Garage sale find leaves me with questions
Apotome
outstanding, but it left me with some questions.
What I found was a System bucket (#1708). 650 pieces (including a dozen
pieces of Duplo thrown in for good measure by the seller). First of all, I
didn't buy any LEGO buckets at all until just the end of 1998, so seeing
the parts mix in this 4 or 5 year-old bucket was a real treat. Second, it
looks not only mostly complete, but the pieces are in virtually mint
condition. Four of the poly bags inside the bucket aren't even opened yet.
The opened pieces have almost no play wear.
[Best of all, was the price. I picked it up for $5 Canadian... or about
$3.50 for my U.S. friends]
But I noticed a couple of things. The bucket is quite plate rich (over 35
plates I think - including a nice red 6x10). As well it also has a nice
supply of the old-style 30 degree red roof bricks. The one thing that
really caught my eye though was the printed material that was included.
It's a 27 page mini-idea book, filled with models that can be built from
the pieces in this bucket. I then thought of the 835 piece Anniversary
Freestyle tub (#3761). It includes a one-page poster with some poorly
designed..... things... I don't even know what some of them are. The older
1708 set however includes instructions for a truck, a ship, a windmill...
all pretty standard stuff, but a lot more challenging and realistic to
build. In my mind it adds significant play value to the bucket, increasing
the odds that any given child might find interest and/or fun in the parts
included.
So I guess my question to any of you who care to think about such things is
this:
When did LEGO drop the ball? When did they decided that 'Freestyle' type
marketing was more important than providing at least some semblance of
instructions with their brick buckets? Surely it's not the cost. A
Wal-Mart flyer in your mailbox with your Sunday paper probably costs as
much to produce as this little 27 page booklet that came with this bucket.
But why is it then that LEGO can't even go so far as to include such useful
and fun material with current buckets?
Just thinking out loud... thanks for tuning in.
Regards,
Allan
--
Expert Builder - The Megaproject Showcase
http://www.execulink.com/~apotome/expert.htm
Pennydrumz
buckets, but they forgot to show up for the game when it comes to town. Ah yes,
vivid memories I have of sitting at the table on Christmas morning assembling
my legos. It seemed as if they had thousands of pieces and took days to build.
And then, fifteen years later, I'm looking in the lego isle at my local toy
store, eager to spend money on a set since 1994. Imagine my dissapointment when
all I saw was town jr. Town jr.? I had no Idea town Sr. was married. This is
all the have to offer? In my opinion, having on wall that is six high by six
wide, does nothing to provide for the imagination. I can only hope that Lego
will cure themselves of the Cranialrectumitus that the suffer. See? now I'm all
pissed off and I didn't even answer the question. I do believe the ball was
dropped around the beginning of 1997, but I may be completly off base.
Regards,
John
Penny...@aol.com
Kevan Houser
>
> What I found was a System bucket (#1708). 650 pieces
(snip)
> The one thing that
> really caught my eye though was the printed material that was included.
> It's a 27 page mini-idea book, filled with models that can be built from
> the pieces in this bucket. I then thought of the 835 piece Anniversary
> Freestyle tub (#3761). It includes a one-page poster with some poorly
> designed..... things... I don't even know what some of them are. The older
> 1708 set however includes instructions for a truck, a ship, a windmill...
> all pretty standard stuff, but a lot more challenging and realistic to
> build. In my mind it adds significant play value to the bucket, increasing
> the odds that any given child might find interest and/or fun in the parts
> included.
>
> So I guess my question to any of you who care to think about such things is
> this:
>
> When did LEGO drop the ball? When did they decided that 'Freestyle' type
> marketing was more important than providing at least some semblance of
> instructions with their brick buckets? Surely it's not the cost. A
> Wal-Mart flyer in your mailbox with your Sunday paper probably costs as
> much to produce as this little 27 page booklet that came with this bucket.
> But why is it then that LEGO can't even go so far as to include such useful
> and fun material with current buckets?
>
> Just thinking out loud... thanks for tuning in.
Good question. I posed virtually the same question some time back and received no
satisfactory answer. You know why? Because there **is** no sensible, reasonable
answer. As you correctly point out, the cost of the booklet is next to nothing. Hell,
they could go back and recycle older generic models (from classic Idea Books, from they
many Basic sets, or from older, simpler sets, perhaps changing colors or a few pieces as
needed). They could have contests for kids and adults to design small (possbily themed
-- ie town, space-- sets and give a prize (LEGO set) in exchange for the rights to use
the model in Idea Books, etc. etc. etc. -- I would hope a company such as TLG could show
some creativity! The point is, it wouldn't be costly to either come up with the ideas
or to print them and include them w/ bulk sets (like they used to).
And you're right about those hideous FreeStyle posters. Most of that stuff is crap. If
they really wanted to, they could've put it into a book and called it "Fantasy" or "Drug
Trip" (sorry, attempted humor), and then maybe it wouldn't have seemed so schlocky.
Some of those Basic set booklets are quite good. My favorites are:
545 (20 pages) shows a 2-story house w/ picnic table, little airport w/ plane,
ambulance, furniture (for playing dolls, I guess), helicopter, and a nurse (21 bricks
tall)! (A lot of kids may not have considered building a sculpture of a person before!)
720 (20 pages) Gas station w/ 2 pumps, landscaping, and tow truck!, Helicopter that
lands on a boat, Pickup and camper.
730 (24 pages) Beautiful house!!, Windmill house, more dollhouse-type furniture (kitchen
stuff this time), ship, airplane.
If you ever loose sight of the pure joy of playing with LEGO, just assemble a bunch of
fairly basic elements, (throw in a few fun things) and just build simple, elegant,
stuff. It's very grounding. (Oh, they used the 2x2 turntable plates, ones with a gray
turn disc on a black background, to represent burners on a kitchen oven. A white
FreeStyle shutters window (sans shutters) was the oven window. The result is quite
good, and no fancy-schmancy pieces needed.
It's sad that kids today just coming into LEGO will only find those ghastly FreeStyle
posters. Looking at those, the kids might well go: "Ick! And I would want to play
LEGO, because...?"
Sorry the long-windedness. I guess I'm preaching to the choir. It's clear to us that
LEGO has made a few unfortunate detours off the road to greatness. Almost every day,
that dead-horse topic gets beaten a little more thoroughly here on rtl.
Hopefully they'll correct things before their first-ever reported loss turns into a
downward spiral from which they won't be able to recover.
--
Kevan
LEGO: CA++++(6067) SP(6983),PI,WWc,PA(6416)+++ AQ++ BO,TC---
#+++++ S++++ LS+++ M+ A+++ yb62m.
dyuob poltice
and i dont recall any instructions at all.
i just put the things together and built what was in my mind.
my favorite thing to do was build an art deco tower approx. 4 feet tall.
sort of empire state building...
but then i walked 6 miles through sand storms to get to school...( i
lived in phx)
lol
Apotome
need instructions. Kids, and/or adults will simply use their imaginations
to render what amazing objects are in their heads.
But what about that one kid who needs just the most subtle hint to get them
started? The folks who designed the Empire State Building didn't just
happen upon a good design... they studied and were trained in good
architectural principles. Everyone, no matter how creative or talented,
needs a good foundation.
It's just my thought that for very little investment LEGO could provide
some really good suggestions to help get young builders get started. I've
tried to put my money where my mouth is, on my own website, by providing
pictures of real-life objects in the hopes of inspiring someone to build
something really spectacular.
http://www.execulink.com/~apotome/ideas.htm
I'll be adding more pictures during the next update of the site.
Just my two cents,
Allan
--
Expert Builder - The Megaproject Showcase
http://www.execulink.com/~apotome/expert.htm
dyuob poltice <dy...@yahoo.com> wrote in article...
> i got my first lego for christmas, 1968,
> and i dont recall any instructions at all.
> i just put the things together and built what was in my mind.
> my favorite thing to do was build an art deco tower approx. 4 feet tall.
> sort of empire state building...
> but then i walked 6 miles through sand storms to get to school...( i
> lived in phx)
> lol
> > Apotome wrote:
Gary Istok
I agree, it would be great if TLG created some architecture idea books that
inspired young (and old) LEGO builders. Back in history much of architecture
came out of "pattern books". These were idea books for building houses, etc.
Most American Victorian home ideas came from pattern books. Ditto for
Renaissance buildings, which spread throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th
century via pattern books.
Also on this thread, the question about set instructions came up. Needless to
say, there are many LEGO sets (mostly older ones) that have no instructions.
In the early days, they used the inside box top, or the bottom of the box as
building instruction, a separate set of instructions were never produced. But
there is no set "rule of thumb" as to what years this was the case. I have a
1960 set with no instructions, a 1962 set with instructions, and a 1963 set
with no instructions. Chances are that (for the early years) if there were
instructions on the box, no separate paper instructions were provided.
Gary Istok