather than wait for the new one next year.

Edited by MAB

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4 hours ago, MAB said:

I don't really see how having a name printed on the box changes 2020's City from previous ones. Does a child play with an otherwise generic police set in a different way because the box says the names are Duke and Vito or Sam and Snake?

I'm not a child psychologist, but ... I think it's different. The City named characters are now based on an IP in a different media (Lego City Adventures TV show). By using named characters from that show, Lego is, consciously or not, encouraging kids to act out the stories from that show, rather than make up their own. Just like kids do when they play with Luke Skywalker or Superman or Bilbo Baggins. Instead of a blank slate, Lego is filling in the details for the child. That undermines the unique storytelling position Lego City / Town used to have. 

 

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35 minutes ago, Joebot said:

I'm not a child psychologist, but ... I think it's different. The City named characters are now based on an IP in a different media (Lego City Adventures TV show). By using named characters from that show, Lego is, consciously or not, encouraging kids to act out the stories from that show, rather than make up their own. Just like kids do when they play with Luke Skywalker or Superman or Bilbo Baggins. Instead of a blank slate, Lego is filling in the details for the child. That undermines the unique storytelling position Lego City / Town used to have. 

 

Not that you didn't bring up some good points, @MAB. But.....what Joebot said is kinda how I feel. I'm just not able to do it in a way where the point would be misunderstood. But like he said, the imagination is kinda hindered when the characters are already named as oppose to coming generically. Yes they can make their own minifigures. I'm just speaking on a surface level. That's all. 

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However, I do have to admit that of all the Lego themes out there, City seems to be the one that starts the most arguments or cause the most uproar. I say this from experience. I don't speak for everyone. So please don't hate me. 

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44 minutes ago, pooda said:

However, I do have to admit that of all the Lego themes out there, City seems to be the one that starts the most arguments or cause the most uproar. I say this from experience. I don't speak for everyone. So please don't hate me. 

That's because City is the most prominent theme that LEGO designs. There can't be uproar about Star Wars because those are designed by Disney and the sets are as close to that as possible so you can't complain about the sets.

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On 11/21/2019 at 12:19 PM, Dominic said:

That's because City is the most prominent theme that LEGO designs. There can't be uproar about Star Wars because those are designed by Disney and the sets are as close to that as possible so you can't complain about the sets.

Not only that, but they stay on topic which is of course....Star Wars. Same with other licensed themes. Friends is generic, but they stay on topic and focus on well......bad joke warning......their friendships. Same with Creator as it encourages you to play with your mind a little and come up with cool creations. 

But City, which is supposed to focus on realistic action that you'd see in the City. Most of the action that you see takes place out of the city like volcanoes, space, the arctic, jungles, mountain police, etc. I don't think people hate the sets in general. Its just the fact that they are under the City theme despite not exactly taking place "in the City". I do kinda feel those people as "out of the city" themes being in a "city" theme is not really easy to ignore. At the same time, I do understand why they did it that way.

  • Our nostalgia for old exploration themes will sell better
  • The originals from the late 90s and early 2000s were technically spin-off themes of Town Jr. 

That's kinda why despite agreeing with those people who say "That should be its own theme all together; Lego Explorers", I do have a soft spot for Arctic, Space and Deep Sea Exploration as I used to play with those in my single digits. I do hope they bring Extreme Team, Res Q (though I think Great Vehicles and Coast Guard has already covered those) and Outback back. 

Edited by pooda

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1 hour ago, pooda said:

However, I do have to admit that of all the Lego themes out there, City seems to be the one that starts the most arguments or cause the most uproar. I say this from experience. I don't speak for everyone. So please don't hate me. 

Not even close. Its been stated that the Town forum is on the low end for requiring moderator attention. We should really try to keep it that way.

Edited by koalayummies

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2 hours ago, Joebot said:

I'm not a child psychologist, but ... I think it's different. The City named characters are now based on an IP in a different media (Lego City Adventures TV show). By using named characters from that show, Lego is, consciously or not, encouraging kids to act out the stories from that show, rather than make up their own. Just like kids do when they play with Luke Skywalker or Superman or Bilbo Baggins. Instead of a blank slate, Lego is filling in the details for the child. That undermines the unique storytelling position Lego City / Town used to have. 

 

And what if they haven't seen the show? My kids played with Nexo Knights and Chima sets making up their own stories without seeing the shows, but knew their names. It took him quite a while to work out how to play with them and how they interacted but he made up his own stories, mainly based on cultural heritage he already knew - so for example at first the Nexo Knights were enemies as they had different crests and he acted out stories of knights fighting for their castles and so on, but later became allies when he got some of the villains.  Similar with Chima, the lions and crocs were enemies, then friends, then enemies again, and so on until he decided how he wanted to play. He wasn't told a storyline but he soon assumed storylines based on stories he had heard before. Knowing they were called Laval and Cragger as it was on the box didn't stop him making up his own stories.

But also, what if they have seen the show? Once my son saw Chima cartoons, he still played out his own ideas. In fact they were probably more detailed than before he had seen the cartoons. Just like fans (of any franchise) can write their own fan fiction, kids can make up stories about what happens when (insert character) does (something). Knowing what the characters are like doesn't stop them telling stories, it may even help. LEGO are already filling in details about storytelling when they have the word police on the side of a car or put a minifigure in a police uniform or in a stripy sweater. Does that undermine storytelling? They have already given the storyline a huge steer by telling the child it is a policeman in this case. They are unlikely to act out him being a knight (or a duke, given his name), they are more likely to act out him catching a thief. In fact, many kids need some sort of idea about how to play / act out a story before they can start making up their own stories and usually this comes from memory of other related stories they have heard. Give a child a character in an outfit that they know absolutely nothing about and they are less likely to play with it, as the character has no significance whatsoever. Ask them to make up a story about some type of person or a job role they have never heard of and they will likely come up with nothing, even though they have a completely blank canvas.

Did this guy ruin storytelling for pirates fans, as he was named - Captain Red Beard.

 

pi055.png

 

To me, his outfit defines the storyline much more than his name. I imagine most children would act out a pirate story similar to one they have heard or read before if they had that character but did not know what his name was. Now tell the children that he is called Captain Red Beard and that he is a pirate captain. Would they play in a different way? I doubt it. Now show them a cartoon with him in. Would they play in a different way? I imagine the cartoon has a bigger effect than telling them a name. If they see a cartoon, they will copy stories they see in the cartoon. But if they didn't see a cartoon, they would still copy stories they had heard before, whether or not they know he is called Captain Red Beard. However, even after seeing a cartoon, some kids will make up their own stories about Captain Red Beard about how he became the captain or what happened after the adventures in the cartoons and so on. Others, with less imagination, won't.

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2 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Not even close. Its been stated that the Town forum is on the low end for requiring moderator attention. We should really try to keep it that way.

I mean just in general, I see most people arguing about City. Like all over social media. Not just here. 

Edited by pooda

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I'm disappointed that there's no minifig-scale airplane in the 1H Creator line this year, but that little Cessna makes up for it.  I've wanted a little Lego Cessna like that for years; I still have my childhood MOC of one.  Ideally, I'd prefer a three seater Cessna with wheels, but this is good enough for now.

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Ooh that ice cream truck is adorable! it looks just like the Pizza Truck from . . . was it really 2017? . . and that’s had pride of place in my city for quite a while, and I suspect this one will join it! And the Street Sweeper, and the Mail Plane, these are all so good!

HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT! There’s an image on #legoleaks of a new official white baseplate? Is this real? I don’t remember hearing anything about a white baseplate. This is so good if it’s real, I have bought so many knockoff brand white baseplates because I needed snowy areas in my layout and official ones would be sweet!

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4 hours ago, pooda said:

Screams from excitement 

:excited: I love the Ice Cream Truck and the Street Sweeper as well.

Edited by AMD

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3 hours ago, Agent 86 said:

The street sweeper is a nice surprise. And the ice cream truck is very cool (pun intended).

Ok! I love it when City surprises me. I was really surprised with the street sweeper as I thought it would be yellow. But no, its green and obviously its owned by the same company that owns the garbage trucks judging from the sign. 

Good pun on the ice cream truck. I'm actually planning on picking that one up too. 

The one I am disappointed over is the mail plane. It was kinda hoping that the unnamed great vehicle would be a school bus. But considering that we haven't seen a mail vehicle in almost a decade, I'm not complaining. 

The great vehicles have really put my mind at ease. 

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6 minutes ago, lifeinplastic said:

Although not incredible, these later sets seem a lot better designed than the Police and Fire ones.

Hey! The forest fire buggy and the police brick box don't look all that bad. 

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I have the 2014 set, the office part is great, my favorite City PD Station is 2011. No matter what I think (or hope) that the 2020 station will be the worst in City.

I like the street sweeper, the ice cream truck is a little boring to me. It's just a longer version of the Friends hot chocolate truck.

So only the street sweeper and postal plane for me. So $16 spent after they go on sale. Cheap year. Now I wish I budgeted better so I could buy the NinjaGo Modulars. :laugh:

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49 minutes ago, lifeinplastic said:

Although not incredible, these later sets seem a lot better designed than the Police and Fire ones.

Thing is the police and fire ones are essentially always the same. There's only so many ways to design a cop car or a police station aimed a kids without going expert like a modular.

 

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Well, those babies are pretty sweet! 

Street Sweeper: Nice that we have a cheap one (The others were is like 40-60 sets recently, right?) Might get it

Mail Plane: Really like it, one of my favorites so far. Nice vintage vibe

Monster Truck: Not as obnoxious as the one from last year

Ice Cream Truck: Very similar to the Pizza Van from 17. Very nice for a summer town setup

Racing Boat Transport: Boats nice, truck looks a little weird with that technic assembly

Safari Off-Roader: Really nice, but I guess it means we're not getting a whole safari theme

 

Overall nothing to really complain about with these. Still aren't huge friends with the semi-juniors thing on some of them, that's it. And for those of you who are prejudiced against LCA, they're totally name-free.

 

So now we start looking for summer leaks...

EDIT: There's another set (Juniors bulldozer w/ a small crane) on IG.

 

Edited by Dominic

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Street sweeper and ice cream van are totally awesome.......the bulldozer set is another 4+ set......pass.

Where's though automotive theme city sets.......I wonder what the service station will look like.

It will be our luck we'll need to wait to a toy fair early next year to see......I hope not.

 

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42 minutes ago, Dominic said:

And for those of you who are prejudiced against LCA, they're totally name-free.

I'm definately not prejudice. At least we have the option of changing the minifigures. 

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