Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[LegendaryArticuno]

I'm 100% okay with the Super Hero team barely pushing out any DC sets, the Scarecrow Tumbler set was one of the best sets of all time, so the quality is there.

I almost wish they also took this approach with Marvel, instead of all the trash they released. All BP2 sets are garbage, all buildable action figures are garbage, and for the most part all mechs are garbage as well.

[Tariq j]

I agree. Plus The Batman sets were pretty good too. 

[Ondra]

I see city sets completely lackluster and inferior in every way conpared to Friends set.

Its amazing how two town oriented themes from same company can be executed so badly and perfectly at the same time. Its pretty mind boggling... Design wise, pieces price ratio, playability etc .

I can only hope for friends train one day, it will put city ones to shame for sure.

[The Brick Boss]

5 hours ago, Ondra said:

I see city sets completely lackluster and inferior in every way conpared to Friends set.

Not really unpopular! If you go around the forum and accross the internet on YouTube and various social media platforms, a lot of people (myself included) agree with you there. The school set is the best example. 

[MAB]

20 hours ago, Ondra said:

I see city sets completely lackluster and inferior in every way conpared to Friends set.

Its amazing how two town oriented themes from same company can be executed so badly and perfectly at the same time. Its pretty mind boggling... Design wise, pieces price ratio, playability etc .

I can only hope for friends train one day, it will put city ones to shame for sure.

The other way of looking at it is that they cater for different markets with the two different ranges. Personally, I'm not a fan of City. But then I am not a 7 year old boy. The prices don't see too bad to me, aside from the sets that contain the new road plates and we know they are expensive.

Now Modulars are essentially City for AFOLS, I don't care that City retains its child focused play and if it gets even more action based play.

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by MAB

[Feuer Zug]

21 hours ago, Ondra said:

I see city sets completely lackluster and inferior in every way conpared to Friends set.

 

16 hours ago, Poodabricks said:

Not really unpopular! If you go around the forum and accross the internet on YouTube and various social media platforms, a lot of people (myself included) agree with you there. The school set is the best example. 

LEGO City seems to be a boy's fantasy city. Lots of police and fire action, but little else. The branching out recently has been nice. The problem is they graft on the expensive road plates, meaning they're rarely worth the price to me (and others.) Friends definitely has more options and the costs are better. Plus they colors aren't predominantly white and blue (police sets) or white and red (fire sets.)

[Ondra]

20 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

 

LEGO City seems to be a boy's fantasy city. Lots of police and fire action, but little else. The branching out recently has been nice. The problem is they graft on the expensive road plates, meaning they're rarely worth the price to me (and others.) Friends definitely has more options and the costs are better. Plus they colors aren't predominantly white and blue (police sets) or white and red (fire sets.)

I was young boy and I always like Belville, Paradisa and even I had two sets from Scala.

My city was small, but I had there shops, bank, rural airport.

I always dig peaceful part of this. I never had military toys and guns, because my father doesnt like it.

 

They did bank last year and guess what, they put in there whole Swat Commando and bank robbers gang inside. Sad state of city sets, or what lego sees as good playability. This is nothing new, this started when lego town became lego city.

Nobody wants to live in crime infested areas in real life, so why buy sets with this theme for kids if is there nice place to live which is Heartlake city .

[The Brick Boss]

20 minutes ago, Ondra said:

Nobody wants to live in crime infested areas in real life, so why buy sets with this theme for kids if is there nice place to live which is Heartlake city .

I guess because Lego sorta believes that shopping and leisure are things that girls seem to he more into while boys seem to be into danger situations. It's kinda sexist to think that. But that's just how Lego operates sometimes. 

[Ondra]

1 minute ago, Poodabricks said:

I guess because Lego sorta believes that shopping and leisure are things that girls seem to he more into while boys seem to be into danger situations. It's kinda sexist to think that. But that's just how Lego operates sometimes. 

Thats how lego operates since 90s. They say how they are progressive, but its same old story...

[MAB]

2 hours ago, Ondra said:

I was young boy and I always like Belville, Paradisa and even I had two sets from Scala.

I imagine that is why you tend to favour Friends sets over City sets now. Whereas other boys that like pushing around cars and more action based play will favour City.

[Ondra]

4 hours ago, MAB said:

I imagine that is why you tend to favour Friends sets over City sets now. Whereas other boys that like pushing around cars and more action based play will favour City.

Dont get me wrong I also like cars, trains, space shuttles and helicopters  People can like various things at once.

I never had problem as kid to play with Barbies from girls, well that barbie was desirable only with car to correct this.

I think kids will play with anything, mind like girls like only barbies and boys like only cars is definitely wrong from my view.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Ondra said:

I think kids will play with anything, mind like girls like only barbies and boys like only cars is definitely wrong from my view.

And presumably that is why they have cars in Friends alongside the shops and houses and they have things like sandwich shop, farmer set, grocery store, beach lifeguard, horse transporter, picnic in the park, school, etc in City. Even though there are some of the mainstays of the emergency services in City, there are plenty of more situation based than danger playsets.

 

These sets are both £25 / $40. Similar theme. Similar designs. Similar play value. Part counts are skewed in favour of Friends, being 211 vs 288, although weights are the opposite 522g vs 499g.

 

 

 

 

I think a lot of the pricing issues are down to inconsistent pricing throughout themes rather than one theme against another. For example, within City:

60345 is £25 but $45. The US price for that one is dreadful. £1.00=$1.80 here.

60327 and 60343 are £25 but $30. £1.00=$1.20 here.

So two £25 sets yet one is 50% more expensive than the other in the US.

Then there is 60324, £40 but $40. £1.00=$1.00 here. If you compare sets where they are at one of these extremes, they are going to look very good or very bad, depending on viewpoint. Some City sets look really badly priced vs Friends, if you pick the wrong ones for that currency, but might actually look better in another currency.

 

But then it is easy to find counter examples the other way. This $50 set with 373 parts looks to be expensive in terms of PPP. It is even worse in the UK, where it costs £55!

 

And in the UK, for the same £55 you can buy this one, but that would set an American back $80.

 

The £55 Friends set looks really overpriced compared to the £55 City set. But then in the US, I'd be comparing a $50 to a $80 set. Even though they are the same sets being compared in both countries.

 

[Ondra]

Lego price increase and lowering pieces in sets albeit fitting same price range will very affect lego...

First set with this was avatar helicopter one, and geez I feel so robbed for that price I paid. For same price last year I get big triangle Eternals spaceship set and two brickbuild creatures with 1000 pieces.

In this chaos and recession up ahead will be lego first hobby to be cutted off from me. 

Still get my eyes on basic creators set and speed champions. But I will be very picky if these sets doesnt meet my standards.

[Toastie]

I never thought I'll post here (and don't take me serious :D)

LEGO set numbering s*cks sh*t. Ha! Bloody Big Brother fooled by two *. So, replace first * with u and second with i. Will be fun to see what happens, when I press "Submit Reply" 

OK, here it is: We are going back in time. 1986. TLG introduced the LEGO Control Interface A, #9750. In the DACTA world, that was #1093. Fine. #9767 was the interface card for the Apple][e. #9771 for the IBM PC. So far, all is good; #9750/#1093 does not work without #9771/#9767.

#9700 "LEGO Technic Control Set" had sensors and motors and bricks'n'plates - for the #9750/#1093.

#9751 is the LEGO Control Interface B (released 1993), may sound good, as #9750 was LEGO Control Interface A. I would NEVER do it that way though - I'd leave SPACE for the stuff that goes with #9750/#1093.

And it goes on: #8094 (LEGO Control Center 1) released in 1990 is still the same as #8485 (LEGO Control Center 2, released in 1995) but the colors of the buttons and outlets changed. And of course the bricks'n'plates ...

#9701, LEGO Control Lab Building Set has 2 motors, and some sensors for #9751, and was released in 1995, two years later, as #9751 was released.

Confused? I am.

But: There is a big, a very big plan behind this. I am sure It is called: It's a kind of magic.

Best (and don't take any of this seriously)

Thorsten

P.S.: I am sure, I messed up the numbers and/or years. But that is part of TLGs plan, yes I love conspiracy theories. Or wait: They - don't have a clue???

[LegendaryArticuno]

On the topic of set numbering, Youtubers who always say the set numbers comes off as very pretentious.

[Lyichir]

4 hours ago, LegendaryArticuno said:

On the topic of set numbering, Youtubers who always say the set numbers comes off as very pretentious.

What? How so?

It's just a way of identifying sets, with a little more brevity than, say, the kind of UPC number you'd see on a barcode. It's also useful for when sets get reissued with changes (and an updated number to go with them even if the set name stays the same), or when discussing sets on an international site like this (since sets can have different names in different languages).

[LegendaryArticuno]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

What? How so?

It's just a way of identifying sets, with a little more brevity than, say, the kind of UPC number you'd see on a barcode. It's also useful for when sets get reissued with changes (and an updated number to go with them even if the set name stays the same), or when discussing sets on an international site like this (since sets can have different names in different languages).

Leave it in the description, there's no need to verbally mention the set number. Anyone that actually needs the set number for any use would be getting it from the source, i.e. Lego or a consolidated list from Brickset.

Nobody is jotting down set numbers based on what a Youtuber is saying.

[Toastie]

3 hours ago, LegendaryArticuno said:

Leave it in the description, there's no need to verbally mention the set number.

You would think, wouldn't you?

LEGO names; well - here we go:

Technic Interface 1, Technic Interface A, Technic Control Set, Technic Control 1, Technic Control 2, Control Lab Serial Interface, Technic Interface B, Control Center 1, Control Center 2, ...

... this is just a small range of names from a certain period of time, some of the above describe more or less the same piece (the difference is w or w/o cable), some are completely different items/set. I can go on and on with more or less similar names of either the set containing the control electronics box or the set representing just a brick expansion set with maybe a lamp.

When you want to figure out what is what, you are simply lost with the name of the set, well at least I am. The number is also more or less arbitrary, but you would think a specific number points exactly to a certain set or piece, wouldn't you? Maybe it does, but for one number I can find quite a range of things it does apparently represent.

But again: I'll figure it out.

Best,
Thorsten

[Yperio_Bricks]

Monkie Kid is the better Ninjago! Friends is the better City!

I wonder what Lego thinks a city looks like? Lego City defintely needs a relaunch. Ninjago should just stop and make room for a new non-licensed action theme. If feel that with both, City and Ninjago, designers run out of ideas a long time ago and things are getting repetitive. Just my 2 cents.

[Toastie]

44 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

I wonder what Lego thinks a city looks like?

It looks absolutely minimalistic. Downsized to the bare minimum of recognition, but bolstered with the new road plates! 

I really agree with you - and chip my 2 cents into the same mug 

Best,
Thorsten

Edited December 5, 2022 by Toastie

[Lira_Bricks]

Lego City is getting better though. They released farm, stunts, a grocery shop, wildlife,... Sure it is not "City", but otherwise lego would have to rebrand the theme as "Lego World". Maybe they should have scrapped the "City" from "Lego World City" back in 2004 instead of scrapping the "World" part ;p

[Feuer Zug]

16 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Monkie Kid is the better Ninjago! Friends is the better City!

I wonder what Lego thinks a city looks like? Lego City defintely needs a relaunch. Ninjago should just stop and make room for a new non-licensed action theme. If feel that with both, City and Ninjago, designers run out of ideas a long time ago and things are getting repetitive. Just my 2 cents.

I agree Friends is definitely more well rounded than City. Monkey Kid may have some neat designs, but the cost is way up there. They need to build sets that aren't all big ticket items. The £10 / €10 / $10 - £30 / €30 / $30 range is barren for Monkie Kid.

City is dominated by police and to a lesser extent fire. Their recent expansion past that is nice, but they need to stop cramming the new road plates down our throat. The roads are jacking the prices up too high.

Ninjago will remain as is. It's LEGO's non-licensed money machine. What do you think could replace it? A re-run of Chima? Ooh, maybe Jack Stone or Galidor. Because it bloody well won't be Bionicle.

[MAB]

I just went through the 2022 City sets as listed on Brickset, ordered by parts count and stopped when I got to polybags. I make the total counts 6.5 sets Police, 3.5 sets Fire and 32 sets not Police or Fire. So about 25% are Police/Fire. The 0.5s in the set counts are because of one combined Police / Fire set.

For road plates, I make it 10 with, 32 without (but I might be two out so 12/30 depending on counting the plates in stuntz sets). So again about 25% of sets have them including one construction set where the plate is being carried by truck. Interestingly, the with/without road plates was about even when going through the larger sets at the start of the list but rapidly sided without without once smaller sets were taken into account. So about 50% of larger City sets have them.

But for next year's sets, I think I saw just one road plate in a set. But of course there are still many to appear.

 

 

 

[TeriXeri]

27 minutes ago, MAB said:

But for next year's sets, I think I saw just one road plate in a set. But of course there are still many to appear.

They did add a studded version of the road plate with the 1x4 side notches to connect them easily on most sets with buildings, basicly a 8x8 or 16x8 variant, used on both normal and 4+ sets.

4+ last used this in 2022 in a set like City Farm but that looks to have been replaced by a proper 8x16 variant now more compatible with road plates and also seen in the Friends 4+ house set as both floors.

 

New "road plate" 

 

Edited December 6, 2022 by TeriXeri

[MAB]

I know those modified bricks (as BL calls them) have existed for almost a decade now. My daughter has a fair few of them from Friends and minidolls sets.I bought her six of the Frozen ones! I don't recall people complaining about the prices of that type of plate though.