[HN Gopher] How Lego Became the Apple of Toys (2015)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       How Lego Became the Apple of Toys (2015)
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 63 points
       Date   : 2024-02-04 09:46 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.fastcompany.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.fastcompany.com)
        
       | cptaj wrote:
       | http://www.brick4.com/
        
         | berkes wrote:
         | Not sure if this is yours, but if so: Firefox (android) and
         | Chrome (android) refuse to load the site. Probably due to
         | missing SSL.
        
           | unleaded wrote:
           | You have to use HTTP for some reason. It's a database of
           | Chinese lego clones, I've seen it before. Chinese lego is
           | awesome, it's often cheaper than real Lego and there's lots
           | of original sets including things that lego won't make (like
           | tanks and stuff, think I saw a strip club set once). But
           | there are clones of real lego sets too, whether that bothers
           | you is up to you. Check out r/lepin for more
        
             | cuddlyogre wrote:
             | You definitely pay for quality too.
             | 
             | Chinese building blocks vary wildly in terms of clutch
             | power and overall precision. But if all you're looking for
             | is something to display and not ever touch again, it's
             | probably the best way to go.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Apple going against general purpose computing makes it more like
       | Playmobil, where construction options are limited compared to
       | LEGO.
       | 
       | The versatility of Linux and the original x86 platform with its
       | openness is more like LEGO in spirit.
        
         | dartos wrote:
         | I think they're talking more about market positioning then the
         | technical spirit of the product
        
       | flax wrote:
       | Until I have to jailbreak my bricks to make my own designs, Lego
       | is nothing like Apple.
        
       | myspy wrote:
       | Interesting to read this now. Lego was in a very good position
       | during that time. But in the last years they declined in quality
       | (bad prints, a lot of stickers on AFOL sets), increased the
       | prices and the lack in building fun of the sets. Lots of catering
       | to grown-ups and weird choices in the kids section like the city
       | road elements.
       | 
       | The mixed reality sets were not well received. Why give a kid
       | something to do with Lego bricks and then pull them in front of a
       | smartphone again?
        
       | kleiba wrote:
       | Lego is still quite amazing but not quite as cool as it used to
       | be. I suppose the various boxes were always meant to be such that
       | you could build that one really cool building/vehicle/etc. with
       | it. Sometimes with a predesigned variation, too.
       | 
       | But today it seems that the purpose of most boxes is to do _only_
       | that - and then, what, put the object into a display case? Or,
       | more likely, play with it for a while and then forget about it.
       | 
       | What I mean is that even though today's lego boxes let you build
       | way more realistic and designy products, there are so many
       | special pieces that it does not spark your own creative fantasy
       | (in my opinion) but _limits_ it. To me, as a child, the appeal
       | was always that there was quite a limited set of brick types -
       | and the creativity lay in combining them in new ways.
       | 
       | In comparison, the number and types of different pieces seems to
       | have doubled or tripled today. By implication that means that you
       | end with a few instances of many different types of pieces while
       | before, you'd have many instances of a few types of pieces. I'd
       | argue that the latter lends itself much better to creating new
       | things born out of your own creativity.
        
         | pdpi wrote:
         | > there are so many special pieces that it does not spark your
         | own creative fantasy (in my opinion) but limits it.
         | 
         | Those pieces aren't anywhere near as limiting as you think. The
         | Saturn V model uses the 64951 tub/barrel pieces as thruster
         | nozzles. The LEM uses the 64644 telescope/spyglass piece for
         | the legs. That's the immediately visible bits in the model I
         | have handy, I remember seeing a bunch more of those on my
         | friend's Millennium Falcon, and just in general.
        
           | unfunco wrote:
           | The 31129 Majestic Tiger uses a 1x1 pink flower plate as a
           | butthole.
        
             | doctoboggan wrote:
             | In thought you were joking but I looked it up and this is
             | 100% true. I applaud their commitment to anatomical
             | correctness.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Ok, so maybe LEGO is becoming more like Apple. Apple is going
         | against general purpose computing, and LEGO is now going
         | against general purpose construction.
        
         | dsr_ wrote:
         | That's on you, I'm afraid. If you buy the big boxes of pieces,
         | you can be just as limited as you want to be.
        
         | globalise83 wrote:
         | You are right, there is a fine balance between just enough
         | variety to be able to achieve your vision without leaving
         | Minecraft-style jagged edges and too much variety and
         | specialisation so that you cannot build anything novel at all.
         | But we also live in a time where you can easily buy boxloads of
         | generic Lego bricks second-hand (some of it probably 20 or more
         | years old) for almost nothing at yard sales or on a local buy-
         | and-sell website. Lego bricks are good for 2 or 3 generations
         | of children.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | I've seen this sentiment time and time again, but careful
         | examination of the actual pieces and sets, _excluding the
         | obviously marketed to adults sets_ shows them just as
         | adjustable and combinable as I remember them being _when given
         | to kids_.
         | 
         |  _My_ ability to see what is latent and possible in the pile
         | has decreased, but my kids have what seems to me to be quite
         | the same amount of fun I did when I ways young.
         | 
         | There's even now an entire Lego line dedicated to "3 in 1"
         | where the parts have three possible buildouts:
         | https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/creator-3-in-1
         | 
         | My pirate ship never came with alternate models _with
         | instructions_ https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/pirate-
         | ship-31109 though some of the sets would have an alternate
         | model or two pictured on the box.
        
           | jhbadger wrote:
           | This depends on your age. I think you were playing with Lego
           | in the 1980s or 1990s when there was theming like pirates and
           | what not. I had Lego in the 1970s. We really just had sets
           | with square/rectangular blocks of various sizes and a few
           | special parts like windows and doors. We didn't even have
           | minifigs. But I get why Lego changed -- you only need to sell
           | one or two generic sets and the kid has enough legos for
           | life. If you add theming then suddenly there's space lego,
           | pirate lego, etc. and then the kid wants a new set every
           | Christmas and birthday.
        
             | rufus_foreman wrote:
             | >> We really just had sets with square/rectangular blocks
             | of various sizes and a few special parts like windows and
             | doors
             | 
             | Same here. For me, they were stored in the same large bag
             | as the Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, Hot Wheels, and green
             | plastic army men.
             | 
             | Which allowed you to realistically portray such common
             | situations as "infantryman, flamethrower, and radio man
             | hide behind giant plastic multi-colored wall while
             | preparing to assault Porsche 917 garaged in a log cabin".
        
         | jltsiren wrote:
         | That trend has been going on a decades. When I was a kid in the
         | late 80s, I always grabbed the annual Lego catalog from the
         | local toy store. Every year, there were more and more big
         | colorful special-purpose parts that were required to build that
         | one cool object. But there were never enough of them in the
         | boxes to really use them in my own designs.
        
         | tda wrote:
         | And it is not only the variety of pieces, but also that the
         | number of colors has exploded. Lego is becoming more like
         | Playmobil, with the advantage that you have extra fun putting
         | your sets together, and with the disadvantage that they will
         | disintegrate and be hard to put together again.
         | 
         | I find myself "helping" my kids keep their built sets whole
         | after playing with them, as once the sets become pieces it is
         | too tedious/frustrating for the kids to find all the pieces to
         | put them back together again amongst the pile. Also because the
         | manuals are very much step by step, it is very clear what piece
         | you need for the next 1 step, but not what you need for the
         | next 10 steps. So searching ahead is not so easy for the kids.
         | 
         | But regardless of all my opinions, the kids are huge fans of
         | lego. I have also noticed that as the sets are much larger, it
         | is quite nice to buy a set second hand, build it once and then
         | sell it again. I found out there are even people renting out
         | the top sets for like 10EUR/week. So these sets are more like
         | puzzles to me, where the joy is in building them. Such a
         | contrast with when I was a kid; I never kept my sets built, I
         | was always building my own designs.
         | 
         | Recently my kids got something called plusplus. A 3d building
         | block where all blocks are identical (shaped like ++) and in
         | limited colors. They were having fun building their own designs
         | from the start. Limitations really spark creativity
        
         | dangus wrote:
         | Nah dude, you are plain wrong. The truth is that Lego has so
         | much variety, they make an experience for everyone.
         | 
         | They have sets with multiple builds and more flexibility.
         | They've got stuff for adults who want a pretty object in their
         | house that they built. They have Lego Friends for the girly
         | girls. They have every licensed property imaginable for people
         | who are into that. They have Minecraft which has more build
         | flexibility of being voxel themed in the first place. They sell
         | classic bins with assorted parts. They have Duplo for toddlers.
         | They have train sets for train people. They have roller
         | coasters and "fast" sets. They have a robot/programming
         | product. They have construction and technic. They have car sets
         | for people who like model cars. They have city and creator sets
         | for people who like to build realistic model towns and worlds.
         | They have space and aviation stuff. They have products created
         | by fans that are voted on by their fans. They have a custom
         | model set builder.
         | 
         | They literally make everything. You can get whatever experience
         | you want, including all the old experiences.
        
         | irrational wrote:
         | My son gets the sets, builds the one thing, then starts heavily
         | modifying it. Eventually pieces from other sets will be
         | incorporated into this set and it into other sets and
         | eventually the Death Star has become a castle. So, it's more of
         | a mindset thing than a LEGO thing. If you insist that the one
         | thing is all the set can become, that is fine, but it can also
         | become many other things if you let it go.
        
         | agumonkey wrote:
         | I'll make a weird analogy, i feel the same about modern games.
         | The old limitations gave a different feel to the incredibly
         | realistic rendering of today. Even when styled.. it's not the
         | same.
         | 
         | I like the groove of simple blockiness and a few dedicated
         | parts.
        
         | ygra wrote:
         | I've stumbled over Rebrickable recently where you can enter a
         | LEGO set number and get alternative models (MOCs) and build
         | instructions for them (among other usages). For my children
         | there is lots of fun in taking apart the car again and building
         | a plane from the same parts. This also has the benefit of
         | keeping the sets together (for now), so the original
         | instructions can still be used without having to hunt for two
         | 1x1 tile rounded in dark blueish gray in one of the two big
         | boxes of parts.
         | 
         | It varies by set/model. Some of them are built and then played
         | with, some are built, razed, built differently, demolished
         | again. Some are built and then put on display. The pieces, even
         | the specialized ones, are rarely the problem in building
         | something completely different from what I can observe. They
         | are, however, a problem when you have to find them again if you
         | want to build the original model.
        
       | loughnane wrote:
       | I like lego, but the magic that made them what they are is
       | waning. The capitalized big on partnerships with entertainment
       | brands, but that's feeling played out. When parents pick up gifts
       | for birthday parties they'll get lego star wars or lego ninjago
       | gifts because the birthday boy is into star wars or ninjago, lego
       | is secondary.
       | 
       | Lego is still great, but their lack of emphasis on the creativity
       | that has been the promise of lego for decades---think this
       | ad[0]---has been making them less great each year.
       | 
       | [0]
       | https://i.pinimg.com/originals/71/ea/f1/71eaf11fd3ade672821b...
        
         | Apocryphon wrote:
         | What happened with Legos?
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVCOAFKjaoY
        
           | racl101 wrote:
           | lol. OK, that's hilarious. Is that Community TV show any
           | good?
        
             | RandallBrown wrote:
             | It's one of my favorite shows ever.
        
         | hgomersall wrote:
         | I'm pretty sure Ninjago was invented precisely to sell more
         | Lego.
        
         | travisjungroth wrote:
         | > but that's feeling played out
         | 
         | It gets played out for adults. There's a new crop of kids every
         | year, and all the time their interests are changing.
        
       | roomey wrote:
       | Oh my god, do people commenting here not realise it is they who
       | are getting older, less cool, less creative?
       | 
       | Oh back in my day we had 10 Lego bricks and we were _greatful_
       | because of it!
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | This is mainly it - though I do remember as a kid having "The
         | Collection" was always important - your little pile of "special
         | bricks" like headlight bricks, anything printed, etc, that were
         | "rare" and you'd want.
        
         | default-kramer wrote:
         | Having fewer bricks could be considered a feature. There are
         | definitely situations in which more constraints can increase
         | creativity and happiness. For a long time, I preferred Dragon
         | Quest Builders 1 (a Minecraft-style game) over its sequel for
         | this reason. It's not unreasonable for people to be overwhelmed
         | or put off by the tremendous variety of Lego available today.
        
       | Dig1t wrote:
       | There are a few "Apple of X industry" companies out there, I
       | think it's pretty interesting that you can generalize the things
       | that make them what they are.
       | 
       | Disney is the Apple of movies.
       | 
       | Nintendo is the Apple of video games.
       | 
       | They are usually the types of companies that tightly control
       | almost all of their product, are at a premium price point, and
       | have an "elevated" sort of brand recognition.
       | 
       | For example Nintendo is intent on tightly controlling their
       | product experience. They use boring tech in creative ways and
       | charge a premium for their content.
       | 
       | Disney is the same, they are the only theme parks with imagineers
       | that custom make all the rides and experiences in their parks,
       | they make their own software for the most part, and tightly
       | control how their characters are used, etc etc
       | 
       | The biggest takeaway is that the companies have an intense focus
       | on the quality of their product and that makes them the longest
       | lasting and most elevated brands.
       | 
       | LEGO belongs in this group because they have a similar focus on
       | quality I think. At least WRT their toys. I don't care much for
       | their theme parks..
        
         | hospitalJail wrote:
         | Its interesting, you find quality with these brands.
         | 
         | I'm certain these brands advertise they have quality, but I
         | think they fall far short of the competition constantly.
         | Nintendo? Disney? Apple? When I think of their actual quality
         | compared to the best in the business you are talking B-
         | quality.
         | 
         | Sure you never get a C or a D like when I get a random Android
         | phone for $100, but you are never going to get a Baulders Gate
         | 3 from Nintendo.
         | 
         | Although now that you mention it, all of these brands have
         | total fanatics that border on cult worship. I wonder if this is
         | natural, or some unethical psychology their marketing
         | departments use.
        
           | smugglerFlynn wrote:
           | > compared to the best in the business
           | 
           | Huh? They _are_ among the best. Disney is among Big 5 major
           | movie studios. Lego is top 4 toy companies, largest by
           | revenue among them. Apple is top-3 company in the world by
           | market cap.
           | 
           | Quality is very subjective, but the fact that you personally
           | prefer Baulders Gate to Mario just shows that Nintendo plays
           | it in a different niche, not that latter is somehow
           | objectively worse / has less quality than the former.
           | 
           | In my opinion, what sums up all these companies are the
           | _things they don't do_ :                 - they don't focus
           | on "power users" or similar niche segments, unless these
           | segments gain enough popularity       - they don't cater to
           | cheaper segments of mass market       - they don't build
           | their business models around copying competitors       - they
           | don't delegate or outsource critical pieces of their value
           | chain
           | 
           | This is what leads to unique and pricey products that
           | sometimes polarize general public. (Although personally I'd
           | narrow Disney down to only Pixar in OPs list, due to Disney's
           | poor fit with #3 and #4).
        
           | Dig1t wrote:
           | I don't agree that it's just marketing. I'm not saying their
           | products are perfect, they certainly have flaws. But the
           | maniacal focus on quality is palpable in their products.
           | 
           | Play a Nintendo game start to finish, you will be very hard
           | pressed to find ANY bugs or glitches. Like you have to hunt
           | really hard to try to find them, they are usually an
           | extremely polished experience. The same cannot be said for
           | most other developers. I LOVE BG3, but it's certainly not as
           | bug-free as a Nintendo game. Same with their hardware +
           | system software, it never crashes, and has a very controlled
           | "walled garden" feel.
           | 
           | There's a reason people use the term "Disney-quality
           | animation". Because it's extremely polished and looks miles
           | better than the competition. Watch the Family Guy episode
           | where the drew part of the episode in Disney style and you
           | can see the difference in action.
        
             | cuddlyogre wrote:
             | > Because it's extremely polished and looks miles better
             | than the competition.
             | 
             | Disney's animation style is sterile and formulaic. It's to
             | the point of uncanny valley and overacting.
             | 
             | There's something to be said about how animation with tiny
             | imperfections and errors improves the experience. Your
             | brain is more ready to accept that it's seeing something
             | fake rather than something failing to be real.
        
       | sbecker wrote:
       | Just to provide some counterpoint to the echo chamber here - as a
       | Dad of a six year old who played with legos as a kid and again
       | now, I can affirm - Legos and the sets they put out now are way
       | cooler now than when I was a kid!
       | 
       | You might worry that the less general purpose, specialized pieces
       | might stunt creativity, but guess what!? The 6 year old has no
       | problem taking them completely apart and building something off
       | script.
       | 
       | It's the olds who worry about keeping them all together and not
       | losing the pieces so they can still make the thing on the front
       | of the box. The kids don't care and will happily take it all
       | apart and build things we never would have thought of.
        
         | jansan wrote:
         | Having two teenage boys I cannot confirm this. They play with
         | other stuff, but Lego is for building once and putting it on a
         | shelf, where it will collect thick layers of dust. My sons
         | never really played with Lego, which I found a bit
         | disappointing.
        
           | Navarr wrote:
           | I wouldn't say that it stifles creativity, but expands LEGO
           | to people who don't want to be creative with it.
           | 
           | You can treat it as a fun 3D Puzzle with step-by-step, or you
           | can do whatever you want with it.
           | 
           | Neither way is particularly "wrong"
        
             | jansan wrote:
             | It is not wrong, but it does not force the kids to be
             | creative in a way it used to.
             | 
             | I would rather buy some wooden trains and rails if my kids
             | where young now.
        
               | w0m wrote:
               | you can always buy generic builder-part sets; they still
               | sell them. Simply don't buy the overpriced kits.
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | You're free to take them apart and start making stuff with
           | them. I'm pretty sure your kids would join in, mine certainly
           | did. Sets should not be seen as holy and giving them a
           | prominent display spot may be the wrong thing to do. For a
           | week, sure, after that it's parts :)
        
             | pbhjpbhj wrote:
             | Oh no my friend, this is not allowed - "Dad, don't touch
             | it; why did you add that piece; you're ruining it" "but
             | you're not using it, it was just sitting on the shelf...".
             | 
             | There's definitely a strong divergence. In part, for us I
             | think it's driven by poverty, they want "the nice thing" to
             | look at (all our own models are necessarily colour-
             | mismatched). But I know others who have rooms full of
             | prestige sets that are 'not to be touched'!
             | 
             | Many on HN will be tinkerers who will take anything apart,
             | that probably makes a difference too.
        
         | dudul wrote:
         | The new sets are more complex and detailed, _but_ god do I hate
         | the franchised sets. Nothing kills kids creativity more than
         | that. It 's not a pirate ship, it is Jack Sparrow's pirate
         | ship. It's not a spaceship, it's Luke Skywalker's spaceship!
         | 
         | Additionally, the quality of parts has seriously decreased
         | since the 80s and 90s.
        
           | yreg wrote:
           | > Nothing kills kids creativity more than that. It's not a
           | pirate ship, it is Jack Sparrow's pirate ship. It's not a
           | spaceship, it's Luke Skywalker's spaceship!
           | 
           | Why do you think so? I had a Hogwarts Express set and most of
           | the time I didn't pretend for it to be the Hogwarts Express
           | when playing.
        
             | dudul wrote:
             | Good for you. That's a data set of 1.
             | 
             | I based that on empirical observation of my kids' friends.
             | They don't make up stories, they just replay the star wars
             | or Harry Potter movies. So I don't know, a dozen kids or
             | so. I haven't done a nation wide study yet.
        
           | rvba wrote:
           | The "ecological" parts are no longer bulletproof. What is not
           | ecological, but I guess they want you to throw away bricks
           | and buy new ones.
        
             | dudul wrote:
             | I don't know, they have a service online to order
             | replacements for lost or broken pieces for free. I use it 2
             | or 3 times a year, they never question it and just ship the
             | pieces.
        
             | yreg wrote:
             | No one in their right mind throws away lego.
        
         | dragoncrab wrote:
         | Totally agree.
         | 
         | I always cry on the inside when I see those beautifully
         | designed, symmetrical, detailed sets taken apart and tossed
         | together to form the next ninja castle or whatever, but after
         | all Lego is to be taken apart and my 6-8-9 year olds have no
         | remorse in doing so.
        
         | pbhjpbhj wrote:
         | It's definitely variable, some children will not go off-script,
         | others barely want to stay on script long enough to do the box-
         | image build.
         | 
         | Certainly in our house I (as dad) am more relaxed about playing
         | with the stuff than building "the" model; that's fun too but
         | you might as well use the Kragle if you're not going to mod it
         | or tear it down and build something else...
        
       | racl101 wrote:
       | I remember when I had Legos I had to build whatever my mind came
       | up with using the pieces available. We'd play with it. Then a new
       | idea would pop in our brains about how to improve the design and
       | we'd tear down and build back up only bigger and better. And if
       | we got more legos or new pieces, suddenly so many new
       | possibilities for designs. What a difference a few new pieces
       | made.
       | 
       | Now they feel like model Kits. My nephew asks for Star Wars
       | Legos, or some other franchise based legos, builds whatever the
       | structure is according to the manual, but then doesn't take it
       | apart and it just sits on his book shelf. Never to be touched or
       | rebuilt, even just for the heck of it. And why should he rebuild?
       | It's like coding the same program out of a text book in exactly
       | the same way. Been there done that.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | I think this is one of the _disadvantages_ of things like Star
         | Wars Lego - you have something extremely well known to compare
         | it to, and there 's not really a point in rebuilding it,
         | because that's the "best it can be".
         | 
         | Whereas my early sets, focused mainly around City, were nice,
         | but I could build something else "City-like" out of them and
         | not feel it was vastly inferior.
         | 
         | But, I think a bigger part is just kids are different. Some
         | like building and then leave it, others build it and it goes
         | into the pile of Lego quite quickly.
        
       | m3kw9 wrote:
       | If you've played and feel knocked off legos, "f this sht" will be
       | a phrased used over and over as you try to read and assemble it.
       | Even the instruction are world class stupid
        
         | dingaling wrote:
         | I've built a couple of recent Technics kits and noticed a
         | decline in the clarity of Lego's instructions.
         | 
         | Instead of clearly showing the 'path' of each part in a step,
         | that is how and where to connect it to an assembly, they now
         | tend to show the assembly with the new parts attached. This
         | leads to a game of 'spot the difference' with the previous
         | step.
        
       | kawogi wrote:
       | I'm still mad that they discontinued Mindstorms. My school isn't
       | able to replace their components if they break and I cannot get
       | additional motors for my projects any more.
       | 
       | Does anyone know how good their "LEGO(r) Education SPIKE(tm)"
       | stuff is? Is it as open as the NXT-bricks? Are these somewhat
       | compatible? Linux IDE available?
       | 
       | I wish someone would offer a replacement for those who have a
       | 3D-printer, rp2040 and some soldering experience. I'd help the
       | school to re-stock their supply.
       | 
       | Edit: 35 EUR for a 2 A USB power supply is definitely Apple-ish.
       | And those peripheral connectors look like they're ... unique.
       | Mindstorms just had standard RJ-something plugs.
        
         | wwilim wrote:
         | The original Mindstorms connectors were actual bricks, about
         | the size of two stacked 2x2 plates
        
           | kawogi wrote:
           | Ah, yes. Should have been more specific: NXT and EV3
        
         | joshmarinacci wrote:
         | Spike is pretty good and seems just as open as NXT. You can
         | even open a shell directly on the MCU brick in Python. Spike
         | does use new connectors, but it's the same one they started
         | using for all of the Powered Up sets. Plus there's lots of
         | people who've figured out how to add arduinos, Pi's, etc.
        
         | jacquesm wrote:
         | Yes, they royally messed that up. But as to your query: there
         | are nice alternatives, there is this board+library:
         | 
         | https://gitlab.com/jmattheij/rekabit
         | 
         | With a bit of fiddling and some 3D printed parts you're off to
         | the races, controls two motors and four servos and has
         | blinkenlights. You can use the board with the Micro:BIT but you
         | can also use it with some fiddling with an arduino (renesas
         | will probably work best) or a Raspberry Pi 2040. It also has a
         | whole slew of 'Grove' connectors if you want to wire up more
         | sensors and actuators and it exports the bus.
         | 
         | I've added links to the 3D printed parts and some links to the
         | originals on thingiverse, it took some modifications to get it
         | all to fit nicely but it really works well. And those boards
         | are pretty cheap.
        
       | bgeeek wrote:
       | Lego will always be cool to me. Without wanting to sound like a
       | cliche, the only limit was your imagination when I was a child,
       | before home computing. Forever grateful for those years.
        
       | joshmarinacci wrote:
       | While I have nostalgia and can talk about how I used to make
       | amazing designs with fewer specialized bricks, the truth is
       | modern Legos can do more and cost less (adjusted for inflation).
       | My 12year old has built things that I couldn't do until I was a
       | junior in college. We're just grumpy because we are old.
       | 
       | I don't _love_ how Lego makes all of these specialty sets for
       | grownups, but.. I 've bought some and enjoy it. Playing with Lego
       | as an adult was weird in the 80s. Now there's whole clubs for it.
       | I think it's a positive development.
       | 
       | And finally, they are not the Apple. Nothing in Lego is locked
       | down. I can 3d print my own bricks. Small companies make
       | bluetooth motor addons. You can even get a Lego HAT for your
       | Raspberry Pi. It's vastly more open than just about any other
       | system.
        
         | Libcat99 wrote:
         | They cost less even before inflation. Here's a write up I did a
         | few months back.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=37657077
         | 
         | As far as I can tell, Lego just keeps getting more affordable.
        
       | ludgerpaehler wrote:
       | Probably more like Apple before Steve Jobs returned and
       | decluttered their offering.
       | 
       | A few shiny gems of sets amongst a vast sea of overpriced,
       | sometimes poorly designed sets often with color-mismatches, and
       | way too many stickers.
        
       | kazinator wrote:
       | Lego is not the Apple of toys.
       | 
       | People who have Lego in their homes also have tons of other toys.
       | 
       | People who have Apple computers or mobile devices in their homes
       | do not have tons of other devices.
       | 
       | There are Apple households in the way that there aren't Lego
       | households.
       | 
       | Oh yeah, and there are cheap, Lego-compatible blocks out there.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_clone
       | 
       | There used to be Apple clone computers in the 1980s; Apple wiped
       | them out in a way that Lego has not been able to wipe out Lego
       | compatibles.
        
         | yreg wrote:
         | Apple didn't wipe anything out. Hackintoshes exist.
         | 
         | It is probably only a matter of time until macOS eventually
         | drops Intel support, but we are far from there.
        
           | kazinator wrote:
           | They don't exist in the sense that you can walk into a brick-
           | and-mortar computer store and buy one, or see it advertised
           | in mainstream media, like was the case with Apple clones once
           | upon a time.
        
       | zubairq wrote:
       | I do think that Lego innovates, so they deserve their top spot!
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | I wanted an Erector set. My mom thought the tiny bolts would be
       | impossible for me, but I pressed for one and got one. Had a great
       | time with it. What I liked about it was the creations were metal
       | and looked like machines.
       | 
       | The Lego stuff was all bright primary colored bricks. They often
       | wouldn't stay together like a bolted Erector set creation. Lego
       | was never for me.
        
         | cuddlyogre wrote:
         | Technic may have been more to your liking.
        
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