Is LEGO making way too many vehicles?

[The Brick Boss]

28 minutes ago, Grover said:

I don't mind road vehicles, but they have way too many helicopters in my opinion, and in general too many boats.  I refuse to buy helicopter sets anymore.  I wish they made more residential houses and apartments.

Yeah! I do have to admit that boats are boring when you don't live near any bodies of water or simply don't want to run up your water bill. I guess you can pretend like they're floating by placing them on blue baseplates. But I don't see the issue with the helicopters. I guess children just love them that much. 

As for residential and houses, perhaps Creator should go back to their old "three houses in a year" system. 

[dr_spock]

There is the LEGO® Friends theme.  It is not overly heavy on vehicles for those wanting less tires and more structures.

 

[The Brick Boss]

16 hours ago, dr_spock said:

There is the LEGO® Friends theme.  It is not overly heavy on vehicles for those wanting less tires and more structures. 

I prefer Creator houses. 

Edited February 15, 2020 by Brandon Pea

[LegoDW]

Wish they would offer stuff like this again. I got both these sets used and love them.

[The Brick Boss]

@LegoDW That first house cameos in City Adventures. So does the apple tree house. 

Edited February 16, 2020 by Brandon Pea

[Toastie]

@LegoDW

The second one is my favorite - it reminds me much of SoCal. The waves are - funny - it is such a nice set.

Best
Thorsten

[jonwil]

I wish they would return to the creator houses of old. Sets like the Model Town House and the Family Home and the Hillside House and the Family House are some of the best Creator 3-in-1 sets they have done IMO.

 

[The Brick Boss]

41 minutes ago, jonwil said:

I wish they would return to the creator houses of old. Sets like the Model Town House and the Family Home and the Hillside House and the Family House are some of the best Creator 3-in-1 sets they have done IMO.

 

I agree! Lego does enough vehicles to make an outstanding profit so leave that to City, Speed Champions, Creator Expert and Technic. Creator 3in1 should stick to infrastructure such as houses and modulars. I said on another thread that Creator should take a wave or two to focus on houses and infrastructure. Creator targets a much older audience than City so fans may like it. I loved Creatir back during the age of affordable Lego housing. I wish those days would come back. Right now, I own every house made by Creator. 

Edited February 17, 2020 by Brandon Pea

[Grover]

One of my friends commented that there are so many police cars that Lego city must be a police state.  Just by sheer number of police in city sets, it seems like 15-20% of the population must be deputized.  It is a fair point, though, even with all the vehicles, what % are emergency vehicles?  Much more than the usual % in a real city I suspect.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Grover

[The Brick Boss]

3 minutes ago, Grover said:

One of my friends commented that there are so many police cars that Lego city must be a police state.  Just by sheer number of police in city sets, it seems like 15-20% of the population must be deputized.  It is a fair point, though, even with all the vehicles, what % are emergency vehicles?  Much more than the usual % in a real city I suspect.

LOL! That's kinda been the running gag amongst the City fandom. Though if they put as much effort into other vehicles just as much as they put into emergency vehicles, people wouldn't think of it as a police state. Don't get rid of the emergency vehicles because those are needed. But what about tow trucks? (I've only seen one this year). Buses? (they only come in mega sets and every once in a while in their own set). Food Vans (ice cream truck and pizza van are good starts). I'd also like to see more race cars like the race car duel we saw this year. 

The last towing subtheme City got was in 2009. Tow trucks have been here and there since then. I would be honored to see another subtheme centered around towing - though I doubt it would happen. 

[Grover]

@Brandon Pea, I agree, I would like to see more 'regular' vehicles.  Most of what I see on the road, at least here in the US, are passenger vehicle: sedans, SUVs, pickups, etc., but there are a LOT of non-emergency government and commercial vehicles, like road crews and construction trucks, delivery vehicles, etc.  I think it would be neat to see some work trucks of both road workers and other general contractors, as well as a few sets with only a car or something.  They had them a few years back.  Maybe they didn't sell well?

[howitzer]

Vehicle sets tend to be smaller than buildings, and smaller sets are much easier to sell and probably are also cheaper to design and produce. Combined with the swoosh/wroom-factor, vehicles are really easy to sell to kids. Buildings of course often include vehicles, and I think it's because buildings too need to have something movable to make it interesting to kids. A vehicle is by far the easiest way to include a moving thing, as it allows a lot of freedom in motion and helps in making your own storyline, as opposed to mechanical gimmicks built into the buildings, as they tend to serve only a single purpose with not too much room for imagination. Technic, as a theme is of course all about mechanical gimmicks built into the models, and vehicles are a natural focus there with their many mechanical parts, so as a result I'm not sure if there has ever been a non-vehicle Technic set, except as alternatives (B-models or multi-sets).

[The Brick Boss]

Just now, howitzer said:

Vehicle sets tend to be smaller than buildings, and smaller sets are much easier to sell and probably are also cheaper to design and produce. Combined with the swoosh/wroom-factor, vehicles are really easy to sell to kids.

I have to agree with you on that. That's why I said one time that it wouldn't surprise me if a theme like City took one year to only focus on vehicles since it seems like they don't really pay attention to the buildings. I personally wouldn't mind because that means, I'll have more work to do in building my own buildings to accommodate the vehicles. Then the "too many police stations" argument could stop.

But other AFOLs all over the world (not just here), wouldn't want it to happen because if that proves to be an enormous success, City may not do buildings anymore. So in a way, I also DON'T see it happening.

Btw, I think you meant to say "vroom" instead or "wroom" in that sentence. LOL 

[Mylenium]

On 2/15/2020 at 12:23 AM, dr_spock said:

There is the LEGO® Friends theme.  It is not overly heavy on vehicles for those wanting less tires and more structures.

Have you actually ever looked at Friends sets? There's almost literally a vehicle in almost every set these days, be that just some small delivery tricycle or some such thing.

Mylenium