Things that annoy you about Lego that you're sure no-one feels as strongly about

matticus_bricks

CCC said:

Seems I am correct - no one cares enough about the lack of yellow and fleshie hips to even comment ... :-)

Ok, this is gonna sound so strange, but I was sorting through my minifig parts the other day and I noticed some yellow hips and I remembered reading your comment in this thread, but I thought I must have dreamed it up because I didn't think yellow hips were all that uncommon! But anyway, it is kind of bothersome that there are no fleshie hips, though I can understand why. I remember when I was working on a Castlevania MOC I wanted them in order to create an accurate Succubus/Lilith minifigure.

Andor

I know just what you mean. Well except making a Castlevania MOC. I had never heard of Castlevania till you mentioned it.

jack_bricks

Resellers and the fact that you have to be one to get into collecting Legos, because otherwise it's just not possible to finance old sets due to resellers. And Lego loves their aftermarket resellers and also to keep the supply low only to keep the appealing high.

That is to me the most annoying thing about Lego! And I'm sure not much are feeling the same way, because you never read anything about this issue in blogs, lego-news sites, on forums it gets deleted,.... so I also might be the only one.

edgarallanpoe14

jack_bricks said:

Resellers and the fact that you have to be one to get into collecting Legos, because otherwise it's just not possible to finance old sets due to resellers. And Lego loves their aftermarket resellers and also to keep the supply low only to keep the appealing high.

That is to me the most annoying thing about Lego! And I'm sure not much are feeling the same way, because you never read anything about this issue in blogs, lego-news sites, on forums it gets deleted,.... so I also might be the only one.

My opinion on resellers changes quite regularly depending on whether or not I'm the one doing the selling.

jack_bricks

edgarallanpoe14 said:

My opinion on resellers changes quite regularly depending on whether or not I'm the one doing the selling.

So am I. But I would appreciate it to see prices fall a few times after EOL, not always sky rocketing. I mean what real collector would care about their value of a collection. I have stocked up on some sets because you have to, if the prices for those and also other sets would drop, so what who cares. But in our society people love to speculate with everything from land to Lego. Lego is more and more a speculation commodity nothing else, if it loses it's value someday (interest, price bubble, trend...), you will see those brokers running as fast as they came.

leemcg

To get back to the original subject:

The thing that I find particularly annoying that I don't think anyone else even cares about is when someone commenting on a MOC (or set) complains that there are no stairs or doors to access certain places, or nowhere for minifigs to go to the bathroom.

Just seems like a nonsense complaint to me: you could just as easily complain about any number of other inaccuracies that are essential to allow a model to be made in Lego form: lack of anywhere for the minifigures to put their stuff, would leak if it rained, only one giant cup the size of their head, ridiculously thick walls, whatever.

I just don't know why people feel that those two things are so important, that all other compromises don't matter.

Lee

matticus_bricks

^At least from my perspective, I think that model buildings with multiple floors lacking stairs makes the work look like less of a model and more of a child's playse, which distracts from the displayability, IMO. Bathrooms are nice, but I don't really mind if they aren't there. It's kind of like why you never see characters in movies using the bathroom, and just assume they do at some point off screen.

matticus_bricks

playset*

leemcg

^ shows it's just me that feels that way. :-)

TechnicNick

leemcg said:

^ shows it's just me that feels that way. :-)

Not entirely. It's similar to car builders who make a great looking model, but the steering wheel's not angled or the seats are too small....

CCC

jack_bricks said:

Resellers and the fact that you have to be one to get into collecting Legos, because otherwise it's just not possible to finance old sets due to resellers.

I don't understand that comment on two counts. Why do you have to be a reseller to be able to collect lego? And the only reason you can buy old sets is because of resellers. If people didn't resell sets, then you would have no chance at all.

aldredd

I've been very disappointed recently by colour accuracy. Notably on #42009 , just within the technic lift beams, it offers two noticeably different shades of yellow - one 'normal', and one much paler. Very sloppy IMO

klatu003

Friends sticker designs. Stars! Butterflies! Puppies! *shudder*

cheshirecat

Hey, what's wrong with stars??? Hey @SirKevbags‌

SirKevbags

cheshirecat said:

Hey, what's wrong with stars??? Hey @SirKevbags‌

These are the stars you're all looking for......

dougts

Istokg said:

"Things that annoy you about Lego that you're sure no-one feels as strongly about.."

Well there's one tiny little thing for me....

Everyone being so preoccupied with Minifigs.... it's a construction toy after all... not GI Joe! ;-)

This times 1000. I don't dislike the minifig. I have lots of them. I appreciate them for what they are and should be - an accessory to the main purpose of the construction playset. It's a person to drive the car or steer the ship or fly the spacecraft or fight the bad guy. But in recent years the sets seem to often be continually short changed and skimped on in order to include more minifigs of tiny incremental variations on each other

I miss the old faces that were all the same

SuperTramp

The size of the boxes compared to what comes out of it, even with the biggest sets the boxes could half the size.

Shib

^I often think similar and the amount of seemingly unnecessary bags are bad form on TLGs part. But I appreciate that your average parent buying a toy for their child probably subconsciously equates size of box to value for money. And I suspect the seemingly unnecessary bags are the result of making packing easier in the factories.

dougts said:

Istokg said:

"Things that annoy you about Lego that you're sure no-one feels as strongly about.."

Well there's one tiny little thing for me....

Everyone being so preoccupied with Minifigs.... it's a construction toy after all... not GI Joe! ;-)

This times 1000. I don't dislike the minifig. I have lots of them. I appreciate them for what they are and should be - an accessory to the main purpose of the construction playset. It's a person to drive the car or steer the ship or fly the spacecraft or fight the bad guy. But in recent years the sets seem to often be continually short changed and skimped on in order to include more minifigs of tiny incremental variations on each other

I miss the old faces that were all the same

I get this, minifigures are just one part of the Lego experience, and I can appreciate the simple face figures for their context. However, if it weren't for the vast improvement in minifigure design (I'm talking simply in terms of the range of what is available and how much more they can be used to show) I probably wouldn't have come out of dark ages when I did. My return to Lego was sparked by minifigure collecting, so I was one obsessed with just the figures, but that turned into building and MOCing as a result.

tamamahm

Lego is really two completely different toys.
1) It is a construction toy, where items can be built and rebuilt any number of ways and times, where the limit is one's imagination.
2) It is an imaginative playset where the characters are avatars that can go on amazing adventures, where the stories one has in one's mind can be acted out and told.

WIth kids that have played with Lego both ways, I really appreciate characters/minifigs they can connect with. For the first toy, one really needs only the basic yellow headed characters. For the second, the minifig has a much larger role.

At the same time, if the 'imaginative playset', is lacking it really does distract from the story one can tell. Try playing HP if Hogwarts has been skimped on.
As much as the minifigs here have been critical to the type of play done, I do agree, incremental changes to characters at the expense of the design of a set, becomes problematic. I loved the first wave of the last HP line, but the second wave was lackluster. The Battle of Hogwarts should have been 'more', and instead it was very disappointing.

Of course, part of this also is creating a varied price point within a line, and often I think that influences things more. They have to hit price points, so they vary the characters a bit to make them appealing. (Obviously, not always the case.)


I'll add another that 'annoys' me...

What frustrates me is a lack of a solid adventure line. We loved the Lego Master Builder Adventure Designer. It had wonderful special features, and sets. I would love to see just one theme that really focused on 'adventure' and special features like trap doors, booby traps, snakes that pop out, quicksand.... Something that was just 'different'. I just want 'different'. Lego Friends has had some 'new' and interest designs. Elves has some new concepts. I want a theme on the 'boy' lines that is just 'different', instead of finding occasionally a cool one off set in a line that feels different.

I think really coupled with that is that I also have a strong preference for the in-house Lego themes. My son does as well. I wish we were at a time and a place there were more of those, and that licenses by default didn't easily outsell those. There is just something very cool and fun about lines like Monster Fighters or PowerMiners.

I think 'annoy' is too strong of a word for either of these items, but maybe a bit frustrated. Lego is about innovation and creativity, and yet at the same time they are bound by the need for sales, and so themes get the standard X sets, at standard pricepoint, with standard features that sell. I think sometimes they become too constrained by that.

I will leave off my opinions on female minifigs, since I am tired of ratholes.

CCC

tamamahm said:

Lego is really two completely different toys.
1) It is a construction toy, where items can be built and rebuilt any number of ways and times, where the limit is one's imagination.
2) It is an imaginative playset where the characters are avatars that can go on amazing adventures, where the stories one has in one's mind can be acted out and told.

Although they are two extremes, many kids play somewhere in the middle. Even before minifigs were common, as a kid I used to play in both ways by mixing toys. Kenner SW figures used to sit in my lego spaceships.

tamamahm

Agreed. Yes, there is a complete spectrum between the two ends. I have seen my kids really play on the two ends and in the middle of that. My point, though, wasn't that it was only used one way or the other, but more that because it can act as two completely different styles of toys, the type of play one does with Lego between the two ends of the spectrum can influence the importance of the minifig to an individual. At the end of the day, though, if the set is really skimped on, it will influence overall playability no matter how one plays.

inklingbricks

My annoyance is all the different lamp-post designs in the Winter Village series. I'm trying to create a nice little harmonious town, and have to order my own lamp-post pieces from Bricklink to replace the ones that don't fit! =P

zipsforbananas

^I only don't feel strongly about that because I'm not collecting those sets. If TLG changed the lamp posts used in the modulars significantly I would do exactly the same!

Venunder

I'm sure I am not the only person who thinks TLG have overpriced the RRP's of many sets. To appear as a Premier Brand.
But I am probably the only person who thinks TLG should cut the RRP to 1/4 of what they currently are.

I'm also angry that TLG will not reprint the overpriced highly collectible sets from the past.

UCS Millenium Falcon
Taj Mahal
Green Grocer
Cafe Corner
are a few sets that should be reprinted, even if TLG only do a limited reprint of 10K every 5 years I am sure they could make money from doing so.

edgarallanpoe14

I must say, I hoped fervently that they'd re-release the UCS Falcon as well... that was until I acquired a SH set myself for roughly a fifth of the going aftermarket rate and promptly joined the local chapter of the 'Don't Remake the UCS Falcon' society.