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Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

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Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#21

Post by mcv »

samwillis wrote: post #6

I would love to know what percentage of Legos revenue is now from adults buying the incredible large, complex and expensive sets to build themselves. Lego is so associated as a toy for children just as computer games are, but gaming is a larger industry for adults than children. My wife and I now regularly buy these large lego sets for each other (birthdays, Christmas and anniversaries) and do them together in the ev…

I think 1980s kids who grew up and got well-paying tech jobs are their largest customer demographic now. Kids play Minecraft instead.

That's what my oldest son said, at least; he doesn't see the point in Lego now that Minecraft exists. Breaks my heart. I mean, Minecraft is fantastic, but it's not Lego.

Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#22

Post by toyg »

scotty79 wrote: post #16
insickness wrote: post #8

> Lego has become more gender stratified In this day and age, I would be surprised if the Lego Friends line, which was created with girls in mind, were marketed explicitly to girls. My guess is that the girls stratify themselves by what type of toys they are attracted to. There's evidence that the preference is biological: Male monkeys prefer boys' toys https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13596-male-monkeys-pr...

I think the point is capitalism gives people what they crave. Not necessarily what they need. But any alternative is unimaginable in individualized minds of modern people.

Oh, it does give them what they need, plus loads of other needs they didn't even know they had - and sometimes these other needs take priority regardless of whether that should be the case. I.e. they will sell you milk, which you likely need, but also all possible types of cheese and yogurt and cream, which you really don't but might actually end up consuming more than milk.

Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#23

Post by DocTomoe »

chillingeffect wrote: post #17

What about: 1. Massive online community 2. Virtual simulators 3. Part numbers and 2nd hand retail 4. Computer and phone interfaces 5. Patent expired so more community

> 5. Patent expired so more community

This should probably read "competition". Some of the stuff secondary brands offer puts shame to Lego, both in creativity as well as in pricing. Bluebrix and Xingbao both have models that are a lot more playable than anything Lego has ever offered.

Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#24

Post by tokai »

bluetomcat wrote: post #7
k__ wrote: post #4

I was a kid in the 90s and most of the things written in that article were already true. I still broke down all the elaborate sets, put them all together in a big box, and built my own things later.

A more interesting comparison would be to put the core themes of the 1990s (Castle, Pirates, Space, Town) against the modern popular themes (Ninjago, Creator, Star Wars, City). The old sets had less specialised parts and less colour variety, which allowed kids to combine sets from the same theme easily. The buildings (castles, fortresses, harbours) almost always had a big baseplate (flat or 3D). Minifigs were themed…

If you look at Lego Space during the 90s it is a long list of new versions (almost yearly) each with their own specialized parts.

Personally I don't feel like this narrative about a substantial shift in Lego sets fits with reality. To me it feel like people conflates it with the rise of licensed sets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Space

Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#25

Post by mcv »

where-group-by wrote: post #12
bluetomcat wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more interesting comparison would be to put the core themes of the 1990s (Castle, Pirates, Space, Town) against the modern popular themes (Ninjago, Creator, Star Wars, City). The old sets had less specialised parts and less colour variety, which allowed kids to combine sets from the same theme easily. The buildings (castles, fortresses, harbours) almost always had a big baseplate (flat or 3D). Minifigs were themed…

The number of specialised parts is one thing I dislike about modern Lego sets. They do look great and have really smart building techniques, but I just want to build a brick house with my kids. There is always Lego classic sets, and smaller creator houses do have a lot of regular bricks too. But it is a bit annoying once you amass a few sets from other lines. Still, I'm glad they are in business. I will take whatever…

My brother and I got the first two grey castles in the 1980s (the first castle yellow; grey was a fairly new colour back then). Those castles mainly relied on fairly large castle wall pieces. At first, even as a kid, I felt that was cheating; we should have gotten bricks to assemble all those walls. Later I discovered what a boon they were, because they allowed me to rapidly design new and different castles. Sure, I couldn't build a spaceship out of them, but just exploring the space of all the possible castles you could build was amazing.

Some of these specialised pieces inspire creativity. Especially with spaceships.

But I do agree that many modern sets just invite you to build this one thing out of them. We did actually turn out Millennium Falcon into an X-Wing and a TIE-fighter once, but we did eventually turn them back into the Falcon. It feels more wrong than it used to to build something else.

Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#26

Post by logifail »

k__ wrote: post #4

I was a kid in the 90s and most of the things written in that article were already true. I still broke down all the elaborate sets, put them all together in a big box, and built my own things later.

> I still broke down all the elaborate sets, put them all together in a big box [..]

In a box?!!

Our kids store piles of bricks on more or less every horizontal surface in their rooms.

> the elaborate sets

Our kids will always build each elaborate set once, according to the instructions, wait a day or three, then it's fair game to be cannibalized for their latest homespun supermegagiga-jet, -spaceship, -car or -house.

Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#28

Post by captainmuon »

insickness wrote: post #8

> Lego has become more gender stratified In this day and age, I would be surprised if the Lego Friends line, which was created with girls in mind, were marketed explicitly to girls. My guess is that the girls stratify themselves by what type of toys they are attracted to. There's evidence that the preference is biological: Male monkeys prefer boys' toys https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13596-male-monkeys-pr...

That study doesn't show what most people think it does. Monkeys have no idea what a firetruck is, so how could a monkey have any preference towards it? The only thing they managed to show is that there is a flaw in the experiment. In a sense it is the ideal control question: do the monkeys distinguish based on something they cannot know? A more charitable reading which is mentioned is that male monkeys prefer hard shapes with wheels, but I doubt that is very relevant.

And yes, companies absolutely do market towards boys and girls. They don't write "for girls" on the box, but they consciously produce two product lines. Often it is one unisex line and one that is "forbidden for boys", i.e. it has pink and glitter and you would be teased as a boy of you bought it. This way, they can create artificial market separation and increase sales.

Re: Lego has changed since we were kids (2014)

#29

Post by jacquesm »

mcv wrote: post #25
where-group-by wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of specialised parts is one thing I dislike about modern Lego sets. They do look great and have really smart building techniques, but I just want to build a brick house with my kids. There is always Lego classic sets, and smaller creator houses do have a lot of regular bricks too. But it is a bit annoying once you amass a few sets from other lines. Still, I'm glad they are in business. I will take whatever…

My brother and I got the first two grey castles in the 1980s (the first castle yellow; grey was a fairly new colour back then). Those castles mainly relied on fairly large castle wall pieces. At first, even as a kid, I felt that was cheating; we should have gotten bricks to assemble all those walls. Later I discovered what a boon they were, because they allowed me to rapidly design new and different castles. Sure, I…

If you still have the flag for that yellow castle hang on to it, that's a collectors item.
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