JesseNight

Couldn't agree more. For example, if I look back at my childhood, a 1980s Police car (cars being 4 studs wide at the time) needed either printed parts or stickers to put "POLICE" on the vehicle, no way doing that in another way in that scale. Looking back at my collection from those days, the printed parts are still holding while many of the stickers are either gone or loose.

Very true. I was a builder with Lego as a kid. For playing I had other toys that I just liked better for it. I did use Lego to build missing things from other toy lines though Wasn't the point of City (and classic Town) to display scenes from real life? Like jobs, emergency services, realistic vehicles we see in daily life, houses? So I can in fact understand why it'd be more accepted in a fictional theme, even if it may not always make sense in every franchise there either.

I guess... That just makes it sound like rebuilding is a chore. Wasn't that the whole point of toys that are building bricks once? I have a hard time understanding modern youth and their constant rushing. I'm starting to sound like my dad now

I was a child, once Even as a child, putting half a helicopter onto a total different car wouldn't make sense either. Toys offering that would actually annoy the heck outta me. But even to a child who enjoys this, I can't help but wonder what such things really offer... A lot of toys have better ways to combine fantasy/creativity with a sense of realism that may teach the kid something.

To me, this modularity makes no sense at all. Modularity is not new though, just look back at a lot of the late 80s larger spaceships. It didn't always make perfect sense either but in some cases (like swapping/adding/removing cargo pods) it was very useful. But putting a different car's (and different colored) front or back on another one's mid section is something I'll never understand.

Not exactly that one, but I do plan on modding my Renegade. Everyone seems to have their own ideas on how to divide the black and yellow, and I'm no exception. I do like the thrusters on this particular build, and will most likely inspire mine on it. My collection is not a factor, I have almost nothing of post 1994 parts that are free to use so I'm gonna have to see if my plans can be ordered within an affordable price range. I plan on making more BT1 themed ships, some based on modded CS designs too. (let's just say BT "borrowed" them )

@Hemar Seldim Oh you may be onto something there! Maybe even a trans-orange with another opaque red one underneath, since I can't see the holes of 64712 behind it either when the camera pans around.

Does anyone recognize what's been used for the biggest of the stacked trans-red dishes? The picture is from a video showing some Blacktron Renegade modifications. The thrusters can be seen clearly at 1:03 in the video. Inside big black part (64712) there appear to be stacked radar dishes in 6x6, 4x4, 2x2, and a round 1x1 plate to finish the job. When the camera goes around it, I appear to see the typical square cut that the 6x6 radar dish has (where the 4 studs are on top). However neither of these 6x6 radar dish variants (44375a/(44375b) appears to exist in transparent red and that's where I'm stuck. The video shows that this is clearly a physical model, not just a render.

Definitely not personal circumstances, this is indeed a thing. And not just Lego, other toys and even gaming consoles too. Decades ago, we learned having to make choices and not own everything. That mentality definitely changed a lot. Agreed, I miss those beautiful pictures too. Also let's not forget the box art back in those days. Most boxes would show at least 2 or 3 alternative builds with the included pieces (without instructions). I think back then, designers were given a lot more time for such things instead of just having to design new official models to release. That mentality changed everywhere in work environments I guess, there's a lot more pressure on people nowadays. I had that problem as a 1980s kid too really. There were only 6 colors, but I never had enough in the same color to make a color consistent larger build of anything. True that this got a lot worse now.

It's funny you mention monetization, because that is another thing I see for a lot of people sneaking into their hobbies. Yes, hobbies are expensive and that seems to have been getting worse thanks to many limited edition products and people investing to resell. I've noticed that a lot of hobbyists do this reselling themselves, to fund their hobby without the need to pay up a lot themselves. I myself couldn't do any of all that, invest my hobby time into doing business. My hobby time is about relaxing and having fun, not about doing business or rushing. Sure, that means I can't have everything because my budget has limitations... but I can live with that. It keeps me having goals to look forward to.

I guess a lot of people stopped enjoying the building. Just look at all the speed build videos where people show off how fast they can rush a build. Look closely and notice mistakes being made even with modern instructions that are so much simpler than they once were. I guess people are all about destination now and forgot to enjoy the journey. Eventually they'll run out of destinations, and every enjoyment is short lived. I feel like a lot of people make rash and thoughtless purchases. Marketing departments know this and exploit this eagerly. Especially fomo is easily triggered in people nowadays, when we can see online what the whole world is doing. And yes, it's a business model that unfortunately works on the masses, therefore it keeps continuing. Not to offend anyone... but while people can be intelligent, the masses as a whole can be pretty dumb.

Absolutely. I think Barracuda Bay is a marvelous set, being able to be either the bay with shipwreck or a full ship that's winking back to the classic pirate ship from 1989. I don't like all the licenses either... It's the time we live in now. Licenses are guaranteed income. Even some movie studios only accept sequels and spinoffs on existing successful licenses rather than taking a risk on an original new idea.

Isn't that the case? I remember even builds based on past in-house themes weren't accepted. Then again I haven't been following the Ideas submissions closely.

I'm on the opposite end. I stopped with Lego around 1995-1996, I never knew there was new grey and brown until 2 years ago. First time I heard about it was... confusing. I'm okay with there being new colors, as well as light and dark shades. It just feels a bit too much at times, sometimes having trouble telling 2 shades apart that are really close. And I know I'm not the only one, having seen threads on this board about the exact same thing before.

I guess that's the exact problem I've been running up against. I need more figures for my 80s and early 90s space themes and I guess some are just too unique to their specific themes. And yes next to the cheap prices of common bricks, I consider a few Eur/Usd per minifig a lot when needing a good amount. The more rare colors of course get even crazier. I don't mind some minimal wear, to me that adds to realism of a scene. But of course icons on a torso do need to be recognizable as such.