How do we not have a dedicated Lego thread yet?

Wheels Of Confusion said:

I also hate the "find alternative model building instructions online as a low-res PDF!" thing.

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Hah, those aren't low res. The official online instructions for some of the older sets (think mid 00s) are low res enough that it can interfere with reading them. Once you get old enough, they shift from "generated from pre-press digital files at too low a res" to "scans of actual paper" and become more usable again.

I think Lego is stuck here. Higher res bitmaps would make the files huge (and the current larger set instructions are already huge at the current resolution, like the A model book for 10497 is 185MB), and going to vector art would fix the resolution and probably be smaller, but at the price of taking 10s or more just to render each page (when you do complex vector, Acrobat isn't a pig, it's a dead pig, uphill, in the middle of winter, in a three-piece concrete suit). The app doesn't help most of the time, either, since it usually only offers the PDF instructions for even kid-oriented sets above 300ish pieces.

Wheels Of Confusion said:

I feel like the paper booklets are needlessly inefficient in a lot of places where they basically spend two pages showing you how to connect 3 bricks. Probably automated step generation instead of done by a squishy with some forethought. If I'm right they could probably squeeze two models per booklet in by just being a little more clever with the instruction steps.

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My understanding is that the instruction expansion is a conscious one, with Lego (even for the 18+ sets) wanting to make sure that kids won't get lost (even though we didn't get lost back in the day). Even now, the higher age group set instructions will show stuff like "2x of this part", while the younger age group set instructions will instead show the same part twice.

Reading between the lines a bit (as in the guidance for instructions for the BrickLink Designer Program, which is really meant for adults only, not just "18+ isn't really serious" "Adult" sets), it sounds like their current intent is to limit each step to around 12 studs worth of pieces maximum. For comparison's sake, looking at ye really old 497/928 instructions, over half the steps involve at least 12 pieces per. They're also no longer scattering new pieces in a single step over the entire model (they're limited to one area now).

One other thing that has definitely changed versus the old days is that sub-assemblies used to have a single "parts needed" listing at the beginning of the sub-assembly instructions, but now each step of the sub-assembly instructions has its own dedicated "parts needed" listing.

As far as instruction generation, I'm pretty sure Lego's building instructions team does each step manually (graphics are auto-rendered, of course). They may use auto-checking for verification, but they don't auto-generate the steps and then call it done.

cogwheel said:

Hah, those aren't low res. The official online instructions for some of the older sets (think mid 00s) are low res enough that it can interfere with reading them. Once you get old enough, they shift from "generated from pre-press digital files at too low a res" to "scans of actual paper" and become more usable again.

I think Lego is stuck here. Higher res bitmaps would make the files huge (and the current larger set instructions are already huge at the current resolution, like the A model book for 10497 is 185MB), and going to vector art would fix the resolution and probably be smaller, but at the price of taking 10s or more just to render each page (when you do complex vector, Acrobat isn't a pig, it's a dead pig, uphill, in the middle of winter, in a three-piece concrete suit). The app doesn't help most of the time, either, since it usually only offers the PDF instructions for even kid-oriented sets above 300ish pieces.

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I'd be happy if they'd just upload the same document as the printed copy-- something obviously went wrong in their publication process for the PDF instructions on Rivendell, because the PDF is missing the red highlights to show what parts changed that are in the print version. And that's a brand new set, not one that they had to scan or pull ancient pre-press files in order to produce.

cogwheel said:

One other thing that has definitely changed versus the old days is that sub-assemblies used to have a single "parts needed" listing at the beginning of the sub-assembly instructions, but now each step of the sub-assembly instructions has its own dedicated "parts needed" listing.

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Current sets do both. They're usually pretty good about making sure larger sub-assemblies have parts listings at each step, but it's kind of arbitrary and not super-consistent.

They have arrived!



Super excited for the Construction Site Modular, will just need to decide which buildings to pair it with.

The little tree on the observatory has cherry blossom frogs!

Yeah! I haven't started building it yet, but from the video the designer put out back when it was selected from the program there were ton of fun little details, I'm not if all of them survived to the final version post modification by corporate, but it seems great. I grew up with an observatory in view on top of the local mountains and made many a visit up there as a kid and then hiked and biked up there a bunch later so this one has a bunch of nostalgia!

The Concorde is listed for an early September launch. I must admit that I’m very tempted.

Lego Perseverance Mars Rover (finally) complete; shown next to the older Curiosity model for scale (the real-world rovers are pretty much exactly the same size, as Perseverance's design was derived from Curiosity):



The larger scale allows for a lot more detail, and some actual functional mechanical bits (the knobs on the back move the arm left, right, up, and down, and the lever/knob in the middle can turn the wheels)-- it's a pretty interesting build.

Rivendell part 2 of 3 complete:



I always find it interesting to see the different ways Lego's designers come up with to build round things into sets. (The gazebo platform here is more complicated than it looks.)

With the first part. The two parts I've finished now (shown below) sandwich part 3 (not started yet), which is the council chamber and main body of the house:


Now on to part 3-- guessing based on bag numbers, I probably still have half the set to go. Maybe I won't wait nine months before starting on it this time around.

Are Mindstorms still a thing??

philhanson said:

Are Mindstorms still a thing??

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Nope.

There's Spike Prime that does some of what Mindstorms did (but doesn't have the same ecosystem around it, AFAICT). The Mindstorms name itself (along with all of its hardware) was discontinued in 2022.

I totally forgot about this thread!

Lego is my obsession. I have a generous amount of PTO, so I try to take a week "building vacation" about every 3 months (which, not coincidentally, is about as long as I can tolerate work without a break). Last summer's project was BrickWars' Kintan Strider Bike. I can't say enough good things about this set. To date every single MOC I've attempted to build has had issues - either parts don't fit right despite the instructions, or the build is fragile, but this build had none of those issues. Everything just assembled precisely with a minimum of fuss, and it was an incredibly enjoyable experience.

A great build deserves a great display, and the BrixBox case was worth every penny. The background is printed on the acrylic, and each case includes a custom etched insert corresponding to the specific numbered set (#22 of 150 in my case). My house is full of Lego, but this is the first set that has pride of place on a shelf in my living room, because it's just that good.

Yub nub!

Lego Rivendell is finally finished... this one took a while, but, with a week off work (had to change some vacation plans) and nowhere to be, got it the rest of the way knocked out. I have a Flickr album with some close-up pics as well.


Lego Rivendell Front by Jonathon, on Flickr


Lego Rivendell Back by Jonathon, on Flickr

Why would anyone steal $300,000 in Lego sets?

Believe it or not, there’s a booming black market​

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Yes, I have in fact seen the prices on Amazon lately.

While Lego has put out some fantastic sets in the last few years (see Rivendell above, or the recent Pac-Man set), not all of them are great.

In 2019, Lego released 75244 Tantive IV, an updated version of the Tantive IV set originally released in 2009. It was, IMO, one of the worst Lego sets I've ever built. Of the 13 bags, the vast majority of the last 7 bags were nothing but engines - repeating the same process with virtually the same pieces over and over. I enjoy repetition to some degree but it got ridiculous. A few months later when my brain had recovered I disassembled the set, re-bagged it as it would have come from Lego, and sold it to a former coworker at a substantial discount with several warnings about the utter tedium involved in assembly. Last I heard it was sitting in pieces on his pool table.

Last night, he sent me this. I warned him!

If it didn't have the repetition, it wouldn't be a Tantive IV any more-- there's not really a way to do repeated elements that doesn't involve, well, repeating elements.

It's something to keep an eye out for when picking out Lego sets-- anything with a high degree of symmetry or with repetition in the design is likely to end up being a highly repetitive build with some extended stretches that aren't very fun to build. One of the worst offenders I've built is the Saturn V-- the result is one of my favorites in my collection, but the roundness combined with the height of each stage means the internal structure's pretty repetitive and there's not a ton of distinct external detailing to break up some of the monotony. Mostly on the other end of the spectrum are sets like Rivendell-- it's asymmetric so there's very little repetition for the vast majority of the build, although the roof tiling gets a little tedious and the tree leaves are kind of a pain (about a bazillion six-piece tree leaf assemblies across that build).

Two other sets I havehad (tree 1, house 0 ) with lots of repetition are Taj Mahal (which is exactly rotational symmetric, so you build four sets of things, then peg them together, then build the dome and just kinda plop in down in the center) and the Roman Colosseum, where the outer wall was just a series of slightly different modules that were linked somehow (didn't build that one, and I don't even remember if the insurance adjuster gave us any money for it..)

I liked the Saturn V myself, as the inside of the stages was using techniques I hadn't done before, but they were not tall enough for me to get bored.


The Eiffel Tower was a bit repetitive, too, but I found it more frustrating because it was lots of 1x4 and 1x6 flat pieces stacked with weird offsets to make the curves, rather than the the fact that each layer was done four (sometimes eight) times.

Jonathon said:

If it didn't have the repetition, it wouldn't be a Tantive IV any more-- there's not really a way to do repeated elements that doesn't involve, well, repeating elements.

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I agree that repetition is to be expected with something like the Tantive IV, I've avoided sets like the Colosseum for that reason. I think they could have handled it better though, if they had reduced the number of bags it would have been easier to handle assembly-line style.

I actually didn't mind the Saturn V build, but it was one of the first sets I built after emerging from my dark ages so the novelty of interesting techniques compared to my original 70s/80s collection made it fun.

Jonathon said:

If it didn't have the repetition, it wouldn't be a Tantive IV any more-- there's not really a way to do repeated elements that doesn't involve, well, repeating elements.

It's something to keep an eye out for when picking out Lego sets-- anything with a high degree of symmetry or with repetition in the design is likely to end up being a highly repetitive build with some extended stretches that aren't very fun to build. One of the worst offenders I've built is the Saturn V-- the result is one of my favorites in my collection, but the roundness combined with the height of each stage means the internal structure's pretty repetitive and there's not a ton of distinct external detailing to break up some of the monotony. Mostly on the other end of the spectrum are sets like Rivendell-- it's asymmetric so there's very little repetition for the vast majority of the build, although the roof tiling gets a little tedious and the tree leaves are kind of a pain (about a bazillion six-piece tree leaf assemblies across that build).

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What's worse than the Saturn V is the aftermarket launch pad for it. That tower is a PIMA, with all the levels, and unfortunately, being an unofficial kit, either I need to spend a ton of time sourcing the parts, or buy 3rd party blocks. I don't know what's more annoying, IMO, but the 3rd party blocks were cheaper and faster, so it likes to come apart during the assembly.

Coming soon:


View: https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group/status/1787471313969283479

MaizeAndBlue said:

Coming soon:


View: https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group/status/1787471313969283479

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I'm on the fence on this one. The lack of whiskers throws me off a bit, and I just don't think Lego translates well to fur (the recent Chewbacca set being another example). Maybe it looks better in person.

May 4th set finally completed.

Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr™ set


View: https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group/status/1790370354680021324