9 ms·

Lego is one of those companies that is simultaneously amazing and kind of sucks. On one hand the core product is incredible. The tolerances on the bricks are mi

• utopiah 6mo ago
  Nostalgia... Lego was amazing decades ago so we want it to remain so. It's not anymore though. The whole raison d'etre, namely infinitely recomposable bricks to be creative, was lost the moment they realized they were a LOT more money in custom sets. Sets become collectible, perishable, trends can form, secondary markets exists, etc. It's simply about the baseline, not the principle. Sorry.
  • qingcharles 6mo ago
    These collectible (read: branded) sets are what saved them from bankruptcy, though.
    • FarmerPotato 6mo ago
      Harry Potter did. Lego didn't anticipate that they would ship ONE MILLION copies of the first large Hogwart's school-castle set.
    • Keyframe 6mo ago
      How can you go bankrupt with Lego? That's almost like going bankrupt with Coca Cola. It's probably one of the most if not the most recognizable toy brand there is. I'll have to read up on this, sounds like a fantastic voyage of mismanagement, if true.
      • mrgoldenbrown 6mo ago
        https://blog.firestartoys.com/how-the-lego-company-almost-went-bankrupt-a-history/ https://blog.firestartoys.com/how-the-lego-company-almost-we... It happened in the early 2000's. They actually posted a loss one year.
      • jamesfinlayson 6mo ago
        It was in one of those Netflix documentaries - I didn't realise it at the time but there was an 18 month period from 2003 to 2004 during which no new Harry Potter or Star Wars movies came out so sales of the licensed IP sets was down.
        • utopiah 6mo ago
          Is it episode 7 of "The Toys That Made Us" (May 2018)? If so that'd make a lot of sense, same thing for Google where founders hated advertising but when it was either going under or getting rich by doing the 1 thing they didn't to go, they chose wealth.
          • jamesfinlayson 6mo ago
            Yes that would've been it.
  • thinkingtoilet 6mo ago
    Lego is still amazing and you don't have to buy expensive sets for your kids to enjoy them. My son loves Legos and if he gets a set for his birthday it doesn't last long before he takes it apart and starts building other stuff with it. This is one of those instances where it feels like people are terminally online. Or like the meme of the guy standing in the corner while everyone else is having fun at the party. You can find Legos being given away in a local buy-nothing group. It's still just as magical for kids as it ever was. These complaints are only from an adult who doesn't play with Legos. Who cares if sets become collectibles? Get other sets and have fun with Legos. These are toys that are meant to be played with. Play with them.
    • Latitude7973 6mo ago
      *Lego
  • mmustapic 6mo ago
    Lego sets aimed at children are still good! They work as standalone toys, and can also be reassembled, modified and combined. Very few toys are like this. Adults collect them, true, but there are whole lines dedicated to them.
    • jonhohle 6mo ago
      I recently built the NES and Game Boy sets and thought both of those were really great. The NES is probably not priced for most people (we try to stay under 10¢ a brick), but the level of detail, whimsy, and mechanics are all really well done. There are hidden scenes and Easter eggs built into the system that are revealed as you build rather than highlighted as features on the box. I was genuinely surprised and had a lot of fun sharing that with my family as we realized what was coming together. The Game Boy was much more affordable. Less whimsical, but brought back memories of taking apart electronics and marveling at what these circuit boards and components could possibly be doing.
      • mmustapic 6mo ago
        The Game Boy is apparently one of the best sets of 2025, cleverly built and a nice display item. Still, it is for adults, kids have tons of other sets to choose from.
        • wincy 6mo ago
          I often look at these and think they’d be fun for me to display, then think I’d prefer an actual Game Boy disassembled as a piece of wall art [0]. This sort of stuff is just so cool in my opinion. Edit: now that I look on EBay building my own display like that would probably cost maybe $60 vs $189? Broken Game Boys are $40 on eBay, so maybe a project I could do for fun! [0] https://xreart.com/products/xreart-game-boy-pocket https://xreart.com/products/xreart-game-boy-pocket
    • dclowd9901 6mo ago
      The "Creator" sets in particular I feel harken the most to the company's roots. They usually have a few different builds per set and include all sorts of unique pieces for making your own creations. They also usually have very fun designs.
  • bpev 6mo ago
    It was kinda funny to see the Lego Movie, which puts a bunch of emphasis on breaking the rules and mixing and matching everything, and then seeing them release the sets for the movie. I mean, it makes perfect sense. But it was still kinda lowkey humorous. But imo they're still a great toy; very fun to go to conventions and the like, where people just have giant piles of loose pieces you can buy by weight.
  • bigstrat2003 6mo ago
    They still sell the sets of generic bricks. At that point it is up to the individual customer to buy them if he prefers that. I could see your point if they stopped selling the more free form product, but they haven't.
  • WillAdams 6mo ago
    Look at it from the corporation's viewpoint: - they have a finite production capacity - they have a finite warehousing capacity - there is a certain number of sets which will be bought - crates of bricks without an established design have a limited appeal and while a consistent SKU, don't have the baked in demand a new set will have
  • bazoom42 6mo ago
    You can still buy “generic” lego sets if you want. Look for “Lego Classic” sets.
    • bluescrn 6mo ago
      They're a bit too simplistic though. Some of the classic 80s themes, like Space and Castle, primarily used regular bricks of reasonable sizes in a very limited palette of colours, with a few special parts unique to the theme. They were much more suited to taking apart and building your own creations. These days, there's just too many specialised and small parts, and too many colours. Even if you buy a big grey Star Wars set, you'll find that the internal structure is often brightly coloured to make the instructions clearer - but this isn't ideal if you want to take it apart and build something else.
      • bombcar 6mo ago
        If you like City, Lego has you covered, even now (cue the old jokes about Lego City having 500 police stations, 400 fire stations, 20 gas stations, and no shops and no houses). The other themes of old have been replaced by movie tie-ins, and it's hard to build a pirate world out of Pirates of the Caribbean sets
  • Aurornis 6mo ago
    The existence of specialty sets doesn’t subtract from creating building. My kids get some of the specialty sets, build them, then hours later they’re either taken apart or heavily modified. The specialty sets can provide some interesting unique pieces too. My kids have a photographic memory of each of those special pieces and which set they came from. They’ll remember them and search until they find that exact piece. > Sets become collectible, perishable, trends can form, secondary markets exists, etc. It's simply about the baseline, not the principle. Sorry. I don’t know what this is supposed to mean, but you can completely ignore secondary markets and collector sets if you want. There are more sets and pieces than ever. You don’t have to collect anything.
    • johnisgood 6mo ago
      Off-topic, but: > My kids have a photographic memory How do you know it is photographic memory? More than one of your kids have it? Do you know why or what may have contributed to its development?
      • eszed 6mo ago
        > Of each of these special pieces I didn't see him making any generalized claim. I recall the things I'm really into better than I do things I'm not, which is all I think he was saying about his kids. (My four year old remembers facts about volcanos - including the name of the scientist who made the claim - waaay better than he does where he left his shoes, so it tracks for me!)
      • panzagl 6mo ago
        > My kids have a photographic memory of each of those special pieces and which set they came from. Read the whole sentence- this is clearly an informal use of 'photographic memory' to indicate that his kids are really into Lego and keep track of details in the way only kids can.
        • johnisgood 6mo ago
          That is what I was thought, but I thought I was wrong.
  • arkh 6mo ago
    You can still buy basic brick sets. With lot of nice color nowadays. Like the CLassics or Creator lines: https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/classic https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/classic And for $100 you get a lot of bricks to play with and let your imagination go wild. Just don't buy sets aimed at adults and IP fansumers.
    • roelschroeven 6mo ago
      The point is: when I was a kid, all Lego sets consisted almost completely of general bricks. You could, and would, start building different things from the moment you got your first set, and the possibilities would increase exponentially once you got a few more sets. Any set contributed to your collection of building blocks to create new things.
      • robertfw 6mo ago
        I really don't get this sentiment. The only sets that I think didn't contribute like this were the bionicle stuff. Getting a few more unique parts with a set gives you more options, not less.
      • ChrisKnott 6mo ago
        I don’t think this is true at all. What do you mean by “general bricks”? If anything there is more brick-built stuff nowadays. For example the Creator 3-in-1 Castle (which I got for my son for Christmas) is pretty similar to castle sets I had as a child but basically way better and with brick built horses rather than large mould ones
        • Freak_NL 6mo ago
          The 3-in-1 sets (where the set numbers actually begin with 31) should really be the first thing you look at when choosing a set for a child, and they deserve more praise. There are a lot of cool 3-in-1 sets out there. That castle (31168) is really good (and those horses are too!), and the haunted mansion (31167) is just cool with minifigs which are a hit with any kid. For a small and cheap present that hamster (31376) is just too cute to pass up too. It feels like those sets are where the Lego designers get to do their thing and do it right, without the weight of licenced IP (of which there is so much) and the trite offerings of the City range.
  • maxglute 6mo ago
    You can also only get so creative with lego. At the end of the day roblox/minecraft and video games trains kids to build more "relevant" things. Apart from tactility, I don't see what technic/mindstorm offers over digital.
    • kjkjadksj 6mo ago
      You use your imagination. I had a tub of random parts from a bunch of old 80s and 90s sets that were since put into the blender that is a family of small children. I would build space craft. Big freighters with internal bays to hold smaller ships. Huge bases and compounds for my other toys. Various other vehicles and structures. I was basically constantly building for 10 straight years of my life. No sets. No plans. No eye strain from screens. Just pure creativity and imagination.
      • maxglute 6mo ago
        My point is lego has ceiling on imagination. Different in analogue world where most of building was physical. I grew up with buckets of mismatched lego and lots of technic sets, it was more interactive relative to other toys at the time, but now snapping bricks vs running server for minecraft city seems like baby mode.
        • cruffle_duffle 6mo ago
          And that is the thing about raising a kid these days. Those damn machines have replaced so much… because yeah Minecraft is like a souped up version of Lego where in creative mode you have every part you need. And you don’t have to dig for it or anything. And it has survival mode and a whole huge thing on top of that. It’s so difficult to know the boundaries. People from older generations giving advice about screen time and stuff simply don’t understand… “screen time” for me growing up was broadcast tv and a limited set of video games. If you didnt like what was on tv, too bad. Do something else. If you were bored of whatever Nintendo game you had… too bad, do something else. But now… you can get literally anything. Plus the iPad gets used to make videos of playing with the cat, or she will have tea parties with her stuffies and make them tea using some weird cooking game. Etc. No previous generation had to face this. It’s an order of magnitude or more shifted from when they raised us. Tablets basically can replace almost every single toy from growing up besides ones that require being physical (rc cars, bricks, digging in the yard)… but books, cameras, light brights, etc… all replaced. It’s completely uncharted water us parents are facing. Anybody that claims to “know the right rules” for tablets and technology is lying to you. They don’t. Nobody does. All we can do is use our best judgement and try to give ourselves credit for doing the best we can.
  • mrgoldenbrown 6mo ago
    There's nothing stopping you from buying the basic sets and only the basic sets. They didn't stop making basic sets, unless you're objecting to the new colors that go beyond blue red yellow and black?
  • Henchman21 6mo ago
    Co-branding is the death of good products, and in the case of toys, the death of fun
• throw310822 6mo ago
  > the fact that pieces from the 70s snap perfectly into ones made today is mind blowing Is it? It's not like it's hard to keep producing the pieces to the same original specifications. If they snapped then they snap now.
  • flatline 6mo ago
    I think it's more the consistency of product design than the manufacturing process. Everything around me, especially in the software world, seems to change for no good reason on a frequent basis. Companies change products all the time for reasons other than utility/functionality. A consistent specification over 50+ years is an outlier.
  • StilesCrisis 6mo ago
    How many plastic things from the 70s still work perfectly with no cracking or warping?
    • throw310822 6mo ago
      Not sure, but is this about the backwards compatibility or the chosen type of plastic?
      • tokai 6mo ago
        Yes
  • Paratoner 6mo ago
    Did you even read the article? No, even just the Title? Nothing is ever impressive I guess. Certainly not a 60 years running manufacturing process where your childhood pieces can be passed down and combined seamlessly with a set you just bought for your kid. So trivial and easy to do guys.
    • FarmerPotato 6mo ago
      The precision in tolerance over the years is truly breathtaking. It speaks to Ole Kirk Christiansen's impossible standards: "Even the best is not good enough" (Det Bedste Er Ikke For Godt.) (usually translated "Only the best is good enough.") Much more strenuous in Danish than the usual quoted translation! but I know some Danish, and most of all that's how Kjeld Kirk Christiansen explained it to an American audience at Brickfest 2003 (IIRC the year). As I commented elsewhere, it's not 60 years. Sure, the outer dimensions have not changed and are very strict metric Lego Units. [1] But there have been continual improvement that render old and new less than wonderful to use together. You don't really want to mix 70s-early 80s bricks. Conversely, if you're reselling those old sets, you need to find vintage pieces (though also Lego would use up older pieces and begin to use newer ones in that set) But bricks from the mature design of the 80s even didn't age so well (clutch too hard, walls can warp), and there have been many improvements to the interior of a brick. All for sound engineering reasons. Thinner walls and internal voids to prevent warp, subtle changes to fine-tune clutch power. It's a story of continual improvement, but it makes the old bricks seem less wonderful. Weird thing Lego started to advertise in the 2000s: Lego bricks reach the proper clutch power after 7 insertions! I guess you have to stress-work the new plastic... [1] I've used a micrometer on pieces of various age and can't get a difference from the outside. Doesn't help that they compress under measuring.
• sammy2255 6mo ago
  Maybe if something is too expensive don't buy it?
• awkward 6mo ago
  The decline of technic sets is such a shame. There's so little support for anything but representative models of specific cars, despite the platform being able to support a ton of mechanical creativity.
  • amelius 6mo ago
    ^ This
  • georgefrowny 6mo ago
    The disappearance of real metal Meccano is really crazy. I know metal is expensive, but also bulk processing of it has never been cheaper or faster. It's also a shame because it's really good for mechanical rapid prototyping and you can bend and cut it in a pinch and it stays put. But buying vintage Meccano to abuse like that is expensive and feels like a war crime.
  • Freak_NL 6mo ago
    My son inherited (well, we're co-owning it I guess) my Lego, and that includes two sets of Technic aimed at educational use (1030 and 1032) which come with a stack of instructions for fairly simple mechanical models to build — each demonstrating basic mechanical principles like gear reduction and pulleys. Those sets used the 4.5V motors which have all broken down, but we also have the 1990 Technic Control Centre fully working and use those instead. That Control Centre is a simple controller used with 9V motors. It is brilliant for explaining the basic principles of computerised automation. No app. No Bluetooth. Just wires and a simple controller built to be used and understood by children. https://rebrickable.com/sets/8094-1/technic-control-centre https://rebrickable.com/sets/8094-1/technic-control-centre
• jacquesm 6mo ago
  They suck because instead of buying the rights to the bricks they outright stole the design, the packaging and the marketing materials from the original inventor. And then they sued the pants of everybody that tried to do the same thing to them.
  • FarmerPotato 6mo ago
    That's a simplification of the Kiddicraft story. Yes, it was a shame. After Lego lost in court (to Hilary Page's heirs I think by then) I believe they finally atoned for that. Still, Lego didn't just sell the Kiddicraft brick unmodified. Lego patented the tubes inside, which gave it superior clutch power. (I have a lot of 2x4 bricks with "Pat Pend" molded on them!) As I've heard it, Ole Kirk Christiansen had seen Hilary Page's brick as a sample from a molding machine vendor. Lego previously made wooden toys (until his son Godtfred allegedly set the factory on fire) and was casting about for what production to invest in for the future. The Kiddicraft brick was a little rectangular box, no tubes inside. A lot of brick toys came out in the 60s that were little shells with varying clutch power. For a museum of the many brick toys, go to https://www.architoys.net https://www.architoys.net In particular, Betta Bilda, Block City, American Bricks.
    • jacquesm 6mo ago
      He took them back to Denmark and copied them. https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/02/l-is-for-legos-dirty-little-secret.html https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/02/l-is-for-legos-... The tubes came (much) later. Even the boxes were direct copies.
• deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
• bdunks 6mo ago
  Agree. They seem to have a “price per piece” equation. Perhaps as a result, the 5+ sets are made of hundreds of small pieces. Older sets had larger foundational and platform pieces which gave a good starting place for new creative builds. Today, airplanes fuselages, wings, and car chassis are instead built up piece by piece. It’s hard for my 6 year old to start creative builds that are stable when he hardly has any pieces larger than 2x6 across dozens of sets. My wife found a huge mixed bin from the 80s and 90s at an estate sale. It really helped.
  • eru 6mo ago
    > Today, airplanes fuselages, wings, and car chassis are instead built up piece by piece. Well, people did complain about the whole 'special pieces' trend that you praise.
    • alexjplant 6mo ago
      As a kid I loved the giant boat hull piece because it was sealed and actually floated. This in combination with some larger pylon-type pieces from the Star Wars set meant you could build floating cities and vehicles and such and mess with them in the kitchen sink. I wish I had hobbies as cheap as LEGO now...
      • bombcar 6mo ago
        They still make "boats that really float" today: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/arctic-explorer-ship-60368 https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/arctic-explorer-ship-6036...
    • Aurornis 6mo ago
      Lego suffers from a fandom problem among adults: They have strong nostalgia for how it was when they were kids and they think everything since then is against the natural order of Lego. The best way to enjoy Lego is to give it to some kids and watch them get creative with it. Unlike all of the Internet complaints, kids have no problem having fun with Lego and being creative in their own ways.
• xattt 6mo ago
  They’ve basically adopted the Nintendo model. People have strong emotional connections for both, which can then be exploited for money. It has momentum because they haven’t let quality and innovation slide. They know customers will be out with pitchforks if quality drops.
• jiehong 6mo ago
  Maybe one last thing that sucks is that it’s all plastic.
  • antonyh 6mo ago
    True, but at least it's not single use. Is there a viable alternative? A non-petrochemical plastic that has the same qualities? It's not like they can whittle them out of wood or cast them with metal so it'll always be some form of polymer, and I'm sure they would jump at a more ecologically sound option.
    • em-bee 6mo ago
      lego compatible bricks made from wood do exist. they probably don't last as long though.
      • antonyh 6mo ago
        I'm sure they don't unless made from a stable hardwood or coated somehow to resist expansion/contraction which would defeat the whole point of using a sustainable material. Lovely idea though, I really like wooden objects.
    • bombcar 6mo ago
      Lego has been testing making some pieces out of corn-based plastic or other natural plastics. https://www.lego.com/en-us/sustainability/sustainable-materials https://www.lego.com/en-us/sustainability/sustainable-materi... Some of the first forays resulted in notably lower-quality bricks.
  • embedding-shape 6mo ago
    At least LEGO is probably the toy that gets "passed down" the most, my own LEGO parts who I got from an older cousin, is now on its 4th generation (first my sisters children, then some family-friend to theirs), and I'm sure the pile(s) will get further passed down as time goes on.
• KellyCriterion 6mo ago
  > a lot what the company does today just sucks. Set prices are outrageou This was all done planned and implemented by this one consulting guy (MCK?), who became CEO after delivering his report from his consulting company, Lego was near bankrupt back then - he started with all this subbranding shitty stuff and the "colorful" bricks and introduced all these many many "single-use-case-bricks" for more and more sets.
  • kevinsync 6mo ago
    I was just about to reply about their financial woes over the years too [0][1][2] Being a collector of stuff ever since I was a kid (toys, comics, cards, physical media, printed collateral, etc), and being in my 40's (target market / demographic for expensive nostalgia) living in 2026 (the world is a casino! everything's a collector's item!), it is a little annoying to see LEGO appear to turn into something that it wasn't .. but objectively that doesn't eradicate the fundamentals of LEGO, and I'd rather see them be a healthy company with longevity (via current product strategy) than wither and die on the vine out of stubbornness. That said, aside from leaning on the AAA IP that drives prices through the roof in some lines, I do wish they'd stop with the tech gimmicks (Hidden Side, Smart Bricks), renew one of their focuses on real tech/engineering-adjacent platforms (Mindstorms / NXT / a modern version of these), and acknowledge that wealthy adults aren't the only customers. It really prices out young, fertile minds who a lot of their product and ethos should be directed towards. Of course, that's a huge problem right now with anything that can command aftermarket prices as collectibles! [3] [0] - https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/innovation-almost-bankrupted-lego-until-it-rebuilt-with-a-better-blueprint/ https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/innovation-almos... [1] - https://blog.firestartoys.com/how-the-lego-company-almost-went-bankrupt-a-history/ https://blog.firestartoys.com/how-the-lego-company-almost-we... [2] - https://www.toypro.com/us/news/710/learn-the-story-behind-lego-from-near-bankruptcy-to-the-world-s-largest-toy-company https://www.toypro.com/us/news/710/learn-the-story-behind-le... [3] - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7FZWovUTmL0 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7FZWovUTmL0
• dec0dedab0de 6mo ago
  The expensive sets ARE display models. They still have the older style generic sets for significantly cheaper.
• bluGill 6mo ago
  I heard your same rant in the 1980s - only small details have changed (not mindstorms then ...) But kids who want to build have always been able to, and most sets mix and match for those kids.
  • wongarsu 6mo ago
    > I heard your same rant in the 1980s The two options would be that either the perception is unsubstantiated but persists, or there has been a continuous decline for the last 40 years. I'm strongly leaning towards the latter. I also having the same issues in the 00s looking at old sets from the 80s, and looking back now the 00s look much better than what we have today. Obviously not in every way, and not all recent sets were bad. But overall I have the feeling that there's been a steady trend that the bricks got better but the sets got worse
    • iso1631 6mo ago
      Nostalgia 'aint what it used to be
      • wongarsu 6mo ago
        Maybe my perception of 00s models is colored by nostalgia, hard to know. But I haven't been alive in the 80s, so my perception of them during the 00s should be pretty uncolored
        • bombcar 6mo ago
          My recall was that the 90s was pretty awesome, and the 00s fell into BURPS and large pieces and tie-in sets. But I think most people either agree there was a dark ages where they went almost bankrupt and did some really questionable themes, or the best time was when they were a kid. The 90s catalogs rocked in a way that no website ever can, though.
          • iso1631 6mo ago
• mmustapic 6mo ago
  Lego was always expensive, you can compare prices adjusted for inflation. For example, the 1979 Galaxy Explorer <https://brickset.com/sets/497-1 https://brickset.com/sets/497-1> was around $32, that's $144 today. The reimagined set from 2023 <https://brickset.com/sets/10497-1 https://brickset.com/sets/10497-1> was sold at $99, $106 today. Not only it is cheaper, but much larger and with many more pieces.
  • brazzy 6mo ago
    It has almost 4 times the number of pieces, but is only about 50% longer and wider - there's just way more smaller pieces. Price per piece is very misleading when comparing older and newer sets. The newer ones have more details, look slicker, but have a lot less "meat". Which is not that great for creative play.
    • StilesCrisis 6mo ago
      I bought a set recently which was definitely padding its piece counts. The interior structure of a solid shape was constructed out of dozens of small 1x2s and could easily have been a handful of much larger pieces with no downside. I didn't consider the "more pieces = more perceived value" logic until this comment.
      • nkrisc 6mo ago
        I always charitably assumed that they designed models to utilize surplus pieces for the internal structures, pieces that might be hard to use elsewhere.
        • bombcar 6mo ago
          They may do that (designers have a "part budget" they can spend in various ways) but the real reason for weird colors inside models is to make it easier to build; especially since many of the models consist entirely of various shades of grey and black. Various piece size also makes it easier to see if you got the wrong piece.
• rkangel 6mo ago
  > the push towards smartphone-dependent toys feels weird I haven't seen this push? The new Lego Smart stuff is explicitly "screen free play". There is an app but it's just for firmware update and configuration and you can't even connect it unless the brick is on the charger.
  • bombcar 6mo ago
    Lego has been testing modern sets without instructions and instead tell you to download an app for your phone. The ones I know of are the Mario ones, but they apparently need a phone anyway to setup the little characters.
    • deleted 6mo ago
      [deleted]
    • Freak_NL 6mo ago
      All normal sets still come with a booklet don't they? They offer the option sometimes though. Plastic parts bags are getting replaced by paper ones, but the booklets aren't going anywhere.
    • ziml77 6mo ago
      Which Mario ones are you thinking of? Because for the only ones I know of with electronic character, you just place them over special tiles they can read to select how they will react.
  • FarmerPotato 6mo ago
    Hmm, the comment I was replying to was deleted. I hate app obsolescence, and licenses that expire on your old hardware (Microsoft Word..) I exhibit 1980s video games. The hardware just continues to work. It's a disgrace what happens to mobile games, they just disappear. (Whattaya do, save all your old phones? I'm hating on you, Atari Classics app on iPad 2; revoked my paid license to use it.) But to be fair, Lego has gone to great lengths to keep their companion software alive. Still, the nature of mobile: apps require constant updates to stay listed for new OS versions. For one, Lego Commander existed uselessly on my phone long after it ceased to work... until one iOS it wouldn't install anymore. Lego giving you a CD with software and instruction was a comfort (challenge: find a CD drive!) but only Mindstorms really. For desktop apps in the 2010s, Lego relied on Silverlight to get Mac and PC compatibility. So what happens when you rely on a Microsoft framework... still as late as 2015 I was still able to download Mindstorms 2.0 (introduced 2002??) from Lego. With instructions pdfs, Lego has been ok to let hobbyists reproduce the downloads (last I saw.) Another thing Lego did was to provide SDKs for Mindstorms (a while after the community reverse-engineered a lot of it...). Opening it up that way was encouraging. (Lego even started distributing HiTechnic's 3rd party sensors, the folks that reverse-engineered the Mindstorms 1.0 RCX.) I was part of the fan movement from 1998-2001 that hammered on the message for Lego to open things up. What happened is that they hired several of us :)
• reacharavindh 6mo ago
  I mean it is a business after all, trying to make money.. I must say, the new smart bricks with all sorts of sensors(color, gyro, distance etc) triggers the inner child in me. I can’t wait to get them for my kiddo and teach him how that magic actually works beneath. The regular LEGO at this points feels “just plastic” and I won’t feel bad offloading that purchase to AliExpress.
• foobarian 6mo ago
  Oddly enough I found the Duplo line much more fun to play with as our kid went through the blocks years. You could build something substantial with fewer block clicks, there were fewer different types of blocks, they were less fiddly and prone to vanishing into rugs/carpets, etc. Also the proper Legos tended to be sets which makes it very stressful to mix them into a misc bag.
  • bntr 6mo ago
    Duplo is also compatible with regular Lego. We used Duplo for the big structure and Lego on top for details. Great way to build huge stuff quickly. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/LEGO-kompatiblo.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/LEGO-kom...
• ryukoposting 6mo ago
  Call me names, but I'll go to bat for stickers. Even when I was a kid, I wasn't keen on graphic designs on the pieces. I liked the uniformity of consistently-colored pieces. Most graphics only make sense in the context of the set they were packaged in. Stickers give the customer flexibility. Use them when you build the set, and remove them later if you take the set apart and don't want them anymore. Killing Mindstorms was a head-scratcher to me. Hell, there was an entire international tournament built around Mindstorms. I know FLL still exists, but why kill that darling specifically? NXT still kicks ass by the way. I have a backup of the NXT programming environment somewhere, it can be coaxed into running on Windows 11.
  • closewith 6mo ago
    But you can only remove them once, and then never recreate the original set. Not great.
  • FinnKuhn 6mo ago
    You can argue this for their sets targeting children and I don't think anyone minds stickers on those. On display sets for multiple hundred Euros however it just looks cheap due to different surfaces and colors - especially as no one is ever going to disassemble these sets.
    • bigstrat2003 6mo ago
      I have some of those display sets and I think the stickers look fine. Yeah it's less convenient than printed pieces, but I think the complaints are significantly overblown.
      • FinnKuhn 6mo ago
        I have one since a few years (it's a display set) and you can clearly see the stickers now as they haven't aged the same being subjected to sunlight. I also have a set from another manufacturer that prints everything and there you don't have this problem.
    • 6mo ago
• Aurornis 6mo ago
  > many sets feel like display models than something you can play with That’s what I thought when comparing to my childhood sets, but it doesn’t stop my kids from loving them and playing with them. My kids are learning a lot of cool building tricks from the advanced sets that I never thought of as a kid. Lots of angle pieces, hinges, and creative building.
  • bombcar 6mo ago
    That's probably the biggest change in the last few decades, they went from never doing anything out of the ordinary to SNOT (studs not on top) for "adult model" sets only (first in the trains I believe), to now where advanced techniques are used even it children's toys that aren't models.
• hypercube33 6mo ago
  Not just NX but technics basically was a build things that do stuff mechanically and now isn't that seemingly at all. Most kits I had came with one or more alternative models you could build with the primary kit as well.
  • bluescrn 6mo ago
    Classic Technic was brilliant, but when they switched to 'studless Technic' it became far more difficult to build creatively with it (even if it enabled far more intricate builds with complex mechanisms, like the gearboxes in the supercar sets) - there was no natural 'up' direction any more, and building anything became more of a 3D logic puzzle than just building with bricks. Real shame that they discontinued Mindstorms, though.
    • bombcar 6mo ago
      I recall but can't find that there was a red technic car built with studs before the panels/studless took over - that thing didn't look terribly realistic but it DID look like lego.
      • bluescrn 6mo ago
        Probably this one: https://brickset.com/sets/8865-1/Test-Car https://brickset.com/sets/8865-1/Test-Car The difference in the instructions between classic and modern sets is interesting too, instructions for both the main and alternate build in just 38 pages. Compared to the modern instructions, which often add just a couple of parts per page.
• hibikir 6mo ago
  If you want advancements in engineering and plastics for much better prices, see the wonders that Bandai has made with modern Gundam models. A Gundam Aerial HG is under $20, and you end up with a large multicolor model that assembles easily, has minimal mold lines, and needs no glue. And that's one of the intro models
  • ibizaman 6mo ago
    You weren’t kidding. I just took a look and the models are gorgeous!
  • FarmerPotato 6mo ago
    Yeah, that's some brilliant mold engineering! >minimal mold lines I think this comes from higher tonnage (clamp force) molding machines. Injected plastic exerts force at the mold seam. Pressing the mold open by even a teeny tiny amount is unpalatable. Mold lines also can result where a mold has insertable parts, like sliding rods to form inner holes.
  • conception 6mo ago
    Of the biggest difference is that model makes /only/ a Gundam. Legos don’t have that limitation. But those models do look rad!
• dismalaf 6mo ago
  Basic Lego is actually decently affordable. It's the collector's sets that adults would buy whose prices are jacked sky high, based on demand it seems. I've bought a decent amount of Duplo and Lego kits for my son (currently 3 years old) and it's great value.
  • bombcar 6mo ago
    The fact that "10$ a pound for used, 10¢ a piece for new" has remained true as a good rule of thumb for 20+ years tells you something.
• georgefrowny 6mo ago
  In terms of creativity of model options, the Chinese compatibles are stomping them. You can even get a model of post-explosion Chernobyl. Not to mention all the sci-fi tie in from Star Trek to Warhammer that real Lego hasn't signed contracts for. But if you want an 60cm Gloriana class, there it is. Plus Technics-ish sets and bulk boxes that aren't 75% special body panels that only fit that specific model, since Technics itself mostly seems to have been downgraded to the automotive brands advertising department.
  • conception 6mo ago
    When you build a knock off set, though, you can tell that the Lego versions have so much more thought put into the actual build process and the stability and functionality of the finished product.
• bityard 6mo ago
  I'm not a Lego nerd, but I recently saw a really sweet Lego DeLorean in Walmart priced at almost $200. Now that I have disposable income, I would have impulse-purchased that thing so hard if it would have been closer to $100. But I can't quite bring myself to part with a pair of benji's for a plastic toy, no matter how thoroughly it triggers my nostalgia.
• tracker1 6mo ago
  I feel the same... I remember as a kid, being able to get kits of hundreds of just random blocks and variations and just being able to build/play... all the sets today are all custom blocks that just constrain you and often aren't significantly reusable while I'm not sure that I've even seen basic block kits anywhere in decades now. edit: I know you can get thousands piece brick sets from third parties or random bulk set sales on Amazon... the issue is the random bits are from the current sets mostly with little reuse value, and the bricks sets are from third parties of questionable tolerance compared to real lego. I just want to be able to get a classic 1000-3000 piece set of classic bricks/pieces from Lego proper, even if it's $100-200 total, still way more than 3rd party but maybe not the same margins for Lego as the bespoke sets. edit2: there are some "Lego Classic" sets that are closer to what I would like to see, this is probably the closest. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5FMF8BF/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5FMF8BF/ But even then, maybe need that many more bricks that are just bricks... again, there are third party sets that are all block variants that are much bigger/cheaper... would just be nice to be able to get more of those without paying an arm and a leg.
  • lloeki 6mo ago
    > all the sets today are all custom blocks that just constrain you and often aren't significantly reusable Given the crazy assembly that is happening in the adjacent room, my kid would vehemently disagree.
    • dudul 6mo ago
      Having the same experience. My kids enjoy getting new sets, but most of them are quickly customized or just destroyed to build something completely new. Terrible take in the parent.
• detourdog 6mo ago
  I got my first Lego set in the early 70’s through a Velveeta cheese mail in promotion. The company almost went out of business in the early 90’s before they discovered movie tie-ins. I believe the quality of play was lost in this transition because the sets became more literal and less open ended. My first big set was a fire station which certainly literal but somehow seems more open ended then the movie tie/in sets.
  • bombcar 6mo ago
    The fire stations et al still exist, its just that they don't sell nearly as well as the tie-ins do, at least based on shelf space allocations. This year's isn't huge: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/fire-station-with-fire-truck-60414 https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/fire-station-with-fire-tr... But the police station is pretty big: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/police-station-60316 https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/police-station-60316 (To me this looks more fun, but I'm a pirate guy: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/police-prison-island-60419 https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/police-prison-island-6041... )
    • detourdog 6mo ago
      Here is the set I have. I think I still have most of the parts. https://brickset.com/sets/570-1 https://brickset.com/sets/570-1
• abtinf 6mo ago
  Quality is expensive. Lego’s net profit margin is only about 19%. They couldn’t lower prices much even if they wanted to.
• 0x457 6mo ago
  Lego was always expensive. > many sets feel like display models than something you can play with. That's because they are. There probably never been this many adults building lego than today. > The Mindstorms/NXT line had huge potential but then just sort of fizzled out. That's a small niche in today's world, a child is too young for arduino/feather/cyberbrick/whatever.
• gchamonlive 6mo ago
  Isn't that just capitalism? The rule is for companies to keep pushing for higher margins and profit, so given enough time any company will default to shady tactics and product enshitification.
• basilikum 6mo ago
  Just buy from one of the many way cheaper way better competitors.
• vikingerik 6mo ago
  If you're complaining about the prices, remember how capitalism works. The price is set by buyers, not sellers. That's the invisible hand, the seller will set the price to what buyers show they will pay. If you're unhappy about $500 for a Millennium Falcon or whatever, your beef is not with the company for accepting that when people choose to pay it, it's with those other buyers for paying that much. As the other replies are saying, it's mostly brand power. If your complaint is that $500 for a Falcon is monopolistic because there's no competition because nobody else can legally sell Falcons, the monopoly is really with Star Wars not Lego, they're just delegating it to Lego. You're always free to find your cheapest source of bricks perhaps from other manufacturers and build your own equivalent. As for stickers and apps and the other stuff... yeah that's the enshittification that also always accompanies capitalism. It's lamentable but it only changes if enough customers vote no with their wallets.
  • QuarterReptile 6mo ago
    >If you're complaining about the prices, remember how capitalism works. Why get up at all, when gravity always just pulls me back down?
• MaKey 6mo ago
  Other manufacturers give LEGO a run for their money nowadays. Look at the CaDA Mercedes-AMG One for example.
• Diederich 6mo ago
  I believe the inflation adjusted price per piece has remained fairly consistent? https://flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/priceperpiece2-620x256.gif https://flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/priceperp... Perhaps sets of a given physical size have more pieces now compared to before? Not sure.
• derriz 6mo ago
  Historically Lego was a construction toy. This is what it was in my youth. These days Lego sell model construction kits - most are constructed once and then the owner plays with the model. This represents a radical and fundamental change. I’m not sure when it happened or how suddenly it happened as there is a large (decades) gap in time since I played with Lego as a kid and my current exposure to Lego via my own kids. Our home is full of Lego models but I don’t recall seeing my kid using his vast amount (compared to the shoe box I used to store my Lego as a kid) of Lego to actually construct something. The “studless” change - with its inside-out building technique makes it virtually impossible to alter a model once built - unlike the old bottom-up approach where it’s trivial to alter. It makes me sad because I remember with nostalgia the hours I spent building all sorts of fanciful constructions with my box of generic Lego pieces but I also acknowledge that model building — which I do with my kids - is also fun. But it’s just not the same play/toy as it was years ago.
• conception 6mo ago
  Set prices are a lot more reasonable if you stay away from the branded options, Disney and Star Wars sets, especially have a intense premium associated with them.
• skyberrys 6mo ago
  The smartphone dependent is a line to not cross. Anytime we get the phone dependent sets they are returned and analog toys are chosen instead.
• dewarrn1 6mo ago
  If you're not interested in the new sets, the core product is readily available. Moreover, enjoy the fact that you can get that bucket of bricks for cheap partly because the expensive shiny high-margin SKUs provide a subsidy.
• stefantalpalaru 6mo ago
  [dead]
• dudul 6mo ago
  Lego were always expensive toys. Yes they are aggressively targeting "grown ups" with many sets, but they also have very playable sets. I don't see any problem with having different offerings. There are enough sets for everyone to find something interesting if they are into Lego.