[Opinion] Review of the new road plates system (2021)

[The Lego Room]

Edit: have deleted the video because I want to keep my channel related to builds + LEGO News only. But I'll keep this thread open, for people to discuss whether they like the new 2021 Road Plates system or not.

Edited May 11, 2021 by The Lego Room
updating the video

[The Brick Boss]

30 minutes ago, The Lego Room said:

In this short video I tell the story of how LEGO placed huge barriers to entry for creating cities, without any other motive than (it seems) to make a quick buck.

So these road plates aren't all that good after all? 

[Jack Sassy]

I think these new road plates are rather good for kids. I like the concept of connecting many sets together, to create one huger thing. But this one is clearly more expensive. Not all parents will be able to afford this stuff. Also I think they should've kept road baseplates (even though they would sell way better that new ones). It's sad to see Lego abandon this design, but I guess all good things must come to an end.

[Toastie]

2 hours ago, Jack Sassy said:

I like the concept of connecting many sets together, to create one huger thing. But this one is clearly more expensive. Not all parents will be able to afford this stuff.

Yes, I do as well. The concept that is.

But the affordability? No. I simply do not get this. Maybe TLG is losing touch with the base a bit when it comes to affordably for building worlds.

2 hours ago, Jack Sassy said:

but I guess all good things must come to an end

Really? I don't. Good things should stay and bad things should disappear in a puff of logic

Best
Thorsten

[deraven]

I would say that overall I still prefer the old road plates, but my biggest qualm with these is that they spend too much of the production budget on accessory pieces and the slopes in every set.  If they sold an "expansion" version of this that just had more of the road segments and associated pieces, foregoing the other random stuff in the set, that'd be a more reasonable cost:amount of buildable road.  As it stands, you'd end up with a pile of those slopes rivaling our bins of brick separators if you tried to build a whole city worth of roads with these sets.

Sadly, you can't do any better on price at the moment buying only the road elements separately from Lego, but maybe they'll be cheaper on the secondary market when other sets that include the road plates get parted-out.  I don't have a problem with the design, but at this point I'll stick with SNOT brick-built roads (which are cheaper than these!) or the gold ol' baseplates.

[TeriXeri]

I don't build big cities but I do think those road sets lack tiles, and too much slopes, especially combined with a set like the House and Skate Park, you'll miss tiles to extend the actual road with those sets as they lack (printed) tiles.

As for a road, they aren't bad on a straight section, for like a Shelf with 3-in-1 sized buildings, but once you want multi-lanes or more crossing you gonna need more tiles and printed tiles for lanes.

Still think they are much better compared to those Xtra Playmats or Road Tape though.

Edited April 11, 2021 by TeriXeri

[Johnny1360]

Bought my first set of the new roadplates this week and I must say, I like them. I totally understand why people with existing layouts don't though but I do not fit into that category. Also I will say now I have none of the old ones so the release of these new ones couldn't have happened at a better time for me.

One of the main reasons I never bought the old ones is mainly I felt the lanes were too narrow, with the new ones you can easily make wider lanes, if you want to. I can also envision other uses for the ramp pieces other than just on the ends of the roads, so no problems there, although I will have an excess of stop lights, other than that there should be plenty of options to use the rest of the parts.

It does bother me though that the OPs biggest gripe is that the new roadplates are only 1 plate thick when they are clearly two plates thick, which I very much like. I also like the way the bottom of the plates are, should be easy to make elevated roads if you choose or just build the whole road system up with minimal extra parts. Very much like that the printed lines are removable unlike the old ones.

I definitely would have liked to get more 2x4 plates though both printed and unprinted. Also would have liked some sort of curve option, maybe later we will see something like that.

Anyway I am glad they switched, now I can actually start my city layout, yay. I get I am the only person in the world that feels this way and there are several valid points against them but this change is just what I needed. Thank you LEGO for finally giving me a roadplate I can use.

Edit: Also wanted to mention, with the new plates you can easily change the scale of your roadways, with the old ones not so much, to me this is the biggest plus for these new ones, can accommodate larger vehicles. Many of which frankly look ridiculous on the older style.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Johnny1360

[Jack Sassy]

19 hours ago, Toastie said:

Really? I don't. Good things should stay and bad things should disappear in a puff of logic

I guess it's what makes us do things what we do, the fact that we don't always get what we want makes us strive for achieving these things, yet we don't and continue chasing it all our lives. It's a scary concept really.

(I never did get that Black Pearl set.)

[Toastie]

4 minutes ago, Jack Sassy said:

It's a scary concept really.

It is. But as you said: It releases a lot of energy otherwise not available - to me that is.

Spoiler

Oh - the Pearl. See - I am really into this Pirates of the Caribbean theme - mostly the sort of "humor" and glorification of the pirate world appeals to me. Have all the DVDs (yes, I know, I am old), the LEGO Silent Mary, but was >way< too late for the Pearl. The set costs you a fortune even when in not so good condition. And yes, you can try and hunt down the pieces on BL. Well. I took the forbidden ($40) way, modded the build with "allowed" mostly black bricks, plates and tiles (which does not make it any better, I believe for many, many people even worse) and now the Pearl is happily sailing in a sea of LEGO plate water on a shelf in my room. And >I< am very happy. And that is all that matters to me.

All the best,
Thorsten

[jpx]

I got a few sets of the new road plates, and I really like it! I build a lot with my kids, and its just so much more easy for us to create a new city layout, with sidewalks or whatever. I've even build a small elevation over a 'river', a "Refuge island" and few other thing we see every day, so the kids gets more involved that way. 

[Jack Sassy]

2 hours ago, Toastie said:

Oh - the Pearl. See - I am really into this Pirates of the Caribbean theme - mostly the sort of "humor" and glorification of the pirate world appeals to me. Have all the DVDs (yes, I know, I am old), the LEGO Silent Mary, but was >way< too late for the Pearl. The set costs you a fortune even when in not so good condition. And yes, you can try and hunt down the pieces on BL. Well. I took the forbidden ($40) way, modded the build with "allowed" mostly black bricks, plates and tiles (which does not make it any better, I believe for many, many people even worse) and now the Pearl is happily sailing in a sea of LEGO plate water on a shelf in my room. And >I< am very happy. And that is all that matters to me.

Good for you. I was thinking of building a MOC of it but if i ever do, I'll have to do it from the scratch. Those hull pieces in black are 20 euros each on BL, though older versions from a castle set are 10 euros each, so that might do.

[Toastie]

18 minutes ago, Jack Sassy said:

Good for you.

Thank you, I really appreciate that

You'll never go the "forbidden route", right? (I have to be very careful here)

Best
Thorsten

[Aanchir]

17 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

Bought my first set of the new roadplates this week and I must say, I like them. I totally understand why people with existing layouts don't though but I do not fit into that category. Also I will say now I have none of the old ones so the release of these new ones couldn't have happened at a better time for me.

One of the main reasons I never bought the old ones is mainly I felt the lanes were too narrow, with the new ones you can easily make wider lanes, if you want to. I can also envision other uses for the ramp pieces other than just on the ends of the roads, so no problems there, although I will have an excess of stop lights, other than that there should be plenty of options to use the rest of the parts. 

It does bother me though that the OPs biggest gripe is that the new roadplates are only 1 plate thick when they are clearly two plates thick, which I very much like. I also like the way the bottom of the plates are, should be easy to make elevated roads if you choose or just build the whole road system up with minimal extra parts. Very much like that the printed lines are removable unlike the old ones. 

I definitely would have liked to get more 2x4 plates though both printed and unprinted. Also would have liked some sort of curve option, maybe later we will see something like that. 

Anyway I am glad they switched, now I can actually start my city layout, yay. I get I am the only person in the world that feels this way and there are several valid points against them but this change is just what I needed. Thank you LEGO for finally giving me a roadplate I can use. 

 Edit: Also wanted to mention, with the new plates you can easily change the scale of your roadways, with the old ones not so much, to me this is the biggest plus for these new ones, can accommodate larger vehicles. Many of which frankly look ridiculous on the older style.

Yeah, I also definitely prefer the new road plates over the old ones. For starters, there loads of possibilities with the newer ones that would have been much more difficult and/or expensive with older ones: inclined and elevated roads, bridges, divided highways, multi-lane highways, driveways or curbside parking that are flush with the road surface, and any sorts of layouts that deviate from a 32x32 grid.

And I disagree about "not getting the same amount" from the new road plate packs as you did from earlier road baseplate packs, since the actual length of road you get is equal to or greater than what was included in previous road baseplate packs. The main difference is that the old road baseplates included wide margins on either side of the road. And personally, I see these predefined margins as more of a drawback than a strength, since these margins often up feeling redundant or wasteful when used in conjunction with modular buildings and other models that already include sidewalks/pavement.

Moreover, when comparing prices, it feels misleading not to account for the signs, traffic lights, streetlamps, and other contents of the new road plate pack, since these were sold separately from the old road baseplates, but are still largely necessary for a believable layout (especially at intersections). If LEGO were to release a road plate pack without all those accessories, I imagine the price discrepancy between the new and old road systems would diminish considerably.

I understand that for people who already have a layout based on road baseplates, it would be needlessly expensive to switch over entirely to the new road system. But at the same time, I don't see any reason why people who already have layouts using earlier road systems would NEED to switch over. After all, the ramps included with the new road baseplates make it easy to use the new road system TOGETHER with previous road baseplate styles, especially for features like bridges, driveways, parking lots, etc. that branch off from the main grid of streets.

And while the aftermarket price of traditional road baseplates is likely to increase now that they're retired (making it a little more difficult with people with layouts in that standard to continue expanding their grid of streets), I don't see how that's any different from any of the OTHER times that LEGO has adopted a new road baseplate standard with different lane widths, road markings, and/or road surface coloration from their previous standards.

All in all, I have no doubt that many AFOLs' frustrations with the new road system are accurate to your own experience. But I think there are also plenty of builders (kids and adults alike) who will benefit greatly from this system, especially if LEGO continues to expand on it in the years to come. And one way or another, claiming the new roads make it "impossible" to build a City is a serious overstatement.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Aanchir

[natesroom]

im glad i dont do city... i have my own problems with castle! Though anyone wanting city baseplates (OG) i have a trade post with a picture of the 9 i'm trying to trade.

[AndreMW]

Also you often get them for around 13€. 

[Jack Sassy]

10 hours ago, Toastie said:

You'll never go the "forbidden route", right? (I have to be very careful here)

I'm supposing by forbidden route you mean buying the set? I could, but let alone pieces are those black sails, minifigures (not that I don't have Jack and Gibbs), and the flag, especially the flag. I do believe that building the MOC would cost me less, besides I have to think where I spend my money, ever since I spend a sum of it on bricks and other sum on music albums (they cost at least 20 euros each now).

[Toastie]

No - I mean buying other than orginal LEGO stets - but this is really not for discussion here. There is another forum. for such things. I am just saying that for me everything has a "price tag" (including time for getting pieces) limit or threshold - and then it may happen. BTW it happened two times in 56 years - I must admit though both during the past 3 years: The Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman. For the latter, I am still trying to find out, whether this is original work from MK, they are giving credit to a hidden builder, or they simply stole the whole thing.

Best
Thorsten 

[Jack Sassy]

48 minutes ago, Toastie said:

I mean buying other than orginal LEGO stets

I prefer expanding my collection with individual pieces, it saves time and money.

49 minutes ago, Toastie said:

but this is really not for discussion here. There is another forum. for such things.

You're quite right about that.

[Stuartn]

13 hours ago, Aanchir said:

t at the same time, I don't see any reason why people who already have layouts using earlier road systems would NEED to switch over. After all, the ramps included with the new road baseplates make it easy to use the new road system TOGETHER with previous road

I have my own brick built roads but I still bought four of the new plate sets for the accessories and because I can see many uses for these plates ( a multi-storey carpark) and I intend on using some for Star Wars mocs

[Johnny1360]

1 hour ago, Stuartn said:

I have my own brick built roads but I still bought four of the new plate sets for the accessories and because I can see many uses for these plates ( a multi-storey carpark) and I intend on using some for Star Wars mocs

Good idea there, I was also thinking they would be good for a multistory building, under construction, thinking like steel girders. Definitely good for many styles of bridges as well.

[BrickfordCityFire]

On 4/10/2021 at 3:35 PM, The Lego Room said:

In this short video I tell the story of how LEGO placed huge barriers to entry for creating cities, without any other motive than (it seems) to make a quick buck.

Personally, I love the new plates, and they actually allowed me to make a better city. They are also great for low cost MILS roads. To be fair, I did not have a huge city to start with, so converting to these was cheap and easy.

Edited April 12, 2021 by BrickfordCityFire

[TeriXeri]

I prefer those roads over baseplates on smaller displays like shelf or small table, but to me, the main flaw is the lack of extra tiles.

The possibilities are much greater compared to baseplates but at a much greater price as well, especially since if you wanted to make more lanes you'd need extra printed tiles to fill them, or replace the stripes with 2x4 white which would look too wide.

But for small purposes, they work great with 3-in-1 scale buildings, most of which have 1 plate high sidewalks to connect to.

Would like it if LEGO would expand within the Xtra/City theme for road tiles and/or signs. Xtra has done lamps and traffic lights before after all.

I would not make a table town out of those roads though, as I rather would spend the budget of roads towards sets, especially if it's a nice 3-in-1 build, getting some building variations is nicer then more roads.

I have some of the cardboard playmat roads from a couple years ago if I wanted to have a quick floor town, but those City roads work great on a smaller shelf where baseplates would be too wide.

For a Kid's room/shelf there's the road tape but I wouldn't use it myself.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by TeriXeri

[The Brick Boss]

@TeriXeri I think that's an unpopular opinion that we share. Love those new road plates. 

[MAB]

I also prefer the new system,  it is much more customisable. 

For kids, we still use the back of a roll of wallpaper. They can draw whatever they like and place their buildings on it. Much quicker than building, more customisable than plates or baseplates,  cheaper, quick to pack up and can be rolled up to store for another day.

[Stuartn]

20 hours ago, Poodabricks said:

 I think that's an unpopular opinion that we share. Love those new road plates.

Actually, from the replies to this post, it would seem that there is a consensus among many that these new plates are better in mnay ways, there are deficits as has been pointed out, but I wouldn't say liking these new road plates is unpopular anymore.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Stuartn