4 ms·

In the early 80s, my parents went to garage sales and bought me tons of used Lego sets. None of the sets were anywhere near complete, and most of them didn't ev

by kijin 12y ago

In the early 80s, my parents went to garage sales and bought me tons of used Lego sets. None of the sets were anywhere near complete, and most of them didn't even come with a picture of the set they belonged to. My parents just dumped everything into a large bin and gave me no instructions other than what the shape of the blocks themselves suggested. There were parts of cars, parts of airplanes, parts of castles and police stations and pirate ships. So I made flying cars, pirate castles, police ships, and everything in between. Later, when my parents could afford to buy me a brand-new Lego set for a special occasion, I wouldn't even try to build what was shown on the cover. All the new blocks would go into the bin with the old ones, and I'd mash them together to build crazy things. I think those Lego blocks made me become a programmer. These days, when I browse the Lego section at any large toy store, all I see are heavily customized ("licensed") sets that seriously restrict what you can build with them. The bow of a ship is no longer a jagged stack of rectangular blocks; it's a large, smooth, custom-molded piece that can't easily fit in anything but a ship. They look beautiful, like a nice iOS app, but they no longer inspire creativity like they used to. Instead of Minecraft, you get FarmVille. I could still build a pirate-themed spaceport with that set, of course, if I had a lot of rectangular pieces. But most sets don't contain a lot of versatile, rectanguler pieces anymore. You need to buy a very large set for that. So maybe that's part of the reason why we think Lego is getting more expensive. There have always been small, cheap sets and large, expensive sets. But unlike in the 80's, most of the small sets are no longer worth buying. They are so heavily themed and custom molded that the average kid can't do anything truly creative with them. Serious players are therefore forced to buy large, expensive sets. Because if you buy a 1000-piece pirate ship, maybe half of those pieces will still be useful when you later decide to build a nuclear missile silo. Some time ago, I heard that you could just order a bag of generic blocks from Lego. I wonder if this is true, because if and when I have kids, I'd like to buy them that. Or maybe I'll just ask my parents if they still have my old bin of mismatched secondhand bricks.

aembleton 12y ago
You can buy generic blocks at Lego shops in a pick n' mix fashion. Not just blocks, but also men, wheels, trees, etc. I don't know if they provide an online service. This is in the UK, I don't know what Lego shops are like elsewhere.
- kijin 12y ago
  Unfortunately, the only "generic" pieces available for sale in my country seem to be baseplates and 2x4 blocks in assorted colors. I miss the svelte 1x16 pieces. They made such excellent beams for the large and airy structures that I liked to build, but they must have been part of a very unusual set because I can't find them anywhere else. :(
  - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
    Bricklink.com is the place to go if you're looking for specific parts. It's sort of like eBay for Legos. At a glance, both the solid-brick (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2465 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2465) and perforated Technic (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3703 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3703) pieces seem to be available at reasonable prices, depending on what color you want. Unfortunately, I don't know what shipping is like to your country, or if sellers will be reluctant to ship there. I'm in the US, so it's never come up for me. Good luck, though!
    - RobAley 12y ago
      brickowl.com is a similar site, with what I think is a much nicer interface. Other brick sites are also available!
- chambo622 12y ago
  Lego shops in the US are the same way. They're awesome.
eCa 12y ago
Agree completely re the big specific bricks. I guess this[1] is what you're looking for. Unfortunately, Lego is out of bricks... [1] http://shop.lego.com/en-US/catalog/productSearch.jsp?searchParam=Basic+bricks+deluxe http://shop.lego.com/en-US/catalog/productSearch.jsp?searchP...
- JonathonW 12y ago
  The linked set is discontinued. There are several different sets of basic bricks (of various sizes), currently branded under the Classic "theme": http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Classic-ByTheme http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Classic-ByTheme
noonespecial 12y ago
That's exactly what I found with my kids. You've got to buy far more expensive modern sets to get the same number of generic any-pieces than you used to. So the price of free form creativity with lego has indeed gone up. Follow the instructions Emmet...
- briandh 12y ago
  As mentioned by other commenters, the Creator series has sets with more generic pieces. And you can easily buy large quantities of generic pieces, at least in the US. For instance: http://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-Classic-Large-Creative-Brick/dp/B00NHQF6MG/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1424758013&sr=8-10&keywords=lego+bricks http://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-Classic-Large-Creative-Brick/dp... And the City series strikes me as striking a decent balance between generic and speciality pieces.
PhasmaFelis 12y ago
> These days, when I browse the Lego section at any large toy store, all I see are heavily customized ("licensed") sets that seriously restrict what you can build with them. The bow of a ship is no longer a jagged stack of rectangular blocks; it's a large, smooth, custom-molded piece that can't easily fit in anything but a ship. This is another example of the rose-colored nostalgia the article mentions, I think. Lego ships have always used dedicated boat parts for the hulls, starting in 1973 with the Tugboat (http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/310_Tugboat http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/310_Tugboat) that kicked off the Legoland Boats line; the Pirates line that debuted in 1989 did the same, starting with the Black Seas Barracuda set (http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6285_Black_Seas_Barracuda http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6285_Black_Seas_Barracuda). It makes them much more seaworthy for bathtub play. The Legoland Boat sets used to come with a special weighted keel piece for the bottom to keep ships upright in the water; I don't know if the pirate ships do, but of course you can always re-use the ones from the boat sets. > So maybe that's part of the reason why we think Lego is getting more expensive. There have always been small, cheap sets and large, expensive sets. But unlike in the 80's, most of the small sets are no longer worth buying. They are so heavily themed and custom molded that the average kid can't do anything truly creative with them. This is definitely not true. I don't have the money for big shopping these days, but every time I'm at a Target I like to pick up a little $5-$10 kit, ideally one of the mini vehicles. I always get hours of fun building and fiddling with the little things. I feel like "Lego sucks now" has become a meme that people just repeat without ever actually testing it. They look at a few kits in the store, pick out whatever details fit their preconceptions, and sneer about it on the internet. Try it! Go down to the store and buy a Lego kit. If you don't like the licensed jobbies, I highly recommend the Creator line; they tend towards straightforward vehicles and animals and robots and stuff, and most of them actually come with complete instructions for three different things per set. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
- magicalist 12y ago
  Yep, I remember the exact same discussion back in the late 80s/early 90s when 1980-Something "Classic Space"[1] gave way to Futuron[2] among others. Given how nearly everyone tends towards "kids these days" comments over time, I'm certain you're right and the same conversations were happening in the decades before that, too. [1] http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Classic_Space http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Classic_Space [2] http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Futuron http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Futuron
dxhdr 12y ago
I think it actually takes more creativity to re-purpose the 'heavily customized' sets. Here's some of those ship pieces you mentioned: http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5286/5377659338_18f315850a_z.jpg http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5286/5377659338_18f315850a_z.j... As a counter point, I loved all of those specialized sets as a kid -- Blacktron and M-Tron were especially awesome. Plain rectangular bricks can be boring and need some custom pieces to spice things up.
- kijin 12y ago
  I'd say it takes a different kind of creativity. One is not necessarily better than the other, they're just different. If you got bored with plain blocks and had to "spice things up" with custom pieces, it means you had plenty of plain blocks at your disposal. That's how I like my Lego sets, too. A large number of plain blocks with a few custom blocks here and there. Not custom blocks galore like some of the newer sets tend to be.
prawn 12y ago
You can buy buckets of generic bricks but they're hard to find in toy and department stores. I'm in Australia and gave up trying to find generic stuff in stock here and ordered in Duplo from Amazon for my two year old. He has airport and train sets (gifts from family), plus bulk bricks, which means he can get a mixture of general building experiences, plus specific things to combine with them. Works well.
facepalm 12y ago
I'm glad that there are (semi-) complicated kits that my kid can build. For his 4th birthday there was one with a 48 step instruction manual. That's an achievement (others might already build more complicated ones, but he didn't have small Lego before that). After a while these "builds" gradually fall apart and other things are being built. Creativity is not the only thing that can be encouraged. Building complicated things from instructions is also an important skill. And there is still plenty of creativity to be trained while playing with the finished models. I think you can not bemoan that LEGO is so important for raising engineers and then demand that they only have "creativity bricks".

by kijin 12y ago

aembleton 12y ago

You can buy generic blocks at Lego shops in a pick n' mix fashion. Not just blocks, but also men, wheels, trees, etc. I don't know if they provide an online service. This is in the UK, I don't know what Lego shops are like elsewhere.

kijin 12y ago
Unfortunately, the only "generic" pieces available for sale in my country seem to be baseplates and 2x4 blocks in assorted colors. I miss the svelte 1x16 pieces. They made such excellent beams for the large and airy structures that I liked to build, but they must have been part of a very unusual set because I can't find them anywhere else. :(
- PhasmaFelis 12y ago
  Bricklink.com is the place to go if you're looking for specific parts. It's sort of like eBay for Legos. At a glance, both the solid-brick (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2465 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2465) and perforated Technic (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3703 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3703) pieces seem to be available at reasonable prices, depending on what color you want. Unfortunately, I don't know what shipping is like to your country, or if sellers will be reluctant to ship there. I'm in the US, so it's never come up for me. Good luck, though!
  - RobAley 12y ago
    brickowl.com is a similar site, with what I think is a much nicer interface. Other brick sites are also available!
chambo622 12y ago
Lego shops in the US are the same way. They're awesome.

eCa 12y ago

Agree completely re the big specific bricks. I guess this[1] is what you're looking for. Unfortunately, Lego is out of bricks... [1] http://shop.lego.com/en-US/catalog/productSearch.jsp?searchParam=Basic+bricks+deluxe http://shop.lego.com/en-US/catalog/productSearch.jsp?searchP...

JonathonW 12y ago
The linked set is discontinued. There are several different sets of basic bricks (of various sizes), currently branded under the Classic "theme": http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Classic-ByTheme http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Classic-ByTheme

noonespecial 12y ago

That's exactly what I found with my kids. You've got to buy far more expensive modern sets to get the same number of generic any-pieces than you used to. So the price of free form creativity with lego has indeed gone up. Follow the instructions Emmet...

briandh 12y ago
As mentioned by other commenters, the Creator series has sets with more generic pieces. And you can easily buy large quantities of generic pieces, at least in the US. For instance: http://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-Classic-Large-Creative-Brick/dp/B00NHQF6MG/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1424758013&sr=8-10&keywords=lego+bricks http://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-Classic-Large-Creative-Brick/dp... And the City series strikes me as striking a decent balance between generic and speciality pieces.

PhasmaFelis 12y ago

> These days, when I browse the Lego section at any large toy store, all I see are heavily customized ("licensed") sets that seriously restrict what you can build with them. The bow of a ship is no longer a jagged stack of rectangular blocks; it's a large, smooth, custom-molded piece that can't easily fit in anything but a ship. This is another example of the rose-colored nostalgia the article mentions, I think. Lego ships have always used dedicated boat parts for the hulls, starting in 1973 with the Tugboat (http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/310_Tugboat http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/310_Tugboat) that kicked off the Legoland Boats line; the Pirates line that debuted in 1989 did the same, starting with the Black Seas Barracuda set (http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6285_Black_Seas_Barracuda http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/6285_Black_Seas_Barracuda). It makes them much more seaworthy for bathtub play. The Legoland Boat sets used to come with a special weighted keel piece for the bottom to keep ships upright in the water; I don't know if the pirate ships do, but of course you can always re-use the ones from the boat sets. > So maybe that's part of the reason why we think Lego is getting more expensive. There have always been small, cheap sets and large, expensive sets. But unlike in the 80's, most of the small sets are no longer worth buying. They are so heavily themed and custom molded that the average kid can't do anything truly creative with them. This is definitely not true. I don't have the money for big shopping these days, but every time I'm at a Target I like to pick up a little $5-$10 kit, ideally one of the mini vehicles. I always get hours of fun building and fiddling with the little things. I feel like "Lego sucks now" has become a meme that people just repeat without ever actually testing it. They look at a few kits in the store, pick out whatever details fit their preconceptions, and sneer about it on the internet. Try it! Go down to the store and buy a Lego kit. If you don't like the licensed jobbies, I highly recommend the Creator line; they tend towards straightforward vehicles and animals and robots and stuff, and most of them actually come with complete instructions for three different things per set. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

magicalist 12y ago
Yep, I remember the exact same discussion back in the late 80s/early 90s when 1980-Something "Classic Space"[1] gave way to Futuron[2] among others. Given how nearly everyone tends towards "kids these days" comments over time, I'm certain you're right and the same conversations were happening in the decades before that, too. [1] http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Classic_Space http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Classic_Space [2] http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Futuron http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Futuron

dxhdr 12y ago

I think it actually takes more creativity to re-purpose the 'heavily customized' sets. Here's some of those ship pieces you mentioned: http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5286/5377659338_18f315850a_z.jpg http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5286/5377659338_18f315850a_z.j... As a counter point, I loved all of those specialized sets as a kid -- Blacktron and M-Tron were especially awesome. Plain rectangular bricks can be boring and need some custom pieces to spice things up.

kijin 12y ago
I'd say it takes a different kind of creativity. One is not necessarily better than the other, they're just different. If you got bored with plain blocks and had to "spice things up" with custom pieces, it means you had plenty of plain blocks at your disposal. That's how I like my Lego sets, too. A large number of plain blocks with a few custom blocks here and there. Not custom blocks galore like some of the newer sets tend to be.

prawn 12y ago

You can buy buckets of generic bricks but they're hard to find in toy and department stores. I'm in Australia and gave up trying to find generic stuff in stock here and ordered in Duplo from Amazon for my two year old. He has airport and train sets (gifts from family), plus bulk bricks, which means he can get a mixture of general building experiences, plus specific things to combine with them. Works well.

facepalm 12y ago

I'm glad that there are (semi-) complicated kits that my kid can build. For his 4th birthday there was one with a 48 step instruction manual. That's an achievement (others might already build more complicated ones, but he didn't have small Lego before that). After a while these "builds" gradually fall apart and other things are being built. Creativity is not the only thing that can be encouraged. Building complicated things from instructions is also an important skill. And there is still plenty of creativity to be trained while playing with the finished models. I think you can not bemoan that LEGO is so important for raising engineers and then demand that they only have "creativity bricks".