Lego Goes Back to the Basics: Building Blocks

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Slashdot recently covered Lego's plan to stop producing its Mindstorms line in response to the Danish company's worst financial loss in history. While the original article linked focused primarily on Lego's plans to cease production on various toy lines, Yahoo News now has a follow-up article that looks in greater detail at Lego's plan for the future. 'We are returning to Lego's former concept,' says Lego owner and president Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. 'We're going to focus on building bricks as our main product, concentrating on little kids' eagerness to assemble.' Kristiansen goes on to blame the company's financial woes on its attempt to follow trends rather than focusing on its more traditional products. In turn, the company's plan for 2004 will include a renewed marketing push for Lego bricks as opposed to licensed products like the Harry Potter and Star Wars lines. Toy researcher Joern Martin Steenhold also notes the following in the article: 'All research, including my own, shows that computer games and other electronic games take up only 20 to 30 percent of children's play time. Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.' Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

Call me blasphemous, perhaps

[Bagels]

but when I was a kid, I remember having much more fun with K'Nex than with legos. K'Nex constructions were larger (some could take up the better part of a room, which kids find tremendously cool), more permanent, and they could have some really neat moving parts (Lego Technix notwithstanding). I played much more with my Big Ball Factory than with the Lego models that I had.

Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps

[trACE666]

Anyone used Fischertechnik?

Maybe not well known outside of Germany, but it gives you much more technical possibilities than Lego.. I have seen university student projects done in it.

Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps

[elf-fire]

If size does matter: Try Quadro: http://www.quadro.de/englisch/index_e.htm

Re:what I would like to see

[broller]

They come in buckets now. They were called Freestyle sets throughout the 90's, but I'm not sure what the series name is now. Check your local Lego aisle for buckets full of windows, bricks, etc.

If it's individual kinds of parts in bulk you want, shop.lego.com [lego.com] still sells the service packs that they've always sold through the Shop At Home catalog, as well as the rest of their product line.

For single special parts, or any other sort of non-set purchase, BrickLink [bricklink.com] is a great resource. That's where the resellers break down the sets they buy from stores and sell the parts individually. If you want 300 wigets in blue, bricklink is the best way to find them.

Re:Amazing!

[Anonymous Coward]

Go to the Lego outlet store. My wife picked up a bucket of pieces for about $40.00.

Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

Two more:

Capsela - Cool plastic spheres with gears and motors inside them and various wheels and such to attach. The coolest part was that they had float attachments so you could make boats. I made some of these into a robot for a final class project just recently.

Old School Erector Sets - these things are valuable collectors items now. I seem to remember the instructions giving you basic structural engineering tips. The motor they had was badass.

Tim

Re:Official Bionicle Hate Thread Begins Here

[iainl]

Nice big thread you've got going here... ;)

Nothing at all wrong with the Bionicle bricks, it just requires a bit more work to get interesting things out of it. Unfortunately I've lost the link, but somewhere out there on the the big wide net are all the main ships from the mighty Ikaruga, made out of Bionicle stuff; amazing work I'd recommend hunting for.

Re:Zero to seven?

[Tassach]

That's why there's Duplo. My 1 year old son loves them. I build things, he chews on them. Once he gets past the put-everything-in-the-mouth stage, he'll graduate to real legos.

Regarding choking hazards, the hospital gave us this handy little plastic guage (basically just a clear acrylic tube with one end closed.) If it can fit in the tube and touch bottom, it needs to be out of reach.

Bionicle was sorta cool.

[waxmop]

I bought a few of the bionicles because they had some new pieces like ball-and-socket joints and lots of gears. The problem was that until you accumulate several kits, you're pretty limited. The typical kits has enough to build exactly one freaky alien warrior: two arms, two legs, a trunk, and a head. There's just not that much you can do when the pieces are so specialized.

After getting several kits, though, then I could come up with more designs, like centipede monsters, etc, but I still felt constrained by how specialized the pieces were. It's hard to figure out an alternate use for the little brain piece that only connects with one other piece, for example The ball-socket joints and the gears were a nice addition though.

Anyway, I'm glad to see legos returning to the original free-form ideal rather than becoming a glorified action-figure maker.

What about TEAMS?

[Zevets]

I am in high school, and in Middle School we had TEAMS or Technology Education Alliance with Middle Schools. It is sponsored by NASA and a bunch of other corporations. We had Mindstorms robot sport competitions. The first year (very first for the whole thing) we lost to the school which had the creators of the event, and in 7th and 8th grade we won. In 8th grade the champion match was decided by a meager 207-35 victory for us, due to my amazing defense robot. Anyway it was a lot of fun and I would hate to see it go, even though I am too old now. Most of the sets were missing a lot of peices and I had to bring stuff from home, and it would be a real shame.

To continue bragging we also had a program that would jam robot signals, and even one to erase the firmware!!! However, the competition was too weak, and we never used it during the matches. (Only a last resort during the last 30 seconds. If only they had done battlebots. . .

But to stop bragging, I learned a TON about computers, reverse engineering the signals etc, engineering and teamwork. I wish that more kids had the oppurtunity to do this, as this was THE highlight of my years in Middle School.

Re:I still play with my Lego :)

[Smedrick]

I would still be playing with legos in my mid-20s if they hadn't simplified the sets so much. When I was younger I got hooked on the castle sets (like this one [ebay.com]) and the space sets...the fatter the instruction manual, the better. I would make a game by attempting to build the set without the aid of the manual. But then they started replacing walls made of bricks with large single pieces. If I could put a set together within an hour, it just wasn't fun. Plus, half the fun of the sets was being able to use the wide variety of tiny pieces to make your own crazy stuff.

I've been meaning to pick up some mindstorms sets, but I'm happy to see them make an effort to get back to basics.

Re:I wonder why Lego never...

[doon]

They already have some Lego stores in the mall, I don't think it would be too hard to add a bulk section .

The LEGO store I last went into, you could fill up 2 different size containers, with any of the basic blocks, pretty much mix and match. Next time I go down I was thinking about buying a bunch of Yellow and Black pieces for my Mindstorms kits..

Re:Great news for parents and children

[Anonymous Coward]

The Star Wars legos are actually pretty generic -- they remind me a lot of the original Space sets -- mainly "wing" and "roof" pieces. You should be able to build your own spaceship from those parts pretty easily.

Re:Legos as non-screen playtime

[|/|/|||]

Or perhaps the two of you could design and build a Millennium Falcon from standard Lego parts? Not only would it be more satisfying to complete, but it could potentially be a lot cooler than the pre-defined set. Some parts of the ship (the cockpit, for example) would be difficult to design, but that's the fun of playing with Legos!

Mindstorms: RCX, motors and sensors

[kherr]

Mindstorms is all about three things: RCXes, motors and sensors. The RCX is the "brain" that you program. It has inputs and outputs.

You want to buy as many Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention Systems [lego.com] as you can. Each RIS kit comes with an RCX, two motors and various sensors. The kit also includes plenty of wheels, axles and generic blocks for building just about anything. It's a good bargain. I own two kits and probably need more now that they'll be discontinued.

The accessory kits have been somewhat of a disappointment for me, but it is how you get some different sensors. You can order discrete parts directly from Lego but you end up paying a lot.

Check out the McMaster-Carr Web-site...

[cnelzie]

...you will then be in love.

I don't know about gears at this time, but you can buy just about anything else you might want for a HUGE number of projects without having to pay insane amounts of money to have items machined for you. As long as you stick to 'standard' items, you will be more then fine.

The web-site is www.mcmaster.com

Good hunting!

Re:what about the girls?

[Ashtead]

From what I have seen, girls have no problems putting together plain LEGO pieces to make whatever houses or vehicles or other more fantasic structures they like. Even techical-oriented things like train sets are well received and considered great fun.

So I would not be worried about this at all.

Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps

[Lehk228]

Erector sets are fun untill you can't get the thing to drive cause the newer motors are underpowered and have to be stepped down alot for a vehical to move under it's own power, the gear train ends up taking up most of the vehical, but the helecoptor was so cool,~18' of spinning metal really frickin hurts when you put your finger in it.

Won't work, Lego

[Anonymous Coward]

We just dealt with Lego and its increasing obsolescence over the holidays. My son received a Lego studio set which, to my surprise, shipped with software that would not run under Windows 2000 and XP. Only Win95/98. (Wonder if Lego is aware that January 16 2004 is just around the corner). Could they really be that backwards? I absolutely could not believe that a brand new package from ToysRUs shipped with OS support that would die in two weeks.

A visit to Lego's website was even more discouraging:

- no online downloads of XP/2K compatible versions (hey, if you oops in shipping and have a million boxes of this stuff out there that won't work, and won't recall the boxes, then put the working software online for downloads). You have to fill out a form to request they MAIL it. (Two weeks for a confirmation of our request, 4-12 weeks delivery date specified in the response).

- no opt-out fields on the submission forms: you have to provide all the nice marketing details (email, address, age, etc.) to request help, but Lego's form doesn't let you click "don't add my info to your marketing database."

I did issue a complaint about the opt-out matter and received a form reply with a link to where their privacy page was on the website (wasn't linked on any of the pages we were at). Didn't address the opt-out issue though. Guess who's getting Lego sales announcements now? Ugh.

In otherwords, Lego was a fossil of a company, doing business in the 1950s. What is really troubling, however, is that I doubt Lego can shift from its higher margin, high overhead approach to one where they just sell plastic blocks (and compete with Chinese knockoff brands for 10% margins). This news really predicts the end of Lego.

Legos are Expen$ive...

[Chibi]

As a child of the 80's, I'm generally ready to throw my hard-earned money at any company that is willing to help me relive my materialistic childhood. A couple of years ago, I wanted to pick up some Legos to relive some of my youth. I was shocked to see how expensive they were...

Looking online at this moment, I can see there are tubs of random pieces for sale for as little as $6.99. Did I just happen to stumble upon some of the commercially tied-in Legos a few years back or something? Or are these tubs the cast-offs that are supposed appeal to people who don't want to spend as much?

Re:what about the girls?

[johnjaydk]

I have a seven year old daughter and therefore I've had to learn about this stuff.

Lego have made two lines of girly legos: Belville and Scala.

Judging from the girls (in that age range) we know, Belville is a big hit. But Scala sucks bigtime.

Scala is way to expensive, to elaborate and the figures might be cute but they don't look like Barbie. The only exception is the Scala horses. Monster Hit. Scala has been discontinued so you can pick up Scala stuff on the cheap at the moment.

Yes Belville is packed with strange special pieces but the girls seems to build new stuff with them anyway.

The big difference between boys and most girls is that the girls put more time into playing (playing house etc) than building stuff. YMMW.

Re:Nth Post

[27B-6]

There was also something like brown or red plastic girders and green plastic sheets which could be used to make buildings, houses, etc. which were really cool, but I can't remember the name of. I'd buy them if they were still for sale.

That was the girder and panel construction set [rcn.com]. I had one of those sometime in the mid or late 70's, I would guess, and I loved it! The link I provided was one of many from a quick Google search. I bet you could find one for sale somewhere.

Re:Call me blasphemous, perhaps

[rwebb]

Erector sets and the similar metric-pitch Merkur sets are still available. One web site that carries most of the models (once they restock after the seasonal rush) is at www.girdersandgears.com.

Useful to have a set on-hand just to... erm... play with but also as a handy collection of structural parts for free-form robots.

Re:Buckets!! Empty buckets!

[valintin]

The size of the bucket is so you have someplace to store bricks and projects under construction. This is essential if you have kids. They even sell buckets without lids so they are more stackable.

I bought something used once also, it also cost less than buying it new.

Now you can use the buckets to store the other LEGO you got from Ebay. And when you build some projects you'll find those small pieces are actually great for detail work.

Re:Nth Post

[Bombcar]

That noise even has a German word for it! It is Gruschteling [lugnet.com] which when pronounced sounds like Lego blocks tumbling over each other.

Re:what I would like to see

[Bombcar]

Ask [lego.com] and you shall receive.

And I assume you've seen bricklink [bricklink.com] which is not Lego affilated.

Also, try going to one of the LegoLand stores, like Legoland California. Bulk bricks by weight! Ultimate in badass Lego buying.

Lego plagued by purchase barriers

[Flexagon]

To my mind, Lego's return to basics is a great feature, but beyond that, they have always made it as difficult as possible to purchase their products. My girls are just about grown, but when I was buying Lego for them (and myself!), I constantly ran into arbitrary road blocks to purchase, and I don't (yet) see this mindset changing with the back-to-basics transition:

• Very limited selection in stores; the best, most generic sets often had to be ordered. The same goes for special-purpose yet generic sets like roof pieces or doors+windows.
• When serious mail-order houses all had toll-free numbers, Lego remained a toll call.
• When serious mail-order houses added 24-hour ordering, Lego maintained limited business hours.
• When serious mail-order houses added Web sites for ordering, Lego waited again.
• While Lego offered coupons and other incentives to buy through shop-at-home, they didn't stock all sets. They would refuse to sell some items that they reserved strictly for retail. That meant limits on the rebates, and polling low stock at local stores instead of exercising one of the chief advantages of mail-order: complete stock.
• Before Mindstorms, some of the coolest sets were the ones targeted at schools. I forget how I stumbled onto those. But they were in a separate catalog with a separate phone number targeted at schools. When I ordered, they were talking purchase orders and school letterhead but I was talking consumer credit card. That took some effort to thwart.
• Others have complained about Lego's high price. That's as may be. But the biggest gouge for me came shortly after Mindstorms came out. Lego arbitrarily held back some of the cooler peripherals from consumers and licensed them exclusively through an educational partner that added an additional hefty mark-up (determined by comparing parts that the partner sold non-exclusively). It was easy to turn the partner's distinct part numbers into Lego part numbers, and Lego people knew what they were, but would refuse to sell those parts. In addition to price, that added yet another entity I had to deal with to get Lego.
• Now you can probably guess why the catalog's "Hard to find!" and "Not available in any store!" icons, which they intend as positive marketing, drive me crazy instead.

In my view, the Lego people still have a lot to learn about removing barriers to purchase.

Re:First Post

[michaelhood]

I had these when I was growing up, along with legos. They're called Capsella.
I was surprised that: A) I could remember their name. B) They're still around.
These things are modular in that you can connect them in any configuration, and they have several specialty parts like fans, props, gears, tires, etc. Consider these for your son if he's old enough.
I found this [sactoys.com] on Google.

Re:First Post

[madpierre]

Wow !
I once made some customised back to back blocks by supergluing normal 2x8 blocks together. I think I've still got some them :) That was back in the day when the only specialized parts in LEGO sets tended to be window and door bits.

Hmmm the warm glow of nostalgia.

Re:Ahw man, I was hoping that...

[BlackHat]

Go build it!

Pedantic [LEGO]Geek mode on

A: Lego Army men
Many [brickshelf.com] fine [brickshelf.com] examples [brickshelf.com] already exist for filling units in most era's.

B: Lego Star trek
Trek [fanspace.com] is often done [blockaholic.com]. Tho Blake's 7 is more [freeserve.com] hip [hermit.org].

C: Lego Warhammer 40k
A whole[all units] Dark Eldar [brickshelf.com] army and ideas for [sproat.us] modeling units [sproat.us] for other powers can be [lugnet.com] found.

D: Lego D&D
Players of D&D[with LEGO] and other game systems are legion. As are [brickshelf.com] the armies. Several rule-systems [brikwars.com] for play are also out there.

E: Lego Half life
There are CAD models [ldraw.org][in easy format for conversion] for many of the parts go nuts. Sprite based(using POV to render frames) has also been done for a few games over the years.

F: Lego programming department
Cluster em [sourceforge.net].

PDG mode off [/;-)