Be Excellent To Each Other

How do you feel about minifigs, then? I once read a book about lego that said Lego enthusiasts were split between the minifig/built 'human figure' camps using normal bricks.

I love minifigs, me.

My favourite Lego period was from around 1979 to 1986. Before that point, it was pre-minifig/cars figures could sit in. After that point, everything gradually became simplified and siloed. These days, I admire aspects of the way certain kits are made, but the complexity means there are so many custom pieces that aren't terribly interoperable, and there's also that nasty tendency towards kits for boys and kits for girls. The town stuff used to have scope for everyone, but now seems heavily geared towards 'action' playsets geared very much towards boys, and then there's that pink stuff for girls. Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but it appears Lego's too heavily into licensing and siloing these days, presumably because that's the only way it can really survive.

On the advent calendars—ironically, given what I've written above—Mrs G's Star Wars one seems quite fun. I have a city one, which seems to be quite a lot of accessories so far. Interesting to know Argos were flogging them off cheap—last year, the things had pretty much sold out by November.

I like them. I liked them when they were just the generic :) face and then you'd attach that head to some kind of body and add a hat or hair or whatever. Now that they have stubble and grimaces/smirks it takes away from it a bit. I remember not being sure of my Duplo set because they added eyelashes or freckles and stuff to the faces, I found that putting certain head accessories with certain faces made it look wrong.

As for molded bits, I remember as a kid seeing the airport/airliner sets and thinking it looks really strange to have the plane made entirely out of standard bits except for the engines which were somewhat realistic looking (and the landing gear, come to think of it, which had smooth tires as opposed to the more knobbly off road ones you normally got). I thought the horses, which had a huge gap in their back for either a rider, a filled-in space (naked horsey) or a yoke were fine.

It's odd. Some of the very specific Castle stuff like the big wagon wheels, swords and shields made sense, but the huge molded bits didn't. My favourites were the transparent coloured pieces, I'd build huge spaceships covered in lights.

I love lego trees.

If I were a billionaire I'd have a huge forest, but part of it would be made of moulted huge lego trees.

I also love 'em. I think minifigs are essential if you want a small, minifig scale. I also like minifig accessories, like brushes and guns etc. I'm not a fan of the modern ZANY expressions. I like the little smile with the occasional pirate-beard+patch and things. But a good old yellow solved most of the problems.


To be fair on the more modern LEGO Star Wars things and their fancier bricks -- a lot of them are ships that 'require' fancy wing-plates and things to try an onbtain the shape of the real thing, but some of the new blocks don;t appear to be as re-useable and generic like the older ones. It's interesting to see the different versions of the X-Wing over the years: e.g.

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=9493-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6212-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=7142-1


The newest one, 9493, definitely looks a lot sexier, but it also looks like something you could only make with that specific set, whereas the other ones look like more of a jumble of other lego bits.


It's interesting to look at the evolution of the Police Boat over time. They started with a very set 'boat-hull' piece in the 70s/80s, which evolved into a boat-hull-made-of-bricks, back into a multi-piece boat hull.

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=7287-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=7899-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6483-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6344-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=4021-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=4010-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=709-1


I'm not sure which I prefer, really


I did buy this off of ebay sometime last year:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=7245-1

It's terrible. The base of the van is one long piece including wheel arches! You could make the same thing with 4 different standard plates and some standard wheel arches :/

Still, I had shit loads of LEGO pirate ships, castles and things which had lots of specific pieces, especially those terrible 'castle' baseplates with the dungeon bit, so what the hell am I talking about?

I bothered myself to download the instructions for the newest X-Wing and it's pretty cleverly done. I could do the central bit with the bits I have (though it'll have a rainbow lick of paint ), but I wouldn't have the bigger wing plates or all of the Technic poles requires to do the wings. I definitely don't have the fancy engine pieces, though maybe all the Star Wars stuff and even the City planes use them these days?


edit:
Looks like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back and now in LEGO form?

They were promoting the boat-hull ones in the catalog as being able to float, whereas the multi-piece ones had smooth bits for the bottom to allow them to 'sail' across the carpet

I'm not sure either, though the multi-piece hull would be very time consuming to put together. Damn you for presenting this dilemma!



Too complicated. Kids don't have the time nor the inclination to learn how to do things these days, etc.

I had this older version:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=6450-1

One of the best Lego things ever. The majority of the body of the truck was a battery pack with some 'conductor' pieces allowing you to send the power to the two amazing accessories: a lightbar with interchangable lights that could either flash or burn steadily, and a little siren that you'd turn to produce either a yelp or wail sound. It was just the right volume level to avoid irritating your parents, and the battery box and lights and siren were great 'imagination toys' used away from the truck itself too.

Looking at your van there and also being reminded of some of the stuff I've found on Brickset has reminded me of things like the Space Police... they started trying a bit too hard to provide a quick and ready scenario as well as the quick and easily built models. Your grinning criminal there, he's trapped in his life of crime (though I'd imagine and hope that for some kids he'd end up being just another guy who lives in their Lego town, and happens to grin sinisterly all the time and be a bit unkempt). The stories you'd come up with playing with another set would allow more, they'd naturally evolve as you were playing. The policeman is angry that someone keeps knocking over his road signs. The man tries to get his wife arrested to get rid of her. There's a big car accident. But no. Even the commercials were promoting the repetitive scenario: the Brickster (yes, kids are too dumb to come up with names for their imaginary characters too) is at it again, go arrest him, again. You see what I'm saying? It's like too many things, not giving people enough credit to be smart and creative, and the product is almost deliberately stifling it too. /rant

I've found the space sets I had!

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6930-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6931-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6980-1

They all did neat stuff! The smaller spaceship had wings on hinges that flexed a bit, and the rear compartment held a little wheeled vehicle. The space-bikes from the supply station were a great idea, and the big spaceship (as I've described before) was actually three pieces. The rear box was a detachable space lab thing... inside there was a computer console and a seat for an astronaut to sit at. But his air tanks would stop him! Not a problem, Lego provided a piece to hang the tank on! Wow.

I'm a bit in love with this one:

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=8404-1

On the one hand, I'd have loved the streetcar and the bus and everything, but on the other, it doesn't seem like a lot to actually put together, you know? Unless you had other Lego sets around (to build a town for the bus to go to) they get built once into the one thing they can be built into, and then that's it, they're basically toys with nobbly bits on them.

I always wanted 6930. I've tried to grab one on eBay a few times, but it goes for silly money. As for the mini-figs, I prefer the old generic heads. The new ones are a bit meh, and aren't easily interchangeable. The same's kind of true for that public transport station. Additionally, although there's more detail in the new vehicles, they're not too wide for road plates, unlike the older four-nubbin wide ones.

Looking at it, a lot of new Lego reminds me more of Zoids. They're now more like model-making kits (rather like Lego of old), rather than a bunch of bits that you could make anything from. That also suggests the designers are of a different era. It was pretty clear until the mid-1980s that most of the Lego sets were created from generic parts, and every now and again a new part would be created for a specific set; however, many of those parts would also be used as widely as possible. These days, it's much more about putting the thing together, playing and discarding rather than experimenting, which is a huge pity. (With Zoids, things were different: it was always about making a model, not interoperable components. Funnily, towards the end of the more recent Zoids run, they went more Lego, though, ditching motors and having parts that were easier to switch.)

6930? Why not the classic space one with the electric tram thingy? (cba looking up the number). That goes for even crazier money.

I'm not OLD AS FUCK like you two, so I didn't own any SP1. The next door neighbours had some though, including those good grey baseplates with craters on. So I had to deal with Space Police 2 and Magnetron! I can't remember which one of those kits I actually had and which ones I desperately wanted, especially with all the Pirate/Knights/Robin Hood/Loads of other themes I seemed to have been spoilt with as a child I also had some Ice Planet and other space things. SPACE IS BEST.

Actually City is the best theme. There's nothing cooler than a LEGO garbage truck.

Also at the tail-end of my youthful LEGO use were these Space things:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6979-1

(I definitely had 6979, as it was the last kit I made and it sat in my room until I left for Uni at 18/19, I can't remember if I had this: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6975-1, but it looks very familiar.)

Whilst the actual minifigs were very cool, (little cyborgs and aliens with glowy cool helmets!) the actual ship hull was annoying. 4 giant circle-bits that were impossible to use in anything else The beginning of the end, if the earlier sets weren't already going that way.


Anyway, compare that to modern Space Police. http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=5983-1

It's just too smooth!



edit: OOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo. I really want this. I've never seen a LEGO ISS before!

I really really wanted the monorail. In the end I used the pieces from those space sets (and their baseplates) to make my own. Using the smooth pieces it slid along pretty well (I couldn't use a wheel inside like a proper monorail as I didn't have any Lego wheels that would fit). I even managed in one iteration to make a switch to have it change tracks.

Sorry, on reflection I should have put that Advent tip in the bargins thread, but I did tweet about it, so you know, you should have followed me. Or something.

I only bought it as I was minimising chocolate as part of the new healthy me (lost 30kg since april) - but I've become obsessed. Lego is still amazing

30kg!? Fucking well done, mate!

Shit yes. Get thee to the middle-aged spread thread.

Ahhh this brings back a lot of memories

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=948-1

Not sure if it's me being a miserable old git but modern lego seems to have lost something of its charm, the joy of lego was (at least to a young Morte) was digging out the big bucket of lego and mucking about and seeing what you can build. With Christmas round the corner no doubt some of the big day will involve building multiple lego sets with my nephews...who are paranoid about 'mixing the bits up'.

I have this one in a box. And perhaps because I'm "old as fuck", I think it has a lot more charm than its massive modern equivalent, with its plentiful unique parts that can't really be used for anything else.

Oh, discordia! What has happened to children?

I know, it's terrible. Children really are quite useless. Stupid children.

Most of those bricks can be used for lots of other things. Sure, they are not as generic as a plain old brick, but apart from windows and wheels and such, they are still not "one-use-only" bricks. I think the large selection of arches, wedges and curved bricks that LEGO has developed the last 5 years is fantastic and allows stuff like the incredible new tie fighter model without resorting to specially molded bricks.

Loved my Space lego, had the Moon base with the crater plates.

But this was my fave set before I got Space lego: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=744-1

Mmmmmm motor...

The good Doctor sent me this yesterday:



http://io9.com/5966902/serenity-lego-se ... -a-reality

$85 for the little men is too much, though.

Nice

I remember the Christmas morning I got that vividly.

He he...your post sent me scuttling back to the brick set site to look at the Space Lego...after a certain age I got the technics stuff and my brother got the space lego.

It all ended up in the general lego bucket though.

Want.

Saw this in the Trafford Centre on Saturday.



2 floors high

According to SCIENCE a tower made up of 2*2 bricks could go as tall as 3,591 metres (2.17 miles) before collapsing under its own weight...of course long before you got that high it wouldn't stand up though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20578627

Hence "And perhaps because I'm 'old as fuck'". CHANGE IS BAD! WHY MUST THERE BE CHANGE?

Because, otherwise, 99p stores become £1 stores.

I remember having these

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=918-1
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=497-1

1979 bloody hell I am old!

I'd point and laugh, but then I had this (1978) and this (1979). Argh.

Nothing wrong with any of those...or being old.

My brother had that police station. I had the fire station and the castle. Actually, we still have those sets, and still in pretty good condition too.

I wanted those so badly! Had those space sets, though, and my brother had the police station. Brilliant.

I now have a deep need for some lego.

...damn you lego

I get an itch when I pass the LotR Shelob set which has the Gollum minifig...

I got the later 1981 station, which I, er, 'may' have just rebought on eBay a while back for more than a few pence. I also have a wee 1980s crane on my office speaker, facing off against an evil panda (in front of a framed set of Muppets stamps).

I work alone.

I swear I had a Lego kit called a "Magnama Starship" but Google tells me I'm misremembering.

What? I (aided by my parents) did that, dividing my three Space sets among their boxes sorted by colour, and my two generic sets likewise based on colour. It made life and building shit so much nicer. Any future models (like the police truck or my race cars set) stayed within their own boxes.

SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU, IMPORTANT NEWS AHEAD:

I live near Watford. Guess what opens in Watford on the 14th of december?!

Oh, Dear God. I'll be there.

Phew. Wrong side of the M25. If they ever open one in west London, I'm doomed.

You must think the Metropolitan Line passes through a City 17-style forcefield to clear all the horrible not-London things off.

Isn't there one inside Hamleys?

I live west of London, not in London, and so west London is easy enough to get to rapidly (including the hideous IKEA at Wembley, which Mrs G has fortunately now grown tired of), but north London/Watford means getting on the M25, getting past the Heathrow blockage, and still pootling for along for a while after that.

Oh fuck, why would they do this?

Incidentally, the only Space set I ever remember having was http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6890-1. To be fair, I was generally only interested in the more everyday Legoland sets.

This was probably my favouritest set:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6392-1

And I always remember this one as being the first ever set I got:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=1966-1

although I also had a load of Fabuland stuff, which I guess I must've had before that. I've probably still got all my Lego in the loft at my parents.

I keep getting tempted by that airport set on eBay, until every time I add it to a watch list, I realise I'd have nowhere to put the thing. As for the car repair shop, that's a pretty rare set.

So many memories in this thread!!

Because, Dave, they are bastards. Will make it easier to buy all the brand new white parts I need for Hobbes though. When I have the time and money to actually do it, mind you.

Sadly, none at all for me. I must have had a deprived childhood. The only thing close to Lego I had was this -



I'm quite pleased that a picture of the model I had exists online though.