Mylenium

Trust me, there's nothing democratic about software development. I've been on many software Betas in my life, but at the end of the day we're all just little worker ants. The developers "vision" always takes precedent no matter how good an idea you have. Public feature requests are usually implemented very slowly way down the line, if at all. In my world that meant that even the best ideas sometimes took three or four versions of program X in-between to come to fruition. Web development should of course be more dynamic, but no doubt there's an endlessly long to-do list already. If you file a feature request today, it will also only show up months or years from now. If it isn't considered important enough it will never show up at all. And as @MAB already pointed out - just like we can't agree on many things around here, so people can argue on software forums all day. Mylenium

Fair enough, but is a review of some small Friends set popping up on Brickset nine months after the release really that useful? You know, some sets barely are sold for a year and you can't put off a decision forever. It's the same with some hobbyist reviewing a set on YouTube when it may no longer be available for purchase through regular channels. I tend to lean towards the OP's opinion - a lot of sets are left out because in particular sites with privileged early access are way too focused on only reviewing the big and juicy new sets. Mylenium

Your argument would probably make some sense if you had thrown in a "created for a specific set" commentary somewhere. All the same, even if you did, it becomes an apples vs. oranges discussion. A purpose-printed element is just another dedicated custom part of a set whereas a generic printed tile would be equally treated as a generic component. This distinction makes all the difference for manufacturing and logistics. It could be as trivial as the factory in Vietnam for instance producing such stuff all day without the other factories even being aware of what is currently being manufactured beyond it being listed in the SCM software with its actual availability. By the same token, they may be much more observant when their custom tiles for a given set aren't produced in time. We had this argument a million times. Saying that the logistics are too complicated is like saying your favorite Home Depot can't have the screws you need because managing a gigazillion screws, nuts and bolts across hundreds of different sizes and head shapes is consuming too many resources to make a profit. This is of course on no level true and thus a BS argument. Companies ferry around stuff all the time and surprisingly very little stuff gets lost. When it does, it's mostly due to human error or unforeseen events, not necessarily the logistics of the supply chain. Mylenium

That's actually one of the few points you make I would agree on. Keeping track of LEGO's release madness is hard enough as it is and fishing for reviews that are actually useful is another challenge in itself. I always tried to cater for that exact scenario, but of course my little blog is completely drowned out by the gazillion useless YouTube LEGO channels and other blogs. That and of course I'm taking a break to save my sanity. Mylenium

That's cute, but unfortunately completely not true. Companies will only provide the info that is a) mandated by regulations and b) looks positive in the marketing materials. Nobody would for instance buy smartphones if there was an endless list printed on the box about how terrible Android and iOS are in some of their aspects. Sure, you can do endless research on this, but would you? That is the same as with your original argument. Consumers do not necessarily want TMI, they want to hang on to their already made up picture in their mind. Confirmation bias is a real thing, you know. I'm afraid therefore adding info about stickers vs. prints and their contribution to any model/ package won't do much to change the situation. Not having prints won't steer away the majority people from a model they really, really want even if they may put up with stickers only begrudgingly and in reverse having everything hard-printed on the pieces isn't the beacon marketing feature that will lure in people that cannot be convinced one way or the other. That doesn't mean that such info couldn't be included, but I see it just as another piece of insignificant additional info that's only relevant for a handful of people. And taking your thought to its inevitable conclusion how about we add info on how many small, medium and large pieces are in a set? How many "Gold" parts are Pearl Gold vs. Metallic Gold? It becomes an endless fur ball of more and more threads unraveling and if we wanted to be this way, we could request LEGO publishing their internal planning documents. Makes no sense to me. It may be a bit of a pain to only find out these things after the fact once sets have been released, but at least we have ways to find out with Bricklink and all that good stuff. Mylenium

Sometimes yes, but rarely always. It's a weird mix of actual photos hacked to death with Photoshop and 3D renders created using different programs. In fact lately there have been a lot of photos with preliminary prototype stickers created using a at-home printer since apparently they worked on them to the last minute and couldn't get actual production stickers. All of this is compounded by LEGO's inconsistent handling of digital imagery. Everything else is neither here nor there. When it comes to prints vs. stickers there's a lot of myths being thrown around and it's treated like print technology stopped evolving 50 years ago and UV and sublimation printing doesn't exist. It always ends up being endlessly intertwined loops of "Yes, but..." and it can basically be bent out of shape to fit any argument. And then of course there's way too many quality issues with LEGO's stickers and actual direct prints, so there's basically zero value in spelling it out even for marketing. I don't see how your transparency initiative would be of any use to an average customer, no matter how much we may obsess about it here. Mylenium

I noticed this, too. It's somewhat random, though. Some GWPs have a code, other's don't. Perhaps they're still working on something behind the scenes and there is some sort of logic behind it that isn't obvious. Mylenium

I use BL only twice or thrice a year when I really don't want to buy a set, but may want to add a few rare-ish parts to my collection, but yes, in those ten years I do LEGO the site has barely evolved. Unfortunately it seems nobody really thinks clearly over there and their top priority is to LEGO-fy everything like with the recent, totally unnecessary branding overhaul announced a few days ago. And to a large degree I tend to disagree with some previous replies. Does the site work for them? Sure! But it works because you have used it before and are fully aware of the quirks and shortcomings plus you know what you are looking for. Otherwise it's pretty much a nightmare from the illogical way things are categorized and named, endlessly long lists, bad quality images and worst of all a search function that stopped adding any advancements in search technology 25 years ago or so. I'm only a buyer, but similar issues no doubt apply to sellers as well. I've heard about busted inventories way too often. Unfortunately alternative sites haven't really taken off in the way it would be necessary and so for better or worse we all have to use BL at some point, but I sure wish they'd instate someone with a clear vision and technical expertise and throw some money at it to bring it up to snuff. Mylenium

There's no shame in laziness. God only knows how many times I winged my projects with half-baked stuff that could have been better. But there's always a deadline and a budget... My problem with this stuff is that it's outright misleading and well, if people can't even bothered to correct their spelling errors, then I don't know why we even use AI. Well, there was an uproar on Bluesky recently over the event promoter creating an AI poster for a "special interest" (if you know what I mean) event instead of hiring one of the many great artists that are also there and would have gladly done it for reduced rates as a favor to the community. And that is really where things begin to suck. There are a few acceptable uses for generative AI, but clearly this isn't one of them. The poster wasn't even particularly good and looked like every other AI slop thing. That's where I draw the line. Mylenium

I never installed Creative Cloud, either, even if I got free licenses. ;-) They lost the plot after CS 5, anyway. Too much garbage and hardware acceleration nonsense that never worked reliably. Mylenium

Depends on where you're looking. AI is for instance eating Adobe's lunch. Nobody is going to sit there spending hours and days creating web banners or online ad videos in Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere for a lot of money when you just can type in a prompt and pay a fraction of the cost. This shift is already happening. I would agree that the days of when everyone could create their AI memes for free are perhaps over, but it's definitely not going away when paying for it has always been part of the plan. Mylenium

Amen to that. No need to lose too much sleep over it beyond that statement. Had this wave of alternate manufacturers entering the market happened two decades earlier, the whole situation would be different, anyway. This forum apparently isn't like anything in the software world where communities go dark within three months when a company declares a product dead, but you can never plan for these things one way or another. The future is always the next month and I'd see just take things one step at a time. As far as LEGO is concerned I don't particularly care. Their involvement here seems to be limited to a random review or contest every once in a blue moon and it likely won't affect anyone if that limited support disappears. It's not like this is Brickset, New Elementary or other sites whose whole existence and relevance is dependent on LEGO sending them free sets ahead of time. Mylenium

I've been involved in such programs in the software world (including the behind the scenes madness) and it's just another typical corporate think thing. They want control and changing the rules allows them to get rid of people they don't want. Some companies handle it more graciously, but at the end of the day it always begins to such at some point. Mylenium

Just for the record: That is witness tampering and intimidation that could be legally pursued and potentially could weaken BaM's case. Entire arguments could be dismissed because they have been discussed ex curia and BaM could be issued massive fines for their misconduct. Mylenium

The kids-related LEGO world is probably a whole different experience and neither parents nor the kids may hang around on this forum until a certain point. Personally I would have loved to have kids, but German adoption laws are generally quite complicated and I never had the kind of money to get them via surrogacy, either, since it's not allowed in Germany. As a single gay man options are unfortunately severely limited in that regard. :-( Mylenium

They apparently have a long track record of fishy business practices and it's now all coming to light. Mylenium

Agree. The matter of in-house themes vs. licensed is a whole can of worms that we do not need to reopen here. Same here. Either you are tied to a specific size in a contest or it's more interesting to create a custom base. Mylenium

Sure. You can easily find examples from other franchise based businesses like owners packing it up overnight and not paying back customers or franchisees being shut out of their own business by corporate HQ. It apparently happens all the time, but of course few people will make too much of a small mom & pop Subway shop getting into trouble. It's just that the circumstances are never as weird as this bizarre case. When even big YouTubers with millions of subscribers pick up the subject you are definitely getting the wrong kind of publicity... Mylenium

Typical corporate scare tactics. They are simply trying to intimidate everyone, hoping they budge, because they know this won't hold up in court or it won't even end in front of a judge when they tuck in their tail. Another such case is the Pattie Gonia vs. Patagonia thing that popped up last week - a big company trying to put down an artist who clearly just chose the name for its phonetics. The irony there is, of course, that the company chose the name after the South American region as a reference to its outdoors-y products. I wonder what the Argentinians have to say about this? ;-) Mylenium

Why wouldn't you use the old 4070 brick method? That way it could even be integrated into walls by simply replacing other bricks. Otherwise I don't think you can make this perfectly smooth without employing another method entirely, but then of course you'd end up with a lot of bulky supra structure underneath. Those half plate heights are tricky to accommodate without brackets every two rows or the aforementioned 4070s. Mylenium

At least as far as I understand the US system from following Legal Eagle and a few other law-related YouTube channels that isn't exactly how it works. The main difference is that a judge has to rule on it and until that the case is suspended whereas in most European countries the clock keeps ticking and procedures just continue. There are of course many other details to take into account, but I think even in the US you are considered served after two years when your case gets published on the respective web sites of the DOJ or the states' legal systems or it's announced the good old fashioned way in a newspaper. Mylenium

They are made from PP - polypropylene - which like polyethylene is notoriously difficult to nearly impossible to glue or plastic-weld. Furthermore, the walls are too thin to mill in a notch for sliding in a wall. So there you have it. Just find some suitably sized boxes from a dollar store to use as inserts to create separate compartments. Mylenium

The American "legal" system never ceases to amaze... The air is rife with corruption and incompetence. Mylenium

It was quite generally a weird time, though. Many companies didn't survive this era. It was peak "digital transition" time and everyone had to find their way. Micro-management and having "pet projects" is still a sign of bad management, though. It simply means you don't trust anyone and overriding decisions from lower levels can have extreme consequences. Mylenium

So do I, but the harsh reality is that there's always the one missing you need most at a given moment. ;-) That aside I would still argue that consistent colors are simply better to handle. I've never shied away from e.g. colorful Friends sets even when the theme wasn't nearly as popular as it is now, but there simply are pieces in certain colors I would never use. A rounded 1 x 2 plate may not be the best example, but LEGO have done some wedge pieces, arches and so on in some really weird colors that barely have any use outside the sets they were originally created for. And of course they have those phases where they use one color for everything. The current wave of Bright Light Blue that started with the big Vespa (10298) certainly has caused a wave of parts in this color. That's fun for a while, but eventually gets annoying because it comes at the cost of other colors and then there is sort of an over-saturation. It's a bit paradoxical - you have tons of those blue pieces at hand, but may actually need a specific element in a color LEGO haven't produced in years or never at all. Mylenium