The point about older sets being easier to add on to with your own builds thanks to their consistent themes and simpler builds is so true, I've had a lot of fun making MOCs for themes I grew up with, but even if I had all the parts in the world if you asked me to make something of my own to go along with like, modern Ninjago I wouldn't know where to start
Exactly! in the late 2000's this problem really started to emerge. Always when i wanted to add and build to a set it would be very challenging for me as a kid, because the builds were very specific and used a lot of specialized pieces. Being a bit of a perfectionist made it frustrating. I would look back at 90's sets and think "wow these sets are so simplistic but still look so good, i wish i could build things like that!" But i couldn't, because it wouldn't match with the rest. Which i wanted. And modern Ninjago seems like a complete impossibility by comparison.
Funny Lego Story when I was small I really wanted the Krusty Krab Lego set and due to a miscommunication with my parents and extended family I got 2 of them They were freaking out talking about who was gonna return there's and I wanted both which confused them I built both and then drew a red number 2 on the sign and my dad still thinks it was the funniest thing I thought I was a genius
I find it odd since I never grew up with classic 80s and 90s lego, but that I resonate far more with those than anything I realistically built when I was younger
@@flambo6554 Same, first sets I got was in 96 and still I mostly buy 80s and 90s castle sets. Of course some of the sets were not that great, but I love the parts and looks.
As impressive as modern Lego is, they're equally as infuriating. Their prices are getting bonkers and they just keep making odd decisions. If nostalgia sells, which it clearly does, why not make more retro remakes that people can just buy whenever? My favorite set will probably always be the 1987 monorail that was handed down to me from my mom. It's in remarkably good condition and can even run on its own, truly a relic from a bygone age.
I completely agree with you about the style and esthetics of modern LEGO. The company doesn't have the same goals with their set designs and it shows. Even though the sets of old were simplistic (maybe even primitive) to today's sets, I love them so much more than anything that's modern. Sure, we can say it's all about "nostalgia", but for me it's about how LEGO was a system of pieces that could be used to create anything. The modern sets look too pristine and polished with all of their specialty pieces making all of those different curves, angles and edges. The older sets were also interested in using color. The sets had fewer colors than modern sets, but they used color to also tell a story.
The thing I really like about the older sets, specifically town, is how well scaled the vehicles are to the figure. For example the scale of the old 4 wide cars feel similar to me standing beside a car in real life. Not too tall, not to wide, not too long etc
i really hope lego starts appealing to that classic sense of "a new toy everyday." as you said, everything needs to be balanced. while i think the adult oriented sets are gorgeous display pieces, but i feel like they should have themes and sets more restrained and vague to encourage kids to think beyond the instructions. i think that's why i like the creator 3in1s, because it inherently encourages new ideas with the same pieces. (also besides the point but speed champions is technically still a licensed theme as most if not all the sets are based on real cars.)
yeah, but with speed champions, you could still easily incorporate them into other builds. yeah, that might be *specifically* a dodge charger, but there's not really any context given besides another one and a lil race light thingy. and thats just one of the big 2 packs, the single cars dont have *anything* extra (besides a fig) that said, they have recently started dipping into movie cars (namely dom's charger and bond's aston martin) but most of em are still just cars
Also lego Minecraft/Super mario despite being lisnced sets encorge that MOC and imaigitive play... And Super mario corses are super easy to build and can use anything aslong as the figures understand the colors.
What's cool about Aquazone as the first underwater theme from LEGO, they didn't have to make it this sci-fi, and yet it carried itself. It could have started as standard boats, jetskis, fishermen and deep sea salvage, but no - they pushed boundaries and said, "this is a futuristic underwater theme where divers harvest crystals to power their underwater dwellings in a time where hydrogen was a limited resource." Like, that's kind of dark for a LEGO theme but made the struggle against foes and wildlife even more suspenseful.
And then, just shortly after they were like "well after Aquazone, everyone will think a standard diving theme could never be exciting, let's prove'em wrong..." And they created LEGO Divers, which was amazing in every way imaginable.
Technically they did the same thing with space, atleast when they started using minifigures in their sets. It started out super scifi in the late 1970s, then a "contemporary" space set finally came out in 1990 for the town theme; *Set 1682: Space Shuttle Launch* For the next few years there were a couple more one-off contemporary themed space sets released, but it wouldn't be until 1995 when an entire space subtheme of town called "Launch Command" came out, featuring 5 sets within it
I like the minifigures a lot better, too. The simple designs look a lot better, to me. Modern legos have all this detail and shading on their bodies, which is kind of weird considering there's nothing realistic about them, and it kind of clashes with the simple bricks.
I spent much of my childhood drooling over Lego sets in the catalogs. Just just the Shop at Home catalogs but the Lego DACTA and Educational ones as well (which were much more expensive). With our family being on a budget, most of the sets I got were smaller and I typically stuck to my favorite themes (Aquazone and Technic). When I got my first job I bought all of the larger Aquazone sets I never had as a kid on eBay. Even now I still fill Bricklink carts with Aquazone parts whenever I'm shopping on the site 😅
It's funny thinking about LEGO sets like video games: Sure they had a long time being angular and far from realistic, but that doesn't always stop people from enjoying them. If the product isn't fun to move, play around or combine with other things, then that's where it fails. Toys are made for play more often than shelve, and the average kid enjoys combining different toys together - look at Toy Story. The products may look shinier and smoother as the years go on, but that also takes away what the mind can see - it fills in the gaps that anyone can see in their own way. Give someone a book, and the words can spark all kinds of images that vary from reader to reader, while retaining a story and message that everyone can understand closely, sometimes with variation. Show them the book as a movie, and you're projecting one constant vision of this story for everyone to absorb, but not everybody will agree with. Excellent video essay once again. Love how much conversation this sparks, and how you created some of your own models to pair up with Paradisa and Classic space. :)
Great video! I appreciate the shout out as well! ❤️ Also, I know it was a small part of your video, but I’m thankful you see the Gift With Purchase practice for what it is. 👍
Thank you so much and likewise! You definitely spurred the inspiration for this script, I had to give credit where credit is due haha! And yes, the GWP sets always left a bad taste in my mouth, but most Lego content creators were always so excited and supportive of the practice, it made me feel I was going crazy!
I'm only 26 and started being hooked on Lego around the age of 11 but this video is so relatable. These oldies give me so much nostlagia, I can't imagine how it would be if they actually were part of my childhood. I wish I had some of the adventurers of classic space sets. Like you and many Lego fans, I'm frustrated by the lack of unlicensed themes. One of my favorite theme is Atlantis, it's like a undersea wave for Adventurers. The colors scheme of the first phase was just perfect. Now every potential theme gets sucked into City Ninjago or Creator...
Amazing video!! I'm surprised you didn't talk about that weird late 2000s-2010s era of lego that attempted a few spiritual successors to the classic stuff. Space Police, Agents, Atlantis and Power Miners (and Ninjago, which started around this point too with the whole beyblade card game gimmick) was basically my childhood!! I grew up on a ton of those sets, my favorite was the Power Miners thunder drill ^^
These were after my time - I was entering college at about that time I think - but I hear the Atlantis and Power Miners themes were really good. "Nick on Planet Ripple" also really liked those.
Classic Space I’ve always liked, even though it was a couple years before my time. It has a hokey sort of charm to it. I started to get into the Space theme at the age of five or six, right during the transition between the Classic line and Futuron. We didn’t have much money, so I only got a few of the smaller to medium-sized kits. The first, and only, theme I collected completely was Ice Planet. My favorite theme, though, would be the original Blacktron line. It’s always looked badass to me. I never cared for the look of the Blacktron 2 line, even as a child. 6987 Message Intercept Base was something I stared at in the catalogues endlessly as a child. When I was about 15, I stumbled upon the set new, in the box, at an old toy store in a small village in England. Behind it was the legendary 928 Galaxy Explorer! They’d been sitting on the shelf untouched for years and years. At the time, 928 was completely unfamiliar to me-the internet was still in its infancy-but I recognized that it was something special. I somehow convinced my parents to loan me the money and got both for their original sticker price! I remember shaking as I walked out the door with those two sets.
I loved pink bricks as a kid, wished I could get more back then. Nowadays it's the opposite problem, brick assortments in the bulk sets give you like five different shades of pink and purple and it's hard to build anything cohesive looking.
Monkie Kid was designed specifically for the Chinese market. It isn't even really sold in stores anymore, mostly being available online in the west. They have a lot of crossover in terms of vibe - that's probably why it's not stocked in stores.
You opened a video by saying nostalgia can be like a drug at times. You just earned my respect. This is the first time I have encountered anyone who actually understands it... I am a total nostalgia junkie, everything I do is to try to feel like I did years ago, despite it barely working..... Nostalgia drives me, and is honestly the reason I keep pushing forward. If I'm not carrying my memories with me to the next day and the next day. Who would? So yeah, I suppose one could say I am driven by nostalgia... Anyways, awesome to see someone who actually understands it.
Much like drugs it also may be kind-of a problem? I mean, I have complicated feelings on nostalgia. TOO complicated to fit in a TH-cam comment, honestly. But I can't lie I am a sucker for it also. I just got Lords of Magic running again on a modern PC and I was able to beat it, which I could never do back when I was a kid. So I do get it.
When you die, in the process, as neurons start fizzling out and apoptosis sets in, memories return vividly in a flash. I think this era - culture, collectively - is the same way. That's why there are no new stories anymore, we're all just drinking up warm fuzzy memories from childhood to forget that we're (metaphorically speaking) laying there bleeding out in the breakdown lane, slowly losing consciousness after the crash. Even "new" stories are always set in the 1980s or 1990s, or occasionally the y2k first half of the 2000s. It's pandering to me - it's successfully pandering to me - and yet it's too creepy, because the absence of *new* things feels like a kind of solipsism. I dunno. I can't really address this without getting abstract and ominous and poetic, because none of my comfort and discomfort is concrete enough to avoid that.
I have so much nostalgia for the 90's era sets (and even despite owning many) I still watch many videos on them. They're just so fun to see and talk about. The turning point from vintage to modern I feel is the introduction/transition to curved slopes. Lego only used to have linear slopes, hard edges, but in the 2000's there was a shift into using many curved slopes. Everything has become more smooth / curved, but the rigidity and chunkiness is a huge part of what makes vintage sets have that charming nostalgic aura about them. I'm happy you shouted out RR Slugger too - his content is just great, so much editing and love are put into their videos. My favorite is the iconic Aquazone Sea Lab base (6195). It was the perfect gift for a four year old on christmas. It has everything - raised baseplates, giant transparent pieces, chunky parts. it is just such a good toy. Rather than only a standalone structure, it is immersed in landscape to really set the scene. I appreciate the love for paradisa - pastels are not usually used in lego, and the sets just feel so comfy, they are a favorite of mine too. (Also I may have misheard but I'd label speed champions as a licensed theme as they use real life car brands and even technic is now falling into that trend)
As a kid, my family never really had a lot of money. The biggest sets I got were the Dark Dragon's Den, Forbidden Cove and Bandit's Secret Hide-out, which were amazing but did leave me drooling over sets like the BSB, Temple of Anubis and Royal Knight's Castle. Now that I'm in a way better place financially, I get to fully enjoy what kid-me could only dream about and I'm slowly but surely collecting the sets I always wanted, which, turns out, are a lot. You'll be happy to hear I started my resurgence into LEGO with the Temple a few years ago and I even have five pirate ships adorning my piano. The set I remember most fondly from my youth would have to be Oasis Ambush. It's small, but it has everything it needs and everything it does, it does perfectly.
I think a big part of it is the simplicity. They weren't going for realism and scale with Town, they were making what kids saw the world as. Colors were vivid, vehicles were simple, but there was enough detail to spark stories. I was born in 99 so I wasn't there for that golden age, but I had a friend who inherited a bunch of classic town and castle sets (even og lego town plan parts!) that I pawned off him. Now they're sitting scattered in bins with my brother who pawned them off me, probs my karma. But I was OBSESSED with old catalogs, magazines, wiki pages and books. There's just so much charm to that era
@@charlottesimss9853 Those are some great points. The old sets had a way of so often walking that line in giving just enough detail to spark imagination while not going to photo realism. I remember an old book depicting a 1x2 red brick with axel hole, and two 1x1 red clips combined to form a chicken on a spit! i mean how perfect is that! just a hint of 'squint' factor but once you make the squint then you can't help but see th echicken. That is exactly how the child's mind works
I am really liking this wave of youtube videos covering what I think is the golden era of lego set design. It is that perfect period of time before lego got super detailed. The sets were just detailed enough to look awesome, but lack enough detail to leave stuff up to the imagination.
Born in 79 and man did those 90 year sets grab me. I didn’t even realize how much I missed classic space until building the Galaxy Explorer and now I’m obsessed with collecting the old sets. The Lion Nights Castle is amazing. The best building experience I’ve ever had. I used $200 with of VIP to get it but now having built it can say it’s easily worth $400. The timing right after Xmas of the Blacktron set was pretty douchey. They knew everyone who was going to spend money on Lego had just bought everything they could possibly want but if you wanted that ship you would have do FIND $200 worth of Lego to buy. Not cool.
I agree the lions knight castle is really special, and the toy I always wanted but never new could exist, I love how they elevated the theme to not just a fortress but plenty of town life adventures too... Really needs more animals. Its the first set i have gotten in 25 years and no other would have done that. I have held off on the Galaxy explorer.... hoping maybe I will find another good deal on it (kinda think I just need to focus on 1 theme), but its kind of like what is the point if its only companion set is a GWP..... Even though the same was done with the LKC at least it gives members of 4 factions (town folk, knights, forestmen, falcons) to have adventures with so feels more complete. Now I hear they are making a Majistos house as a GWP and I may be losing interest in playing these games if it takes years to come out with companion sets and they are all GWP.
@@jacobe1942There is also the issue that any legit companion sets (non GWP) come out after the main set is retired. The El dorado Fortress remaster (remake would be a different approach) is PERFECT for pirates, but the Black Seas Barracuda as part of Pirates of Barracuda Bay Ideas set was retired in 2020, 3 years before! Or the viking ship 3 in 1 has like a month on shelves together with viking village before the 3 in 1 is retired. Why not keep all these sets on shelves at the same time??. Launch them together, retire them together. And keep them on shelves for years, so everyone has a chance to expand and complete these worlds!
As a boy my mom would've discouraged my interest in them, but a friend of mine had that poolside set. I think there's a sense of class, sophistication, fun and chill vibes of leisure in it that makes them extremely appealing. Sure there's pink and some extra female figures in it, but it's just so dang immaculately themed a world that you can't help but want to relax along with everybody. Or have a strange Space or Castle crossover. :D
TH-cam's really been sending me down the Lego Rabbithole recently. Anyways. I've always been a huge Bionicle fan, on top of robots just being sick as hell the lore is extremely intricate, mystical and just downright exotic. The Matoran Universe concept and reveal just like, blew my socks off in 2009. With normal System stuff Rock Raiders is definitely my favorite theme, I'm a sucker for lived in, down to earth sci-fi. Exo Force, Alpha Team Operation Deep Sea, & Arctic were also ones I enjoyed quite a bit. Anyways the Lego rantsona is extremely cute, I want to hold their little yellow plastic hand. Will definitely give the rest of this channel a look as well.
Thanks for making a video about this and sharing your thoughts. I'm a 90s Lego kid and I just got back into Lego this year after almost 30 years. Aquazone was my last lego set I purchased. I decided to get back into Lego because of nostalgia. I ended up buying almost exclusively just retro sets that I never had a kid. I did recently buy the newer 2024 space sets and I'm pretty impressed with the quality, but I do agree that the problem with modern Lego is the lack of imagination. The beauty of the simplicity of sets was that you created your own narratives and gave character to these plain faced miniature toys. The two things I stared at catalogs that I still have yet to collect are the Pirates Barracuda ship and the Royal Knight's Castle. My sister had some of the Paradisa sets and I used to play with those too. I'm now starting to collect those retro sets.
I remember when I was a child, like 2009, looking at the police stations, or the big expensive Atlantis sets. I remember that feeling of trying to make my own city, with Lego sets and MOCs. So much fun.
I think it's come down to a change in times. There is a lot more competition on the shelves. Action figures galore, video games, tv shows, electronics, etc. Lego had to change gears to keep up. If they'd kept it super generic, they would have fallen away. Those themes you were talking about and how nice they were, were indeed great, but Lego was not doing well financially at that time. They learned from Star Wars that licensing their talents to create essentially customizable playset modelkits would net them good money *because* the kids now associated their toy with characters, story, and settings that they loved. They applied this to Bionicle and made bank and became profitable again. That is why Ninjago has lasted so long. That is why their themes have stories and alternative media to enjoy: they learned how to keep up with the market and their target demo. They even created a new target demo: AFOL. Lego is an expensive hobby, so of course their pricier pieces will be more like set pieces than generic playsets. Idk, I get where you're coming from, but you're looking at lego with rose-tinted kid goggles and not looking at it as a company that has to stay profitable to even make sets in the first place. What you see as detracting from Lego is the very thing that's kept it around since the early 2000s: story and characters.
Time Cruisers makes a very good case of having an established story and layout of the world, but open to all kinds of imagination. The vehicles can have all kinds of pieces attached to make time-traveling gadgets work, which means any level of builder can make a time machine or base with parts in their collection. The story opens travel to all kinds of LEGO themes, which encourages roping together elements that otherwise would have no business co-existing. On the same day this video dropped, I received a package for the Hypno Cruiser in the mail, and I'm not even mad it's missing a few pieces - I can add my own to make it my own vehicle instead of just completing the set from official parts. Also I'm biased to this theme as I've used it as an example many times in my STEM classes over the years to demonstrate kinetic functions.
16:51 "create stories detatched from the established lore". Oddly enough, that's what I consider to be Bionicle's greatest streangth (Bionicle being what, to most, started this trend within Lego). Bionicle had its lore, its rules, its many and complex characters etc., but, at its core, it was a sandbox for your imagination: wanna expand the lore with more characters? Go on. Wanna add your own characters with their backstories? There's plenty of room for that too. Wanna create from scratch an entire different world with its own plot and rules? Please, do so. That's quintessential Lego to me, adapted for character-driven stories and adventures. So it differs from the coziness of these older sets, a feeling I highly share with you. I love the simplicity and expandability of old lines, that's their undisputed charm. On one hand, you were building settings and scenarios for many adventures, on the other hand, you were creating characters and cultures. Still, you had the freedom to take some of your bricks for your Bionicle sets/MOCs, enjoying the best of both worlds, which I did back in the days. Anyway, that was an excellent video, you encapsulated my general feeling of detatchment from most of modern Lego sets. I find myself enjoying smaller, cuter sets way more, because there's just some ingenuity behind them, that same spark from the older days.
Its greatest weakness, the lore distribution, also had its strengths. Most of the time kids would have bare bones synopsis of the story through the product and visual media that they could just form their own stories while still picturing their characters as part of the main story. It also helps that the world actively encouraged and validated kids to create alternate worlds and scenarios within Bionicle, due to the whole time travel and dimension hopping that was later introduced. It also helps that Bionicle community preserved most of the lines media for future posterity, so anyone can learn from the lore and go wild with it with their creations and stories. So many fan projects still exist and the community is going strong after decades and even after two theme cancellations.
Of course I'm loaded with nostalgia for these older sets, but my problem with the newer ones is that I wouldn't even want to play with them? Like, just imagine smashing your figures around on a set like the Monkey Kid ones. Everything's gonna break off! And you'd have to either pause and immediately re-attach the pieces, or do it later when you've completely forgotten where everything goes. What a nightmare, honestly. That's a big problem I actually had with the Star Wars sets when I still played with Lego, all the antenna and guns just kept breaking off during play. Not a fan. I was however a fan of the Lego train sets, being a train fanatic and all. Would love to own some of them again, like 4559, but they go for a fortune these days, it sucks.
I have a lot of information on this if you'd ever like to expand upon this video. It has to do with The LEGO Group letting off a lot of designers that were apart of the "golden age" in the early 2000s - 2010s. None of the original design guys stayed there despite their contract promise.
For a long time, I held that my favorite LEGO set ever was 6242 Soldier's Fort - a set I enjoyed so much, I memorized the set number, that's rare. A Pirates set from 2009, this had lots of options for play around an imperial port from a jail cell, a palm tree with buried treasure, a weapons station, and a guard tower with a moving crane - and it only cost $50! Not to mention the 2 pirates and monkey who can break into the fort and thwart the guards and cannons and crocodile and escape with loot. This set packed alot of options as well as being semi-modular: you can shift around the order of the structures in multiple ways, and it was easy to see how to build more on top of it for an even larger naval force. I also enjoyed the stickers adding more life to the prison with a day counter and spider webs, or the wanted poster near the armory - I even used another Pirates set, 8396, Soldier's Arsenal, to add more flourish to the base - and LEGO didn't even advertise that combination! For $3.49, you get an extra soldier and a weapons rack that can easily integrate with the fort, or since the parts are basic enough, encourage you to build your own with more depth. I also enjoyed 7037 Tower Raid, with a similar prison break scenario centered around a military guard tower - gee, do I have a type. Released in Fantasy Era Castle in 2008, this set offers a bunch of figures to play with, but a more limited variety even at $30, as you had a tower with 4 floors matching against a siege vehicle with battering ram. It was cool when the two models combined, but it lacked alot of unique play scenarios. Fantasy Era is my favorite Castle line as it offers a wide range of world building, some that was only *hinted* in magazines like elves and sea serpents but never built as sets - not that I can't build my own! Nowadays, I wanna say Ninjago City or Galaxy Explorer are some of my favorite sets ever, but they do lack that "less is more" mentality that mid-2000's and earlier sets offered. They're both good sets and surprised me numerous times in building techniques, but I get less enjoyment out of them after they're built, what do they do now? They really beg me to do more with them, as well as other themes like Monkie Kid, but lately I've had a couple story ideas I wanna illustrate/photograph that aren't even about these themes, or very loose parts from them. Instead, I wanna explore more of Mars and what kind of civilization the humans and Martians can co-create. I wanna have a fantasy world fueled by music that conjures magical spells. But I also wanna expand my laid-back shore town, finally get a campground and hiking trail through nature while also being a vacation spot.
As a kid, the Paradisa sets were desirable even to the boys because of one thing they had in spades over other town sets: food. So many food pieces. Also, I''m convinced that Time Cruisers was just LEGO's excuse to put a bunch of leftover parts into a big set. Still loved them all the same. I'm super jelly of your pizzeria set, those are hard to find.
“They got caught up with if they could add more detail, but never stopped to ask if they should.” I’ve heard no one talk about this, because everyone talks about piece counts and price per piece but with the shift to overly detailed mocks, and axing baseplates I’m sure you’d see the ounce per dollar for sets steadily going down. The packaging has shrunk as well accordingly.
You made a great point about how the simplicity of older sets was better for expansion. As an AFOL with two jobs and many additional hobbies I don’t have the time to get my “expansions” for new sets on par with the instructions. Meanwhile, I rebuilt an old castle set and added an additional floor, a dungeon, and stairwells and it came out great. I have two Lion Knight’s Castles so I can make a big expansion and baring a bridge design I got from rebrickable and altered slightly, I’ve found it difficult to expand the castle more and maintain the same quality.
Slugger's vids inadvertently got me kind of into Paradisa because as someone lucky enough to still have all the RR sets from my childhood, I started getting curious about the themes I never had any contact with back then. I swear I don't even remember Paradisa being in LEGO magazines. I recently got a newer Ideas set and it made me think a lot about the older ones as I made it. Like everything being brick-built now? Doors, trees, whatever. I feel like there's this weird paradox where sometimes big, molded pieces are better for repurposing in future builds. Like maybe you remember the doors/doorways and printed walls used a lot in the old Harry Potter sets. Those are easy to incorporate in a new build, where the really 'detailed' brick-built doors and stonework are more integrated in their original set.
I have an old lego catalog from around 2005 ish that’s the size of the typical mid size instruction booklets at the time. All the sets in that catalog are stupid expensive now, but I keep it because of nostalgia. As for sets I loved to oogle at, it was always the space and castle themes
As someone who grew up with Bionicle I feel like the story is part of what inspired so much creativity from me. I remember taking apart my sets to build my own Toa and Matoran and Rahi and all kinds of OCs that would fit into the universe. It's even inspired my own stories that I write stuff abt and think about now. It is a different kind of creativity and but think that's neat! :) I wish I was creative enough as a kid to come up with anything with brick tubs or more traditional themes but having that universe and story as a jumping board really helped me.
As a pacific islander, I do not find the pirate islanders offensive and I doubt any other real natives would. Its just a toy and we arent easily offended over silly little plastic men
Good to know! It was mostly a tongue and cheek joke on my end. As an outside to a culture, it can be tough to gauge if stereotypes are portrayed in bad taste or not!
What an awesome video. I grew up on 90s Technic, and I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't mention it, but I feel they have had an even bigger fall from grace than System themes. 90s Technic was full of original set ideas, ingenious functions, cool alternative builds and standard parts. It had universal sets, moving T-rexes, space shuttles, control centers, feature rich cars and trucks. Now it has devolved into soulless, overpriced licensed merchandise, designed to be built only once with an ever growing number of obscure pieces. We get 5-6 shitty looking licensed cars with the same two or three functions every year, and they can cost up to 200 bucks. They really have killed off Technic the past few years.
My cousin was really into the Technic stuff. It was so cool for being able to just create little functioning machines and gizmos out of the components, it really did feel like engineering, or a bridge between Lego and Meccano.
I've always loved how the old licenced sets like Harry Potter and Star wars still had yellow figs for the characters, so bad they had to change it to real skin color and not keep the yellow.
The nostalgia hit hard with this one. I remember flipping through those old catalogs. Town was definitely a favorite. The old big hull boats, Res Q, the 9V trains. One series I did enjoy from later was Monster Fighters, but it didn't last very long. Lego City does bring back some memories of the old though
My favorite Lego theme is Power miners, not only were they affordable when they released in 2009-2010 but they had a cohesive story along with amazing set design along with most sets encouraging and sometimes giving you instructions to combine the sets to make new super cool creations, such a good theme
I've been reading/watching rants like this in the internet since like the 2000s. But the thing is, Lego never stopped selling packs of bricks with simple builds. We are currently living in the age of Lego classic, which is an excellent Lego theme. You buy one of those yellow boxes, get to build a couple random things and are still left with lots of bricks. If you want Lego to be about creativity, if you think the builds are too complex and too tied to existing media properties, then you should put your money where your mouth is and get these classic sets. But it's clear that very few people are buying them. Even though they are a great deal price wise, they promote creativity, they have simple builds anyone can enjoy. Retailers don't want to fill their shelves with this when they could be filling them with Lego Star Wars. Simple as that. And something really missing in this story is the huge crisis Lego went through during the change of the millennia. Lego almost died and it's precisely themes like Star Wars and Bionicle that allowed it to stay afloat in those difficult times. I like some recent sets, but I mostly stick to classic and creator with the occasional 'adult' set. I would love it if Lego went back to the days of 90s space or castle or pirates or paradisa. But as long as they have a profit motive, this isn't happening.
I know it's like 7 months after this video got released, but I feel like the new Lego DreamZzz sets kind of do what you were wanting Lego to do again. Almost all of them come with alternate builds and are made to be customizable. They were released with an original TV show, but you can definitely create your own universe and build with what is given without knowing about the show.
14:50 yeah that’s how I feel about modern lego. Waaaaaay too many licensed themes. No original ones anymore. Now on one hand I can get it. It’s strategically cheaper to license than put in a lot of work for a theme that might go bust after 1 wave. But as someone who grew up with lego in the 2000’s I still miss the days when we’d get like a new original theme every year.
I feel so spoiled growing up in the 90's... we had a new Space theme EVERY year, with a couple new sets coming out for the old ones, a new Castle theme every year or two, Pirates, and an abundance of City and aquatic theming of some sort. I loved Star Wars as a kid, but I absolutely see it as the beginning to the end of my interest in Lego as a brand.
Bionicle was always my main go to but the aftermarket have not been kind to it. From sellers who don't know or care enough to sell any of it to hyper focused collectors that buy up a ton of it to flip it for a profit. To unreasonable prices on masks that was made in the millions. To niche parts having a prominent roll in many contest winning or alt builds which just drives prices through the roof. Its not easy being a bionicle fan these days. And I see the similar but not always the same issues with older themes. I love the older lego aesthetic but sometimes the most interesting sets cost more than most new sets
This is why I never bothered collecting all the Bionicle sets and masks, mostly cause its impossible due to the unique or extremely rare contest masks. Only bothered with certain character and their upgrades, along with certain group of sets. Pretty content to get the few sets I always wanted, might get additional sockets if the ones on the sets crack, and stop there.
I shook my head *hard* wanting you to rip into the 90-Year sets. And arguably, the 60 Year of the Brick ones had a little stronger case - 5 sets with instructional builds but also encouraged to build your own models. Each set posed a phrase with a blank left open on the box, so *you*, the consumer, can fill in the blank in your own way. Every set featured things at minifigure scale, greater or lesser, and parts of castle, space, city, all colors and shapes, easy to work with and some in inventive ways. I won't forget the frog mouth made from a pirates treasure chest.
Apparently in the late 90s LEGO had made a series of boneheaded decisions at an executive level (think Galidor), and the company was on the verge of disaster when the Star Wars contract came in and saved the day. Of course this shaped every future decision and now 20+ years later LEGO is heavily reliant on licensed deals for its bread and butter lines. Having said that, there's a lot of great things being done across LEGO these days and the amount of parts, colours and variety available is astonishing, in some ways it's never been better. There have always been amazing artists and designers working for the company even if the company itself is (like most of them) run by boneheads so the art succeeds in spite of commerce. But yeah there's a simplistic charm to old LEGO where they had far far fewer pieces and techniques and colours to work with. Just look at those old LEGO catalogues, they were a work of art in themselves, I used to collect them and spend hours dreaming of owning all those sets...
12:14 I too would stare at catalog images of these sets, and even nowadays I know there's a limited baseplate to house its functions, as a kid it was a world of possibilities. The set 2996 Lost Tomb always made me wonder if there was more than meets the eye, and while I learned later that it was a facade, I easily can adapt it into one of these other sets as a full tomb just like in the real Egyptian pyramids with branching passageways.
I feel like the recent lunar mission subtheme (which is under City for some reason incomprehensible to me) is really good and sorta recaptures that reconfigurable aspect of the 90s sets. Like 60350 and 60349 and 60348 and all those. I think that does a pretty good job of recapturing the "themed, but also build your own" vibe of things like Rock Raiders or Insectoids or what-have-you
this is exactly the video i needed to get my partners into lego, amazing analysis! also dont let weird people in the comments gaslight you, your voice is really pretty as is!
I used to play with legos a lot as a kid but what I had the most fun with was the bin of legos at the after school boys & girls club. So many scattered sets. I can at least remember fragments of space and ice planet being mixed in there.
Lego City Missions 60354, is one of my favorites from 2022, to me, it feels a lot like older sets. Only has instructions for the main chassis then the rest is up to you how to build. To me the set is a call back and returns to Lego's roots. You should check it out. I really loved Rock Raiders and Life on Mars, they still have the best aliens to date. Much better than Mars Mission ever did
Your lil avatar is too cute, and the way you went through the timeline of Lego and all the old, nostalgic theme's that a lot of us weren't even around to experience was so nice and well done 😌
90's lego had a lot of iconic themes. I'ds love to see new or re-imagined sets within these classic themes. There's a lot of focus on novelty but some ideas are timeless like the bricks themselves
Lego Agents was my all time favorite theme growing up, I feel like themes from that era (Agents, Power Miner, space police) were in the perfect crossroads between retro lego and modern lego; they have a lot of the open ended structure and color palates of classic lego with the character and detail-oriented builds of today. Being able to come up with scenarios for my agents to act out was a joy, and I hope that lego can go back to finding that balance in their toy line
My parents started me on stuff like Aquazone, Ninja, and the wild west themes. I kinda miss those old toys, because they *were* truly a little more generic and flexible in how you built and played. Any theme “lore” was the sort of thing you could write on the back of a postcard at most, and springboard ideas from there. Nowadays it feels like themes need to be licensed IP-related or a whole milkable multimedia phenomenon (lookin’ at you Ninjago), which feels constraining. There was a sort of joy in the earlier, looser themes that they only occasionally recapture. But eh, maybe I’m just being nostalgic. I’m sure kids love the new stuff just fine.
I remember this conversation with my dad while writing our Christmas letter at like five years old: "So what do you want as a Christmas gift?" "I want the LEGO police station!" "And what if Santa doesn't have it?" "Then I want the LEGO fire station!"
My favorite Lego set as a kid was the black seas barracuda. I stared at that set for 3 years in the Lego catalogs, begging for it, and letting it be known that it was the only thing that I wanted for my birthday or Christmas. And after three years, I got it!
I remember gushing over the 90s space sets in the catalogue, and then for my 4th birthday I actually got that black and red robot. I wanted the castle sets of the time badly too but my parents couldn't afford them. Then some years later I got the big one out of fright knights. Played with that thing so much. I recognize so many scattered sets throughout the video, and some I actually own myself and played to death with as a kid, knowing every nook and cranny inside out. It's sort of etched into my memory, good memories.
I definitely agree how the older sets seemed much more possible to add to. These newer sets are so detailed that it’s honestly hard to add stuff that looks cohesive with everything. The most I did when I was younger was add more guns and weapons to my Star Wars ships (specifically my republic gunship). I was into the early ninjago and was really into Bionicle but I was still really young when they came out and had a love for it once it was discontinued. Hero factory was also my jam but mainly because Bionicle wasn’t around lol.
This is a long comment but stick with me if you can. I'd arguably say that the 2000's is *almost* just as good as the 1990's. Sure the original themes were often more specific, but you still got creative stuff like Bionicle, Exo Force, Space Police, Power Miners, and so on to make up for how imaginative they can be. Bionicle being huge wasn't an accident, it was so unique that it normally ditched the whole "Lego" branding on it for the marketing altogether. Yes it had a lot of stories and characters, but it also incentivized creativity like with alternate builds and combination models, most of which don't even have any significance in the story. For me, in my opinion, Lego truly died when they cancelled it. They didn't and still don't see it as a massive essential part that helped prove their worth, they instead treated it as a thing that was only there as a backup and got rid of it as soon as they could. I might be a bit pessimistic about this, but I genuinely think they only made G2 as an attempt to further damage that brand and prevent it from truly coming back again. They couldn't have made it more barebones and lacking of advertising even if they tried. It's pretty sinister really, taking what people loved and making it just worse enough with barely anyone noticing to the point of possibly keeping it in obscurity forever. They didn't *have* to do this either, they could've brought it back to its prime like they did with Ninjago not long after, but let's be real, Ninjago was only able to get away with it because it was already simpler to get away with. A lot more people would've noticed Bionicle getting worse in quality and it especially showed for 2016. Bionicle just isn't fit for their modern business model of succeeding with desperation anymore, so they intentionally killed it. Another thing that bothers me about modern Lego is how corporate everything feels. Gone are the whimsical designs that a child could easily come up with, only brands that are mostly replicated from cinema. Star Wars and Harry Potter might work fine since they are are already mysterious enough to fit with the core practices, and they did, but what is there to say about Marvel? DC? Ghostbusters? The Simpsons? Stranger Things? Hell a lot of it isn't even specifically meant for kids, or at least not with the same creativity mindset. It's not like they *can't* introduce brands that are already creative either, Minecraft is at least a decent example, especially given the theming of blocks. Or how about this: Where's The Amazing World of Gumball? No seriously, where is it? You're telling me that Lego is perfectly fine on making multiple minifigures for other shows many people do not like such as Teen Titans GO!, Powerpuff Girls 2016, and Adventure Time in Lego Dimensions, but not even one single figure on CN's most popular and well received show of all time? It infuriates me too because those two are a *perfect* fit for each other! Literally the main premise of that show is mixing together all sorts of animation styles together with main characters, who are kids btw, trying to do their best in their crazy world. How is that *not* prime material for a Lego line? I bet you we could even get some original sets out of that and it wouldn't be out of place. Mostly simplistic yet wacky sets as a kind of Time Cruisers spiritual successor? Now *THAT* is something I would be interested in! It just blows my mind how incompetent both companies are and not understanding what makes them special. And Gumball is just *one* example. How about LittleBigPlanet, that's another. It isn't just good looking sets or animation that propels something forward, it's the charming settings, the well written characters with enough room left to explore more in the future, the subtlety in some things that remain unanswered, the expansiveness of it all, etc. etc. So much of this needs to be taken into account when making something good, and when it is? By God it is glorious. Even all these years later fans old and new are still talking about stuff like Bionicle and Rock Raiders. Is there anyone talking about something like Hero Factory or Chima still? Barely. Sadly this line of thinking is gone with most other companies too, even other toy brands. Remember Highway 35 World Race and Acceleracers? Good luck seeing anything like that happening for Hot Wheels ever again, as a matter of fact it got cancelled because it was *too* successful. Remember the simple intricacies of feel good stories from modeled Thomas & Friends episodes? What it is now is not even close to what it resembled before even by the CGI era. What about Transformers? Nope, the last things of note they made is the Cybertron game, and now they are tryin to erase them from history with no one to legally play them and nothing captivating or morally questioning whatsoever. So much of the toy industry is like this now. They don't think kids can learn anything meaningful out of them anymore, they just think all of them are stupid, which is an insult to kids because there are indeed some out there that are smarter than most people would give them credit for. And again this doesn't just apply to toys, even *Pixar* is now guilty of this, which used to have some of the highest praised films ever made. The truth is that companies now hate it when something is successful and praised for its creativity because it challenges the worth of everything else they have. They want to sell multiple things, not one good thing, no matter how much money it makes. It's no secret that CN has tried to kill Gumball multiple times and is only still around because it's where most of their essential profits come from. The moment they let the creators of that go is the day that CN is completely toast. Lego and Hot Wheels were only able to get rid of what they can because they had enough wiggle room and knew that they didn't need them anymore since the toy landscape can easily change significantly, after all, they're just toys right? Why should a parent care if little Timmy over there doesn't like an expensive toy they bought him and thinks it's stupid? They're just uninterested kids after all. Surely there is absolutely nothing to worry about… At the end of the day, we all now that Lego is never going to be as good as they used to be. They were good back then because they *tried* very hard to make an impression. Same goes to Disney with their renaissance, or Nintendo with the N64 and GameCube. Once they got all the fortune they could ever need though, they don't need to worry about their stuff nearly as much as they used to. Oh sure we might get some rare diamonds here and there, but more often than not they were only able to slip through the cracks briefly and are around for such a short amount of time. It's why I'm a much bigger fan of supporting personal and indie creations now, lest you want to doom them to copyright hell and obscurity forever like with Making Fiends. I know it's easier said than done, but I'd prefer to *not* support big companies whenever possible or when I feel it's appropriate, even if it means piracy. Money is the joy thing that matters to them, so I am trying to not give them any to send that message accordingly. Of course many people will be ignorant of this and even overly defensive, but it's the only way they would listen, and it's the morally correct thing to do. If *I* no longer bought any newer Legos for many years now, so can you. I haven't bought any newer sets since 2016 and I do not regret it. If you still want to buy Legos though, just go for older ones or use sites like Bricklink to get parts for other things like MOCs. Yes you'd still be supporting Lego that way, but at least you'd let them know you're buying something you actually want. I'd even dare say that there should be no shame in some custom parts and molds/colors/prints/stickers when needed, but maybe that's just me. You know, like what some Bionicle fans are doing. You can't deny that a lot of it is good stuff. *Sorry for the gigantic mountain of text. I don't know why I care so much about this. Lol*
So I grew up almost exclusively with licensed themes. I still have a couple sets built up from the 2011 Harry Potter and 2012 Lord of the Rings waves. I absolutely adored building the models and getting to reenact/imagine scenes with characters I love. That new Rivendell set has exquisite detail. But, I don't think I could justify paying that much for what will likely be a display piece. I have grown to appreciate a lot of the original themes as I've gotten older. I was not confident enough to experiment and build things after elementary school. So, I've missed out on why Lego is special, and hearing people gush about the creative freedom they had makes me want to explore myself.
The city theme was my favourite, as a kid I got a fire station and a F1 pitstop, I really loved how simple the sets were because it'd let your imagination personalize the set as you wanted, even if you were a kid. I always wanted to build a full city but yeah, money. Modern sets look cool, honestly impressed by some of the sets shown in this video, like the monkie kids ones. But at the same time they feel too busy and leave little room for imagination. Also I'm a fan of studs showing in buildings instead of flat and detailed surfaces.
Lego Paradisa - memory unlocked! I had Seaside Cabana and it had that perfectly Golden Girls palette to me. It also just fit perfectly into the canon I had for my Lego - above water from Aquazone and the seaside of Town proper. Dang Bellville was a bummer.
I didn’t grow up with Lego wasn’t allowed it because of some weird reasons I can’t remember but now I’m 22 and have adult money I buy a crazy amount of Lego ! Started building my own city recently, plan on adding classic sets to it even bought a classic space set from the 80s ! Catching up on lost time I guess anyway absolutely loved this video!
Wow that intro literally defines me as an individual lol. Went to Legoland a couple of weeks ago with the family and it reignited my interest in legos. Made me want to buy some of the old sets I grew up with and display them in my office. After seeing how expensive they were I thought “well maybe the newer sets will be cheaper”. Only to realize that anything Lego new or old is ridiculously expensive. Just kinda of sucks as anyone getting into the hobby now can’t even afford it. I agree with this whole video. The older sets have a feeling like you can add more to them while the new sets while cool looking don’t have that same vibe about them.
I had some lego sets, most of them were technic cars and lego city ones, I love these ; althought I definitely get a stronger feeling of nostalgia when I look at hotwheels or majorette, its less expensive and its way easier to find your dream car, so you can make a collection about any theme and honestly they are no limits when you learn how to customize them
I think you hit the nail on the head. With the newer sets is quite difficult to add something of your own imagination. Also ♥for giving Basil a shoutout.
Being a 2000's baby, the bionical sets always held a place in my heart, not only because they were cool action figures, but it always felt like there was more than I could understand about the lore and the setting itself that made me feel like I was only scratching the surface of it that I could never fully understand.
I mostly agree. When I was little, I used take a part all the sets and make them into my own build. These days, sets are details with lot of small pieces. It is hard to take apart, and create something about of the vast amount of different pieces are hard even for adult, let alone kids. I still like Lego, but it doesn't feel the same as how I remembered as a child.
I think my favourite set when I was younger was the forest hideout. Treehouses are just so cool. And the swingy rope thing - amazing. Not to mention the Robin Hood link. Pirates stuff was cool too.
I remember being part of LEGO Club Magazine back in the genesis of Bionicle and getting more of the story every month. Then EXO-FORCE dropped and when the Mobile Devastator hit the cover, I immediately fell in love with the set. I would bring the magazine to school with me every day for months just so I could look at it in my free time and hoped my parents would at some point get it for me. Great vid, I really enjoyed it
I used to look at those lego books that had all the sets for a theme with them for hours upon hours imaging how I would play with them and stuff, I had the first book for lego starwars, and ninjago. Also very cool video
I had (still have) a bunch of the classic space theme sets from my childhood and a few of the town sets, I've been piecing them back together slowly (replacing lost pieces and such). I always loved the feel of the classic sets, very Space: 1999 meets 2001 A Space Odyssey, I'm really impressed with what they managed to do with that line without resorting to the generic "Good Guy vs. Bad Guy" trope that was standard in toys then.
Alternative word to battlements, "Crenellations." I find it a more fun word to say EDIT: Oooh, favorite sets... Well, I know as an adult I am constantly kicking myself for not being interested in Life on Mars as a kid, that theme rocks! But I also know that I had a few sets that contributed a bit to the problem we have today of LEGO being a middle man merchandizing company. I was and still in some ways am big into Star Wars, and when I was younger I ended up with a few really good Star Wars sets. I recall having an MTT and a hailfire droid... As it stands, what I wouldn't give to have LEGO go back to making things targeted toward kids imaginations. You're absolutely right that their modern sets are definitely more design pieces, but what LEGO needs is to go back to printing a new piece every 5 minutes because they need a whacky shape on a budget. Guard rails, molded base plates, that one car chassis from adventurers, the whole lot! I'd kill for a new space theme in the old, classic way that LEGO used to make things...
Good Video! I wasn't born at the right time for these sets, but I did see them all the time in the lego books, and also really wanted them in a time where I could not comprehend how to get them since they were not on store shelves.
I actually grew up with a lot of classic sets my dad got when he was a kid, he threw them all in one big grey bin mixed and told me and my sister to have at it.
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The point about older sets being easier to add on to with your own builds thanks to their consistent themes and simpler builds is so true, I've had a lot of fun making MOCs for themes I grew up with, but even if I had all the parts in the world if you asked me to make something of my own to go along with like, modern Ninjago I wouldn't know where to start
Oh wow this is Big Yellow from the youtube channel BigYellow !
Exactly! in the late 2000's this problem really started to emerge. Always when i wanted to add and build to a set it would be very challenging for me as a kid, because the builds were very specific and used a lot of specialized pieces. Being a bit of a perfectionist made it frustrating. I would look back at 90's sets and think "wow these sets are so simplistic but still look so good, i wish i could build things like that!" But i couldn't, because it wouldn't match with the rest. Which i wanted. And modern Ninjago seems like a complete impossibility by comparison.
Funny Lego Story when I was small I really wanted the Krusty Krab Lego set and due to a miscommunication with my parents and extended family I got 2 of them
They were freaking out talking about who was gonna return there's and I wanted both which confused them
I built both and then drew a red number 2 on the sign and my dad still thinks it was the funniest thing
I thought I was a genius
Can confirm, that is genius.
I had the krusty krab set too actually! I think i still have all the pieces for it!
That IS genuis, friend!! Your younger self was correct in their assumption lol
Nice reference to the movie !
🦀❤💵
Haaa😂
I agree, the more "base" designs give off the feeling "I can do that too!", which is really inspiring for creativity.
seriously this. the whole point of lego was to encourage creativity back then...
As someone a bit younger, my favorites were always Exo-force and Power miners, the latter truly feeling like a final resurgance of the 90s philosophy
I mean it was basically just a remake of the 90s rock raiders line
I find it odd since I never grew up with classic 80s and 90s lego, but that I resonate far more with those than anything I realistically built when I was younger
@@vonfaustien3957 Poor mans version I would say.
@@flambo6554 Same, first sets I got was in 96 and still I mostly buy 80s and 90s castle sets. Of course some of the sets were not that great, but I love the parts and looks.
I think Power Miners being one of the last og themes to heavily feature combo and alternate models helped in that aspect a lot
As impressive as modern Lego is, they're equally as infuriating. Their prices are getting bonkers and they just keep making odd decisions. If nostalgia sells, which it clearly does, why not make more retro remakes that people can just buy whenever? My favorite set will probably always be the 1987 monorail that was handed down to me from my mom. It's in remarkably good condition and can even run on its own, truly a relic from a bygone age.
ahhh yes monorail, such a good line despite the fact that the tracks are worth more than gold by weight
Holy shite, your Monorail still runs? Isn't that a rarity nowadays?
Sadly the monorail parts were made by different company that went under.
Lego overall is not much more expensive than it was back then if you adjust for inflation.
Which monorail? The Futuron one?
I completely agree with you about the style and esthetics of modern LEGO. The company doesn't have the same goals with their set designs and it shows. Even though the sets of old were simplistic (maybe even primitive) to today's sets, I love them so much more than anything that's modern.
Sure, we can say it's all about "nostalgia", but for me it's about how LEGO was a system of pieces that could be used to create anything. The modern sets look too pristine and polished with all of their specialty pieces making all of those different curves, angles and edges. The older sets were also interested in using color. The sets had fewer colors than modern sets, but they used color to also tell a story.
True!
The thing I really like about the older sets, specifically town, is how well scaled the vehicles are to the figure. For example the scale of the old 4 wide cars feel similar to me standing beside a car in real life. Not too tall, not to wide, not too long etc
i really hope lego starts appealing to that classic sense of "a new toy everyday." as you said, everything needs to be balanced. while i think the adult oriented sets are gorgeous display pieces, but i feel like they should have themes and sets more restrained and vague to encourage kids to think beyond the instructions. i think that's why i like the creator 3in1s, because it inherently encourages new ideas with the same pieces. (also besides the point but speed champions is technically still a licensed theme as most if not all the sets are based on real cars.)
yeah, but with speed champions, you could still easily incorporate them into other builds. yeah, that might be *specifically* a dodge charger, but there's not really any context given besides another one and a lil race light thingy. and thats just one of the big 2 packs, the single cars dont have *anything* extra (besides a fig)
that said, they have recently started dipping into movie cars (namely dom's charger and bond's aston martin) but most of em are still just cars
Also lego Minecraft/Super mario despite being lisnced sets encorge that MOC and imaigitive play... And Super mario corses are super easy to build and can use anything aslong as the figures understand the colors.
What's cool about Aquazone as the first underwater theme from LEGO, they didn't have to make it this sci-fi, and yet it carried itself. It could have started as standard boats, jetskis, fishermen and deep sea salvage, but no - they pushed boundaries and said, "this is a futuristic underwater theme where divers harvest crystals to power their underwater dwellings in a time where hydrogen was a limited resource." Like, that's kind of dark for a LEGO theme but made the struggle against foes and wildlife even more suspenseful.
Do you remember, chrome knives?)
@@Wind-Waker7272 Yup, and I can still find some that haven't faded. Chrome swords and crystals too!
And then, just shortly after they were like "well after Aquazone, everyone will think a standard diving theme could never be exciting, let's prove'em wrong..." And they created LEGO Divers, which was amazing in every way imaginable.
Technically they did the same thing with space, atleast when they started using minifigures in their sets.
It started out super scifi in the late 1970s, then a "contemporary" space set finally came out in 1990 for the town theme; *Set 1682: Space Shuttle Launch*
For the next few years there were a couple more one-off contemporary themed space sets released, but it wouldn't be until 1995 when an entire space subtheme of town called "Launch Command" came out, featuring 5 sets within it
I like the minifigures a lot better, too. The simple designs look a lot better, to me. Modern legos have all this detail and shading on their bodies, which is kind of weird considering there's nothing realistic about them, and it kind of clashes with the simple bricks.
I spent much of my childhood drooling over Lego sets in the catalogs. Just just the Shop at Home catalogs but the Lego DACTA and Educational ones as well (which were much more expensive). With our family being on a budget, most of the sets I got were smaller and I typically stuck to my favorite themes (Aquazone and Technic). When I got my first job I bought all of the larger Aquazone sets I never had as a kid on eBay. Even now I still fill Bricklink carts with Aquazone parts whenever I'm shopping on the site 😅
It's funny thinking about LEGO sets like video games: Sure they had a long time being angular and far from realistic, but that doesn't always stop people from enjoying them. If the product isn't fun to move, play around or combine with other things, then that's where it fails. Toys are made for play more often than shelve, and the average kid enjoys combining different toys together - look at Toy Story. The products may look shinier and smoother as the years go on, but that also takes away what the mind can see - it fills in the gaps that anyone can see in their own way. Give someone a book, and the words can spark all kinds of images that vary from reader to reader, while retaining a story and message that everyone can understand closely, sometimes with variation. Show them the book as a movie, and you're projecting one constant vision of this story for everyone to absorb, but not everybody will agree with.
Excellent video essay once again. Love how much conversation this sparks, and how you created some of your own models to pair up with Paradisa and Classic space. :)
Great video! I appreciate the shout out as well! ❤️
Also, I know it was a small part of your video, but I’m thankful you see the Gift With Purchase practice for what it is. 👍
Thank you so much and likewise! You definitely spurred the inspiration for this script, I had to give credit where credit is due haha!
And yes, the GWP sets always left a bad taste in my mouth, but most Lego content creators were always so excited and supportive of the practice, it made me feel I was going crazy!
Hi RRSlugger.
@@chana_sla Hello! 😊
I'm only 26 and started being hooked on Lego around the age of 11 but this video is so relatable. These oldies give me so much nostlagia, I can't imagine how it would be if they actually were part of my childhood. I wish I had some of the adventurers of classic space sets. Like you and many Lego fans, I'm frustrated by the lack of unlicensed themes. One of my favorite theme is Atlantis, it's like a undersea wave for Adventurers. The colors scheme of the first phase was just perfect. Now every potential theme gets sucked into City Ninjago or Creator...
what do you mean nostalgia you weren't there
Amazing video!! I'm surprised you didn't talk about that weird late 2000s-2010s era of lego that attempted a few spiritual successors to the classic stuff. Space Police, Agents, Atlantis and Power Miners (and Ninjago, which started around this point too with the whole beyblade card game gimmick) was basically my childhood!! I grew up on a ton of those sets, my favorite was the Power Miners thunder drill ^^
Those were my favorite themes ever. I was hooked on those without even knowing the original sources
These were after my time - I was entering college at about that time I think - but I hear the Atlantis and Power Miners themes were really good. "Nick on Planet Ripple" also really liked those.
Classic Space I’ve always liked, even though it was a couple years before my time. It has a hokey sort of charm to it. I started to get into the Space theme at the age of five or six, right during the transition between the Classic line and Futuron. We didn’t have much money, so I only got a few of the smaller to medium-sized kits. The first, and only, theme I collected completely was Ice Planet.
My favorite theme, though, would be the original Blacktron line. It’s always looked badass to me. I never cared for the look of the Blacktron 2 line, even as a child. 6987 Message Intercept Base was something I stared at in the catalogues endlessly as a child. When I was about 15, I stumbled upon the set new, in the box, at an old toy store in a small village in England. Behind it was the legendary 928 Galaxy Explorer! They’d been sitting on the shelf untouched for years and years. At the time, 928 was completely unfamiliar to me-the internet was still in its infancy-but I recognized that it was something special. I somehow convinced my parents to loan me the money and got both for their original sticker price! I remember shaking as I walked out the door with those two sets.
Imagine Deep Freeze Defender as 10xxx
I loved pink bricks as a kid, wished I could get more back then. Nowadays it's the opposite problem, brick assortments in the bulk sets give you like five different shades of pink and purple and it's hard to build anything cohesive looking.
The shades are for details
Monkie Kid was designed specifically for the Chinese market. It isn't even really sold in stores anymore, mostly being available online in the west. They have a lot of crossover in terms of vibe - that's probably why it's not stocked in stores.
You opened a video by saying nostalgia can be like a drug at times. You just earned my respect.
This is the first time I have encountered anyone who actually understands it... I am a total nostalgia junkie, everything I do is to try to feel like I did years ago, despite it barely working..... Nostalgia drives me, and is honestly the reason I keep pushing forward. If I'm not carrying my memories with me to the next day and the next day. Who would? So yeah, I suppose one could say I am driven by nostalgia... Anyways, awesome to see someone who actually understands it.
Much like drugs it also may be kind-of a problem? I mean, I have complicated feelings on nostalgia. TOO complicated to fit in a TH-cam comment, honestly. But I can't lie I am a sucker for it also. I just got Lords of Magic running again on a modern PC and I was able to beat it, which I could never do back when I was a kid. So I do get it.
When you die, in the process, as neurons start fizzling out and apoptosis sets in, memories return vividly in a flash. I think this era - culture, collectively - is the same way. That's why there are no new stories anymore, we're all just drinking up warm fuzzy memories from childhood to forget that we're (metaphorically speaking) laying there bleeding out in the breakdown lane, slowly losing consciousness after the crash. Even "new" stories are always set in the 1980s or 1990s, or occasionally the y2k first half of the 2000s. It's pandering to me - it's successfully pandering to me - and yet it's too creepy, because the absence of *new* things feels like a kind of solipsism. I dunno. I can't really address this without getting abstract and ominous and poetic, because none of my comfort and discomfort is concrete enough to avoid that.
Millennials waking up in the artsy bathroom for the n-th time be like th-cam.com/video/Lc1SwMEJPm4/w-d-xo.html
I have so much nostalgia for the 90's era sets (and even despite owning many) I still watch many videos on them. They're just so fun to see and talk about. The turning point from vintage to modern I feel is the introduction/transition to curved slopes. Lego only used to have linear slopes, hard edges, but in the 2000's there was a shift into using many curved slopes. Everything has become more smooth / curved, but the rigidity and chunkiness is a huge part of what makes vintage sets have that charming nostalgic aura about them.
I'm happy you shouted out RR Slugger too - his content is just great, so much editing and love are put into their videos.
My favorite is the iconic Aquazone Sea Lab base (6195). It was the perfect gift for a four year old on christmas. It has everything - raised baseplates, giant transparent pieces, chunky parts. it is just such a good toy. Rather than only a standalone structure, it is immersed in landscape to really set the scene.
I appreciate the love for paradisa - pastels are not usually used in lego, and the sets just feel so comfy, they are a favorite of mine too.
(Also I may have misheard but I'd label speed champions as a licensed theme as they use real life car brands and even technic is now falling into that trend)
As a kid, my family never really had a lot of money. The biggest sets I got were the Dark Dragon's Den, Forbidden Cove and Bandit's Secret Hide-out, which were amazing but did leave me drooling over sets like the BSB, Temple of Anubis and Royal Knight's Castle. Now that I'm in a way better place financially, I get to fully enjoy what kid-me could only dream about and I'm slowly but surely collecting the sets I always wanted, which, turns out, are a lot. You'll be happy to hear I started my resurgence into LEGO with the Temple a few years ago and I even have five pirate ships adorning my piano.
The set I remember most fondly from my youth would have to be Oasis Ambush. It's small, but it has everything it needs and everything it does, it does perfectly.
There is just something about having an 80 or 90s LEGO model in hand that just makes me, a nerd in my early 40s, feel good! Suddenly i'm a kid again!
2000's is enought for me, i'm a bit younger but we are all kids inside:)
I think a big part of it is the simplicity. They weren't going for realism and scale with Town, they were making what kids saw the world as. Colors were vivid, vehicles were simple, but there was enough detail to spark stories. I was born in 99 so I wasn't there for that golden age, but I had a friend who inherited a bunch of classic town and castle sets (even og lego town plan parts!) that I pawned off him. Now they're sitting scattered in bins with my brother who pawned them off me, probs my karma. But I was OBSESSED with old catalogs, magazines, wiki pages and books. There's just so much charm to that era
@@charlottesimss9853 Those are some great points. The old sets had a way of so often walking that line in giving just enough detail to spark imagination while not going to photo realism. I remember an old book depicting a 1x2 red brick with axel hole, and two 1x1 red clips combined to form a chicken on a spit! i mean how perfect is that! just a hint of 'squint' factor but once you make the squint then you can't help but see th echicken. That is exactly how the child's mind works
@@Dreadwolf3155 that's the kind of creativity I'm trying to gain back! I love having to find new uses for pieces outside the box
@@charlottesimss9853 amen to that!
I am really liking this wave of youtube videos covering what I think is the golden era of lego set design. It is that perfect period of time before lego got super detailed. The sets were just detailed enough to look awesome, but lack enough detail to leave stuff up to the imagination.
Born in 79 and man did those 90 year sets grab me. I didn’t even realize how much I missed classic space until building the Galaxy Explorer and now I’m obsessed with collecting the old sets. The Lion Nights Castle is amazing. The best building experience I’ve ever had. I used $200 with of VIP to get it but now having built it can say it’s easily worth $400. The timing right after Xmas of the Blacktron set was pretty douchey. They knew everyone who was going to spend money on Lego had just bought everything they could possibly want but if you wanted that ship you would have do FIND $200 worth of Lego to buy. Not cool.
"Space ship!" - Benny is crying out
I agree the lions knight castle is really special, and the toy I always wanted but never new could exist, I love how they elevated the theme to not just a fortress but plenty of town life adventures too... Really needs more animals. Its the first set i have gotten in 25 years and no other would have done that. I have held off on the Galaxy explorer.... hoping maybe I will find another good deal on it (kinda think I just need to focus on 1 theme), but its kind of like what is the point if its only companion set is a GWP..... Even though the same was done with the LKC at least it gives members of 4 factions (town folk, knights, forestmen, falcons) to have adventures with so feels more complete. Now I hear they are making a Majistos house as a GWP and I may be losing interest in playing these games if it takes years to come out with companion sets and they are all GWP.
@@jacobe1942There is also the issue that any legit companion sets (non GWP) come out after the main set is retired. The El dorado Fortress remaster (remake would be a different approach) is PERFECT for pirates, but the Black Seas Barracuda as part of Pirates of Barracuda Bay Ideas set was retired in 2020, 3 years before! Or the viking ship 3 in 1 has like a month on shelves together with viking village before the 3 in 1 is retired. Why not keep all these sets on shelves at the same time??. Launch them together, retire them together. And keep them on shelves for years, so everyone has a chance to expand and complete these worlds!
@@metroid767 barracuda bay is an ideas set, actually
@@OnePoundBird yep. It’s literally mentioned as such in my comment.
Paradisa is the best theme ever made.
No more details, just, it’s the utter best.
It is pretty underrated. I don't own any of the sets, but I would love to make a 80s Miami style moc with those parts!
that pink ass vaporwave aesthetic is so DAMN juicy i love it
@@edgarego5813 It aged like fine wine cause of the new trends towards 80s dream liminal aesthetics
I feel like I can taste it just looking at the pictures, lol. Same as it tasted back in the 90s. Never had any of them, might have to get some
As a boy my mom would've discouraged my interest in them, but a friend of mine had that poolside set. I think there's a sense of class, sophistication, fun and chill vibes of leisure in it that makes them extremely appealing. Sure there's pink and some extra female figures in it, but it's just so dang immaculately themed a world that you can't help but want to relax along with everybody. Or have a strange Space or Castle crossover. :D
TH-cam's really been sending me down the Lego Rabbithole recently. Anyways. I've always been a huge Bionicle fan, on top of robots just being sick as hell the lore is extremely intricate, mystical and just downright exotic. The Matoran Universe concept and reveal just like, blew my socks off in 2009. With normal System stuff Rock Raiders is definitely my favorite theme, I'm a sucker for lived in, down to earth sci-fi. Exo Force, Alpha Team Operation Deep Sea, & Arctic were also ones I enjoyed quite a bit.
Anyways the Lego rantsona is extremely cute, I want to hold their little yellow plastic hand. Will definitely give the rest of this channel a look as well.
Thanks for making a video about this and sharing your thoughts. I'm a 90s Lego kid and I just got back into Lego this year after almost 30 years. Aquazone was my last lego set I purchased. I decided to get back into Lego because of nostalgia. I ended up buying almost exclusively just retro sets that I never had a kid. I did recently buy the newer 2024 space sets and I'm pretty impressed with the quality, but I do agree that the problem with modern Lego is the lack of imagination. The beauty of the simplicity of sets was that you created your own narratives and gave character to these plain faced miniature toys. The two things I stared at catalogs that I still have yet to collect are the Pirates Barracuda ship and the Royal Knight's Castle. My sister had some of the Paradisa sets and I used to play with those too. I'm now starting to collect those retro sets.
I remember when I was a child, like 2009, looking at the police stations, or the big expensive Atlantis sets. I remember that feeling of trying to make my own city, with Lego sets and MOCs. So much fun.
I think it's come down to a change in times. There is a lot more competition on the shelves. Action figures galore, video games, tv shows, electronics, etc. Lego had to change gears to keep up. If they'd kept it super generic, they would have fallen away. Those themes you were talking about and how nice they were, were indeed great, but Lego was not doing well financially at that time. They learned from Star Wars that licensing their talents to create essentially customizable playset modelkits would net them good money *because* the kids now associated their toy with characters, story, and settings that they loved. They applied this to Bionicle and made bank and became profitable again. That is why Ninjago has lasted so long. That is why their themes have stories and alternative media to enjoy: they learned how to keep up with the market and their target demo. They even created a new target demo: AFOL. Lego is an expensive hobby, so of course their pricier pieces will be more like set pieces than generic playsets. Idk, I get where you're coming from, but you're looking at lego with rose-tinted kid goggles and not looking at it as a company that has to stay profitable to even make sets in the first place. What you see as detracting from Lego is the very thing that's kept it around since the early 2000s: story and characters.
the glow in the dark ghost is engraved in my mind
Time Cruisers makes a very good case of having an established story and layout of the world, but open to all kinds of imagination. The vehicles can have all kinds of pieces attached to make time-traveling gadgets work, which means any level of builder can make a time machine or base with parts in their collection. The story opens travel to all kinds of LEGO themes, which encourages roping together elements that otherwise would have no business co-existing. On the same day this video dropped, I received a package for the Hypno Cruiser in the mail, and I'm not even mad it's missing a few pieces - I can add my own to make it my own vehicle instead of just completing the set from official parts.
Also I'm biased to this theme as I've used it as an example many times in my STEM classes over the years to demonstrate kinetic functions.
16:51 "create stories detatched from the established lore".
Oddly enough, that's what I consider to be Bionicle's greatest streangth (Bionicle being what, to most, started this trend within Lego).
Bionicle had its lore, its rules, its many and complex characters etc., but, at its core, it was a sandbox for your imagination: wanna expand the lore with more characters? Go on. Wanna add your own characters with their backstories? There's plenty of room for that too. Wanna create from scratch an entire different world with its own plot and rules? Please, do so.
That's quintessential Lego to me, adapted for character-driven stories and adventures. So it differs from the coziness of these older sets, a feeling I highly share with you. I love the simplicity and expandability of old lines, that's their undisputed charm.
On one hand, you were building settings and scenarios for many adventures, on the other hand, you were creating characters and cultures. Still, you had the freedom to take some of your bricks for your Bionicle sets/MOCs, enjoying the best of both worlds, which I did back in the days.
Anyway, that was an excellent video, you encapsulated my general feeling of detatchment from most of modern Lego sets. I find myself enjoying smaller, cuter sets way more, because there's just some ingenuity behind them, that same spark from the older days.
Its greatest weakness, the lore distribution, also had its strengths. Most of the time kids would have bare bones synopsis of the story through the product and visual media that they could just form their own stories while still picturing their characters as part of the main story. It also helps that the world actively encouraged and validated kids to create alternate worlds and scenarios within Bionicle, due to the whole time travel and dimension hopping that was later introduced.
It also helps that Bionicle community preserved most of the lines media for future posterity, so anyone can learn from the lore and go wild with it with their creations and stories. So many fan projects still exist and the community is going strong after decades and even after two theme cancellations.
Of course I'm loaded with nostalgia for these older sets, but my problem with the newer ones is that I wouldn't even want to play with them? Like, just imagine smashing your figures around on a set like the Monkey Kid ones. Everything's gonna break off! And you'd have to either pause and immediately re-attach the pieces, or do it later when you've completely forgotten where everything goes. What a nightmare, honestly. That's a big problem I actually had with the Star Wars sets when I still played with Lego, all the antenna and guns just kept breaking off during play. Not a fan.
I was however a fan of the Lego train sets, being a train fanatic and all. Would love to own some of them again, like 4559, but they go for a fortune these days, it sucks.
Ah, a fellow "Stare at the Temple of Anubis Set in a Magazine but Never Actually Got It" friend.
True compatriots.
Wow, this video just put all my feelings on retro lego right in my face,
I have a lot of information on this if you'd ever like to expand upon this video. It has to do with The LEGO Group letting off a lot of designers that were apart of the "golden age" in the early 2000s - 2010s. None of the original design guys stayed there despite their contract promise.
Oh I'm quite curious about this, do you have any links to articles about it or anything?
If you have any resources that you can share, please do! Would like to read about this.
For a long time, I held that my favorite LEGO set ever was 6242 Soldier's Fort - a set I enjoyed so much, I memorized the set number, that's rare. A Pirates set from 2009, this had lots of options for play around an imperial port from a jail cell, a palm tree with buried treasure, a weapons station, and a guard tower with a moving crane - and it only cost $50! Not to mention the 2 pirates and monkey who can break into the fort and thwart the guards and cannons and crocodile and escape with loot. This set packed alot of options as well as being semi-modular: you can shift around the order of the structures in multiple ways, and it was easy to see how to build more on top of it for an even larger naval force. I also enjoyed the stickers adding more life to the prison with a day counter and spider webs, or the wanted poster near the armory - I even used another Pirates set, 8396, Soldier's Arsenal, to add more flourish to the base - and LEGO didn't even advertise that combination! For $3.49, you get an extra soldier and a weapons rack that can easily integrate with the fort, or since the parts are basic enough, encourage you to build your own with more depth.
I also enjoyed 7037 Tower Raid, with a similar prison break scenario centered around a military guard tower - gee, do I have a type. Released in Fantasy Era Castle in 2008, this set offers a bunch of figures to play with, but a more limited variety even at $30, as you had a tower with 4 floors matching against a siege vehicle with battering ram. It was cool when the two models combined, but it lacked alot of unique play scenarios. Fantasy Era is my favorite Castle line as it offers a wide range of world building, some that was only *hinted* in magazines like elves and sea serpents but never built as sets - not that I can't build my own!
Nowadays, I wanna say Ninjago City or Galaxy Explorer are some of my favorite sets ever, but they do lack that "less is more" mentality that mid-2000's and earlier sets offered. They're both good sets and surprised me numerous times in building techniques, but I get less enjoyment out of them after they're built, what do they do now? They really beg me to do more with them, as well as other themes like Monkie Kid, but lately I've had a couple story ideas I wanna illustrate/photograph that aren't even about these themes, or very loose parts from them. Instead, I wanna explore more of Mars and what kind of civilization the humans and Martians can co-create. I wanna have a fantasy world fueled by music that conjures magical spells. But I also wanna expand my laid-back shore town, finally get a campground and hiking trail through nature while also being a vacation spot.
As a kid, the Paradisa sets were desirable even to the boys because of one thing they had in spades over other town sets: food. So many food pieces.
Also, I''m convinced that Time Cruisers was just LEGO's excuse to put a bunch of leftover parts into a big set. Still loved them all the same.
I'm super jelly of your pizzeria set, those are hard to find.
I miss town so much! That’s why I collected almost all of them in my adult years. 80s early 90s LEGO imo were the golden years of LEGO.
you using Lego Jar Jar to represent modern Lego was perfect!
“They got caught up with if they could add more detail, but never stopped to ask if they should.”
I’ve heard no one talk about this, because everyone talks about piece counts and price per piece but with the shift to overly detailed mocks, and axing baseplates I’m sure you’d see the ounce per dollar for sets steadily going down. The packaging has shrunk as well accordingly.
This video made me really happy, despite my lego nostalgia only going back to 2009.
You made a great point about how the simplicity of older sets was better for expansion. As an AFOL with two jobs and many additional hobbies I don’t have the time to get my “expansions” for new sets on par with the instructions. Meanwhile, I rebuilt an old castle set and added an additional floor, a dungeon, and stairwells and it came out great. I have two Lion Knight’s Castles so I can make a big expansion and baring a bridge design I got from rebrickable and altered slightly, I’ve found it difficult to expand the castle more and maintain the same quality.
Slugger's vids inadvertently got me kind of into Paradisa because as someone lucky enough to still have all the RR sets from my childhood, I started getting curious about the themes I never had any contact with back then. I swear I don't even remember Paradisa being in LEGO magazines.
I recently got a newer Ideas set and it made me think a lot about the older ones as I made it. Like everything being brick-built now? Doors, trees, whatever. I feel like there's this weird paradox where sometimes big, molded pieces are better for repurposing in future builds. Like maybe you remember the doors/doorways and printed walls used a lot in the old Harry Potter sets. Those are easy to incorporate in a new build, where the really 'detailed' brick-built doors and stonework are more integrated in their original set.
I have an old lego catalog from around 2005 ish that’s the size of the typical mid size instruction booklets at the time. All the sets in that catalog are stupid expensive now, but I keep it because of nostalgia. As for sets I loved to oogle at, it was always the space and castle themes
As someone who grew up with Bionicle I feel like the story is part of what inspired so much creativity from me. I remember taking apart my sets to build my own Toa and Matoran and Rahi and all kinds of OCs that would fit into the universe. It's even inspired my own stories that I write stuff abt and think about now. It is a different kind of creativity and but think that's neat! :)
I wish I was creative enough as a kid to come up with anything with brick tubs or more traditional themes but having that universe and story as a jumping board really helped me.
As a pacific islander, I do not find the pirate islanders offensive and I doubt any other real natives would. Its just a toy and we arent easily offended over silly little plastic men
Good to know! It was mostly a tongue and cheek joke on my end. As an outside to a culture, it can be tough to gauge if stereotypes are portrayed in bad taste or not!
What an awesome video. I grew up on 90s Technic, and I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't mention it, but I feel they have had an even bigger fall from grace than System themes. 90s Technic was full of original set ideas, ingenious functions, cool alternative builds and standard parts. It had universal sets, moving T-rexes, space shuttles, control centers, feature rich cars and trucks. Now it has devolved into soulless, overpriced licensed merchandise, designed to be built only once with an ever growing number of obscure pieces. We get 5-6 shitty looking licensed cars with the same two or three functions every year, and they can cost up to 200 bucks. They really have killed off Technic the past few years.
My cousin was really into the Technic stuff. It was so cool for being able to just create little functioning machines and gizmos out of the components, it really did feel like engineering, or a bridge between Lego and Meccano.
I've always loved how the old licenced sets like Harry Potter and Star wars still had yellow figs for the characters, so bad they had to change it to real skin color and not keep the yellow.
The nostalgia hit hard with this one. I remember flipping through those old catalogs. Town was definitely a favorite. The old big hull boats, Res Q, the 9V trains. One series I did enjoy from later was Monster Fighters, but it didn't last very long. Lego City does bring back some memories of the old though
My favorite Lego theme is Power miners, not only were they affordable when they released in 2009-2010 but they had a cohesive story along with amazing set design along with most sets encouraging and sometimes giving you instructions to combine the sets to make new super cool creations, such a good theme
I think the Lego Creator theme Captures the nature of Old Legos perfectly
I love the way the old minifigs look, the simplicity is amazing. And they peaked at the aesthetic of the old ninja sets
I was not expecting that voice to come out of that minifigure
I understand. irl usually minifigures don't talk so it can throw ya off.
I've been reading/watching rants like this in the internet since like the 2000s.
But the thing is, Lego never stopped selling packs of bricks with simple builds. We are currently living in the age of Lego classic, which is an excellent Lego theme. You buy one of those yellow boxes, get to build a couple random things and are still left with lots of bricks. If you want Lego to be about creativity, if you think the builds are too complex and too tied to existing media properties, then you should put your money where your mouth is and get these classic sets.
But it's clear that very few people are buying them. Even though they are a great deal price wise, they promote creativity, they have simple builds anyone can enjoy. Retailers don't want to fill their shelves with this when they could be filling them with Lego Star Wars. Simple as that.
And something really missing in this story is the huge crisis Lego went through during the change of the millennia. Lego almost died and it's precisely themes like Star Wars and Bionicle that allowed it to stay afloat in those difficult times.
I like some recent sets, but I mostly stick to classic and creator with the occasional 'adult' set. I would love it if Lego went back to the days of 90s space or castle or pirates or paradisa. But as long as they have a profit motive, this isn't happening.
I know it's like 7 months after this video got released, but I feel like the new Lego DreamZzz sets kind of do what you were wanting Lego to do again. Almost all of them come with alternate builds and are made to be customizable. They were released with an original TV show, but you can definitely create your own universe and build with what is given without knowing about the show.
14:50 yeah that’s how I feel about modern lego. Waaaaaay too many licensed themes. No original ones anymore.
Now on one hand I can get it. It’s strategically cheaper to license than put in a lot of work for a theme that might go bust after 1 wave. But as someone who grew up with lego in the 2000’s I still miss the days when we’d get like a new original theme every year.
I feel so spoiled growing up in the 90's... we had a new Space theme EVERY year, with a couple new sets coming out for the old ones, a new Castle theme every year or two, Pirates, and an abundance of City and aquatic theming of some sort. I loved Star Wars as a kid, but I absolutely see it as the beginning to the end of my interest in Lego as a brand.
Bionicle was always my main go to but the aftermarket have not been kind to it. From sellers who don't know or care enough to sell any of it to hyper focused collectors that buy up a ton of it to flip it for a profit. To unreasonable prices on masks that was made in the millions. To niche parts having a prominent roll in many contest winning or alt builds which just drives prices through the roof. Its not easy being a bionicle fan these days.
And I see the similar but not always the same issues with older themes. I love the older lego aesthetic but sometimes the most interesting sets cost more than most new sets
"Golden"parts even more costy..
Its not actual gold but they don't really care
This is why I never bothered collecting all the Bionicle sets and masks, mostly cause its impossible due to the unique or extremely rare contest masks. Only bothered with certain character and their upgrades, along with certain group of sets. Pretty content to get the few sets I always wanted, might get additional sockets if the ones on the sets crack, and stop there.
I shook my head *hard* wanting you to rip into the 90-Year sets. And arguably, the 60 Year of the Brick ones had a little stronger case - 5 sets with instructional builds but also encouraged to build your own models. Each set posed a phrase with a blank left open on the box, so *you*, the consumer, can fill in the blank in your own way. Every set featured things at minifigure scale, greater or lesser, and parts of castle, space, city, all colors and shapes, easy to work with and some in inventive ways. I won't forget the frog mouth made from a pirates treasure chest.
Apparently in the late 90s LEGO had made a series of boneheaded decisions at an executive level (think Galidor), and the company was on the verge of disaster when the Star Wars contract came in and saved the day. Of course this shaped every future decision and now 20+ years later LEGO is heavily reliant on licensed deals for its bread and butter lines. Having said that, there's a lot of great things being done across LEGO these days and the amount of parts, colours and variety available is astonishing, in some ways it's never been better. There have always been amazing artists and designers working for the company even if the company itself is (like most of them) run by boneheads so the art succeeds in spite of commerce. But yeah there's a simplistic charm to old LEGO where they had far far fewer pieces and techniques and colours to work with. Just look at those old LEGO catalogues, they were a work of art in themselves, I used to collect them and spend hours dreaming of owning all those sets...
12:14 I too would stare at catalog images of these sets, and even nowadays I know there's a limited baseplate to house its functions, as a kid it was a world of possibilities. The set 2996 Lost Tomb always made me wonder if there was more than meets the eye, and while I learned later that it was a facade, I easily can adapt it into one of these other sets as a full tomb just like in the real Egyptian pyramids with branching passageways.
I feel like the recent lunar mission subtheme (which is under City for some reason incomprehensible to me) is really good and sorta recaptures that reconfigurable aspect of the 90s sets. Like 60350 and 60349 and 60348 and all those. I think that does a pretty good job of recapturing the "themed, but also build your own" vibe of things like Rock Raiders or Insectoids or what-have-you
this is exactly the video i needed to get my partners into lego, amazing analysis!
also dont let weird people in the comments gaslight you, your voice is really pretty as is!
I used to play with legos a lot as a kid but what I had the most fun with was the bin of legos at the after school boys & girls club. So many scattered sets. I can at least remember fragments of space and ice planet being mixed in there.
Lego City Missions 60354, is one of my favorites from 2022, to me, it feels a lot like older sets. Only has instructions for the main chassis then the rest is up to you how to build. To me the set is a call back and returns to Lego's roots. You should check it out.
I really loved Rock Raiders and Life on Mars, they still have the best aliens to date. Much better than Mars Mission ever did
YESSSS
you know rr slugger is good when 3 separate people on youtube have told their audience to go check him out
3? Who are the other two?
Your lil avatar is too cute, and the way you went through the timeline of Lego and all the old, nostalgic theme's that a lot of us weren't even around to experience was so nice and well done 😌
90's lego had a lot of iconic themes. I'ds love to see new or re-imagined sets within these classic themes.
There's a lot of focus on novelty but some ideas are timeless like the bricks themselves
I couldn’t agree with your take on lego any more. RR slugger catching fire out here
Haha yes the R.R. Slugger cult is spreading
Great trip Down memory lane.
Lego Agents was my all time favorite theme growing up, I feel like themes from that era (Agents, Power Miner, space police) were in the perfect crossroads between retro lego and modern lego; they have a lot of the open ended structure and color palates of classic lego with the character and detail-oriented builds of today. Being able to come up with scenarios for my agents to act out was a joy, and I hope that lego can go back to finding that balance in their toy line
Trans-neon pieces for lasers were amazing.
Ogel such a cool villain. Like captain Nemo
Your lego avatar is adorable
My parents started me on stuff like Aquazone, Ninja, and the wild west themes. I kinda miss those old toys, because they *were* truly a little more generic and flexible in how you built and played. Any theme “lore” was the sort of thing you could write on the back of a postcard at most, and springboard ideas from there.
Nowadays it feels like themes need to be licensed IP-related or a whole milkable multimedia phenomenon (lookin’ at you Ninjago), which feels constraining. There was a sort of joy in the earlier, looser themes that they only occasionally recapture.
But eh, maybe I’m just being nostalgic. I’m sure kids love the new stuff just fine.
I remember this conversation with my dad while writing our Christmas letter at like five years old:
"So what do you want as a Christmas gift?"
"I want the LEGO police station!"
"And what if Santa doesn't have it?"
"Then I want the LEGO fire station!"
My favorite Lego set as a kid was the black seas barracuda. I stared at that set for 3 years in the Lego catalogs, begging for it, and letting it be known that it was the only thing that I wanted for my birthday or Christmas. And after three years, I got it!
I remember gushing over the 90s space sets in the catalogue, and then for my 4th birthday I actually got that black and red robot. I wanted the castle sets of the time badly too but my parents couldn't afford them. Then some years later I got the big one out of fright knights. Played with that thing so much.
I recognize so many scattered sets throughout the video, and some I actually own myself and played to death with as a kid, knowing every nook and cranny inside out. It's sort of etched into my memory, good memories.
I definitely agree how the older sets seemed much more possible to add to. These newer sets are so detailed that it’s honestly hard to add stuff that looks cohesive with everything. The most I did when I was younger was add more guns and weapons to my Star Wars ships (specifically my republic gunship). I was into the early ninjago and was really into Bionicle but I was still really young when they came out and had a love for it once it was discontinued. Hero factory was also my jam but mainly because Bionicle wasn’t around lol.
This is a long comment but stick with me if you can. I'd arguably say that the 2000's is *almost* just as good as the 1990's. Sure the original themes were often more specific, but you still got creative stuff like Bionicle, Exo Force, Space Police, Power Miners, and so on to make up for how imaginative they can be. Bionicle being huge wasn't an accident, it was so unique that it normally ditched the whole "Lego" branding on it for the marketing altogether. Yes it had a lot of stories and characters, but it also incentivized creativity like with alternate builds and combination models, most of which don't even have any significance in the story. For me, in my opinion, Lego truly died when they cancelled it. They didn't and still don't see it as a massive essential part that helped prove their worth, they instead treated it as a thing that was only there as a backup and got rid of it as soon as they could. I might be a bit pessimistic about this, but I genuinely think they only made G2 as an attempt to further damage that brand and prevent it from truly coming back again. They couldn't have made it more barebones and lacking of advertising even if they tried. It's pretty sinister really, taking what people loved and making it just worse enough with barely anyone noticing to the point of possibly keeping it in obscurity forever. They didn't *have* to do this either, they could've brought it back to its prime like they did with Ninjago not long after, but let's be real, Ninjago was only able to get away with it because it was already simpler to get away with. A lot more people would've noticed Bionicle getting worse in quality and it especially showed for 2016. Bionicle just isn't fit for their modern business model of succeeding with desperation anymore, so they intentionally killed it.
Another thing that bothers me about modern Lego is how corporate everything feels. Gone are the whimsical designs that a child could easily come up with, only brands that are mostly replicated from cinema. Star Wars and Harry Potter might work fine since they are are already mysterious enough to fit with the core practices, and they did, but what is there to say about Marvel? DC? Ghostbusters? The Simpsons? Stranger Things? Hell a lot of it isn't even specifically meant for kids, or at least not with the same creativity mindset. It's not like they *can't* introduce brands that are already creative either, Minecraft is at least a decent example, especially given the theming of blocks. Or how about this: Where's The Amazing World of Gumball? No seriously, where is it? You're telling me that Lego is perfectly fine on making multiple minifigures for other shows many people do not like such as Teen Titans GO!, Powerpuff Girls 2016, and Adventure Time in Lego Dimensions, but not even one single figure on CN's most popular and well received show of all time? It infuriates me too because those two are a *perfect* fit for each other! Literally the main premise of that show is mixing together all sorts of animation styles together with main characters, who are kids btw, trying to do their best in their crazy world. How is that *not* prime material for a Lego line? I bet you we could even get some original sets out of that and it wouldn't be out of place. Mostly simplistic yet wacky sets as a kind of Time Cruisers spiritual successor? Now *THAT* is something I would be interested in! It just blows my mind how incompetent both companies are and not understanding what makes them special. And Gumball is just *one* example. How about LittleBigPlanet, that's another. It isn't just good looking sets or animation that propels something forward, it's the charming settings, the well written characters with enough room left to explore more in the future, the subtlety in some things that remain unanswered, the expansiveness of it all, etc. etc. So much of this needs to be taken into account when making something good, and when it is? By God it is glorious. Even all these years later fans old and new are still talking about stuff like Bionicle and Rock Raiders. Is there anyone talking about something like Hero Factory or Chima still? Barely.
Sadly this line of thinking is gone with most other companies too, even other toy brands. Remember Highway 35 World Race and Acceleracers? Good luck seeing anything like that happening for Hot Wheels ever again, as a matter of fact it got cancelled because it was *too* successful. Remember the simple intricacies of feel good stories from modeled Thomas & Friends episodes? What it is now is not even close to what it resembled before even by the CGI era. What about Transformers? Nope, the last things of note they made is the Cybertron game, and now they are tryin to erase them from history with no one to legally play them and nothing captivating or morally questioning whatsoever. So much of the toy industry is like this now. They don't think kids can learn anything meaningful out of them anymore, they just think all of them are stupid, which is an insult to kids because there are indeed some out there that are smarter than most people would give them credit for. And again this doesn't just apply to toys, even *Pixar* is now guilty of this, which used to have some of the highest praised films ever made.
The truth is that companies now hate it when something is successful and praised for its creativity because it challenges the worth of everything else they have. They want to sell multiple things, not one good thing, no matter how much money it makes. It's no secret that CN has tried to kill Gumball multiple times and is only still around because it's where most of their essential profits come from. The moment they let the creators of that go is the day that CN is completely toast. Lego and Hot Wheels were only able to get rid of what they can because they had enough wiggle room and knew that they didn't need them anymore since the toy landscape can easily change significantly, after all, they're just toys right? Why should a parent care if little Timmy over there doesn't like an expensive toy they bought him and thinks it's stupid? They're just uninterested kids after all. Surely there is absolutely nothing to worry about…
At the end of the day, we all now that Lego is never going to be as good as they used to be. They were good back then because they *tried* very hard to make an impression. Same goes to Disney with their renaissance, or Nintendo with the N64 and GameCube. Once they got all the fortune they could ever need though, they don't need to worry about their stuff nearly as much as they used to. Oh sure we might get some rare diamonds here and there, but more often than not they were only able to slip through the cracks briefly and are around for such a short amount of time. It's why I'm a much bigger fan of supporting personal and indie creations now, lest you want to doom them to copyright hell and obscurity forever like with Making Fiends. I know it's easier said than done, but I'd prefer to *not* support big companies whenever possible or when I feel it's appropriate, even if it means piracy. Money is the joy thing that matters to them, so I am trying to not give them any to send that message accordingly. Of course many people will be ignorant of this and even overly defensive, but it's the only way they would listen, and it's the morally correct thing to do. If *I* no longer bought any newer Legos for many years now, so can you. I haven't bought any newer sets since 2016 and I do not regret it. If you still want to buy Legos though, just go for older ones or use sites like Bricklink to get parts for other things like MOCs. Yes you'd still be supporting Lego that way, but at least you'd let them know you're buying something you actually want. I'd even dare say that there should be no shame in some custom parts and molds/colors/prints/stickers when needed, but maybe that's just me. You know, like what some Bionicle fans are doing. You can't deny that a lot of it is good stuff.
*Sorry for the gigantic mountain of text. I don't know why I care so much about this. Lol*
So I grew up almost exclusively with licensed themes. I still have a couple sets built up from the 2011 Harry Potter and 2012 Lord of the Rings waves. I absolutely adored building the models and getting to reenact/imagine scenes with characters I love. That new Rivendell set has exquisite detail. But, I don't think I could justify paying that much for what will likely be a display piece. I have grown to appreciate a lot of the original themes as I've gotten older. I was not confident enough to experiment and build things after elementary school. So, I've missed out on why Lego is special, and hearing people gush about the creative freedom they had makes me want to explore myself.
The city theme was my favourite, as a kid I got a fire station and a F1 pitstop, I really loved how simple the sets were because it'd let your imagination personalize the set as you wanted, even if you were a kid. I always wanted to build a full city but yeah, money.
Modern sets look cool, honestly impressed by some of the sets shown in this video, like the monkie kids ones. But at the same time they feel too busy and leave little room for imagination.
Also I'm a fan of studs showing in buildings instead of flat and detailed surfaces.
Lego Paradisa - memory unlocked! I had Seaside Cabana and it had that perfectly Golden Girls palette to me. It also just fit perfectly into the canon I had for my Lego - above water from Aquazone and the seaside of Town proper. Dang Bellville was a bummer.
that Lego Island soundtrack is fire
I didn’t grow up with Lego wasn’t allowed it because of some weird reasons I can’t remember but now I’m 22 and have adult money I buy a crazy amount of Lego ! Started building my own city recently, plan on adding classic sets to it even bought a classic space set from the 80s ! Catching up on lost time I guess anyway absolutely loved this video!
Never to late to build😀👍
Wow that intro literally defines me as an individual lol. Went to Legoland a couple of weeks ago with the family and it reignited my interest in legos. Made me want to buy some of the old sets I grew up with and display them in my office. After seeing how expensive they were I thought “well maybe the newer sets will be cheaper”. Only to realize that anything Lego new or old is ridiculously expensive. Just kinda of sucks as anyone getting into the hobby now can’t even afford it. I agree with this whole video. The older sets have a feeling like you can add more to them while the new sets while cool looking don’t have that same vibe about them.
Dude lego is gonna be my forever fixation that's for sure. I love the knights sets and making a kingdom atm
Also, i have the fire breathing fortress 😎
I had some lego sets, most of them were technic cars and lego city ones, I love these ; althought I definitely get a stronger feeling of nostalgia when I look at hotwheels or majorette, its less expensive and its way easier to find your dream car, so you can make a collection about any theme and honestly they are no limits when you learn how to customize them
I think you hit the nail on the head. With the newer sets is quite difficult to add something of your own imagination.
Also ♥for giving Basil a shoutout.
Being a 2000's baby, the bionical sets always held a place in my heart, not only because they were cool action figures, but it always felt like there was more than I could understand about the lore and the setting itself that made me feel like I was only scratching the surface of it that I could never fully understand.
0:26 Dude not even 30 seconds in, and I already went bonkers seeing a Godzilla figure.
I mostly agree. When I was little, I used take a part all the sets and make them into my own build. These days, sets are details with lot of small pieces. It is hard to take apart, and create something about of the vast amount of different pieces are hard even for adult, let alone kids. I still like Lego, but it doesn't feel the same as how I remembered as a child.
I think my favourite set when I was younger was the forest hideout. Treehouses are just so cool. And the swingy rope thing - amazing. Not to mention the Robin Hood link. Pirates stuff was cool too.
If you wanna play the Rock Raiders game there is an Awesome fan remake of it called Manic Miners
I remember being part of LEGO Club Magazine back in the genesis of Bionicle and getting more of the story every month. Then EXO-FORCE dropped and when the Mobile Devastator hit the cover, I immediately fell in love with the set. I would bring the magazine to school with me every day for months just so I could look at it in my free time and hoped my parents would at some point get it for me. Great vid, I really enjoyed it
I cackled aloud when you said ✨️Johnny Thunderrrrrr✨️
I used to look at those lego books that had all the sets for a theme with them for hours upon hours imaging how I would play with them and stuff, I had the first book for lego starwars, and ninjago. Also very cool video
I had (still have) a bunch of the classic space theme sets from my childhood and a few of the town sets, I've been piecing them back together slowly (replacing lost pieces and such). I always loved the feel of the classic sets, very Space: 1999 meets 2001 A Space Odyssey, I'm really impressed with what they managed to do with that line without resorting to the generic "Good Guy vs. Bad Guy" trope that was standard in toys then.
Alternative word to battlements, "Crenellations." I find it a more fun word to say
EDIT: Oooh, favorite sets... Well, I know as an adult I am constantly kicking myself for not being interested in Life on Mars as a kid, that theme rocks! But I also know that I had a few sets that contributed a bit to the problem we have today of LEGO being a middle man merchandizing company. I was and still in some ways am big into Star Wars, and when I was younger I ended up with a few really good Star Wars sets. I recall having an MTT and a hailfire droid... As it stands, what I wouldn't give to have LEGO go back to making things targeted toward kids imaginations. You're absolutely right that their modern sets are definitely more design pieces, but what LEGO needs is to go back to printing a new piece every 5 minutes because they need a whacky shape on a budget. Guard rails, molded base plates, that one car chassis from adventurers, the whole lot! I'd kill for a new space theme in the old, classic way that LEGO used to make things...
shame the space theme will never come to appear for a long while, star wars is too big
Good Video! I wasn't born at the right time for these sets, but I did see them all the time in the lego books, and also really wanted them in a time where I could not comprehend how to get them since they were not on store shelves.
I actually grew up with a lot of classic sets my dad got when he was a kid, he threw them all in one big grey bin mixed and told me and my sister to have at it.