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Hi all, perhaps this has been a topic once - since i found none, id just give this a shot and would like to hear some of your opinions and observations on this. TLG is as we know an old and awesome business and has developped rapidly since 2000s. Before that, the progress was fairly slow, yet for its time groundbreaking! It was meant (and still is) a construction toy to play with plastic scale cars (also from other brands) and also had educational sets to learn about gears, techniques etc. Therefore they introduced a number of structural parts to improve the building experience and later on (!) added the big figs and minifigs. Now what i cant help but wonder is if the whole Minifig Focus the last 10 years (Series twice a year, increasing set prices for more SW limited figs etc) has created a gap of parts that should have long made it into sets since 2000 BUT didnt, because their "moulds" are occupied and produced for minifig related stuff mainly? I especially notice the possible part gap in the "small element" fraction of tiles, plates etc. Only recently they released a 1x1 quarter circle tile, an "over the edge" element, smaller wedge plates - mainly with the SC and modular product line. Also new clips for "bar" related stuff was firstly added last year. Those parts are very simple in design and not too hard to "imagine" as a designer to be of great constructional usage. Stil there could be more! Not? Why hasnt there been a 2x3 tile earlier, why are there no 5 stud long tiles and windshields? Why did they discontinue the scala 2x2 with cutout quarter? They had ideas for sure, yet those disappeared, Its simply odd considering their possible value for any set... My Thesis here is that the Minifigs have become such a popular collectors item and economically interesting for TLG, that TLG is less interested in producing more basic elements for construction builders (because a lot of people buy primarly for figs, the "build" itself is "a nice to have option" and works if new parts are made or not) Compare how many new minifig accesories have been made over the last years (and are to be found on LDD) with the amount of tile and plate options up to 4 studs. Its a bit shocking in my opinion, considering LEGO is a construction toy. Take modulex for example - during its time, it was super advanced in slope shaping - where are those slope types in real bricks? we only have one smooth 1x2 slope - with grilles frankly Modulex has more! A trip to legoloand can be eye-opening: FIGS everywhere " create your own" - incredible huge amounts of head designs, many items for them to clutch into their tiny hands - the variety here is like paradise for LEGO fans - just not so for system stackers: most of the stuff we know (and love) from the 90ies or earlier, perhaps in new colours... And if i want to build a highly detailed minifig car using a 1x1 plate with 3 finger on it as a BMW logo to avoid stickering? Nada...hasnt been made despite its possible usefulness in the 90ies, but they made this recently (which is literally the same thing after they abandoned the finger hinges - for whatever reason i will never understand). Again, happened last year! Some clone brands (i know, you are going to kill me for mentioning this^^) are a lot more imaginative when it comes to constructional elements. There is one part that TLG released this year that has been in a similar mould on some Sets from certain brands for quite some time now. When i saw it back in a day i found it only logical to inlcude, therefore i wondered why TLG didnt have it...hence, this write up :) Now one could say "its possible to build around all these issues" - very true - but the same states for minifig accesories, does it not?! I can build a blaster or canon, yet there are 20+ diffrerent gun options avaliable. And dont make me start about swords and staffs...Also printing is getting rarer on bricks, yet super detailed on minfigs, and that aint cheap - so again, the "standard stuff" has to do with stickers. A Speedchampion car without stickers can be qutie a guessing game of who is who, since the bricks are very basic! Yet stickers on a minifig? Blasphemy Actually why not? Its the same material, yet i think the attention is clearly on the Fig industry so its worth spending the resources on. AND that is making us wait longer for new basic elements (probably longer then it should?) Concluding: Figs are nice - i really like to use them - but do we really need so many new minifig accessories over new element bricks? Where is the "building spirit" now - shouldnt limitations make us more imaginative and be educational in some way? - perhaps only when it comes to everything else in LEGO? what do you think?
