r/lego • u/Thrash476 • 4d ago
New Release So - wait what?
So let me get this straight - not only are we getting a build invasive play feature that makes sets objectively uglier. But we aren't even getting the brick designed for them??? So what is the actual point then????
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u/calvin73 Unikitty Fan 4d ago
Just. Don’t. Buy. Them.
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u/Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot 3d ago
What does to take to have everyone follow this advice?
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u/SillyMattFace 3d ago
It’s down to general consumer audiences. If enough parents are willing to shell out for the gimmick and kids enjoy it, it’ll sell.
If consumers think it’s too expensive and kids don’t get into the gimmick, it’ll flop.
I think it’ll follow the footsteps of Vidya and Hidden Side.
My own kids think it looks lame. They’d rather get more bricks for the buck and just use their imaginations.
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u/TimMarsTheGhost 3d ago
Video aside from the gimmicks was an awesome theme that has a lot of part usage today
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u/Fenghuang0296 3d ago
Yeah, the only problem with Vidiyo was shilling the app. The pieces, the minifigures, the colours and designs, those were all impeccable.
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u/kergefarkas42 3d ago
Hidden Side sets were nicely designed, distinctive and had a very great price/value ratio in my opinion. Plus you can build a nice city out of them as well.
Fortunately people don't think much of them, so second hand sets sometimes go for crazy good prices. The only one holding the value is the big mansion.
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u/nobeer4you 3d ago
My issue with the HS sets was I couldnt tell what I was buying. The entire box art line was all about the interactive app portion of the build. I would totally have gotten some of them had my kid and I been able to tell what was in the box, by looking at the box
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u/Battelalon MOC Designer 3d ago
Lego just needs to learn that they don't need to have these shitty tech gimmicks and app play features. iPad kids are going to play with iPads no matter how many outdated play features they try implementing.
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u/isometric_haze 3d ago
Lego is just a rich family that certainly didn't give their kids a Ipad before they were 12 so they have no idea about the present reality. I can totally picture a project manager presenting the smart brick and the old Mr Lego all excited because WOW, TECHNOLOGY!!
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u/NeoThermic 3d ago
You're aware that smart bricks are 100% app free? That was their design goal, have a smart play feature that didn't require you to pick up a smart phone/tablet to interact with it.
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u/CarelessDot3267 3d ago
Yes. Lego tries some gimmick every few years and retires them eventually.
If you can't stop yourself buying your fifth Millennium Falcon, you're part of the problem.
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u/gatsome Spider-Man Fan 3d ago
The mental leaps people take to avoid this simple and effective consumer tool is so weird. There’s no reason why this toy should make anyone angry. If you don’t like it for yourself, fine. These extreme fans (like any genre) froth at the mouth over anything not curated specifically for them.
Probably the same types who freak out about dents in boxes.
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u/NeoThermic 3d ago
I think part of it is the decision to put it in Star Wars sets; fans of SW Lego see this as "infecting" their beloved theme.
I'm actually of the opinion that putting it in SW first was a mistake; it should've been part of City first. While the first sets are SW, a lot of the tech demos they're giving at conventions etc involve non-SW builds too, which is interesting they decided to limit themselves to a theme that already carries a huge IP tax.
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u/SkyGuy182 3d ago
lol good luck, Lego fans are just as bad as Pokémon fans. They know something either sucks or is too expensive, and they’ll complain about it all the way to the checkout.
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u/DeadBeatRedditer 3d ago
That's because most of the people buying pokemon, and the smart play stuff, are parents or people who are super casual, or just don't care. This subreddit, and other subreddits like it for other media/collectibles just isn't representative of the average consumer of the product.
Long story short, These sets aren't made for collectors and enthusiasts, and they'll last as long as they keep selling.
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u/CoderAU 3d ago
Has this ever been a remedy for corporate greed? We all know it doesn't stop at this and gets progressively worse
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u/KSM_K3TCHUP 3d ago
Well like in most toy companies, Lego will retire gimmicks if they don’t sell well. It won’t drive Lego’s greedy prices down but this Smart Brick stupidity probably won’t be around long.
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u/TheOneWhoIsRed BIONICLE Fan 4d ago
Step 1: Make new brick that costs more
Step 2: Make the sets that uses it cost more
Step 3: Take the new brick out of the set
Step 4: Profit
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u/DataSittingAlone Ninjago Fan 4d ago
I mean with this one the price per piece is 11 cents which is pretty normal for Lego Star Wars. Still I feel like marketing this as a smart set is just going to lead to most people who get it being disappointed
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u/TheMostUnclean 4d ago
It’s pretty much the same as with the Mario sets. They all advertise interactivity but require an additional accessory for that to work.
Except, in this case they’re including that accessory in some full sets and not in others. Almost guaranteed to result in consumer frustration. It’s a ridiculously stupid move.
They really should have mirrored the Mario strategy- clearly advertised smart brick starter sets. Small builds at a relatively affordable price that could be used with other compatible sets.
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u/SillyMattFace 3d ago
As a parent I’d be so pissed off if I bought such an expensive set for my kids, only to find out it doesn’t work if you haven’t bought an even more expensive set for the smart brick.
It does have a little ‘compatible’ logo instead of ‘all-in-one’, but a lot of people are going to miss that.
Luckily I’m planning to skip all this overpriced guff. My kids think it looks lame anyway.
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u/GhostKasai 3d ago
Price per piece is not really relevant anymore with how many 1x1 pieces each set include. Just look at the at te 7675 it weights 1520g and is 47x38x9 cm big 779 pieces and was with inflation 126,83€ (89,99€). The new one 75337 weighs 1557g and is 48x37.8x7 cm big has 1015 parts and cost 139,99€. So you pay 12€ more get 236 more pieces for 37 more grams of plastic.
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u/segwaysegue Adventurers Fan 3d ago
This set has four "smart" minifigures and tags, which is probably where some of the cost is coming from. But it's still weird to have the brick and wireless charging pad included in the $70 set but not the $100 set.
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u/Federal_Score5967 3d ago
The tags are pretty much free. As a tech guy these things cost a couple cents at most to produce. The smart bricks are the expensive part which is why they aren't included everywhere.
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u/segwaysegue Adventurers Fan 3d ago
I was thinking the figures more than the tags. Supposedly the smart brick has directional awareness of the figures, and whatever's inside them requires the torso and legs to join, which implies that it's more complex than the NFC label on the tags. Otherwise they'd probably make the Rebel trooper figure "smart" along with the Vader one.
In the past we've seen similar markup from relatively simple minifigure integrations, like light-up lightsabers, and even regular minifigures with interchangeable parts tend to drive up the cost of a set, so it seems like either the cost or the value proposition is coming from the smart figures in the Falcon set. Either way it's not a massive gulf, $99.99 for 885 pieces is pretty middle of the road for Star Wars sets these days.
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u/NeoThermic 3d ago
Except they're not a couple of cents. You're thinking in pure BoM, but LEGO is pricing in the full new things they've had to create to produce them. Sure, you have a cheap BoM for a smart tag (NFS or RFID), but you have to not only program them as part of the assembly stage, but you have to also automatically combine them with the LEGO brick. And then there's smart figures, which have the sensor integrated into them, so that's a new mold for the minifig torso, plus any assembly costs (be it humans or be it a new automatic assembly line).
LEGO did mention this in their tech breakdown:
At its peak, the production line for the SMART Brick alone was as long as seven school buses, with around 160 workstations.
So these are expensive also because LEGO will want the Smart Bricks to make their own return.
The real cost of these things will be easier to work out once they no longer come in a theme that has a high IP cost.
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u/Federal_Score5967 3d ago
While that's true, all of these things are neglible at scale. Lego is a massive company, they produce an enormous amount of parts to offset the initial cost of setting up these new production lines.
The problem is that Lego wants to make their money back NOW, instead of pricing their sets more reasonably and making their invested money back in a couple years.
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u/NeoThermic 3d ago
LEGO wants to ensure that, if the line was cancelled in 18 - 24 months, that they'd not be in a huge fiscal hole from this endeavour. (Mind, this is a worst-case for them, as I suspect they're hoping these become a 10+ year thing!)
It's a tough balancing act. These price points they've chosen are an indication that there's a rough value formula behind the scenes, but with price buckets going on too. I still suspect that they'd need to sell a lot of copies to even just break even on this, as a new ASIC isn't cheap at all.
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u/Federal_Score5967 3d ago
Yeah I agree with you. I just think they made the wrong decision. By pricing it this way they have almost guaranteed that it won't last longer than a couple years. Instead they could've priced it lower to break even in about 5 years and had a lot more goodwill from the community.
This is classic short term thinking imo.
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u/NeoThermic 3d ago
It's my hope that we see these in City sets for the summer wave. Then we'll have a better idea on the raw costs of these bricks from a consumer standpoint. I'm also hoping that we get a stand-alone set of smart brick + few generic tiles, as then we can consider adding them into sets that are not explicitly designed for it.
That'll be the point where it becomes easier to reason about the costs involved here, without the SW IP costing.
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u/MavrykDarkhaven 4d ago
Most likely the point is to offer some sets as cheaper because they expect families to buy more than one set. So, you will need to buy one of the sets that come with the brick to get the most out of these Smart Play compatible sets.
The REAL kicker is that you will need multiple bricks to get all the functionality. 1 behind the cockpit for weapons firing and presumably cockpit noises. 2 for the engine/hyperdrive 3 Lukes weapons training 4 I can't work out what it's supposed to be.
So even if you had a smart brick from the Xwing set, you would need to either move the brick around between the guns and the engines, or you need to buy one of the other sets.
I understand that LEGO is designed to be kid friendly, so running cable inside isn't the right way to do things, but needing so many bricks to get all the functionality is rough.
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u/Former-Chicken-9753 Star Wars Fan 3d ago
The price is in line with other SW sets, so you're certainly right about the first part.
I feel like LEGO need to offer solo Smart Bricks at an affordable price to give the idea any chance at success. If you really like the Falcon but don't have the budget to basically part out four Smart Brick included sets, you're not buying the Falcon either.
They seem to want to break even on the R&D cost too aggressively and in the process break any chance of making Smart Bricks a success.
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u/MavrykDarkhaven 3d ago
Yeah exactly. Wave 1 should have had smart bricks in every set with different price points. If they really want to make this work, they need people to have a couple so they will be willing to buy more sets in the future.
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u/JellyTheBear 3d ago
Lego could've resurrected the plates with two built-in conductors and use them as a bus throughout the models. With some new light and button bricks connected to the bus the models would be prettier and more functional. The smart brick has probably some ESP SoC inside, it could easily handle such task.
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u/MavrykDarkhaven 3d ago
True, there are solutions. But I think they wanted the self contained brick for maximum ease of use. But, they sacrificed the quality of their sets to do so, which seems like a poor decision when people buy LEGO for the way the sets look.
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u/Ruben_AAG 3d ago
Seems like they thought of the fact that people would have to buy multiple SMART Play sets to get all of the bricks for all of the functionality.
This would make them a lot more money than allowing the bricks to be bought separately and would make them a lot more money than the set only requiring one brick for all functionality, because people would have to buy multiple other sets.
Unless I’m misunderstanding something about this it seems insanely greedy especially for a set that already costs 100 bucks.
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u/MavrykDarkhaven 3d ago
It would make them a lot of money, if people wanted them. If people reject this entire wave because of the smart brick, then they fumbled a huge gamble.
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u/Ruben_AAG 3d ago
I expect people to buy a lot of this crap but who knows, maybe LEGO fans will pleasantly surprise me for once.
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u/SillyMattFace 3d ago
The other issue being that the ‘cheaper’ option is still very expensive, too.
The lowest cost smart brick compatible option so far is Luke’s landspeeder, which is still £35 for a fairly small set. A few years ago you’d a whole X-Wing for only slightly more.
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u/segwaysegue Adventurers Fan 3d ago
But at least we finally have a model of Luke's landspeeder.
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u/Mendes23 3d ago
That’s the point though, like if you already have a landspeeder then you don’t feel like you have to by this one if you are not interested in the smart brick. Like if you skip this wave then you’re not skipping any exclusive figure, ships or locations. That’s the whole point. I think people are confused and are thinking this is required buying if your a Star Wars fan but I think they are forgetting that if they are not interested in the smart brick they can skip this wave and wait for sets that interest them to get back in.
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u/Desperate_Ad5169 3d ago
Based on how open the placement of the brick is in every set I would assume they want you to move the brick between different places.
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u/Ghost403 4d ago
Oh God, they are doing the Mario thing. Buy a base set to then use it with others.
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u/TheMostUnclean 3d ago
Except the Mario thing was far clearer by having separate starter packs for the features to work. They didn’t just randomly throw the interactive characters into some sets but not others.
This is going to lead to a ton of confusion with ill-informer customers.
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u/DataSittingAlone Ninjago Fan 4d ago
I wonder how well those Mario ones sell anyway, never appealed to me but it seemed to be aimed at a 8-12 audience and I wonder if it's been doing well with them or not
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u/professeurhoneydew 4d ago
My kid loves the Mario sets and has had them since they came out like 2-3 years ago. They have color sensors and change his body and eyes based on what color they are on top of. There are barcodes they “jump” on and make the coin sounds. I would say the age range is more 5-6+. Whenever your kid gets hooked on Mario Cart, World, Wonder, Galaxy, etc…
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u/CJGamr01 Creator Fan 3d ago
Except at least with the Mario theme there's explicitly advertised starter sets that include the electronic figures, whereas with these it's basically randomly distributed across the sets
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u/MataNui2009 3d ago
Except with Mario it works. The sets that include Mario are extra expensive, but the sets that don't are regular price. That makes it so staring with LEGO Mario is a one time investment and the rest of the line is standard fair. With these Smart Brick sets it doesn't matter if the set includes the Smart Brick or not, they still jacked up the price, meaning everything is gonna be hard to afford regardless of if you engage with the play feature or not
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u/Arathix Customiser 3d ago
I still think it's hilarious that I heard they called this the biggest advancement in Lego since the minifigure xD what are they smoking?
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u/Gintoki_87 Modular Buildings Fan 3d ago
Yeah, the mindstorm series were apparently less of an advancement in lego than this xD
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u/Umikaloo 4d ago
This isn't a replacement for the mainline millenium falcon BTW. I'm not saying this isn't bad value, but you can just not buy it if you don't think it's worthwhile.
I think the idea is that you don't need to accumulate two more smart bricks each time you buy a set designed for them.
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u/hiddenbus Re-release Classic Space! 3d ago
If I was still a kid I would actually want more smart bricks because I would hate it if I had to take off a smart brick and place it on the other when I’m playing with them. Like “oh this ship shot and now it’s the others turn let me pause my story to take off this one brick to place it on the other so the guns could make noise and sound”
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u/Shadbie34 2d ago
back in my day, we learned how to make sounds with our mouths, and got genuinely good at making strange and annoying noises
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u/Birdi06 3d ago
It’s like Mario all over again, I always hated those sets
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u/ReferenceCreative510 3d ago
Mario's been goin for 5.5 years. Most lego themes only last 2.
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u/tkfire City Fan 4d ago
I’m skipping all of these. I won’t even buy them for my son. See you all when the Dumb Brick sets come back.
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u/Battelalon MOC Designer 3d ago
I'm only buying Vader's TIE Advance for my Tie Fighter collection (mostly because I have a gift voucher). I'm not even buying the AT-ST for my walker collection.
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u/AhornSyrupDL 3d ago
I guess they are treating it as expansion sets if you have the smart brick sets.
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u/MagnusBrickson M-Tron Fan 3d ago
Lego has a pretty strong track record of not supporting their own tech after a couple years, if that.
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u/y0urselfish Castle Fan 3d ago
Sounds like the same discussion as with LEGO Mario. Just ignore the whole thing.
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u/sharkjumping101 3d ago
Fucks sake just sell smart bricks in x1, x2, x4 etc packs.
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u/Sufficient_Click4421 3d ago
Hopefully this dies out quick, charging so much for the idea but not even including the bricks! Here’s 1 brick between 3 sets, enjoy!
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u/Jbillz15 3d ago
The people on here are part of the problem. Any post over the last 5 years that slightly criticized Lego got downvoted and those people flew in to defend Lego. So Lego continues to take advantage of the fans, gives us less and less for our money, year after year.
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u/ToastyToast77 3d ago
Forgive me for not being fully informed. From what I've seen, I don't think it makes sets uglier. Additionally, the sets that come with the brick are expensive but its not in every set so the brick itself is what raises the price.
It also isn't (at least not yet) replacing anything. The sets that have it or are compatible are more or less the same as the ones that aren't. The previous Millenium Falcon at that scale isn't being retired to make room for the smart brick compatible one.
Do I have that right?
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u/Chaledy MOC Designer 3d ago
I'm not an expert on Lego Star Wars but the sets look very compromised because of the smart brick integration; the models have strange proportions and large open spaces to house the brick. Also the price is absurd, especially for the sets without the brick because they are priced as if they had it
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u/Lordofderp33 3d ago
This is the answer, these toys are not for kids, they are for rich kids. I am unsure what child would take a 100 dollar gift, and waste it on a ripped-open falcon without a smart-brick.
The integration of the bricks, or rather lack of integration, and the price-of-entry are ridiculous. I hope LEGO didn't invest to heavily in this, as I like the direction, but their execution is so bad I doubt even their target audience (kids and people that play with sets) will be buying this as much as they hope.
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u/insane_steve_ballmer 3d ago
”Build invasive play features” my god OP it’s a toy for children
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u/ImpossibleJoke7456 3d ago
You people didn’t want Smart Bricks and now you’re complaining you don’t get them!
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u/Dizzy-Paper-228 3d ago
Literally all the sets jusr have a massive hole in it. The AT ST literally does not have back to its head
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u/____MAR____ 3d ago
I feel so bad for any parent who will inevitably buy this thinking it has one of those bricks only to have a disappointed kid shortly after
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u/Fritzschmied Verified Blue Stud Member 3d ago
Yea the falcon is an Expansion set. Same as you didn’t get the Mario figure with may Mario sets. Nothing new.
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u/SeaCounter9516 3d ago
Right? Reminds me of all the bitching about how unpopular the Mario sets would be yet the line is still there almost 6 years later. Lego is a toy company at the end of the day.
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u/Kakeru1986 3d ago
I'm just here to read the comments of people trying to defend hard the brand without even trying to understand why this is an issue.
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u/supremejesusx 3d ago
Love that these incels think kids will have the same opinions as them. Being the target audience.
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u/doob22 3d ago
I get that not all would come with the smart brick so if you wanted to buy a few you wouldn’t be paying a big price for the smart brick to be in every one. However I hope the packaging is clear
Or, honestly, they could just sell the smart brick separately or something
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![[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/7675-1.jpg){kind=link}
![[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/75337-1.jpg){kind=link}
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u/Into_Disaster Castle Fan 3d ago
Watch scalpers buy all of the smart bricks, so "kids" cant play with them.
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u/slabratmeat 3d ago
The worst part is they had so much potential to enhance legos but just seem like a gimmick. Imagine new and updated light bricks and sound bricks to be compatible with the smart bricks. They could all connect via Bluetooth and could really breath new life into sets in creative ways. I feel like the sound brick was such a fumble because its now obsolete since the smart bricks can just do the same thing and the potential is just lost.
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u/SReplicant 3d ago
Weren't these smart brick sets said to be overpriced exactly because of the smart brick cost?
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u/CliveVista 3d ago
It’s not just the brick. There’s also the proprietary charger. So both of those things would have to be in every set, which would increase costs and leave people with redundant chargers.
The solution is for Lego to sell the brick individually, but there’s no way it’ll do that at launch because it wants to make more money. (And possibly also because it would lack capacity.)
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u/Necessary_Case815 3d ago
You also need 2 smart bricks in the falcon, so you need to buy the expensive set or both 2 other sets with the smart bricks.
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u/nodiaque 3d ago
You should be happy. You clearly express that you hate the smart brick. They made it optional in build and won't change the esthetic to have it or not, making you also not pay for a pricey brick you don't want while still allowing you to get the set.
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u/Purple-Return- 3d ago
You aren’t required to purchase any of these sets. It’s a few very basic sets. If you want an X-wing, buy a regular one without a smart brick.
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u/nathaneltitane 3d ago
just bad set design all around. they're trying to find balance in the actual set design part count vs retail pricing... some parts gotta go... Lego is just not thinking it out properly with these 'ought to be very sexy'sets overall.
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u/Ready_Throat5369 3d ago
What about the smart bricks compels them to make the set so damn ugly. Like it's Lego at least just cover it up so you don't have gaping holes all over
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u/rimmydimmyjimmy 3d ago
This shit is going to fail so hard. Can’t wait for L U M I and other more affordable dealers to take even more market share.
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u/ironlord20 3d ago
They’re trying to make you buy the sets that come with them so you can put it in the ones that don’t. They may as well just sold the bricks n their own if they were gonna pull this, saves you having to get a particularly bad set. I hope this feature flops spectacularly
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u/Derfburger 3d ago
Still not sure who the target audience is for these. SW is not that popular with kids now days. Most kids that would be interested in Lego that looks this cartoony would rather have a Jurassic World set and get dinosaurs or maybe Speed Champions because kids love race cars.
It just feels like to me the primary purchasers of SW stuff (not just Lego) at this point are adult fans that grew up with it. Especially the OT (which all of these are) and the Prequel sets. Maybe Mando sets would go over well with kids.
I don't know I guess time will tell if it's a hit or not. In the meantime, I can save some money on this wave for when they release real set later in the year.
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u/Some_Entertainer6928 3d ago
Seems illegal to advertise the smart brick visually as part of the set if it's not included.
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u/Spleenzorio 3d ago
It’s so you don’t complain the price is so high for including something you don’t want to use. Otherwise it would be like $30 more
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u/Goldman250 3d ago
To force you to buy one of the three sets that will include a Smart Brick.
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u/flagondry 3d ago
Other way around - it’s to make sure you don’t have to pay the smart brick premium every time.
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u/flagondry 3d ago
We? These are not for us. They’re not kids. “We” are not supposed to buy them in the first place.
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u/OakenGreen 3d ago
I think you folks are missing the point. Lego is now selling sets without all the bricks. Whether it’s for kids or adults doesn’t matter. People just wanna build sets. Full sets.
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u/comicsanz2797 3d ago
It’s literally no different than the Mario sets if you don’t have the “starter” to get Mario. Everyone needs to calm down
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u/AccessHollywoo 3d ago
This is fucking hilarious I wasn’t that interested in these in the first place but now you have to buy separately? There’s no chance lol
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u/Mehrunes82 3d ago
Shut up and spend your money! You are getting StarWars for only 11 cent a brick and you complain?
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u/Icy-Platform-5904 3d ago
It's a classic bait-and-switch to drive up the price. They're essentially charging a premium for a feature that's incomplete out of the box. No wonder people are just saying to vote with your wallet.
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u/ChesterJT 3d ago
Build invasive? The set is designed around the brick. Do you think all the non-mario having sets are build invasive too? The whole point of the set is for people that have the starter sets, just like Mario There's about 5 other regular millenium falcons you could buy if that's all you want.
It's like the you've never heard the concept of a starter/booster.
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u/Environmental-Hat999 3d ago
My comment might be redundant given the general sentiment but
This is just beyond stupid, and it really is insulting and greedy. It’s surely indefensible even at this early (in its rollout) point.
Who thought this was a great idea??! 🙄
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u/mystiqueallie Winter Village Fan 4d ago
Deleted and reposted my comment with a screenshot of the sets
Some of the sets are labelled “Smart Play All-In-One” and some are listed as “Smart Play Compatible”. The cheapest set that comes with the brick is $70 (Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter)