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Lego building instructions through time

lego.com

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Re: Lego building instructions through time

#11

Post by aleksejs »

Buried at the bottom of the article, my favorite thing about modern Lego kits:

> One of the most intriguing features is unlocked when you press the ‘build together’ button on select sets in the app. This allows consumers to build a LEGO set as a team by delegating each builder a building task to complete.

My partner and I enjoy assembling Lego kits together, but with paper instructions parallelizing the work is pretty tricky (usually we end up alternating one person doing the actual assembly and the other picking out the correct parts for them). But with the LEGO Builder app, it dynamically generates two parallel sets of instructions. It works great even if you're working at different paces.

This is one of those software features that delights me both as a user and as an engineer. It probably was not that complex to implement (once they had the building steps in a machine-readable format), but it's a great use of its medium, something that you genuinely couldn't do without software.

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#12

Post by engineer_22 »

aleksejs wrote: post #11

Buried at the bottom of the article, my favorite thing about modern Lego kits: > One of the most intriguing features is unlocked when you press the ‘build together’ button on select sets in the app. This allows consumers to build a LEGO set as a team by delegating each builder a building task to complete. My partner and I enjoy assembling Lego kits together, but with paper instructions parallelizing the work is prett…

Had no idea this was a thing, sounds like it’d be fun with the kids. Who gets the next piece has been a problem as long as there’s been lego

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#13

Post by bbqbbqbbq »

aleksejs wrote: post #11

Buried at the bottom of the article, my favorite thing about modern Lego kits: > One of the most intriguing features is unlocked when you press the ‘build together’ button on select sets in the app. This allows consumers to build a LEGO set as a team by delegating each builder a building task to complete. My partner and I enjoy assembling Lego kits together, but with paper instructions parallelizing the work is prett…

On the contrary, this would ruin Legos for me and my girlfriend. We play it that one person is building, and the other person is taking the instructions and trying to speak them to the builder, who isn't allowed to look at the instructions. It's very fun and a great way for us to keep our communication going well in the relationship.

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#14

Post by aleksejs »

bbqbbqbbq wrote: post #13
aleksejs wrote: post #11

Buried at the bottom of the article, my favorite thing about modern Lego kits: > One of the most intriguing features is unlocked when you press the ‘build together’ button on select sets in the app. This allows consumers to build a LEGO set as a team by delegating each builder a building task to complete. My partner and I enjoy assembling Lego kits together, but with paper instructions parallelizing the work is prett…

On the contrary, this would ruin Legos for me and my girlfriend. We play it that one person is building, and the other person is taking the instructions and trying to speak them to the builder, who isn't allowed to look at the instructions. It's very fun and a great way for us to keep our communication going well in the relationship.

That sounds fun too!

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#15

Post by SoftTalker »

aleksejs wrote: post #14
bbqbbqbbq wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, this would ruin Legos for me and my girlfriend. We play it that one person is building, and the other person is taking the instructions and trying to speak them to the builder, who isn't allowed to look at the instructions. It's very fun and a great way for us to keep our communication going well in the relationship.

That sounds fun too!

James May did this with Lucy on one of his YouTube videos.

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#17

Post by jmarcher »

aleksejs wrote: post #11

Buried at the bottom of the article, my favorite thing about modern Lego kits: > One of the most intriguing features is unlocked when you press the ‘build together’ button on select sets in the app. This allows consumers to build a LEGO set as a team by delegating each builder a building task to complete. My partner and I enjoy assembling Lego kits together, but with paper instructions parallelizing the work is prett…

I came to say the same thing. The "build together" mode is super fun. Everybody can go at their own speed (without me dying inside watching my 7-year-old trying to figure out things). If you are faster, you build more subassemblies, that's it. Everybody is busy.

The kids particularly enjoyed the moments where you have to exchange subassemblies: "I need this from 'popcorn'!" "I need this from 'astronaut'".

When the kids got tired, subsequent steps were assigned to me as if nothing had happened. I am guessing there's a DAG of tasks (to build subassemblies), and the tasks just get picked up by individual participants.

10/10

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#18

Post by artisinal »

lysace wrote: post #7
xixixao wrote: post #5

I would love simpler (harder) instructions! It's too easy tbh brick by brick as it is today. 1964 looks lovely. I also have a gripe with the complexity of modern bricks (besides "basic bricks" sets). It's getting harder to build something else than what the model is.

This 1980 style was also lovely. I rebuilt this model a few years ago - these instructions strike the balance just right. They make you think. https://lego.brickinstructions.com/lego_instructions/set/886...

The 1980s is where LEGO instructions peaked. It all went downhill from there.

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#19

Post by tom1337890 »

xixixao wrote: post #5

I would love simpler (harder) instructions! It's too easy tbh brick by brick as it is today. 1964 looks lovely. I also have a gripe with the complexity of modern bricks (besides "basic bricks" sets). It's getting harder to build something else than what the model is.

Agree one hundred percent. The build together option seems only required because ik modern instructions there are only like a few parts per step. Back in the day it was like 10-15, which meant every step took longer. It seems too automated today, too verbose. And yes cross building is difficult because of a lot of very small parts.

Re: Lego building instructions through time

#20

Post by no-name-here »

Very interesting article, but not very well written. A handful of examples from the first half:

1. Suddenly in the 7th paragraph: “We know for a fact that from 1967 and until 2003 the main supplier of drawing building steps for the LEGO Group was a company called Palle…”. That’s a super odd thing to preface with “We know for a fact” - are all other claims/items in the article actually not known if they aren't similarly prefaced?

2. They jump around a little in time, such as mentioning the 60s but then going back to the 50s in the next section.

3. Some photos don't show what year or decade the set or instructions are from.

4. They start by mentioning the 50s, but it would be helpful to also mention how long the bricks were made before then to quickly understand the length of the pre-instruction era - it appears 49, or 39 for wood versions, per some quick googling.

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