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The announcement video I saw was bizarre. It spent a bunch of time showing the very classic, simple lego blocks being used to make imaginative things kids make

The announcement video I saw was bizarre. It spent a bunch of time showing the very classic, simple lego blocks being used to make imaginative things kids make like dinosaurs and trains and planes. It was heartfelt and got me thinking warmly about how Lego has always been this tool for your imagination to become tangible. I spent countless hours with my brother on the basement carpet floor playing Lego. And I've been doing the same with my kids and it's been an enormous facilitator of joy for us. And then they revealed a brick that shits all over that fundamental concept. A brick that significantly narrows the imagination space by focusing on pre-defined motion behaviours that trigger pre-recorded sound effects from all your favourite intellectual properties. Does a child exist who thinks, "damn... I wish I didn't have to make all these sounds myself"?! They're trying to compete with your imagination because your imagination is a factory from which free, unmerchandizable, non-franchise creations emerge.

bigyabai 10mo ago
You're being dramatic. This block doesn't replace building with Lego. Nobody is going to buy the block as a replacement for making blocky dinosaurs and racecars. We know this because Lego already shipped Technic and Mindstorm products that never broke the core value proposition. Having grown up with Duplo, Lego and Mindstorm, I think this brick is awesome. I can't wait to see what Minecraft Redstone engineers build in real-life.
- matthewfcarlson 10mo ago
  I understand the grandparents viewpoint. Why add constraints to an open ended toy? On the other hand, you could argue that the instructions and included pieces are constraints. Should Lego just sell random grab bags of pieces?
  - Waterluvian 10mo ago
    They do just sell random grab bags. I think there’s room for many options. But there was definitely an era where Lego sets had so many custom pieces that you couldn’t really do much else with the sets other than build the one design. And that's what I see happening a bit more these days. My kids, being the only grandkids, have gotten a ridiculous amount of Lego. They build and immediately abandon the highly specified sets to a shelf (ie. Disney, Star Wars, Dreamz). The Lego City, 3 in 1, and some other lines will get built by instruction maybe once (often they abandon the instructions half way through) and then pretty quickly become what we affectionately call Frankensets. I wish I had a better photo of the space ship from two weeks ago. But this is also their "mind control tower" https://ibb.co/tw11C6Lm https://ibb.co/tw11C6Lm (yeah... it got a wee bit communist by the top there) The problem with the highly specific sets and creativity is that they use a lot of these custom pieces that don't really fit well anywhere and it feels like you can't just riff on half a design and it's not worth taking Wall-E or X-Wing apart to make something else.
- Waterluvian 10mo ago
  If they're going to call it the "most significant evolution’ in 50 years" I'll be just as dramatic about how much this feels like a gimmick and a brand withdrawl, not a deposit.
  - bigyabai 10mo ago
    I have no idea what website you think you're on, where anyone complains about hyperbolic "this is our best $PRODUCT yet" statements.

bigyabai 10mo ago

You're being dramatic. This block doesn't replace building with Lego. Nobody is going to buy the block as a replacement for making blocky dinosaurs and racecars. We know this because Lego already shipped Technic and Mindstorm products that never broke the core value proposition. Having grown up with Duplo, Lego and Mindstorm, I think this brick is awesome. I can't wait to see what Minecraft Redstone engineers build in real-life.

matthewfcarlson 10mo ago
I understand the grandparents viewpoint. Why add constraints to an open ended toy? On the other hand, you could argue that the instructions and included pieces are constraints. Should Lego just sell random grab bags of pieces?
- Waterluvian 10mo ago
  They do just sell random grab bags. I think there’s room for many options. But there was definitely an era where Lego sets had so many custom pieces that you couldn’t really do much else with the sets other than build the one design. And that's what I see happening a bit more these days. My kids, being the only grandkids, have gotten a ridiculous amount of Lego. They build and immediately abandon the highly specified sets to a shelf (ie. Disney, Star Wars, Dreamz). The Lego City, 3 in 1, and some other lines will get built by instruction maybe once (often they abandon the instructions half way through) and then pretty quickly become what we affectionately call Frankensets. I wish I had a better photo of the space ship from two weeks ago. But this is also their "mind control tower" https://ibb.co/tw11C6Lm https://ibb.co/tw11C6Lm (yeah... it got a wee bit communist by the top there) The problem with the highly specific sets and creativity is that they use a lot of these custom pieces that don't really fit well anywhere and it feels like you can't just riff on half a design and it's not worth taking Wall-E or X-Wing apart to make something else.
Waterluvian 10mo ago
If they're going to call it the "most significant evolution’ in 50 years" I'll be just as dramatic about how much this feels like a gimmick and a brand withdrawl, not a deposit.
- bigyabai 10mo ago
  I have no idea what website you think you're on, where anyone complains about hyperbolic "this is our best $PRODUCT yet" statements.