I grew up with Lego when it started the franchising, so I've collected a large amount of generic 80s and franchised 90s/early 00s sets, and I'd mostly disagree.

I grew up with Lego when it started the franchising, so I've collected a large amount of generic 80s and franchised 90s/early 00s sets, and I'd mostly disagree. Yeah, it made it (sometimes painfully) obvious what franchise a particular brick came from. But mix&match was still fun (because honestly, who wouldn't want Harry Potter with laser swords battling Martians and giant squid?) and most sets I owned were never once assembled according to their manual. Creativity is what you make of it.