
Lego Thinks Beyond the Brick - brianmckenzie
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/business/global/06lego.html?hp
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cubicle67
For anyone interested in obtaining non-current lego, I can recommend BrickLink
<http://www.bricklink.com/browseTree.asp?itemType=S>

It's not an action site like ebay, but a simple for-sale paradigm that offers
almost every set ever made, or even individual parts. At the moment there's
over 93 million items for sale

~~~
axod
Checkout the "Lego Batman" category.

I'm not sure exactly what happened with this, but as far as I can tell, Lego
released the awesome "Lego Batman" video game, and then were unable to extend
their license deal on the actual lego batman sets, so had to stop selling them
(Like a month after releasing the game!)

Whoever is responsible for allowing that to happen should hang their head in
shame.

They now go for seriously crazy prices, since everyone has the video game, but
cannot buy the lego sets.

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joezydeco
I have to agree with the analyst quoted on page 2. There's too many specific
parts and themed items on many of these new kits.

I remember when the space kits came out (like Galaxy Ranger) and we all cried
foul when they introduced the little engine and wing thingies. Those aren't
LEGO!

Now everything is a custom molded piece and barely has any mounting studs on
it. And let's not even mention Bionicle. Now get off my lawn.

~~~
ugh
I don’t know if the story is that easy. Sure, as time progressed there were
more custom parts. I played with Lego from 1992 (4) to 1999 (10) and remember
that trend quite vividly. But it didn’t really get all that bad until I
stopped playing Lego (no causal link there, by the way). Starting 2000 things
really got out of hand. But when looking at current Lego sets I think we are
back to 1999 or so levels of custom things. It has gotten better. Bionicle is
a somewhat strange last remnant of that time. All the rest is pretty much
normal again.

I would argue that there is nothing bad about current levels of custom things
in Lego sets. In the 90s they simply became part of the brand. Lego sets are
mostly standard blocks, but for good measure they will throw in a few custom
things. I always liked that. I don’t think I would have enjoyed playing Lego
so much with only standard blocks. The only thing I truly hate are stickers
which glue together big parts of a set. I want custom printed blocks for that.

~~~
joezydeco
Okay, I'm dating myself then, because I think things started going to hell in
1978, not 1992. Although we got minifigs, which were a lot better than those
strange half-people that came with the duplo kits (e.g. [http://www.tons-of-
toys.com/item_images/Classic%20toys%20and...](http://www.tons-of-
toys.com/item_images/Classic%20toys%20and%20games/Lego/Other%20Lego/2404.jpg))

