Put sets on a wishlist, they send you one of them. You build it, unbuild it and send it back. One set a month.
I think the idea of "Netflix for LEGOs" started where one might expect X but for Y services to start - California.
We used one of these services in the USA somewhere nearing 10 years ago. Looks like they're still around at https://netbricks.biz/ - but I also see https://brick-library.com/ and https://brickdrop.co and wouldn't be surprised if there's more. It worked great. I detected zero incompatibility with my being from the USA. I didn't eat or carelessly throw away a single brick.
From a search it look like Pleygo was the first such startup from 2012 and based in San Jose / Santa Clara, but is no longer around.
If people have a Lego set on display, that is surely a conversation starter for me. Especially if it's a ginormous Minas Tirith or Sagrada Familia set, or an old Technic set.
Not for everyone I suppose.
My partner likes a lot of the botanicals in our living room, on top of speakers, etc. The table has a vase with bouquet. That's our agreement, architecture and other things (Lighthouse, Jazz Quartet, Ship in a Bottle, Grand Piano are my favorite) in my office, botanicals in the living room.
These days I much prefer the large Technic theme sets because they are not so repetitive and require a deeper immersion to actually complete; harder to just space out while building the set. Certainly more meditative for me.
All that is to say that if you're going to consider this set, be aware that the build experience might not be the level of fun that the part count seems to indicate.
When I was younger, I used to own a zoo, and a pirate ship....
Though not at the same time. We couldn't afford that much lego.
Back in the aughts, they redid their philosophy of having large single-purpose pieces and went to having those large pieces be replaced by subassemblies of much smaller pieces that were much more general purpose. That's when SNOT became huge in Lego's official sets.
As someone with multiple decades of experience with Lego, things now are much much better than they were back in the 90's and early aughts specifically because of this pivot that Lego did. There is something to be said about part count inflation, and how many of the parts nowadays are tiny little pieces rather than the big 2x2 or 2x4 bricks. And also, some sets and some themes do require their unique pieces. Friends has their little minifigures that are different from the standard minifigs. The Mario sets might need to have some specific pieces -- there's no standard 'mario mustache' tile. But overall, Lego has done a pretty incredible job of increasing the utility and decreasing the single-use aspect of many pieces.
I love it, knowing about these little details. Also fun to share with friends that inquire about the various LEGO on display in the house. This, and all the fancy mechanics (e.g. typewriter, nintendo), engender a ton of respect and awe for the designers.
If the LEGO are truly accurate to the real thing, that might take a while!
I've never had the patience to build those. I think I have PTSD from my childhood, when my dat bought us a "cheap" brand of lego-like toys (called TENTE I think) for which the bottom pieces fell as you plugged the top pieces.
Are you asking about the church or the lego set?
why do Buddhists make intricate sand sculptures only to rake them over when they're done?
Good luck to anyone who builds a lego set and then tries to tell my kids we can't play with it or steal parts from it for another build.
LEGO has a wide audience. Some of these go to adults who build them and put them on display. Others will go to kids who build them and then take them apart to build the next thing.
I wouldn't buy this huge set for my kids because that price tag is crazy, but I like buying some of the mid-size sets for them because it's a nice injection of specialty pieces that they like to incorporate into other builds.
Very well said, and this was exactly my experience (as a child).
^ bizarre thought process tbh. Both building it and displaying it is fun. That's all.
And yes, for these sorts of sets, you put them on display. I added LEDs to mine:
Started on one side of the engine framing, all the way across, inside through the body then around the round section holding the bottom gun turret, then along the front bottom edge, back into the body and around the top round section of the gun turret, back into the body into the bridge and across the ceiling ending there.
The LED string itself had adhesive backing, so I'd put it in place, remove a section of the adhesive cover, attach it, then do another section. It was probably 3-6" at a time, so not fast or easy. I had to take off a bunch of the ship panels - super easy - to get at some of the portions. My goal was that you couldn't see the LEDs directly from most viewing angles and was mostly successful
The LED string was ~$60 and it was a silly amount of work but I have it sitting over my left shoulder during conference calls and people ask about it constantly so it was fun.
Other pics: https://x.com/CaseySoftware/status/1757069749501018411
Edit: Just realized you can see the string here: https://x.com/CaseySoftware/status/1980269018511794422
> The LED string was ~$60 and it was a silly amount of work but I have it sitting over my left shoulder during conference calls and people ask about it constantly so it was fun.
My first experiment with adding lights was to the Technic Porsche set, and interestingly, in meetings it doesn't get blurred as much as the rest of the background (probably due to the lights I put in it) so I often get asked about it as well.
Thanks for sharing!
Just add the word cancel:
https://xcancel.com/CaseySoftware/status/1766667069003645362
I pre-ordered this, though!
So I kinda wonder, what is the scaling like if you account for the actual build phases. How many pieces would you have to do on each of those 200 days to match the real-life progress of the basilica.
And I think for the actual value you get, scaling by volume would actually be more accurate.
I think scaling linearly works better here
That only determines a constant factor though, the scaling of build time for a given method should roughly follow volume.
Would you say that building a Lego version that’s twice as high takes double the time?
Today when I see a Lego kit is kind of another toy: is designed to build one and only one design, compared to the generic kits that were sold and also popular many years ago.
All these new kits pieces are just to accomplish one build. The Lego spirit of ever combining and creating with same pieces over and over again is gone.
Keep new assembled kits out, let them play with it as built from the instructions. But then as it falls apart with play, and the kids don't fix it the same way it was originally built, it eventually goes into a big box of former kits that are all jumbled together.
We did this, and without prompting to do so, the kids started building their own things out of the box, exactly as you did with your kits.
You just have to learn to let go of the set, and it becomes exactly what you want.
Edit: I'm not sure if a $800 set has that same property, but for the everyday $5-$40 sets, absolutely treat them as temporary collections, and life is great.
I find it particularly endearing how a single system of toys can provide decades of experiences to a single human. I don't think I've ever encountered another toy that is like that on such a massive scale. Yes there's other construction toys out there that strive to do the same, Knex was another one that I was into for a while, but there's nothing that quite scratches that same itch that Lego does.
But I found that if the builds are out they will be played with and fall apart and eventually become loose legos and that’s all fine and good.
Loose Legos on the floor making random things is fun. But building with sets and instructions is a different skill set and is entertaining in its own right.
The newer Friends series has a short reward video at the end of some builds which sort of puts the cherry on top of the set builds.
They only stay on the shelf for a couple years before I take it apart, rinse the dust off, sort it into ziplock bags, and add it to a box in the closet. Then I pick an old one I disassembled before, but hasn't been seen in awhile, or remember having fun building it, and spend a weekend or week building it again.
My favorite part is building them, so I get to enjoy doing that several times per set, often while having the corresponding movie on in the background.
Kids still do this.
I don't know why this idea persists. There have always been sets with custom pieces. My kids go crazy over the custom pieces because it sparks new ideas for their other builds. My kids know every custom piece from every set they've ever built and will describe them in great detail so we can search through the bin until we find it.
> The Lego spirit of ever combining and creating with same pieces over and over again is gone
For you, maybe. The kids are still doing this and having a great time.
I can't but help think that people who assume that the big sets take away that haven't touched Lego in decades.
My sons sets got built "to spec" once, got played with like that for a few hours, and then never looked the same again ever, even though we still have the manuals in a box somewhere.
Legos releasing single build sets that are clearly targeted for adults (look at the 18+ age statement) does nothing to harm you - it's targeted a different consumer demographic.
It's like Taco Bells now serving alcohol or Costcos now selling Asian groceries. Companies will not stay stagnant and will look at additional opportunities to expand to new buyer demographics.
I'm not very tapped into it, but last month I saw a DIY Lego Rocky from Project Hail Mary going viral. I think this week I saw a very detailed jellyfish model doing the rounds.
There's a lot of re-usable parts even in new LEGO sets along with the custom pieces designed for the model. I just built the new LEGO Road Bike (https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/road-bike-11380) and obviously it has a bunch of new part numbers for the wheels (it's the biggest tyre they've produced and they are the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world). Other than the wheels, there's some clever re-use of custom parts from other sets such as in the handlebar or brake calipers. I was impressed by how they've put together a build with things at strange angles and hardly any exposed studs.
https://rebrickable.com/sets/alternates/
you just enter the number to find alternate builds, some sets can be built into dozens various creations
I swear every lego-related post you see people dooming about this when all they look at are the giant sets clearly targeted towards adults that _want_ this sort of thing and not the plethora of other stuff.
(This is how the Sagrada Família was built in case folks don't know its history)
https://sagradafamilia.org/en/-/una-creu-que-arriba-al-cel-d...
Would interesting to use a quest and take a tour of the insides.
It's like sheep. Legos is a mis--spelled City in Nigeria.
(Personally, I've also enjoyed unit origami, which involves folding the same module many times over and assembling them.)
Bricklink has a wonderful feature that you can take a set and then part it out into a wanted list, and then search seller inventory to find those parts. That's how I built that giant Imperial Star Destroyer set from the aughts for a little over $200 instead of the like $1000 that used copies of the set were going for at that time (it's probably even more now.)
Just for funsies, I looked it up, and you can get the whole 21050 set for about $150 now on bricklink, which is a pretty good $/psc price. Considering what the set is, and the lack of stickers, means it should be easy to wash a used set to get all the pieces nice and clean; a laundry bra bag with a fine mesh works great for this.
That being said, I love Lego as a company and wish them all the success.
Older sets are offered and sold on eBay for substantially more oney that they cost when originally sold.
Could they make a bigger version of this set that is more closely resembling the real thing? More than likely, yeah they can; look at the displays they have at Legoland. But would that more detailed version be accessible for even the well off AFOL? Most likely not. It'd be too big, too expensive, and too unwieldy, and will probably still fail to capture some of the details of the real thing.
Maybe it’s time to add the weight and the stud count
I myself have tried many of the non-Lego lego sets over the years. One that has been holding my attention recently has been Lumibricks, which integrates lights into the sets, and is also cheaper than official Lego sets for similar part counts. One of the big things I've found is that where Lego wins a lot of points is on their instructions and build steps. Many other companies either make their instructions hard to read or parse, or don't do a good job with progressively building up subassemblies so they don't collapse in your hands. But there are some Chinese companies that are now making the entire experience a similar quality level as Lego does. A lot of the 'knockoffs' also focus more on the visual of the model rather than the play. Lego itself is often willing to sacrifice some realism to make sets be more playable, much to the chagrin of some fans.
Lego used to have a huge moat in manufacturing. They made good molds, they perfected the processes for making pieces (barring a few problematic colours....cough brown and dark red) and they invested heavily into clear design targeted towards accomplishing a certain level of play and excitement from those buying and building the Lego sets. Now though, those things are not a moat, they're just basic table stakes, and there are a lot of other new players entering the market who are doing just as good. I've seen multiple stages of Lego's evolution over my life, and I think they're going to need to come up with something new that's not just a silly expensive noise/light brick to continue to command the price premium that they do. Sure, their IP deals will probably float them for a while, but without bringing something new to the recipe, they might slowly start to go the way of jello deserts.
we bought for son among others some motorbike model for like 10€ in China, same thing grim Lego would cost here in Europe like 50-80€
it's crazy how much ask Lego for few order of plastic, I couldn't believe how cheap rest clones are in China, it's shame they are not that cheap on AliExpress
lego doesn't have patent on brick, so they can be exactly same and compatible, from my experiences only difference is in manual
About LEGO. If someone missed the Lego SCANDAL, where Bricks & Minifigs stole 200.000 dollars worth of lego star wars collection and a youtuber try to get it back and alot of craziness appears like police corruption is discovered and more. Brick and minifigs are destroying their reputation and usa too how the police is handling this. The hole world is watching. If you missed it, you have to watch it, it is just insane.
I wonder if Gaudi gets a cut!
its a god damn crime what lego is getting away with
> https://bricknerd.com/home/greed-or-inflation-an-economic-an...
Inflation-adjusted price per piece has actually been declining over the years, dropping from ~$0.25 to a current $0.10 on average. This set is $0.06 per piece, so even less expensive than a median set by that metric.
but you wouldn't believe if I told you how much it cost in China, you can buy sets with hundreds of pieces for like 3-4 euros, I couldn't believe it when I saw the prices, Lego prices are highway robbery for piece of plastic
and don't tell me about paying for their creativity, there are alternate builds made by fans for free which are better than the original sets
Also, is this one even that expensive? It's only 6 cents per piece.