Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[MAB]

14 minutes ago, CDKiii said:

Yes, but i think it looses it charm.

A pirate of caribbean boat will not be mixable with a imperial fort, or a marvel building will not takes place in a city, except if you replace all minifigures. 

Licensed sets become a bigger part of lego catalog and the system of lego which would be everything could fit together is a little away.

It is not a huge deal but it is too bad, my opinion.

There are still more unlicensed sets than licensed, and more unlicensed than there was 20 years ago. If you want sets to go with City, then buy City or Creator or ICONS. I find minifigs from unlicensed themes such as Ninjago are harder to use in City than some licensed minifigures. If they put yellow characters in licensed sets now to try to appeal to people not interested in the license, people interested in more realistic looking characters would not be as likely to buy. Then in that case, they might as well not make the licensed set at all. I think it is good they make products appeal to a wider market. It is usually quite easy to switch heads and hands, so long as there is no skin print on the torso or legs.

[danth]

15 minutes ago, MAB said:

There are still more unlicensed sets than licensed

In minifig themes? Hmm. I'm going to say no, until proven wrong.

[Vindicare]

On 2/9/2023 at 11:24 PM, LegendaryArticuno said:

Daily Bugle > Rivendell

Imo taking into consideration the set as a whole from design, play, display, and value, the Daily Bugle is still Lego's best set ever released.

Daily Bugle is a *boring* set though. It’s a tall building with a lot of glass. The build surprisingly wasn’t as tedious as I thought it was going to be. I love the set, but it’s far from being the best. Minifig wise, it’s close but I still have to give it to Rivendell. Bugle did give us some great superheroes but the others are fairly underwhelming(aside from JJJ’a alt face). Value I’ll give to Bugle though. $500 is a lot to swallow no mater the set. Even with the underwhelming minifigures, we still get a boatload in the Bugle. Design, there’s no contest there, Rivendell is ornate& gorgeous. Display is about equal footing for me as well. Bugle is tall(double what Rivendell is), but doesn’t take a lot of shelf space...while Rivendell is over 2 feet long...

[A_Forest_of_Lego]

21 hours ago, CDKiii said:

Hello everyone, i'd like to talk about what i really dislike about lego (except the price): 

Why more and more minifigures have flesh skin tone insted of classic yellow.

I believe that the cool thing about lego is to simplify real life stuff in a toy aspect, trying to seize some key features to make it recognisable. Reallistic skin makes it less toyish, too close to the real world, so less "legoish".

I prefer the yellow minifigs too, but I don't know if it's just because the flesh skin tone didn't exist when I was a kid, so I got used to yellow. I wonder how the younger generation who grew up with both colors feel about them?

[MAB]

6 minutes ago, A_Forest_of_Lego said:

I prefer the yellow minifigs too, but I don't know if it's just because the flesh skin tone didn't exist when I was a kid, so I got used to yellow. I wonder how the younger generation who grew up with both colors feel about them?

One thing that has changed a lot is self representation. With the huge variety of body parts that are available, people like to represent themselves in minifigures. Race and skin colour then becomes an issue. Although LEGO use the story that yellow means they don't assign any ethnicity, many people assume yellow means Caucasian, and this was backed up by using yellow for white people in early licensed sets. I see City as some fantasy world and not real world, but if others want it to mimic the real world then the uniform skin colour can be an issue, especially if they view yellow equals white and they want to depict other races.

For Castle and fantasy, I prefer fleshie as I like to represent history and often licensed fantasy.  I grew up with maxi figures and early minifigures so I'm not younger generation, and there are plenty of people my age that prefer realistic flesh to yellow just as there are plenty that prefer yellow and some that prefer classic smileys.

[A_Forest_of_Lego]

17 hours ago, MAB said:

I see City as some fantasy world and not real world, but if others want it to mimic the real world then the uniform skin colour can be an issue, especially if they view yellow equals white and they want to depict other races.

I don't really see that as a problem, I find that darker skin tones go well with my yellow minifigs. It's just the flesh skin tone that would make the yellow minifigs look weird if they were used together.

But it's good that they release both, so people are free to choose the one they prefer! I just think it would be nice to have yellow minifigs in licensed sets every now and then, just to be able to choose the color we prefer.

[MAB]

6 hours ago, A_Forest_of_Lego said:

I don't really see that as a problem, I find that darker skin tones go well with my yellow minifigs. It's just the flesh skin tone that would make the yellow minifigs look weird if they were used together.

But it's good that they release both, so people are free to choose the one they prefer! I just think it would be nice to have yellow minifigs in licensed sets every now and then, just to be able to choose the color we prefer.

Putting yellow in licensed would be confusing now. If yellow is representing white characters in licensed, it sends the message that unlicensed sets with yellow are whites too. If you want yellow licensed characters, you can pull off the hands and switch to yellow and replace the realistic coloured heads with yellow. It is only where skin is printed on torsos and less commonly on legs that there is an issue. 

[CDKiii]

You're right, lego went to far to go back.

I remenber my first star wars set, the speeder bikes on andor with yellow head of scout troopers with black ski mask to make the visor of the helmet. It was a nice set.

[MAB]

They did recently (2019) do the anniversary figures for Star Wars where they used yellow skin again for these one-off display figures. They did Lando again using reddish brown and this just shows the issue - yellow means Caucasian skin.

 

 

[jimmynick]

Can't remember if I've said it before but even so it bears repeating because it grinds my gears: NOT EVERY NICE MOC NEEDS TO BE AN IDEAS PROJECT

[MAB]

50 minutes ago, jimmynick said:

Can't remember if I've said it before but even so it bears repeating because it grinds my gears: NOT EVERY NICE MOC NEEDS TO BE AN IDEAS PROJECT

Neither do the crappy ones! :-)

[ks6349]

I don't know if it's unpopular opinion. However, I seriously wish Lego would use the flip box in the old day that we could see the Lego inside. It's a great way to enjoy looking at the Lego without having to open it and at the same time, get rid of the possibility that the Lego bricks are stolen and resealed.

[MAB]

13 minutes ago, ks6349 said:

I don't know if it's unpopular opinion. However, I seriously wish Lego would use the flip box in the old day that we could see the Lego inside. It's a great way to enjoy looking at the Lego without having to open it and at the same time, get rid of the possibility that the Lego bricks are stolen and resealed.

LEGO are reducing single use plastic packaging. It also doesn't really help on the larger sets produced today.

[Lyichir]

7 hours ago, ks6349 said:

I don't know if it's unpopular opinion. However, I seriously wish Lego would use the flip box in the old day that we could see the Lego inside. It's a great way to enjoy looking at the Lego without having to open it and at the same time, get rid of the possibility that the Lego bricks are stolen and resealed.

I think one major issue with those (apart from the environmental impact of single-use plastic packaging) is that while they would make theft of the most exclusive, desirable parts more evident (as in, subsequent buyers would be able to notice they were missing), they also made that theft that much easier (since thieves wouldn't have to sort through the contents of a set to find parts and figs, they could just tear open the plastic cover and all of those parts would be ripe for the taking). Having that kind of visibility would be more of a curse than a blessing if you could no longer find sets that HADN'T been broken into.

Heck, at a lot of retailers in the U.S., the bigger sets that in the past might've had those sorts of features are fitted with anti-theft devices that'd prevent a box flap like that from being opened, and sometimes even have display cases where you can see the bigger sets in their fully constructed glory. Those sorts of things probably go a long way toward replacing those older-style box windows in a much more secure fashion.

[ks6349]

26 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

I think one major issue with those (apart from the environmental impact of single-use plastic packaging) is that while they would make theft of the most exclusive, desirable parts more evident (as in, subsequent buyers would be able to notice they were missing), they also made that theft that much easier (since thieves wouldn't have to sort through the contents of a set to find parts and figs, they could just tear open the plastic cover and all of those parts would be ripe for the taking). Having that kind of visibility would be more of a curse than a blessing if you could no longer find sets that HADN'T been broken into.

Heck, at a lot of retailers in the U.S., the bigger sets that in the past might've had those sorts of features are fitted with anti-theft devices that'd prevent a box flap like that from being opened, and sometimes even have display cases where you can see the bigger sets in their fully constructed glory. Those sorts of things probably go a long way toward replacing those older-style box windows in a much more secure fashion.

You are talking about theives who steal directly in the shop. I am not worried, because if you are worried about this, everything in a shop should be worried, not only Lego. It is criminal. In addition, it is not easy to do this thing in a shop, many shops now are surveillanced.

I am talking about those "part-time" theives who may be a Lego fans and have a normal job but they just don't want to pay for their hobbies. (There are plenty of such disgusting people here in my city). These rats dare not steal Lego bricks or minifigures directly in a shop but they buy it first, break the box open carefully and then reseal it and return to the merchant. Toysrus here has been adding extra tapes for years because they allow refund/return but they also foresee or experience the problems. I will not say that it is not criminal but I think EVEN IF the merchant is smart enough to check the returned products to see if anything is missing and they found that, the customers won't probably be sent to the police but my experience is - MOST, if not all, merchants of big stores never check returned items. If they are cheap or fresh foods, they may go to bin directly. But I don't think they will let the returned Lego sets go to bin or check the returned Lego carefully before putting back to the shelf. 

Without any doubt, Lego boxes in the old day were much better. Visibility means, at least, major parts and minifigures can be seen before purchase.

Edited February 15, 2023 by ks6349

[Lyichir]

48 minutes ago, ks6349 said:

You are talking about theives who steal directly in the shop. I am not worried, because if you are worried about this, everything in a shop should be worried, not only Lego. It is criminal. In addition, it is not easy to do this thing in a shop, many shops now are surveillanced.

I am talking about those "part-time" theives who may be a Lego fans and have a normal job but they just don't want to pay for their hobbies. (There are plenty of such disgusting people here in my city). These rats dare not steal Lego bricks or minifigures directly in a shop but they buy it first, break the box open carefully and then reseal it and return to the merchant. Toysrus here has been adding extra tapes for years because they allow refund/return but they also foresee or experience the problems. I will not say that it is not criminal but I think EVEN IF the merchant is smart enough to check the returned products to see if anything is missing and they found that, the customers won't probably be sent to the police but my experience is - MOST, if not all, merchants of big stores never check returned items. If they are cheap or fresh foods, they may go to bin directly. But I don't think they will let the returned Lego sets go to bin or check the returned Lego carefully before putting back to the shelf. 

Without any doubt, Lego boxes in the old day were much better. Visibility means, at least, major parts and minifigures can be seen before purchase.

I understand your point, but what you are suggesting would make the kind of theft you are referencing practically unnecessary since stealing the most desirable contents in the shop itself would be made trivial. And being able to tell whether or not a set had been stolen from would provide little overall benefit if the method of doing so encouraged thieves by making the lengthy process of buying, pillaging, and returning sets unnecessary to acquire valuable parts like minifigures or other exclusive elements.

I think the best method of ensuring that you are getting a complete, untampered set is probably to order sets online through Lego or another reputable online retailer. And that kind of purchase (much more common today than in the 80s and 90s when physical flaps or windows were included on larger sets) wouldn't really benefit at all from those features.

[Toastie]

5 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

And that kind of purchase (much more common today than in the 80s and 90s when physical flaps or windows were included on larger sets) wouldn't really benefit at all from those features.

In the US and maybe to some extent in Europe.

No sarcasm here.

 

[MaximillianRebo]

I had a few classic space sets way back when that had viewing windows, especially ones that came with lunar baseplates. It could be because I was smaller back then but it feels like the box size for those sets is not much different to a largish modern set, the difference being however that the older sets had only several hundred pieces vs well over a thousand nowadays. Yes the pieces were on average bigger back then but modern sets still have more volume of stuff.

We know that modern sets still have a fair amount of air in the box so it's not impossible to reintroduce this feature in theory, but I imagine in practice it would result in bigger boxes and a likely price increase as always appears to occur.

[ks6349]

7 hours ago, Lyichir said:

I understand your point, but what you are suggesting would make the kind of theft you are referencing practically unnecessary since stealing the most desirable contents in the shop itself would be made trivial. And being able to tell whether or not a set had been stolen from would provide little overall benefit if the method of doing so encouraged thieves by making the lengthy process of buying, pillaging, and returning sets unnecessary to acquire valuable parts like minifigures or other exclusive elements.

I think the best method of ensuring that you are getting a complete, untampered set is probably to order sets online through Lego or another reputable online retailer. And that kind of purchase (much more common today than in the 80s and 90s when physical flaps or windows were included on larger sets) wouldn't really benefit at all from those features.

Why little overall benefit?????? On the contrary, by being more visible to the customers, it is adding much more cost and risk to the theives, while more protection to normal customers. The merchant will more likely flip the box and have a look at the contents before issuing refund. The thieve will probably have to replace the stolen minifigures with counterfeit or something else. Most other customers will likely flip the box to see the contents inside. It is adding a lot more layers of protection for normal customers and against Lego thieves!!

[MAB]

2 hours ago, ks6349 said:

Why little overall benefit?????? On the contrary, by being more visible to the customers, it is adding much more cost and risk to the theives, while more protection to normal customers. The merchant will more likely flip the box and have a look at the contents before issuing refund. The thieve will probably have to replace the stolen minifigures with counterfeit or something else. Most other customers will likely flip the box to see the contents inside. It is adding a lot more layers of protection for normal customers and against Lego thieves!!

Little benefit since most sets sold in stores have not been bought and returned, let alone bought, opened, parts stolen, resealed and returned.

[timemail]

5 hours ago, ks6349 said:

Why little overall benefit?????? On the contrary, by being more visible to the customers, it is adding much more cost and risk to the theives, while more protection to normal customers. The merchant will more likely flip the box and have a look at the contents before issuing refund. The thieve will probably have to replace the stolen minifigures with counterfeit or something else. Most other customers will likely flip the box to see the contents inside. It is adding a lot more layers of protection for normal customers and against Lego thieves!!

Potentially this is a localised issue as it seems not many others experience this on the multiple posts you have made on this in the past. Not sure what part of the Arctic you are from where this occurs.

I worked retail for many years and the scenario you talk about was very rare. People just steal things here either the whole box or rip it open in store and take what they want. They don't go to the trouble of buying things, substituting/removing them, and returning them. It may be different again elsewhere.

What we did often see (and I still see when shopping as I am no longer in retail) is that anything with a plastic type container you are describing will be ripped open in store and stolen. Hot Wheels are a perfect example with the $50 plus sets with exclusive cars having the cars stolen off of the sets in the store and the rest left there. Cars, like minifigs, would slip straight into a pocket all too easily. It is the reason the hard plastic cases now exist on high risk (especially small) products.

Removing Lego from a sealed cardboard box and putting the desirable items in an easy to see and access spot would lead to more theft here, not less (unless they went to a much sturdier plastic case which would raise packaging costs significantly).

Edited February 16, 2023 by timemail

[TeriXeri]

I had a train set back in the 90s which had a lid box, and it was missing one 9v rail, but I don't believe it was stolen, but rather a very rare packing error, which the shop did fix themselves pretty much the same day.

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by TeriXeri

[ks6349]

3 hours ago, timemail said:

Potentially this is a localised issue as it seems not many others experience this on the multiple posts you have made on this in the past. Not sure what part of the Arctic you are from where this occurs.

I worked retail for many years and the scenario you talk about was very rare. People just steal things here either the whole box or rip it open in store and take what they want. They don't go to the trouble of buying things, substituting/removing them, and returning them. It may be different again elsewhere.

What we did often see (and I still see when shopping as I am no longer in retail) is that anything with a plastic type container you are describing will be ripped open in store and stolen. Hot Wheels are a perfect example with the $50 plus sets with exclusive cars having the cars stolen off of the sets in the store and the rest left there. Cars, like minifigs, would slip straight into a pocket all too easily. It is the reason the hard plastic cases now exist on high risk (especially small) products.

Removing Lego from a sealed cardboard box and putting the desirable items in an easy to see and access spot would lead to more theft here, not less (unless they went to a much sturdier plastic case which would raise packaging costs significantly).

What's the problem of making multiple posts of the similar comments over the years? Do you just give one comment and never say something similar again in a life time? Yes, I have made multiple posts over the years whenever I wanted to raise the awareness of the issue again.

That plastic boxes ripped open in store and stolen is already a history. Plastic box has gone for many years and it was the time when in-store surveillance wasn't common. It's what I have said before, but you just ignored the key point that you can't argue. Try breaking a lego box in store today, see how fast you can get caught.

Those who speak in favor of today's Lego paper box without visible plastic cover are only the extreme environmentalists who just hate plastic no matter what, no compromise, but they keep driving and burning oil every day, or who just supports everything Lego has done or changed, regardless of the correctness.

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by ks6349

[icm]

16 minutes ago, ks6349 said:

Those who speak in favor of today's Lego paper box without visible plastic cover are only the extreme environmentalists who just hate plastic no matter what, no compromise, but they keep driving and burning oil every day, or who just supports everything Lego has done or changed, regardless of the correctness.

Easy there, tiger. That's what we used to call in English class a "hasty generalization."

[Lyichir]

15 minutes ago, ks6349 said:

What's the problem of making multiple posts of the similar comments over the years? Do you just give one comment and never say something similar again in a life time? Yes, I have made multiple posts over the years whenever I wanted to raise the awareness of the issue again.

That plastic boxes ripped open in store and stolen is already a history. Plastic box has gone for many years and it was the time when in-store surveillance wasn't common. It's what I have said before, but you just ignored the key point that you can't argue. Try breaking a lego box in store today, see how fast you can get caught.

Those who speak in favor of today's Lego paper box without visible plastic cover are only the extreme environmentalists who just hate plastic no matter what, no compromise, but they keep driving and burning oil every day, or who just supports everything Lego has done or changed, regardless of the correctness.

 

I don't think you'll find a single Lego fan who "hates plastic no matter what"—it's pretty fundamentally essential to Lego, after all. But single-use plastic that gets thrown away is indeed wasteful and I don't see why wanting that reduced where possible is a bad thing. Will doing so save the world on its own? Maybe not, but every little bit helps.

I also feel like maybe where you live, in-store surveillance might be more common than where I am in America. Yes, there are sometimes security cameras, but that only goes so far, especially with some stores sparsely staffed—at best they might allow stores to learn that a set has been tampered with after the fact. Often in larger stores I instead see surveillance measures like alarm cords tied around larger sets, which would nullify the benefits of an openable box flap with windows anyway (can't open a flap when there's an anti-theft device tied tightly around the box).