alt Hacker NewsMy kids will build a set according to the instructions and then a day or two later it's disassembled for parts so they can build something else.
The reason they sell sets is because the people who buy these are parents, uncles, grandmas, and other people. The sets make it easy for them to identify something that seems like kids would love it and possibly intersects with some brand the kids like, such as the Marvel crossover sets.
Once the bricks get in the kids' hands, they can do whatever they want with them.
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I think the main complaint is that the percentage of the kits dedicated to specialty parts limits their usefulness for free-form play. Sets of the 80's had fewer block types, which forced Lego to be more creative in how the sets were put together, which subsequently allowed more freedom in using the blocks for other designs. The sets my kids are playing with look much more "realistic" to what the set is trying to model, but very difficult to build something entirely different, such as building a house from a car kit.
Yeah, I was concerned about the creativity thing early one, but both of my kids build random stuff from a sea of parts. Occasionally my older kid would decide to build a set again and be frustrated when they couldn't find the part they needed.
As a family, we have a couple of the ninjago city sets, those are largely intact, but the kids play with them.
The minifigures can be a little bit of a problem, they seem to trigger an instinct to collect unique items. My kid will ask for a set so they can get one (or more) of the minifigures in it.
The problem with these hyperspecific sets is that your imagination can't keep up with what is a 90% replica of the original thing the set is based on.
this is the way, especially with Technic sets
Well, true. But it is true in same sense that Microsoft require newer hardware, and online accounts only to provide greater security, latest innovations to largest number of customers in shortest possible time.
Yeah, I don’t understand this criticism.
Unless they’ve changed drastically, the sets are always just the beginning of what you want to do. If it’s an object you build the object and add it to another landscape that you may have built.
If it’s a castle you build the castle and then add a whole bunch of custom features to it.