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Has Lego Sold Out?
Hugh Pickens writes "Matt Richtel and Jesse McKinley write in the NY Times that for generations of American children, Legos were the ultimate do-it-yourself plaything. Little plastic bricks, with scant instructions, just add imagination. But today's construction sets are often tied to billion-dollar franchises like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and invite users to follow detailed directions, not construct their own creations from whole brick. It's less open-ended, some parents and researchers say, and more like paint-by-numbers. 'When I was a kid, you got a big box of bricks and that was it,' says Tracy Bagatelle-Black. 'What stinks about Lego sets now is that they're not imaginative at all.' Lego loyalists are quick to defend the company. Josh Wedin, the managing editor of the Brothers Brick, a Lego blog, called complaints that they are less creative 'simply ridiculous,' adding that Legos always included some instructions, though he says he misses the alternative designs that used to be on the back of the box. But Clifford Nass, a sociology professor at Stanford University who studies how people relate to the physical world versus the virtual world, says some essential qualities were lost when Lego became more like other toys. 'The genius of Lego was, you had to do the work.' Learning about frustration, Nass says, 'is a hugely important thing.'" (And watch soon for a review of The Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide, a book intended to help Lego users escape the tyranny of block-by-number instructions.)
Doesn't the NYT have anything more important to publish than people bitching about legos? If you just want a bag of bricks, you can still get them. In fact, you can order them in bulk now, which wasn't offered when I was a kid.
you could still buy buckets of bricks, and the whole back wall was loose bricks for people that wanted to make their own bucket. I've been playing with Lego for thirty years. I always wanted to make what was on the box first, but eventually it became whatever the hell I wanted it to be. If someone wants to whine about children not being creative these days, I think Lego is the last reason they aren't creative!
That title must go to Meccano. With this you could build real things that worked and would not fall into bits at the first knock. With strips of metal held together with nuts and bolts you could create great things. I loved it.
He *could* care less, so he does care for them then?
Actually, that's probably just selective memory...
From a Q&A with LEGO:
Q: I would like to know why they are using so many specialized pieces in their sets now instead of using more "basic" bricks that allow for greater building outside the set the pieces came in. Why have Lego sets for the latest few generations been dummied down?
A: This is an impression that many people have but, in fact, the piece count has been reduced drastically and there's a move back to roots in Lego, not only for creativity but to save money. Lego went from 12,000 different pieces to 6,800 in the last few years-a number that includes the color variations.
E pluribus unum
Now? Lego has always been extremely expensive.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
I don't know about kits but you can definitely still buy Lego by the tub. There's a big Lego store at the Mall of America near where I live. They sell lots of licensed kits but there's lots there for freeform building. A few shelves are dedicated to tubs of plain bricks as well as some utility sets. Last Christmas we bought for my cousin a box of nothing but wheels and windscreens. They also have an entire wall they call "Pick-a-Brick" where you can fill up a cup with any assortment of bricks that you please. We're giving him a cup of those this year to provide him with some of the pieces that tend to get overlooked in the boxed sets.
Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
I have been told there is a reason for the expense. Legos are built to extremely tight tolerances, something up to 10 micrometers. Tight tolerances means everything is more expensive (the dies have to be swapped out more, quality control, etc).
The reason for tight tolerances is that it has to be backwards compatible with all the other lego sets out there. They just have to fit.
You could buy the alternatives, like mega bloks, but the creations often fall easily apart and don't have quite the same fit, even if the pieces are from the same tub.
What a load of rubbish, Lego sets have included detailed instructions to make the specific thing on the box for decades! The main difference now is that sets are tied to specific films like Starwars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and so on rather than just generic themes like space, pirates, castles etc.
How is this pirate set from 1989 any worse than this Pirates of the Caribbean set from 2011?
It may be a movie tie-in but you've still got to build the thing yourself and you can take it apart and put it together again any way you like.
Yeah, I remember as a kind one thing I wanted for Christmas and never got was a $100 Lego castle. This was in the late 80 early 90s. This also serves to note that even back then, Lego wasn't just a box of generic bricks. They had soldiers, weapons, horses, specialty mountains and trees.
I remember lego space started out pretty generic, but over time the pieces got more and more specialized to the theme. Eventually you got these flying saucers with big alien logos on the pieces that you couldn't use for much else. The only difference between now and then is you have Galactic Republic logo instead. This may be "selling out", but I don't see how it would have much of an impact on a child's creativity, as I got along just fine with the old imaginary brand sets.
I think his overall point was that LEGO is cheaper today in terms of real dollars. It was just a really awkward final statement.
>> I'm glad I kept most of my legos for when my son's old enough for them.
> I take it you threw the grammar book out?
As "son's" can be a contraction for "son is", I fail to see the problem.