Anthropunk (Dr. SA Applin)I'm about halfway through making the #LEGO Christmas wreath and i'm not loving it at all. It's weird. Some builds are really fun, and I loved the wildflowers, but this is so tedious and repetitive over and over. I suspect while there is an alternate tabletop decoration variation, I will probably never build this again once I'm done. VIsually, it's great. Labor is a strong "not fun" ranking from me.
Joanna Bryson, blathering@anthropunk Interesting. LEGO has been trying to figure out for a while why kids stopped really playing with LEGO like we did in the 60s and 70s, and just building it like a model than leaving it on the shelf. I guess it's some kind of capitalism fail that in making the package look more appealing, they made the toy less fun. Would you have bought the same number of bricks for the same price without the meticulous instructions?
Tristan Henderson@j2bryson @anthropunk I don't know why LEGO would be surprised by this as it seems deliberate on their part. As a parent it is almost impossible to find generic boxes of LEGO bricks in toy shops - everything is Harry Potter/Marvel/Minecraft/cars etc.
@tnhh @anthropunk For a while, specifically LEGO stores did have bins of bricks you could scoop out of like a candy store. Has that ended?
@j2bryson I never had LEGO as a kid, only blocks, and I preferred the free form play. LEGO forces one down a type of algorithmic path. As an adult, I like the kits because I can just turn off a bit ... so no. Loose bricks would not be fun to me at all.
Sturns@j2bryson @anthropunk When I bought Lego it was a pile of bricks in a bucket along with my imagination making anything I wanted. Now you buy a really specific model, build that like a jigsaw puzzle and move on. Kids aren’t encouraged to use initiative to build.
eviloatmeal, resident Death Stranding 2 apologist (arch, btw)@j2bryson @anthropunk I feel like part of it is because LEGO back then was like this, and LEGO now is much more like this, and there's just less of a focus on playing. By catering to older customers who are more interested in building, they've grown that part of their demographic.
Obviously this is an exaggerated example. But maybe this is a little bit of the reason.
Obviously this is an exaggerated example. But maybe this is a little bit of the reason.
@eviloatmeal https://mastodon.social/@j2bryson/116064321395905732 ps in the 1960s, there were just special kits for houses and trains, we had train track! but nothing nearly as specific as your "before" and no pictures on the boxes iirc btbh the boxes didn't last long, it was all buckets.