Is lego becoming too pre-made?

darkarden · Post by **darkarden** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:35 am

Hey, ive been surfing this site for years, posting very rarely. I was just looking at the new village set on the front page, and i saw some of thos plastic fish, and it got me thinking: Is lego becoming too pre-made? I always thought that the spirit of lego was to take a few basic blocks etc. and turn those blocks into models; not to have everything pre-crafted like the fish as an example. Im just curious as to what you guys think.

Lord Felix · Post by **Lord Felix** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:54 am

Well, in my opinions, small and simple things like fish, bread, etc. are fine; they're accessories that are small enough that it's hard to make with bricks.

Premolded BURPs and LURPs though, where they could be made of bricks, that does bug me. But smaller pieces, arches, clips, poles, etc, could all be made of 1x2s or 1x4s, but it'd take a lot more imagination

miniflea84 · Post by **miniflea84** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:48 am

To me it appears that Lego is going in the opposite direction. Look at sets like cafe corner and green grocer. Tons of bricks. The buildings here look to be constructed more or less the same way. Even the more kid oriented stuff is seeing fewer large specific parts than a few years ago. Take a look at the brick count for King's Castle Seige- there's a lot of plain good old fashioned brick.

Not to mention that while a lot can be done with smaller multicolored 1x1 plates, round plates, cheese wedges and such, I think the newer food parts are a good thing, even if sometimes they don't look as lego-y as maybe I feel they should.

Brickzone · Post by **Brickzone** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:24 am

I think newer Lego sets make the best of large parts like BURPs and new smallish bits - and most of the sets have a good balance of bricks, plates and slopes too.

I do not think the "pre-built" parts are a bad thing in themselves, and they just allow easy scaling up and structural support of models (in the case of large parts) and more detail (in the case of small). From the beginnings of Lego there have been such parts introduced - for structure or detail.

It is in fact more challenging to make the best use of the array of parts Lego now has - I certainly do not agree that there is dumbing down or "juniorisation" as so many AFOLs cry (come on, get over it, Town Jr and Jack Stone were years ago).

Recent Lego sets are more intricate than ever.

metalandi · Post by **metalandi** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:35 am

The ultimate proof they are not going this direction is the new castle town square set. look at the animals (the "flying" ones). they are all brick-built.

Munchy · Post by **Munchy** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:13 pm

I think if you were to have posted this a few years back, many here would have agreed with you. I think in the last couple of years LEGO has seen the light and is moving away from the big pre-molded pieces. We'll still see those pieces now and again but for the most part, I think LEGO is doing more brick-built items.

Thank God!

cagri · Post by **cagri** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:37 pm

We are over that Town Jr & Jack Stone era.. I think Lego is doing very fine recently.

Count Blacktron · Post by **Count Blacktron** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:16 pm

Well they are doing a few new poop(s) now that seem to make little sense outside of a step saved. It seems to be with the smaller pieces; like the creation of a new 1x1 brick with clip, rather than two 1x1 plates and a 1x1 plate with clip; or the 1x2 plate with two clips, rather than two 1x1 plates with clip. I think there might be some aesthetics and structural integrity to consider in these steps, but on the whole I don't like it. I can deal with my hollow burp(s) and castle wall elements because quite frankly they've been around too long for my complaint to matter, but every time a new one comes up I lament the change when we never-ever got a 1x1 plate in old brown. I guess I'll just have to cope.

Username · Post by **Username** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:57 pm

Am I the only one that likes LURPS and BURPS?

lord azreal · Post by **lord azreal** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:08 pm

no, i like burps, saves on bricks although you do have to edit them slightly to avoid the repetition of having a wall of BURPs

CVfan13 · Post by **CVfan13** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:36 pm

I like BURPs and yet, I don't like them. I'm always tempted to use them, but stacking them on top of each other and filling in the gaps isn't exactly a good strategy...

icelus · Post by **icelus** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:03 pm

I don't hate BURPs/LURPs. I think they work pretty well for making cliffs or outcrops...

lord azreal · Post by **lord azreal** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:04 pm

oh yea agreed, but at some point i intend to make a mine scene and the only way thats possible without a huge bricklink order is throught the use of BURPs

Karalora · Post by **Karalora** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:54 pm

I think BURPs and LURPs have their place. While you could do the same thing by stacking smaller bricks, it seems like a lot of building effort for not a lot of result. Also, I really like the mottled patterns some of them have, and that's something you won't get with regular bricks.

Lord Felix · Post by **Lord Felix** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:00 pm

lord azreal wrote:no, i like burps, saves on bricks although you do have to edit them slightly to avoid the repetition of having a wall of BURPs

I think I agree, but I'm saying like those 4x2 bricks, etc. Anyway, if you can hide the BURPz and LURPz it'll work out... for example...

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Dandi ... own/01.jpg

Can you see the BURP and LURP in that rock face?