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So you are pretty much lucky if you see any new LEGO sets with anything greater than a 16x32 base plate, which is also why they are rising in price on sites like eBay, BL and brickowl.
Basically, I'm certain cost to produce these suckers outweighed the positives for Lego. They were not used in many sets, and it seems that by the end of the last decade, they have finally gone extinct.
You also do not see Baseplates like having two 32x32 in a big enough city set anymore. Oh sure you can buy green and blue 32x32, but they do not sell them in many other colors, nor do they sell those other colors in a store. And road plates are obnoxiously expensive for plates that seem to use less plastic than a 32x32 plate covered in studs IMO. Only Mods seem to have 32x32 plates anymore.
I can understand why (baseplates can be a bit flimsy and easily bend when enough pressure is applied), but I do not buy that they are doing this because designers have more fun with the smaller baseplates. They are likely doing it to try to keep the cost and footprint of the set down. The problem is that when you do not have a 32x32 baseplate under a set it loses its stability IMO, especially if you are not on a hard surface.
I would much rather have a city set built on a street baseplate like in the 80s than having to go buy plates to use for my city to attach the set to the city, but that is just me.
I'm assuming that it's the height of the baseplate. Baseplates are not as tall as a regular plate, and aren't compatible, except for other baseplates.
As for raised plates, is the PQ Scorpion Pyramid the last official set to have one?
Another thing I forgot to mention from Bricks Cascade is that Cuusoo and the CEE team is really looking at the Exo Suit as the first true test of the viability of a non IP model.
My read on that is that if the set doesn't sell well that could be bad news for future original content on Cuusoo
What he did say - not just in the context of Cuusoo - is that everything they do has to be self-sustainable. Not any real revelation there either, but he really hammered the point that if a division or initiative didn't turn a profit, it was ultimately not going to last.
These sets' bases are made of smaller parts that can be rearranged, and they are "in system", so that they can be used just as easily as any ordinary building element. They are rigid instead of thin and flexible, meaning that they are easier to pick up and carry than traditional baseplates, which could lose parts due to their flexibility (and in the case of elevated baseplates, could crack). Also, bases can be sized according to the model. When I compare the modular bases of Fort Legoredo with the King's Castle, I feel like the base of King's Castle is much tidier and more efficient.
I'd love if the LEGO Group would now take the next step and create a modular system of road plates based on parts like this, only with printing. It would allow for new possibilities — for instance, if one was printed with a crosswalk pattern, you could place a crosswalk any place along a block instead of just at intersections. Of course, you'd still be limited to grid streets, one of the biggest flaws of road plates in general.
Really, with how much AFOLs tend to bash modern-day sets and parts for being "juniorized" (large and overspecialized), it's surprising how much nostalgia I tend to hear for baseplates (particularly elevated baseplates), which are some of the largest and most overspecialized parts ever released.
I've never had a problem with any of these cracking, chipping or breaking. Maybe I just wasn't as hard on my toys as I thought. In fact this only baseplate I have, that was originally mine, that is damaged is 8x16 I accidentally snapped in half as a very young kid.
#6416 Poolside Paradise (elevating the building surface slightly gave character to the terrain, allowed the pool, and avoided using lots of bricks to achieve something that wouldn't have been as elegant if they had been used).
#5978 Sphinx Secret Surprise (the reuse of the plate from #6416 was an ingenious way of creating a Giza-like plateau and the conversion of the swimming pool area into an excavation site was brilliant, again creating something that a pile of bricks could do no better).
#5986 Ancient Amazon Ruins (though the bridge isn't suspended high enough, it at least creates a "canyon" between two larges sections of raised terrain that would otherwise take a lot of bricks to create areas with no more real playability than the raised baseplate offered).
#7419 Dragon Fortress (again, creating an elevated building with a subterranean section smaller than the structure above, this couldn't be done without an absurd number of bricks).
#6584 Extreme Team Challenge (reusing a raised plate first seen years before in the Pirates and Castle lines, it created the kind of terrain that this set absolutely required. The mountain itself is formed out of BURPs anyway so the canyon would have been more of the same without any better results).
I also have a few of these http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6092pb02
but not sure what I want to use them for.
#6416 Poolside Paradise. The only set I won’t comment on as I never owned it or played with and don't fell I can fairly comment on.
#5978 Sphinx Surprise. Personally is this my favorite of the Adventure sets. While I agree the use of the “pool” area for buried treasure is a brilliant and wonderful use of the space. And I did go back and forth on the use of a raised baseplate with the set. But in the end the buried treasure a minor feature and a gimmick. I don’t see this feature missing as having a huge impact on the over set. And given the fact that the hollow space under the sphinx isn’t used as standard baseplate would work just as well. Buried treasure is a difficult problem with Lego bricks. While this is one the best done attempts, I have yet to see anyone build something that works for me.
#5986 Ancient Amazon Ruins. Quite frankly an awful set. Who ever designed this set was watching Indiana Jones too much. The set is basically a series of poorly executed gimmicks with very little playability. Take the quad pit baseplate away and you’re left with a pretty small set, it’s only about 490 pieces to begin with. A larger set of ruins with a standard baseplate would have been better.
#7419 Dragon Fortress. A good example of a good set forced into a bad baseplate. Support columns and angled large plates would have done a better job. While this is likely my favorite on the quad pit baseplate, and one my favorites of that year, there was never any need for the it here.
#6584 Extreme Team Challenge. I’m not a fan of this theme and already don’t like the set, so my opinion is already pretty bias. I don’t this set, but have played with one before. It feels to me that this a cross between 6552 Rocky River Retreat and 6490 Amazing Crossing. I really do like the high rock outcropping (it’s a not a mountain). While it could be done with more BURPs, I’m not sure it would like as nice. The bridge could be better done with BURPs. As for the river canyon, it seems like this started out as the focus and than became an after thought, I guess why even bother at this point.
Sorry of any typos or grammatically problems. This a longer than normal post and I can't always catch all of them.
For this reason I much prefer smaller but sturdier 8x16 and 16x16 plates when given the chance. Even if you need to use multiples, the same thickness that makes them sturdier also makes them less likely to come apart at the junction point, and allows you to use additional parts on the underside to reinforce them if necessary.
The flexibility of baseplates was probably not unintentional — it makes it easy to remove parts from a baseplate without a brick separator. But I think at this point anyone buying modern sets has at least one brick separator, unless you avoid buying larger sets entirely.
Back in the 90s (my childhood) we started to see a transition away from baseplates for certain sets, and towards "base bricks" in sizes like 8x16 and 12x24. Specifically, these sets tended to be used for sets with a modular construction like #6097 Night Lord's Castle and #6093 Flying Ninja Fortress. However, these were far from a perfect solution. Like a lot of parts of the late 90s, these parts were bulky, expensive, and difficult to use for an entire layout. The recent 8x16 and 16x16 plates seem to perform the same task a lot more efficiently. The 16x16 plates are even reinforced underneath with a cross pattern that makes them more rigid than they would be otherwise.