To think lego are increasingly mugging consumers off with tiny pieces

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

DS (4) got his first lego classic box this Christmas. I got one of the biggest, most ex expensive boxes there was.

When I was a child, my first lego set (my mother still has it) had LOADS of proper building blocks - 1x4, 1x6, roof pieces etc.

Now they all seem bulked out with tiny tiny flat pieces - theres not enough to build a proper house, not even close.

Thanks for all ths tips guys, I will hit Ebay.

The set I had as a child was terrific. Red, yellow, blue, black & white building blocks, plenty of windows, doors, quite a few useful small plates, some wheels, car windscreens, all in a box with a carry handle with 2 sections each with 3 compartments, each section had a base plate on

Base plates were my go-to birthday gift for years when DS was younger, and I was always fervently thanked for them! Even 5/6 years ago I was getting a bit about the amount and size for the money.

@Fudgefeet

I bought my youngest the Harry Potter privet drive kit and was shocked at how tiny it was for the price. I talked myself out of it multiple times but then bought it when I couldn’t think what else to get. It’s tiny, stupidly expensive but we had the quietest, most peaceful Christmas ever. I wish I’d bought the whole castle now.

This!

We got this set for my sons birthday and I was so shocked by how small the house is when built. I can’t believe such a tiny end product in such a large box cost £65!

As above buy second hand. Our local sale room often has crates of it for around £20.00 - £40.00.

I still have two crates I bought at a 'school sale' of resources.

Also Facebook market place, there's always loads of Lego for sale near me. Usually big tubs where all Lego has been mixed together.

It's because the patents have expired on the original brick designs and so any company can make generic copies and sell them cheaply.

Lego now focuses mainly on making branded sets that they still have exclusivity over. If you just want a bag of generic bricks then you need to buy a non-Lego brand.

There's also so many sets focusing on one built, instead of free play. Yes, I hate this too. Fine to have a set of bricks to make one particular thing provided that the individual pieces are generic and can be incorporated into other stuff. But they're not - there are so many pieces that just don't make sense in any other model. Where does the creativity come in?

I agree that modern lego is too specialised. In the 1980s, you only had basic colours, green bricks were rare.

I think the early 90’s was the golden age of lego: it had just the right balance of looking nice, yet you could still be really inventive with it.

I agree with OP.
The Lego is a joke.
When my daughter was into Lego- it was not for long btw as the pieces are so tiny, she lost interest.
One Xmas we bought her about 4 different sets of Lego Friends and were so disappointed with the size of the bits!
When we finally build it it was impossible to play with it as too small.

Also I want to add. We still have Lego, my DH had when he was her age in the 80s.
The sizes were much bigger and you could actually play with it.

YANBU! We have a box full of Lego that were once from sets but the kids can do sweet fuck all with it now. It used to be so open ended, the box of 70s stuff my DGM keeps at her house is fantastic, hours of open ended play and completely gender neutral.

Agreed. I don’t like Lego at all. My boys are equally not that bothered.

We bought the 1500 piece classic set this year to add to the collection and yes there are lots of tiny bits but actually suit the way our 4yo builds - he's into making fantastical robots and creatures or vehicles more than houses though, so the small bits make excellent buttons, boosters, rockets, tentacles etc. Although he did make a jail for all the bad guys yesterday after all his superheroes rounded them up.
We have quite a few base plates which I bought separately over the years.

Yeah it's like they took one of the most imaginative toys out there and made it really over-specific so you can only make one thing with each set.
Absolute rip-off.
Wish DH wasn't obsessed with Lego. Utter waste of money buying it these days. I hope DS decides he doesn't care about it.
It's a shame, I used to love Lego when I was a kid, and I quite like the films/video games, but the product itself is just meh these days.
And don't get me started on those pink and purple sets for girls.

It's a good idea to look on eBay. I've been disappointed that the base plates on Amazon are so expensive. We have a relative who buys the Wilko generic stuff and it doesn't integrate that well with proper Lego. It doesn't click on quite securely. Frustrating!

Although as others have said, the Lego Friends kits are poor value, I find with a pack of trees and flowers added you can build a nice Californian-looking house.

NotDavidTennant

That makes perfect sense.

It's silly really, I think they are really underestimating the value of their brand. I know plenty of people who would continue to choose Lego brand stuff.

I think a huge part is more the longevity & flexibility of basic building blocks. You can do more with them imaginatively, so don't need to keep buying limiting/incompatible/very specific "sets" at high cost - instead a couple of decent sets of blocks will provide years of free play.

(Which makes them less money).

But stupid as it means people just keep passing around second hand lego, which makes Lego no money at all.

ITS NOT JUST ME THEN!

Thank goodness you feel the same. DS and I were trying to build a Lego fire station, house, ambulance station for all the little emergency vehicles I bought him, but OMG two big boxes of Lego that are full of the tiny bits that you put together to make batmobiles, racing cars and so on and so on, but hardly any to just built little buildings. I did see Basic/Classic boxes of bricks but they too have actual things you can build with them. eBay looks the only place to buy actual blocks.

I hate the modern base plates, they used to be thick and strong but now they are really thin and weak, we have had a couple break.
We have a huge amount of Lego, one of my sons loves the sets but the other likes to freebuild and it is so frustrating that the bricks are usually the 1 wide ones instead of the 2 wide size.
I do find real Lego so much better than the cheaper copies though, we have tried a few but always go back to the real stuff. I don’t think Lego need to worry about that.

Agree sick of Lego

DS loves Lego, we have a big box of it made up of bits of my DFs Lego, my Lego, and about 4 kilos of random bits we got from eBay. There are quite a few of the special pieces that you might think only work on the specific sets they're meant for but DS builds all kinds of fantastical structures with them.

He has loads of kits as well and likes playing with them.

I hate Lego for this very reason. A box with 800 pieces and only about 20 usable bricks. I really don’t need eyes, tiny caps and whatever else they fill it out with. My daughter gets Lego for most birthdays and Christmas, has an IKEA under bed box full off the stuff and yet she doesn’t have enough 4x2 or 3x2 bricks to build a decent sized house and roof. She is currently building a £90 set she got for Xmas and it’s tiny. Lego is far too expensive.

Some of the adult sets are ludricous these days. £300-£600. They are beautiful, but can normal people afford them? DH&I collect adult Lego, but are getting priced out now.

The stuff aimed at children is definitely more intricate now. Then they rely on the preformed bits to make it easier for younger children.

They need a proper rangefor 4-8year olds with proper bricks.

You are obviously all buying the wrong sets.
Classic sets:
10703 £19.99
11004 £24.99
11005 £29.99
All contain lots of windows, doors, roof pieces, bricks etc
11717 £60 ish contains a massive amount of bricks and windows/doors etc plus FOUR baseplates.
As for the themed sets. The whole point is you can either follow the instructions to build the main design or use the parts to build something completely different. Either just those pieces or combine with other sets. All pieces are compatible with each other. All of them. I regularly take two small ish sets (ones that are £20 or less) and combine. I am currently staring at my Lego Friends Hot Dog Cafe with flat above it build built from Stephanie's Hot Dog truck plus Emma's Art Studio. I will take a picture in a minute.

Unfortunately it's not letting me add a picture. I have a lot of fun with a project I call 'Take Two Sets'. The name says it all. Hopefully in 2021 Lego display shows can happen again and I will get to show them off.