Unpopular LEGO Opinions

daewoo

It basically boils down to the fact that we are all each unique individuals with different education levels, life experiences, boundaries, expectations, etc.  I didn't buy much Lego when I was in college...if I bought any at all...not due to finances but rather because I was still in my dark age.  I came out of my dark age right after college when I was employed and bought quite a few sets.  Then I got married and we started a family and my Lego purchasing became more and more limited as funds had to be used elsewhere.  Now that I'm divorced (10 years now this year) and my kids are aging out of child support, I have more funds available for Lego.  Such is life.  We all follow our own paths and do what we can.  So you do you and I'll do me.  :)

MaffyD

MaffyD said:

Everyone's life situation is unique to them. Everyone's choices within the life they find themselves in are also unique to them. Any comment I could make about things I find easy or hard to achieve, or beneficial or harmful to me, would likely be only applicable to me when considered as a whole - so I try to avoid that when talking in public (like on an internet forum).

Need to quote myself... can't be bothered typing it differently.

EGRoberts

Somehow this discussion has gotten away from it's roots. The poster I was responding to thinks it should be easy to collect all the lego they ever wanted and as a student feels they are at a disadvantage but still manage to get all they want and doesn't understand why people complain about the cost of the sets going up and amount being released. He references 2500 budget by not drinking coffee. To put into context my average yearly lego expenditures pass 6000 same currency on average. We have different ideas of completion and as we get older our expenses usually go up for everything in general like kids, cars, and housing. The disagreement stems from the poster thinking all these things are optional and me disagreeing as when your older and your responsibilities grow so do your expenses and lego releasing 900 sets a year as opposed to the 200 they used to it makes it difficult to keep up. This was never an argument regarding education levels. Just a general me agreeing with someone that lego is pumping out to many sets that they can't keep in stock well watching prices climb is not a good mix for collectors.

FollowsClosely

Back on topic...

I am actually looking forward to my second dark age. I think it has already started.

pxchris

FollowsClosely said:

Back on topic...

I am actually looking forward to my second dark age. I think it has already started.

Unpopular indeed!

EGRoberts

FollowsClosely said:

Back on topic...

I am actually looking forward to my second dark age. I think it has already started.

You will never collect hundreds of sets with that mentality... There has to be something shiny that will force that wallet to open.. I thought I was done with starwars lego on my last splurge and now it keeps tempting me.

Speedman29

CCC said:

Irrelevant anyway, as I'd give up LEGO before my Yorkshire Tea. Is that an unpopular opinion?

Very unpopular! How could you give up the bricks for hot water strained through dry leaves?......now coffee, thats a different matter. 
I have never drunk a cup of tea in my life

MrJackson

Speedman29 said:

CCC said:

Irrelevant anyway, as I'd give up LEGO before my Yorkshire Tea. Is that an unpopular opinion?

Very unpopular! How could you give up the bricks for hot water strained through dry leaves?......now coffee, thats a different matter. 
I have never drunk a cup of tea in my life

I'm with ya. I'd quit drinking before I gave up coffee.

The only place tea belongs is the bottom of the Boston harbor. 

The_Rancor

Speedman29 said:

CCC said:

Irrelevant anyway, as I'd give up LEGO before my Yorkshire Tea. Is that an unpopular opinion?

Very unpopular! How could you give up the bricks for hot water strained through dry leaves?......now coffee, thats a different matter. 
I have never drunk a cup of tea in my life

I don’t drink tea OR coffee at all!


*Runs away at the thought of an extremely unpopular opinion*

Fizyx

The_Rancor said:

Speedman29 said:

CCC said:

Irrelevant anyway, as I'd give up LEGO before my Yorkshire Tea. Is that an unpopular opinion?

Very unpopular! How could you give up the bricks for hot water strained through dry leaves?......now coffee, thats a different matter. 
I have never drunk a cup of tea in my life

I don’t drink tea OR coffee at all!


*Runs away at the thought of an extremely unpopular opinion*

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

WesterBricks

The_Rancor said:

 I don’t drink tea OR coffee at all!

Hear! Hear!

Aanchir

CCC said:

I don't disagree with that, but it is amazing now just how many official lego descriptions use the words collect , colectable/ible, or collection. So much of their marketing has this subtle sense of this is just part of a larger collection.

See, in my case I find it odd that so many people treat the concept of "collecting" like having a "complete" collection is an implicit goal. When I was a kid, I had a rock collection. And I was never bothered by knowing I'd never manage to collect EVERY rock. For me, "collecting" was more about each individual acquisition being a part of something larger.

And the same goes for actual consumer products I enjoyed collecting, like Pokémon cards or Bionicle masks. Even as a kid, I had a pretty clear understanding that I would probably never own EVERY one of those things that got produced (regardless of the former's "Gotta Catch 'Em All" slogan). But that didn't diminish the fun of getting more of those things to complement and expand the play potential of the ones I already had.

And honestly, that's something that has always been part of LEGO's core appeal: the idea that any set you buy will give you parts that you can use interchangeably with the ones you already own from other sets. That's "collecting" at its most basic level.

So it feels weird to me when I see comments about blind-bag Minifigures, BrickHeadz, etc. that treat collecting like a game that you can only "win" by having a complete collection, and that if you CAN'T realistically manage that for one reason or another (cost, exclusivity, probability, limited production runs, etc), you've been scammed. For me that sort of attitude — treating each individual item as a means to an end, rather than an object of value in its own right — would take the fun out of collecting.

560Heliport

I've never expected to be able to collect all of something, whether LEGO sets, or (as a child) Star Wars or G.I.Joe action figures and toys. I sometimes wanted all of a particular line, but it didn't bother me that I didn't get it. A for-profit company will try to convince me I need more of their product, but that (profit) is why they exist, after all! With LEGO, I sometimes do get a complete theme or subtheme, even though one or more sets don't actually appeal to me. Sometimes it's just for the minifigures, but then the rest of the set is... extra LEGO pieces! If I don't "catch 'em all", that's fine; I have plenty of LEGO. ("Plenty", not "enough"!)

CCC

Aanchir said:

CCC said:

I don't disagree with that, but it is amazing now just how many official lego descriptions use the words collect , colectable/ible, or collection. So much of their marketing has this subtle sense of this is just part of a larger collection.

So it feels weird to me when I see comments about blind-bag Minifigures, BrickHeadz, etc. that treat collecting like a game that you can only "win" by having a complete collection, and that if you CAN'T realistically manage that for one reason or another (cost, exclusivity, probability, limited production runs, etc), you've been scammed. For me that sort of attitude — treating each individual item as a means to an end, rather than an object of value in its own right — would take the fun out of collecting.

The tick boxes that have appeared in the leaflets for CMFs since Series 1are an indication that LEGO knows about the psychology of leaving things unticked. And when it comes to claims of scams, I think this is normally directed at being blind bagged and spending way more than 16x / 12x the price of 1 to get a complete set, so are like stickers/cards/anything blind bagged. And with brickheadz, they are numbered (not the set numbers, the sequential low numbers). Again, a psychological trick that makes people feel bad if they are missing part of the sequence. As to the use of words starting with collect in regular sets, you only need to compare to descriptions from a decade or two ago to see how lego has learnt that its products are collectable and that reinforcing this helps sell more. Often it adds nothing to the description but is still included, reinforcing the idea.

CCC

MrJackson said:

Speedman29 said:

CCC said:

Irrelevant anyway, as I'd give up LEGO before my Yorkshire Tea. Is that an unpopular opinion?

Very unpopular! How could you give up the bricks for hot water strained through dry leaves?......now coffee, thats a different matter. 
I have never drunk a cup of tea in my life

I'm with ya. I'd quit drinking before I gave up coffee.

The only place tea belongs is the bottom of the Boston harbor. 

I agree, that is definitely the best place for what is sold as tea in the US.

CCC

FollowsClosely said:

Back on topic...

I am actually looking forward to my second dark age. I think it has already started.

I think you can have different types of dark ages. I'm in a bit of a set dark age. There are so many out there but so few that interest me for what they are. Most of my purchases are for parts packs, rather than sets. Even though they might be the same product.

FollowsClosely

Amazon does a great job protecting the product.

vanvonfull

Looks frustration free… to be fair they put it at the corner of your garage like the box suggested.

SumoLego

vanvonfull said:

Looks frustration free… to be fair they put it at the corner of your garage like the box suggested.

The next modular will be called 'Left Porch Hedge, featuring Elephant Ass-Print'.

I'll know where to look.

Brickchap

How about Lego bring back Pirates! Except it would be a new subtheme, Porch Pirates!

Astrobricks

Not sure where the unpopular opinion part comes in. But we all know by now Amazon doesn't consider the box to be the product.

MaffyD

Never seen it like this in the UK. Argos do it, but not Amazon. At least, not to me.

SumoLego

Astrobricks said:

Not sure where the unpopular opinion part comes in. But we all know by now Amazon doesn't consider the box to be the product.

LEGO really doesn't consider it the product, either.  I think they just humor people that complain about box condition.

arathemis

Not sure unpopular or not, but i would like some index pages as well at the end of the instructions, like piece A was used at steps 23, 29, 130 and 455. Piece B was used a step X, Y, Z.

Specially for relly big techic sets, where if you leave out a piece, sometimes it's not noticeable, and at the end of the set i need to browse the steps again to check where the piece should have went. 
(i'd leave out the most of the pins though).

I've had this happen to me way more often than i'd like to admit. 

Bobflip

arathemis said:

Not sure unpopular or not, but i would like some index pages as well at the end of the instructions, like piece A was used at steps 23, 29, 130 and 455. Piece B was used a step X, Y, Z.

Specially for relly big techic sets, where if you leave out a piece, sometimes it's not noticeable, and at the end of the set i need to browse the steps again to check where the piece should have went. 
(i'd leave out the most of the pins though).

I've had this happen to me way more often than i'd like to admit. 

Yeah, definitely not the right thread but I do like the idea!

560Heliport

^ and ^^ I think that could add a lot of pages to the instructions for any large Technic set! Just pay closer attention the part callouts for each step.

Casper_vd_Korf

isn't there that one app with instructions plus or something? it wouldn't be too difficult to add a search function to that.

Bobflip

560Heliport said:

^ and ^^ I think that could add a lot of pages to the instructions for any large Technic set! Just pay closer attention the part callouts for each step.

Obvs that's the idea behind the callouts, but even using them we're all mostly human and mistakes can be made. Then you gotta go through the manual looking at every single part callout until you maybe find it.

daewoo

That's just part of the experience for me.

andhe

Probably been mentioned before but worth repeating. Not every good moc 'needs to be put on IDEAS'. It's a waste of everyone involved's time.

Astrobricks

Bobflip said:

560Heliport said:

^ and ^^ I think that could add a lot of pages to the instructions for any large Technic set! Just pay closer attention the part callouts for each step.

Obvs that's the idea behind the callouts, but even using them we're all mostly human and mistakes can be made. Then you gotta go through the manual looking at every single part callout until you maybe find it.

No matter how much help they add to the manual, people will still make mistakes. And as the manual gets bigger, people will get impatient and skip stuff.

tne328

andhe said:

Probably been mentioned before but worth repeating. Not every good moc 'needs to be put on IDEAS'. It's a waste of everyone involved's time.

Agreed. Rebrickable is a better place to help you build that cool MOC you saw, or to help others build this cool MOC you made.

Bobflip

Astrobricks said:

Bobflip said:

560Heliport said:

^ and ^^ I think that could add a lot of pages to the instructions for any large Technic set! Just pay closer attention the part callouts for each step.

Obvs that's the idea behind the callouts, but even using them we're all mostly human and mistakes can be made. Then you gotta go through the manual looking at every single part callout until you maybe find it.

No matter how much help they add to the manual, people will still make mistakes. And as the manual gets bigger, people will get impatient and skip stuff.

It's an index though, it wouldn't add *that* much to the manual, and it certainly won't add anything to the steps themselves. Anyone being impatient and skipping stuff because there's more information tucked away at the back is just asking to make mistakes!

SumoLego

Hey, as a LEGO apologist - I have an unpopular opinion:

Not a fan of Bionicle, and despite its instrumental role in keeping the company afloat, I find it a prime example of LEGO leaving its roots.

MaffyD

^ Maybe not so unpopular on here...

Although if I can be contrarian for a sec: Lego's roots are wooden toys. They changed direction to follow a new opportunity. Bionicle is no different to that. I still see it as Lego, just not sets/parts I am particularly interested in.

I still bought the Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America things when they came out...

The_Rancor

I’ve been hearing and seeing a few people lately that seem to have inordinate amounts of Lego still sealed for a number of years since buying it new. Sometimes it’s handy for people buying to have access to this kind of supply, but in a roundabout way I’m saying one unpopular opinion I probably have amongst AFOLs is that you shouldn’t buy a set unless you’re actually going to build it. I feel a vicarious pain when fans say they have sealed boxes that have been ‘waiting to be built’ for many years on end. Sure, you can’t always build everything immediately but I would have thought relatively soon after you’d bought it - more like months than years.

It’s probably because I’m not an investment buyer and I recycle most of my boxes after the set’s built, but everyone has their preferences.

tne328

I won't deny that there are "NIB collectors," and a few people with such collections can easily get attention because it stands out on social sharing sites. But on the other hand, there are sometimes reasons to keep a set unopened. For instance, I have a GWP that doesn't excite me, but I figure someday I'll sell, trade, or gift it to someone who will enjoy it more.  Or when I was gifted a set I already had built and enjoyed, that will be sold someday to sponsor buying a set I will build and enjoy. Or getting a set in hopes of building it with a family member, when the build techniques are too advanced for that family member now, but won't be in a few years.

Again, I doubt this is the motivation behind the people you have seen, I just want to provide a counterpoint to the idea that "Every set still NIB 12 months after purchase must belong to an investment overbuyer." Take that for what it's worth.

The_Rancor

tne328 said:

I just want to provide a counterpoint to the idea that "Every set still NIB 12 months after purchase must belong to an investment overbuyer." Take that for what it's worth.

Just want to clarify I don’t believe this. I was more meaning “you’re missing out on the experience of building and playing with/displaying a set if you don’t open it”.

I do agree with you on some of the counterpoints you mentioned though, like GWPs that you don’t ‘buy’ new in the traditional sense, or waiting for members of the family to become old enough to build something together.

PJ76uk

FOMO is also a factor! I've been in the process of moving for over a year now, from initial planning to waiting for the house to be built, so I've been buying sets and storing them in storage purely because I don't want to find out when I move that the set is out of stock or discontinued!I

I also have a bunch of older sets like SW UCS, the Shield Helicarrier, 1989 Batmobile and Batwing plus various modulars that I bought but never built due to lack of display space (hence the move!).

Yellowcastle

If I built all my NISB sets, I would have nothing to look at in my personal toy store.

Brickchap

Whats FOMO mean?

bandit778

@Brickchap

Fear Of Missing Out.

JudgeChuck

I still have all three Ninjago City / Docks / Gardens sets boxed up, as I simply do not have the space for them at the moment. I will definitely be building them all at some point, while half-hoping that Lego *don't* release any more!

daewoo

Space has become an issue for me, so I've rearranged one closet and will soon do another - purging stuff I haven't touched/used in a while, making room for stuff I do use.  I keep all my show Lego in boxes which stack nicely, but displaying built sets doesn't really happen at the moment.  I've got around 30 sets still in the box, which is ridiculous for me because I love the building experience.

560Heliport

Yellowcastle said:

If I built all my NISB sets, I would have nothing to look at in my personal toy store.

But you would have your own personal Lego museum!

autolycus

FOMO is definitely a powerful force. As is a lack of display space… The lack of display space wouldn’t be too much of a problem if I didn’t hate taking sets apart so much.

EGRoberts

PJ76uk said:

FOMO is also a factor! I've been in the process of moving for over a year now, from initial planning to waiting for the house to be built, so I've been buying sets and storing them in storage purely because I don't want to find out when I move that the set is out of stock or discontinued!I

I also have a bunch of older sets like SW UCS, the Shield Helicarrier, 1989 Batmobile and Batwing plus various modulars that I bought but never built due to lack of display space (hence the move!).

Sorting lego is a sad addiction for me, it is almost as calming as building. The problem I face right now is we moved into a temporary apartment due to my work and have no dedicated lego room at the moment. We won't be back into a house until March or April so now as sets get bought I remove them and sort them away into there spots without building them at all. It is a sad state of affairs but I feel your pain on the waiting.. I look forward to the day when both of us have our lego rooms in all there glory! 

On the plus side this has forced my hand to buy all matching storage and I am over a thousand dollars into that investment and still need another five hundred in storage as I keep working my way through. When I get my lego room I will have a pristine sorted collection for all my wildest dreams rather then boxes to open and pieces to hunt down.

CCC

The_Rancor said

Just want to clarify I don’t believe this. I was more meaning “you’re missing out on the experience of building and playing with/displaying a set if you don’t open it”.

Not if you bought two.  Then you get the experience of building, playing with and displaying it. And get to have a perfect sealed copy if that is what you collect.

I bought multiples of things like LOTR and The Hobbit with the intention of building larger displays. But when you find they are not as suitable as buying different bricks to extend instead combined with the price of them shooting up, what was bought to build can soon become an investment  even if not originally intended to be.

Yellowcastle

560Heliport said:

Yellowcastle said:

If I built all my NISB sets, I would have nothing to look at in my personal toy store.

But you would have your own personal Lego museum!

Sadly, I have very few childhood museum wishes to exorcise now that I’m 18+.

Phoenixio

I also share the unpopular opinion of disliking NIB collectors, more like as a sad realization that our hobby turned partly into a speculation game due to poor distribution or bad evaluation of demand.  The limited shelf life doesn't help either.

That being said, I also have a few sets I myself haven't built yet, mostly due to a lack of space at my previous apartment, but also due to an imminent double move.  If it works out, my new work contract will be for 1-2 years, so I'm unsure still of what I do with my Legos until then: do I push my luck and bring them with me, with a chance of moving again in a year, or do I store and wait?  That means a few sets I'll buy by interest and fear of missing out, while not being able to build for some time.

As with others, I also have a few GWP that I haven't touched, that I might resell later once settled.  I try to purchase when there's double VIP points mostly though.