Lego is getting cheap. Expensive, but cheap.

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,674
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Latest lego set I received for Xmas is cool and all, but I was disappointed to see a strip of stickers in the box in lieu of pre-painted parts.

You'd think charging $35 for a "medium" set of blocks they could afford to paint the 5 blocks with the generic patterns they use for all the sets.
 

XZeroII

Lifer
Jun 30, 2001
12,572
0
0
I'd rather have stickers. With stickers, you can remove them or put them wherever you want.
 

PottedMeat

Lifer
Apr 17, 2002
12,363
475
126
Yes, they are. But there's certain pieces which are normally "detailed", previously this was done by screen printed patterns on the blocks themselves.

wow thats lame. are they all specialized too?

i used to have a bucket or two of generic lego bricks and technics parts - you could build anything out of them.
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
Yes, they are. But there's certain pieces which are normally "detailed", previously this was done by screen printed patterns on the blocks themselves.

I dont recall that? The only time there was paint on a block it was because it was a generic piece, like a head. Specialized decorations like a grill or license plate were always stickers.
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
I'd rather have stickers. With stickers, you can remove them or put them wherever you want.

This. I had a few Lego sets when I was younger that had stickers. Most of the time I didn't even put them on.

EDIT: This thread makes me want to bust out my old buckets of Legos. :(
 

StrangerGuy

Diamond Member
May 9, 2004
8,443
124
106
IMO, Lego sets are far more creative in their themes and design 15 years ago when I was young.
 

LordMorpheus

Diamond Member
Aug 14, 2002
6,871
1
0
IMO, Lego sets are far more creative in their themes and design 15 years ago when I was young.

That sentence is broken and you should fix it.

Anyway, There were cool lego sets when I was a kid playing with them (good lord, I probably got my first lego set 20 years ago! I'm too young to be old!), but there is some really cool stuff now.

What Lego has accomplished with Mindstorms is truly commendable. I can't imagine a toy more awesome that even remotely holds a candle to the educational potential of a mindstorms kit.

The technics kits have just been getting more and more awesome. I had the original Mindstorms growing up, and it was pretty awesome, but the number and types of sensors available for the current generation kit is really impressive.

That said, I do agree that their normal kits are more and more 'connect these three unique specialized blocks and call it a day' than when I was a kid. I had friends that would build the model and put it on their shelf forever, so I suppose this change wouldn't affect them at all, but I'd build the model to see it, and then tear it apart and the pieces would go into my giant bins for later use.
 
Mar 10, 2005
14,647
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i agree, lego has compromised quality and creativity for profit. last week i stopped in the lego store at the mall and to my dismay, every damn thing was star wars. i think there's a certain symmetry there...
 

Rudee

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
11,218
2
76
Nothing like getting Lego for Xmas to significantly reduce your chances of getting laid.
 

cardiac

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,082
14
81
In the early '70's I would combine the Legos with the Lincoln Logs and the Erector Set and come up with some really cool shit....
 

frostedflakes

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2005
7,925
1
81
I dont recall that? The only time there was paint on a block it was because it was a generic piece, like a head. Specialized decorations like a grill or license plate were always stickers.
This. When I was a kid (90s) they used stickers for stuff like this. Legos have been around for a while, though, maybe they used screen printing before this.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
We got one for a cop car on Xmas. it had stickers but they were in english and spanish so that the illegals' kids could remind them of home when they were being hassled by the local corrupt cops.
 

rockyct

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2001
6,656
32
91
i agree, lego has compromised quality and creativity for profit. last week i stopped in the lego store at the mall and to my dismay, every damn thing was star wars. i think there's a certain symmetry there...

I don't blame them. I blame the parents and the kids. They wouldn't sell a whole bunch of Star Wars and other movie themed Legos if they didn't sell extremely well. There have been recent sets by Lego that are not themed and them give you a lot of ideas on what to do with the set, but kids don't want them.
 

AMCRambler

Diamond Member
Jan 23, 2001
7,711
30
91
Yeah when I started out with Legos I had my older brothers set. It was a box full of generic bricks and a big 100 page booklet with about 25-30 different projects you could build with the step by step pictures. Then when I started getting my own sets for Christmas it would be the sets for a specific thing, however they always had instructions for alternate things you could build with the kit. nowadays they show you a picture of what else you could build, but no instructions. Also a lot of the pieces are custom one offs made specifically for that particular kit.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,544
8,826
126
This. When I was a kid (90s) they used stickers for stuff like this. Legos have been around for a while, though, maybe they used screen printing before this.

That's well after my time. In the 70s they never used stickers. Everything was pre-printed.
 

RESmonkey

Diamond Member
May 6, 2007
4,818
2
0
This. When I was a kid (90s) they used stickers for stuff like this. Legos have been around for a while, though, maybe they used screen printing before this.

They paint stuff like shirt/body pieces. Stickers are occasionally there in bigger sets.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
The still do silk screen a ton of pieces, and they do provide stickers too. I don't see the problem with this at all.

For those saying the new sets are stupid and don't let you build anything, boy are you wrong. You can not only build MORE stuff than ever before, but it can be 200% more detailed and "complicated".

Trust me, I've been playing with LEGOs for 30 years or so, and now that is pretty much all my son plays with too. 100s of sets, a bazillion LEGOs, and the variances and possibilities never end.
 

RESmonkey

Diamond Member
May 6, 2007
4,818
2
0
The still do silk screen a ton of pieces, and they do provide stickers too. I don't see the problem with this at all.

For those saying the new sets are stupid and don't let you build anything, boy are you wrong. You can not only build MORE stuff than ever before, but it can be 200% more detailed and "complicated".

Trust me, I've been playing with LEGOs for 30 years or so, and now that is pretty much all my son plays with too. 100s of sets, a bazillion LEGOs, and the variances and possibilities never end.

this


Besides, Star Wars legos are kick-ass.
 

dainthomas

Lifer
Dec 7, 2004
14,738
3,652
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One of our friends got their kid a death star lego set for like $400. I couldn't believe it. I hope he enjoyed giving Lucas $390 in royalties.