alt Hacker NewsI understand the grandparents viewpoint. Why add constraints to an open ended toy? On the other hand, you could argue that the instructions and included pieces are constraints. Should Lego just sell random grab bags of pieces?
I understand the grandparents viewpoint. Why add constraints to an open ended toy? On the other hand, you could argue that the instructions and included pieces are constraints. Should Lego just sell random grab bags of pieces?
They do just sell random grab bags. I think there’s room for many options. But there was definitely an era where Lego sets had so many custom pieces that you couldn’t really do much else with the sets other than build the one design. And that's what I see happening a bit more these days.
My kids, being the only grandkids, have gotten a ridiculous amount of Lego. They build and immediately abandon the highly specified sets to a shelf (ie. Disney, Star Wars, Dreamz). The Lego City, 3 in 1, and some other lines will get built by instruction maybe once (often they abandon the instructions half way through) and then pretty quickly become what we affectionately call Frankensets. I wish I had a better photo of the space ship from two weeks ago. But this is also their "mind control tower" https://ibb.co/tw11C6Lm (yeah... it got a wee bit communist by the top there)
The problem with the highly specific sets and creativity is that they use a lot of these custom pieces that don't really fit well anywhere and it feels like you can't just riff on half a design and it's not worth taking Wall-E or X-Wing apart to make something else.