Lego Goes Back to the Basics: Building Blocks

First Post by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

I always preffered unabashed Lego sets.

Having 100 of each was great. The sets with instructions were fun, but it really was more enjoyable to be creative. That's what we should getting children to do anyways.

Re:First Post by bigman2003 · 2004-01-12 04:15 · Score: 5, Interesting

Lego could probably be a very profitable company for a long, long time. All they need to do is sell plastic blocks (which they price very high). Their move of getting rid of the electronics, tie-ins, etc is a good one. I wonder if they will dump the theme parks too.

20 years ago, someone at Lego thought that they should be a huge powerhouse company, with their hands in everything. Why not just be a medium sized company, making a few million dollars of profit every year with your core business?

Walgreens pharmacy did a similar thing. It seemed like suddenly every single corner had a Walgreens on it- everywhere you looked, another frickin Walgreens. Now, craploads of them have gone out of business, and the corner is left with a VERY cheap building. They didn't do themselves, or anyone else any good by over-expanding. (My old neighborhood had an awesome coffee shop that leased a corner building. Eventually, the landlord sold the corner lot, the coffee shop went out of business, and nice shiny new Walgreens was built. 2 years later, it is an empty building, where once my favorite coffee shop, with a fireplace even, stood.)

What does that have to do with Legos? Over expansion- the urge to be big, instead of concentrating on what works for you.

--
No reason to lie.
Re:First Post by malfunct · 2004-01-12 04:24 · Score: 1

I agree, I liked the large 2x4 thick bricks. I bought a cheap little kids universal set with like 900 pieces and much to my dismay it hardly had any of these handy bricks.

I'm hoping they don't get rid of the technic line of product, I loved that when I was a kid, its all I got. I just hope they go back to the more regular technic brick types instead of all the custom single use type pieces. I'm excited to see what the changes bring, I'm getting to that age where I'll have kids and I fully expect them to play with legos.

--
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
Re:First Post by bad-badtz-maru · 2004-01-12 04:30 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Yeah, Walgreens is definitely hurting... sales up 18%, comps up 13%, no debt taken during expansion... looks like bankrupcy any day!!
Re:First Post by AceCaseOR · 2004-01-12 04:33 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Walgreens pharmacy did a similar thing. It seemed like suddenly every single corner had a Walgreens on it- everywhere you looked, another frickin Walgreens. Now, craploads of them have gone out of business, and the corner is left with a VERY cheap building. They didn't do themselves, or anyone else any good by over-expanding. (My old neighborhood had an awesome coffee shop that leased a corner building. Eventually, the landlord sold the corner lot, the coffee shop went out of business, and nice shiny new Walgreens was built. 2 years later, it is an empty building, where once my favorite coffee shop, with a fireplace even, stood.)
Well, the rumors of Walgreen's death, then, are greatly exaggerated. Here in Oregon we've already had two new Walgreens open close to me. One in Sherwood, and one in Wilsonville, just a very short walk from my apartment. (Hmm, being a SCS, methinks I should put in an application)

--
Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
Re:First Post by Suidae · 2004-01-12 04:37 · Score: 3, Interesting

I agree that the marketing aspect with Star Wars and other themed sets needs to go. I disagree with the idea of going back to nothing but plastic blocks.

I spent hours working with the 'Technics'(sp?) sets they used to sell. These differed from the regular legos in that they came with a bunch of various sized gears, universal joints, steering knuckles, etc. The normal solid bricks have holes through which shafts may be run. I spent many many hours learning about gears, mechanical advantage, backlash, torque (I often wished for some metal versions of the plastic gears and shafts for high-load areas) and many other concepts.

I'd love to see all this plus a few specialized parts so that I could build a kit with which I could build any number of remote control vehicles. (I've never played with the mindstorms stuff, I dont' know if they have this kind of stuff).
Re:First Post by the+bluebrain · 2004-01-12 04:39 · Score: 3, Insightful
- [...]
  Why not just be a medium sized company, making a few million dollars of profit every year with your core business?
  [...]
Basically, because the employees of the company, specially the management, has a mandate from the shareholders to maximise the profit. It justifies their (professional) existence, as it were. And they do it by saturating their own niche, then trying themselves in new niches. This most often results in their falling flat on their faces at some point or other, picking themselves up, and trying again, probably with a set of new people.

This is the business version of the "cycle of life", but there's no cute baby lion.

Point is though, they can't afford to tread water. They have to expand at least so much to keep up with inflation, or they're shrinking; if in addition they're not expanding enough to keep up with population expansion then they're losing market share; and so on. And if they expand only enough to account for these two factors year by year then the shareholders will be at them saying that they can do better than that, and bingo you get a new, more expansion-oriented top management. Capitalism's freaky that way.
--
yes, we have no bananas
Re:First Post by jedidiah · 2004-01-12 04:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

Bullsh*t. Lego has to compete with all of it's little rivals that can now make perfectly compatable Lego knockoffs. Lego has always been the premium brand. It's little wonder that their sales would suffer during an economic slump when the dollar is weak. Blaming their current losses on current management is rather simpleminded.

They need to continue to differentiate themselves from a sea of knockoff artists that can clone any simplistic kit Lego makes.

I was actually looking forward to buying my son some of the more interesting modern Lego sets available these days. If they gut their line, I certainly won't be buying. There really wouldn't be a point.

--
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Re:First Post by Professor+Bluebird · 2004-01-12 04:47 · Score: 1

Basically, because the employees of the company, specially the management, has a mandate from the shareholders to maximise the profit.
LEGO is a privately held company. The management and shareholders are one in the same. They make the decisions fully on their own.
Re:First Post by Afrosheen · 2004-01-12 05:14 · Score: 5, Interesting

When I was really young, around 9 or 10, I actually wrote a letter to Lego, begging them for a double-sided Lego brick. Either double-male or double-female, I drew pictures and everything. Lego, in their infinite wisdom, wrote back a few months later with some legalese bullshit about how they can't accept idea submissions from outside sources, particularly not children.

This was nearly 20 years ago. I think they should've taken my advice instead of doing Star Wars co-marketing.
Re:First Post by rilister · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 3, Insightful

Well, I think the current business plan stemmed from fear of a commodity market. I read the reason that Lego moved to more and more complex sets with 'themes' is that their original patent on the Lego block expired in 1978.

So, in theory, there's nothing at all to stop you setting up a factory producing Lego-compatible blocks. To counter this, Lego tried to build 'brand value' by having more and more specialized sets - making it harder to compete with 'real' Lego.

Making just standard 4x2 blocks has very little 'added-value' over blocks anyone else could make - I wonder what their plan is now? Better instruction sheets?

--
'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore
Re:First Post by the+bluebrain · 2004-01-12 05:30 · Score: 1

It's nice to see a discussion board put to use in the intended fashion: to smack down people who you think are wrong without offering up any more enlightened opinion of your own. Thus the cycle of information exchange is kept alive.

Remember, kids: it's a zero-sum game.

--
yes, we have no bananas
Re:First Post by the+bluebrain · 2004-01-12 05:35 · Score: 1

I was not aware of that. Do you know how widly the stock is spread?

--
yes, we have no bananas
Re:First Post by bfields · 2004-01-12 05:51 · Score: 1

They need to continue to differentiate themselves from a sea of knockoff artists that can clone any simplistic kit Lego makes.

Hmm. Are there actually decent lego clones these days? When I was a kid there were a few, but a) they didn't interoperate with lego, and b) they didn't seem to be designed as carefully--they didn't hold together as firmly and just weren't as "useful".
--Bruce Fields
Re:First Post by donweel · 2004-01-12 05:54 · Score: 2, Interesting

I agree, both me and my younger brother played with Lego for years. Some of our games where building banister sliders that could take the hi gee 180 degree hairpin at the middle of the stairs. Also we sort of a war game where we made these structures which we suspended from strings and let swing so they bashed together the best battering ram victorious. We also did some instructional stuff but the wild stuff was more educational / fun, I think. Also an honorable mention to Mechano, we played that for years, automatic door closers, you name it.

--
Many a long talk since then I have had with the man in the moon; he had my confidence on the voyage. Joshua Slocum
Re:First Post by jasenj1 · 2004-01-12 05:57 · Score: 1

20 years ago, someone at Lego thought that they should be a huge powerhouse company, with their hands in everything. Why not just be a medium sized company, making a few million dollars of profit every year with your core business?

Apparently you have not attended business school and/or hold an MBA. The standard doctrine of the business suit bean counter set is: "If you're not growing, you're dying." The idea of a stable profitable company that is not expanding into new markets, new products, selling more, more, MORE! is an anathema to them.

Here's to hoping LEGO will go back to focusing on making plastic bricks that can be used to build lots of different things.
- Jasen.
Re:First Post by bfields · 2004-01-12 05:57 · Score: 4, Interesting

I spent hours working with the 'Technics'(sp?) sets they used to sell. These differed from the regular legos in that they came with a bunch of various sized gears, universal joints, steering knuckles, etc. The normal solid bricks have holes through which shafts may be run. I spent many many hours learning about gears, mechanical advantage, backlash, torque (I often wished for some metal versions of the plastic gears and shafts for high-load areas) and many other concepts.

I loved those things. In high school at one point we had a clock-designing project that I prototyped with the lego technics stuff; no hands or anything, just weight-driven thing with a primitive escapement and a big bar that swung back and forth to do the same job as a pendulum, all made out of lego.
That's the sort of thing lego was great for--you could have a good time building the (very clever) models from the instructions, but then you could also go do crazy things of your own. I hope kids are still playing with those things for many years. Except for being a bit pointy, they were the perfect toy--fun in the best possible way, because you could always do more with them.
--Bruce Fields
Re:First Post by Azureash · 2004-01-12 06:07 · Score: 0

Why not just be a medium sized company, making a few million dollars of profit every year with your core business?
Because corporate greed has made traditional business practices unpopular. The old model was to find a successful niche and make a reasonable profit year after year, decade after decade. Now companies must show growth every quarter (nevermind every year.) Is this a good long-term strategy...? We'll see.

--
Look at my karma - I'm bad, just like Michael Jackson!
Re:First Post by phaggood · 2004-01-12 06:12 · Score: 0

Okay, I'm ususally better about reading all associated articles before posting, but...

I'm glad about the 'back to basics' plan, but I hope that doesn't preclude perhaps expansion kits that allow you to build extra stuff. It'd be worth it to be able to purchase 'Space Expansion' that included the specialized parts like nose cones, space buggy tires, antennae, etc. As long as the interfaces are standard, you could them make stuff with your 1000 brick megabucket.

Specialty kits compete with the kid's imagination. Expansion packs allow them to move to the limits of their creativity with the base kit before going out and finding new tool sets.

y'know, freshmeat for the meatworld.
Re:First Post by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 06:22 · Score: 1

The mindstorms are fun for about 3/4 of an hour. Then you realize "shit, I've only got 3 inputs and 3 outputs to work with." I'm a little jaded. I cut me teeth on the MIT Handy board. It had 4 digital inputs, 4 analog inputs, an IR detector, 4 analog outputs, and a serial port.
Of course I did make a cute little droid that would run around the room and such.
I work at a museum and we have a big contest every year where high-school students compete using the Mindstorms kits to run a course. In the course there are barrels to be collected, items to be placed, and things to be avoided. The kids have a blast with it, but a lot of their creativity is spent working around the limitations of the controller.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Re:First Post by LafinJack · 2004-01-12 06:31 · Score: 2, Interesting

I haven't played with Legos in at least five years, but I remember using 2x2 double-male pieces and 4x2 double female pieces. IIRC they were all in the space-type sets.

--
we are building a religion
a limited edition
we are now accepting callers
for these pendant key chains
Re:First Post by Pope · 2004-01-12 06:31 · Score: 2, Interesting

Well, I for one love the Star Wars sets. The pieces and colours are great for making mecha! :D

As for your double-sided block, I have something similar which I think came with an X-Wing model. Think of your standard 2x4 stud block, but with male connectors on the long sides as well as the top. Pretty damn handy!

--
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Re:First Post by michaelhood · 2004-01-12 06:32 · Score: 2, Informative

I had these when I was growing up, along with legos. They're called Capsella.
I was surprised that: A) I could remember their name. B) They're still around.
These things are modular in that you can connect them in any configuration, and they have several specialty parts like fans, props, gears, tires, etc. Consider these for your son if he's old enough.
I found this on Google.
Re:First Post by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2004-01-12 06:32 · Score: 1

I dunno, blaming management seems like a very responsible thing to do. I mean, management are the ones who green light things like mindstorms and so forth. They're also responsible for making sure the company doesn't go into the red, period. If the company goes in the red, that's Management's fault.

--
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Re:First Post by madpierre · 2004-01-12 06:49 · Score: 2, Informative

Wow !
I once made some customised back to back blocks by supergluing normal 2x8 blocks together. I think I've still got some them :) That was back in the day when the only specialized parts in LEGO sets tended to be window and door bits.

Hmmm the warm glow of nostalgia.

--
siggy played guitar
Re:First Post by bigman2003 · 2004-01-12 06:54 · Score: 2, Interesting

Walgreens corporation may be doing well- but their method of scatter-gun building sucks.

They can afford to open new stores, see if they work out, and if not- close them.

This might work good for them- maybe 1/2 of the stores make it, and the other half close. Possibly this makes good business sense. But when you live in an actual 'neighborhood', or small town, it can really be a blight.

I live in a small town now, and it is surprising how many national chains come and go- restaurants, pharmacies, hardware stores, etc. The town I live in just isn't big enough to support some of these businesses. But, I think they look at a map, and like our centralized location, so they decide it is a good place to build. Do we really need an Applebees for every 60 miles of highway?

I've got different opinions on it though. For instance, the Walgreens example- they 'ruined' part of the neighborhood by putting in what is now an empty building.

On the other hand, there is a Standard Brands (or Sherwin Williams, don't remember, but it starts with an 'S') paint store in town. Not a franchise, but a corporate owned store. It's been there a few years. They don't do crap for business- but the corporate office keeps paying the 5 or 6 employees each month. Good, that means money is coming from out of town, and being deposited in our fair city. This is good for us. I've talked to the manager- he makes a decent salary, but is always worried that they will close the store because of lack of sales. This store went into an existing building- so they won't be leaving their corporate litter of shoddy cheap buildings when they leave.

The town I live in is small, but it is thriving. We have an economy based on agriculture and we are a bedroom community for the employees working at a nearby university. Somehow we do support two Starbucks though (and even more oddly, an EB Games, a Gamestop and a Gamecrazy...how long will that last?), and they are always crowded. But, someday if they try to put a Gap store in, I don't think the jeans/flannel/cowboy hats crowd will be rushing in to buy black turtlenecks. Besides, who will work there- yeah, the 'Almond Queen' used to live here, but she moved on...

--
No reason to lie.
Re:First Post by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:57 · Score: 0

Therewas evidence to prove that Overly Critical Guy is a lying cocksucker, but he deleted it. Think independently.
Re:First Post by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:59 · Score: 0

> I was actually looking forward to buying my son some of the more interesting modern Lego sets available these days. If they gut their line, I certainly won't be buying.

Why can't you people just be happy with books and movies as they are?

As for mindstorms, I have no idea what it's like, but it seems like a fancy version of Lego Logo which existed back in the early 90's and which you could program pretty easily.

All the Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego makes me want to throw up! I mean literally, I've got some stupid Bionicle thing and also the Millenium Falcon and I feel physically ill when I look at them.
Re:First Post by 3terrabyte · 2004-01-12 07:04 · Score: 1

I agree. How can they blame these expansions as their loss? If it wasn't for Bionicle, they'd probably have gone bankrupt. And what the hell is "traditional brick" about Bionicle? Nothing!! It's more like an expansion into the Pokemon trading card phenomenon.

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Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
Re:First Post by 3terrabyte · 2004-01-12 07:08 · Score: 1

Mindstorms was an extreme hit and profitable when it first came out. I would guess their retarted $50 Mindstorm expansions to be the deathknell for their bean counters, not the idea itself.
Seems like a brash decision, and I think they might find themselves with even less revenue when their basic brick sets don't reap them lots of money. However, I don't know how to run a company, and what do I know.
It will be nice to walk down to a store and pick up a bucket of bricks when I run out, though. They quit selling that stuff in bulk a few years ago, and only did crappy theme sets.

--
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
Re:First Post by Kaboom13 · 2004-01-12 07:17 · Score: 1

I dont remember where I got them, probably in one of the space police or pirates sets, but I had double sided lego bricks, It was a 2x2 yellow piece that was just the male connectors and nothing else. Not very stable but it worked. So yeah that piece has existed for many many years.
Re:First Post by Daetrin · 2004-01-12 08:04 · Score: 1

I've noticed a lot of new lego lookalike commerials on tv while watching saturday morning cartoons lately. The main one i've seen is by some company with a three letter initial name (i keep wanting to say "BFG," but i know that isn't right *g*) At the end of the commercial they say that you should look for them in the "construction isle" of your local toy store.
The blocks look identical except they have their initials printed on them instead of "Lego." They seem to be focusing on the specialty market. *does five minutes of searching on amazon* Ahh, they're called "Built to Rule," and they've apparently got licenses with Transformers and G.I. Joe.
I guess they figure they can't compete with Lego in the "square things you stick together" arena, so they're trying to compete in the specialty area, which ironically seems to be the area that Lego is abandoning. Perhaps BTR will pick up Harry Potter and Star Wars now as well?

--
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Re:First Post by bluesky74656 · 2004-01-12 08:16 · Score: 1

I'm in a contest for a local college every year in which we build a light-sensing robot out of the LEGO Mindstorms. The 'bot has to detect the brightest of two lights, and run towards it. There are two of them in a ring, and it is a timed event, whoever successfully finds and comes within a square foot of the brightest light wins. It's quite fun, and I'm still hoping we can do it even after the Mindstorms kits cease production.

--
This page was generated by a Flock of Attack Kittens for you.
Re:First Post by Zibblsnrt · 2004-01-12 08:42 · Score: 3, Insightful

The problem with the Star Wars sets - and the other licensed sets - is that they cost like nine bucks a brick or whatever bullshit inflated price is on the things. I have a tub of 500 generic pieces sitting next to me that I paid four dollars for; a 500-piece Star Wars set would run most of a hundred dollars for some sets.
Granted, I got my tub before Lego started claiming to offer bulk sales, "bulk" meaning "you specify the bricks and we'll charge you seventy-five cents each"...
I kinda think they should do a real bulk sales system and charge by the pound or something. God knows they made enough 4x2s and 1x1s that they don't need to sell them for orders of magnitude more cost than you'd pay to buy them in a tub or set.

--
"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Re:First Post by droid_rage · 2004-01-12 09:04 · Score: 1

Man, I came up with a whole slew of components back in the mid-late 80's when I was playing with legos a lot. I also sent in suggestions, and also got a similar letter in reply. I actually made a double-male connector by gluing two pieces together once, too.
Re:First Post by Afrosheen · 2004-01-12 09:08 · Score: 1

Yeah, you HAD to make your own double sided ones, because all of us kids that really, really needed one just couldn't buy one.

I guess alot of us had the same problem. Hell, anybody playing with legos for more than a day could find a use for it, or get stuck and figure a double sided lego would be useful.
Re:First Post by Russ+Nelson · 2004-01-12 09:37 · Score: 1

Gee, I wrote to them with a design for a hydraulic actuator system. I was 12 at the time, so that was, um, 33 years ago. Lego was being sold by Samsonite in the US at the time. I also got a nice letter back saying "Thanks, but we're unable to use your idea at this time."
-russ

--
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Re:First Post by goodhell · 2004-01-12 10:52 · Score: 1

That's what we did anyway. I remember each christmas we would get several boxes of Legos. We'd build the design provided in the instructions. Invariably it would be taken apart and we would be using those bricks for something else.

We used to have several 5 gallon buckets filled with the bricks. It was so much fun to just turn those over hearing the tinkling crash as they poured out. And then the hours of adventure looking for that perfect piece or constructing new things.

It was fun trying to build your own representation of the Millenium Falcon or whatever. No it wasn't exact, but it was my design. My creativity. When I have kids. I want to be able to get Legos. But not at >$50 for a box!
Re:First Post by GregWebb · 2004-01-12 10:56 · Score: 2, Interesting

If you want to learn about all that sort of mechanical stuff, put heavier loads through and that sort of thing, you _definitely_ want to look up Meccano / Erector. Rather than clip together blocks it's strips, plates and girders with 4mm holes every 0.5". You can use proper metal gears, you can build all sorts of interesting things. I've seen fully working cranes with 5ish _metre_ long jibs all supported by the model, or all sorts of strange trucks with more accurately modelled mechanisms in them than you can believe.

As far as I'm concerned Lego has a place but it's a bit limited. Meccano lets me build all sorts of things I couldn't dream of in Lego.

--
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
Re:First Post by Greventls · 2004-01-12 12:55 · Score: 1

They suck. I worked at Toys R Us and got to look at them a whole lot. If you thought some of Lego's pieces were specialized, just wait till you see the shit they pull. For instance, they have blocks that are barrels, why not assemble the barrels. A lot of their pieces are all really specialized.
Re:First Post by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 12:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/ha ndy-board/
(Which of course is now simply)
http://www.handyboard.com
It's a Motorola HC-11 based micro controller with all the DAC's for doing robot projects. I was playing with these things in engineering class back in '97.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Re:First Post by whittrash · 2004-01-12 13:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

At Christmas I went through Target and checked out the Lego selection. It was pathetic. The legos I really wanted to see were Iraq legos, with Saddam in a Spider hole, Hummers, tanks, 4th Infantry Division Bradley Fighting vehicles, a prison and barracks, that would be cool. There were no space legos, no pirate legos, no medieval legos, no modern day legos (helicopter, ambulance, race car etc.). All they had were stupid NBA, Harry Potter, Star Wars and some useless NASA rockets and a bunch of crap. I didn't even see the bucket of plain legos which is my favorite. I have never, ever bought legos which were of a branded product (like Harry Potter or NBA), that isn't the point of Legos (Although the NBA arena they sell would make a very good deathmatch arena for wily humans vs. the alien robots or humans infected with dinasaur DNA). Legos are only useful when you can build an asteroid base with a small army of space pirates (who have a black flagged pirate space ship complete with sails) and they wage war with the Space Patrol and space miner Bill and his dump truck crew over a mining facility which always gets destroyed in a massive conflagration and has to be rebuilt in a new configuration. You can't do that with a Shaq lego set, all the imagination is cut off. They don't sell any of the right parts for a time machine anymore. And how am I supposed to build a fusion generator with my niece and nephew that overloads blowing up half the planet with the gimpy legos they sell now. No wonder they are losing cash.
Re:First Post by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2004-01-12 17:37 · Score: 1

well, even if it doesn't generate more sales, the cost to produce basic blocks are going to be cheaper than producing mindstorms, I'd think

--
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Re:First Post by ottawanker · 2004-01-12 18:41 · Score: 1

Either double-male or double-female..

If you really need to, you can use a couple of those thin pieces sideways to put two male pieces together.. The thin pieces fit almost perfectly between the male bumps, and the bumps on the sideways thin piece will prevent it from moving back and forth..
Re:First Post by dinther · 2004-01-12 20:54 · Score: 1

YES! Finally some sense. So many times have I walked past the Lego shelves frustrated that there is nothing fun on there. Soon there will be (I hope) anyway, what I want to say is that I am glad that Lego discontinues the themed stuff. Back to basics great. Have designers design great looking designs using standard bits and box them, as long as the bits can be used for something else. This also applies to specialised parts. Pneumatics, motors, CPU's and so on. They are all parts that can be used to build the most amazing things. Therefore. Yes to back to basics but No to dumbing down. Lego is interseting for kids up to 99 years old.
Re:First Post by Bertie · 2004-01-12 23:43 · Score: 1

Years ago, there was a dodgy Chinese clone called 0937. Not a very catchy name, you might think, but imagine those numbers stamped onto the bumpy bit of a Lego block and turned upside down...
Re:First Post by SpaceJunkie · 2004-01-14 04:12 · Score: 1

The pity is that while Bionacle and some of the specialised themed sets went away from this, the Mindstorms sets fired the creative side of lego furthar. The amount of creative thought poured out from Mindstorms users is unbeleivable. Indeed it was mindstorms that brought me back to being a Lego user - all my old lego was destroyed by my sisters after I moved out and left it behind..

It only bionacle had used fairly standard technic bricks - it would have been more of an asset. Moulding lots of custom bricks is not the way to have gone.

Lego still is the perfect toy - and having the normally compatible technic and basic lego go back to roots would be great. The current range of technic sets is right down. The designer and inventor sets are great.

What I really want to do now, is establish OrionRobots as an education organisation in some way so we can order Dacta.

--
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol
Re:First Post by SpaceJunkie · 2004-01-14 04:23 · Score: 1

But then half the fun, and electronics learning has come from people trying to expand these limitations in some way. While the RCX is not the most advanced microcontroller out there for building robots, it certainly has some of the most interesting and innovative systems.

I agree that the bubblegum programming system is limited - and I recommend learning NQC asap, but I have created a couple of custom sensors based upon stuff I found on the web and my own research. After all - if you can use one input to create a differential light source sensor, then you can use a similar sensor on a 4 input PIC and get much more out of it.

Sadly the spybotics is the most limited one - as without hacking the brick to peices, you cannot extend its sensors. Well you could... Using some PIC with a clever VLL board and program - but then you may as well use the PIC instead entirely.

Btw - any links to the museum? I had a look at your site - and your work with the contest is probably worth a mention on Orionrobots.

--
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol
Re:First Post by jfdawes · 2004-01-26 07:38 · Score: 1

Point is though, they can't afford to tread water. They have to expand at least so much to keep up with inflation, or they're shrinking; if in addition they're not expanding enough to keep up with population expansion then they're losing market share; and so on. And if they expand only enough to account for these two factors year by year then the shareholders will be at them saying that they can do better than that, and bingo you get a new, more expansion-oriented top management. Capitalism's freaky that way.

Inflation? 4% a year. Why do most people think that a company that grows less than 30-40% a year is doing badly?

Population expansion? Give me a break. The native population of the US is shrinking. Only reason the population goes up is because of immigration. And it's no where near 30-40% a year

Maybe it's a bad analogy but as far as I know the only thing in nature that grows continually is a cancer. But then, looking at the traditionally most profitable businesses (IANAE, but that would be alcohol, cigarettes and pharma) ... they all seem to make most of their money from the things that cause the most social problems. Maybe likening business to cancer isn't such a bad analogy.

Damn kids by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:06 · Score: 0, Interesting

I'm proud to say I've played with legos for as long as I can remember, and I still do.

Re:Damn kids by Rick+the+Red · 2004-01-12 05:45 · Score: 1

I got my boy (seven years old, as it happens) the blue 1000 brick bin for Christmas, and his main comment so far is that it's not enough bricks. I gotta admit, when you open that big bin it sure looks awfuly empty...
So now I've got to find a spare $200 to buy myself (hey, at least I'm honest) a Mindstorms set before they're all gone. I doubt any of them will be marked down as closeout items. Perhaps when Lego sees the run on the remaining Mindstorms they'll decide to make more.
The article didn't say -- are they dropping Spybots as well?

--
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Re:Damn kids by indros13 · 2004-01-12 06:40 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I was a moderator on the game copying discussion where you asked about MS Flight Sim from the mid 80s, so I'm posting my response about copy protection here.
There was a nifty program called Rawcopy floating around back in the day that solved many a backup problem with older games. I'm not sure if it still exists, though, as I certainly have found newer programs that are much more up-to-date.

--
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Re:Damn kids by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:46 · Score: 0

http://rivendell.fortunecity.com/normality/264/Raw copy.zip
Re:Damn kids by Rick+the+Red · 2004-01-12 07:01 · Score: 1

Thanks, but it didn't work. Rawcopy is indeed out there (I just Googled for it and got it in a few minutes), but it doesn't copy MS Flight Sim.

--
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Re:Damn kids by Rick+the+Red · 2004-01-12 07:04 · Score: 1

"We're sorry, but we can't supply the file you requested.

In order for us to continue to provide our members with the first-class service they expect, we don't allow people to link files from sites hosted with other providers."

Then it popped up an ad for software that will block popup ads. Thanks, AC, you were a big help. NOT

--
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.

I still play with my Lego :) by grub · 2004-01-12 04:06 · Score: 5, Interesting

Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.' Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?

I'm 38 and still monkey with Lego. When I was sick at home for a few days I had a little contest running with myself. I had built a small Lego "bridge" that could span a piece of legal paper lengthwise (14") then would place a glass of water on it. If the bridge didn't hold then I had water to clean up. If the bridge held for 5 minutes I'd tear it down then 're-engineer' it with less pieces than before. All the regular bricks, no cheating with the longer pieces. :)

When you're sick a bit of a mental challenge helps you forget the illness. (I was doing this with my Lego blocks from 30+ years ago but I have a lot of Mindstorms stuff too, it's leet)

--
Trolling is a art,

Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 0

Talk about a mid-life crisis.

By your measure I've been in this "crisis" all my life, AC.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by bconway · 2004-01-12 04:14 · Score: 4, Funny

Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?

I'd say that pretty much covers the maturity level of the posters here.

--
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Smedrick · 2004-01-12 04:38 · Score: 2, Informative

I would still be playing with legos in my mid-20s if they hadn't simplified the sets so much. When I was younger I got hooked on the castle sets (like this one) and the space sets...the fatter the instruction manual, the better. I would make a game by attempting to build the set without the aid of the manual. But then they started replacing walls made of bricks with large single pieces. If I could put a set together within an hour, it just wasn't fun. Plus, half the fun of the sets was being able to use the wide variety of tiny pieces to make your own crazy stuff.

I've been meaning to pick up some mindstorms sets, but I'm happy to see them make an effort to get back to basics.

--
"I strongly urge both the faint of heart and the faint of butt to leave the room at this time."
- Strong Bad
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by madprof · 2004-01-12 04:39 · Score: 1

Lego played a really important part of my childhood. I used to have great fun having pretend little scenarios with the things I built.
Once I'd reached a certain level of maturity I realised I didn't need what was basically a personal form of role-play.
Now Lego is forever associated with that.

Maybe some people just built it to see what pretty buildings they could create.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Overly+Critical+Guy · 2004-01-12 04:48 · Score: 2, Interesting

I'm 38 and still monkey with Lego.

You're also the minority. :) Lego has to make profit, not cater to some people at some dork website. People assume Slashdotters represent the majority or something.

--
"Sufferin' succotash."
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:08 · Score: 0

Sorry, I'm in law school and am single right now. I also have no children. As for your assertion, I would agree with you. I feel you were suggesting that was my situation though, which it is not.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:19 · Score: 0

What is this "Instruction Manual" you speak of? ;-)
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:19 · Score: 0

That's good. Because I feel a lot of people responding in the same fashion as you are actually in that situation.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2004-01-12 05:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

Bravo, Lego! Bravo!
I really hate those little Lego "kits" with just enough pieces to re-assemble the particular item featured on the packaging. These are usually based on some marketing department 'idea", and clearly outside the best use and enjoyment of Lego itself.
All of those model-specific parts: animal heads, guns, etc. It is the death of creativity and imagination.
"Why design and figure out how to make your own submarine? We've done the FUN part for you! Just stck the blocks together!"
My kids are LOVERS of Lego. They get the BIG blue box, and build what they like.

--
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by los+furtive · 2004-01-12 05:38 · Score: 2, Interesting

Let me share with you what I associate lego with.
Starting first with my brother and I, and eventually all our neighbourhood friends, we would build vehicles out of lego with the sole purpose of them being rammed into each other as fast as we could whip them on our basement floors. Whoever's car survived the head to head collision without falling apart won. With time we added a 'competition' level where the winner got to take any pieces that fell off his competitor's vehicle.
Our only rules were that the front wheels could not extend beyond the front of the vehicle, or be used as a bumper, and that a driver must be included in each vehicle, be able to see the road, and not be ejected from the vehicle.
We designed all types of vehicles, ones with dense walls, ones that ran low and had ramps, ones with horizontal 'loose' pillars running through that would put the stress on the back of the vehicle (ideally the rear wheels or a rubber wheel at the center of the rear axis) while applying focused pressure on the oponent's vehicle. In retrospect it was a lot like those 'battlebot' tv shows you see these days, minus the remote controls and goofy aparatus.
Much more fun than any dinky car ever proved to be. Good times.

--
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by uberdave · 2004-01-12 05:41 · Score: 4, Interesting

My brother's company had a lego tower building contest. His team won because they used an unorthodox strategy. All the other teams used the lego blocks in the standard orientation (bumps up, holes down). His team set the blocks on their side (bumps right, holes left), trading off a certain amount of lateral stability for greater gains in height. Perhaps you could use the same strategy in your bridge building?

--
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by OS24Ever · 2004-01-12 05:44 · Score: 1

I just spent maybe $200 on LEGO for myself over the holidays. I've got a fortune sunk in LEGO in my master bedroom closet, much to the wife's annoyance (that I'm taking up closet space)

--
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by JWW · 2004-01-12 05:50 · Score: 1

But if your son spends hours reconfiguring Star Wars ships, the cockpit peices come in real handy. ;-)

He loves the Star Wars line and builds many of the models in their original arrangment first. But, secondary building becomes one of modification and creation of alternate ships from just his own imagination. Mind you the ships are unique, but still follow the original theme as far as playing with them goes.

This move will find my household buying fewer legos.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by CableModemSniper · 2004-01-12 05:51 · Score: 1

I dunno, I kinda liked the ones with instructions when I was younger. It gave you something to say ok, now I am finished. Hey thats pretty cool. Then of course you'd disassemble it to varying degrees in order to make something else later, of course. Plus the model-specific parts are useful in other stuff too. You can't tell me you never wanted to stick a ray gun on your custom sub.

--
Why not fork?
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Skjellifetti · 2004-01-12 06:23 · Score: 2, Interesting

Now that's what Lego should have done: Combine your cars with Mindstorms and run a mini-battlebots tv show. That would have been a battlebots competition that most people could actually afford to enter.

--
FreeSpeech.org
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by MullerMn · 2004-01-12 06:25 · Score: 4, Funny

much to the wife's annoyance (that I'm taking up closet space)

Perhaps it's time to come out the closet? I'm sure your wife will understand.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by madprof · 2004-01-12 06:30 · Score: 1

My brother did exactly that with Lego too.
Must be a popular thing.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by monique · 2004-01-12 06:36 · Score: 1

But what if the people at the dork website are willing to spend a lot more money on Legos than are the parents of small children?

--
-monique
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Unordained · 2004-01-12 06:37 · Score: 2, Interesting

that's unfortunate ... my lego collection gets the bedroom closet, and my girlfriend's gets the bedroom, in front of the dresser. (only in front of her drawers, of course.)

but then saturday she decided she wanted to do sculptures ... so it all got moved into the living room, with furniture blocking the front door and whatnot. now one side of the living room has a 3/4 finished space-minifig-sculpture (as it's her first sculpture, we're going for 8x size) and on the other side, my 1/3 completed technic-scale p-38 ... and no, the flaps don't work yet. come on out of the closet, there's more room out in the open.

and my cat loves to pounce large piles of lego.

birthdays, christmas, half-birthdays ... all good occasions to buy at least little sets for the girlfriend. and what with her interest in sculptures, this "return to the basics" will just make it easier.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by rlk · 2004-01-12 06:40 · Score: 3, Insightful

I admit that I haven't in a while, but this is excellent news.

When I was young, there were none of the Star Wars kits and such. It took real imagination to devise and build interesting toys from parts.

My wife has bought a few of the Star Wars type kits for her nephew. There's nothing much to it -- read the directions, figure out which piece is which, put them all together, and that's it. Pay your $20*/5, spend 30 minutes throwing the pieces together (of course, I do all the work), nephew spends 15 minutes with it, and it's done for.

This took some real courage on their part, rebelling against the entertainment-retail complex. Hopefully there are still kids and parents who can think for themselves and don't have to live lives of tie-ins to someone else's creation.

If they really want to do something different, an interface kit to Tinkertoy or Erector Set would be great. Then people could combine these three classics to build new toys combining all of their strengths. That is, if they still make Erector Set any more.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:41 · Score: 0

It's cute the way that you mod up yourself with your other "non-troll" account. Interesting? Yours is a crap comment.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:59 · Score: 0

There was evidence to prove that Overly Critical Guy is a lying cocksucker, but he deleted it. Think independently.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by tkw954 · 2004-01-12 07:02 · Score: 1

If the bridge didn't hold then I had water to clean up. If the bridge held for 5 minutes I'd tear it down then 're-engineer' it with less pieces than before.
That sounds like the GM school of engineering: if it fails, make it heavier, and if it doesn't, make it lighter. No middle ground.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by TheVidiot · 2004-01-12 07:11 · Score: 1

Right on, brother. Too bad it took them that long to realize this...
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by 3terrabyte · 2004-01-12 07:17 · Score: 1

I completely agree.
Just like the MIT contest, where you have to use stuff from a list. (king of the hill?)
Would have sold even more Mindstorms, and the secondary market on parts would be even higher!

--
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Ryan+Amos · 2004-01-12 07:32 · Score: 1

No way! Those things were cool. Eventually the kit designs would get boring so I would combine like 3 or 4 kits and build cool stuff. You really could do some fun unique stuff if you took the basic frame from one of those "kits" and went freeform from there. The old school monorail moonbase was *awesome*, once I added so much cool stuff onto the train that it wouldn't get up the inclines without adding a second 9V battery and overloading the motor O:)
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Scooter · 2004-01-12 07:33 · Score: 1

er - well I'm 3. What do you mean you're 38? Thats a pretty wild claim - I knew a guy who was 8 once, but surely, no - one's over 10 - thats just ridiculous!

Now - has anyone seen another red half-roof block?
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:36 · Score: 0

C'mon, admit it, your girlfriend is an orca and you are a sad, pathetic, pussywhipped excuse for a man. "No, I didn't get you diamonds.. but it's better, they're clear legos!"
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 08:22 · Score: 0

Children, children, children.. there's enough Lego to go around for all of us. Now play nice. :)
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by madpierre · 2004-01-12 08:47 · Score: 1

Yup, thats me. I *still* spend serious ammounts on stuff like LEGO. I fall into the geek addicted to gadgets with disposable income category. :)

LEGO type stuff must fit in with the techy mindset. Pulling things apart to see what makes em tick. I wonder how many /.ers have ever taken apart a tape deck, vcr or practically any other electrical/mechanical appliance ever built?

--
siggy played guitar
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by focitrixilous+P · 2004-01-12 09:35 · Score: 1

I never really understood why people bash slashdot on slashdot. I mean, you've got nearly 2000 posts, yet you gladly call the site a "dork website" Slashdotters are not the majority, yet it is assumed that slashdotters make up the majority of slashdot, thusly we can relate to still playing with legos. If he was giving serious advice, I'd be with you, but give the guy a chance to expres himself without bashing his hobby with the club of the almighty dollar.

--
SAILING MISHAP
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by OS24Ever · 2004-01-12 09:39 · Score: 1

I have a two year old that I've not quite gotten the 'no don't put that in your mouth stage' over with. As soon as she figures that out, they're back outside.

--
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by DunbarTheInept · 2004-01-12 09:49 · Score: 1

What I would have liked back in the day when I had lego, though, would have been *some* of the special parts - not for specific one-use models, but for more generic problems that the standard bricks didn't handle - like making strong rotating joints, axles, and joints to "turn the corner" and make bricks attach 90 degrees to other bricks. (So that some bricks in the object can have bumps pointing left, others pointing up, and others pointing right.) Back when I was using them as a kid, none of that was standard, and you needed to raid into the specialty kits just to get these kinds of joiners. And they solve problems that no amount of ceativity can solve using the standard bricks.

--
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by SuperMo0 · 2004-01-12 10:59 · Score: 1

Or give your western townsperson a ray gun for a head.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by schon · 2004-01-12 11:02 · Score: 1

His team set the blocks on their side (bumps right, holes left), trading off a certain amount of lateral stability for greater gains in height. Perhaps you could use the same strategy in your bridge building?

You know, that's the first thing I thought of when I read the parent post.. "I wonder if he's tried it with the blocks on their side."

I gues great minds think alike :o)
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Overly+Critical+Guy · 2004-01-13 06:15 · Score: 1

I never really understood why people bash slashdot on slashdot.

It's the same reason people living in a country can bash their government.

I mean, you've got nearly 2000 posts, yet you gladly call the site a "dork website"

So? Is dork an insult to you?

Slashdotters are not the majority, yet it is assumed that slashdotters make up the majority of slashdot, thusly we can relate to still playing with legos.

We're talking about Lego's future marketing plans. They have to cater to the majority, not the majority of Slashdot only. Think a little.

If he was giving serious advice, I'd be with you, but give the guy a chance to expres himself without bashing his hobby with the club of the almighty dollar.

Or, you can relax and realize nobody is "bashing" anybody's hobbies. Heaven forbid I express an opinion, 'lest I harm someone's fragile ego.

--
"Sufferin' succotash."
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-13 07:46 · Score: 0

There's expressing an opinion, and there's being an asshole. You, my friend, fall into the latter category. :-)

HTH
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-13 09:14 · Score: 0

I can't believe you're still alive and posting. Talk about washed-up! If you are still here a year from now you will have proven yourself to be truly pathetic.

Happy 2004!

BTW Where did your journal entries go? Either you are a pussy and deleted them, or a Slashdot editor deleted them. I'm guessing you're a pussy.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-13 16:39 · Score: 0

There was evidence to prove that Overly Critical Guy is a lying cocksucker, but he deleted it. Think independently.
Re:I still play with my Lego :) by SpaceJunkie · 2004-01-14 06:03 · Score: 1

I think I have spent more of my income on lego now, than would have been spent on a child by a parent. In fact as a robot builder, I recommend lego as a robot prototyping tool. It is also a wonderful toy.

Sadly, because of the decline in set quality, although I bought the mindstorms set, pretty much most of my purchases post '99 are older sets from ebay.. If my local toy store had proper technic sets(with more than just liftarms - I liked technic beams), and not just the Bionacle/Slizer range - then I would be purchasing much more new Lego.

The only good thing to come out of bionacle was the Manas set - which with the right sneakiness can be controlled via IR from the RCX. I did have an artical on OrionRobots about that somewhere...

--
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol

what I would like to see by mpost4 · 2004-01-12 04:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

is a return to the way legos were sold in the 80's, not in sets, yes there were those, but you could also just get a generic set. I have not see a generic set in the stores around here, they all are some set based on some movie game or some thing, but no generic set.

Re:what I would like to see by blowdart · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 1

I went to Legoland in Windsor UK last summer (*cough* it was her idea honest). They had a generic set for sale labelled "Classic Lego". Only place I've seen it.
Re:what I would like to see by Dilbert_ · 2004-01-12 04:14 · Score: 1

Yeah, I remember those... As a kid, I used to play for hours with lego, constructing this, building that... I never understood the appeal behind all those 'branded' sets (Star Wars, Potter...) anyway.

--
superblog.org: all your favourite blogs on o
Re:what I would like to see by TopShelf · 2004-01-12 04:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

The great thing about doing this (going back to generic set sales) for Lego is that it drastically reduces their costs while also directing focus back where it belongs - on the open-ended nature of the toy. Instead of directing a kid to build Hogwarts or something, let them build whatever their imagination comes up with...

--
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Re:what I would like to see by broller · 2004-01-12 04:15 · Score: 5, Informative

They come in buckets now. They were called Freestyle sets throughout the 90's, but I'm not sure what the series name is now. Check your local Lego aisle for buckets full of windows, bricks, etc.

If it's individual kinds of parts in bulk you want, shop.lego.com still sells the service packs that they've always sold through the Shop At Home catalog, as well as the rest of their product line.

For single special parts, or any other sort of non-set purchase, BrickLink is a great resource. That's where the resellers break down the sets they buy from stores and sell the parts individually. If you want 300 wigets in blue, bricklink is the best way to find them.
Re:what I would like to see by tuffy · 2004-01-12 04:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

The great thing about doing this (going back to generic set sales) for Lego is that it drastically reduces their costs while also directing focus back where it belongs - on the open-ended nature of the toy. Instead of directing a kid to build Hogwarts or something, let them build whatever their imagination comes up with...

If the sets were built with generic pieces, a kid could build Hogwarts from the directions. Then, he could tear it down and build a bunch of completely different things that look nothing like the picture on the box. The first yellow castle set I got back in the late 70s was like this - packed with plenty of plain pieces and only a handful of specialized ones.
Then, as early as the mid-80s, Lego started using specialized "castle wall" pieces that weren't useful for anything other than assembling medieval-looking buildings. It was a downward trend, though I didn't realize it at the time.

--
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Re:what I would like to see by damian · 2004-01-12 04:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

In Cologne Germany they have a lego shop where you can fill up cups of different sizes with lego blocks from a good selection and than pay by cup size. Similar to some sweet store.
Re:what I would like to see by Polkyb · 2004-01-12 04:41 · Score: 0

Here, here. When I was a rug rat, my folks used to sit me on the floor with a bucket or two of Lego. The themed sets they sell nowadays just don't IMO have the same intelectual stimulation of just letting your kids imagination decide what they're going to build... You even get a book with 'em. I also despaired when Meccano went the same 'Themed' way, because, Meccano was my natural progression from Lego... Lets hope they change their mind as well.

--
I've never shoed a horse, but I once told a donkey to piss off!
Re:what I would like to see by NecroBones · 2004-01-12 04:43 · Score: 2, Interesting

The article never really went into much detail about just how far back they're going in thier product scheme. I mean, I'd hate for it to go so far back that it's just bricks and Duplo. If they take it back to where it was in the 80's, that would be great. I can sum up my feeling on it in just 3 words: "Town, Castle, Space". I always though they were crazy for going off into all sorts of bizarre themes, when it should be relatively generic in concept. The old 80's space and castle sets were simple enough and yet broad enough to have mass appeal.

--
I have not lost my mind... it's backed up on disk somewhere!
Re:what I would like to see by LaCosaNostradamus · 2004-01-12 04:48 · Score: 2, Insightful

Since profit margins are fatter for niche products, companies always want to get away from commodity business. But niche markets are either small, don't last, are fickle, or are some combination of all these things.

End result: company not only loses much of the investment in the niche product development, but it tends to let the unsexy commodity business fall by the wayside.

I too had noticed that over time, less and less Lego sets were "generic" ... just a bunch of mixed blocks that any idiot could see challenges kids to build with. Then I stopped looking once the bulk sets were impossible to find, and the model sets were flashy and even more plied with motors, stickers, etc.

I still have my Legos from my single-digit years; generally, I built spacecraft with them. Those kinds of things were lost in the shuffle for mega-profits. It's good to see that Lego has now realized it ... perhaps in time to stop a fall into bankruptcy.

--
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
Re:what I would like to see by GiMP · 2004-01-12 04:49 · Score: 1

A few months ago, I saw the exact same lego set I had as a child (in the 80's) at Toys R' Us. It was one of those thick, red lego cases.

They also had a PlayDoh set identical to that I had in the 80's as well.
Re:what I would like to see by DenOfEarth · 2004-01-12 05:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

I remember getting a lego grey castle set that I rather liked. The castle wall piece weren't too bad, as they simply acted as a window frame kind of piece that added a bit to the castle, yet they remained somewhat generic enough in that you could build a wall around it with generic lego brick pieces. The castle gates were also made with generic pieces too, if I remember correctly, so they were good.

I saw my cousin got a 'bionicle' lego set for christmas this year, and it was ridiculous. I don't think there were more than a hundred pieces, and no more than a handful of them could be connected to something other than the piece they were supposed to be connected to on the picture on the box. The special piece thing has definitely gone way too far (even though the last lego set I got: a pirate ship, looked pretty damn impressive when it was all put together).
Re:what I would like to see by wideBlueSkies · 2004-01-12 05:31 · Score: 1

I'm all for going back to the old fashioned generic sets. Ever notice that you run out of certain parts, like wheels or specialty bricks?

What LEGO should do, IMHO, is allow you to buy individual bricks. Maybe from their website or something. I've seen various 'lego warehouses' on the net that do this, but it'd be nice to see LEGO themselves offer this service.

BTW, I don't think they should completely kill off the licensed sets. Some of that stuff, especially the bigger Star Wars sets are kind of cool.

wbs.

--
Huh?
Re:what I would like to see by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:32 · Score: 0

i agree.... i'd been rather disheartened with the state of Lego recently as the pieces have become so specialized. as boys my cousin and i would build castles, haunted houses, fun parks, cars out of just bricks! sure some more generic pieces like wheels and rooftop pieces were handy but it didn't stop us if we didn't have them.

i'm glad to see Lego get back to the basics and leave the creating back in the kids' hands....
Re:what I would like to see by Bombcar · 2004-01-12 06:01 · Score: 3, Informative

Ask and you shall receive.

And I assume you've seen bricklink which is not Lego affilated.

Also, try going to one of the LegoLand stores, like Legoland California. Bulk bricks by weight! Ultimate in badass Lego buying.

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Fellowship 9/11
Re:what I would like to see by Run4yourlives · 2004-01-12 06:05 · Score: 1

They're called "creator" sets now... I've got one sitting on my desk right now.
Re:what I would like to see by Migrant+Programmer · 2004-01-12 06:22 · Score: 3, Funny

I hear there's parts of Amsterdam where you can pay by cup size, too.

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Bitchslapped. Neat.
Re:what I would like to see by Slacker · 2004-01-12 06:34 · Score: 1

All this about bringing back sets from the 80's makes so much sense... It's now that people who were recieving those sets, in their formative years, are looking to buy them for the next generation of kids (be it for their own, or friend's kids). It's sort of a "life cycle" for Lego, since we're really the last generation to remember the unadulterated mostly non-special piece sets. I wonder if this means that in 10 or 20 years the model/kit sets will come back again, because that's what the next "life cycle" of 20 - 30 yesar old consumers will remember as classic lego sets.

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~~~ Trust me, I'm a professional! ~~~
Re:what I would like to see by The+Snowman · 2004-01-12 06:45 · Score: 1

I can sum up my feeling on it in just 3 words: "Town, Castle, Space".

I agree. They don't necessarily have to keep it to three themes, but this branded crap has to go. How much can you add to Harry Potter? It isn't too expandable. But a town? There are hundreds of sets they can sell, and it is easy to figure out new things to make from the pieces. Lego wins because they can sell a wide variety of sets, and the customers win because we aren't as constrained when it comes to Legos' traditional strength -- reuse.

Personally, I don't mind themed sets, as long as that isn't the focus. For example, Harry Potter has a place in the castle theme. Bionicle has a place in the space theme. Town == present; castle == past; space == future. That's ingenious. Now all they have to do is leverage their solid ideas from the past with what they have now. No need to get rid of Mindstorms and Harry Potter, just don't sell them to the exclusion of their traditional sets.

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24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
Re:what I would like to see by wideBlueSkies · 2004-01-12 06:45 · Score: 1

I hope someone mods you up as informative. Thanks for the links.

wbs.

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Huh?
Re:what I would like to see by VanillaCoke420 · 2004-01-12 06:46 · Score: 1

Haha, I would mod up if I could.
Re:what I would like to see by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 06:54 · Score: 1

One more reason to brush up on my German.
"Ein Tasse Lego, Bitte."

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Re:what I would like to see by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 06:59 · Score: 3, Insightful

The problem is that commodity is not sexy. A company that makes the same product for 99 years doesn't need a marketing department and a high-profile CEO. They need a reliable distribution network, a consistent product, and a good reputation.
I'm kinda worried about one of my favorite local beers. The owner's kid went off and got an MBA or something and they are expanding like crazy all over the place. While it's cool I can get my favorite beer in Florida as well as Philly, I just hope they don't go off and either Budwasser their product, or end up diversifying into a company that makes everything BUT the Lager I have come to know and love.
Fast growing companies are like tumors. Very few learn to stop growing, and sooner or later they die from starvation after destroying the entire market.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Re:what I would like to see by AKnightCowboy · 2004-01-12 07:05 · Score: 1

In Cologne Germany they have a lego shop where you can fill up cups of different sizes with lego blocks from a good selection and than pay by cup size. Similar to some sweet store.
I still have issues paying a huge premium on what is still essentially a penny's worth of plastic. You should be able to buy a whole 1200 piece bucket for about $15.
Re:what I would like to see by wayward_son · 2004-01-12 07:20 · Score: 1

As I said from an earlier post, expanding Castle, Town, and Space, to Castle, Town, Space, and PIRATE was when Lego jumped the shark.

Pirate started the trend to more specialized pieces, and Lego has gone downhill ever since.
Re:what I would like to see by 3terrabyte · 2004-01-12 07:20 · Score: 1

You know, I don't mind the theme sets, just theme them down to the brick level!
In otherwords, sure, have a Hogwarts Castle set, but it comes with 400 pieces, a fat manual, takes forever to build, and when you're done with it, you have all these cool grey-stoned 2x4 pices, etc to build other castles and buildings with. There's really no reason to have a piece so big that it resembles something besides a brick.

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Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
Re:what I would like to see by wayward_son · 2004-01-12 07:22 · Score: 1

I built a Church out of my Castle pieces and put it right in the middle of my Lego town.

They were definitely specialized pieces, but you were far from limited in what you could do with them.
Re:what I would like to see by orkysoft · 2004-01-12 07:28 · Score: 1

Yeah. I used to look at the books that came with the more-or-less generic Technic sets, and they usually provided instructions for building a couple of things, and some pictures of other things built from the parts, and I saw it as a challenge to build those things just by looking at the picture. That, I think, also encourages you to think of yet different things to build.

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I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Re:what I would like to see by orkysoft · 2004-01-12 07:45 · Score: 1

It's a penny's worth of molded and tested to conform to the standards plastic.

Really. I must have thousands of Lego pieces, and they all fit together (except for those specialized pieces, of which I do have a few). That doesn't happen by accident.

--

I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Re:what I would like to see by Scooter · 2004-01-12 07:49 · Score: 1

Too right. I also feel that the license tie ins such as the Star Wars concept were pretty naff. They didn't really function as Lego due to too many custom parts that really didn't work in any other scenario, and lets face it - a Lego "A-Wing" or "Tie Interceptor" looked, well: crap, next to a "normal" model of the same craft. Kids aint daft - they see the 2 things on the shelf in the toy store and even at age 7 can see that one looks like the craft in the film, and one looks like some Lego that approximates the thing in the film, if you squint your eye so you can't see that it's covered in bumps. No prizes for guessing which one is more impressive in the playground bragging stakes.

I helped my 7 year old nephew build his Lego jet-ski on Christmas day - he followed the instructions and hours later it was done. Ten minutes later it was a robot/spaceship something or other which he sounded a lot more enthusiastic about (it had all kinds of features that he was making up on the spot - the jet-ski was, well, a jet-ski)

The sheer pervasiveness of the movie/TV tie in these days could mean kids not willing to make believe they are that character without the official costume and accessories!
Re:what I would like to see by CheeseTroll · 2004-01-12 08:04 · Score: 1

The Mall of American in Minnesota has a Legoland (that's what we call it, anyway), where you can also scoop your own legos out of bins. The prices didn't seem too exhorbitant, either.

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A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
Re:what I would like to see by TopShelf · 2004-01-12 08:10 · Score: 1

In my college days I had a roommate who had, over the years, crafted an amazing Millenium Falcon with basic Lego pieces, with the addition of some wiring for lights and other add-ons. To anyone over the age of 10, something like that is much more impressive than an outta-da-box kid, that's for sure...

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Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Re:what I would like to see by TopShelf · 2004-01-12 08:12 · Score: 1

err... outta-da-box kit, yeah, that's it...

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Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Re:what I would like to see by jameskojiro · 2004-01-12 08:12 · Score: 0

I bought the giant star destroyer just for parts! JUST FOR PARTS! I assembled it and it was intact for 1 month and then my urge to tear it down and make it into other STAR TREK type ships overwhelmed me!!! The Imperial Star Destroyer is a good buy just for parts and i may just buy another one just for the parts!!!

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Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Re:what I would like to see by jafuser · 2004-01-12 09:03 · Score: 1

I stocked up two years ago when Target was selling 1000-piece tubs for $14.

I've now got 26,000 brand new legos (and only god knows how many used legos)...

What I really wish was that the Technic pieces were less expensive. It's practically impossible to order them in bulk at a reasonable price...

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Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
Re:what I would like to see by GiMP · 2004-01-12 09:13 · Score: 1

Case in point, the reason I was in Toys R' Us was because I was looking for a toy for my 5 year old brother in-law. I got him the PlayDoh set I had as a kid. It was that or the Legos - toys I had as a child.
Re:what I would like to see by ggwood · 2004-01-12 09:41 · Score: 1

I had that yellow castle, from the 1970's (I may have gotten it in the very early 80's I can't recall). Anyhow, in a box at my mom's house is every piece. How do I know this? My wife and I built the castle from the instructions about two years ago on a Sunday afternoon during one of those long holidays at home.

Would we have done that if there had been a bunch of big "castle wall" pieces? I really don't think so.

Part of the charm of it is that one can take a bunch of small pieces which, when dumped into a pile on the ground, don't look like much, and put them together into something pretty impressive. And at a certain age, it is really challenging. I probably got the set around age 7 and I recall actually misreading the instructions. I had to go back and figure out what I had done wrong and how to fix it. And in that way, realizing how to really read the instructions - to pay a bit more attention to the details. And in the end, other people would look at it and be impressed. Thus, as a kid you get a sense of accomplishment.

And then you can take it apart and build whatever you want. We would build really long, narrow spaceships and for some reason have other little spaceships dock in it and take off from it. One thing you needed was for the whole long structure to not fall apart when held with one little kid hand. This revealed a flaw even in the vintage 1970's castle kit: and I'm not sure tuffy had the same one, but mine has this "grass" that the castle is built on that you can only plug pieces into the top of. Normal big flat lego floors could be a roof or a ceiling, or both, but this grass could only be a floor. There are indentations in the bottom, but they don't hold legos, or anything for that matter. I think the standard platform, or flat piece, is about 1/3 as high as a standard brick. These big grass pieces were only perhaps half that thick, 1/6 of the height of a normal brick.

But it did make the long, thin, spacecraft construction a bit more interesting, at least unless you cheated and held it with two hands.

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a war on terrorism? How can we end a war on a method?
Re:what I would like to see by TotallyUseless · 2004-01-12 09:44 · Score: 1

What beer would that be? Website?

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Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!
Re:what I would like to see by Jo+Owen · 2004-01-12 10:29 · Score: 1

When i used to buy lego sets, each one used to come with a little booklet which listed almost all the individual lego pieces, from the small blocks, to the elecetric motors, technic lego bits, lights, everything.. Do they still do that?
Re:what I would like to see by ocie · 2004-01-12 12:37 · Score: 1

That Hogwarts set blew chunks too. The roof was made of cardboard or flexible plastic. To paraphrase Homer:

Did we lose a war? That's not Lego, that's not even Duplo.

Bonus points to whoever can identify the episode.

--
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
Re:what I would like to see by Kolenkow · 2004-01-12 13:56 · Score: 1

I actually rebuild the gray castle with the big pieces a few years ago. I was the best christmas present I've ever gotten, my Amiga 500 included, and I actually feel like playing with it now that I read about it.
However, it had one downside, the castle, and that is that it is to perfect - I've always used it as a castle. All the other stuff, the police station, the fire station, the airport etc, were crashed and used for other stuff. But never the castle. I really love that castle, it was perfect!

--
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take into account Hofstadter's Law
Re:what I would like to see by Scooter · 2004-01-13 12:47 · Score: 1

Absolutely - the point is - he built it himself though, which is impressive. Buying a $10 Lego X-Wing kit and building it, on the other hand, only requires basic jigsaw puzzle assembly skills, and the result is a little bit naff.

FIRST Lego League? by GabrielF · 2004-01-12 04:06 · Score: 4, Interesting

I wonder how this will effect FIRST Lego League, the international robotics competition for middle-schoolers. FLL is a great program from Dean Kamen and the same people who run the FIRST Robotics Competition.

What about us? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:07 · Score: 0

Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?

What about us? I haven't touched a Lego since I was probably 10 or 11 years old. Do grown men still actually play with these things? Say it ain't so!

Re:What about us? by dnahelix · 2004-01-12 04:17 · Score: 4, Insightful

You're not grown, you're just OLD .

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Great news for parents and children by addie · 2004-01-12 04:07 · Score: 4, Interesting

A corporation moving back toward imagination and away from limiting corporate tie-ins, don't see too much flowing in that direction these days. The "themed" Lego sets were the worst thing to happen to toys in my lifetime.

I'm beginning to have faith that I may be able to buy new Lego for my future children, as opposed to having them play with my mess of a collection.

Re:Great news for parents and children by palutke · 2004-01-12 04:24 · Score: 4, Insightful

A corporation moving back toward imagination and away from limiting corporate tie-ins, don't see too much flowing in that direction these days.

I wonder how much of their decision is based on the licensing fees that Lucas, etc. were charging. I can easily see them saying "Your license isn't bringing enough sales to justify the money you want for it. Thanks, but no thanks.

--
'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36
Re:Great news for parents and children by Geek+of+Tech · 2004-01-12 04:24 · Score: 2, Funny

>> I'm beginning to have faith that I may be able to buy new Lego for my future children
Slashdot translation:
I'm beginning to have faith that I may be able to buy Legos for my future children so that I can play with them.

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Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!
Re:Great news for parents and children by PugMajere · 2004-01-12 04:29 · Score: 2, Interesting

As I understand it, they got that license pretty easily.

Lucas really wanted Lego to make Star Wars toys, but Lego had never done a tie-in before, so they didn't ask. So when Lego turned around and approached Lucas, it was pretty easy to get.

Some of the Star Wars Lego sets look interesting, like the AT-AT walker, but most are just a bunch of annoying custom pieces, from what I can see in the catalog. That's not appealing.
Re:Great news for parents and children by kisrael · 2004-01-12 04:35 · Score: 2, Interesting

From my limited experience, just a few sets, the Star Wars kits really shied away from too many pieces, and some of the pieces they did add they reused among several sets (like the laser cannons, used on the snowspeeder and a few others)

Also, they did show you ideas for alternate models w/ the same pieces...they still looked Star Warsy but were original, kind of like those "minirigs" back in the day.

My main random grip w/ Star Wars sets is that they chose to paint artoo's features way on the top of his head, so it looks like he's a blank bot wearing a cyber yarmulke rather than having a proper electronicky dome.

--
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Re:Great news for parents and children by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:40 · Score: 1, Informative

The Star Wars legos are actually pretty generic -- they remind me a lot of the original Space sets -- mainly "wing" and "roof" pieces. You should be able to build your own spaceship from those parts pretty easily.
Re:Great news for parents and children by aridhol · 2004-01-12 04:52 · Score: 1

Remember, Lego are like breasts - they're made for the kid, but the father has more fun with them.

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I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
Re:Great news for parents and children by userw014 · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 1

(recap: Lego came out with an alternative to bricks, their "technics" like. From this sprang Bionicles and Mindstorms, and the Spybotics stuff seems to be a simplified form of Mindstorms.)
I don't have time to play with Lego anymore, but the motors, gears, axels, etc. I see with my kids' Technics/Bionicle stuff pleases me. They've plenty of Lego too (drifts of the stuff!). They seem to use the Lego for static representational play, and the Technics stuff for more dynamic creations.
But, it looks as if I want to get a MindStorms set for (someone), then I'd better do it soon.
All of the modern Erector sets I've seen have been sad little copies of the themed Lego kit. I hat the Themed Lego kits because the specialized pieces invariably cause my kids to fight and the fights make us (the parents) miserable and grouchy.
However, I do like all of the new hinges and other unusual Lego pieces that are generic in use.
Re:Great news for parents and children by Bishop · 2004-01-12 06:05 · Score: 2, Interesting

The Star Wars Lego sets were some of the best in a long time. The few specialised pieces were good. The designs were excellent. The few big models are fantastic. On the other hand the Harry Potter stuff was terrible. The models are uninspired and significantly more expensive. I guess this was mostly for the licensing. The Star Wars Lego seemed more expensive, but the models used a lot of pieces. I suspect the license was a modest cost.

The Star Wars Lego will be missed. The models were some of the best (space) Lego I have seen since the mid-eighties.
Re:Great news for parents and children by VanillaCoke420 · 2004-01-12 06:49 · Score: 1

Not necessarily so, the parents were always complaining about the veritable ocean of lego parts all over the floor in us kids' room, whereas we loved it :)

Oh... strange age range by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:07 · Score: 0

umh... 0-7?! And I just got my new lego car (but my kids stole it!!!!) and I'm not in that range. Legos are really cool for creative usage. Have you ever tried to use cpu cooler with legos? (The coolers should be stronger, they break down too easily - I managed to break couple such things with kids when we were playing with them and legos. )

=)

Creativity by trACE666 · 2004-01-12 04:08 · Score: 2, Interesting

Back in the days you really needed to have some creativity to build somehting with Lego, not just putting together fancy parts of a spacecraft...
I think it's a good thing they are forced to put demands on kids' creativity once again...

Amazing! by rune.w · 2004-01-12 04:08 · Score: 1

Sounds like they've been reading Slashdot recently ;) Now if they could only reduce the price of the bricks a little bit... Ok, maybe I'm asking too much.

Still, kudos to Lego.

R.

Re:Amazing! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:16 · Score: 1, Informative

Go to the Lego outlet store. My wife picked up a bucket of pieces for about $40.00.
Re:Amazing! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:12 · Score: 0

Coincidentally, I picked up your wife for about $40.00 too.

Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Bagels · 2004-01-12 04:08 · Score: 3, Informative

but when I was a kid, I remember having much more fun with K'Nex than with legos. K'Nex constructions were larger (some could take up the better part of a room, which kids find tremendously cool), more permanent, and they could have some really neat moving parts (Lego Technix notwithstanding). I played much more with my Big Ball Factory than with the Lego models that I had.

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--- Bwah?

Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by trACE666 · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 2, Informative

Anyone used Fischertechnik?
Maybe not well known outside of Germany, but it gives you much more technical possibilities than Lego.. I have seen university student projects done in it.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by elf-fire · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 2, Informative

If size does matter: Try Quadro: http://www.quadro.de/englisch/index_e.htm
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by hcuar · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 1

For me it was Constructs. Constructs were W-Beams (of varying size) and 6 way connectors. Although Legos were still pretty cool! :)
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:16 · Score: 0

hey i remember those. very cool stuff. we built a drum set of them for our band!
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by mlambie · 2004-01-12 04:19 · Score: 1

They got my vote too.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by TheOnlyCoolTim · 2004-01-12 04:19 · Score: 4, Informative

Two more:

Capsela - Cool plastic spheres with gears and motors inside them and various wheels and such to attach. The coolest part was that they had float attachments so you could make boats. I made some of these into a robot for a final class project just recently.

Old School Erector Sets - these things are valuable collectors items now. I seem to remember the instructions giving you basic structural engineering tips. The motor they had was badass.

Tim

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Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by dnahelix · 2004-01-12 04:19 · Score: 2, Interesting

I would combine them. I would create structures that incorporated Legos, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Erector Set, and plain wooden blocks.

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Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by elf-fire · 2004-01-12 04:20 · Score: 1

Sorry: Quadro
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:20 · Score: 0

We used to have those in my old primary school here in the U.K. This was back in the late 80's. I have never saw them in the U.K outside of that school.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Urkki · 2004-01-12 04:30 · Score: 1

I'd hope the toy companies would realize this more, and provide at least a bit of compatibility. Especially now that Lego's basic patent has expired (right?), that'd provide a great common "interface", considering how popular it is over the World. Just have a few different Lego-other connection pieces if you're making a competing product, and the kids will do the rest.

Just think, "Compatible with Legos(tm)" would probably find a soft spot with quite a few parents who played with Legos as a kid and even might still have their old Legos stored somewhere. The kids would love it (at least I hated it when there was no nice and tidy way to connect different construction sets). And I bet it'd increase the total size of the construction toy business too. Win-win for everybody.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Azghoul · 2004-01-12 04:34 · Score: 3, Interesting

I think the real name was Contstrux. My brother and I built a tunnel (using the blue panel 'covers') to carry warm air from the heat vent up to the foot of the bed and under the covers... It worked too well.

Also built some kick ass swords with those things. You could parry/thrust a few times before they'd break apart, first one to break obviously lost the fight!
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by kisrael · 2004-01-12 04:38 · Score: 1

K'Nex is conceptually cool and I cede most of the points you mention, but everything ends up looking pretty skeletal. For kids interested in visual design (poor man's CAD), LEGO was hard to beat, and a certain amount of specialized pieces were very welcome indeed, so everything wasn't just squares.

--
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anne_Nonymous · 2004-01-12 04:39 · Score: 1

As a kid I had my father's old Erector set. It was probably made in the late 40's or early 50's. It was a steel box the size of a briefcase, filled with all sorts of Erector parts including magnets and a motor (broken). The thing was too heavy to lift, so it lived on the floor and just got dragged around by its handle. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Lehk228 · 2004-01-12 04:55 · Score: 2, Informative

Erector sets are fun untill you can't get the thing to drive cause the newer motors are underpowered and have to be stepped down alot for a vehical to move under it's own power, the gear train ends up taking up most of the vehical, but the helecoptor was so cool,~18' of spinning metal really frickin hurts when you put your finger in it.

--
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Ashyukun · 2004-01-12 04:58 · Score: 1

I've been to model railroading flea markets where they've had displays of classic toys set out (some for sale). Some of the old Erector sets were damn cool- and had parts that they would never dream of putting into a toy these days for fear of the child getting mildly injured.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:00 · Score: 0

I really miss my Construx. I had 3 "basic" sets of them, and played with them continuously until I graduated from High School.

In fact, for one of my high school physics projects, I used various Construx pieces to build 2 armature electric motors... Not up to usual Slashdot standards of genius and engineering, but I'm a humble Joe Sixpack... It was great to actually make a version of the machinery that is an integral part of our modern world.

Of course, in normal American Parent fashion, my mother threw out all 3 sets one day when I wasn't paying attention...
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by AJWM · 2004-01-12 05:14 · Score: 1

Old School Erector Sets

Sorry, nope. While Gilbert chemistry sets were cool, the Erector stuff was a patent-avoiding rip-off of the original Meccano.

I find it nicely ironic that what is now sold in the US as Erector sets is exactly the same stuff that's sold everywhere else in the world as Meccano. Even if it does come in some bizarre colors other than the traditional red, green and silver, and they use plastic gears and pulleys now instead of the original brass.

Back on topic: I'm glad Lego is going in this direction. All my kids play with the stuff, and they all got some for xmas -- although it was a challenge finding the generic stuff. Toys'R'Us had four goddamn shelves of (expletive deleted) sports themed Lego. WTF is the point of Lego basketball hoops and a sheet painted to look like a basketball court? As if the movie tie-in licensing fees weren't bad enough (my daughter's a huge Harry Potter fan, but the Harry Potter Lego was just lame), NBA and NFL etc licensing fees are probably pretty bad too. But the generic stuff, or kits with only a few specialized pieces (make 47 different aircraft) can still be had.

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-- Alastair
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by rwebb · 2004-01-12 05:21 · Score: 2, Informative

Erector sets and the similar metric-pitch Merkur sets are still available. One web site that carries most of the models (once they restock after the seasonal rush) is at www.girdersandgears.com.

Useful to have a set on-hand just to... erm... play with but also as a handy collection of structural parts for free-form robots.

--
Trusted by cats.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Reziac · 2004-01-12 05:39 · Score: 1

We did that too. Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs get along fairly well, but American Bricks (the old wooden ones) were a different size and they were harder to get to mesh. Sadly, Legos were always too expensive for us when I was a kid!

Lincoln Logs were a nice size to work around our plastic train tracks, too. Which in turn fit well with our big wooden blocks.

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~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Afrosheen · 2004-01-12 05:47 · Score: 1

I had a nice erector set with the motors, nuts and bolts, dangerous metal beams, etc. The most fun I had with the set is when my brother and I figured out how to wire the motor up to our slot car racing set tracks. You could gun the cars and speed up the erector set motor. We created a death race 5000, where you would race the cars ever faster towards the deadly windmill centimeters above the track. Fun indeed.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Overdrive_SS · 2004-01-12 05:48 · Score: 1

Sweet, I broke more Construx that way than anything else. My brother, my best friend, and I would build swords(daggers is probably more appropriate) and shields and go in the yard and fight with them. The best strategy was to connect them at differing angles and try to anticipate which side it would be struck from. Lots of fun, lots of testing and experimentation. Those were the days.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:26 · Score: 0

I played much more with my Big Ball Factory than with the Lego models that I had.

I was always a big Lego fan as a kid. I didn't start playing with my Big Ball Factory until I hit puberty... ;)
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Jeremy+Erwin · 2004-01-12 06:31 · Score: 1

I had fischer technik-- fun toy, but the sets were impossible to find. I imagine they were expensive-- especially the exotics. I had 4 basic sets, a motor, a strange electrical set, and two of their Statik sets. I'm not sure what happened to my collection. Probably forgotten during a move.

Fischer technik completely outclasses Lego in the "most esoteric parts" category. Not only did they have a complete line of electrical stuff, computer controls, and strange gears, they also sold pneumatic stuff.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:33 · Score: 0

The A.C. Gilbert erector sets from the 40's and 50's are the jeweled crown toy of the world imho. I remember when my dad broke out his 12 & 1/2 set for the first time to let me play with it. Oh the things you could build.

A ferris wheel over 3.5 feet tall, elevator over 4 feet tall (which I extended to go the full 7 feet from basement to first floor of the house)

Full gear-box attachment onto a 110vac motor. That thing was bad to the bone!

Later I got one of these new plastic cheapo POS erector sets. I mean seriously... plastic gears?! I stripped many of those down. But never screwed up one of my dad's brass cogs or pulleys.

Capsella was a dream come true as well. I got my set in middle school, played with it until I left for college.

But legos.. oh the hours I spent on legos. Until about all you could find were the specialized bricks. :-( That was when I started really playing with erector and capsella and construx (those things were great too!)

My brother and I were able to build a replica of Optimus Prime out of legos, fully transformable. The only speciality bricks we used were the flat spinning 2x2 platform, some of the 1x2 hinge pieces, and a sping shock absorber to propel the roller off the platform on the trailer. We have photographic evidence somewhere... we did this later on in life, I think I was in middle school.

It was tons better than our 'voltron' that we made as toddlers before we actually got the entire die-cast voltron set. That's right boys n' girls, I was probably the last generation of kids to play with die-cast made toys.

Anyone remember the old die-cast Jazz Transformer? Mine broke.... sniffle....
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 06:34 · Score: 1

Ah, I remember Capsela.
My brother and I had identical sets. We would build all sorts of wacky things to compete against each other with.
My only problem was pulling the damn thing apart when you were done. The linkages did not want to hear anything about being anywhere but fully snug. And that meant the plastic hexagon connector was so far lodged it had a death grip. I remember many times where I would resort to teeth in an effort to get the bloody connectors off.
Now how many capsela fans kept all the little sphere in the original packaging? I did for the longest time, it was the best way to keep them organized.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by homer_ca · 2004-01-12 06:48 · Score: 1

I had them back in the 70s. They were great. I built cranes, cable cars, electric fans. They were hard to find, but FAO Schwarz had them. The only place I see them now is Fry's Electronics. They sell a few of the small kits. Fischertechnik's website lists a few retailers too. Their robotics kit costs $250 and has a better controller than Mindstorms.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:57 · Score: 0

~18' of spinning metal really frickin hurts when you put your finger in it.

Eighteen feet of spinning metal??
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Raphael · 2004-01-12 06:58 · Score: 1

Anyone used Fischertechnik?

Yep. I still have several boxes full of them (in Belgium). Most of them are in good shape, although some metallic parts are a bit rusty now (damn wet cellar!).

These were wonderful toys. I started with the basic sets when I was rather young (I think it was in 1974 - I was 4) and then got the more advanced sets as I was growing. I eventually got several electronics sets and those that allowed me to play with some basic IC chips, such as the 7400, 7404 and others. That's probably what got me interested in electronics and computers.

I built several small robots with them (well, things that had blinking lights, motors and several switches and light sensors - nothing very complex on the logic side). I also built a rather dangerous thing with Fischertechnik and some rubberband: a crossbow that could fire small darts. It had three light sensors and it could rotate automatically if it detected a difference in lighting (e.g., shadow from someone or some object in front of it). It would orient itself towards the object and then fire. My parents were not amused, especially when they saw that it worked as advertised and needed a tool to remove a dart from the door frame... So I had to disassemble it quickly. I also built several more useful and more peaceful things with these great toys. I remember that I used them in a school project.

I thought that they had stopped producing them, but I see that there is a web site about Fischertechnik including a list of dealers, new products, etc.

--
-Raphaël
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:00 · Score: 0

They also have a US site: http://www.fischertechnik.com/.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by shufler · 2004-01-12 07:15 · Score: 1

I still have an old duffle bag around somewhere that contains tons of Construx pieces. I remember building an exo-skeleton of sorts, and walking around my house with it.

I was the only kid I knew who had any idea what they were, and people would always look at me funny when I would mention them. I had (have) Lego too, and played with Lego more often, but Construx always had a place in my heart.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by dr_canak · 2004-01-12 07:22 · Score: 1

In addition to *tons* of Legos,

I had the Girder and Panel building set, the 1970s variant:

http://www.girderpanel.com/

Ramagon

http://www.ramagon.com/

Giant Tinker Toys:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&it em =3169594139&category=19014#ebayphotohosting

-and

Exin Castillos

http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen/392exinst.html

Those were some great times. The Castillos I still have, the Legos and Tinker Toys were lost to a garage sale while i was in college, and the G&P gone to the graveyard of toys.

jeff
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by MayonakaHa · 2004-01-12 07:31 · Score: 1

I used to build all sorts of cool stuff with my Construx. My favorite was a crossbow that would attach to my wrist and fire the little blue connectors.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Doctor+Faustus · 2004-01-12 07:41 · Score: 1

Construx and K'Nex are different products. I believe K'Nex are still made. I mostly played with Construx, though.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by stalky14 · 2004-01-12 07:56 · Score: 1

> I had the Girder and Panel building set, the 1970s variant:

Ooh. I had that. You could build bridges and
buildings and buildings with bridges...
Stuff could get pretty big too.

I still have a few posts and girders kicking
around, mixed in with my Legos.
...Sean.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Night+Goat · 2004-01-12 08:00 · Score: 1

Hell yeah, Construx! I think I used to play with those more than I did with Legos. My brother and I used to share a room, and we'd of course have Construx all over the floor. Those connectors were pretty painful to step on. We'd also throw the glow-in-the-dark pieces around the room from our beds. Man, those rocked.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Knight2K · 2004-01-12 08:14 · Score: 1

I always liked Construx better than Legos as well... they were the first building set I ever had that included a motor. What I liked best about them was that they had all of the hinges and other moving pieces that the Lego sets didn't seem to have. You could also build REALLY big with them. I had enough parts to build a decent sized model aircraft carrier with working elevators and a few planes. The light kits in the alien sets were also nice for putting the finishing touches on.

--
======
In X-Windows the client serves YOU!
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Akira1 · 2004-01-12 08:16 · Score: 1

there is also ramagon. Ramagon used to have base plates that were lego compatible. I used this to create giant skyscrapers (usually 6 feet tall) with lego "outposts" scattered amongst the building. Great stuff.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI tem&item =3168811947&category=19002
in that auction you can see them as the large grey construction in the back.

--
Food: It's whats for dinner
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by luekj · 2004-01-12 09:38 · Score: 1

Construx were unbelievably cool!
My brother made a like 4 foot tall robot and put clothes on it. We made so much cool stuff with construx, they were awesome products. We always wished they would bring them back, pieces have still been foudn around my house in the past few years, I think we still have a bucket of them somewhere too.
One otehr anecdote, they had these glow in the dark satellite dish shaped pieces, and my 3 other sibs and i would charge them all up and then turn out the lights in a single room and have glow-in-the dark wars throwing them at people we couldn't see. It was great fun!
:)

--
Many Thanks,
Luke
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by martone66 · 2004-01-12 09:38 · Score: 1

Ahh, the memories... my friends and I built slingshots out of Construx and rubber bands, and would shoot Construx "arrows" at each other!
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:10 · Score: 0

I meant ~18" and you know it
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 12:17 · Score: 0

You could make boats with legos, you just had to fit them nice and tight, and build it correctly. The boat set however had an awesome boat base to build on top of
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by TheOnlyCoolTim · 2004-01-12 12:40 · Score: 1

Oh god. Half my connectors have bite marks. So I'm not the only one...

Tim

--
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps by 0x0d0a · 2004-01-12 15:05 · Score: 1

Actually, assuming friction isn't too much of an issue, the things could be geared down to spin an 18 foot blade. Then you not only have a tip zipping around at some ungodly speed, but a hell of a lot of inertia trying to keep it going that way, finger in the way or not.

--
May we never see th

"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by duffbeer703 · 2004-01-12 04:08 · Score: 5, Interesting

The problem with the Slashdot crowd is that not as many /.'ers play with legos and one might think. Most of us have jobs and lives that prevent us from playing with cool toys.

On the other hand, Lego's problems lay deeper than a bloated product line. Lego toys are way, way too expensive. Even when I was a little kid twenty years ago, my parents bought me high quality knockoffs at Sears for like 1/3 the cost of Legos. I imagine that it's worse today.

--
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK

Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Tassach · 2004-01-12 04:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

The great part about parenthood is that "having a life" means that you spend time with the kids. Having kids means that you can go out and blow a wad of money on toys and not feel guilty about it. My munchkin is still a little young for lego, but when he's a little older you can bet that he & I are going to be spending many hours playing legos together.

--
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by ckokotay · 2004-01-12 04:30 · Score: 1

I agree - 90% of the problem is the cost. I could never understand why 2 Cent plastic cost so much. I imagined that a lot of it was due to new mold creation cost, etc...

Now, they are priced out of most people budgets - and that is why the stuff is not selling well.

On the flipside - Megablocks are garbage - They are cheaper, but they do not stay together at all.

--
It does not matter what you do, it's wrong.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:38 · Score: 3, Funny

Proposed new Slashdot moderation:
+1, Likes Lego
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by digitalsushi · 2004-01-12 04:43 · Score: 4, Funny

LEGO are definitely expensive, but you do have to admit they last forever. Some of my LEGO men have been through the dog on countless adventures, and besides a dynamic ethnicity, have always been there at the end. A good bath and they're always back to their cheery Danish Yellow selves.

--
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by ShadyG · 2004-01-12 04:51 · Score: 5, Insightful

Don't know how young your munchkin is, but my 2yo daughter is currently helping me build the meter-long Death Star. I pick out one example of a piece of which I need 34 and tell her to find 33 more of them. She really digs it. It helps with her fine motor skills (handling the small pieces), fine shape distinctions (1x1 plate with a loop at the end is different from a 1x1 plate without), and counting. And when we finish a page of building, she cheers.

It may take 10x as long as doing it myself, but who cares? That just means more time playing with Legos!

--
Nerd Rock In Progress
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by ShadyG · 2004-01-12 04:56 · Score: 1, Funny

Should have previewed before posting. It's the meter-long Star Destroyer, of course. Hmm...which dimension of the Death Star is the long one again?

--
Nerd Rock In Progress
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Tassach · 2004-01-12 05:17 · Score: 1

Sounds cool. To answer your original question, munchkin 1.0 just had his first birthday. Munchkin 2.0 is in active development and should be released in early August. :-)

--
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Willis+Wasabi · 2004-01-12 05:17 · Score: 1

Uh, shouldn't that have been "That just means more time playing with *my daughter*."

Poor kid. She plays second fiddle to your lego collection. :)

--
All true wisdom can be found in sigs.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by TrekkieGod · 2004-01-12 05:19 · Score: 1

I never laughed so much at anybody's sig before. Thank you.

--
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by varaani · 2004-01-12 05:26 · Score: 1

On the flipside - Megablocks are garbage - They are cheaper, but they do not stay together at all

Supposedly, Lego has a patent on plastic pieces that stick together with the little knobs on the top. Now, Megablocks and others do not infringe on that patent because, well, you know. :)
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by jazman · 2004-01-12 05:28 · Score: 1

Providing you don't make the mistake a friend of mine did - he played with the lego and his kid sat there bored, whenever he picked a piece up daddy only said "no that's wrong". Can anyone hear the words "I hate Lego" approaching? The great thing about Lego for me was that M+D left me to it, Dad helped me out when I was stuck, but it was *me* playing with the Lego, not him.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:40 · Score: 0

That may be true, but I have tried some of the knockoffs -- you get what you pay for. Some of the cheap blocks break (it seems to depend on the type of plastic -- the silver ones were really bad) and they don't fit together as well, yielding weaker structures. I remember we tried getting some for my son, thinking how much cheaper the other blocks were by comparison. It was a source of much frustration. He eventually sorted them out of the regular lego, and did not use them if any of the real lego was available.

From that point on, we only bought the real lego, even if that meant buying less. And you don't have to buy only specialized kits. Most bigger toy stores that sell lego also stock plastic tubs of 1000+ pieces, consisting mostly of simple blocks. We waited for those to go on special, and then used them to dilute the specialty pieces.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by way2trivial · 2004-01-12 05:53 · Score: 1

I've already bought 4 sets for my 7 month old son
a lego table (ages 5-10) with three chairs and 1200 pieces.. $150
a lego R/c car from radioshack for 49.99 on sale (ages 10 & up) and two conventional sets.. later this week I will find lego clothes from overseas and order them, before they are ALL GONE (see this article) legos survive.. and mine will, in the attic..

--
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by fideaux64 · 2004-01-12 06:31 · Score: 1

>but you do have to admit they last forever. Indeed. Some of the bricks that my children play with have my own teeth* marks on them. Kinda icky I know, but parents are suckers for nostalgia. *Baby teeth, that is.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by mks113 · 2004-01-12 06:33 · Score: 1

My problem is that I sit down next to the lego bin with my 5yo son to have some "family time" and realize half an hour later that he took off five minutes after I sat down!

We got him a set to make bugs and critters for christmas. I can't decide if I'd call them special pieces or not. Many odd shaped pieces, but he uses them for all kinds of things. Hinges and swivels galore. I don't care for the themed sets, but this is evolutionary lego, changed, but as flexible as ever.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:37 · Score: 0

That may be true, but I have tried some of the knockoffs -- you get what you pay for.

Give them time and they'll pass Lego on quality. Don't forget all the other worthless knockoffs, like:

- Linux, vs. "real" UNIX from SCO, Solaris, etc.
- Openoffice vs. Microsoft Office
- Cheap, unreliable Japanese TVs and radios
- Cheap, unreliable Japanese cars
- Steel products from micro and minimills, vs. US Steel.

and so on...

Lego, you really wanna compete with these low margin monsters on price, instead of innovating?
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by G.+W.+Bush+Junior · 2004-01-12 06:50 · Score: 1

Actually part of the reason they are so expensive is because they have spend an enormous amount of resources to get the best tolerance on their machines.

Lego is legendary among plastic engineers (in denmark anyway :P ), because the blocks ALWAYS fit together, if you take a 20 year old block and a new block you *know* they'll fit. That doesn't come cheap.

--
"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." -George H.W. Bush
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by wayward_son · 2004-01-12 07:26 · Score: 1

You could take a Lego person, tear off his hair, pull of his legs, rip off his hands and decapitate him.

And after all this, he'd still be smiling.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:59 · Score: 0

Some of my LEGO men have been through the dog on countless adventures

If your Legos have literally been through a dog, please wash them before playing with them again. Ick.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 11:08 · Score: 0

You sick bastard.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by Java+Ape · 2004-01-12 11:16 · Score: 1

Yeah, my 'little' boy is almost 17. He used to be a lego-maniac, then lost interest. Recently, he's starting playing with them again, building a huge castle in his bedroom. I bought him a 40-pound box of Lego's from ebay for Christmans (yeah, it was excessive, but I had fun!).
The strange part is, he and I built stuff all Christmas vacation, and I had a ball. Last week, for no good reason, I bought a pirate ship, and I'm old enough to know better!
Anyway, lego's are fun for people of all ages, and kids are just a good excuse.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by whittrash · 2004-01-12 13:48 · Score: 1

Me neice and I built an 8' tower out of duplo blocks when she was 3. That was when she learned what a cantilever was, and the power of leverage.
Re:"What about the Slashdot Crowd?" by thebagel · 2004-01-12 16:00 · Score: 0

"blow a wad of money"

Damn I'd love to be you.

non interchangable by avandesande · 2004-01-12 04:09 · Score: 1, Redundant

I always though Leggo went down the tubes when they started pushing the non-interchangable 'theme' sets.

--
love is just extroverted narcissism

Re:non interchangable by PhuCknuT · 2004-01-12 04:59 · Score: 1

Which is exactly what they are talking about discontinuing and getting back to the basics.

Mental Age by JohnGrahamCumming · 2004-01-12 04:09 · Score: 4, Interesting

> Boys play with traditional toys up until the age
> of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age
> range that Lego has its niche.' Zero to seven?
> What about the Slashdot crowd?

Perhaps he was talking mental age? :-)

Seriously though a key trait of the hacker mindset is, I think, playfulness. That shows up in the way hackers mess around with language and Lego. And that playfulness is a key aspect of learning. How many times have you hacked something together "just for the fun of it": in reality half the fun was that you were learning.

The good news is that Lego is going back to the bricks. Great news Lego, that's just what we all needed!

John.

Re:Mental Age by Reziac · 2004-01-12 05:33 · Score: 1

Good point. In fact, that further points up what was wrong with the specialty Lego sets: they were like if you bought a compiler, and it would only let you make one program, because that's what it was hardcoded to do.

ANY time the toy determines HOW the child must play, or does the playing FOR the child, something is wrong with its design, and it will stifle both imagination and creativity.

--
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Re:Mental Age by Kirth · 2004-01-12 05:58 · Score: 1

Zero to seven? I think not. I played most Lego (and bought most, and won a Lego-competition with a one-meter Lego-Yacht) just before I stopped playing with it. At age 12, roughly. So I'd suggest, go for 6-12. After age 12, people play roleplaying-games anyway ;).

--

--
"The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse

Stupid LEGO pieces by nuggz · 2004-01-12 04:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

The problem with LEGO is the stupid pieces.
Grab a random $20 kit at a store, it's full of special pieces with no real use.
What happened to actual blocks? you get only a few if any in the average kit.

I was going to buy lego for some children, until I realized I would need a moderate fortune to give them a decent assortment of basic pieces.

Re:Stupid LEGO pieces by Buran · 2004-01-12 04:30 · Score: 1

I'm a space buff and I recently picked up the Mission to Mars set (Mars Odyssey, Delta II, and MER) and the ISS kit, and both of them impressed me because they built into high-quality replicas (the Delta II and launch tower impressed me especially with their accuracy) ... out of plain old regular bricks, very few specialty pieces included.

My TV is now acting as a display base for three of those constructs (haven't built Odyssey yet) and everyone who looks at them recognizes them immediately, even though they're Legos and not detailed model kits or scratchbuilds.

Lego needs to keep doing this. Inexpensive kits (the kits were $20 or less in this case) that contain mostly standard bricks, so they'll do well mixed into a larger collection, but build into recognizable items.

--
i am a soviet space shuttle
Re:Stupid LEGO pieces by orkysoft · 2004-01-12 08:24 · Score: 1

Take a look at the Lego bucket-like sets, that contain only basic building blocks. I have no idea how much they cost, but you can find out the full inventory of those sets on several websites, and I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a price quote on the internet either.

They're squarish bucket-like plastic containers vaguely in the shape of a Lego piece.

Of course, since I don't own any of those sets myself, I might be talking out of my ass here.

--

I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Re:Stupid LEGO pieces by Bertie · 2004-01-13 01:12 · Score: 1

Was there a Beagle 2 kit? 'Cos if there was, you could just leave it in pieces for that authentic look...
Re:Stupid LEGO pieces by Buran · 2004-01-13 04:38 · Score: 1

Nah, that's my childhood scrap Lego pile!

--
i am a soviet space shuttle

luddite's UNITE! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:09 · Score: 0

I played with LEGOs for years and years. Now having my first child (a boy) I am not at all interested in allowing a game system. I don't see any value to the skills it teaches. But with LEGOs you have to bargan with other children for the good pieces, pick up before the vaccum/dog gets them and generally interact with the REAL WORLD.

The only issues with LEGOs is their long life. I have 13 pounds of them from my child hood and after washing in the diswasher (inside a gym bag) they look new!!! Too bad for LEGO that I wont need to buy any new sets. . .

Later.

Nothing wrong with Potter & Star Wars by JaredOfEuropa · 2004-01-12 04:10 · Score: 1

I think there actually might be a good market for the Harry Potter, Star Wars, Bob the Builder and similar Lego sets.... if those sets would be more compatible with the standard Lego blocks. None of the much-lamented specialty blocks that were only good for one thing, but 'themed' sets of generic or Technic Lego. There's no reason why they wouldn't sell well.

--
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...

Re:Nothing wrong with Potter & Star Wars by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:23 · Score: 0

Having a set that assembles into only one thing is BORING and not what Lego used to be about. Leave alone that even the kiddies might have figured out that SW sucks and LOTR's magic lets Potter look like poo.
Re:Nothing wrong with Potter & Star Wars by ckokotay · 2004-01-12 04:27 · Score: 1

I agree - my kids absolutely love Star Wars, and they love Lego. The marriage of the two products generated unbelieveable excitement this Christmas when they were able to get the two Lego AT-AT walkers.

--
It does not matter what you do, it's wrong.

Zero to seven? by CptChipJew · 2004-01-12 04:10 · Score: 2, Insightful

Zero to seven

I would never give a child under 1 year old something that swallowable.

--
Vonal Declosion

Re:Zero to seven? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 0

I also wouldn't give something like Lego to a child with underdeveloped motor skills and hand-eye coordination. That's what Duplo is for.
Re:Zero to seven? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 0

first one to predict sick jokes following, just you wait! there's no accounting for taste here.
Re:Zero to seven? by Tassach · 2004-01-12 04:24 · Score: 3, Informative

That's why there's Duplo. My 1 year old son loves them. I build things, he chews on them. Once he gets past the put-everything-in-the-mouth stage, he'll graduate to real legos.
Regarding choking hazards, the hospital gave us this handy little plastic guage (basically just a clear acrylic tube with one end closed.) If it can fit in the tube and touch bottom, it needs to be out of reach.

--
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Re:Zero to seven? by karrde · 2004-01-12 04:25 · Score: 1

Ever heard of Duplo sets? I'm pretty sure even you couldn't swallow a Duplo block.
Re:Zero to seven? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:33 · Score: 0

Ever heard of Duplo sets? I'm pretty sure even you couldn't swallow a Duplo block.
I bet your momma could. Ba dum bum. Thanks, I'm here all week. Try the veal.
Re:Zero to seven? by smellystudent · 2004-01-12 04:34 · Score: 1

I wonder if the plastic guage will fit in a 1 year-old's throat...

--
Predictive text is shiv!
Re:Zero to seven? by Urkki · 2004-01-12 04:36 · Score: 1

And the nice thing is, you can mix Duplo and normal blocks :-). Very cool when you want to build something *big*, Duplo's were great filler / base material.
Re:Zero to seven? by zecg · 2004-01-12 04:37 · Score: 1

Could you, please, measure it and post the measures here? Thanks.

--
.i lu doi ringos.star. xu do puku'aroroi dunli dopecaku leni virnu li'u
Re:Zero to seven? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:42 · Score: 0

Just use a toilet paper tube.
Re:Zero to seven? by userw014 · 2004-01-12 04:43 · Score: 1

A used toilet paper tube works fine. It's about the right size, and nearly always available. If something fits through that (or a paper-towel tube), then it's too small. Compare this against some convenient reference you have, like the distance from the tip-of-your-thumb to the first joint, or somesuch.
Don't overengineer this. Use good sense. Precision isn't important in parenting. Alertness and flexibility is.
Re:Zero to seven? by SoCalChris · 2004-01-12 05:02 · Score: 1

And better than Duplo (For babies anyway) is the Baby Lego. They are rounded so your son can't get poked or scratched with it. Most of them have rattles in them, and some have a little music box.

The baby bricks are larger than Duplo, and stack on top of the Duplos.

Baby Lego
Re:Zero to seven? by Tassach · 2004-01-12 05:02 · Score: 1

It came in the basket of stuff we got from the hospital -- mostly product samples and what not. It's got a company logo; as a freebie it's a lot more useful and distinctive than another pen or refrigerator magnet. I wouldn't have bought one, but since it was free, I use it. The TP tube is a good idea.
You are exactly right about alertness & flexibility being the important qualities. You can never be too alert, especially once the little guys start walking. Love & attention is far more effective than any gizmo or gadget in keeping your kids safe.

--
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Re:Zero to seven? by Tassach · 2004-01-12 05:14 · Score: 1

Thanks for the link. They look a lot like the Fisher-Price Little People line of toys. The grandparents bought him a truckload of those for Yule and his birthday.

--
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Re:Zero to seven? by Tweaker_Phreaker · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 1

Regarding choking hazards, the hospital gave us this handy little plastic guage (basically just a clear acrylic tube with one end closed.) If it can fit in the tube and touch bottom, it needs to be out of reach. I'll bet they charged you $20 for it too when all you need is a toilet-paper tube for the same use.
Re:Zero to seven? by SoCalChris · 2004-01-12 05:32 · Score: 1

I think the Little People are a little more advanced. My son loved the Baby Lego for about a year. He would chew on them and shake and rattle them, but now he's playing with the Little People and Duplos more (He's 18 months now). About all he uses the Baby Lego for now is throwing. They're heavy enough to make a nice bang when they hit something :)
Re:Zero to seven? by Skjellifetti · 2004-01-12 06:29 · Score: 1

That's why there's Duplo. My 1 year old son loves them. I build things, he chews on them. Once he gets past the put-everything-in-the-mouth stage, he'll graduate to real legos.

There is an intermediate stage: You build something, kid laughs like a fiend while he/she tears down what you just built for them.

--
FreeSpeech.org
Re:Zero to seven? by Jeremy+Erwin · 2004-01-12 06:46 · Score: 1

The "choke test cylinder" has a diameter of 1.25 inches. I'm not in the habit of measuring toilet roll tubes, but this random site indicates that most tubes have a diameter of 1.75 inches.
Re:Zero to seven? by Jeremy+Erwin · 2004-01-12 06:53 · Score: 1

er, forget it. On second thought, perhaps a smaller diameter is more useful to manufacturers than to worried parents.
Re:Zero to seven? by caixaking · 2004-01-13 00:23 · Score: 1

But they even killed duplo...now it's lego "explore" and they have special stuff for children ~1.5 years and for children ~9 months etc.etc. when everything you really need are these plain duplo blocks - i know this: my son is 14 months old and loves it to throw around the things i build for him.... :)
i think they just wanted to get into the "playmobil" market which had turned out to be a very bad idea.
the high prices are ok if you can use the parts for a long time, but i don't pay 50 Euro for some 20 specialized "Bob-The-Builder" -wallpieces with printed bricks on it...
HarHarHar (starts evil laughing): somewhere in my parent's house waits a HUGE number of lego from the mid-70ties up to the mid-80ties to be unleashed......(stops laughing) i just have to dig through the cellar and find the right boxes....*sigh* i haven't done this yet because i know how it looks down there.....*breakdown*

It's about time! by a_timid_mouse · 2004-01-12 04:10 · Score: 1

I played with "Legos" (don't let the company know I still call them that!) until I was *at least* 10 years old. As I grew older I moved away from building houses, cars, and other "normal" stuff and started building my own nifty creations like secret vaults with locks and awesome aerial firefighting aircraft. It really got my mind thinking about how practical my creations would be in the real world, and if they followed the laws of physics or not.

Anyway, glad to see Lego getting back to what it always did best. Perhaps they can spin off the Mindstorms branch. I'm sure there are plenty of us who would still buy Mindstorm products.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen by p4ul13 · 2004-01-12 04:10 · Score: 4, Funny

He is soon to be a guest on Krusty's Komedy Klassic.

--
Paul Lenhart writes words!

Re:Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen by benja · 2004-01-12 05:03 · Score: 1

He is soon to be a guest on Krusty's Komedy Klassic.
That must be runnink on KDE? :-o
Re:Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen by frazer2669 · 2004-01-12 05:08 · Score: 1

I wonder which desktop environment he uses? Gnome or, uh, what's that other one?

Concentrations spans by vpscolo · 2004-01-12 04:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

One thing lego always helped me do was learn to conentrate. I could spend hours just doing one thing. Kids now days seem to spend 5 minute son something then move on

As the old saying goes

"I'm sure my concentration span is...ooh look shiny thing"

Rus

--
CPanel + Root from $35/mo - 10% off with discount code SLASHDOT

Re:Concentrations spans by Rude+Turnip · 2004-01-12 04:17 · Score: 2, Interesting

Lego gave me a way to approach my job...little pieces that I can move around and make into different things. I write various financial reports all day and I treat all the paragraphs and general concepts as different kinds of bricks that I can use to build whatever I need. So, in my head, a certain kind of text has a unique "feel," which is akin to rumaging through a box of Lego for the right piece.

--
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Re:Concentrations spans by BizDiz · 2004-01-12 04:36 · Score: 0, Flamebait

Wow; Is it possible anyone reading cares less than me about this? Leave your thoughts.
Re:Concentrations spans by The+Cydonian · 2004-01-12 05:38 · Score: 1

Me too, but I've been noticing a problem lately; somehow, I seem to be screwing up the grammatical flow of my reports, even if the narrative flow is still there.
But yes, it's a fascinating concept; I do believe that Legos gives you a certain worldview that's definitely more right-brained than the average population's.

--
More than mere navel gazing.

I want basic bricks by WillAdams · 2004-01-12 04:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

It'd be nice if they were more affordable though (this is where that nasty global economy / foreign currency things comes into play :(

Actually, I've been kind of surprised that Lego hasn't hit upon the idea of marketing kits directly to grown-ups, say a line of desk accessories (the pens struck me as lame).

When I got a Fujitsu Point 510 pen slate, I didn't bother to get a stand---thought about making one out of wood, but instead chose to use my old Legos (I've since added a pen holder and a stand for a CD-RW drive to lift it up behind the Fujitsu Stylistic I did purchase a stand for (was running low on Legos)).

Pictures of the Point 510 and stand should be here:

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPI C_ ID=7109

William

--
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.

What about the Slashdot crowd? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:10 · Score: 1, Funny

The sharp edges of my Lego RealDoll are a real health hazard. Perhaps Legos with rounded edges might appeal to the adult crowd.

Star Wars Lego by samsmithnz · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 1

I have to admit that I only buy the Star Wars Lego... If that is discontinued I'll be upset... I guess its a good reason for me to finally have kids, so that I can *buy them* lego...

Good for them!!! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 0

Having special LEGO pieces that could be used for only one purpose wasn't very inspiring.

I guess some models will become bigger in size since they have to do details with standart pieces now.

Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by Rude+Turnip · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 1

I hope this means the end of Lego's "Bionicle" line of toy robots. I've been a major Lego fan since I was little and, to me, the Bionicle line was the epitome of Lego dumbing down their toys and sucking every bit of fun out of them. A lot more fun and imagination happens in your head when you're given a cleaner canvas.

--
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!

Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by iainl · 2004-01-12 04:19 · Score: 2, Informative

Nice big thread you've got going here... ;)

Nothing at all wrong with the Bionicle bricks, it just requires a bit more work to get interesting things out of it. Unfortunately I've lost the link, but somewhere out there on the the big wide net are all the main ships from the mighty Ikaruga, made out of Bionicle stuff; amazing work I'd recommend hunting for.

--
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by dwm · 2004-01-12 04:31 · Score: 1

Sorry, can't agree. The Bionicle line has got to be one of the most insidiously successful toy lines I've ever seen.

And the marketing has been brilliant. My son is on the Lego mailing list, and every couple of months or so he gets a slick Bionicle comic book for free -- which pumps him for the next generation of Bionicle heroes and villains, which come along every 6 months or so.

And I hate to admit it, because it's costing me a significant amount of cash, but the world they've created is pretty cool. I thought the "Mask of Light" DVD was pretty well done.
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by Rude+Turnip · 2004-01-12 04:41 · Score: 1

I think you've just supported my point...Bionicle is a spoon-fed world, whereas with traditional Lego, it would be up to the child to use his or her imagination to come up with a world of their own.

--
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by Cpt_Kirks · 2004-01-12 04:42 · Score: 1

My boys are nuts over them too. I was bored over xmas holiday and started taking them apart and building new things.

They are actually fun to mess with. I just wish they included some extra connectors, cogs and "univeral pins".
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by Cpt_Kirks · 2004-01-12 04:45 · Score: 1

Have you tried them out? Sure you can build one following the directions, but you can also use the parts to build lots of wild stuff.
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by theotherfish · 2004-01-12 04:52 · Score: 1

Is this the one you're talking about? http://www.geocities.co.jp/Milkyway/4645/

Another site with some very cool lego creations is http://www.zemi.net/lego/ - this guy gave the entire alphabet the star wars spaceship treatment :)
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by feed_those_kitties · 2004-01-12 05:15 · Score: 1

I'm totally in the same boat as you are, but you have to realize that Bionicle has been a great money-maker for The LEGO Company.
In fact, if it weren't for the Bionicle series, it's possible that LEGO would have been out of business by now...
*old man rant mode*
These pesky meddlin' kids these days just don't know a good LEGO product when they see it. Give me a huge box of basic bricks, maybe some specialized pieces like hinges and wheels and windows, and let me build whatever the heck I want...
*end old man rant mode*
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by dwm · 2004-01-12 05:46 · Score: 1

I think you've just supported my point...Bionicle is a spoon-fed world, whereas with traditional Lego, it would be up to the child to use his or her imagination to come up with a world of their own.

Do you have kids? :^) It may start out spoon-fed, but creativity will not be denied. Give a child something that can be taken apart, and it will be. Give a child something that can be re-assembled in more than one way, and it will be.

The "Bionicle" story line is simply a context within which a child can create their own stories. If a child refuses to use the freedom a building toy inherently gives him/her, I don't think you can blame the toy.
Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here by JonKatzIsAnIdiot · 2004-01-12 07:57 · Score: 1

Sorry, but you're out to lunch on this one. My boys (6 and 9) love them and they're always pulling their bionicles apart and making new ones (usually after I kick them off the Gamecube). Every so often it's "Dad - Dad - Look at this one!", and 'this one' turns out to be some monstrosity with three bodies and five heads. And loads of weapons, naturally. My oldest has even come up with some four-legged varieties.

So they're not making cars or buildings or bridges. So what. The creativity is still there, it's just different.

Okay: Mindstorm's going away. Which should I buy? by Slartibartfast · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 3, Interesting

I've always been interested in the Mindstorms, but never quite enough to buy 'em, always figuring "Some day, some day..." Well, it looks like "some day" has arrived, and I don't know which ones to geek out on. I'd like to:

- Have something mobile
- Have it be controllable via Linux
- Have it do nifty things

For those of you that've already bought/geeked out on/played with them, which models (that are still available) have brought you the most joy?
------------------

Technic? by Ashe+Tyrael · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 1

Way back when I was young, lego had two or three big product sub-lines, aside from ordinary lego bricks. There were the space-themed sets, I seem to recall there were medieval-themed sets too, and, the one I remember best of all, Technic Lego, the sets that had all the moving parts, electric motors, pneumatic pumps and stuff. Technic was actually my introduction into the mysteries of how a rack-and-pinion steering system actually worked, how diggers worked, things like that. Oh and you could build neat spaceships and things with it too.

I'm all for advanced stuff like mindstorm, etc, but if they neglected their base ranges and customers, then they were kind of defeating the point.

--
"How fine you look when dressed in rage."

Re:Technic? by forrestt · 2004-01-12 05:54 · Score: 1

You must be younger than me (33) because the Technic sets back when I was young were called "Expert Builder" not Technic. Technic came later. But they still have the Technic series. When I was about 11 I got a Lego car that I believe was a model of the workings of a VW Bug (Not sure, but it was still cool). This year, I got a Technic remote control car for X-mas. Made me feel like a kid again. I would really like to see Lego get more into this kind of thing rather than the Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc. Those things can pretty much only be built one way. Thus, a toy that was once mind expanding has become limiting.
Re:Technic? by BonrHanzon · 2004-01-12 07:49 · Score: 1

I'm soon to turn 35, I had a bunch of the Lego "Expert Builder" sets when I was about 10 or 11. The auto chassis set that I had was a front-engine, rear-wheel drive car with a two-speed transmission. I believe the part number was 956 - back when the sets only had 3 digits. Also had a farm tractor, sky copter, bulldozer, fork lift and a bunch of the space sets. Still have most of the pieces in a suitcase upstairs, including some lights that I bought on a family trip to Europe. I wish I still had the instruction manuals and the "idea books" that they published. I, too, was completely put off by over-specialization of pieces. I think they jumped the shark with the planetary gear differential. But you gotta admit, making a working rack&pinion steering set with those spinner 4x4 plates was kinda cheesy. Good luck to Lego on the retro move. I hope it saves their bacon - I can't imagine a world for my kids without Lego.

Back to the basics? Good... by John_Booty · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 5, Insightful

I like the "back to the basics" idea. Today's Lego sets look way too specialized to me- too many specialized pieces, not enough basic Lego bricks- so there's a lot less creative potential. They also look way too expensive.

I think that selling basic Lego sets again is a nice potential return to the things I liked about Legos as a kid in the early 80's. It would be nice if they could sell the basic sets in addition to the fancier licsensed sets and the advanced products like Mindstorms instead of canning those products entirely, but all in all I like this move.

--

OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.

Lego's real problem! by Peldor · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 2, Funny

What's LEGO's problem? Their products don't have a limited lifespan. Twenty year old Legos (Legos, that's right I called them Legos! One Lego, Two Legos, Red Legos, Blue Legos) are just as good as new ones. My own Legos have already been recycled to newer generations a couple of times.

Now if they'd switch to some sort of fast-degrading plastic or better still, edible, they'd have a huge demand without end.

Re:Lego's real problem! by smellystudent · 2004-01-12 04:40 · Score: 1

(Legos, that's right I called them Legos! One Lego, Two Legos, Red Legos, Blue Legos) One piece of Lego, two bits of Lego, red broken bits of Lego. Lego is the material, not the product.

--
Predictive text is shiv!
Re:Lego's real problem! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-19 02:52 · Score: 0

The material is plastic.

Have a kid! by l0wland · 2004-01-12 04:11 · Score: 2, Funny

If you don't dare to play with Lego anymore, make sure to have a kid!! You'll have a good excuse!

Oh wait.. Slashdot... women...

--

"Honey, I feel a certain distance between us..." "Really? A 31ms ping ain't that bad..."

Niche Market? by starvingcodeartist · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 1

I think the age group of 0-7 is a little low. I played with legos daily until I was a teenager, and I still do. You should see the 1960 Ford Thunderbird engine block I rebuilt the other day.

Re:Niche Market? by Bigman · 2004-01-12 04:27 · Score: 1

Perhaps if you photo'd it and stuck it on the web, we could! I'd be interested in seeing it, anyhow.

--
*--BigMan--- Time flies like an arrow.. but personally I prefer a nice glass of wine!
Re:Niche Market? by starvingcodeartist · 2004-01-12 04:33 · Score: 1

I didn't really build a 1960 Ford Thunderbird engine with legos. It was a joke...and apparantly a bad one. I keep forgetting, there are probably a few people out in /. land that have actually done projects as complex as this. Sorry!

what i'm going to build by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 0

is a Lego PC Case mod

w000

I'm so 1337, I'm 2448!

ABOUT TIME! by carldot67 · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 1

You wouldnt believe the trouble I went to to get my 5-year old basic blocks to play with. Eventually had to mail order Lego themselves - shops full of "Mindstorms" garbage.

I'm sorry but an Obi Wan Kenobi figure with one connector on his head is NOT a piece of Lego.

The whole point is that "Its a new toy every day"

(Great for making biochemistry lab apparatus too!)

--
I wish at was Friday, but I dont want to wish my life away. So I wish it was last Friday.

Re:ABOUT TIME! by kisrael · 2004-01-12 04:44 · Score: 1

I'm sorry but an Obi Wan Kenobi figure with one connector on his head is NOT a piece of Lego.

You mean a more or less "regular" minifig? An inch or so high, yellow face?

The head comes off and can be replaced with a few different things. I had fun making cyborgs like that.

The hands can grip a few different things.

Admittedly the arms aren't terribly compatible/replacable with other brick parts.

The torso can be mounted on another brick, or the legs into a block that's tall enough (the studs are longer than usual, I think for stability)

The legs also have 6 holes, 4 for use if you're sitting, 2 if its standing.

--
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death

Given my income level... by Mipmap · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 1

I'm worth about 150 0-7 year olds.

Come on Lego, don't throw the baby (Technic & Mindstorms) out with the bath water (Bionicle, Harry Potter, et al).

Re:Given my income level... by palutke · 2004-01-12 04:32 · Score: 1

Come on Lego, don't throw the baby (Technic & Mindstorms) out with the bath water (Bionicle, Harry Potter, et al).

If Lego was making mad cash on Mindstorms and Technic, they'd produce them forever, regardless of their 'back-to-basics' focus. I bet if everyone who rhapsodized on Slashdot about Technic or Mindstorms boughta set or two, they wouldn't have been discontinued.

Vote with your dollars and support the products you like, and they'll be around for a long time.

--
'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36

YUO = TEH WIN by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 0

Slashdot gets younger every day by heironymouscoward · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 0, Troll

Congratulations on news for nerds aged 3-7. I really agree that plastic blocks are the kind of thing I will come back to Slashdot for again.

Seriously, surely there are more interesting things happening out there than this?

Or, a terrifying though occurs, perhaps there are not?

--
Ceci n'est pas une signature

I loved lego. by a+whoabot · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 1

Lego was my primary interest as a small one. And not because of the "trends" as they say. I would only first build the thing that the set was supposed to be, then I'd always go on to building whatever I thought up(albeit, with terrible color coordination -- meh).

I would build and build. But my stuff would always get destroyed. I always thought it was my brother(who would be at home for much of the day cause he wasn't in school yet). Mcuh later I found out that it was my step-dad who would secretly destroy it. He said he did it cause when I had a lot of stuff I would stop building cause, you know, there's no blocks left and I couldn't destroy my creations! I guess I could say my step-dad had an interesting method of parenting in that...

Anyway, I guess the point is, I personally liked it for the building entirely not the "toy" aspect, and It's A Good Thing that they're bringing the focus to that moreso.

So will they close legoland? by plover · 2004-01-12 04:12 · Score: 3, Interesting

I read near the bottom of the article where they mentioned "forays" into other things such as the Legoland parks. I know that the last time I was in San Diego, I drove the family out to the park (my son was 14 at the time.) We saw the $40 price tags and decided it simply wasn't worth it (so we drove up Mt. Palomar to the observatory, which was indeed worth the drive.)

I recall being surprised that the parking lot for Legoland was nearly deserted, until I saw the admission price.

Anyway, I know I'll miss Mindstorms. I wonder what other lines they'll drop?

--
John

Re:So will they close legoland? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:40 · Score: 0

You drove up to the gate of Legoland and then didn't go in? I think I would have killed my dad. :)
Re:So will they close legoland? by plover · 2004-01-12 05:32 · Score: 1

Heh. I wanted to be there a lot more than my son (who was only mildly interested.) But it seemed more like a little kids theme park, and had my son been 7 years old, we would have gone in.
Y'know, if he'd been raised on POLB (Plain Old Lego Bricks) he probably would have been a lot more excited. But assembling Harry Potter castles from detailed instructions apparently didn't give him quite the same sense of satisfaction ... or maintain the same level of interest.

--
John
Re:So will they close legoland? by way2trivial · 2004-01-12 05:59 · Score: 1

if they do, I'll be there for the closeout auction..
picture it, uniforms, nametags, trucks, the shops, the turnstiles.. youwza!

--
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Re:So will they close legoland? by powerbarr · 2004-01-12 06:10 · Score: 1

As someone who lives in San Diego, Legoland is only for the very young. I'd say under 6-8. There aren't very many rides and mostly it is showing off lots of very intricate and large legos. They eventually had to get liquor licenses so the parents could be somewhat entertained while in the park. The zoo and animal park are a much better deals and more entertaining.
Re:So will they close legoland? by Daetrin · 2004-01-12 09:04 · Score: 1

I was visiting some friends in San Diego recently and we went to Legoland, and i thought it was very interesting. If you're an adult who's only interested in exciting rides it probably won't be your cup of tea, but there's lots of cool stuff to look at there and we managed to spend most of a day wandering around and looking at stuff and didn't feel disapointed.

--
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Re:So will they close legoland? by Russ+Nelson · 2004-01-12 09:45 · Score: 1

It was worth it for my ten-year-old son. I think a 14-yo would have thought some of the rides &etc hokey. Legoland was incredible. They had a model of the restaurant up the California coast that we had eaten at the night before.
-russ

--
Don't piss off The Angry Economist

Lego my Eggo by GerbilSocks · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 0

Hmmm. I got an idea! They should diversify their business to include battered pancakes! That should make them profitable. Everyone eats right?!!?

0 to 7? Zero? by DoorFrame · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

Gosh, that's going to be one unhappy baby. All it wants is something plush that maybe it can wrap its tiny fingers around while lying in the bassinet, and instead it's going to get a pile of hard, sharp angled blocks that it cannot possibly understand how to assemble. The odds of a zero-year-old choking on Legos, I would estimate at fifty-fifty.

What a horrible idea.

--

--
RumorsDaily

slashdot croud? by PaulGrimshaw · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 1

Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

I guess if they are talking about mental age ...

Re:One story per week on this is enough by MrBlackBand · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 1

Why oh why, if you aren't interested in Lego stories did you take the time to post a comment about it? Believe it or not, there are people on this site who care about Lego. This is not "Slashdot- News for crush. Stuff that only matters to crush."

--
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Good! by Doesn't_Comment_Code · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 4, Interesting

Legos were much better when they were simply blocks and YOUR IMAGINATION was what mattered. I've watched my little brothers put together newer lego sets where most of the pieces are designed to fit together in ONE SPECIFIC WAY. Everything is already planned out, and you are supposed to follow the directions (like a some-assembly-required toy).

I'm all for plain old blocks again. And I wouldn't be surprised if that leads to higher revenues again.

--

Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.

Re:Good! by Mitchell+Mebane · 2004-01-12 05:04 · Score: 1

I agree. That is what made me switch to K'Nex. While the models can't be quite as detailed as with Lego, the freeform possibilites are amazing, and I have yet to see a specialized piece.

--

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
Re:Good! by psiphiorg · 2004-01-12 05:22 · Score: 1

I've watched my little brothers put together newer lego sets where most of the pieces are designed to fit together in ONE SPECIFIC WAY. Everything is already planned out, and you are supposed to follow the directions (like a some-assembly-required toy).

Many of the sets I've gotten recently have come with the instructions to put together the building (vehicle, location, whatever) shown on the box, but the last few pages of the instruction booklet show a few ideas for other things that you could build with the same pieces. Those last few pages have inspired me to take apart some of my finished models (for which I followed the instructions) and try to build some of the other items without instructions, or just to start building something brand new.

davidh
Re:Good! by Doesn't_Comment_Code · 2004-01-12 05:41 · Score: 1

Yeah, I don't mind instructions, pictures, and other things that give you ideas. I don't even mind bundled sets that much (as long as I can remember every set had alternate models that could be built and pictures to start your creative juices flowing). I just don't like the idea of a piece that will ONLY fit with one other piece in one way. There is zero flexibility in that. And I don't consider them real legos.

I built a lot of the alternate models too, and I think they were often better than the primary model on the front of the box. Oh, and don't forget building two smaller models from one large set. Or... building one huge model from two or three smaller sets! I have to stop now, I'm drooling on my keyboard.

--

Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.

Anyone else with workplace Lego? by TimTheFoolMan · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 1

At my previous employer, the Network Admin built a rack for the modem pool out of Lego blocks, and glued them together once he got the design right. Naturally, it fit the modems perfectly, and it had the right level of "geek chic" for a technology company.

Needless to say, my current employer (a Fortune 100 company) would probably never stand for such a thing.

Tim

Re:Anyone else with workplace Lego? by mccalli · 2004-01-12 04:23 · Score: 1

My dad used to use Lego as a project planning tool in the 70s, before office computing was prevalent. Buy a big baseboard, use primarily the single-width strips and suddenly you've got a fully editable charting tool with groupware features, though admittedly not exactly remote groupware...
Cheers, Ian
Re:Anyone else with workplace Lego? by carldot67 · 2004-01-12 04:34 · Score: 1

Lego is brilliant in a biotech lab. Anytime you want some mad thermometer/test-tube/ph-meter/ Nitrogen/water-bath/timer thingy that floats OR sinks depending on how you make it - BOSH!
Labels stick to it, so does tape, parafilm, felt tip and its colour coded so your bloody supervisor doesnt nick your stocks.
Then you can clean it in pretty much anything you want. Not sure about autoclaving though.

--
I wish at was Friday, but I dont want to wish my life away. So I wish it was last Friday.
Re:Anyone else with workplace Lego? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:14 · Score: 0

Your previous employer has probably gone out of business. They for certain weren't viable enough to be a gainful employer for you. Did they go out of business?

Your new employer is a Fortune 500 company. They have better job priorities for their Network Admins than building racks out of Lego blocks.

what about the girls? by tuxette · 2004-01-12 04:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.'

What about girls? (And there's supposed to be ingrained gender equality in Denmark hmmmf!)

OK, the girls that play with Legos and stuff like that might get shunned by the the silly girls who play with dolls and maybe some parents want their little girls to wear frilly dresses and play with dolls and girlie stuff but 1) it was always more fun to play with the boys, and 2) who says you can't make a tea party set with lego blocks??

--
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...

Re:what about the girls? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:27 · Score: 0

it's true for girls too. Don't perpetuate steryotypes. As a 14 year old girl, I have good memories of shoving boys away from the lego bins to make a better racecar, or try to find a watching pair of wings. Tea sets no. Ick.
Re:what about the girls? by CaptainAlbert · 2004-01-12 04:35 · Score: 2, Insightful

The big lego sets (that I got for Christmas every year) used to come with a catalogue. I remember seeing maybe two pages of sets that were blatantly girly (ponies and flowers and stuff, ew), and the rest of it was trains, cities, space, medieval, ships, and so on. 90% of the girls in my school who were into lego wouldn't have touched the girly stuff with a bargepole. (Too busy kicking my ass, for starters. :))

Lego-building always struck me as being an inherently unisex occupation. Maybe it isn't, and my childhood was a fraud. Ah well...

--
These sigs are more interesting tha
Re:what about the girls? by Ashtead · 2004-01-12 04:44 · Score: 2, Informative

From what I have seen, girls have no problems putting together plain LEGO pieces to make whatever houses or vehicles or other more fantasic structures they like. Even techical-oriented things like train sets are well received and considered great fun.
So I would not be worried about this at all.

--
SIGBUS @ NO-07.308
Re:what about the girls? by jdavidb · 2004-01-12 05:13 · Score: 1

Hey, watch that gender attitude! Who says girls want to build tea sets out of their legos? I'd kind of like to see my daughters try their hand at babbage-style mechanical computers out of legos. (At least, with their imaginations.) Cities, trucks, and bridges are good, too. Girls can do engineering, you know. ;)

(Offered tongue in cheek, if noone can figure that out. :) )

--
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Re:what about the girls? by johnjaydk · 2004-01-12 05:17 · Score: 2, Informative

I have a seven year old daughter and therefore I've had to learn about this stuff.
Lego have made two lines of girly legos: Belville and Scala.
Judging from the girls (in that age range) we know, Belville is a big hit. But Scala sucks bigtime.
Scala is way to expensive, to elaborate and the figures might be cute but they don't look like Barbie. The only exception is the Scala horses. Monster Hit. Scala has been discontinued so you can pick up Scala stuff on the cheap at the moment.
Yes Belville is packed with strange special pieces but the girls seems to build new stuff with them anyway.
The big difference between boys and most girls is that the girls put more time into playing (playing house etc) than building stuff. YMMW.

--
TCAP-Abort
Re:what about the girls? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:42 · Score: 0

I was just talking to my wife about how great it is that they are finally going back to the basic sets and she commented that she whole heartedly supports the move as well.

Coming from a family where she had 4 sisters and 1 brother, she proceeded to regale me with tales of how they would spend hours collaboratively (or competitively) building various structures. The one that fascinated me was her telling of building a multi-story dollhouse including built-in furniture and an open side wall for them to play dolls in.

While the preconceived notion may be of boys building spaceships or castles or cars, I was very glad to hear that girls were definitely not left out of the wonders of playing with Legos.
Re:what about the girls? by The+Cydonian · 2004-01-12 05:45 · Score: 1

Actually, my friends when I was a kid always thought Legos was decidely girly, coz you build houses with gardens and flowers and all that, which look exactly like a girl's house-kit or whatever.
Which is why I always made sure anything I made had at least one pair of wheels beneath them; cars are cool, houses apparently aren't. :-)
[Needless to say, I no longer have issues in creating anything now; why, only a few months back, I conspired with my 7 year old girl-cousin to build the biggest, bad-ass house + city + train system contraption you could find B-) ]

--
More than mere navel gazing.
Re:what about the girls? by monique · 2004-01-12 06:47 · Score: 1

I was wondering that, too.

I was never a frills-n-dresses-n-dolls sort, but I really don't see why the one would prevent the other. Why couldn't a little girl like dolls and legos, all at the same time? For that matter, why couldn't a little boy?

Oh, sorry, they're called "action figures." My bad.

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-monique
Re:what about the girls? by 0x0d0a · 2004-01-12 14:59 · Score: 1

Speaking of Babbage, Lady Ada, the mother of all of us programmers, wasn't exactly adverse to engineering.

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May we never see th
Re:what about the girls? by spiritgirl · 2004-01-12 23:40 · Score: 1

I used to play with Lego with my brother, we created towns etc that we could then race cars through, to the destruction of any garden or non-stable building that had been built. Lots of fun.

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you can do what with that!?!?!?!
Re:what about the girls? by Polyzinha · 2004-01-13 17:45 · Score: 1

I'm a girl. Legos were among my favorite toys and not because we built a lot of tea sets out of them. My sister and I built tons of stuff out of both the bricks and the specialized sets (mostly the castles but also airports and stuff).
We played with dolls too, but usually we equipped them with homemade swords and bows (parents didn't believe in buying us toy weapons, so we made them out of pipe cleaners) and pretended they were the queens of Amazon kingdoms. Boys weren't allowed, though, on account of cooties. We did get interested in boys eventually, but that was much later.
Anyway, I guess I'm saying (1) yes, girls play with Legos and (2) girls who play with Legos can also play with dolls, and you'd be surprised how un-"girlie-girl" dolls can be.

Important by ciryon · 2004-01-12 04:14 · Score: 1

I think LEGO is really important for kids development. I wonder how many engineers around the globe first found their lust to construct and discover with LEGO? The MindStorm series is absolutely increadible. At my last job we had MindStorm LEGO for probably $2000 that all in R&D would play around with.

Worst move ever was to pay those enormous amounts for trash like Harry Potter and Star Wars LEGO. If LEGO now stops MindStorm they will become valuables. I want my kids to have this, and I'm willing to pay for it (when I decide to get some kids in 10 years or so, ahem).

Ciryon

Fond memories by carl67lp · 2004-01-12 04:14 · Score: 1

I was thinking, out of the blue, the other day about the cities I used to construct out of several road-style plates and lots of imagination. I'd set a blanket out on the patio, and get to work. I had truck stops, police stations, fire houses, stores, houses, campgrounds, and more. Some of the areas were pre-designed (i.e., from instructions), but most were just whatever I wanted.

If I could go back to my childhood and only play with one thing, Lego would be it. I plan to pass my entire Lego collection down to my (future) kids.

But the Mindstorms thing kinda bums me out. I had wanted to buy the $200 set since I first saw it. But $200 is a lot of money for someone who also wants to buy a new sound card, or video card, or processor, or (dare I say it?) food and clothes. Had the price been closer to $100--or even $150--I would have had an easier time of buying it. Perhaps Lego priced themselves into trouble, perhaps not.

But however you slice it, Lego isn't going away. I have a sudden urge to go and grab some bricks and build a huge city again. Too bad it's too cold to put the blanket out on the patio.

Good News by TheWart · 2004-01-12 04:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

Although I don't ever touch legos unless I am playing with a younger sibling, I think this is a move long overdue. We never, ever bought any of the licensed stuff, as most of it was silly. Why would I want a Star Wars lego set when I could get a GI Joe sized star wars figurines?
The beauty of legos is that it stimulates the imagination, and I think that kids nowadays have decidedly less imagination than those of previous years (I am not saying that this is only due to Lego...it seems less children are encouraged to find a quite place and read a lot as well).

Re:Good News by efflux · 2004-01-12 07:13 · Score: 1

(I am not saying that this is only due to Lego...it seems less children are encouraged to find a quite place and read a lot as well).
In general, children are not encouraged. I don't think this generation is much different than any previous either.

--
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. -- Walt Whitman

Legos as non-screen playtime by PIPBoy3000 · 2004-01-12 04:14 · Score: 1

As a kid, I loved Legos. As a parent, I'm finding that it's one of the few things my five-year-old son will do my himself that doesn't involve computers, movies, or television. Strangely, even his pediatrician brought it up when discussing alternatives to video games and cartoons. My son is also a giant Star Wars fan, so I made him sit down when I told him the news that they were no longer going to be made. Of course, we do have dozens of the sets already, though perhaps now it's the time to get the Millenium Falcon that he's always wanted.

Re:Legos as non-screen playtime by |/|/||| · 2004-01-12 04:42 · Score: 2, Informative

Or perhaps the two of you could design and build a Millennium Falcon from standard Lego parts? Not only would it be more satisfying to complete, but it could potentially be a lot cooler than the pre-defined set. Some parts of the ship (the cockpit, for example) would be difficult to design, but that's the fun of playing with Legos!

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[javac] 100 errors

Finally by Remlik · 2004-01-12 04:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

This makes me very happy to hear. I'm 25 and my favorite lego series was the "Model Team" with the Semi trucks, jeeps, vans, helicopters and generally cool, LARGE fully functional models of real life vehicles.

I recently rebuilt my model team semi and it now rests proudly on my desk. Right now they have a very nice lego Shuttle in the stores for $50 bucks (same price as most of the model team models back in the day, and even today on ebay)that I've been trying to convince my wife we need...hehe

Its really disapointing to go to the store and see Soccer, Harry Potter, and Star Wars sets with little more than 20 pieces and some look alike action figures. Give the kids somthing that will take them a few hours to build and leave them enough blocks to construct something different if they should choose.

Just this weekend I noticed some new sets out called "design sets" that were of normal everyday objects (one was a pontoon plane) and each set is capable of being at least 3 different things. (I assume they have docs inside which show how to convert as well..at least the last technic model I bought did)

This is the lego I remember and love, and I think more parents would rather buy somthing that can be more than just a scene from SW or HP.

--
Apple free since 1990!

Re:Finally by Bertie · 2004-01-12 06:01 · Score: 1

Ha. I had the test car (Kit no. 8080 or 8800 or something, as I remember). Bet you're still jealous even now...

Thing is, I got it for Christmas one year, and woke up on Christmas morning to find the whole thing built for me, which took some of the fun out of it. My dad thought he'd get it started for me, got a bit carried away, and was up all night till he finished it...

I had the hydraulic bulldozer thing, too. Got that just after it came out. That was magic.

But of course, the real fun was in taking stuff apart and coming up with your own creations. Using all the hydraulic gear I came up with a box with a hydraulically-operated lid which could only be opened by setting three switches to the correct positions. All right, it's hardly Babbage's Difference Engine, but I was only a kid, and that sort of carry-on probably taught me all sorts of useful skills.
Re:Finally by RickHunter · 2004-01-12 09:28 · Score: 1

Wow! Yeah, I loved the "Model Team" stuff and its Technic "kit" precursors. It was even cooler because each set had instructions for two or three different vehicles, and most of the parts were generic enough that you could easily use them in your own constructions. The Technic kits were, IMHO, just as cool, in their own way.

If Lego released a $30 or less generic Technic kit with all the usual motors, gears, etc. and a programmable microcontroller brick with a decent OS... I'd SO buy it.
Re:Finally by jafuser · 2004-01-12 09:44 · Score: 1

Model Team was cool. I still kind of wish that they came out with a micro-lego size, for finely detailed models, sort of like micro-lego : lego :: lego : duplo.

--
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
Re:Finally by schnell29 · 2004-01-12 11:02 · Score: 1

As a father of a 5 yr boy and 3yr girl, I have been waiting for good lego sets to come out. The 5yr is now able to put together his own stuff.
Some of the sets you are talking about are :
Land Busters
Air Blazers
Sea Riders

They give directions for at least 3 different 'models', and then show pictures for more that you can create. The catalog we get shows the other models ( like for the heli, not only the bi-plane, but a jet and possibly a boat ).

But now I have to get grandpa to up into the attic and send me the huge box of lego they stored away when I was a kid.

My lego purchasing woes... by shoppa · 2004-01-12 04:15 · Score: 1

Any idiot could've told Lego that they've been pissing their main business down the tubes for years. I just went to several local toy stores looking for plain old Lego Bricks for my kids (ages 3 and 5). Most of the toy stores had an entire aisle of Harry Potter and Star Wars Lego sets (literally dozens of different sets all with commercial tie-ins) and zero generic building block Lego sets. Eventually I found one store that had a single tub of "plain" Legos left; I bought it and they now have zero.

What a concept! by Ted+Williams'+Frozen · 2004-01-12 04:15 · Score: 1

I always had a great time as a kid playing with my Legos. Never had all of the specialized bricks that I see now, diddn't stop us from making spacships, cars, houses, heilcopters, and other assorted thing to blow up. Getting back to the basics that made it such a great idea to begin with shoud help.

Of course, I also liked the various lengths of 2x4's that I played with too (padded suit lumber swat anyone?).

Great news by artemis67 · 2004-01-12 04:16 · Score: 1

Way back when, Legos were all about imagination and unlimited possibilities.

I looked at Legos this past Christmas for my kids... got to say, I didn't think any of the sets I saw were too appealing. Harry Potter, Star Wars, and various sets that look like they're all about the licensing and very little about imagination. And there's almost no "replay value" when you buy a Harry Potter box and you only have enough pieces to build what you see on the box.

MindStorms is a little different, and I think it's a cool concept; but, somewhere along the line, Lego let all the niche products overtake the brand.

Time to get back to the basics; great big tubs of blocks that you can use to build houses, planes, spaceships, boats, or whatever captures a childs' fancy.

Oh to be zero years old again by GillBates0 · 2004-01-12 04:16 · Score: 1

it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.

it's quite possibly the most exhilarating period of a guy's life. have chicks come and pull your cheeks and exclaim how cute you are, suck on titties all you want, play with cool lego blocks without anybody complaining how childish it is...to name a few perks.

it's been well said: you spend the first few minutes of your life trying to get out, and the rest of your life trying to get back in.

--
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam

Right on ! by Etyenne · 2004-01-12 04:16 · Score: 1

"In our efforts to follow the trend, we forgot about our traditional, basic products -- the plastic building bricks -- and we spent all our efforts on new toys that we launched together with films like Star Wars and Harry Potter".

I am the father of a boy that will turn 12 this spring. In the past decade, I bought a lot of Lego for him. It always pissed me off to see that it was near-impossible to buy brick-only set. Most Lego product on the shelves where of the franchise type. These sets where usually much more expensive than generic set, and contain may part that where not really reusable outside of the box theme (ie character's gun, etc). What I want from Lego is bricks, bricks and more bricks (you never have enough of those !). If I really want to buy my kid a Star Wars toy, I'll buy him an action figure, not some overpiced Lego set.

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:wq

Re:Right on ! by iainl · 2004-01-12 04:28 · Score: 1

I've raved about them before, but no harm in doing so again.

What you're after are the new Designer sets. Themed into different subjects including cars, Big Japanese Robots (which rocks), Construction site stuff and even animals, they are all made of 'proper' bricks, and each has a whole shedload of suggestions on the theme to get you going; the theme is more connected to your suggestions and the sorts of colours you get (including a rather snazzy new orange) than limiting what you can build at all.

--
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"

Legos Engineering Foundation by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:17 · Score: 0

I grew up on legos in the mid 70's. At that time, there was no specialized crap. It was all in what you could create. I went on to get a degree in EE and CS. I was appalled when the special sets came out. BFD, I can make 1 thing. Whee :( Even as a kid, I thought they sucked. Now I understand why from a business perspective. Legos IS engineering for geeklets. - Geccie

slashdotters: buy more legos! by scapegoat51 · 2004-01-12 04:17 · Score: 1

i've often thought in recent years that LEGO had really gone downhill with all the specialized sets. sure, some of them were kinda cool (the Millenium Falcon comes to mind), but overall it just seemed like there wasn't any way to get away from what the designers intended, and run wild with my imagination.

the older sets were great, because as soon as you got bored with the configuration the instructions provided (ok, i'm a boring guy.. i always did the instructions first), you could tear it apart and build whatever you wanted, and if you brought in your piles and piles of other pieces from other sets, the possibilities were limitless.

it's sad that Mindstorms is having to go, though. very cool idea. hopefully they'll bring it back after they get back on their feet.

i've been a lego fan for a long time, but i haven't really bought any sets in too long... i think i'm going to start buying more. maybe if all us slashdotters buy a few sets, we'll give LEGO the financial boost it needs. :)

Mental age by jamiguet · 2004-01-12 04:17 · Score: 1

Whey they refer to 0->7 years is of mental age. My brain is normally so fried out at the end of the day I think like a 7 year old.

Watching the teletubies is about the only thing I can do. And of couse playing with lego.

--

Where is my mind?

I'm glad to hear... by ScottSpeaks! · 2004-01-12 04:18 · Score: 1

...that LEGO is getting back to basics. I know I'm dating myself here (I can't get anyone else to), but back when I was a kid (and not just up to age 7) LEGOs were "only" bricks of various sizes and colors... and one of my favorite toys. They didn't have any "sets" that tell you what you're supposed to make out of them, with pre-built "people" figures and whatnot. Just building blocks, which you could make into absolutely anything your imagination came up with. Who needs a LEGO-licensed character, when you can make your own?

Re:I'm glad to hear... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:55 · Score: 0

d00d, cool sig!

Complex constructions by Pflipp · 2004-01-12 04:19 · Score: 1

What about the Slashdot crowd?

I would be really interested in finding some kind of construction system which allows for arbitrary sized Gothic arcs. (Virtual systems would also do.) This is virtually unseen, because it would take arc pieces with different radiuses, but it would be cool nonetheless :-)

--
"We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]

*Real* fun with Legos by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:20 · Score: 1, Funny

Lego Death

ROFLMAOPIMP

Ideas of Lego by dyj · 2004-01-12 04:20 · Score: 2, Interesting

What Lego should market is not specific single-purpose only sets but sets with general themes that allow people to put their imagination to work:

Town sets. Blocks that allows kids to build a town of their own. Beams, bricks, plates, trees, blocky cars, sloppy ground, so on.
Railroad sets are great. For some reasons kids like railroad model especially if the trains run around in circle kids can control the tracks!
Office sets for adults. Cubicle blocks, little persons dressed in business attire; let people build a model of their offices so they can look at the model at home and imagine things.
Airport sets. Hanger, terminals, little airplanes, security checking, ticket counters. It should be fun! Similar idea is a seaport set with cargo lifts, ship docks, so on.

Re:Ideas of Lego by Lemmeoutada+Collecti · 2004-01-12 04:37 · Score: 1

Lego + Hotwheels = Megalegopolis

--

You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.

Why so much worrying? by MoobY · 2004-01-12 04:20 · Score: 3, Interesting

Isn't Lego being a bit harsh on itself after a down year in sales? They were still profitable in 2002. I can't find the profit and loss numbers of the previous years, although statements have been made that 1998 was Lego's first loss year.

I have a mindstorms set, I really like the technic boxes, and I'm amazed Lego's sole interest for the future would be in 0-7 year olds. All of the young boys (7-10 year olds) in my neighborhood and family still seem to be getting huge piles of Lego blocks ...

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--- Sigmentation Fault - Comments Dumped

0? by telstar · 2004-01-12 04:21 · Score: 1

Anyone know anyone that came flying out of the womb with legos in tow?

Yes! by Darth+Maul · 2004-01-12 04:21 · Score: 1

My big gripe with Lego over the past few years is the increased specialization of their product. The reason my parents bought me tons of Legos is that you were forced to use your imagination. Now days, you don't need it anymore! You just follow the instructions and you build what the kit tells you to. You buy the Star Wars X-wing kit, and you build a Star Wars X-wing. All the parts are specialized and only work in certain ways.

Back in the day you got a ton of generic parts, and you build whatever you want. That's a real toy, and that's what Legos should be. I'm glad they realized this. I'm sure a lot of the Slashdot crowd became engineers and software developers in part because of the creativity of building systems that Lego helped develop.

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--- witty signature

PETITION by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:22 · Score: 0

Perhaps the Slashdot crowd could petition for continuation of Mindstorms?

My son by Dead_Smiley · 2004-01-12 04:22 · Score: 1

...is a huge fan of legos. He has a ton of the regular bricks and has built some trully amazing things with them. He even built a Madcat from the image on the box of Mechwarrior 3. I wish I had taken a picture of that. When these Bionicles and other things came out I thought they were cool and so did he. I noticed that after a while, he didn't play with his legos as much and then I realized that the Starwars and Bionicle sets were basically one-time builds. The special pieces (can't really call them blocks) weren't much good for anything except what they were designed for.

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I know what the Internet is, what the hell is this Interweb business?!

I miss Lego bricks - I've been looking for them! by janimal · 2004-01-12 04:23 · Score: 1

Every time I go into a toy store (I'm 26), I want a toy. And there are very few toys I find interesting. One of them is a LEGO set. And lately I have been searching toy stores for a nice lego set for myself or as a present for some kid. Lego sets these days aren't the Lego sets I used to play with. They are no fun!

The magic of Lego was that you could build your dream spaceship out of the stuff. Given the same set two different kids would come up with wildly different designs. Now it seems a lego set can only become what it was designed to become.

This is why while being thirsty for some Lego fun and wanting to spend $$, I haven't done so in 10 years!

Too bad it took Lego so long to realize their mistake. I welcome the comback of the block!

What about the slashdot crowd. by haplo21112 · 2004-01-12 04:23 · Score: 1

I love my legos, but honestly I have not seen one damned basic building set that has fit my desires in years. The mindstorms are, and technics are great...and I'll miss them alot...however its been years since I have seen a basic set (or a space themed set, remember all the get ones in the 80's) that suited my custom building needs.
They need to go back to what they were doing in the late 70's and early to mid 80's...although they oughta keep mindstorms...

--
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.

Lego is like M$ by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:23 · Score: 2, Interesting

The world would be a better place without Lego. It makes money by putting its competitors out of business. Its IP is arguably very minimal - anybody could make those little plastic bricks! Its patents ran out in the 80's, and since then it has been insisting that bricks are it's trademark! It has inhibited innovation and stiffed competition where it can. It is great news that it is finally out of steam and looks set to join SCO in the bargain basement. This is mostly down to the United States Court of Appeals, which rejected Lego's common law trademark argument. God bless America. Instead of lauding this morally corrupt capitalist giant, do what you can to expose its wicked ways and support alternative, 'open source' brick designs which are cheaper and can be made anywhere.

Re:Lego is like M$ by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 14:26 · Score: 0

When you said "Instead of lauding this morally corrupt capitalist giant" - I thought you were still talking about the United States.

United States is the M$ of countries.

marketing by simpl3x · 2004-01-12 04:24 · Score: 1

i have to agree with the assessment. my son has a few items from about everyline since the mid eighties up to mindstorm. He played with the things until he was about 13, and a few times i caught him playing with the blocks since then. but, lego was getting dangerously close to playmobil, in terms of role playing rather than constructing. i doubt mindstorms will go away. companies such as dacta have created a nice nitch in education with these products.

my first legos were the 3" x 6" red and white blocks, which occupied my attention fowever--with only one type of block. great stuff, but the basics are what counts--imagination over reality.

Mindstorms should NOT die, but be spin-offed by SlashDread · 2004-01-12 04:24 · Score: 1

Ok, so Harry Potter is lame (well not the books, but..), but robots are cool!

I want to build my own Asimo dammit!

Seriously, there should be some market for "lego for grownuppers" where they can hookup play thingies to comp thingies.

"/Dread"

Re:Mindstorms should NOT die, but be spin-offed by daoine · 2004-01-12 05:07 · Score: 2, Interesting

Mindstorms is a great toy, but when it comes down to it, it's rather cost prohibitive. The $100 starter box is really neat, but there simply aren't enough bricks. You're limited by what you can do because once you start building, you almost immediately need more sensors/motors/etc, and it's tough to justify spending another $100 to get that.
I think it's a shame that they're phasing it out, but at the same time, I'd much rather spend the $100 on a bunch of plain old bricks. Enough normal bricks might make some of those specialty Harry Potter pieces usable.
~d (longing for the days of the old Castle sets, where you built the damn thing yourself rather than putting 4 pieces together)

I'd just like to thank all Slashdotters by teamhasnoi · 2004-01-12 04:25 · Score: 1

for their comments on the future direction of Lego. As the new Marketing Director of Lego, I will focus on getting back to our roots, making Lego into the toy we know and love once again.

Sincerely,
teamhasnoi - Marketing Director, Lego

PS. Harry Potter is the F*(K outta here!

nice to hear Lego is returning to its roots by Ubergrendle · 2004-01-12 04:25 · Score: 1

Of all the toys I played with growing up -- Star Wars (Kenner), Transformers, GI Joe, Capsella, etc -- LEGO by far got the most 'playing' time as a kid. Infinite combinations, infinite reusability. If I wanted custom pieces I'd buy those highly detailed McFarlane action figures. LEGO lost its core audience when it started to offer "Star Wars" toys that weren't as good as dedicated Star Wars molded action figures.

What is most impressive is that I have all of my original LEGO blocks in storage (from the early 1980s) and I am planning on giving them to my kids to play with. They're as good as the day I got them. I am looking forward to LEGO returning to its 'core' of basic single-coloured blocks so that I can add to my collection.

While on the topic of 'classics', the old board games are still as relevant today as LEGO is. Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble, The Game of Life, Battleship, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit... these all are fun things to play, that provide an early way to develop critical thinking skills.

Oh, and don't forget refridgerator boxes. An 8 year old kid with his very own TARDIS was very cool indeed.

--
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"

Kids... by ThrasherTT · 2004-01-12 04:25 · Score: 1

I have two kids, and I spend a fair amount of time helping them build stuff with Legos. They are pretty young still, and I've pushed them into the legos we all know and love... but they can't quite get them to snap yet :)

Of course, I still have all my old Space and Castle sets from back in the day... they dig those too (who wouldn't?!).

--

All Your Memory Are Belong To Java

Lego misquoted, aims at Slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:26 · Score: 0

...and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.' Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

In fact, the folks at Lego are very aware of this community. The article just mangled that quote--the 'zero to seven range' part actually referred to males with a zero to seven percent chance of getting laid on any particular day.

(Married /. users clumping at the 7% range, and everyone else clumped at approximately 0%)

Re:Lego misquoted, aims at Slashdotters by Zeriel · 2004-01-12 08:04 · Score: 1

Speaking as a soon-to-be-married slashdotter, my chance of getting laid on any given day is closer to 107% (accounting for some days it's twice.)

I love ACs who think they're SO clever by posting stupid stuff.

"Hey! Slashdotters is all geeks, so they never get any sex. LOL kekekekeke ^_^"
Do I get troll cred now?

--
"America has done some terrible things. But I know that Americans don't cheer when innocents die." -Dave Barry

I'm 30, in my office, and... by gamgee5273 · 2004-01-12 04:26 · Score: 2, Interesting

I have 10 Bionicle figures, 10 Star Wars mini-figs and all of the SW Mini sets. I have a ton of regular and "Space Lego" Lego bricks at home, my Mindstorms collection takes up a good-sized toolbox, and my wife and I make regular gifts of Lego (Duplo and the regular bricks) to the kids in our families...

Obviously, we're above average in terms of Lego consumption... but one question has always bounced around in the back of my head: If my regular bricks from the 1970s are still as new looking as brand-new bricks, why would I spend more money on the same bricks for my kids when I can just give them mine?

That has always been where Lego's corporate thought has failed them. Tinkertoys, while not the same brand nowadays as Lego is, broke... making you go out and get a new set. Very little of the Lego stuff breaks (it just tears into your bare foot when you step on one with all of your weight).

Re:I'm 30, in my office, and... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 0

Very little of the Lego stuff breaks (it just tears into your bare foot when you step on one with all of your weight).

Since when is building stuff that doesn't break a coorperate blunder. People throw away legos, leave them behind,etc... Even YOU buy new legos as gifts. And why you ask? Because they are new. That's why.
Re:I'm 30, in my office, and... by gamgee5273 · 2004-01-12 05:29 · Score: 1

No, because these kids don't have parents who played with Legos as kids. I have well over 1000 of the original bricks. Thus, I won't be buying more bricks for my kids.
Thus, Lego doesn't get that sale. Does it make sense now?
Re:I'm 30, in my office, and... by Reziac · 2004-01-12 05:48 · Score: 1

Most kids lose small toys, so there is some regular attrition. Also, as you gain experience at creating your own projects, you find you need a boxful of some particular part, and hopefully mom and dad will agree. And so on.

Many toys used to be fairly well indestructable, short of concentrated abuse, but each generation still buys new toys.

(What's an indestructable toy good for? Breaking other toys!)

--
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Re:I'm 30, in my office, and... by 0x0d0a · 2004-01-12 14:37 · Score: 1

Houses (well, properly cared for) are pretty tough. I suppose you could burn one down, and might manage to flood one badly enough that it has to be destroyed, but the house-building industry is always there, always making money...

--
May we never see th

I wonder why Lego never... by TimeForGuinness · 2004-01-12 04:26 · Score: 3, Interesting

Why doesn't Lego sell individual pieces in bulk. If you can go into a grocery store and by gummi bears by the pound, why not legos?

They already have some Lego stores in the mall, I don't think it would be too hard to add a bulk section.

Being able to buy a 1/2 pound of triangle, rectangle, or square pieces would be great if you are missing pieces or if you want to buy you kid or husband a heck of a lot of legos to foster their imagination.

Re:I wonder why Lego never... by doon · 2004-01-12 04:40 · Score: 3, Informative

They already have some Lego stores in the mall, I don't think it would be too hard to add a bulk section .
The LEGO store I last went into, you could fill up 2 different size containers, with any of the basic blocks, pretty much mix and match. Next time I go down I was thinking about buying a bunch of Yellow and Black pieces for my Mindstorms kits..

--
To E-mail me, replace the first period in my domain with an @
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by Bigman · 2004-01-12 04:50 · Score: 1

Well, Lego don't, but here in Blighty most big toy shops (Toys'r'us etc) sell other block sets, some of which are "compatible".. or at least they did when I looked last, a couple of years ago.

--
*--BigMan--- Time flies like an arrow.. but personally I prefer a nice glass of wine!
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by TimeForGuinness · 2004-01-12 05:05 · Score: 1

Hey thanks for the post, most of the stores I went into just sold sets, not individual pieces here in St. Louis. I haven't been in a LEGO store in like 8 months, so maybe they updated their store. I will have to stop by this weekend and check it out.
Thanks again for the post.
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by doon · 2004-01-12 05:07 · Score: 1

Glad I could help. My own problem is the nearest one to me is like 2.5 hours south of me, and for what it is worth, Your nick is awesome, and I do think it is Time for A guiness.

--
To E-mail me, replace the first period in my domain with an @
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by TimeForGuinness · 2004-01-12 05:11 · Score: 1

Yup definitely time for a Guinness...it gives you strength.
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by mlush · 2004-01-12 05:21 · Score: 1

Why doesn't Lego sell individual pieces in bulk.
That would be cool they could even do a Web page with online ordering. The it would be nice if they had a pick n'mix system in their shops :-) :-).
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by TimeForGuinness · 2004-01-12 05:26 · Score: 1

That was great...thanks for the links.
I haven't been to a LEGO store in 8 months, and the stores I went to only sold sets, not bulk.
I really appreciate the links. Thanks again.
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by AgentGray · 2004-01-12 05:59 · Score: 1

Woodfiled Mall in Schaumburg, IL has a Lego store that lets you by bulk using two different cup sizes. They're approx $7 and $13.

Be sure to take the time to stack the pieces and fit them in there. You get a LOT more than just dumping them in like candy.

Every now and then, there are some rare pieces amd colors as well such as slopes and rare sizes.

I practically work right across the street. Every time I go into the mall, I come out with a cup.

My wife won't let me go into the mall anymore...

--
"Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by glsunder · 2004-01-12 06:20 · Score: 1

"Why doesn't Lego sell individual pieces in bulk. If you can go into a grocery store and by gummi bears by the pound, why not legos?"

Supposedly, walmart demands a lower price from manufacturer every year. So, in order for the manufacturer to stay afloat, they have to keep coming out with new products every year, since they will make less money on the old ones.

At first they could make them in china or somewhere, but eventually, they have to make their profits off of new products which could have a higher profit margin.
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by slashdot_commentator · 2004-01-12 06:57 · Score: 1

Hate to say it, but I imagine because if they made the effort to market generic pieces in bulk, it would murder their profit margin. They couldn't keep charging the high prices for generic blocks. And then the copycats would move in.

--
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Re:I wonder why Lego never... by Bombcar · 2004-01-12 09:35 · Score: 1

Yes, that is one of the new things they've added recently. They first tried it in San Diego (at Legoland), and now are putting it everywhere a Lego store is.

Of course, San Diego gets the only one in the world that sells by weight! We not only get great weather, but great Lego, too!

--
Fellowship 9/11

Bionicle was sorta cool. by waxmop · 2004-01-12 04:27 · Score: 4, Informative

I bought a few of the bionicles because they had some new pieces like ball-and-socket joints and lots of gears. The problem was that until you accumulate several kits, you're pretty limited. The typical kits has enough to build exactly one freaky alien warrior: two arms, two legs, a trunk, and a head. There's just not that much you can do when the pieces are so specialized.

After getting several kits, though, then I could come up with more designs, like centipede monsters, etc, but I still felt constrained by how specialized the pieces were. It's hard to figure out an alternate use for the little brain piece that only connects with one other piece, for example The ball-socket joints and the gears were a nice addition though.

Anyway, I'm glad to see legos returning to the original free-form ideal rather than becoming a glorified action-figure maker.

--

--
Long-term effects of Bush deficits

Re:Bionicle was sorta cool. by Cpt_Kirks · 2004-01-12 04:51 · Score: 1

"Brain"? I thought it was a booger.

They need a box of gears, ball joints and "universal pins" you can buy.

Or just rob your son of all his and strip out the parts...
Re:Bionicle was sorta cool. by Titusdot+Groan · 2004-01-12 05:31 · Score: 1

The problem was there were literally DOZENS of different bionicles -- once your kid has 7 or 8 and can build an army of bionicles do they really want more.
My son is a lego maniac and he wanted them all but some of the kids at his school started putting "no bionicles" on the birthday party invitations ...
Re:Bionicle was sorta cool. by valintin · 2004-01-12 05:41 · Score: 1

As LEGO Bionicle sucks, and I wasn't really happy with them at first.

But as action figures Bionicle is great. I prefer my son playing with them than to GI Joes. They are really fun and he gets to learn a little about how things fit together. He is too young to put some of the parts together but he now has a sense that everything which comes apart can be repaired and put back together.

Now I don't confuse Bionicle with a building system and I'm much happier with them.

What about the Slashdot crowd? by jht · 2004-01-12 04:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

Well, for starters, there's a lot more kids under ten than there are Slashdotters. Millions more.

And the electronic products are expensive, relatively low-margin products that can only make them money if they sell lots of them. While Good Old Plastic Blocks are incredibly cheap to make, can be sold for a huge markup, and appeal to a lot more than just folks who want retro toys.

I'm sure they'll still make some money off the licensed stuff for the time being, but licensed products have higher costs and since they're designed to be used for specific things they aren't really as interchangeable as standard Legos. And they cost the buyer more, too.

Mindstorms may be wicked cool, but Lego needs to make a profit. They made lots of money selling plain old blocks, then they decided that they needed to grow into other areas to survive. It didn't work.

I'll miss the cool stuff like Mindstorms, but in a couple of years when my son is old enough to play with Legos I'll be buying them for him. And he won't miss the robotics at all, I suspect.

--
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."

What about TEAMS? by Zevets · 2004-01-12 04:27 · Score: 2, Informative

I am in high school, and in Middle School we had TEAMS or Technology Education Alliance with Middle Schools. It is sponsored by NASA and a bunch of other corporations. We had Mindstorms robot sport competitions. The first year (very first for the whole thing) we lost to the school which had the creators of the event, and in 7th and 8th grade we won. In 8th grade the champion match was decided by a meager 207-35 victory for us, due to my amazing defense robot. Anyway it was a lot of fun and I would hate to see it go, even though I am too old now. Most of the sets were missing a lot of peices and I had to bring stuff from home, and it would be a real shame.

To continue bragging we also had a program that would jam robot signals, and even one to erase the firmware!!! However, the competition was too weak, and we never used it during the matches. (Only a last resort during the last 30 seconds. If only they had done battlebots. . .

But to stop bragging, I learned a TON about computers, reverse engineering the signals etc, engineering and teamwork. I wish that more kids had the oppurtunity to do this, as this was THE highlight of my years in Middle School.

--

Mod Wisely.

Lego is fundamentally generic by gobbo · 2004-01-12 04:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

I have a 6 and 3 year old, and we're moving from duplo to lego. I consider these essential toys.

It drives me nuts to go shopping and see only pre-determined model sets, with all kinds of non-generic parts that, once inevitably added to the bucket, will not be used as intended, and in fact will get misplaced into other toy boxes and barely used at all.

I don't appreciate paying the premium for a product design that comes broken in the box. The whole point of lego (in my 38 years of experience playing with it ;-) ) is its interchangeability of pieces and flexibility. Their recent design and marketing trend suppressed its fundamental characteristic!

Lego is, in principle, back to basics, I'm happy to see them waking up to that again. I'll be one of the first to go and get a generic assortment box when I see them on the shelves again.

--
Damn those pesky terrorists

Re:Lego is fundamentally generic by Mr.+Sharumpe · 2004-01-12 05:11 · Score: 1

I enjoy some of the specialized sets, as long as they don't contain the large, one-trick-pony parts. For example I would rather build a castle wall from multiple pieces than have a single piece that is a few inches square. I realize that the difference will probably show itself in the cost, but that's fine with me.

That said, I was encouraged this year to see a few 'generic' builder sets in the local Fred Meyer's. They were geared towards things -- one was geared towards vehicles, I believe, but it wasn't a single model. I'm also happy to see this trend come back. The one thing I would be sad to see go is the more complicated Star Wars sets.

I'm 30 years old, and I still like to build things with my Lego bricks.

Mr. Sharumpe

--
-- The above comments are just my opinion. If you are going to flame me, save your time. I am fireproof.
Re:Lego is fundamentally generic by Moofie · 2004-01-12 05:25 · Score: 1

The generic bricks never went away. You could always still buy them. Nobody came to your house to take them away. They just had the AUDACITY to make some different sets that, in the case of the Star Wars sets, I happened to like very much, thank you. The new clicky hinges that came by the dozen in the new sets are AWESOME. With the exception of the TIE Fighter canopy, the pieces were small and generic (some were painted with logos, but not too many). Even the TIE canopy could be used for another model that needed a big, domed window.

This fable that LEGO sets somehow started coming out of the boxes in four parts is just silly. The set cost per piece has been pretty consistent over the last ten years. Yes, occasionally you'll get something like the shark or the horse that doesn't lend itself to doing much else with, but those pieces are in the vanishing minority.

--
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!

Hey, wow,, okay then.. uh.. by Lord+Bitman · 2004-01-12 04:28 · Score: 1

Can I buy some fucking lego bricks at the fucking lego store, then?
What's the fucking point of a fucking lego store if I can't buy a fucking scoop of some fucking lego bricks that I fucking pick by hand instead of getting a fucking toy with fucking non-generic pre-shaped fucking peices?
Fuck!
ages 3-7

--
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All

Niche markets? by RoadWarriorX · 2004-01-12 04:30 · Score: 1

I was just talking about this with my wife the other day! I've always said that the newer Lego's were crap and how I wish that they revert back. It's now gonna happen? Good. Now I do not agree with their decision to eliminate Mindstorms, though. I would love to have Mindstorms. It's a great starter for robotics.
So, if they are gonna have little niche markets, why not go one step futher and have functionally complete Lego sets targeted toward specific age groups:

Age 0-4 : The big lego blocks (Duplo?)

Age 5+ : Regular lego sets

Age 10+ : Complete Technic sets

Age 13+ : Complete Mindstorm sets

It's about time someone is putting their foot down and stopping this ridiculous licensing madness!

--

Coderz 4 Life

Reminds me of an old joke by ThinWhiteDuke · 2004-01-12 04:31 · Score: 5, Funny

Do you know the difference between a clitoris and a Lego brick?

If you don't, keep playing with Lego.

--

It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.

Re:Reminds me of an old joke by Cpt_Kirks · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 2, Funny

Uhh, you don't lick a lego?
Re:Reminds me of an old joke by Bertie · 2004-01-12 06:07 · Score: 2, Funny

Is the answer "you can find Lego bricks" - invariably by standing on the fuckers barefoot?

Is there any pain that compares?
Re:Reminds me of an old joke by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:23 · Score: 0

sure...it's called "getting kicked in the groin."
Re:Reminds me of an old joke by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 13:39 · Score: 0

> Do you know the difference between a clitoris and a Lego brick?

You've touched a Lego brick?

Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd? by fallen1 · 2004-01-12 04:31 · Score: 1

They _are_ talking about the Slashdot crowd. At least in mentality levels ;-) We are, after all, all kids at heart.

--

Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~

Price! by SlamMan · 2004-01-12 04:34 · Score: 1

The big problem with people not buying LEGOs doesn't have to do with the crazy parts (although I'm sure thats part of it), it has to do with the price. One of the little bags of like 15 peices goes for around $5, whle the big lego AT-AT is $100. This sort fo stuff cost maybe a 1/3 that when i was in LEGO using age (15 years ago). They just aren't a good value anymore.

--
Mod point free since 2001

Pitty by FJ · 2004-01-12 04:34 · Score: 1

While I'm glad they are going back to blocks, Mindstorms looked like a great educational tool. In a few more years my son would have been old enough to use it.

Oh well, maybe I'll pick one up before they disappear.

I've noticed the change by milgr · 2004-01-12 04:35 · Score: 1

Maybe it is just seasonal, but...

6 months ago I looked for generic lego sets with wheels. No luck. I was ready to buy a lego set that made a fire truck - as it looked like it had the most generic pieces.

In December, Toys R Us started carying a 500 piece set with some wheels at a reasonable price.

I had been rather disappointed when I could only find sets with a few large pieces that could only be used in one way, and few generic pieces.

--
Where law ends, tyranny begins -- William Pitt

Thats such great news by mnmn · 2004-01-12 04:35 · Score: 2, Interesting

I remember LEGOs were getting more toy-like with bigger atomic pieces that were more specialized and you couldnt do much with it. In my castle set, there was a shark with just two pieces.. the shark and the upper jaw... so wheres the creativity about that?

The technic sets were more creative, with little gears and small unspecific atomic pieces I could do neat things with. I never made what the original box intended.. but always had my own ideas usually a giant combined robot.. like transformers which could transform into a car.

I saw that harry potter set and thought you really cant do much with that. That was a doll set not a building block set. The markets kicked some sense into their heads now and I hope they dont just build bricks but atomic mechanical pieces ... like that perforated metal set I forgot the name of.

Gears, cogs, motors, rods, bearings, pulleys, screws.. things like that will help kids and motivate them to buy more sets for more pieces. Kids really REALLY dont want to build showsets of various movie themes unless they fall on the wrong side of the gender preference.

--
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky

Re:Thats such great news by jacquilynne · 2004-01-12 05:41 · Score: 1

The creativity is in figuring out how to attach the frigging laser beams to their heads, of course.
Re:Thats such great news by mbbac · 2004-01-12 07:12 · Score: 1

Why did your castle set come with a shark?

--
mbbac

mmm... legos by JM_the_Great · 2004-01-12 04:36 · Score: 2, Interesting

I must say, going back to the original pieces will help me with my preferred lego project: computer cases.

argh... sucks being a poor college kid.

--

--Justin Mitchell
"2nd Place is a fancy word for losing" --Bender (Futurama)

Legos + PC parts = The next HP home machine by earplug · 2004-01-12 04:36 · Score: 2, Funny

Legos is going the wrong way! They shouldn't be simplifying their available projects, they should just be changing them to target the future...

Imagine tech support calls:

Tech: Tech support how may I help you?
Caller: Yeah I'm having a problem plugging in the processor to the motherboard
Tech: Were you following the directions? What step are you on?
Caller: Instructions? Hell I've just been stacking parts on top of each other like I did when I was a kid!

Lego bequest & a funny coincidence by blackdefiance · 2004-01-12 04:37 · Score: 2, Funny

When I was in college I decided to give all my old Lego to some young cousins who would have more time to appreciate them than I did. So I packed them all up in a big suitcase and flew out to visit. En route, the suitcase was affixed with a big luggage tag.

When I got there, my cousin, who was probably about five, looked at the suitcase and said "Hey! It says LEGO on it!!". Sure enough -- the routing code printed on the tag in big letters was 0637 -- "LEGO" upside down.

I love it when randomness works in interesting ways.

--

circa75.com

It's The Price, Stupid! by ashitaka · 2004-01-12 04:38 · Score: 1

Not really the specialization of the kits but the fact you pay >C$20 for about 20 pieces of formed plastic with an actual production cost of less than $0.50 per kit.

For those going on about the specialization of kits, if you have enough anything is really possible. My son takes those individual space kits and comes up with some pretty good Chris Foss-inspired spaceships.

--
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.

What about the Slashdot crowd? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:38 · Score: 0

"Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.' Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

Yeah, I'd also have to say that slashdot has its niche in the zero to seven age range.

Competition - MegaBlok by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:39 · Score: 0

When I take the kids to the store to buy Legos I see Lego kit for $35 and the MegaBlok box for $18.

Yes, the bricks are sometimes substandard, but I get twice as many bricks for half the price!

Toys-R-Us now has a MegaBlok aisle not just a MegaBlok shelf on the Lego aisle.

I miss the old Lego sets, but I've also like the specialized kits. These are like the old monorail sets. They don't sell as many, and they're really expensive.

When I was little we had huge buckets of blocks. We simply can't afford at $25 for 50 bricks in a kit to get that many together any more... :-(

Lego going back to it's roots == GREAT!

Lego dumping Mindstorms and other cool stuff==Not Good. I still have those on my Christmas list every year...

Legos for girls by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:39 · Score: 0

Don't worry ladies, they're coming out with Lego oven, shopping mall, pregnant figures, and housekeeper building sets.

*DUCKING*

Time to start hoarding Mindstorm sets! by Urkki · 2004-01-12 04:39 · Score: 2, Insightful

They'll sell for a high price in eBay after a few years if Lego really stops making 'em...

You forget the lego monster by carldot67 · 2004-01-12 04:40 · Score: 1

You know, that creature that mostly eats all the really useful bits like wheels, axles, long beams, windows and lights, or that one last 4x2 you needed when you had to use a different colour or worse still, two 2x2's together.

The creature is, I believe, related to those species that consume Bic biros and socks in order to produce endless wire coathangers.

--
I wish at was Friday, but I dont want to wish my life away. So I wish it was last Friday.

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by pantycrickets · 2004-01-12 04:40 · Score: 4, Funny

You could throw a rock from any one of the drugstores and hit any of the other ones. I am sure there is some reason for this, but I have yet to be told what it is.

Americans are drug addicts?

Re:0 to 7? Zero? by EricTheGreen · 2004-01-12 04:40 · Score: 2, Interesting

'Zero' may be a bit of an exaggeration, but...

You have obviously not seen the large-size block kits they make available for young ages. While still requiring adult supervision (I've learned from experience with my own kids that anything smaller than an elephant represents a potential choking hazard), they seem to be very well-regarded by the very, very young.

Both my boys started banging around with the large blocks pretty much as soon as they were able to start gripping things. And they picked up on the "snap together" approach pretty quickly. Granted, most of the resulting designs represent a, shall we say, 'non-Euclidean geometry' view of the world, but they just love putting them together.

Many of the parents we know say they've seen the same things w/ their kids. So they might be onto something... :)

lucky you! by mattdm · 2004-01-12 04:41 · Score: 1

Well, lucky all of us, really. That seems to be exactly the new strategy. Check out the Make & Create stuff.

boys? by Honor · 2004-01-12 04:41 · Score: 0

Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.

so what about the girls? i have always loved legos, my best girl buddy in elementary school and i would build things for hours on end. i would think that especially now as the boundaries fade between "boy toys" and "girl toys" legos will become even more gender neutral. i personally thought they already were but it appears i was wrong.

This is a Good Thing indeed by nomso · 2004-01-12 04:42 · Score: 2, Interesting

As a young boy I spent quite a bit of time building stuff out of Lego. I am now 25 years old and have long ago realized that the Lego activities of my youth was a large contributor to my current interest and skills in engineering.

Often I have wanted to acuire some Lego to get back into that inspiring creativity again, but have been turned away by the fact that Lego sets didn't contain much Lego anymore. I wished, in fact, that they would go back to the way Lego was in the eighties when the parts were bricks and not for example a wing or a chair or some such single-purpose item.

So I see this as Good News. It will probably spark a revival among people such as me and, I suspect, many others who frequently visit this site.

--
there is no spoon

*sigh* Lego! by Lispy · 2004-01-12 04:42 · Score: 1

It was the ONLY present that could stand before me back in the early eighties. And it was fine. Whenever someone wanted to give little Marcus something for Xmas it was enough to grab a pack of generic Legos. I had a ton of it at home. In a weak moment during my teen years I sold all of it for 100!! One of my greatest mistakes. Heck, my kids would have still been able to use it thanks to Legos legendary downwards compatiblity... ;-/

Buckets!! Empty buckets! by samjam · 2004-01-12 04:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

I bought an giant tub of lego, >2000 bits in it.

It was mostly empty and most of the bits were one or two square size!!

I was very angry!

New lego in the UK costs about 100 GBP per kilo.

Lego on ebay costs 10 GBP per kilo.

For the summer I bought 15 Kilo of lego, enough for 5 children to play with (no, I dont have 5 children.)

I bought it from ebay!

Sam

--
blog.sam.liddicott.com

Re:Buckets!! Empty buckets! by valintin · 2004-01-12 05:26 · Score: 2, Informative

The size of the bucket is so you have someplace to store bricks and projects under construction. This is essential if you have kids. They even sell buckets without lids so they are more stackable.

I bought something used once also, it also cost less than buying it new.

Now you can use the buckets to store the other LEGO you got from Ebay. And when you build some projects you'll find those small pieces are actually great for detail work.
Re:Buckets!! Empty buckets! by broller · 2004-01-12 06:22 · Score: 1

I bought an giant tub of lego, >2000 bits in it

Let me stop you there. None of the buckets (tall column-shaped ones) or tubs (larger box shaped ones) come with 2000 pieces. The largest tubs that have been sold contained 1200 pieces. As for the empty space in the bucket, as another posted, that's for storing your parts that didn't come in the buckets (like parts that come from sets, or in your case, ebay.) I seem to remember that a 1200 piece bulk brick tub had enough space for 3 tubs worth of product.

most of the bits were one or two square size

First, The contents (inventory) of each tub and bucket is printed right on the side of the thing, so you shouldn't have been suprised at what was inside. Second, some of the buckets\tubs have all bricks, and others have bricks, windows, doors, etc in them. If you wanted this second kind and bought the first kind, that's your fault for not checking the inventory. Personally I'd rather have the one you bought than the others, but that's just me.

Lego on ebay costs 10 GBP per kilo.

Because it is used. It could be old, discolored with play doh in the holes, or in many cases, have mold growing inside. (Yuk!) Also, you might get a bunch of tyco, megablox or other off brand toys (which are cheaper than Lego) thrown in with your Lego from ebay because some don't know the difference between the kind of toy and the brand name.

Not that you can't get good deals from ebay, but don't pretend that what you're getting from open sets on ebay is the same as what you can get off the shelf at a toy store. The good stuff on ebay isn't usually sold by the pound (or kilo.)
Re:Buckets!! Empty buckets! by madpierre · 2004-01-12 08:00 · Score: 1

I bought a freestyle bucket (set 1796) a couple of years ago to supplement my Mindstorms set. It cost me about 15 quid for about 600 pieces. Pretty good value I thought considering how long the stuff lasts.

I can still remember going into a local toy store and buying all the Mars exploration and Star Wars sets in one hit. The damn things practically overran my office. Those were the days *sigh*.

Must admit I'm still a bit of a LEGOholic, it must be a denial kinda thing :)

The heck with it, I'm gonna log off the net and build a Star Destroyer. Yowza.

--
siggy played guitar
Re:Buckets!! Empty buckets! by Bombcar · 2004-01-12 08:15 · Score: 1

Did you know that most of those buckets display what they have in them exactly on the back? You should have looked to see what you were getting.

--
Fellowship 9/11
Re:Buckets!! Empty buckets! by gnu-generation-one · 2004-01-12 08:44 · Score: 1

"Lego on ebay costs 10 GBP per kilo."

Is there a petition somewhere for allowing the £ character on slashdot?
Re:Buckets!! Empty buckets! by samjam · 2004-01-12 13:00 · Score: 1

1) You may be right about the quantity. It was the "4107" tub, some sources list it as having 1000 pieces

2) I bought it from Argos (catalog shop) so I didn't see the side of the box till after I handed over my wads, and then I was in a hurry to get home, not thinking the box would be mostly empty.

3) The stuff non ebay was pretty good, although one vendor sold 10% by weight small non-lego toys.

3b) It isn't sold by weight but the unless the vendor is counting out a very few pieces of the same type, the weight is usually given as a guide, and except for specialist bits the going rate last summer in the UK was arounf 10 GBP per kilo.

3c) as you might guess I'm after lego for children to build with, the good stuff for me is mindstorm, which as you say is not sold by the kilo.

3d) The whole point about my post is that what I got from ebay was NOT what I got at the store. Or rather its what I DIDN'T get at the store.

It would have cost me 1500 GBP if I bought it at the store!

A saving of 1350 GPB can make up for quite a bit of play doh in the bricks (there wasn't any), and in a couple of years if the lego had any use, who would be able to tell the difference?

And if it hadn't had much use, all the more reason to buy from ebay and not waste the money.

Lego costs too much, is my point.

--
blog.sam.liddicott.com

Re:Okay: Mindstorm's going away. Which should I bu by Aumaden · 2004-01-12 04:42 · Score: 1

I hope they're not throwing the baby (Mindstorms) out with the bathwater (Potter/Star Wars/Bionicle).

In my mind, the Mindstorms product is in keeping with the original Legos line. Generic pieces that you can use to build anything.

The kits out there today give you exactly what you need to build 2 or 3 models and little more. If you can think of something else to build, you invariablely either don't have the right shapes, or you don't have enough pieces.

If they don't keep Mindstorms, can someone else release a Mindstorms equivalent?

Or, does DMCA prevent the construction of something that will attach to a Lego brick?

Mindstorms: RCX, motors and sensors by kherr · 2004-01-12 04:43 · Score: 4, Informative

Mindstorms is all about three things: RCXes, motors and sensors. The RCX is the "brain" that you program. It has inputs and outputs.

You want to buy as many Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention Systems as you can. Each RIS kit comes with an RCX, two motors and various sensors. The kit also includes plenty of wheels, axles and generic blocks for building just about anything. It's a good bargain. I own two kits and probably need more now that they'll be discontinued.

The accessory kits have been somewhat of a disappointment for me, but it is how you get some different sensors. You can order discrete parts directly from Lego but you end up paying a lot.

Should have trusted imagination... by liquidbrains · 2004-01-12 04:43 · Score: 1

What fun is there in building a car when the brick is already shaped like a car.

Mindstorm expansion sets suffered this problem with tie-ins, too.

It'll be a shame to see the RIS discontinued, though.

Check out the McMaster-Carr Web-site... by cnelzie · 2004-01-12 04:43 · Score: 3, Informative

...you will then be in love.

I don't know about gears at this time, but you can buy just about anything else you might want for a HUGE number of projects without having to pay insane amounts of money to have items machined for you. As long as you stick to 'standard' items, you will be more then fine.

The web-site is www.mcmaster.com

Good hunting!

--
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?

Re:Check out the McMaster-Carr Web-site... by Suidae · 2004-01-12 05:49 · Score: 1

Mmmmm, nice.

I know where my toys budget for this month is going. Too bad they don't have an economy variety pack or something for getting a junk box started.
Re:Check out the McMaster-Carr Web-site... by Eiki · 2004-01-12 18:03 · Score: 1

McMaster is not exactly cheap in this area - although they do have everything. Surplus houses might serve you better if you're interested in putting a junk box together.

It should also be noted that all of those fancy gears and shafts and things don't work like LEGOs do. You need at least some kind of machine shop just to put two bearings on a shaft, in many cases (real ball bearings and hardened shafts don't have the kind of slop that legos have, so you'll have to line up the two bearings very precisely, on the order of thousandths of an inch). But don't be discouraged! You'd be surprised how much you can do with even a little lathe and a drill press.

--
eikimartinson.com
Re:Check out the McMaster-Carr Web-site... by SpaceJunkie · 2004-01-14 02:48 · Score: 1

Does anyone know of a UK equivalent? Thats an interesting site.

--
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol

I mentioned this in the last article by Overly+Critical+Guy · 2004-01-12 04:43 · Score: 0, Redundant

I mentioned Lego's future plans in the last article in this comment and got modded down as "Off-topic." How nice.

--
"Sufferin' succotash."

Re:I mentioned this in the last article by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:32 · Score: 0

That's because it was offtopic in that story. But you're too stupid to figure that out. And to the choad that back-moderated it up: What the hell were you smoking?
Re:I mentioned this in the last article by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:54 · Score: 0

There was evidence to prove that Overly Critical Guy is a lying cocksucker, but he deleted it. Think independently.
Re:I mentioned this in the last article by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 20:16 · Score: 0

It's because we hate you. Now go stick a whale down your pants.

Genius kits by autechre · 2004-01-12 04:44 · Score: 1

We had a thing back in Cub Scouts called "Genius Kits". I'm not sure if they still do it or not. The basic idea was that each scout got a paper grocery bag with the same set of common craft items (some dowels, some spools, some packing peanuts, etc.). The only thing that you could use outside of the set was glue (and possibly a cutting device). And yes, the bag counted as a part :) You got a few weeks to build something, and then the entries were judged. I really enjoyed the kits, and IIRC I won one year with a model of Holt Park.

I enjoyed all the "regular" toys too, like Captain Power (which was a pretty cool idea at the time, especially with the weekly TV show), but creative stuff like this is exactly what kids need. That, and parents who read to them early and often.

--
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.

damn, I better buy a couple sets now by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:45 · Score: 0

that way I can build the robots I've been planning. it's a shame. they should continue to produce lego mindstorm, but just in limited quantities.

Re:Okay: Mindstorm's going away. Which should I bu by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:45 · Score: 0

Make Your Own. The fun alone in that would make it worth it. If you disagree, and would rather buy a ready-made solution, then you are a terrorist.

Nth Post by ackthpt · 2004-01-12 04:45 · Score: 3, Interesting

20 years ago, someone at Lego thought that they should be a huge powerhouse company, with their hands in everything. Why not just be a medium sized company, making a few million dollars of profit every year with your core business?

Back when Lego introduced a lot of the new stuff I couldn't see the point, as it limited the use of specialty items, which was IMHO unattractive. In my youth I made lots of stuff and spent uncounted hours developing my imagination with a few simple pieces. I'm sure my parents loved it, as it kept me busy and quiet while building things. Same applied to Erector sets, Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. Provide the kids with the basics and their minds will do the rest. Provide them with limited toys and they lose interest in a short time and expect something new.

There was also something like brown or red plastic girders and green plastic sheets which could be used to make buildings, houses, etc. which were really cool, but I can't remember the name of. I'd buy them if they were still for sale.

Once again, brick and mortar prove most successful.

--

A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar

Re:Nth Post by Xcruciate · 2004-01-12 05:09 · Score: 1

I'm sure my parents loved it, as it kept me busy and quiet while building things.

It used to drive my parents crazy when I was digging through a box of Legos looking for that elusive 1 x 2 block. Those things, if you had enough of them, made a hell of a lot of noise.

--
It's like "looking busy" at your employment - it's actually easier to do real work than to fake it. - bmo
Re:Nth Post by Afrosheen · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 4, Funny

Not to mention your parents 'finding' the lost Legos in the middle of the night walking through your house. You'd definitely hear about it in the morning.

It's surprising how painful a little brick of plastic can be when it's jamming into your foot at 3am.
Re:Nth Post by 27B-6 · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 3, Informative

There was also something like brown or red plastic girders and green plastic sheets which could be used to make buildings, houses, etc. which were really cool, but I can't remember the name of. I'd buy them if they were still for sale.

That was the girder and panel construction set. I had one of those sometime in the mid or late 70's, I would guess, and I loved it! The link I provided was one of many from a quick Google search. I bet you could find one for sale somewhere.

--
"Trust in haste. Repent at leisure"
Re:Nth Post by Bombcar · 2004-01-12 05:47 · Score: 2, Informative

That noise even has a German word for it! It is Gruschteling which when pronounced sounds like Lego blocks tumbling over each other.

--
Fellowship 9/11
Re:Nth Post by apt142 · 2004-01-12 05:57 · Score: 1

Construx?

--
Star Pirates
Re:Nth Post by plugger · 2004-01-12 06:56 · Score: 1

You'd probably hear about it in the middle of the night, too!
Re:Nth Post by Jmstuckman · 2004-01-12 08:13 · Score: 1

There was also something like brown or red plastic girders and green plastic sheets which could be used to make buildings, houses, etc. which were really cool, but I can't remember the name of. I'd buy them if they were still for sale.

That reminds me of the "American Bricks" building set from the 1960's. There were brick, door, window, roof pieces to make many realistic-looking brick buildings. I would have bought that one if they were still selling it.
Re:Nth Post by SpaceJunkie · 2004-01-14 05:42 · Score: 1

That looks like some kind of precursor to Fischertechnic. Anyone got any links? I know the company are still around, as they sent me a catalogue a while back, and they stock some rather neat pneumatic parts, as well as a couple of robot building kits. It looks like they are really only sold to education and industry though...

I am pretty sure I once had a spaceship construx set.

--
OrionRobots.co.uk - Robots From sol

I don't get the Slashdot fascination with Legos by DesScorp · 2004-01-12 04:48 · Score: 0, Troll

I've never understood it. It's a child's toy, and more than that, a little child's toy. I'm 35, and when I have the urge to build something, oh, I build a computer or something. BECAUSE I'M 35 AND I DON'T PLAY WITH BLOCKS ANYMORE.

Seriously, come on. Get some circuit boards, some metal, and an arc welder. You're ADULTS now.

Playing with your kid is fine for Legos, but I'm talking about adults without kids playing with Legos. Eh, what the hell?

If you want to conceptualize something, get pencil and paper, some modeling clay, or a CAD program.

There are things from our childhoods that we've carried with us into adulthood because they've adapted. Comic books are a good example. They used to be for kids, but now they're written for a wider audience.

But blocks? I mean, model kits are fine. Model rockets, hey great, fun for the whole family. But building blocks?

Come on........

--
Life is hard, and the world is cruel

Re:I don't get the Slashdot fascination with Legos by CrazyTalk · 2004-01-12 05:07 · Score: 1

Read Douglas Coupland's Microserfs. Then maybe you can begin to understand.
Re:I don't get the Slashdot fascination with Legos by teamhasnoi · 2004-01-12 05:24 · Score: 3, Interesting

I think you're missing the point. Who cares what your 'medium of expression' is?
Perhaps someone doesn't need/want to get into the whole 'circuit boards, some metal, and an arc welder' project because they don't have the space, time or knowledge to do so.
I don't understand the difference between pencil and paper and crayons and paper, or why clay is different than making mud pies, or how a CAD program is going to give me something I can hold.
I'm not sure where you got your seemingly arbitrary distinctions of what makes a toy a toy, and what can be used for 'grown-up' work; apparently you are blinding yourself to the ease of use, standard sizes, flexible assembly and unique qualities that Lego has.
Clay, paper and pencils, metal, and CAD software all serve some purpose, but when I want ten little rolling carts to hold screws, and I want it in 10 minutes, I'll go with Lego.
I'll bring you a cup of coffee while you're in the garage setting up the lathe and wirefeed.
Lego are tools that happen to be toys as well.
Don't get caught up in limiting your free expression, use the right tool, or toy, for the task at hand.
Re:I don't get the Slashdot fascination with Legos by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:25 · Score: 0

Legos are more 'real life' than either pencil and paper or modeling clay (which could also be considered a child's toy). You have endless possiblities, but you have to play by a set of rules (i.e. the limitations of block size, how they connect, strength of the joints, etc.) Rather like programming, where you can make a program do anything you want as long as you play by the rules of the language.

And they're a lot more fun than a CAD program.
Re:I don't get the Slashdot fascination with Legos by Registered+Coward+v2 · 2004-01-12 09:05 · Score: 1

I'm not sure where you got your seemingly arbitrary distinctions of what makes a toy a toy, and what can be used for 'grown-up' work; apparently you are blinding yourself to the ease of use, standard sizes, flexible assembly and unique qualities that Lego has.

Actually, Lego has some very grown up uses - such as quickly and easily modeling a building where you want someone to do a forced entry/hostage rescue. Lego quickly makes it easy to create a 3D model...

--
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Re:I don't get the Slashdot fascination with Legos by 0x0d0a · 2004-01-12 14:31 · Score: 1

Seriously, come on. Get some circuit boards, some metal, and an arc welder. You're ADULTS now.

Couldn't resist an ad hominem -- you sound *exactly* like the kids I remember trying to prove themselves superior in middle school by insulting others. Ah, yes, criticizing the shoe choices of others.

I don't happen to have Legos around at the moment, and open source projects tend to eat free time these days. However, they really are neat -- they let you construct all sorts of interesting things very quickly. Sure, you can't make very tough, heavy things. However, you can't make tough, heavy things out of glass either, and glass sculpting is hardly a child's task. Industrial modularization and improvements in interchangeability has been going on for centuries -- "adult" things are mirroring Legos *more*, not less.

Building things with Legos is certainly a better use of your free time than drinking beer in front of CNN or playing a video game.

--
May we never see th

Lego owner and president Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen by sharkey · 2004-01-12 04:48 · Score: 0, Redundant

Yep, good 'ole KKK will get 'em heading in the right direction!

--

--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.

Lego's importance cannot be overstated. by smackdotcom · 2004-01-12 04:51 · Score: 5, Insightful

Lego was by far my favourite toy growing up. Indeed, I played with the stuff so much that I am convinced that it has affected my thinking patterns, and in good ways. My visual-spatial sense is excellent, and my mind is forever trying to break down problems into modular pieces; or, seeing a collection of modular components, trying to figure out intriguing ways to assemble them into a larger system. In short, ladies and gentlemen, I think in Lego.

That said, I hope that the Lego company goes about this the right way. The things I always wanted as a youngster were more hinges and other such articulated pieces in order to build things like spacecraft and vehicles with moving parts; doors and hatches that open, sensors that swivel, and so forth. Lego's strengths were always in the design of clever models that most of us would build at least once. You could learn some neat tricks by understanding how the model designers accomplished a particular effect using a small number of bricks. I agree with posters to a previous Lego story who criticized the overabundance of specialized pieces (anathema to the creative Lego builder) and the rather exorbitant prices of Lego kits.

Perhaps Lego has decided that its future is no longer in robotics, but computers can play a role in its revival. Embrace the Internet! As so many slashdotters will attest, there are large numbers of people for whom Lego remains a unique creative outlet. Work to bring them together through the Net, and offer to sell them what they want through that same channel. More standardized, well-thought-out basic bricks, offered with the promise of volume discounts through Internet purchases. Parents who still enjoy Lego and can get access to their favourite toy in bulk and share their love of creating with a community of fellow builders will have kids who will get an early taste of the joys of building with little plastic blocks, and will thus pass on the hobby to the next generation.

--

In a world without walls, there is no need for Windows.

Re:Lego's importance cannot be overstated. by Kredal · 2004-01-12 04:56 · Score: 2, Interesting

I have to agree with the sentiment that you could learn tricks by seeing how the original designers did things. I got a space set a long time ago that would "walk" by using a series of swiveling 2x2s.

For the next several months, I was building tons of mechs that walked in the same manner. It was fairly cool. (:

--
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Re:Lego's importance cannot be overstated. by oaklybonn · 2004-01-12 05:38 · Score: 1

Homer: This is what all those hours of playing Tetris were for...
(Homer imagines Tetris and puts in all the garage sale items a la it, but screws up, leaving no room for him)
Homer: Done and done.
Marge: But there's no room for you!
Homer: D'oh!
Re:Lego's importance cannot be overstated. by wayward_son · 2004-01-12 07:44 · Score: 1

The toy that defined my childhood.

I had couple of medieval castles, a small space fleet, a city under the bed, and probably a few hundred bricks and plates on the floor of my room.

Legos teach math and creativity. (3 plates = 1 brick. If you don't have a 4x2 brick, several other combinations will work.) Build whatever you want. Hours of fun.

Legos may be expensive, but given how many hours of enjoyment they give for the amount of money you spend they are a much better deal than some dumb action figure or another video game system.

Basic sets by Fizzlewhiff · 2004-01-12 04:52 · Score: 1

In the 70's I didn't need licensed products to build star wars ships, star trek props, etc. I just built them using what I had. I'm a little sad to see the mindstorms gone. While I never owned that particular set I think I would have enjoyed it as a kid. Anyway, there is no need to pay the movie companies for the licensing. Imaginative minds don't need that. Harry Potter sets, come on.

--

'Same speed C but faster'

Yes, very good by ragnar · 2004-01-12 04:53 · Score: 1

I have fond memories of building all manner of things with my lego sets. For reasons I don't know, I didn't have transformers (model planes & cars that transform into action figures), so I used my legos to build my own. Before you think this sounds lame, I actually liked it. I made space ships, fortresses and all sorts of cool things. Ah... the sweet memory of childhood.

--
-- Solaris Central - http://w

Re:Yes, very good by Doesn't_Comment_Code · 2004-01-12 05:33 · Score: 1

I have fond memories of building all manner of things with my lego sets.

Me too. I loved having a little stash of hinges and swivels because... what can't you make with legos if you have a few hinges and swivels? You can make darn near anything! And the sound of raking through the box looking for that one specific piece still echos in my mind... I would dig from one end of the box while my sister dug from the other, so that we were effectively filling each other's digging spots.

"Emily, I need a blue 1 by 6."

"Get your own piece, and stop pushing legos on my side, I'm trying to find a piece and you keep covering them up!"

"Shut up. Ooh! Are you using that hinge?"

These memories can never be taken from me.

--

Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
Re:Yes, very good by John+Courtland · 2004-01-12 05:41 · Score: 1

Wow, you just wrote a 4 line dialouge that pretty much sums up the free time of my entire childhood from 6 to 12 or so. The sound of clanking legos, and building lego sets with the sister. The best part of it was that she hated playing "house", so in essence she was more of a brother, building spaceships and cars and other various vehicles.

--
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
Re:Yes, very good by Bertie · 2004-01-12 05:53 · Score: 1

It's a distinctive sound all right. I remember waking up once in the middle of the night because of that sound. I had a big Lego box under my bed (didn't we all?), and there was a right racket coming from inside. Turned out there was a mouse rummaging around in the box. Maybe he was looking for one of those elusive window pieces for his house or something...
Re:Yes, very good by Doesn't_Comment_Code · 2004-01-12 06:01 · Score: 1

Maybe he was looking for one of those elusive window pieces for his house or something...

Heh heh heh, either that, or he had two of the flat/thin pieces stuck together and he was making a racket trying to get them pried apart.

--

Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.

Builder's Guides available? by chiph · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 1

I'm not a Lego nut, but I appreciate the folks who are able to build cathedrals, etc. out of them.

One question - are there "Builder's Guides" available to lead you through building the wilder objects? I figure there's a lot of people out there (like me) who have good mechanical skills, but don't have an artistic bone in their body, and would like to try and build some of this cool stuff.

Chip H.

Re:Builder's Guides available? by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 07:02 · Score: 2, Interesting

The kits come with illustrated booklets showing you how to make the parts that lead to cool things.
As an aside, I know of at least one architect who actually models structure out in Lego like it was a 3d sketch pad. Pretty much if it holds together with Lego, you can easily build it out of anything.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming

What about girls? by Phronesis · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.

I am constantly frustrated when I try to buy Legos for my daughter. She loves building with Legos, but is not really interested in the kind of macho directions Lego has been going (fighting themes). Clikits does not fit the bill, and it's almost impossible to find a store that carries Belville sets.

Maybe if Lego would try harder and with more imagination to reach the other 50% of the zero-to-seven set, they's make more money.

Re:What about girls? by gobbo · 2004-01-12 05:38 · Score: 1

Actually, it's more like "what about non-combatants?"

Last time I looked, apart from noting that there were only specialized kits, I was disgusted to see that all the kits were either military designs or heavy industry.

There's nothing really gendered about those themes in our family, since there's an aunt who's a heavy equipment operator, another who's a firefighter, and plenty of females including friends tough enough to defend themselves.

It's just that the values implied by those themes are counter to our estimation of what's worth learning to build first. Great, get the kids ready for the military-industrial complex! (NOT)

--
Damn those pesky terrorists
Re:What about girls? by Unnngh! · 2004-01-12 06:16 · Score: 1

Some great lego kits for girls you may not know about:

-The lego bakery. Must supply own natural gas and ignition. Warning, set will melt upon first use.
-The lego dressing room, where yes, all the blocks make you look fat.
-The lego barbie set. Actually this one is for boys--instead of just undressing barbie and ken you can stick them together in new and creative ways
Re:What about girls? by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 06:46 · Score: 1

Like masonary and plumbing?
Oooo. That would be a cool toy. A model of household plumbing. Little metal tubes, pipe angles, lead solder, little wads of paper to try to flush through the system...
Maybe a natural gas system would be more fun to play with. "Remember kids, don't be a Darwin. Only fools look for gas leaks with matches."
A little easy-bake scintering furnace would be cool too. Make your own cinder blocks and bricks.
Ok, been on helpdesk too long today, I'm really getting loopy.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Re:What about girls? by 0x0d0a · 2004-01-12 14:24 · Score: 1

When I was a boy, I didn't have any interest in the "heavy machinery" Lego sets. I did fight quite a few mock battles with the medieval and space types, though.

I do remember a lot of non-combatant mundane kits, though. I had a search-and-rescue kit...

--
May we never see th
Re:What about girls? by Empty_One · 2004-01-14 10:40 · Score: 1

Like masonary and plumbing?
Is this close enough?

Statics vs. Dynamics by cabazorro · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 0

Legos won't move. They have to make Lego's that move so instead of assembling stationary objects kids start assembling machines.

--
- these are not the droids you are looking for -

Great building toys by wolrahnaes · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 1

Of course Legos are great, but there are some other good ones.

K'NEX - Can build some really cool stuff with these. The big yellow gears driven by the small blue ones make for insane torque

Capsela - Somehow I got these to run underwater. The floats fell off alot, so my but 8x8 "trucks" that I built with these sank in my pool. I've got a lot of rusted up batteries from those experiments.

Construx - Simple and sweet. Recently seeming to come back with new kits.

Erector - The obvious grandaddy of them all. I'll bet money that most gearheads had a set of these, turning wrenches before even starting school. I even used some of these to rig a fan next to my video card and hold in a second HD.

All children need to experience these great toys. I started when I was around 3 and I'm still playing with them now (I'm 17). They really get your mind going.

--
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.

Side effects of IP by OlivierB · 2004-01-12 04:54 · Score: 2, Interesting

Funny how lego has been so succesfull up until when their brick patent expired. Immediately then a Canadian (huh, it's not chinese?) competitor Megablock http://www.megabloks.com/ came in with compatible and cheaper bricks. Lego tried ruling them out in courts, but the EEC enforced the patents expiration. Megablok is eating Lego's marketshare like hotcakes here in France. Mega bloks strategy is quite simple: 1) comptabile lego bricks 2) cheaper than lego bricks 3) big buckets of random pieces to start a collection 4) if lego comes out with a Harry Potter collection, they bring out a Generic Magician range (no cross branding). Hugely succesfull as I stated. I believe Lego has lacked innovation due to such a long period of growth and protection under a patent. Don't be fooled by the companie's leader position (remember what happenned to Anderson). If this company doesn't have an electrochoc and start innovating again, it could be gone 10 years from now.

--
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity

Bulk Blocks by christowang · 2004-01-12 04:56 · Score: 1

Like M&M's I should be able to custom order sets of blocks to build what I want. They shouldn't offer every type in this manner, but if I could go to the web site and setup an order of color and block size and get charged that would be amazing. Even if there was a minimum cost, or you had to buy packs, 20 1x2 for $1, that would be truly a great thing.

Fast Company article by Flabby+Boohoo · 2004-01-12 04:56 · Score: 1

There was a Fast Company article a couple years ago, similar vein, however Lego felt they had to get away from the simple building block concept and go with the themed sets (because the kids today want don't want to use their imagination). Seems that they are reversing themselves...

Personally, I think their worst enemy is price. I bought my son a tractor kit, with full pneumatics, that cost me over $100. That is a lot of money for ~800 pieces of Lego blocks. I know that there was a fair amount of engineering that went into a product like that, but non-the-less it is a large investment.

Well, I wish them the best of luck and hope they can stay afloat, it would be a shame to see them go under.

A compromise by NoData · 2004-01-12 04:56 · Score: 1

I agree with you, but I hope some of the specialized stuff sticks around as well. My best Lego memories are of being 8 or 9 and playing with sets that were vaguely themed (transportation, space, etc.), or better yet, the motorized sets (I learned all about gear ratios, torque, and angular/linear velocity playing with motorized lego!). They were similar to the Designer and Technic lines Lego now offers (but pretty much only available online :( ). I was far too old (or more accurately, adultly occupied) when the Mindstorms line came out, but they look incredibly cool and it would be a shame for older kids to miss out on that kinda geeky creativity. If they think their target market is between birth and 7 years old, they might swing their pendulum too far the other way.

what about the old Technics sets by sunhou · 2004-01-12 04:57 · Score: 1

When I was a kid, one of the highlights of my experiences with Lego was when I got the Technics set which let you build a car with working steering, and the engine cylinders moved when you rolled the car. It also had instructions for building a motorcycle, I believe. It was a pretty big set. I built tons of stuff from that, along with the combined pieces from my zillions of other small "normal" sets that I had.

Wow, I would really love to have one of those car Technic sets again. Anyone else remember that one?

Re:what about the old Technics sets by jsahol · 2004-01-12 05:36 · Score: 2

Yup, I just got/built the offroader a couple of years ago...and it is awesome. My Legos wish list: 1. Better integration between Technics and the traditional bricks. 2. Technics bulk sets, not a particular model, just bunches of parts. Like the bricks used to be.
Re:what about the old Technics sets by sunhou · 2004-01-12 06:10 · Score: 1

I did some googling, and haven't actually been able to find any pictures of the car set I'm thinking of. It wasn't the car with the engine in back. The engine was in front, 4-cylinder. It had rack and pinion steering. Anyone know which one I mean, or know of any pics of it?
Re:what about the old Technics sets by Bombcar · 2004-01-12 10:07 · Score: 1

Perhaps the Super Street Sensation? With shifting transmission?

Or try browsing LugNet

--
Fellowship 9/11
Re:what about the old Technics sets by sunhou · 2004-01-12 14:23 · Score: 1

Thanks for the LugNet link. I found it there, it was 956 Auto Chassis. It came out in 1977, so I was 9 at the time. Boy am I ticked that I gave up my lego stuff as I got older. I think my parents talked me into selling them off at a tag sale.

YEEAH!!!! by emplynx · 2004-01-12 04:58 · Score: 1

I'm really happy about this. I'm 17 and have been playing lego since I was little. I've been dissappointed how lego has been moving away from imagination towards liscensed products. I just love old build bricks!

(Though I also love my mindstorms)

--
-Tim

Won't work, Lego by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 04:58 · Score: 2, Informative

We just dealt with Lego and its increasing obsolescence over the holidays. My son received a Lego studio set which, to my surprise, shipped with software that would not run under Windows 2000 and XP. Only Win95/98. (Wonder if Lego is aware that January 16 2004 is just around the corner). Could they really be that backwards? I absolutely could not believe that a brand new package from ToysRUs shipped with OS support that would die in two weeks.

A visit to Lego's website was even more discouraging:

- no online downloads of XP/2K compatible versions (hey, if you oops in shipping and have a million boxes of this stuff out there that won't work, and won't recall the boxes, then put the working software online for downloads). You have to fill out a form to request they MAIL it. (Two weeks for a confirmation of our request, 4-12 weeks delivery date specified in the response).

- no opt-out fields on the submission forms: you have to provide all the nice marketing details (email, address, age, etc.) to request help, but Lego's form doesn't let you click "don't add my info to your marketing database."

I did issue a complaint about the opt-out matter and received a form reply with a link to where their privacy page was on the website (wasn't linked on any of the pages we were at). Didn't address the opt-out issue though. Guess who's getting Lego sales announcements now? Ugh.

In otherwords, Lego was a fossil of a company, doing business in the 1950s. What is really troubling, however, is that I doubt Lego can shift from its higher margin, high overhead approach to one where they just sell plastic blocks (and compete with Chinese knockoff brands for 10% margins). This news really predicts the end of Lego.

Zero to Seven by Ray+Radlein · 2004-01-12 04:58 · Score: 2, Funny

What do you mean, "What about the Slashdot crowd?" -- they're zero-indexing their age range, aren't they? Isn't that enough?

It works for Etch-A-Sketch by mariox19 · 2004-01-12 05:00 · Score: 2, Interesting

I remember seeing on TV a while ago a story about Etch-A-Sketch. Talk about the "tried and true." Apparently, the company has stuck with this sole product forever and makes a boat load of money with it.

That's not to say, though, that I wouldn't buy a Python programmable version of the toy ;-)

--

quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.

Re:It works for Etch-A-Sketch by b1t+r0t · 2004-01-12 09:37 · Score: 1

Apparently, the company has stuck with this sole product forever
Not entirely true. They came out with the Etch-a-Sketch 2000, which had an LCD screen with like 30x40 2mm pixels and a cartridge slot.

--

--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft

What about girls? by EnglishTim · 2004-01-12 05:01 · Score: 1

It's interesting that he's only talking about boys playing with Lego here. My stepdaughters all play with my Lego, although I've been thinking I need to get them some non-technical stuff for them to play with, as it helps you with the basics of solid construction before you move on to the more complex stuff...

Amen! by abb3w · 2004-01-12 05:02 · Score: 1

The problem wasn't precisely the "themed" sets, it was the "one-use only" pieces. Some of the *old* Space-themed sets were seriously cool-- my favorite being the #487 Space Cruiser that I got for Xmas in 1979. Almost all of its parts can easily be used to build other things, and most are not unique to this set. This has the two advantages of (a) encouraging the child's imagination and (b) requiring fewer injection molds-- and thus being cheaper to make! With the new stuff, it seems like half the mass is custom, one-use-only parts.

--
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.

Re:Okay: Mindstorm's going away. Which should I bu by AJC123 · 2004-01-12 05:02 · Score: 1

There's a Lego Store in the big mall near us. The Mindstorms stuff is in the back corner, across from their "girly" toys. There aren't a lot of sets and they don't merchandise it with samples you can try out. My son, nearly six years, just spent his Hannukkah gelt on a Lego Train set. I was hoping to combine the Trains with the Mindstorms as he grows. We will see what happens with that. Also, if you Google Lego in the news, it's all about Robots.

Re:0 to 7? Zero? by irix · 2004-01-12 05:05 · Score: 1

My 20 month old loves to play with the Duplo type bricks. They are large and don't represent a choking hazard at all. We have been playing with them for about a year - at first he only liked breaking the stuff I built, but now he likes building things with me too.

Some time after he turns 3 I plan on breaking out my huge stash of Lego I had when I was little and introducing him to those :)

--

Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.

A child could have thought that out by aliquis · 2004-01-12 05:05 · Score: 1

Hey, even I could have done it!

What am I thinking to buy to a kid if I had one? Simple bricks of course. Kids don't care about the perfect look, they want to invent and create. How many kinds of cars or houses can you build with Space 2560 super duper lego kit? Yes, and now the next question, how many can you build with a few simple kind of bricks?

What you want is 500 pieces of 2x4 bricks and 200 or so of 2x2 bricks.. not a star wars X-fighter kit, how fun is that?

WHAT?! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:06 · Score: 0

I hope they're kidding! I wanted go buy the RIS 2.0, dang it all!

Outsource block creation / license use by CiXeL · 2004-01-12 05:06 · Score: 1

Outsource the creation of plastic bricks to india or china and license the IP to other countries.

Then allow other people to create companies and license the use of the blocks to create stuff like Bioncle and mindstorms.

That way lego would stay around forever as a simple producer of blocks but the design and development would be produced by other companies much like the modding community (ie. counterstrike borne of halflife)

--
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel

What about FIRST jr Robotics? by authenticgeek · 2004-01-12 05:07 · Score: 1

The FIRST lego league[1] relies upon lego mindstorms for their materials. I'm sure someone's eager to snatch that position up (or they'll revert to using the edubot[2] from the highschool competition) but will it ever be the same?

Links:
[1]http://www.usfirst.org/jrobtcs/flego.htm
[2]http://www.innovationfirst.com/FIRSTRobotics/ed u-rc.htm

Re:What about FIRST jr Robotics? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 09:29 · Score: 0

I'm also involved with FIRST and if Mindstorms are discontinued, it would really hurt the league. I know from the grapevine that Radio Shack is working on a robitics kit for middle school aged kids (the Legos are sometimes considered too childish by 7-8th grade kids) and might start a separate league for them...but I hope this doesn't cut out the younger kids!

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by Wavicle · 2004-01-12 05:07 · Score: 0, Offtopic

They are performing a public service for the hopelessly addicted. If a junkie comes in and robs Walgreens of their Oxycontin, another junkie can't rob the same one to get his fix. However with two more stores in close proximity, as long as no more than three desperate users need a hit on any one night, they should be okay. You have to think of these things in terms of doing the greatest good.

--
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)

I'm glad by jdavidb · 2004-01-12 05:08 · Score: 2, Insightful

I watched my little nephew put together one of these "Bionicles" this weekend, and I was saddened at the way Lego had gone from being a building toy where you created something out of your imagination to being just an action figure with a gimmick: you get to assemble it yourself. I was actually surprised when I realized the toy he was building was "Lego."

Now, I haven't seen the mindstorms; those probably fit more with the concept of encouraging creativity than the toy I saw Saturday. But I'm glad to hear they're going to start producing toy sets again and promoting them over Harry Potter and Star Wars action figures relabelled as Legos.

--
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.

Lego aint representin' by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:09 · Score: 0

Lego aint representin'! They aint keepin' it real! Crazy mo' fo's!!

Legos are Expen$ive... by Chibi · 2004-01-12 05:10 · Score: 2, Informative

As a child of the 80's, I'm generally ready to throw my hard-earned money at any company that is willing to help me relive my materialistic childhood. A couple of years ago, I wanted to pick up some Legos to relive some of my youth. I was shocked to see how expensive they were...

Looking online at this moment, I can see there are tubs of random pieces for sale for as little as $6.99. Did I just happen to stumble upon some of the commercially tied-in Legos a few years back or something? Or are these tubs the cast-offs that are supposed appeal to people who don't want to spend as much?

--
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by Afrosheen · 2004-01-12 05:10 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I'd consider that insightful if drugs is all Walgreens sold. Walgreens is the new Eckerd's. You can get everything from foot powder to lipstick, soda to shaving cream, paper to halloween costumes (depending on the season) from Walgreens. Americans value convenience, and having one in or near your neighborhood is very convenient.

From where I sit, it's not half as bad as Starbucks. Within a mile of where I live in Dallas, I can go to 3 different Starbucks locations. 2 are stripmall storefronts, 1 is inside a grocery store. If you want to expand the radius to 2 miles, there are at least 4 more.

Now if you say that there are too many Starbucks, reason being Americans are addicted to coffee, you might be onto something.

Re:Zero to seven? (OT) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:14 · Score: 0

Our pediatrician gave us a cheap 'cheat' to check for choking hazards - the cardboard from a roll of toilet paper. If something will fit through there, it's a choking hazard.

How about this for a reason by SmallFurryCreature · 2004-01-12 05:16 · Score: 3, Insightful

The economy is hurting and Lego is damned expensive. Don't give me crap about value for money or the long live of lego bricks. It is pieces of plastic for crying out load.

Sure lego is a great toy. I loved it when I was young and even like the idea of mindstorm. But even as an adult with a very reasonable income I find lego just a bit to much. What the lego company never seemed to have grasped is economy of scale. Make it as cheap as possible so that as many people will buy it as possible. Instead they charge a premium. This is a fine business tactic until the economy goes down.

Compare premium airlines with the budget ones when the bubble burst. Compare big american cars with japanese car when the fuel crisis hit.

Oh well good luck to them. Maybe if they go bust I can pick up some mindstorm in the bargain basement.

--

MMO Quests are like orgasms:

You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

Names and collaboration by wodelltech · 2004-01-12 05:17 · Score: 2, Interesting

I've found that the more complex Legos have gotten, the harder it is to work/play together with friends family. Years ago, you could ask for a 'flat 4-by-2' and every one would know what you meant. Most of my newer Legos - while organized in baggies or tackle-boxes - are as of yet unnamed.

--
Your monitor is staring at you.

Construx by jdavidb · 2004-01-12 05:17 · Score: 1

Anyone remember these? I have about eight sets in my closet waiting for me to have children to play with them. (Threw out the capsela recently when I found it.)

Nothing fired our imaginations like construx. We used the alien set with glow in the dark pieces to build proton packs which we would use to "bust ghosts" (also made out of glow in the dark pieces) in our darkened hallway. Ah, the 80's! :) Even had a ghost trap operated with a pedal, although it fell apart a lot.

--
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.

Re:Construx by random735 · 2004-01-12 05:31 · Score: 1

definitely. my building sets:
1) construx
2) legos
3) tinkertoys (including a motor!)
4) fas-tech (some sort of plastic pop-riveting building system)
5) erector set
6) some sort of geometric kit i can't remember the name of..had mostly triangular and square pieces you snapped together, but the joints were flexible
7) capsela

do i win a prize? (most spoiled child perhaps?)
Re:Construx by TrekCycling · 2004-01-12 05:42 · Score: 1

I wholeheartedly agree. Construx were awesome. Of all the toys that have ever been I keep wishing that these would make a comeback. Why couldn't we have Construx Mindstorms? That would rock. You could do something with that.
Re:Construx by filth+grinder · 2004-01-12 06:31 · Score: 2, Insightful

Contrux were amazing!

I made a robocop powersuit out of them. I even made a gun and a power knife.

You could also make some fantastic ninja throwing stars out of them.
Re:Construx by Bob+of+Dole · 2004-01-12 07:14 · Score: 1

Yar. I just ebay'd a set of 1000+ construx for christmas.
They are great!
The proportions are so beautiful,mathematically.
It's amazing because you can make so much with so few pieces, because the lengths and everything works out so nice.

Right now I'm looking for some more sets on ebay, cause I'm missing a few pieces. (I'm creating a modeling program akin to LDraw (for lego) for construx, and I need the pieces if I'm going to model them accurately.

--
I respond to your sigs

It's about time by khendron · 2004-01-12 05:17 · Score: 1

I can't believe it has taken Lego this long to figure out that their appeal was in the generic "little plastic building block" and not focussed movie-tie-in sets that left nothing to the imagination. For years they've had people screaming at them saying "What the f*** are you doing to the perfect toy". Literally, I have not ever come across one of those new fangled no-imagination Lego sets without also coming across an adult being nostalgic about the good ol' generic little plastic building block days.

--
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.

Re:It's About Time by kobotronic · 2004-01-12 10:49 · Score: 1

I -loved- expert builder stuff. I had both the kits you mention, took me days to put together both. In the following years the parts from those projects became cranes, at-at walkers, crawlers and whatnots. Great times. I knew a bunch about structural, mechanical engineering before 2nd grade. I knew how gears worked, how rotational power could be transferred through pivoting joints. BRing back THIS stuff! Too bad the mindstorms concept failed, I think it was just plain too expensive and the bundling was dumb - only big kits, no cheap upgrade path. For a cubicle toy, nothing would have beaten a basic controller with a few motors, and a big bucket of assorted lego tech parts. If you could just buy more motors and buckets as you needed, it would have been more attractive.

Gender-neutral play by jmb-d · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 5, Interesting

I've got 2 test subjects, er, 21-month-old boy/girl twins at home, and we allow them to play with whatever toys they want to.

Generally, they both play with (and share) the Duplo blocks (Legos are still a choking hazard), the Matchbox cars, the Mr. (and Mrs.) Potato Head, the Brio trains, my bass amp, and so on. There are also baby dolls (boy/girl twins, like them), various stuffed critters, and the Little Tykes kitchen our friends gave them. And books -- tons of 'em. Boynton, Little Golden Books, DK, Shel Silverstein poetry, Dr. Seuss, Pooh (AA Milne, not the Disney-fied crap), etc. They sometimes insist on taking a book to bed with them at nap time...

Does my son play with the trains more than the kitchen? Seems like it to me.

Does my daughter play more with the baby dolls? Again, seems like it to me.

Do we "direct" them in their play, shooing them away from any particular toy or "suggesting" to them to play with something else instead?

Absolutely not.

--
In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
-- Yun-Men

Re:Gender-neutral play by monique · 2004-01-12 06:50 · Score: 1

Well, in the end, generalities are less important than specifics.

I hated dolls as a kid. Believe me, I was given plenty of dolls, but they weren't interesting. I did play with Barbies. Thinking about it now, I suspect the difference is that baby dolls are a caretaker thing, whereas Barbies are more of an "acting out scenarios" kind of thing.

--
-monique
Re:Gender-neutral play by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:10 · Score: 0

Boy, 2 test subjects! NOw, let's extrapolate to an entire population!
Re:Gender-neutral play by asugarhigh · 2004-01-12 07:15 · Score: 2, Insightful

The reason your sons migrates to "boy" toys and your daughter migrates to "girl" toys is most likely because of the advertising of the toys, how they're perceived in society, and the role they play in social interaction.

If you look at the marketing, little boys are featured in advertising for "mascuine" toys--building things with blocks and shooting things with guns. Parents are often guided by this and buy the "appropriate" toy for the appropriate sex. When little kids play with their friends of the same sex, these ideas are reinforced by children wanting to fit in and conform to gender roles. Regardless of whether or not you suggest these toys to your children, there are other outside forces that suggest them for you.

When I was younger, I wasn't allowed barbie dolls and all my friends were boys. I played with blocks (legos included, and are still included though I don't fit the 0 to 7 demographic) and trains and the like. Later, when I entered preschool, my girl friends played with barbies which led me to want them. If it wasn't for my friends playing barbie dolls the likelihood is I would have been contented with the toys that I had played with all along.

The point being, kids will play with what they're given and what their friends have; their genes don't naturally draw them to what gender role defines as gender appropriate toys for boys and girls.
Re:Gender-neutral play by Just+Some+Guy · 2004-01-12 07:51 · Score: 2, Interesting

The reason your sons migrates to "boy" toys and your daughter migrates to "girl" toys is most likely because of the advertising of the toys, how they're perceived in society, and the role they play in social interaction.
I don't accept that. Our kids almost never watch regular TV. When they watch anything other than the movies we bought for them, it's commercial free "Playhouse Disney" (assuming that you don't count a "mini movie" promoting Disney World as a commercial :-) ). Still, our experience is just like the other poster's; our daughter loves baby dolls and My Little Ponies, and our son loves trucks, plastic power tools, and anything with projectiles.
We never encourage our kids to play with one or the other (although I admit that I'd rather my son not play with baby dolls), but that's what they choose without any obvious external influences.

--
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Re:Gender-neutral play by jmichaelg · 2004-01-12 08:19 · Score: 1

Wait until you have kids of your own and you try imposing your philosophy on them. It's an eye opener.
Re:Gender-neutral play by figa · 2004-01-12 08:48 · Score: 2, Interesting

I've had the same experience. My daughter has grown up so far entirely without TV. She's watched it twice a year at her grandparents', and then only PBS. She didn't spend any time in preschool until she was 4, and she didn't really own any dresses util she was about 3. Until last year, her closest friends were boys. She's now nearly 6, and she's as girly as humanly possible.
Some of that is from her peers who are watching TV, but there really does seem to be a big divide in the way kids play. At home, where there is no pressure to conform to other kids, my daughter perfers nuture/manipulate activities to build/destruct-type play. She has all types of toys, except for weapons, and she has always preferred tea parties to smashing cars into each other. If anything, I've pushed her toward building since I'm incapable of doing the whole doll thing.
I'm actually a little sad to see the boys taking the backseat for what will probably be another six years. A lot of my good friends are parents of boys she knows from her preschool days, and they're starting to drift away.

A free streategic advice by danila · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 1

From the article:
He said the company would now go back to its roots, focusing on building blocks and abandoning its forays into multimedia and film products.

To me that is potentially a big mistake. It is pretty obvious that the bricks product line can't be maintained forever. And a good guess is that kids are going to switch to digital entertainment. Thus the solution would be to revitalise the building blocks arm of Lego to continue milking the market for cash, but also continue the efforts to find new digital markets. I don't pretend to know the kids better than Lego market researchers, but I am quite sure that in 2010 5 y.o. kids will not enjoy play traditional Lego very much. Yes, creativity is important and yes, 3 y.o. kids are probably not smart enough to play advanced Lego replacements, but
a) this might change in a few years, just like kids became more comfortable with computers in the past.
b) 5-7 y.o. can be creative enough to use more advanced toys. May be something like advanced version of Second Life MMOG is the answer? :) Unlimited creativity, simple (in the future) interfaces, a lot of fun.

Come on, people, you can pretend as much as you want that "creativity" allows you to see 2 triangles as a Star Destroyer, but how many of you would settle for these for your kids? Times change, get over it. We humans tend to use more and more complex technology because we learn to do it. And if your kids stick to low-tech building blocks, how will that help them become transhumans when they grow up?

--
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by los+furtive · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 3, Funny

I am sure there is some reason for this, but I have yet to be told what it is.

Ever notice how often you'll find a gas station right across the street from another gas station? Even if they both have the same price? It's because there's enough traffic to justify their existence. You are describing the same trend when it comes to America's increasingly aged population.

The older you get the more pills you pop, and those pills keep costing more and more (and generating more and more profit no doubt), and when you're 75 with a cane, a stone's throw is from your bladder to the bowl, making an intersection, let alone a city block seem like a great distance.

--

I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.

Grown up kids by bitflip · 2004-01-12 05:18 · Score: 1

I used to play with Legos.

I've moved on, though. Rather than assemble fragile but easy prototypes, I'm just a bit more sophisticated. I carve chunks of wood, plastic, and metal for some things. I go to Home Depot and buy chunks of lumber, cut them down, then hammer 'em together. I'll go buy car parts, and put them on my car. I buy small electrical components and make a big electrical component.

The pieces aren't as colorful, or as easy, but it's just as much fun.

Re:Back to the basics? Good... by TK2216UKG · 2004-01-12 05:23 · Score: 1

While it's great that so many of you are delighted with Lego's shift in focus it seems to me that there will be many a person at Lego in fear of their jobs right now. My guess is that there must be someone at Lego who designs a means of constructing a model AT-AT or what have you out of the bricks, decides what specialised parts are required for the project and what have you. Surely a lot of those guys will be made redundant?

--

- Jonathan :)

No tuna is safe.

Why kill Mindstorms? This is crazy! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:26 · Score: 0

I know they are fairly expensive, and I wanted one for Christmas 2002, which I didn't get, because they were sold out everywhere and my parents don't know how to buy things online. I ended up buying one myself on an ebay auction and spent around $250 for a set.

Old School Legos are better. by DroopyStonx · 2004-01-12 05:26 · Score: 1

Not to sound like a troll or anything, but today's Lego sets suck.

For example, roofs are now a big ol' roof piece instead of the old method of stepping the "shingle" pieces. What fun is that?! Now when kids make houses or anything needing a roof, they'll look for a roof piece instead of building their own :P

--
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!

Meccano by uberdave · 2004-01-12 05:27 · Score: 2, Interesting

Here's hoping that Meccano follows suit.

--
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad

More room for imagination by eetu · 2004-01-12 05:29 · Score: 1

I think that this is great news. To me, Legos were always all about imagination, building all sorts of things from basic blocks. When we were kids, me and my friends built Transformers from Legos. If there would've been licensed Transformers Legos, we probably wouldn't have had nearly as much fun designing and building our own models.

I didn't really pay any attention to Legos for years until my own kid was born. I was surprised to see how Legos had changed. The originals were always unisex; now there were pink pony and barbie Legos for girls and aggressive looking monster Legos for boys. The whole idea of having similar, compatible blocks from which anything could be built was also watered down by having too few of those basic blocks left and too many totally unique pieces which wouldn't fit in anywhere else. I hated it!

It's great to see that they didn't do too well following trends and that they realized what people want before it was too late. I'm not going to buy many new Legos for my kids though, my old (and huge) collection is still in my mother's basement, waiting for them to grow up a bit.

--
"If I can't have a revolution, what is there to dance about?" - Albert Meltzer

Capsela. by The+Cydonian · 2004-01-12 05:31 · Score: 1

Man, that brings back memories. :-)

Yup, there was this origami boat competition in my neighbourhood when I was in fifth or sixth grade; guess which creation caused the most commotion out there. ;-)

(They didn't allow me to participate in the end, sadly; they were looking for paper boats. Kinda blew their minds that someone could use plastic spheres, a fan and a motor to actually make a floating contraption)

--
More than mere navel gazing.

It's About Time by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:31 · Score: 0

It's about damn time! I've been a lifelong Lego enthusiast and spent countless hours with these toys while growing up (although this will date me, I had every space set in the 1984 catalog!-- An admittedly dorky achievement, but one I continue to remember with great happiness).

The Lego sets being offered over the last 10-15 years have bothered me in the sense that they had too many specialized, pre molded parts. All the building was already done for you and I found no real creativity being put into their products anymore.

Contrast that to the "Expert Builder Series" that I remember growing up with. These contained mostly standard Lego parts, but you used those standard parts to build actual working objects-- Like a Go-Cart with a piston engine... or a bulldozer with working shovel arm and such. These were fascinating because you could turn a pile of ordinary looking blocks into something that did really cool things. The creativity and utility of Legos in those days was superb, in my opinion.

I hope Lego is able to return to sets that better match the magic they exuded in earlier years.

And on an aside, the space sets were easily my favorite-- The Galaxy Commander, I believe, continues to be the greatest Lego set ever built. It was the flagship of my fleet and I still count that as one of the greatest gifts I've ever received. I loved my time with Lego...

MOD THIS DOWN! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:32 · Score: 0

Parent obviously knows what he is talking about

Gas stations make more sense to me by John+Harrison · 2004-01-12 05:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

For the gas station example I can see how at many intersections it is much easy to go to the gas station that is on the side of the street that you are already on. If you are low on gas and late for work you might even pay a few more cents per gallon to go the the nearest one. That said, I have never seen two 7-Elevens across the street from each other in the USA. I have in Taiwan, but 7-Eleven doesn't sell gas in Taiwan (they don't sell Slurpees either) and it can take a very long time to cross the street. Two have two CVS stores basically next to each other except for the Walgreens in between still strikes me as odd.

On a related note, there was an intersection near my home town that for a while had a gas station on each of the four corners. Recently they torn one gas station down and put up what else? A Walgreens!

--
Lasers Controlled Games!

Re:Gas stations make more sense to me by Evil+Grinn · 2004-01-12 07:45 · Score: 1

For the gas station example I can see how at many intersections it is much easy to go to the gas station that is on the side of the street that you are already on. If you are low on gas and late for work you might even pay a few more cents per gallon to go the the nearest one. That said, I have never seen two 7-Elevens across the street from each other in the USA.

No, but in the South one sees pairs of Waffle House restaurants on either side of a major highway.

--
where there's fish, there's cats
Re:Gas stations make more sense to me by cynicalmoose · 2004-01-12 07:55 · Score: 1

CVS stores?

You mean I can checkout gas to my tank?

--
Exercise your right not to vote. thinkoutside.org
Re:Gas stations make more sense to me by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:19 · Score: 0

"I have never seen two 7-Elevens across the street from each other in the USA. I have in Taiwan, but 7-Eleven doesn't sell gas in Taiwan (they don't sell Slurpees either) and it can take a very long time to cross the street"
Just out of curiosity, do 7-11s in other countries have Americans working in them?
Re:Gas stations make more sense to me by John+Harrison · 2004-01-12 12:28 · Score: 2, Interesting

7-Eleven in Taiwan was quite interesting to me. They had canned soda, but no fountain drinks. They seemed to sell a lot of pickled eggs, which as far as I can tell are the quickie lunch/snack of choice. There are also large numbers of Circle-K stores, which are nearly identical to the 7-Elevens.
The Coke that I bought tasted great, better than in the USA, probably due to the cane sugar instead of corn syrup. The Pepsi was awful. I think that Pepsi allows its formula to be tweaked for local tastes while Coke has world-wide quality and taste control measures. The Yakult tasted like all the other Yakult that I have had.

--
Lasers Controlled Games!
Re:Gas stations make more sense to me by wmspringer · 2004-01-12 13:12 · Score: 1

Please forgive if this is a silly question..

What is Yakult?

--
Twenties Retirement
Re:Gas stations make more sense to me by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 13:58 · Score: 0

Yakult is a fermented milk drink containing billions of live, friendly bacteria. The strain of bacteria is unique to Yakult and is called Lactobacillus casei Shirota. It has been used to make Yakult for nearly 70 years.

Although Yakult is milk-based, it actually tastes more like a fruit drink. It's not thick or yoghurty, so you'll find it quite refreshing.

From this site
Re:Gas stations make more sense to me by saforrest · 2004-01-15 03:25 · Score: 1

Just out of curiosity, do 7-11s in other countries have Americans working in them?

Here in Canada, most of the 7-11 clerks seem to be Canadians.

(Yeah, we probably don't really count. :))

Good by Hard_Code · 2004-01-12 05:35 · Score: 1

I noticed over the last decade or so that Lego changed from concentrating on abstract bricks that you could use to make anything you imagined, to these dumbass licensing schemes with special useless pieces and characters and funky objects and stupid spring-loaded action-oriented gimmicks. What utter crap. I also noticed that at some point there was a distinct CHANGE in the formula for their bricks. I can tell because they seem a bit more "slick" and "smooth" than I remember them being and when they connect they leave a more rough seem, and more easily fall apart. Can anybody verify this? I know I am not going insane, I just don't know if it is limited to region or series or what.

Thank god they are going back to what they used to do.

--

It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?

Lego is its own biggest competitor now by SwedishChef · 2004-01-12 05:38 · Score: 1

I'm old enough to have never played with Lego bricks as a kid but my kids had tons of them. My wife and I felt that Lego was the perfect toy to foster creativity in a child. When our daughter got married in 2002 she and her new husband both had a large collection of Legos that they plan to give to their kids. This, of course, presents a dilemma for Lego. How do you sell more to people who already have a lot?

This is compounded by the Lego collections that are offered for sale at Goodwill and yard sales. Lego bricks are not cheap and if you already have a bunch and can buy more on ebay what is the incentive to spend $20 at a toy store?

Even so, I must admit that Lego's decision to return to basics makes a certain amount of sense. Our kids never liked the "pre-made" objects much; the pieces would soon just be incorporated into the overall collection. Certainly if I were buying new Lego sets I would just buy the classics. Of course, we have lots of them from various Goodwill trips waiting for the grandkids to appear.

But if Lego is going to discontinue Mindstorms then it should be open-sourced to allow other companies to continue the line without the software investment. It's too good a learning tool to just disappear!

--
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!

So... by ackthpt · 2004-01-12 05:38 · Score: 1

I was actually looking forward to buying my son some of the more interesting modern Lego sets available these days. If they gut their line, I certainly won't be buying. There really wouldn't be a point.

So buy them up now, before they're gone. They're tomorrow's collectors items. Maybe if you can keep the box in nice shape and all the pieces they can pay his first semester in college.

--

A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar

Missing your old Lego? by Bertie · 2004-01-12 05:40 · Score: 1

Why not combine playing with Lego and faffing about with your computer? What more could a nerd want?

Download this

Why this is important - a Lego elegy. by WOV · 2004-01-12 05:40 · Score: 3, Insightful

The existence of basic Legos is absolutely critical to the fostering of a generation capable of survival in the coming century, and I am not engaged in hyperbole here.

1. I work as a policy wonk, but have always had a technical bent; it's just enough that I will take apart the things that I own, or install my own software, or be mad when something is poorly designed. In a variety of other ways, I realize that the technologies I own did not happen to me and are not immutable. They are for me to use, they could have been made differently, and I fundamentally have control over them, to modify or reject them.

This is a worldview formed before, really, I had ever touched a piece of software; formed entirely from playing with Legos for HOURS A DAY when I was little. I would posit that the United States' technological elite, people who really look at a computer program or a bacteria or a steam engine and think "I could take that apart and do that better", played with Legos far more than the general population.

Cause and effect there are left as an exercise for the student, but the point remains that Legos are the preferred play object of the people who grow up and become our producers of technology; and if you think play is not that important to learning, attitude development, and general life outlook, you need to read some educational or vertebrate behavior research, or at least go watch some otters.

So if we grant that they're centrally important (and if you would doubt this, why are so many of you so fond of them? Why does Slashdot have a Lego icon?) then their *composition* and *direction* is centrally important. Our kids should feel that helicopters, robots, dinosaurs are made out of simple parts that can go together different ways, that to find out how those parts go together you have to *try things out* and *maybe screw up*, and that you, at six years old, can make something new and cool that no one has seen before and be proud of it.

The other option is just to have another pre-molded piece of plastic that works, for sure, first time. You're not sure why, someone else designed it, that's where technology comes from, I didn't have anything to do with putting it together because I can't do something like that, *fast forward ten years* what? Digital Rights Management? Biometric scanning in shopping malls? OK, I'm no engineer. These things happen, you can't change them. Is this a pill that I should take? If you say so, doctor, no point looking at it, machines are something other people make and understand and then I consume them as is, especially if they're trendy. *shudder.*

I've had trouble for years articulating why it bothered me so much that Lego was moving towards more specialized pieces and more licensed properties; they were teaching passivity and damaging the kind of play that gave me what intelligence I think I have today.

2. The tiny yellow Lego people of my youth existed in a shiny, functioning, Utopian republic, where there was no violence, no conflict, and the guy who drove the tow truck one day could - would - pilot the innovate Space Shuttle / submarine / dinosaur hybrid the next.

Maybe not a viable image of the world for the long term, but a good first impression, and one that fixed in your head an early impression that what you did with technology was design better police boats and monorails and ice cream shops and in general make a better place in which to live your lives, rather than, say, Spam programs or chemical weapons. These are all habits of mind that I want my kinds to get early, far earlier than they grasp that they must follow the hot toy or trend of the moment.

I had not realized that this was upsetting me until it appears to be moving towards a solution. Halleleujah.

cc: Lego North America.

Re:Why this is important - a Lego elegy. by mrseigen · 2004-01-12 11:13 · Score: 1

Wow. Mod this up. It's amazing (and telling) that a thread about Lego would be one of the most intelligent discussions so far on /.

Re:Back to the basics? Good... by John_Booty · 2004-01-12 05:41 · Score: 1

"it seems to me that there will be many a person at Lego in fear of their jobs right now. My guess is that there must be someone at Lego who designs a means of constructing a model AT-AT or what have you out of the bricks, decides what specialised parts are required for the project and what have you."

It's never nice to see anybody losing their job, but it's pretty much a given that any shift in business direction will create/destroy job positions. I don't think you can really worry about that too much. Should I buy Lego's loss-making products to try and save those jobs? Should I worry about the guys at the blue paint factory when I buy a red car?

--

OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.

It's about time! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:45 · Score: 1, Funny

I played with legos when I was a kid in the late 60's/early 70's, and remember a lot of time spent being creative, building all kinds of stuff. I was limited only by my imagination, blah blah blah.

At various times during the past 7 years, I've shopped for new Lego sets for my son. It has become increasingly difficult to find "general" Lego sets that a kid can be creative with. Instead, I see lots of "themed" sets, where you get 5 or 6 really elaborate pieces only useful for one thing. Mixing and matching stuff from different sets is less than satisfying: "My life-like pteradoctyl is riding a fully-functional dune buggy to Hogwarts school to fight Anakin Skywalker". Unless you want to build exactly what is shown on the cover of the box, you're out of business. As a result, my son finds Legos in general to be kind of a bore, and he's right. I'm glad to hear that Lego Inc. is getting back to what made them successful in the first place. I was dreading a LoTR themed set with the character "Legolas" made out of actual Lego's.

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 05:46 · Score: 0

Walgreens, CVS, Etc over charge generic prescription drugs.

IE, brand drug = $100
Walgreens, CVS generic = $75, you save $25, good deal right.

That same generic drug at a real pharmecy costs $20

hey by elitebrad · 2004-01-12 05:47 · Score: 1

whats up my lego homies

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by pyite · 2004-01-12 05:47 · Score: 0

I'm reminded of a Lewis Black (a comedian for those who don't know) rant on how he found a Starbuck's directly across the street from another Starbuck's. His conclusion: They build them for people who have Alzheimer's, who upon walking out of a Starbuck's may say "You know, I could go for a cup of coffee," and then see one to go to immediately across the street.

--

"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman

Right On by LPetrazickis · 2004-01-12 05:51 · Score: 1

Was just about to complain about this.:)

World peace through Lego now! Throw away your guns, everyone, and pick up some Lego. Lego is what makes us human.;)

--
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.

Re:Right On by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:03 · Score: 0

Bud, nerds don't start wars. Frat boys and preachers start wars.

They are losing the audience ... by Titusdot+Groan · 2004-01-12 05:52 · Score: 1

I don't think they are being harsh. I have a 9 year old Lego maniac and lot's of nephews and nieces who love this stuff and I see first hand the frustration they feel:

Too many bionicles -- every six months there is a new, different "big bad guy" and a dozen new assorted good guys and bad guys.
Movie tie ins with movies 4-6 year olds can't watch -- like Spiderman or Star Wars.
Movie tie ins with BAD movies -- like the Chamber of Secrets or the Attack of the Clones.
No bricks -- my son has almost 100 lego sets (all he wants for Birthdays and Christmas is Lego) and he still can't build a decent house with his basic bricks. There is only one or two FreeStyle sets and they are pretty thin on useful pieces.

Like they said -- the target market is 0-7 but the "interests" they base the sets on are 10-14. If you get them addicted to lego at 6 they'll still be playing with it at 12 -- you can't hook them at 12.

Check out PIXEL BLOCKS by Speare · 2004-01-12 05:55 · Score: 2, Interesting

Pixel Blocks have only one shape, but 20+ colors. They're designed to attach to each other in three dimensions, to form models or images.

While they're still a bit expensive thanks to the company's small size and high overhead, they charge ~$7 for 200 pieces, instead of Lego's overall dime-a-piece average (~$7 fo 70 pieces).

--
[ .sig file not found ]

but... space lego? by dash2 · 2004-01-12 05:57 · Score: 1

I agree with the comments that the tie-ins got too far... but, as a kid, I was totally insane over space lego and only space lego. I didn't want to build lame houses and fire stations, I wanted to build space rockets. And I built awesome space rockets that were definitely all my own work. Having a theme can spark your imagination as a kid.

Educational? by Jahf · 2004-01-12 05:57 · Score: 3, Interesting

Will Lego continue their educational branch, and if so, will it still have a robotics product?

I'm 32 and still play with and occasionally buy Mindstorms stuff. I was the first person, to my knowledge anyway :), in Alabama (where I lived at the time) to buy a Mindstorms set and drove 2 hours to get there at midnight to buy from a friend the day they hit the shelves.

My last 2 projects involved cheating at games. 1 was made to automatically mash a button on a PS2 controller when it sensed a lightning flash in Final Fantasy X. The other jiggled my wife's Pikachu2 minigame until it was at it's happiest state. This isn't to point out how to cheat but rather how Mindstorms can be adapted to TONS of applications. I am looking forward to what my someday future children might do with them.

I definitely see them as educational toys for the teenage crowd and I don't know of anything in the same price range (which means I would pay more) with the same flexibility.

I understand Lego going back to the basics, I agree with many that they nearly specialized themselves into oblivion. I won't miss the movie tie-ins (my wife WILL miss the Harry Potter clutter though) and Bionicles was just too much to collect in the end (I tried). However, I really hope Mindstorms and the Technics line live on somehow.

Perhaps Lego needs to branch an adult-focused (ahem, not -that- kind) company so that the 2 lines (3 if you count their educational branch) can work autonomously and not pull each other down but still partner when it makes sense.

--
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.

Re:Educational? by Carnildo · 2004-01-12 06:55 · Score: 1

I wouldn't be too worried. My first encounter with Lego robotics was a book with instructions on how to make an interface board for controlling Lego motors from an Apple ][. If Mindstorms vanishes, I'm sure there will be any number of companies willing to fill the gap.

--
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Re:Educational? by BonrHanzon · 2004-01-12 07:59 · Score: 1

"The other jiggled my wife's Pikachu2 minigame until it was at it's happiest state."

Am I the only one who had to re-read this several times to figure out a non-sexual meaning?
Re:Educational? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:13 · Score: 0

Especially when he says further down:

"Perhaps Lego needs to branch an adult-focused (ahem, not -that- kind) company"
Re:Educational? by madpierre · 2004-01-12 11:11 · Score: 1

Whilst the basic Mindstorms/RCX combination is a great introduction to mechatronics losing it won't be the end of civilisation as we know it.

Building an equivalent to the RCX using Basic stamp or PIC microcontrollers and servos is fairly straightforward. People have probably been combining LEGO and homebrew electronics since LEGO was first produced in the 50's.

Anyone who's really caught the robotics bug from 'playing' with Mindstorms fairly quickly graduate to building their own sensors and replacing the RCX firmware or whatever (I stuck with original firmware but use NQC to program RCX). Should have picked up enough nous to embed an alternative controller into their creations.

For the record, I tend to use PIC's n Servos as my controllers and motive units of choice. Emacs on GNU/Linux is my preffered development environment (also at work as well). :)

I hope LEGO still continue to support RCX via their educational division as it realy does inspire people to get into engineering and robotics in particular.

*sigh*

--
siggy played guitar
Re:Educational? by moosesocks · 2004-01-12 11:12 · Score: 1

Most likely, the educational branch will not go anywhere.

Lego had robotics kits YEARS before mindstorms even existed. My middle school had two IBM PCs (the original PC) each with a specialized Lego I/O board, and a programming language not unlike BASIC.

Even once Mindstorms was released, it hasn't really seen much use in the classroom due to the nature of the RCX and the software.

In the classroom, portability isn't a huge issue (imagine having to recharge the batteries for 10-odd RCXes every night?), but educational value is. The motors / input devices interface directly to a "Control module" which is connected to a Windows PC via. USB - the PC does all the thinking, and interprets a BASIC-like language. In doing this, schools don't have to put up with the RCX and IR towers, and get to teach the kids basic programming skills at the same time (the language is much more powerful than the Mindstorms interface, and much easier than NQC). As an added bonus, it supports up to 6 simultaneous inputs and outputs as opposed to 3 on the RCX.

Like I said, Lego has been doing this for years. Mindstorms was a mere spinoff of it... way too many schools use it for Lego to discontinue it; they would completely lose their reputation among educators if they completely shut down their educational division.

Simply put, don't worry. Lego robotics will be around for a long time to come. They've been around since before 1986, and I see no reason why they won't continue to be around to years to come.

--
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Re:Educational? by Jahf · 2004-01-12 13:03 · Score: 1

Yes, but there is a huge difference between being an enthusiast who dedicates time to the inner workings and a tinkerer who plays when they can or a child who doesn't have access to the more complicated stuff.

I'm a computer enthusiast ... I don't expect my family to know how to patch the hotplug service for an unknown USB device or remount a drive in readonly mode to recover an accidentally deleted file. But it would be a shame if they didn't still have access to a computer just because they didn't know the nuts and bolts (or bytes and bits).

Besides, I never said it would be the end of civilization, I just wondered if it would still be available in a form that was less complicated than a build it yourselfer.

--
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.

Supremacy Blocks? by Just+Some+Guy · 2004-01-12 06:06 · Score: 2, Funny

So, Legos are made by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen? A guy named KKK made something called "Mindstorm"? I'm honestly surprised that my mother-in-law hasn't forwarded an email to me yet warning that Legos are a tool of white supremacists to convert our kids into little racist robots.

Come to think of it, that would make for one of the saner forwards from her.

--
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?

Lego plagued by purchase barriers by Flexagon · 2004-01-12 06:07 · Score: 2, Informative

To my mind, Lego's return to basics is a great feature, but beyond that, they have always made it as difficult as possible to purchase their products. My girls are just about grown, but when I was buying Lego for them (and myself!), I constantly ran into arbitrary road blocks to purchase, and I don't (yet) see this mindset changing with the back-to-basics transition:

Very limited selection in stores; the best, most generic sets often had to be ordered. The same goes for special-purpose yet generic sets like roof pieces or doors+windows.
When serious mail-order houses all had toll-free numbers, Lego remained a toll call.
When serious mail-order houses added 24-hour ordering, Lego maintained limited business hours.
When serious mail-order houses added Web sites for ordering, Lego waited again.
While Lego offered coupons and other incentives to buy through shop-at-home, they didn't stock all sets. They would refuse to sell some items that they reserved strictly for retail. That meant limits on the rebates, and polling low stock at local stores instead of exercising one of the chief advantages of mail-order: complete stock.
Before Mindstorms, some of the coolest sets were the ones targeted at schools. I forget how I stumbled onto those. But they were in a separate catalog with a separate phone number targeted at schools. When I ordered, they were talking purchase orders and school letterhead but I was talking consumer credit card. That took some effort to thwart.
Others have complained about Lego's high price. That's as may be. But the biggest gouge for me came shortly after Mindstorms came out. Lego arbitrarily held back some of the cooler peripherals from consumers and licensed them exclusively through an educational partner that added an additional hefty mark-up (determined by comparing parts that the partner sold non-exclusively). It was easy to turn the partner's distinct part numbers into Lego part numbers, and Lego people knew what they were, but would refuse to sell those parts. In addition to price, that added yet another entity I had to deal with to get Lego.
Now you can probably guess why the catalog's "Hard to find!" and "Not available in any store!" icons, which they intend as positive marketing, drive me crazy instead.

In my view, the Lego people still have a lot to learn about removing barriers to purchase.

What they need to do is... by X-Nc · 2004-01-12 06:07 · Score: 1

Keep the Bionicals and get rid of all the other "specialized" products. Just having the regular blocks with some basic additions, like wheels and corners and house tops, would make them much more fun. My son is 7 and, other than the Bionicles, we play with the basic blocks more than anything.

--
-- If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.

Reply from LEGO on Lugnet by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:09 · Score: 2, Interesting

In the last few days, I've seen much discussion, and recevied many questions about the future of the company. As you probably saw/heard, 2003 was a rough year for the LEGO Company, for a number of reasons. Kjeld has retaken the helm,and has said that we are returning to "our core".

Rest assured, "our core" simply means our toy business. Which is to say, our toy product lines present and future.

Harry Potter and Star Wars are NOT going away any time soon. Licenses are not going to stop, simply continue to improve. We have to take (and have taken) steps to ensure we manage the peaks and valleys that licensing brings with it (Movie years vs. non-movie years, for example). We are still going to be going after the top licenses with the right brand fit.

In fact, we have announced what I think is going to be a great license today:Dora the Explorer

Mindstorms is not going away, but may continue to evolve. Like all technology products, Mindstorms will continue to grow and improve as consumers gain new technology knowledge and technology itself continues to get better and smaller.

Another fear I've heard is that the "What Will You Make?" line is going away. This is not true, and the 2003 product line showed great success and potential. Stay tuned for more great WWYM products in 2004!

More information will be forthcoming, as the changes progress.

Thanks!
Jake
---
Jake McKee
Community Development Manager
LEGO Community Development

I still play... by jbuzzell · 2004-01-12 06:11 · Score: 1

i am 30 years old and got legos for christmas. I can't wait until my 8 month old son has more interest in building them than he does in eating them ;')

Some good/some bad by Chanc_Gorkon · 2004-01-12 06:14 · Score: 1

I have seen some good hapen with this deal but I hope they don't kill Mindstorms. I personaly wish the following:

Go back to the generic space sets. Thos had some special parts that were molded with thought....they could be used to make airplanes and other items.

Technics.....I learned more about how things worked with these sets then I did anything.

Include generic building plates for building bases and if your goign to do tie ins, take control from the tie in company and make the entire kit from generic pieces with a few specials (that are molded with thought). Example, when doign a F-22 Kit, you'd need a cockpit piece. Make sure you include some lego welts (or whatever you call it) on the piece so you could attach it to other items.

Keep Mindstorms....lower the price.

Do that, and you have a winner.

--

Gorkman

Re:Some good/some bad by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 06:37 · Score: 1

Besides, those cockpit pieces are perfect when you go to build your of Starscream out of lego parts. (Man am I dating myself.)

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming

Re:One story per week on this is enough by crush · 2004-01-12 06:17 · Score: 1

Why oh why, if you aren't interested in Lego stories did you take the time to post a comment about it?

Why oh why, do you assume that I'm "not interested" in Lego stories when I post a comment about there being too many Lego stories? No I can't filter it out because I'm interested in the "Toys" section and a category for "Mind-numbingly boring follow ups that should have been posted as additions to the thread of a few days ago" doesn't exist. Get off your high-horse and stop assuming that you're part of the Lego-fans-crucified-by-fascists.

This comment was posted to the story because 1)it's about the story, 2)the editors are likely to see it here

Believe it or not, there are people on this site who care about Lego. This is not "Slashdot- News for crush. Stuff that only matters to crush."

Believe it or not there are people on this site who care about Lego but don't want the site stuffed full of information about Lego's latest business plans. This is not "Slashdot-News only about Lego. Stuff that only matters to Lego shareholders".

Topical discussion by Xenothaulus · 2004-01-12 06:18 · Score: 1

[12.07.03] @solios: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/12/125521 5&mode=thread&tid=159&tid=186&tid=98&tid=9 9
[12.50.37] @xeno: the Bioncle series of toys were kind of cool
[12.50.45] @xeno: even though that's all you could build with them
[12.50.52] @solios: heh.
[12.50.52] @xeno: I WANT CONSTRUX BACK DAMMIT
[12.52.25] @solios: yar.
[12.52.29] @solios: nobody mentioned those.
[12.52.30] @solios: the fucks.

Thus ended an IRC discussion of this article.

You fucks.

Zero to Seven. . . by PhxBlue · 2004-01-12 06:20 · Score: 1

Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?

Maybe they're referring to the number of digits in our UIDs.

--
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.

Dangerous parts indeed by SeanDuggan · 2004-01-12 06:22 · Score: 1

Being kids, one of the first things we did upon finding our grandparents' Ercetor Set was to make swords with the metal slats. *wry grin* Luckily, our parents caught us in the process of sharpening them, before anybody got badly hurt. But yeah, a lot of good memories in those things. With a motor that had two switchable gear settings (more if you were willing to pull out the bars and change gears around), solid metal wheels, axles, and struts that could hold some fairly heavy loads, and the fact that the parts had integration with the other parts of the workbench (Build a framework and screw on some boards, for instance) meant hours of fun. Speaking of odd mechanical sets, anyone else remember Robotix? Used hex bolts that popped into sockets, starter set came with 5 motors IIRC, complete with a control pad with ample switched.

--
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.

Re:Dangerous parts indeed by orkysoft · 2004-01-12 08:08 · Score: 1

Yes! I still have Robotix sets! They had weird parts, but many electromotors, but it was all manually controlled, so not that interesting.

I also seem to vaguely remember that there might be a cartoon about it, but I can't recall any specifics.

And of course I also played with Mecano (or Meccano) (called Erector in the USA, I think). Those toys have been around under many different names over the years. I even have an Eastern European set that includes orange plastic parts to construct pretty cool vehicles. The set cost less than $15 USD at the time, which I found really cheap for such a large set.

But mostly I played with Technic Lego :-)

--

I suffer from attention surplus disorder.

What are you talking about? by AzrealAO · 2004-01-12 06:24 · Score: 1

I defy you to find any pieces in a standard LEGO set that will only fit with one other piece, in one specific way apart from the two parts of hinged pieces, or specific accessories (like brooms, shovels, snakes, etc).

This "specialized pieces killed LEGO" bullshit has to stop. There aren't any more specialized pieces in the newer sets than there were in older sets. They've introduced some new curved sections that get reused in lots of sets, and a bunch of mini-fig accessories with the Harry Potter sets for things like spellbooks, brooms and crystal balls.

Re:What are you talking about? by Doesn't_Comment_Code · 2004-01-12 06:39 · Score: 1

When I posted I was speaking specifically of Lego Bionical. Many of these pieces have limited use, and some only fit one way.

--

Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.

Plurality by gidds · 2004-01-12 06:24 · Score: 1

You might think this is OT, but I find it strange that everyone seems to be using the word 'Lego' in a different way from that I've always heard.

Maybe it's a nationality thing (I'm in the UK), but I've always heard 'Lego' as a mass noun - one like 'snow' or 'flour' that doesn't have a plural form. I'd talk of 'playing with my Lego', 'borrowing some Lego', &c. If we needed to talk of the individual pieces, we'd call them 'Lego bricks'.

So all the posts mentioning 'Legos' or 'Lego are...' look very strange to me. Is it just me?

Anyway, to get back on topic, I don't remember being much into Lego when young, but got really into Technical Lego around age 9 or 10. That's the stuff with cogs, axles, gears, wheels, and all that stuff; we used to love that stuff, and would make up the cars, forklift trucks, bulldozers &c from instructions, and also make up other designs. We learnt a huge amount about how engines &c work (both car designs had working gearboxes, for example), so they were very useful as well as being great fun. Anyone else use Technical Lego?

--

Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.

Shame by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:24 · Score: 0

Though I want LEGO to remain in business for all eternity, for the sake of all of our children (it is IMHO among the best of toys you can buy for your child, encourages creativity etc) I will sorely miss the mindstorms series. I only had the chance to play with it once at a friend's place, and loved it. Unfortunately I couldn't scrape up the free cash to buy a set. Still I'm glad lego is focusing on what it does best. Also I agree with other posters here, ditch the themed kits, the whole point of LEGO is kids make thier own creations, not whats printed on the box.

Whoa! by iii_rjm · 2004-01-12 06:28 · Score: 1

Talk about flashbacks! I used to have several of those as a kid.

Re:Back to the basics? Good... by bluGill · 2004-01-12 06:29 · Score: 1

Not if they are any good. I remember several books from Lego that were nothing but plans on things you could make if you combined several kits (which were not mentioned, and there would be leftover pieces). Cool things like a programing crane. (programable by sticking pieces on a board and shoving the board through - I always wanted to build that but didn't have the parts)

I suspect the ecconomic concerns will cause Lego to get rid of a few people, but there is plenty of work that can be done if there was money to pay.

Someone mod parent up! +5 Funny! by mark-t · 2004-01-12 06:37 · Score: 1

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time

--
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'

Hey! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:40 · Score: 0

I'd say that pretty much covers the maturity level of the posters here.

Shut up, poopie-head!

Empty head by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:41 · Score: 0

I guarantee you have never constructed anything creative in your life.

Building a computer with store bought components does not count.

Lower prices by Sandman1971 · 2004-01-12 06:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

What Lego needs to do is lower their prices. Their prices are just ludicrous! 80-120$ Can for a box of Legos? Lower the price to 20-30$ and people will buy.

--
It's better to burn out than to fade away

Re:Lower prices by wayward_son · 2004-01-12 07:53 · Score: 1

If you are in the U.S., blame the exchange rate. Euros have gone from $0.80 to $1.25 in the past couple of years.
Re:Lower prices by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:11 · Score: 0

I got the almost 500 piece Wild Collection (4101) for $19.99 on sale - even the regular price, $29.99 isn't too bad. You can also get Maximum Wheels or Robobots for $19.99. Or you can get the 1000-piece creator tub for $19.99.

If you go for the sets with no motors, no licensing fees, even larger kits are still pretty cheap. This is probably why the company is trying to go back to basic to return to profitability.

I can see the conspiracy theories pouring in... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:43 · Score: 0

if some conspiracy afficionnado realize than
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen initials are KKK...

They got too specialized by HarveyBirdman · 2004-01-12 06:45 · Score: 2, Interesting

If you look at some of the more complicated special packs, there's only small number of ways to put certain things together. The special blocks would quite often lock you into a certain configuration. I've watched kids play with these, and have seen it first hand.

A leg shaped block can really only be a leg. A block shaped block can be whatever you want.

--
--- Ban humanity.

what meter long death star? by MarcoAtWork · 2004-01-12 06:46 · Score: 1

I can't find it online... or do you mean the $299 star destroyer?

--
-- the cake is a lie

J/K by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:48 · Score: 0

"What about the Slashdot crowd?"

Don't worry, I'm sure every slashdot reader has leftover Lego bricks from their youth. I do.

And if they don't, dumpster diving !

Ahw man, I was hoping that... by Peterus7 · 2004-01-12 06:50 · Score: 3, Funny

I'd see something to the effect of...
A: Lego Army men
B: Lego Star trek (yeah, ok, they'd need copyright stuff, but I know that there'd be a proliferation of lego comic things... And I'd buy them just to take pictures of the red shirted ensign pieces getting killed in various ways.)
C: Lego Warhammer 40k (finally, a cheap and fun way to play warhammer! Of course this would be directed at the younger crowd...)
D: Lego D&D (Miniatures take too damn long to paint.)
E: Lego Half life
F: Lego programming department (so the /. people are appeased.)

Too bad they'd never get the copyright stuff...

Re:Ahw man, I was hoping that... by BlackHat · 2004-01-12 16:34 · Score: 3, Informative

Go build it!

Pedantic [LEGO]Geek mode on

A: Lego Army men
Many fine examples already exist for filling units in most era's.

B: Lego Star trek
Trek is often done. Tho Blake's 7 is more hip.

C: Lego Warhammer 40k
A whole[all units] Dark Eldar army and ideas for modeling units for other powers can be found.

D: Lego D&D
Players of D&D[with LEGO] and other game systems are legion. As are the armies. Several rule-systems for play are also out there.

E: Lego Half life
There are CAD models[in easy format for conversion] for many of the parts go nuts. Sprite based(using POV to render frames) has also been done for a few games over the years.

F: Lego programming department
Cluster em.

PDG mode off [/;-)

great.. by Suppafly · 2004-01-12 06:51 · Score: 1

now the aftermarket price for a set up mindstorms is going to skyrocket. It's bad enough that used mindstorms sell for almost as much on ebay as they do in the store.

Age by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 06:52 · Score: 0

Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?

They are talking intellectual, rather than physical age ;-)

technic and basics by VanillaCoke420 · 2004-01-12 06:52 · Score: 1

That's true, go back to the basic stuff again, although I do not mind stuff like windows and doors and roof pieces and wheels etc. Oh, and keep the Technic line. I loved it, and now my littlesister is having fun with it too, building cars and stuff.

Re:Okay: Mindstorm's going away. Which should I bu by infolib · 2004-01-12 06:56 · Score: 1

...Have it be controllable via Linux

At the University of Aalborg, Denmark, there's a long tradition of having the students do projects on OSes for the mindstorm RCX computers. There's a lot of stuff floating around there, let Google show you the way.

--
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.

Well, then I submit... by cnelzie · 2004-01-12 06:56 · Score: 1

...that they are stretching their collective brain power by using the 'limited' capabilities of the provided tools for completing the task at hand.

If the goal was simply to have fun and not bother with stretching their minds, then why not just hand them fully completed robots built by MIT Robotics Students for the competition?

--
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?

Re:Well, then I submit... by EvilTwinSkippy · 2004-01-12 07:08 · Score: 3, Interesting

The Handy-Board was mind-storms before there was mind-storms. It was designed to plug into Lego structures so you could build robots. The boards are programmed in a language called Interactive C.
Mindstorms came later, use a bubble-gum programming interface, and has no way of expanding.
I am all for stretching their minds. But there is stretching your mind to learn algebra, and there is stretching your mind to work out Kabbalistic numerology. One is applicable to everyday life. The other is suspect at worst, and completely in-applicable to anything else at best.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Re:Well, then I submit... by TurboProp · 2004-01-12 13:39 · Score: 1

and there is stretching your mind to work out Kabbalistic numerology
If you are sufficiently well versed in Kabbalistic numerology, You don't need a controller to make your legos move.

--
~ You may speak freely, If you have enough cash ~

Legos Imagination and Overspecialization by stuffduff · 2004-01-12 06:57 · Score: 3, Interesting

I have played with Legos for over 40 years. I've built static models, moving models, even motorized and robotic models. From basic assembly skills to advanced robotic programming I have seen Legos change in a changing world. My son was brought up on Legos, and before we got a small inflatable pool for them I too stepped on them in the dark of night; Ouch!

Over the years I have followed the gradual trends, Duplo for smaller children, Techno for teenagers and the ever growing number of theme based kits. While the Robotic kits may be the big money loser, I believe that the real killer has been all those theme kits. For 20 bucks you can get a bucket with a few hundred unspecialized pieces, or 75 pieces of highly specialized blocks. Sure a race car or three little go-karts is much more like a toy, and many other things can be built with a specialized set, but collecting Legos through these specialized sets is both expensive and time consuming. Keeping specialized blocks (hands, hats and other smaller that 2X pieces) is is difficult at best. I've probably spent a week of my life at this point sifting through that sea of parts looking for some special piece or articulating joint or gear or axle to complete a project. Don't get me wrong, specialized pieces are definitely cool! But they become a huge waste of time if you don't spend almost as much on developing your own specialized storage system to deal with them.

Then there is the whole software aspect of Legos. (Anyone remember Micorserfs?) Lego spent quite a lot on Lego software. Now there are several 'virtual lego' products. I'm sure that we all remember the Lego diagrams that show how to build something. Those drawings are some of the cleanest engineering and assembly guides around. The software was supposed to enable end users to do that kind of thing, but unfortunately it crashed more machines than it loaded on in the first few go arounds. By the time that MIT's smart brick became the model for the Robotics kits there was even a slick, GUI driven programming model; one which I'm still torn by, because it's either the slickest tool for coding or one of those just over the edge towards madness gizmos depending on how the day/stress level/project deadline is. But you can't really build with Legos at the keyboard, nor can you read most displays from the floor, so I'm not sure that the whole Lego-Computer thing was very well conceived.

Now Lego with RFID tags might be something! Plug your Lego scanner into the computer and watch thOr maybe some kind of 'Etch-a-sketch' sized pad that could display how to build something would probably work better that a computer because you can use it right where you play with Legos. Your upgrade packs could come with inventory files so that the models that were displayed could be built with the pieces on hand. Hell, even a scanner to locate that missing piece could be incorporated!

I'd hate to lose a company like Lego, so I hope that they can 're-generalize and re-integrate' their product line into today's reality.

--
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"

Even if it was caused by licensing costs... by Infonaut · 2004-01-12 07:01 · Score: 1

...the result will be the same - a return to more generic Lego sets that actually encourage children to use their own imaginations. It costs Lego less and it brings better Legos to the world. I'd call that a win-win.

Maybe a few other toy companies will get the idea and start showing some real creativity instead of simply riding the licensing bandwagon.

Like that'll happen. ;-)

--
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ

How can this be? by JonnyO · 2004-01-12 07:02 · Score: 1

Have you seen what Legos cost these days? How can a company making molded chunks of plastic for $80 a set possibly be losing money? Sounds like a company that's been living a little to fat at the trough to me.

Direct picture links (was Re:I want basic bricks) by WillAdams · 2004-01-12 07:02 · Score: 1

The link in the post wasn't working, sorry.

Try these:
http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/uploaded /WillAda ms/200312182035_JamCam006.jpg

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/uploaded/WillA da ms/20031218211_JamCam008.jpg

William

--
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.

Yet further daming evidence that... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:04 · Score: 0

....Slashdot readers only make up a VERY SMALL and USELESS portion of the market:

Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?

Considering comments like that, I'd say that the Slashdot readership is comprise of wankers from ages 13-40. Part of an infintesimal and completely worthless cross-section of the general public. ie: No one FUCKING CARES about what you may or many not think about ANYTHING! Grow up already you worthless fucktards. Go pour hot grits down your pants and recall your days as a baby with soiled diapers. I know that will turn you on because many of you are baby men fetishests. LOL!!!

For a trip down memory lane by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:07 · Score: 0

Construx, my friends had those, I had Lego but my personnal favorite is a construction game coming from Germany:

Fischertechnik.

I should get the pictures of the full electric control construction crane I built with that: almost 4 feet tall, 1 pound of ballast, built by a 10 years old.

These sets are simply wonderfull for the technically inclined (it has pneumatic, electronics, and computer control modules on top of standard electric motors and structures) I could have controled my crane with a C64 in 1988 if my parents had bought the computer control set. These sets were generic and you had a catalog of standard designs coming with it to inspire you.

These sets disappeared 10 years ago from the North American market. Apparently, they just started to distribute it again in Canada and the US !!!

A few links:
http://www.fischertechnik.de
http://www.f ischertechnik.com/
Construction example:
http://www.fischertechnik.de/jugendforsc ht/grosspr ojekte/krijnenhermod.html (this is NOT my crane...)

It all makes sense now. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:09 · Score: 0

I always wondered why I never saw any black people, or even any minorities, playing with legos. It's because the owner and president of Lego is Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen! The Ku Klux Klan has set up a business front to sell racist toys to little children all over the world! Think about it! How many black/minority oriented Lego models are there? Practically NONE! Sure, they had to squeeze out a few so as to avoid suspicion. But somehow those sneaky minority bastards figured it out and don't buy any. They are sending their message to little white boys all over the world that white people are awesome and minorities suck! This is the truth, by the way. Anyway, I had NO IDEA that so many slashbots were closet racists! Maybe Slashdot can set up a new discussion forum where all KKK members can discuss their shared hatred of minorities, especially blacks and jews! I look forward to our first virtual meeting! And remember, minorities are NOT people, so killing them is OK!

YHBT. YHL. FOAD. HAND.

On a funnier note, this reminds me of the Chappelle show where Dave is blind and says he hates blacks and joins the KKK. Hahaha. Dave Chappelle is hillarious. No, I'm not really a racist. Sorry.

Old School by Malechite · 2004-01-12 07:11 · Score: 1

If i were lego, i would re-release the old sents from the 80's and early 90's Im 21, and when i was a kid i LOVED these sets...they were way cool. What i would do is re-release the futrons, and the oldschool blacktrons, and the old castle sets. those were probably the best ever. now whan i was at the lego store in the mall of america i saw a few of these there, but they were very limited. im talking a complete re-release of the whoel line. label them CLASSICS and advertise...everyone who used to play with those sets back in the day would see those and go "i remeber that! i had that!" and they would go and buy it. I know i want some of the old school sets, but they cost a fortune on ebay.

YOU LOSER by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:14 · Score: 0

Should I take seriously someone who worked for the SHIT, Incraperated company (look at his resume) ? No wonder you're unemployed! Also, this guys apparently does lots of Flash work. YOU INSIPID LITTLE BITCH! GO BACK TO YOUR MOTHER'S BASEMENT! FOAD!

Re:YOU LOSER by dnahelix · 2004-01-12 13:38 · Score: 1

I'm not Unemployed, I make over $70,000 a year doing Flash programming, and that doesn't include the Freelance. HAHAHA

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Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.

Stupid LEGO prices by saha · 2004-01-12 07:15 · Score: 1

I find the price of their plastic pieces too high.
They need to lower prices to expand their customer base.

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by Slime-dogg · 2004-01-12 07:15 · Score: 1

let alone a city block seem like a great distance

And that is why American culture came up with the Rascal!

--
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by ealar+dlanvuli · 2004-01-12 07:21 · Score: 1

The phamacy doesn't make money from perscription drugs. They generally can cover the cost of running the shop off that.

Profit comes from the stuff in front of the counter.

--
I live in a giant bucket.

Legos growing up by retro128 · 2004-01-12 07:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

I was a huge, huge Lego fan. I have most of the space sets from 1980 on to whenever it was I stopped playing with Legos, '87, or '88 I think. Still have all the catalogs, sets, and instructions.

Occasionally in a fit of nostalgia I wander into the toy section to check out the new sets, and boy have they been dumbed down. When I played with Legos, I'd have sets that had 300 pieces. The bricks were bricks...You could put them together in just about any way you wanted, regardless of what the instructions said. Now the pieces are so specialized and few there's only one way to put them together, and you can do it in 5 minutes. It's not "space" and "town" and "castle" sets anymore. I don't think those even exist, and it looks like the offerings are mostly vehicles and micro-sets, so forget building your own town or space base. I think one of the reasons that Lego is doing so badly is that most people who played with Legos when they were kids are parents now, and see the same thing I'm seeing. I bet they have started looking elsewhere for stimulating toys.

--
-R

Can't resist. by adun · 2004-01-12 07:35 · Score: 2, Funny

"Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

You mean they're not synonymous with each other?

Back to basics is good by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:41 · Score: 0

I was somewhat disappointed about the selection of Lego products for the last 5-6 years. Other than the few basic "bucket" or "bin" sets, and a few high end "Technics" sets, most items were either licensed theme products (probably low profict margin since they have to pay $$ to the licensor) or sets that were good for building only one thing.

The latest generation of "designer" and "motion madness" products seem to be heading in the right direction. I got a "creatures" set for my daughter for Xmas. For about $20, you got a set with hundreds of pieces that has instructions for building tens of insect models. You could build an endless variety of things with this set - this is what Lego was about, and this is probably the way they can get back to profitability.

Bionicles are WICKED COOL! by YeOldeGnurd · 2004-01-12 07:42 · Score: 1

I saw my cousin got a 'bionicle' lego set for christmas this year, and it was ridiculous. I don't think there were more than a hundred pieces, and no more than a handful of them could be connected to something other than the piece they were supposed to be connected to on the picture on the box.

My children, ages 7 and 5, are Bionicle fanatics. At first, I shared the same concern about specialized pieces, but there's actually quite a bit you can do with the "Technic" family of Lego parts. "Bionicle" is a particularly successful sub-category of the Technic product line, from what I can tell. Sure, the Bionicles have joints, legs, arms, cool staffs, heads, and bodies. That seems pretty specific. You can, however, combine any three Bionicles of a type (Rahkshi, Bohrahk, or Toa) into a "King" bionicle. Plus, you can be really creative with the staffs and weaponry, turning swords into a surfboard for example. The Bionicle kits only have about 50 pieces, but they only cost $5.50 US on sale at Target or KB (retail is around $9.99).

There's some incredibly fun bigger kits like the Gahdok and Cahdok kit, containing 630 pieces. Built to plan, this kit builds a pair of animals that are hand operated. They have jaws that slam shut to try to put each other out of commission.

Between the two kids, we have probably 3000 Bionicle / technic pieces in the toy room. Neither kids nor parents have started to grow tired of them.

--
...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...

Re:Bionicles are WICKED COOL! by DenOfEarth · 2004-01-12 10:49 · Score: 1

Hmmm...I guess maybe I was kind of lacking enthusiasm towards them because my cuz only had the single set. I imagine if you got more pieces that worked together in the same way it would be quite alright.

I think I've also been let down by lego since the day where I saw a star wars robot lego thing that seemed to be pretty expensive, and it just seemed to me like it was a doll or something...maybe I just missed the point.

well, have fun with your legos...I guess, thanks for the comment.

Discontinuing the theme sets? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:44 · Score: 0

I must admit that while I never have had much interest in the theme sets themselves, I've always been interested in the minifigures that come with them. Sure, the theme sets require no imagination to build or play with, and therefore cannot sustain interest, the themed characters that come with them (like Spiderman or Obi Wan) have always fit nicely into my generic sets. For example, I used to build X-wings out of mostly generic parts and put generic or sometimes "Space" (Space Police, M-Tron) minifigures into it and I could re-enact the battle sequences from Star Wars or Return of the Jedi. However, I've always wanted to have a "Luke" and a "Wedge" and a "Biggs" instead of having my 1st Gen Space Police play Luke and my M-Tron play Wedge etc. Having the specialized minifigures makes playing with legos in this way more believable.

So what's my point? While the themed sets are a bad idea and have always been (and I've never bought one), I've never had any problems with the themed minifigures. In fact, I've always wanted the themed minifigures. After all, we all would want to know how Luke Skywalker deals with a legion of charging Black Knights or the adventures of Harry Potter in space (maybe? :p ). Bringing the generic parts back would be awesome, but there's nothing wrong with keeping the current themed minifigures.

Just my 2 cents.

(Of course, I have been always a minifigure fan (I used to want the racing set with 26!!! minifigures for Christmas, or the pirate ship, with 22!! in one set), and I used to buy packs and packs of the stand-alone minifigure sets 'cause I never felt I had enough, so my 2 cents might be just a bit biased.)

I do, I do!!!! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 07:59 · Score: 0

You can't swallow a clitoris!

Lego bricks on the other hand, well, lets just say I've had a few un-planned Lego collections before:)

Re:I do, I do!!!! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 18:22 · Score: 0

You can't swallow a clitoris!
Sure you can, but let's not go there.

Clikits (tm) by glanois · 2004-01-12 08:00 · Score: 1

Try Clikits. My daughter LOVES these.

And I thought I was too old! by gillbates · 2004-01-12 08:13 · Score: 2, Interesting

30 and counting.

For Christmas, my wife got me a set of Legos - perhaps intended to keep me away from the computer.

It worked! Now she hates both Legos and the computer...

I don't know, but there's just something about a mental challenge that I find irresistable.

--
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.

Re:bionicle by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 08:14 · Score: 0

The bionicle kits are actually pretty cool and cheap to boot. My son has ~10 of them. After he got tired of the per-instructions and variation on that theme he and I went out and searched the web. There was a site (I'll have to look at my favs at home) that is building star-wars type ships that are probably 50% bionicle parts. The variations on those have lasted about 3 months. My son is the type of kid that if things are quite for more than an hour he is either into somtheing or playing with legos.
I think that the specialized legos are fine but if Lego was smart they would sell the basics and then set up some cool "how-to" sites and run contest for cool designs and post those then put links to sell the "parts needed for this design" online. They could also do the percent of sells from links off of your site thing for the sites like the starwars one above.

I bought the 300 dollor star destroyer for PARTS! by jameskojiro · 2004-01-12 08:16 · Score: 0

That set has a realy good part/price ratio so I bought it just for the parts! Of course it was fun destorying the ship after I had assembled it! When i go to the LEGO store i look at all the sets, but not for what you can build on the box, but for all the cool pieces in them!

BTW, KB Toys sometimes has clearance sales on LEGO sets I bought some sets for 80% of retail there!

Does anyone else do this?

--
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...

Garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 09:01 · Score: 0

The new legos sets are just trash. I threw away every set I had, the Bionicle crap, all the theme crap. People keep buying them for me and I still hate them.

Re:Garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 09:05 · Score: 0

When I moved I threw away four big rubbermaid plastic tubs(20Gallon?) of the stuff. I didn't want to move them so into the garbage dumpster they went with my other childhood toys. Now I regret it because those were the true cool sets, normal blocks to make cool things.
Re:Garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 09:07 · Score: 0

I remember flushing legos down the toilet when I was a kid, never kept the sets together but just played with them as is, and sometimes watched them float away. You can acutally dispose of a complete set by flushing.
Re:Garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 09:11 · Score: 0

My mom threw away tons of my legos too, down the garbage chute, and I remember trying to salvage what I could from the compactor in the basement, but was a lost hope with all those little pieces. I bet lots of legos are lost, thrown away, and there's millions of them in the sewers and landfill.

LEGO is a superior brand by spideyct · 2004-01-12 09:09 · Score: 2, Insightful

You cannot clone a highly recognized brand name.

You cannot clone (very easily) great customer service (and the accompanying customer loyalty).

They can continue to be successfuly by sticking with what made them successful in the first place: a good product, great designs, and strong customer support.

They will not "differentiate" themselves by adding their "Spider-Man" or "Star Wars" products to the vast sea of other "Spider-Man" or "Star Wars" products already available.

Hallegojah! by Basehart · 2004-01-12 09:18 · Score: 1

I've spent the last five christmas's scouring toy stores and crappy walmart stores for good old fashioned lego bricks for my kid, so she can learn the joys of building lego stuff like I did, only to be greeted with shelves and shelves (all full I may add) of Bionicles, Technonicles, Darth Vader Death Scenes and Testonicles, with not one single Lego brick between them.

A few years ago I resorted to buying 15lbs of bricks on eBay from someone in Canada, and she's been playing with them ever since.

Dammit, why did it take executives so long to figure out that these Tie Fighter models, comprised of pieces that can only ever make...a Tie Fighter, went against everything that Lego stands for, i.e. making stuff out of basic materials.

Ah well, better late than never I guess.

Long live Lego!

Specialized pieces inspire MORE creativity by misuba · 2004-01-12 09:19 · Score: 4, Interesting

Think about it: it's easy to come up with multiple uses for a simple brick. Faced with the brown log-cabin wall pieces from the old Western-themed sets, well, what would you do then? A friend of mine was puzzling over that, and finally came up with a scale model of his old, ugly foam-and-corduroy couch (with a skeleton of Technic pieces). When you _do_ come up with alternate uses for highly specialized pieces, the results are really dazzling.

As long as I'm being heretical, I'll say that the Star Wars sets are the best things that happened to Lego in ten years. Those models are much higher quality and piece count than a lot of what came before, they got lots of geeks like me involved in Lego for the first time in their adult lives, and many of the "specialized" pieces created just for Star Wars sets turn out to be very versatile and beautiful. (Printed designs on pieces have got to go, though, as does the entire ugly-as-sin Harry Potter line.)

--

If you don't pretend to be anyone, are you?

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by nelsonal · 2004-01-12 09:28 · Score: 1

Even more odd, is that the drugs are generally a loss leader to get people in to the store to buy overpriced convienence items. That isn't to say that they lose money on the drugs (generics do ok for em) but that they don't make nearly as much as they do on the "front end" merchandise.

--
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.

Alternate by RoceKiller · 2004-01-12 09:34 · Score: 1

Does anyone know of an alternative to mindstorms?

It would be really nice to have an alternative which where directed more towards an older crowd. More sensor input/outputs, other sensor types like temp., GPS, up/down, radar, or whatever.

Do you think there is/would be a market for something like that?

No more Mindstorms? by rnocera · 2004-01-12 09:41 · Score: 1

I'm hoping that they won't discontinue Mindstorms. I haven't bought my first set yet, but I was looking online for a place to buy a set and everywhere is sold out! It can't be losing them too much money if they can't keep up with demand.

I think they'd be well advised to ditch their own efforts at producing movies and even movie tie-in products.

My 2yr old daughter has a good time with the Duplo set she's had for a while. I planning on getting her and her little sister some more soon.

BTW, I'm 33 and I have two Bionicle models sitting on my desk in my office, so being grown up doesn't mean you don't get to play.

--

Rob
NEOS

yeah by ShadowRage · 2004-01-12 09:47 · Score: 1

even with the licensed sets, or the themed sets, I've built them, then destroyed them not too long afterwards and created my own creations..

that's what most people do.

hey, I'm 17 and I still occasionally like playing with legos, why? it's fun on the side, Legos are that one toy that has no real age limit. it's universal, and their new plan is a good one, because now, you can get legos without worrying about getting all these parts that appeal to a certain age group, it's fun when you're bored, you know?

Me Too by jbrader · 2004-01-12 09:49 · Score: 1

When I was 7 or so I sent a letter to Konami asking them to make a game out of some movie I liked and got back a letter just like yours:-)

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You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.

Re:Back to the basics? Good... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 09:50 · Score: 0

Yes, the programmable crane! That was from the Expert Builders book. Expert Builders were the series that was renamed Technics, the ones with girders, axles, gears, etc.

The way you programmed the crane was by putting the rack pieces (from rack&pinion steering mechanisms) onto a long 8x plate. One column was to feed the card through, two were to drive forward and back, two were to rotate the boom, two were for the winch, and one was to turn right. Assembling that crane was my crowning triumph as an 8-year-old.

Does anybody else remember Expert Builders? I particularly liked the black Chassis.

aQazaQa

forget blocks... by st0rmshadow · 2004-01-12 09:52 · Score: 1

bring back pirates.

Sandra Boynton RULES! by Samrobb · 2004-01-12 10:15 · Score: 1

And books -- tons of 'em. Boynton, ...

Folks - if you have kids, and don't know who Sandra Boynton is, take my word for it: she rules . If Dr. Seuss is the King of Childrens Books, then Boynton should be Queen.

One Boynton book to look for: Philadelphia Chickens. Comes with a CD, and includes honestly talented people performing lots of Boynton's horribly addictive and hilarous songs like "Sunggle Puppy", "I Like to Fuss", "Snoozers", and of course, Scott Bakula singing "Pig Island".

Another one in a similar vein is John Lithgow's Singin' in the Bathtub. "You Gotta Have Skin" still makes my wife & I break down and have spontaneous giggle fits.

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"Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9

Re:Sandra Boynton RULES! by G-funk · 2004-01-12 12:08 · Score: 1

...and of course, Scott Bakula singing...

Thanks.... Now I'm going to have nightmares for weeks. Didn't we learn the lesson about enterprise captains singing? <comicbookguy>I have here the only working phaser ever built. It was fired only once, to keep William Shatner from releasing another album</comicbookguy>

--
Send lawyers, guns, and money!

Re:Back to the basics? Good... by RedWizzard · 2004-01-12 10:18 · Score: 1

Today's Lego sets look way too specialized to me- too many specialized pieces, not enough basic Lego bricks- so there's a lot less creative potential.

You're not looking hard enough. This complaint has been said many times here and it's not entirely true. Many of the Star Wars sets use few specialised pieces (though the prequel themed sets are not as good in this regard as the older original triology sets). The collectors series, while expensive, are particularly good in this regard. The only problem is that I can't bring myself to break mine up to make anything else. You can also buy the "creator" buckets, which are mostly general pieces, or you can buy basic piece packs online.

As for the expense, yes it is a problem, but the expense is due to the quality of the product. One of the reasons why specialised pieces have become more common is that this reduces the number of pieces and therefore the cost of the sets. It's possible The LEGO Company might make more money if they reduced the quality of the product and therefore the cost. But that would annoy a lot of people and there are already lower quality alternatives. Lego has always been expensive, and I'd rather have it that way than have a lower quality product.

Mindstorms is cool though by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:26 · Score: 0

It's too bad they are doing away with mindstorms. A lot of schools use legos for robotic/gears instruction. I hope other companies come out with robotics kits that are as easy to buil/programm as mindstorms.

boycotting legos by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:27 · Score: 0

I have the lego castle set, the lego mindstorm set, etc. Then I started noticing that when I shopped for legos, the only figures where men (except for maybe a princess in distress). Their commercials also only show boys.

When legos came out with their sports line this year, I started looking for women's soccer figures. Since I still haven't found any, I'm not buying legos any more.

The latest news that they will be marketing to boys is really no surprise. If they bothered to include girls in their demographic at all, instead of sticking them with those crappy pastel pseudo-legos, they probably would not have had such a disastrous bottom line.

Not that expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:35 · Score: 0

Only the specialized model sets are expensive. If you buy a tub of assorted blocks it's quite reasonable. On their website it's only $10 for 500 blocks or $15 for 600 and other varieties. I assume there are different (better) blocks to warrant the 50% price difference, but anyway you can see they're quite reasonable if you just want legos. If you want some loop-de-loop motorized monorail with glow in the dark figures, yeah you're going to get gouged.

But I think Lego is quite reasonable for those of us that appreciate its creative potential rather than its marketing potential.

Ugh by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:35 · Score: 0

When are you assclowns going to realize that you are a small, annoying minority? There's 6 billion people in the world and you losers make up maybe a few thousand--hell let's be generous, we'll say there's a few million of you worldwide. NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU GEEKS THINK. Go back to your parents' basement.

Legos must improve skills to be good? by DoubleReed · 2004-01-12 10:38 · Score: 1

I just thought it was interesting that you credit legos with improving your thinking skills.

Why is it though that toys must improve skills to be good? It seems that we are slightly obsessed with education. In highschool my band teacher pulled the whole mozart = math skills thing one day and it kind of backfired (for me at least). If the purpose of music or literature or (say) legos is to improve your math or reasoning skills, what are you doing messing around with that stuff? Get some math and philosophy books and start reading up!

No, the purpose of legos is not to improve your imagination. If anything, the purpose of your imagination is to make legos fun.

Bionicle =bad, Mindstorms=good, basic=good, potter by aaron_pet · 2004-01-12 10:43 · Score: 1

potter=bad

technique=good

What the heck has lego been doing, I've wondered for a while.

I've wanted to buy lego's a few times, but have only seen bionicle thingies that only work as those bionicle thingies.... I don't want that...

We'll I've also seen many Harry Potsmoker and JarJar 2 piece lego sets.

I do not want to buy a lego set that only has 2 pieces! NO NO NO.

I haven't seen mindstorms in the stores. I want a set very badly.

Heck I want 2 or 3 sets badly. ... but mostly as an impulse buy as I am currently between jobs...

anyway, It is good that they are going back to basics... but technique and mindstorms are somethings that I want to give to 4/5 year olds to play with. (I've done some babysitting, and entertaining ones self and allowing the kids to participate is great)

grrr.

technique Not for most 2 year olds though...

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Flame me here

great news, no poo indeed! by spoonyfork · 2004-01-12 10:46 · Score: 2, Funny

I was shopping for gifts for the younger tikes in my family at Toys R Us and I was lamenting that they didn't have the legos I grew up with. I played with those things for hours and hours until I hit the 'teens. Like many people here, I attribute some of my exercised creativity and engineering acumen to that toy. I want the same for my family's offspring. I couldn't see how a star wars or harry potter set would give a kid enough generic stuff to build what they wanted to build.

I'm so happy lego made this decision that I went to their website to write them a thank you note. Having to register, I used my ubiquitous spoonyfork handle and it wouldn't let me because Username cannot contain 'poo'.. Right. :/

--
Speak truth to power.

Bad analogy by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 10:50 · Score: 0

Walgreens did not overexpand. They changed their store designs. Stores became bigger - now about 14k sf. They now want freestanding sites with drive-through pharmacy access. In line stores, like those on a street, have gone through similar changes. Plus, they have leases that expire and Walgreens has real estate and operations people who examine how each store is doing, which sites may be open to competition, etc. They didn't go out of business; they chose to close some of their locations. Big difference. Lego is simply losing money. Walgreens is very profitable.

You call it playing? by DynaSoar · 2004-01-12 11:11 · Score: 2, Interesting

Escher's "Relativity":

http://www.lipsons.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/escher/r el ativity.html

More topical, guess what's holding the CD containing 3.5 million peoples' names to Spirit's "dashboard"?

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/002/2 P1 26556727EFF0200P2205L4M1.JPG

Playing? HA! You better believe it's playing. And it's far more important than work, IMO.

--
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B

Don't Panic! by Rahtok · 2004-01-12 11:35 · Score: 2, Interesting

For LEGO news, see lugnet.com Anyway, here's a link to something that indicates the lines aren't going away... they're just refocusing on selling the basic brick sets. http://news.lugnet.com/lego/?n=625

Old School Erector Sets by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 12:03 · Score: 0

haha, sorry my mind is in the gutter. ahh the good old days

Fear not... by vaalrus · 2004-01-12 12:07 · Score: 0, Offtopic

"Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

I dunno, that seems to sum up the intellectual average of most posts... Slashdot is still firmly in the target niche. :)

What about Legoland? by Dolemite_the_Wiz · 2004-01-12 12:13 · Score: 2, Interesting

You mean to tell me that this stinker of a themepark had nothing to do with their losses?

Dolemite
_____________________

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Save the World! Use a Quote!

Re:0 to 7? Zero? by spoco2 · 2004-01-12 13:20 · Score: 1

You obviously havent seen their baby range, which includes soft toys with sometimes a large, central duplo sized lego piec which is removable...

Great idea, but... by redfiveneo · 2004-01-12 13:30 · Score: 2, Interesting

I can't deny that Lego going back to the basics is a wonderful idea, but I also feel that there is still business to be made selling -choice- movie tie-ins, namely Harry Potter and Star Wars.

I love the idea that I may be able to walk into a store and buy just ton upon ton of blocks, but nevertheless feel that there are some parents that say, "Hey, look! Harry Potter!".

And they should keep the Mindstorms and Technic lines alive. (I don't know if they have plans to cut the Technic line, though I doubt it) Mindstorms, for the educational value, and Technic as the "step-up" set.

But all in all, this is a good move for Lego.

I used to dream in Legos by Syncrou · 2004-01-12 13:36 · Score: 1

Its exciting news about Legos going back to basics.
Maybe Kids can continue playing with imaginative toys instead on migrating to video games. I personally blame Legos for getting me involved in reading Slashdot! Not a bad problem to have.

#6 were "Zaks" by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 13:46 · Score: 0

They were called Zaks, by Ohio Art.

Some of the triangle and square pieces were flat, but some had a circular "plug" (I don't recall the actual name of it), which could be used to attack the piece to another plug, a block that had a hole instead of a plug, the back of any square or triangle, or which could hold the more specific cylanders/rods/lights. Some of the blocks even had a connection for LEGO blocks.

Re:#6 were "Zaks" by random735 · 2004-01-12 14:01 · Score: 1

that's it! thanks.

Lego Rocks! by Kolenkow · 2004-01-12 14:00 · Score: 1

I want to order sets of pieces in one color from Lego. Either in a way so that I can specify exactly what I want, or simply "1024 grey pieces".

All the grey pieces will be used to build a huge castle, 4 times as big as the old grey big castle (you know, the good one, witht the lion and red and blue colors).

Lego Rocks! The first present I bought to my son had a Lego label on it. Really boring toy, he never looked at it, but I really love Lego.

--
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take into account Hofstadter's Law

Mindstorms had a poor compute platform by Un+pobre+guey · 2004-01-12 14:01 · Score: 1

The real Mindstorms showstopper for me was their pathetic 8-bit cpu with a tiny amount of RAM. Had it been a 32-bit cpu (MC68000 family? MIPS?) with a flat memory space and the ability to stick standard DIMMs or flash RAM cards into the RCX, I suspect the geek audience would have been much larger and more enthusiastic. They should have used a more off-the-shelf architecture instead of designing their own around such an obsolete chip.

Was anyone able to set up any neural network proccessing of sensory inputs and motor control on the RCX?

Dead on! by HiggsBison · 2004-01-12 14:05 · Score: 1

He's right
You've got to have space Legos, although I've found that the Star Wars sets have a lot of good general use and spaceship parts.

And you've got to have space pirates and such.

In the Chicago area they have 2 Lego stores (Michigan Avenue near the Wrigley Building, and Woodfield) and you can pick and choose a small or large cup of parts of your choosing for a flat charge. They have all the cool interconnects, and specialty parts. They also have the standard bricks, only in way more colors.

I can sit down with a hundred random parts and just start throwing together a space something-or-other with guns and crane-arms and hyperspace whatchamacallits and all!

This is one of the highlights on Christmas Day for me and my little sister: making spaceships out of Legos. (And we're both in our late 40s)

--
My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.

Chicago by HiggsBison · 2004-01-12 14:16 · Score: 1

As I mentioned in another thread, there are 2 Lego stores in the Chicago area. Michigan Avenue near the Wrigley Building, and Woodfield Shopping Center. They have a great selection of odd parts, and bricks in way more than the usual 5 colors. As you say, they are sold by various size cups.

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My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.

Extreme Specialization Prevents Lego Scalability by whittrash · 2004-01-12 14:44 · Score: 1

Building any complex lego creation, like a spaceship requires some kind of structure, symetry, hierarchy and organization. Take a lego rocket: The rocket engines attach to the fuel tanks which in turn attach to the landing vehicle which needs matching aerodynamic stabilizers and landing gear. Some elements are rare and unique, such as the cockpit to the rocket but must be fit within an overall design. If the parts become too unique a matching scheme becomes difficult. Instead of finding parts which meet goals or criteria, the process is reversed, the parts are a given condition and a use must be found for them, this limits options. This problem is solved by having a larger and larger pool of legos, where parts can then be matched, you can find the 3 matching rockets parts you need which is more useful than 3 unique rocket parts which would necessitate an eccentric layout of the rocket. At a certain point, if the lego pool has too many unique or specialized parts, the vast quantity of legos needed to organize a construction process will create an orgnaizational problem, where you have the part you need, you just can't find it or you spend as much time inventorying your product as you do building it. At the same time, unique and un-repeated elements begin to dominate, causing the overall construct to fragment because you cannot make any general assumptions in your building process, all process elements are unique. You may be forced to make substitutes due to lack of parts or time constraints which lead to inferior structure and cause process defects or you are forced to reduce the complexity or size of the project. Unseen process defects could invalidate the original intention of the design, for example a rocket may now have to be converted to a space station. A huge tub of legos filled with specialized and unique where most parts aren't needed is less useful than a smaller tub with more related parts where most of them have an expectation for usefullness.

Expensive by Tritoph · 2004-01-12 14:46 · Score: 0

Maybe Legos could also be not so damned expensive. Jesus, $10 for a little Star Wars rover with 50 pieces that fits on your palm? Screw that.

You got it bcakwards by whittrash · 2004-01-12 14:56 · Score: 1

Legos were ariginally designed as an engineering tool that was converted to a toy, not the other way around.

The myth of gender neutrality by 0x0d0a · 2004-01-12 14:56 · Score: 2, Interesting

The reason your sons migrates to "boy" toys and your daughter migrates to "girl" toys is most likely because of the advertising of the toys, how they're perceived in society, and the role they play in social interaction.

At *less than two*? No, I don't buy it. I agree that social things in school have a phenomenal impact on how girls and guys intract, but before that...no.

Perhaps. Of course, this rhetoric is also fairly recent feminist stuff, probably around the 1700s or so or later.

There *are* plausible biological justifications for girls and guys being different at mental levels. Almost anyone says "awww...cute" when looking at a baby. I cannot believe that this is entirely propagated via memes through society. The same thing is true of sexual attractiveness -- there clearly is a possibility for gense to pattern-match and attach to mental thought fairly high-level concepts.

Now, that being said, women get pregant. It's damned hard to run and hunt, say, a deer if you're pregnant. I'm not a woman, but I'd also suspect that it's a bit of a pain to be running when one has breasts heavy from lactating. Plus, a mother needs to be around to feed a kid milk for his infancy. This means that it's not exactly unreasonable to expect women to evolve traits beneficial to being around babies. Since there's clearly a benefit to having *someone* able to run out and get meat, and the only free person in a two-person-pairing is the male, it makes sense to expect men to evolve trais beneficial to hunting (and perhaps even to making war). Hunting can involve being away from a baby for a long time, and at least later forms of war, the same. There are clearly physical differences -- men are decidedly larger and more muscular.

Now, that doesn't mean that there isn't a positive feedback loop, where someone might be *slightly* inclined towards some set of interests and society tends to shove him (or her) faster and faster down a path. That doesn't mean that a girl must inevitably have "girlish" interests or a guy must have "guy" interests. However, it *does* mean that it's quite reasonable to treat claims that roles and interests derive *entirely* from society with skepticism.

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May we never see th

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by cooley · 2004-01-12 15:26 · Score: 1

Duh, have you ever been to the US? What do you think we smoke, dude?

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Just then the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders started yelling Everything You Know Is Wrong!-Weird Al

Re:One story per week on this is enough by 0x0d0a · 2004-01-12 15:35 · Score: 1

Believe it or not there are people on this site who care about Lego but don't want the site stuffed full of information about Lego's latest business plans. This is not "Slashdot-News only about Lego. Stuff that only matters to Lego shareholders".

Given the number of people criticizing Lego's first move, and happy about the fact that Lego is going "back to basics", I would say that this thread is, in fact, worthwhile.

Look at the comment count -- it's up there, higher than a typical story. People are clearly interested in it.

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May we never see th

The Lego Website is one of the MOST OUTSTANDING by oort+cloud+daikini · 2004-01-12 15:42 · Score: 1

I am very dismayed to hear of the retrenchment of Lego toward their traditional Product lines. Qualifications: I have an Eight year old son Aiden, and 5 year old son, Tristan. We love the Bionicles series! And We love the basic sets. I have been planning on a Mindstorms purchase for over a year. We also have duplo which we love. But of special note to Slashdotters (and I was surprised no one else commented on this) the www.lego.com website is one of the three best designed and programmed sites in the world. My son Aiden logged hundred's of hours on the original Bionicle virtual island of Mata Nui on the website. It was a tour de force of shockwave programming and design. The pedagogical philosophy of Lego shown brightly on that site. It was one of the best adventure roleplaying games I have ever seen, challenging my son to be an anthropologist on a distant planet with an inscrutable robotic culture. He had to resolve symbolic decodings, and an epidemological problem that I can recall immediately. The instructions that acompany bionicles are perfect for indoctrinating kids in the notion of RTFM. We have a special building ritual at my house for these lego systems. I use these products for systems teaching and they love it! My youngest son Tristan can flop states instantly from the totally wide open creative play with these technics elements to the structured pursuit of the designed projects. Both states are desirable from my point of view. I am poor as dirt, I don't have much furniture but I don't begrudge a single penny spent on Lego product. (I don't begrudge the premium I paid for our Macintosh Titanium either.) Lego probably has undertaken a little to much this past year and the website suffers from mission creep and "improving" things that were actually better two iterations ago. Still, It is utterly a mistake for them to abandon the excellent technics products and their brilliant website. The basic system is great, but so is much of the product they have developed these last five years. Oh and their CD Titles rock as well! Alas they don't play on OS X. My sons develop with Robo Tech and Erector but please don't mess with our Lego! (and Steve, when are you going to cut a deal with Lego to get all of the CD titles and Mindstorms Kid Graphical (LeJos and NQC are a little steep for my boys right now) programming interface running native on OS X? You know you want that mindshare!) "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein "For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong" - G.B. Shaw

lasting value... by sbrowning · 2004-01-12 15:52 · Score: 1

My folks still had all my legos from 35 years ago in a closet. I have given them to my kids now to play with, they love 'em. Not a 'special' piece in the bunch.

Funny thing is, when I help my kids with them, I come across the same 'problematic' pieces that I remember as a kid, i.e. the ones that don't snap quite tightly enough!

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Steve Browning http://www.sbrowning.com

Scott Bakula singing "Pig Island" by Samrobb · 2004-01-12 16:01 · Score: 1

Didn't we learn the lesson about enterprise captains singing?

This must have been released before he picked up his Enterprise gig, because while it's not the best thing I've ever heard, it's certainly innocuous enough. He's got a decent voice, and has obviously had some voice training.

You can find it, and all the other songs, in RealAudio format on the Philadelphia Chickens web site. Or you can just jump straight in and listen to Pig Island... if you dare! Muh-wa-ha-ha-ha!

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"Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9

55 Gallon drum of lego by Tekoneiric · 2004-01-12 16:40 · Score: 1

I just wish I had a 55 gallon drum of lego to play with. :)

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*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*

Please learn how to use links by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 17:31 · Score: 0

Please learn how to use links:

<a href="http://www.mcmaster.com">McMaster-Carr Web-site</a>

yields "McMaster-Carr Web-site".

Re:Please learn how to use links by some+guy+I+know · 2004-01-12 17:43 · Score: 1

It doesn't matter.
The site is unnavigable with JavaScript turned off.
They just lost a potential customer.

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Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana

Please learn how to use links. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-12 17:41 · Score: 0

Please learn how to use links:

<a href="http://www.handyboard.com">Handy Board</a>

yields "Handy Board".

What about the slashdot crowd? by jmay · 2004-01-12 17:56 · Score: 1

I would guess that "the slashdot crowd" (i.e. geeks that still play with Lego, and tend to buy more of it than the average 8-year-old's parents) isn't nearly a large enough market to expect to make any money from.

I wonder if the Lego folks should consider looking into multiple marketing channels? Continue the mass delivery channel for their traditional products, and then look for other channels for niche products (Mindstorms, for geeks). If they could eliminate a lot of the marketing and distribution expenses, perhaps they could continue to manufacture smaller volumes of these products profitably. Sell them online, or through a small number of key retailers in major markets.

New Themes? by treczoks · 2004-01-12 20:44 · Score: 1

Well, the good thing about LEGO is that you can build things on your own.

Some things won't come, though. As a company deep rooted (mostly) in positive values
> A: Lego Army men
are simply a no-no. No current-century military stuff. An I think that is one of the best ideas a toymaker can adhere to. There are more then 11000 killings by shotguns in the US per year. Kids should not learn about shooting other people in their home.

> B: Lego Star trek (yeah, ok, they'd need copyright stuff, but I know that there'd be a proliferation of lego comic things... And I'd buy them just to take pictures of the red shirted ensign pieces getting killed in various ways.)
This won't come, too. LEGO has a Space series (currently sleeping), an NASA/Planetary Society educational series (with nice sets with spirit landers and space shuttles, too!), and Star Wars. The last one costs an arm and a leg with respect to licensing, and they won't tie another brick to their legs right now...

> C: Lego Warhammer 40k (finally, a cheap and fun way to play warhammer! Of course this would be directed at the younger crowd...)
Another licensing iron ball.

> D: Lego D&D (Miniatures take too damn long to paint.)
Again. Build it yourself. I did: This is an AD&D scenario for a module I wrote (at least ist's the front half, the rear is in production right now...).

Wizards, priest, fighters are easily assembled out of various sets (I've got a whole bucket of minifig parts from several boot sales, and I can always find a suitable leg/torso/face/headgear combination). The Harry Potter and Star Wars sets deliver a range of foes, and anything else can be build from normal bricks (I can't find it right now, bur I saw a red dinosaur recently which would make a bad ass red dragon if I ever saw one...)

> E: Lego Half life
What for?

> F: Lego programming department (so the /. people are appeased.)
Google for Mindstorms and/or RCX and look at what people did. Like fully automated rubics cube solver and such.

If you really want a theme, go build it yourself.

Travelodge Scattergun Lego approach by RMH101 · 2004-01-12 22:31 · Score: 1

In the UK the Travelodge chain of cheap short-stay hotels are built a little like Lego: they come in prefabricated sections that clip together to form a complete hotel. The speed they put them up at is a little disconcerting if you live near one: they can and DO strip them down and move them to a different location if they prove not to be profitable at their current site.

this is a GOOD THING! by RMH101 · 2004-01-12 22:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

Lego's meant to foster creativity ("A New Toy Everyday (tm)") and you've just proved it. You MADE the tool you needed to do the job, and a few years later, here you are on Slashdot. I'm sure there's a correlation between lego use as a child and adult mad geek skillz...

Lego in an academic environment by DerPflanz · 2004-01-12 23:57 · Score: 1

Here at the technical university of Eindhoven (the Netherlands) we use Lego Dacta and Mindstorms for controlling trains to test models. Lego is perfect for these things as it is easy to build things and you can control them from your PC. And who doesn't want to do his master's thesis on Lego ;-) ? It would be a pity to see the controller bricks go. They also add to your inventivity and creativity. The themed bricks on the other hand only restrict you in your imagination; you cannot use a Harry Potter in a rocket, but you can use a plain Lego-man (hard to translate, here we call it "poppetje", which would translate to "little puppet", but somehow that doesn't sound right) as Harry Potter.

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-- The Internet is a too slow way of doing things, you'd never do without it.

Cool! by KennyP · 2004-01-13 04:05 · Score: 1

For my niece's 4th birthday, my sister suggested I purchase her some Legos. Just plain Legos. I went to about half a dozen different toy stores. No plain Legos - all of the Bionicles, MindStorm and the like, but no plain Legos. WTF? No plain Legos?!?!? What, kids don't come with imagination anymore? Gimme a break! I finally had to order them online. I got a bucket of 500 plain pieces and a 1/2 price kit with only a few specialized pieces. My niece now will sit for hours and play Legos. It's one of our favorite things to do when I visit. Build Lego towns, vehicles, etc. and then watch Godzilla or even a fluffy bunny come through and wreak havok!!! Mua ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Ahem... Kenny P. Visualize Whirled P.'s

Official Lego Comment on Mindstorms, etc. by Neb+Okla · 2004-01-14 15:53 · Score: 1

"Hearsay has it that a product range like LEGO MINDSTORMS is no longer in focus. This is not true. On the contrary, MINDSTORMS, CLIKITS and BIONICLE are all good examples of products the company wants to stake on." SOURCE: http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=pres s

Re:Walgreens overpopulation by Dhalka226 · 2004-01-14 18:20 · Score: 1

I'm told that this is how it works with McDonalds, so it may well work with others as well:

Simply put they are choking the competition. McDonalds' are built every half a block. It's not profitable. However, it chokes away the mom-and-pop and non-chain stores very quickly. Then it works on the small chain stores. It might work on Burger King and other big chains over time, but not as well.

Once the competition around the area is choked into non-existance, you close the less performing stores and have found yourself a corner on the market. You sacrifice some capital to gain market dominance in the area. The bigger the chain the easier and more readily they can take those losses, and for a longer time. Everybody has a point they have to say enough is enough. I think these stores are just hoping theirs is father down the road.

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Lego Goes Back to the Basics: Building Blocks

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