Bricklink Declares War on Lego Modulars
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- The new guidelines were released for the Bricklink Designer Program Series 6, with submissions starting in September. You can submit your design for consideration to be made into a Lego set on a limited one-time production run. The one catch? No modular-styled buildings are allowed! That's right, they're banned! Why? And what does it mean for modular buildings?
#lego #collection #what
LEGO: We created a _system_ of play.
Also LEGO: We don't want things to be compatible with eachother.
Money is all that matters in todays age, and anti trust laws are just fine, lwast until the us gov and others breakup big corpos like google, etc lego feels like its gotten real big and any compeditor is "a knockoff" even when its only uses peices they lost the patent to.
@@the_cyberchill I think you need to read over your comment a bit my friend. Some of it majes sense, but other bits are incomprehensible.
all sets are compatible with each other what r u talking about
@@dynamitewolft4194 The LEGO modular buildings are all of a standard depth and use a system of pins and holes in specific places on the sides to connect, now they are saying fan design sets can't do that.
It’s almost like people want more modulars lmao
A pretty abstract decision. The Bricklink Program is pretty much a 'collectors/creators' platform, and modulars have long been 'adult' purchases. That said, I recently purchased the FunWhole Antique Shop, and the build/quality was/is pretty stunning - especially for the price. I think Lego is ultimately hurting themselves with this decision.
I am also now discovering Funwhole and MouldKing
Funwhole sets are awesome. If they keep releasing modulars, Lego is cooked
@@samplisticsam4678 I know they had issues with earlier sets years ago, but that hasn't been the case for quite some time... I have several of their sets now, and find them completely comparable to Lego at a fraction of the price AND with lights... I'm happy to see some healthy competition/alternatives, as well as proof that Lego - especially now that they are being made in Country's with lower manufacturing costs, are clearly overpriced. I DO hope that Lego 'levels down', as their pricing is pretty much what has created the secondary market to begin with. When the dust settles, people mostly want to build, have fun, and display...
@@samplisticsam4678 The Antique store with a purchase discount cost me 129.99 with a piece count of 2847. The Lego Jazz club is literally double the price for a 2899 piece count, and no lights... The Lego Sanctum Sanctorum is 249.99 with a lower piece count of 2708 (licensing clearly added to the cost, but still...). FunWhole quality? build?... you'd honestly never know the difference...
honestly modulars are just best for everyone. u can open them up and play with them. they look great in a city or even on their own or a small street diorama. they are usually versatile and fun to build and even after the increases still at an okay price point. so sad they dont want more of them
Its astonishing how much LEGO doesn't want people to buy LEGO
Right?! They own Bricklink, so they profit from the BDP, but still seem intent on strangling fan enthusiasm at every turn.
@@NinjaHelpdesk It is just a question of money. LEGO is by far the biggest toy producing company of the world, with by far biggest turnover and earnings in the whole market. Bricklink is 100% not important for them (LEGO) as bricklink has only importance for real brick building fans, not "LEGO fanboys". We are talking about a part of a percent of the total turnover and earnings of LEGO by bricklink. If Bricklink program is harming their modular building sales, it has to go. Fanboys are buying Star wars and other LEGO sets with licences, wtf cares the real brick fans? Pretty sure not LEGO. Because real brick fans are unimportant for them now, they just do not consume enough. As also children, so the future. Sales are not big enough and we see since years what for bad city sets get on the market. Technik? Once LEGO was by far the greatest. And now? There is CADA, Happy Build, TaiGoLe, Mould King and so many others. And they (LEGO) have so many great designers...but are not using them.
@@NinjaHelpdeskLEGO is protecting their brand image. I'm not gonna wipe your ass by explaining if you don't understand.
I guess you could say it's ALWAYS Legos time of the month.
@@Nobodyisperfect-us6pk Seems to me that the "real" brick building fans--and I use "real" cautiously--are just a tiny subculture within the bigger Legosphere. I'd wager the vast majority of Lego purchasers are parents buying sets as toys for their kids and AFOLs who want something that can sit on the shelf. The nerds (said with love) who appreciate parts usage and new building techniques, who build MOC's etc., are probably almost irrelevant in Lego's calculations, except when Lego wants to manipulate purchasing through the UA-cam LAN channels.
The reality is that once LEGO purchased Bricklink, they shifted towards a corporate first focus. It's isn't always obvious, but when it matters to LEGO, like when they want the BDP to serve their needs as a market test bed and not be a platform which competes with their own existing themes such as modular buildings, then we'll see the effects of LEGO ownership. I suspect a $400 BDP modular building makes LEGO less money than a $400 LEGO modular building. With such a dynamic ultimately controlling the decision making at Bricklink, we will always see Bricklink serve the needs and wishes of LEGO company instead of the LEGO community whenever they are in direct conflict. This may seem unfair, but it is a reminder that Bricklink is no longer independent and is owned by LEGO. Despite it looking like a different site, technically it is just another branch of the LEGO Group of companies. This comes with some advantages, but also some compromises as we are seeing now with the removal of modular buildings from the BDP.
Well said!
I've been wishing for half baseplate sized modulars for around $75 to $100. If they did one like that and a flagship one for $250 to $300 each year, that would make more sense. I like the smaller buildings better, plus i like the smaller price.
Ever since I bought the Bookshop modular, which is two half-modulars in one box, I've been saying the same thing. It would give more people more affordable options and also allow for greater customization of a street scene when you insert half-width modulars in different places.
I feel like another reason why they might want to prevent modulars from being picked is so that buildings they haven’t done yet don’t get made through bdp rather than a standard icons modular. (ie if they made a bdp hospital they probably wouldn’t make a icons hospital which would limit building possibilities and sales)
Lego fans: we want more modulars!
Lego: heard... less modulars!
Modulars are my favorite! I’m mostly fine with one release per year but I wish every so often they would release two sets in one year
They kind of do release 2 per year with the marvel modulars
Technically we got 2 Modular’s last year because they changed the release date.
RIP Bricklink Designer Program. Almost All that got selected is modular.😂
That thing has been broken from the start TBH. Sets are way too expansive. I hope they’ll go for smaller stuffs and less complicated preorder process
not really... out of the last like 20 sets they produced or announced there were maybe 2 or 3 true modular buildings.. Medieval is at least as strong or even bigger tbh..
@@Etienne.6329 I bought Mountain Fortress even though I wasn't sure about it. Thought about selling when it arrived. Building it now? I really like it. There's more interior detail than any of the pics show, and I have tons of extra stuff to fill in anyway (Castle is my main theme). In regards to price. For BDP 5 comment period, I sorted by part count: low to high. Some builds were stunning with low part count. But the builds with the most good comments were builds with 3000+ pieces. Meaning close to $300. I commented highly on the "efficient" builds.
I don't think that is entirely accurate. During the Ideas Invitational, 5 "modular" submissions made it, but since the more "evergreen" BDP, only 1 modular has been selected. So that's 6 out of 35.
That’s probably why Lego is probably getting away from it. The creativity is lacking when just coping and pasting a modular with a different face or interior. They are all basically the same build. Nothing really creative about them.
I think you nailed it.
BDP is a way for LEGO to let fans have the non-licensed themes they want, so that they can see what works and what doesn't.
Everybody knows that Modulars work and sell like hot cakes.
Also, they want to make sure there are no clashes with the things they are developing. Imagine that they are working on a modular hospital, and by accident or by leaks, someone submits a modular hospital to the BDP program. and wins. What happens then? Will LEGO cancel their release and lose the money they already invested in it? Will they keep it and we have two hospitals in the market at the same time with obvious loss for both sides?
Those who want more Modulars (I'm one of them) can either design them and sell the instructions on Rebrickable, or buy instructions and the parts and build them. I would argue that is much more creative and fun than simply building a LEGO set.
I agree with this mostly. I understand them not wanting to compete with themselves, but nothing is stopping someone from submitting a project that is almost identical to a Lego City set. They never disclose how many votes each submission gets, probably so that if something happens they can choose to not do the most popular set, and nobody will know. Makes sense, they can't just make anything. But the only reason they ban modulars is because they know people will vote for them, and they will "win." I don't see why they couldn't just select a highly voted modular that is completely unrelated to their under development modulars. Since we only get one a year, I doubt it would interfere with the market that much if they chose at least one modular every 2-3 series. Lego for a while had two medium nougat, sand green-roofed, corner modulars on shelves at the same time, and as far as I know they didn't get in each other's way.
In the end, I get why they are doing this, but I still don't like it! 😅
In your scenario, the BDP Hospital Modular would never be selected as a finalist. Part of the BDP's process is look for portfolio conflicts and rejecting sets that conflict with LEGO's future portfolio no matter how high the public votes were.
Essentially that instance will never ever be a problem, modular or not.
If they just copy the design of lego, they should be disqualified. If it's an accident, then it won't look very similar at all...
@@cpafol You didn't had a BDP Finalist that is a Modular and my bet is you'll never will. I believe they did this change to ensure that they can remove the modulars even before the voting, so that they don't have to remove most voted designs from the finalists.
@@Tasorius The problem that we have seen before is that people then accuses LEGO of stealing the idea. It happened with sets in the LEGO Ideas program, and it would happen with the BDP program too.
Modular sets are good, but I think they should side load a separate modular contest
Exactly!
This is a great idea 👍
yeah that is reasonable. Modulars are too meta (and boring imo) perhaps other kind of builds can shine now
Understandable but unfortunate. Lego releases modulars so infrequently, and when one is a bore, like the natural hiistory museum, we have to wait that much longer for an interesting one. On the bright side Pantasy has a good modular and will hopefully make more so we have something cool in the interem.
The thing about modulars... In their price range, long shelf life and sparse internal competition is what made theme so successful. Lego knows to not oversaturate the market. You say that natural history museum is boring, but imagine if you had two or three modulars that were boring at the same time. That amount of poorly selling sets would kill the theme.
And if sets were released more often, less of them would sell, because for many, many people it's hard to get more than one or two modulars per year.
I would also love to have whole wave of modulars each quarter, but we have to be realistic here
See I like the modular museum. I am tired of these boring cafes and bookstore modular sets that seem to have been available for years. The museum is something different and fits well with the theme of a small city with vintage architecture. So I think Lego is doing their best to please everyone. Not all Lego fans want the same thing with this line.
@@studebricker2845 Of course. And I really love the concept behind the museum, I just feel the execution is bland.
@@nihili4196 Point taken, though Lego has zero hesitation about flooding the market with Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. every year. That said, I'm sure they have a whole army of bean counters who carefully analyze and strategize to maximize profits. They didn't become a multi-billion-dollar company by being stupid, as much as we might dislike certain decisions. I do know that they're leaving my money on the table by not releasing modulars more frequently.
@@SO-ym3zs Not sure why. It has a unique color. The footprint of the building is different. I like the dinosaur bones display and the interior is decent for the space they have to work with. An actual museum would take up at least 3 baseplates.
I'm probably different because I only buy the very unique modulars, not every one. I only have the movie theater, the auto repair shop, the diner, and the first hotel one. I will get the museum but nothing else currently looks that interesting.
Honestly - it was always going to be a down-slide when Lego bought into it - it took away freedom of fans expression. It's pants.
I feel like this is ignoring the fact that the Bricklink Designer Program exist only because Lego bought bricklink nearly 5 years ago. The people that want these fanmade modulars can always get instructions on a site like rebrickable and then buy parts from bricklink like always. I dont understand how this takes away any freedom, while also helping the designer program have a bit more variety in its submissions.
So you can’t express yourself by designing and building your own MOC because LEGO owns Bricklink? That’s ridiculous.
@@mehulsahai4209 The bricklink program existed before Lego bought out Bricklink. Lowenstein Castle and the Science Tower - both of which i own - were great successes! They were exciting, came with paper instructions - I cannot work off a screen - and were so well thought out. Lego has diminished choice in what is meant to be a fan-driven movement - this the bad.
Makes sense tbh. It brings away attention from the actual modular line which is pretty much a Single set per year.
I can understand some of the changes from lego's standpoint, but this change is a very poor one for consumers and I'm almost expecting a majority of next waves sets to not pass the required preorder threshold.
I feel like many of these changes intentionally strike at certain demographics that typically follow the BDP, the modular ban affects those who like modular buildings (of which lego very infrequently releases and many have come from the BDP), the fossil fuel ban affects the train nerds out there (of which their are many considering nearly every wave of the BDP has had at least one train related set pass the preorder threshold), and so on with other bans.
I know they're likely doing this to "promote creativity" but in my experience limitations like this do the exact opposite and make people less inclined to come back.
Lego specified that historical vehicles like trains that run on fossil fuels are still allowed, but you wouldn't be able to add a fuel tanker car to the train, or make a gas station, or otherwise represent a tank of fuel unless it's built into the historical vehicle.
@@Thinginator Wow I had not heard that was going on. Pretty ridiculous to have bans on certain things like fuel tanks.
The reality is that fossil fuels are here for the long haul. They're not going anywhere. And the push for electric vehicles is backfiring because the market is not producing what the consumer wants. Electric vehicles are the worst sellers and are clogging up dealer lots.
Anyway, I just hope Lego realizes pushing the "green" agenda isn't in their best interests. Producing sets that kids want, is what should remain their focus.
its a corpo its not about creativity its about $$$ as quick as possible in the shortterm for the shareholders, thats all it comes down to in this day and age, your not a citizen your a number, your not a customer your a wallet, greeb washing, is just the same as rainbow capitalism, a front for good pr thats overstaying its welcome by doing meaningless placations unstead of actual changes to the status quo for the elites.
If Lego's profit margin is less for kits sold through Bricklink, that might be the intentional point of the change.
It’s actually ridiculous the reason given was that they could be confused with the icons series but how??? Totally different branding and only people who want more Modular’s will be buying them and they KNOW the difference. I got the construction site and train station through BDP I’m not interested in any other sets - series 4 is practically all
Medieval so why not ban them next 😂
I could be wrong, but doesn't LEGO also restrict the "modular style" from Ideas submissions? If so, this could just be LEGO standardizing their submission procedures across their various platforms.
The botanical garden was modular, right?
@@austygo3563 I do not know, but I would assume LEGO could change it up to not be in a modular style.
So far we haven't gotten one, unless the Botanical Garden is unchanged from its modular style. What I find weird is that the Bricklink Designer Program has a single "buildings" category, but Lego Ideas has an entire search category for modulars. They must have at least considered letting them in at some point. Perhaps they changed their minds when the BDP came along. Or they really are okay with modulars on Ideas, and it has been pure chance that every single round they just so happened to think that other submissions were right for that specific time. But that is highly unlikely.
We're seeing Bricklink, a traditional platform for the user, become a means of control to benefit corporate. They're slowly taking away power and choice from consumers limiting us to only 'approved' sets that maximize Lego profit rather than give us more options as consumers.
all the changes are insane - the fuel issues the animal issues and now the modular .... unbelievable
I can understand captive wild animals being against Lego's morals, I can see why they might want to encourage greener pretend fuels in their pretend cars and things (Just make a gas station and call it a hydrogen fuel station), I can see why they might want to keep the word modular as a kind of brand for their own stuff, also why they don't want some of their brands used, but I don't get the ban on 32 x 32 buildings etc?.......... Unless, it's just because they're basically saying we won't release these, so save yourself the bother.
I did read elsewhere it may be to avoid copyright issues if Lego theirselves release something similar
They don’t seem to have an moral issue with greed. They don’t mind virtue signaling on other issues but their greed goes unchecked. 😂
It's purely practical here. Releasing too many modulars would cannibalise the market that, realistically, cannot sustain having more frequent releases.
Modulars do so well because the release window between sets is big enough for most fans to get the newest one.
@@timfolly7323 They are quite happy to bully and intimidate little European brick stores and run them out of business. And they'll release a million sets with historic or fantasy weapons but nothing like a tank from the 20th century. Hypocrites. Thank goodness for Cobi!
@@nihili4196 they are monopolizing around the idea and word "modular" this will be terrible down the road
i dont see anything good coming of this.
My word! I’m glad I’m a jerk who only sticks to castle/fantasy.
if art factory is not selected on designer program 5 everyone will be veeeeeery upset
"The one time we did a Modular building it sold out in a couple of days, making it one of the better performing bricklinks of all time... better make sure that never happens again."
It perpetually feels like Lego tries to make it as difficult as possible for people to affordably city build and it makes no sense. What happened to the little "xtra" packs to add details? To get city figs, you have to buy city sets... why isn't there city fig "battle packs". And now this. Its frustrating as someone who jumped into city building just two years ago to pay crazy prices for the retired modulars just to fill out the city. There's a lot of lego compatible companies producing some really tempting models lately... I haven't bought any yet, but its tempting.
I'd definitely give them a try. Lego makes it too hard and expensive a lot of the time to enjoy the hobby, and these days, some of the competitors are producing really interesting, top-notch sets at better prices.
Funwhole just released their second modular. Their brick quality is really good. All of their sets come with lights, too. Pantasy only has one modular but their bricks are on par if not better than Lego and I had a lot of fun building their bakery. I don’t like companies that steal other’s designs but those two don’t and I’ve grown to trust what I’m getting from them.
@@seekabs The Pantasy bakery is indeed top notch. Especially the interior details, which put some Lego modulars to shame.
@@SO-ym3zs it was a lot of fun to build, too. I’m about to start Funwhole’s antique store today. I’m really looking forward to it.
between stunts like these and the consistent decline in QA I'm begining to think Lego has entered the 2024 "Which billionare can go broke first" contest
As someone who recently got into Lego again, I'm all for more modulars and botanicals. One set a year can feel very hit or miss. I hope Lego realises the demand is there and releases 2 sets per year, or at least another modular compatible set.
aaaaand, once again, I'm happy my bricks are not lego ones, that way they don't rule the entirety of my hobby.
Why is LEGO banning one of the most successful categories of the program? Maybe they don’t like money
The modular spam was insufferable. Every other project was getting buried.
The only reason I can think of that makes any kind of sense here, is maybe they are going to switch the modular line to use regular plates instead of baseplates. It would match their roads better, and people would probably be annoyed if they bought new baseplate modulars for the whole system to switch on them.
I think they want to make more modulars themselves (or they think one or two per year are enough for the mass market - those are very expensive sets). And let's be honest, a one time run of 30 K sets isn't going to sate the public's appetite. That's why I am annoyed they relegated castle to the Bricklink program (yeah, better than nothing, but I'd rather have normal lego castle sets - remakes for the good old sets like the black knights, dragon knights, etc and of course a new castle line - AND BATTLEPACKS - I can't believe Lego can't be bothered to make some castle battlepacks with the already available torsos + add new ones so people actually have something to collect! ) .
regarding animals and fuel - this is most odd, but I guess they want to create a better tomorrow. Not sure how that is helping (I've been playing with lego - and their non conflict policy while I was learning the most atrocious history battles and so on in 5th grade ... I guess they just don't want to add to that? )
LEGO nows fully well the existence of the buyer-markets for medieval and western themes e.g. , from their competitor Bluebrixx in germany who is legittimatly filling this gap with quality products.
Lego is afraid of any lawsuits if they launch an official modular similar to the submissions
I kind of agree, modular buildings are super easy to come up with. There is no big creativity or thinking, it’s just copy and paste with a different face.
Way to push fans towards the modular build competition. Some of them are quite good.
I cancelled my series 2 orders out of protest
Honestly, I think there is a liability issue for LEGO. If enough people are submitting modular designs eventually there will be one that is similar to a modular they may have in the works. Then when it comes out, the submitter may try to sue saying LEGO stole their idea. It may be frustrating but in a litigious society, they can’t be too careful.
Who knew that BDP would have *BPD*
Lego should have realized that Lego modular were targeting a very specific time period, BDP rules could have simply avoided that time period. So many of the BDP modular submissions included technology (cellphones, computers, autos models that were clearly from a later era, vending machines, electronic cash registers, etc.) that was invented well after the time period that Lego limited itself to in their own modular series. Frankly, this is why I tended to vote for only modular that fit this time period that Lego covered. I didn't want to mix the time periods. That said I tended to back whatever sets were released regardless of my vote. I've stated on other videos that they should simply create a lane for popular themes in BDP. Maybe not offer every lane in every series for the competition. But by assigning lanes, they can distribute the types of sets supported more evenly and extend variety. As is if there are enough backers of a particular theme they could in theory monopolize the outcome of each series.
Lego spending all of my nostalgic goodwill. Not sure I have any left at this point.
It's shocking to see how much they prefer using all their energy into squeezing every cent over investing it in maintaining their legacy, improving their products, and giving back to the fans.
I still buy some very select smaller sets on sale, because that is where the Lego value currently seems to be for me. But nowadays I feel like I'm supporting Dr. Evil, maybe I should just skip buying those as well.
Well that's great new, no more modulars from bricklink designer program, I'll save alot of money lol
how dares a company decide what they want to publish
Lego is tired of dealing with BDP modulars. They make them and they are going to make more. They don't care about your modular, because they will make it eventually. Modulars are easy to make and it is easy for a huge number of fans to make every conceivable modular. They want the profit margin from their modulars. So whatever Lego makes there is going to be a fan modular that people will say Lego copied. Lego doesn't want that bad press.
That’s fine if they would actually okay a pirate ship or ship of the line. Swear they have a shadow ban on sailing ships of war. Multiple designs make the Final Cut in pretty much all the series I’ve seen, but one never gets produced. Swear there’s more out there than me starving for more big boats with cannons.
Every time I watch your videos, I find myself analyzing your organized bins! I recently started really trying to organize my legos and wondered if you could share your methodology for keeping things organized. Seems like you use a mixture of by color and by piece type
Honestly I quite u derstand it as a BDP designer. For a very limited edition set modulars have quite the unfair advantage due to their popularity which makes the vpting phase fall heavily in their favour. Similar to medieval sets as there are groups that massively vote everything medieval which makes the set pool more limited. When the winners due to the popularity of the sets is always a huge castle a modular and a small castle build then the competitors are more forced to have a set in one of those categories.
Psssh who can even afford those bricklink designer sets in the first place, they look like they fall over if you sneezed on em too.
It's very disappointing, imo. I'd rather see them make a new rule: No more castles and trains!!!! 😊
Great video! I'm glad people are talking about this! I have a lot to say about it. I have seen a lot of people say that this will keep modulars from flooding the BDP, but I don't get what they mean by that. I counted 28 modulars in the Series 5 submissions, out of 305 total, and 77 in the "building" category. That's not even half of the buildings. So it is a substantial amount, but not so many that it is "flooding" the BDP.
I understand if their rational is to not make modular collectors feel like they missed out on a modular because they didn't know about the BDP when the crowdfunding happened, or they didn't have the time or money to drop several hundred dollars on a modular within the first hour of the crowdfunding before the set sells out. Would I love to have a complete modular collection? Yes, but there's no way I am paying all of that money for the Construction Site I missed out on because I was away.
So while I don't like these changes, I do sort of understand them, like you said. The BDP team said that confusion between BDP sets and "official" Lego sets was the main reason for this change, and I suspect that it was because they got complaints from people who only found out about fantastic modulars when they saw them online after the crowdfunding was months past. Honestly, it makes a lot more sense when viewed from that angle.
I still wish that this didn't have to be this way. I agree that the BDp should be for sets that wouldn't get made otherwise, and I think that modulars fit that description. The modulars I wanted most in the BDP were modulars that seemed to niche for Lego to do anytime within the next 10 years.
I think maybe you should explain several of these technical concepts / vocabulary ?
there is no war going on, but modulars have been meta for so long. Perhaps we can think of other builds now?
Honestly i think this is only good. The bdp should be to get sets that won't be made otherwise. Moduler buildings will probably go forever as long as LEGO has adult buyers.
Meanwhile we got some of our first western sets in decades from this series (including the true original bricklink sets).
Es wird die alternative Hersteller befördern. Funwhole und Pantasy haben schöne Sets auf den Markt gebracht. Ich werde bei Bricklink schauen, oder zu andere Alternativen Herstellern gehen, die mit guten Steinen (zum Beispiel GoBricks) arbeiten und dort mehr Sets kaufen.
Amazing how lego hates their own public
I mean, its nice smaller builds have the opportunity for more attention now but they are way too hands on with this. The fuel thing is insane
its silly to limit the number of modulars . in this past series the train station sold out in hours, while the other set barely racked up preorders after days or weeks. obviously there is high demand for modulars. give the fans what they wants. if you want to experiment with different types of sets, expand the series to include 7 sets. have a modular or two then experiment with the other 5 slots. it doesn't have to be either or.
Next up, no more trains that are compatible with Lego train track, no 8 wide cars as to not compete with Speed Champions, etc?
I miss Modular Blacktron sets!
There is one thing that is happy there is only one modular per year - my wallet 👀
lego's making more expensive sets than before yet they refuse to make other expensive sets
ironic
Itd so odd lego would do this, modularity is one of legos biggest selling point. least theyll never be able to take our way to create modular modifications to sets and og mocs
why does lego think they have s patent/trademark on the word modular irs literally an archetectual term.
To be fair the resellers are such assholes when it comes to the BLDP. Especially when they are modular compatible.
Perhaps LEGO just wants the modular design stuff to show up in LEGO Ideas?
Modulars IMO are a dime a dozen. There are so many MOCs, BDP, IDEAS, and Rebrickable Alt builds that are 32x32 square...over congested with similar builds on all 90 degree angles...I prefer angled plate built style bases, and those types of bases you cant modularlize necessarily...I think LEGO wants the lesson the over inflated 32x32 modular MOCs...lets be honest, there are so many square style modulars submitted.
Oh, god forbid they offer the sets people want to make and want to buy. If your customers want modulars, give them modulars. Heck, encourage people to submit even better modulars. This really does feel on brand for LEGO though, always picking the absolute worst sets to make for Ideas. So it's only logical they ruin Bricklink Designer as well.
Lego wants to do all the imagining for you
I got recommended this video and I do not have any Lego sets or Lego anything leggo my eggo? lol…I watched the video though and have no clue what’s going on. Thanks UA-cam!
Just sell the connectors, separately.
I think it's fine, they're only asking to be more original in their presentation, and not align too closely to their existing design language in case of confusion or transgressing their existing plans for sets.
As someone who...*hate coming*...HATES MODULARS, I'm kinda happy with this choice, as I love sets for "adults", but I've never liked modulars, I also don't have that kind of money...lol. I like that they're urging people to look at different build styles so we get unique stuff. 🤷
Restricting modular submission will reduce the number of China produced brick sets because it will be a lot harder for the Chinese to find out the original creator of the submissions. Simple as that.
Lego seems to want to push BDP into animal, art, landscape & creature builds. Why not have separate BDP for modern/space and another for castle, pirate, fantasy? That would give a home to (the many great) castle & pirate faction builds, and develop a pipeline of modern, space and fantasy modular builds. Free set design for Lego. I noticed Lego Masters tries to push large "brick built" art because they're desperate for non fandom/IP and larger than minifig scale models. Even though they go nuts with custom minis, elements & prints for branded IP and certain themes.
All i hear is "Waaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Waaaaaaa!!!!!!"
SO star wars fan or cars adept can have dozens of new sets a years but modular happy ones can suck an egg and wait for the only one set of the year. Yeah nice Lego, nice. Happy I'm only buying alt bricks and moc.
Don't care, I will never get those bricklink sets due to scalpers anyway.
High resale prices on the BDP Modular buildings probably cannibalizes other Lego sales. As in if someone buys the modular Lego store for $500-$700 on the secondary market that will probably consume a big part of that person’s Lego budget and then they can’t spend $300 on a regular Lego modular plus $300 on another Lego set. So Lego gets $300 in sales instead of $600.
@@TM-ii2zu Okay…but Lego already booked the revenue from the BDP set, so why would they care about the impact of secondary sales? Surely if the resale value is spiking, the lesson is to make more product, not less?
Because there's no need to go to second hand market and buy something for less when you can get something new cheaper.
Resale market would cut into already existing Lego market. That would indirectly cannibalize most popular theme.
And it doesn't matter how popular it is, if it's not profitable, it'll die
That is true. But Lego could have had 0 dollars and I might not have bought anything else at all either. Of course that's unlikely for many lego fans, but if I happen to find none of their modulars that interesting, then that is the likely result for me personally.
lThis is the worst news ever. My favorite sets of the last few years were the Bricklink Modulars (Construction Site, Lego Store, Train Station)
I’m sure I’ll get a lot of negative feedback for this, but the truth is that since Lego-style bricks have been trademark-free for some time, there are lots of perfectly legal good-quality modulars from other producers out there. Lego limiting its own output (including BDP) only hurts their own bottom line.
That's so dumb. I was going to submit a Post Office and Pharmacy. It looks like I'll just have to post it independently
Im on legos side here. People want modulars but its staggering their creativity. Theres already like an entire universe of modulars living on moc websites (with free instructions too) if you want to build out your modular cities
My crackpot theory is that the amount of modular sets in submissions does not reflect the demand for them. Votes that came from Ideas doesn't mean anything, as anyone can state they would buy 10 of a set, and then never get even one, and audience on BDP is skewed towards fans that already get a lot of sets and probably even submit things of their own, so modular building doing well in that crowd would only tell Lego that modulars would do well in the most dedicated part of their fandom, something they know.
And to everyone in the comments saying "It's as if Lego doesn't want to make money", they do. But them knowing if there is a potential for new, original idea, either as a single set, short wave or short lived theme is a good idea is a key to make dozen times more money than one more modular would make. Also, how many modulars do average lego fan buys per year? They're expensive, big, and sell well because they stay long on shelves and doesn't cannibalize their own market.
Also, as much as I like to be able to connect some sets together on a shelf, modular style is surprisingly restrictive and can only have so many flavours before running into trap of repeating the same thing.
Let's just leave modulars to Icon and city sets
These are valid points of course but also I think the market and buyers and demand for it seem to indicate otherwise. Even if it's just a lingering interest to buy and it never fulfills, the fact is many people ARE interested in them. Yes, interest and actually buying are two different things, but interest is the first step to buying. I would think "fan" made stuff IS exactly intended for the most dedicated part of their fanbase. Seems a bit of a disservice to ignore that side of the fanbase entirely. Why is it a good idea to ignore the most dedicated and loyal part of your fanbase? I think a more appropriate suggestion would be to make a category just for modulars if this is their concern.
Lego cities are common. Modularizing them especially. It's common among enthusiasts. Of course scales vary but I think the issue here is the full stop ban. Why couldn't there be some other, better way to handle it? Why not a limit of 1 or 2 a year? Why not a section for modulars? Why not specify some guidelines where it may be more acceptable? Why just blanket ban it? This could backfire in other ways too. I simply see it as an unnecessary limit on creativity. The answer to how many modulars do the average lego fan buys per year is something that varies by lego fan. The beauty of lego is it's for everyone, for all ages, not just one single group of people or a select few. And I think it's bit unfair to say no fans can ever suggest another modular again basically, only lego can. I personally like modulars among the most. I prefer the bigger build lego sets. Yes, I buy them less frequent, but I'm not prone to buy the cheaper smaller sets either for the most part. I like the impressive builds, or builds that fit with my city well and easily.
I guess my point in the end is, lego is meant to encourage creativity, and is meant to be for everyone and all ages, but this feels like the antithesis of that, restricting creativity and limiting who it is meant for.
Only item I buy from Lego now is the once a year modular. Half the rest they produce has no meaning to me ie Dreamz, Friends loads of Ninjago robots etc. Now I will start buying from other companies that produce what I want. I said when Lego bought Bricklink it would be a disaster as they would impose their own company rules to the site. Do me a favour when you next buy a set work out the brick count small bricks under 1 stud to larger bricks and try to work out why Lego is so overpriced.
One modular per year is crazy low number… why dont they realease more each year ??
They are too busy realeasing the same Star Wars and Harry Potter sets over and over again.
@@partiegratuite If you don't have all 80 X-Wings, how can you call yourself a Lego fan? :D
Very smart by LEGO.
i’ll be honest im partially for the change! i know i might be a minority here but im not a fan of the modular buildings. i don’t have a city. i have a wall where i put cars, trains, and machinery. seeing modulars in all the time turns me off from wanting anything there. im excited to see original builds in there.
This is totally lame by LEGO considering its limited to producing only 30k sets.
As much as BigL is money driven, this decision has probably little to do with money - in terms of direct competition for the Icons modulars - but with the amount of submissions in this theme. Just quickly looking through the Series 1-4: 368 total submissions; 121 classified as "building" and my guesstimate by quickly scrolling over them 2/3s are modularlike. So ~20% of overall submissions are modularlike. Series 2, 3 are even worse roughly 50/180 (27%). Series 4 feels a bit better, but ~50/230 is still ~20%. So yeah... I as a reviewer would also be sick of reviewing 20% buildings. It's just over and over a very similar thing that does not feel very creative and what they are looking for. If you want to design modular over modular put your stuff on rebrickable or similar websites.
How is this in any way reasonable? Yes, THEY produce 1 set a year. THAT is the one they quality control and design. And they do have some quality control on the Creator Program since it's them refining the idea to a final product. But a quarter of the sets selected usually are modular or modular-like. And they are the ones that filter out all the others first to even get the forty or so candidates in the first place. So obviously there is a huge demand and market for these (me amongst them).
So I cannot agree with Lego on this. It's not just leaving money on the table, it's an act of such sheer pettyness, to keep such a grasp on the concept of Modulars and to refuse outsiders to play in that sandbox. You've put in the work of making the Modulars a brand with recognition for being an outstanding product. So just make it clear that it is NOT a modular by not putting Modular on the package. Modular-compatible at most.
This decision has made the company lose a lot of face in my oppinion. They could just decide to be very strict on the modular-like entrants, so that only very rarely there would be a Modular-compatible set that DID meet their criteria, and all the other sets would be random different sets. But to outright say "We'll strike them from the sheets, no matter how good they are and how much people want them even if there are no other obstacles like licensing rights." just means they don't have confidence in their own designers. Official Lego Employees can't measure up to the fans in Lego Company's eyes.
What we REALLY need is something from some multi billion dollar companies opening credit for a movie...oh! The Pixar Lamp! I love paying for commercials! Really though, almost no Lego themes are interesting, to me, except modular city stuff. I'll just PaB and build my own. The modular sets from Marvel and others, are all trash. Enough of the fuckin comic movies!
@@OnlyRetardsWatchFootball plus the rumoured/announced buildable logo' of Marvel. If that is considered exiting...
I do not like the latest MBs from Lego and in general I only like half of the whole series. But luckily we have designer Oh So Jang ( or "ohsojang" to find him on rebrickable or youtube) and he has created many nice buildings you cannot even buy from Lego but from brands like Mould King or Mork.
While I own the "Old Fishing Store" from Lego I also own many other of the seaside buildings created ( or inspired) by the same designer and available from the brand Urge or Bluebrixx (in parts of the EU).Also brand "reobrix" and latest brand "BaKu" for really large buildings are very nice.
BAKA
the want to give other things a change instead of everthing moduiler
give other ideas a change and people that dont like modlers
Lego itself releases enough modulars. Good decision, better chances for other sets 👍🏻
I don't like Lego owning Bricklink as it is, this decision just adds to my dislike. Keeping modulars (which is primarily what I build) from getting made makes me look more often outside of the Lego ecosystem.
Terrible decision in my opinion. I am a big modular fan and one release a year is just not enough. Why restrict people’s creativity with modulars? There are so many great designs in the community and BDP makes it cheaper to get these over sourcing individual bricks ourselves.
Okay, so Icons can go screw itself. Icons has joined a certain other franchise in deserving to be vandalized in-store. Not that I'm actually saying to _do_ that, but it certainly deserves it.
Sounds to me like absolutely EVERY BDP entry this series should be a modular building to punish TLG for this gross and unnecessary overly-defensive behavior. If your idea isn't a modular building, sit on it til a future series. TLG needs to be taught a lesson.
I’m confused-Lego owns bricklink so who care what the designs are?
Unpopular opinion, but I don't care for modulars. They're expensive as F for an adult and too large. And everyone's city ends up looking generic if they all use modulars.
If they made smaller half sized and more variety, than maybe. I'm being selective on rebrickable instructions to combine two small sets into a mini modular, like the creator downtown noodle shop. Even two of those is far more affordable than the Bookstore or Assembly Square, and you get to split the purchase up into two to keep it on budget. Buy one noodle shop during 2x points in January, and 1 towards a gwp in November.
The BDP doesn't feel inclusive either. One small set per wave and it's still expensive for some families. Having lots of modulars and large castles in the BDP feels like a country club for the affluent elite.
Points taken, but aren't most "adult" Lego sets too large and too expensive? Shelf space for these things is as much a killer as the pricing.
is it just me or the voice is not sinchro with picture? 5:00
I’ve noticed this previously, & I came to suspect that it was related to my earbuds ?
LoL people wanna more modulars
Honestly this is a fantastic decision by Lego.
They already have an official modular line, which is only limited by years (eg until retirement) so a lot more people have the opportunity to get one. People keep saying modulars are popular, so then they should be happy that everyone gets that chance, not just a select few at a select time.
The modulars were burying other themes, as they are the easiest to replicate.
This is beyond stupid! Lego is totally being unreasonable. Very fascistic approach to the whole thing.
Explain to me how that's fascist.
I'm genuinely curious
@@nihili4196 It is an entity (in this case a company) that pretty much tells you what you can and can't do. And that is after taking over the one other company (bricklink) that they saw as a threat.
I dislike a lot of Lego's decisions, and certainly their outrageous pricing, but it's unfair, innacurate, and wildly hyperbolic to say they're taking a fascistic approach to this. Even "totalitarian" would be an extreme stretch. They're just a big company trying to make as much money as possible. They don't care about reason, they care about money.
@@dd_zzero6827 Bricklink was never in any way a competition to Lego. If anything, they had symbiotic relationship.
And now Lego isn't creating any kind of police force that would make sure no one starts building illegal modular buildings.
This program exists now mainly because Lego wants a way to collect certain kinds of data, and the sheer amount of modulars both here and in Ideas program is too overwhelming to mean anything.
I understand the frustration at Lego's decision, and I'm not entirely sure if it's a good idea, tho I'm glad if it means more creative submissions will get more traction, but calling Lego Fascist is just plain wrong.
If you're looking for negatively charged word to use here, Lego is aggressively capitalistic here. There's plenty of things I will gladly call Lego, and criticising them is my hobby at this point, but if we will use words at random, they'll lose meaning
@@nihili4196 Fair enough. I concede to your arguments.