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Of the few things that annoy me about Lego (and very little does) is how the company decides when to produce and sell certain things. We all know about how there are no base plates included with Insult on Hoth and that's fine since kids like to pick up sections and move them around. What annoys me though is that plates aren't made available for purchase separately. Maybe Lego intends to put one out soon, I don't know, but the general approach to base plates is confusing. They should be available for purchase along with matching themes. For instance, a separate blue base plate would go along perfectly with the Deep Sea Exploration theme from last year, or even Prison Island. A white base plate would have gone well with the Arctic theme, etc. To my mind base plates in standard colours should remain in production. Wouldn't these be reliable money makers for the company? I
could buy other base plates on the secondary market but they are ridiculously expensive like this:
https://www.amazon.ca/LEGO-Bricks-Building-Plate-32x32/dp/B002RL7VNY/ref=sr_1_11?s=toys&ie=UTF8&qid=1459710395&sr=1-11&keywords=lego+baseplateIt also doesn't make sense to me that I can buy tan and green 32x32 plates (which is great), but I can't buy grey in 32x32, only 48x48. Why?


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Whoops.
Can I just buy two of the same road plates per package, please?
Of course, I am not against Lego selling them individually (but prefer not to be 'forced' to buy them if they come in sets) but I imagine their is not a good business case to have many colours available at once.
I have read that they are no longer made by Lego but sub contracted out, which may be one if the reasons they tend not to include them in so many sets these days.
And they are very very expensive for what they are
Agreed. Why make them if they're just going to force us to buy them? Why not just make them in smaller amounts to be sold separately and save the money and have happy customers?
different colors
different sizes 16x32, 32x32, 24x48, 48x48
but no original lego!
I have one clone baseplate and to be honest there is no difference in clutch between the fake and the real ones. If anything, clutch is slightly better. So to me, there is no performance issue with clones. Also at the price they are, people don't mind gluing them down to tables or boards for kids to play on.
Every time I see a "train table" in the local thrift shops I check to see if it has baseplates built in. I've picked up a couple of them for $5 each just for the tabletops with baseplates.
On the bright side, you can order baseplates in a few more colors via Bricks and Pieces.
I've been waiting for road plates that will work better with modular buildings.The current plates need a lot of tile to look good with the modulars, and the sidewalk ends up really wide. I want a 32x32 plate with 2 studs. It would have two 14 stud wide lanes. It would really save on the amount of tiles needed. It would have space for wider cars and a bike lane.
In the meantime I just make my own roads out of laminated paper.
The road plates are an interesting oddity. Back when Steve Witt was representing LEGO, I believe he told us that they were packaged with "different types together" in order to save on SKUs. That is, LEGO buys or is allocated a certain number of SKUs every year. That limits the number of different sets they can sell annually. So they reasoned that they could save 2 extra SKUs by putting different road plates together rather than like ones together.
Again, it makes it really annoying for AFOLs that want to build road-baseplate-towns, but at the same time, AFOLs are again pretty divided on wanting baseplates for their roads at all. So... tough luck I guess. I know I probably would have bought a few more baseplate packs if they were sold in single varieties, but a lot of AFOLs won't-- many of us actually stocked up on baseplates back in the days when there were green sidewalks (our LUG certainly did).
I think what would be awesome is if they could do periodic limited offerings for AFOLs. Dunno if it'd be worth the money, but something LUGBULK-esque, where they build up a running order of (say) white baseplates in a certain size, and then make a big batch in a special sale. Not normal retail, but some sort of special deal via the LAN (one size/color per year or some-such).
DaveE
www.amazon.com/LEGO-Education-Building-Plates-4570274/dp/B0085Y3YV0 is real LEGO, a 48x48 and 3 32x32 for $35 instead of $39. I got a couple of those on sale for $29 a month ago. The regular price is a deal but not a dramatic one. One of the 32x32's is blue.
Ditto on road plates.
I wonder if the knockoffs are any good. Like regular clones, they seem only slightly cheaper. Mosaics put more stress on a baseplate because more is covered, so quality issues with clones might be more of a problem for that use.
I also would like white plates as well as brown ones.
Those that like regular plates, #9388 seems to come with six 16x16 plates along with several smaller ones.
It was also at $29 on Amazon last month, but I did not grab one:
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Education-Building-Plates-4646267/dp/B006Z78LBW?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_14&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Lego actually lose out by packaging them this way
32x32 is design number 3811 - most are around £5-7
48x48 is desgn number 4186, though they only have blue in stock at the minute and they're a hefty £16.52.
I like the creator stuff and modulars personally plus a train or three
Exactly!
I love the idea of a build your own roadway set - I'm sure I'd want at least a couple for my son.
Personally, I rarely do large layouts, so I tend to prefer the convenience and sturdiness of regular plate-based bases for most sets. The 16x16 plate (the biggest and sturdiest standard plate available) already comes in a wide range of colors, including White, Bright Blue, Bright Green, Dark Green, Brick Yellow, Medium Stone Grey, Dark Stone Grey, and even useful colors that traditional baseplates have never come in like Medium Azur, Sand Yellow, and Light Royal Blue!
Sorry for the confusion.
I'm not totally a fan of road plates either. Of course, that's a somewhat different case than baseplates since there isn't yet a really parts-efficient alternative. I would love if LEGO made a road system based on smaller elements like 8x16 tiles. That would offer so many potential advantages over typical baseplates... you could put roads right up against sets with a built-in curb like modular buildings instead of having to transplant them from their bases, you could put a crosswalk anywhere along a road instead of just on specific corners, you could vary the length of roads by smaller increments, etc.
What never ceases to surprise me is how much nostalgia there is for the old raised baseplates. Not only were several of them fairly fragile (which is part of what bumps up their price in the aftermarket), but they were even bigger and more specialized than a usual base, something AFOLs ordinarily tend to be against. They added to the height of models, but they did so at the expense of building. Customization potential was limited by their shape and size, they didn't allow you to make full use of the space below "ground level", and their usual flat, printed sides tend to be a lot less visually interesting than a custom foundation made up of bricks and BURPs (like can be seen in #70728 Battle for Ninjago City, #60130 Prison Island, or #41180 Ragana's Magic Shadow Castle).
Regarding recent changes to baseplates, I don't feel anywhere near as strongly about them as a lot of people do. The price increase baseplates got in 2015 was pretty much inevitable — the price of a 32x32 baseplate was $5.50 in 1996, so inflation accounts for most of the price increase on its own. And the only thing I really "get" about the outrage over the color change in the green plates is that originally the image of the new green baseplate was misleading and showed it in the old green color. Aside from that, there's nothing inherently better about Dark Green baseplates (classic green) than Bright Green ones. Bright Green has been used as a ground color in Free Style, Creator, Bricks & More, and Friends for many years, so this change could be seen as a long time coming.
I do, however, understand people's frustration with the blue building plates being discontinued right when Pirates was revived. That was rather unfortunate timing.