first. Though not a huge fan of Mindstorms, I got in at about the same time with some huge Technic sets. You can't go that wrong with thousands of Technic/brick pieces when going for creativity, and I think they've lost the creativity factor more than anything else. The sets now are only useful to create one thing and doing it once is fun - doing it twice is torture - doing it more is masochism. I remember a set when I was a kid that had wheels, gears, pulleys and bricks. That's it. Played with it for years. Nowadays the huge rubbermaid totes I store my Technics in keep drawing me back the same way.
I do like the star wars sets even though they have many custom pieces because they are perfectly designed for creating ships if you have a bunch of the early sets. The collector edition X-Wing I had on my desk for a while was the right size to use a Time-Traveller as the pilot.:) Plus, the new micro ships are very well done with very few custom parts (unless you consider anything other than a 2x4 brick custom) and I have them all sitting on my desk at home.
The problem since they started the movie tie-ins was that was all you could buy for a couple of years. I only have about 5 or 6 large Technic sets plus a few smaller ones, but none of them are newer than 4 years old because Lego phased out decent Technics since they started putting out the computer games and movie tie-ins. Bionicle is a kind of fake Technic for kids they were using as an attempt to grab some of the already failing action-figure market and the prosperous collectible trading market. I hope Bionicle dies a quick death. I hope it doesn't take Lego with it, though.
As for the sports sets, they were a waste of Lego's cash to make. I don't think I've seen anybody actually buy them - the stores around me that have them all seem to have an overstock until they slide onto the discount rack. They made it even worse by licencing NBA players and selling them like they were baseball cards, 3 stars to a box - collect them all! Not.
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I believe the term you're looking for is "Legal Bribery of a Public Elected Official" - aka lobbying.
first. Though not a huge fan of Mindstorms, I got in at about the same time with some huge Technic sets. You can't go that wrong with thousands of Technic/brick pieces when going for creativity, and I think they've lost the creativity factor more than anything else. The sets now are only useful to create one thing and doing it once is fun - doing it twice is torture - doing it more is masochism. I remember a set when I was a kid that had wheels, gears, pulleys and bricks. That's it. Played with it for years. Nowadays the huge rubbermaid totes I store my Technics in keep drawing me back the same way.
:) Plus, the new micro ships are very well done with very few custom parts (unless you consider anything other than a 2x4 brick custom) and I have them all sitting on my desk at home.
I do like the star wars sets even though they have many custom pieces because they are perfectly designed for creating ships if you have a bunch of the early sets. The collector edition X-Wing I had on my desk for a while was the right size to use a Time-Traveller as the pilot.
The problem since they started the movie tie-ins was that was all you could buy for a couple of years. I only have about 5 or 6 large Technic sets plus a few smaller ones, but none of them are newer than 4 years old because Lego phased out decent Technics since they started putting out the computer games and movie tie-ins. Bionicle is a kind of fake Technic for kids they were using as an attempt to grab some of the already failing action-figure market and the prosperous collectible trading market. I hope Bionicle dies a quick death. I hope it doesn't take Lego with it, though.
As for the sports sets, they were a waste of Lego's cash to make. I don't think I've seen anybody actually buy them - the stores around me that have them all seem to have an overstock until they slide onto the discount rack. They made it even worse by licencing NBA players and selling them like they were baseball cards, 3 stars to a box - collect them all! Not.
Go back to what was good, Lego.