Lego Classic 2021

[Megbricks]

Hey! Not sure of this is the right section to post in but felt like the more appropriate.

Is it just me or if for the first time in a long while am I verrrry excited for this:

  11013 - {? Creative Transparent Bricks ?} - Includes 500 pcs

500 pcs is a lot. For 29$ 

Probably  a lot of small pieces But I can’t wait to find out if these will be all trans clear or a mix of all transparent colors (which would be great). We need more transparent pieces. This would be (if confirmed) a great cheap way to get some. 
 

release date probably in February!

[TeriXeri]

Would be nice to have some neon colors and trans yellow for space builders.

Overall hoping for a good parts selection.

[Megbricks]

18 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Would be nice to have some neon colors and trans yellow for space builders.

Overall hoping for a good parts selection.

Yeah that would be great!! I am hoping also for bigger pieces like 2x4 In all the Trans colors. Come to think of it I don’t think that there are lots of 2 X 4 in trans something...That would be a great opportunity. I mean beeing in the classic theme it can’t be all small pieces. 

[Megbricks]

Sooooo when will we get to see these!!:) I just got 5 boxes of 11011 since they were so cheap. I noticed that compared to similar sets It doesn’t have much transparent pieces. They kept them all for 11013!!:)

[Megbricks]

It leaked... or was revealed over at the usual Place... à bit disappointing. Not that many transparent pieces. It is mixed with regular bricks. Then again this opens up the possibility of an eventual similar set with metallic bricks! 

[danth]

Not sure why this "theme" exists separateley from Creator. But anyway.

This set is so weird!

It's a monster. But it's also a car or an airplane complete with steering wheel and a place for a minifig. And it has plant/leaf parts, but they're used as wings. Is this a plant monster?

Weird, but in that way that I really like.

[Aanchir]

2 hours ago, danth said:

Not sure why this "theme" exists separateley from Creator. But anyway.

This set is so weird!

It's a monster. But it's also a car or an airplane complete with steering wheel and a place for a minifig. And it has plant/leaf parts, but they're used as wings. Is this a plant monster?

Weird, but in that way that I really like.

Classic has a very different design philosophy than Creator. Both Classic sets and Creator 3-in-1 sets do tend to use a lot of basic bricks and emphasize reusing the same bricks across different models, but Classic sets lean much more heavily into complete freeform building and "miscellaneous" brick boxes than kits curated for specific "A", "B", and "C" models representing some unified concept or category. A Creator 3-in-1 set might have builds for three different types of animal, three different types of vehicle, or three different types of building — but a Classic set is more likely to have instructions for miscellaneous subject matter like one animal, one vehicle, and one building.

Ironically, in the early 2000s, this was sort of inverted — "Creator" sets back then were mostly basic brick collections with extremely simple builds and an emphasis on freeform building, while the "Designer Sets", "Advanced Designer Sets", and "X-Pods" performed a more similar role to today's Creator 3-in-1 sets. However, the distinction between these themes wasn't helped by the same yellow box graphics being used from 2003 to 2006 across the entire "Make & Create" category, which included themes as wide-ranging as Creator, Designer Sets, Advanced Designer Sets, X-Pods, Technic (yes, really!) and Inventor Sets (which I guess were sort of, but not exactly, equivalent to LEGO Boost).

In 2007, LEGO effectively ditched this nightmare of confusingly-branded nested categories in favor of more distinct branding for each theme — the Designer Sets, Advanced Designer Sets, and X-Pods were rebranded as LEGO Creator, while the basic brick sets were rebranded first as "Creative Building", then as "Bricks & More", and finally as "LEGO Classic". By this point, the Inventor Sets theme had already ended, and Technic had already reverted to using its own distinct branding and graphics.

From what I can tell, the main objective behind the "LEGO Classic" brand name is to give basic brick buckets a clearer and more consistent branding of their own, since even today you still get parents complaining about how "everything is kits now" and how much they miss when it was just "buckets of random pieces". If they were labeled as "LEGO Creator", then people who looked them up online or at the LEGO Creator section in a store would still end up finding a confusing mix of more "specific/themed kits" and more miscellaneous basic brick assortments.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Aanchir

[danth]

13 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

From what I can tell, the main objective behind the "LEGO Classic" brand name is to give basic brick buckets a clearer and more consistent branding of their own

Ahh. Now that I've gone and looked at the Classics theme sets on Brickset, it's obvious. I forgot all those "bucket of bricks" sets were Classic.

I guess what I should have asked was, why is the Build Your Own Monster set not a Creator set, while the German Shepherd is?

[Aanchir]

1 hour ago, danth said:

Ahh. Now that I've gone and looked at the Classics theme sets on Brickset, it's obvious. I forgot all those "bucket of bricks" sets were Classic.

I guess what I should have asked was, why is the Build Your Own Monster set not a Creator set, while the German Shepherd is?

Good question! I'm not exactly sure what the reasons would've been behind that decision,  but I definitely feel like the "Build Your Own Monster" set uses parts that feel very assorted/miscellaneous (like the sort you might find on a Pick-A-Brick wall or an assorted brick bucket) and not carefully tailored to any particular sort of subject matter. By contrast, the German Shepherd seems like the part shapes and colors are more specifically chosen for how well they build a German Shepherd or other specific real-life creatures.

The packaging art for this set is also a lot different than Creator 3-in-1 packaging in the way it shows the loose parts in a pile, with thought bubbles around the model designs as if they're all just ideas of stuff you can build with those bricks. So even if it ends up including instructions, this packaging feels like it's more actively inviting people to just build whatever they like, however they like it.

To put that another way… if the designer of this set had intended this to be a Creator 3-in-1 set, I think they might've chosen less "random" parts and instead picked parts that reflect the features kids EXPECT to see on particular, familiar types of monster (like, say, a swamp monster, an ogre/troll, or a dragon/wyvern). And honestly, after typing that out, I realize that probably could have made for a very interesting set in its own right! But it would have probably have a considerably different look and play experience than what this set offers.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Aanchir

[danth]

20 hours ago, Aanchir said:

if the designer of this set had intended this to be a Creator 3-in-1 set, I think they might've chosen less "random" parts and instead picked parts that reflect the features kids EXPECT to see on particular, familiar types of monster (like, say, a swamp monster, an ogre/troll, or a dragon/wyvern)

That makes sense. I like how weird the builds turned out, so I guess that means I'm glad it's Classic and not Creator.

Ironically, I'd say this Classic set encourages more Creat-ivity than it would as a Creator set.

[Aanchir]

1 hour ago, danth said:

That makes sense. I like how weird the builds turned out, so I guess that means I'm glad it's Classic and not Creator.

Ironically, I'd say this Classic set encourages more Creat-ivity than it would as a Creator set.

Oh, for certain. I think the biggest strength of LEGO Creator from an "encouraging creativity" standpoint is that the more complex or specific builds can help to expand people's repertoire of building techniques and ways of using particular parts. Or as some of my art teachers might've put it, Creator encourages more creativity with the FORMAL parts of the creative process (i.e. how many different types of parts you're able to use or ways you're able to use them), while Classic tends to encourage more creativity with the CONCEPTUAL parts of the creative process (i.e. how many different types of subject matter or ideas you can come up with to portray through your builds), despite using a more basic slate of parts.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Aanchir

[TeriXeri]

6 hours ago, danth said:

Ironically, I'd say this Classic set encourages more Creat-ivity than it would as a Creator set.

I agree there for that polybag.

As for Classic theme sets themselves, the huge color variations they have does allow great mini builds, but generally Creator sets, while still having lots of colors, work a bit better for larger cohesive builds.

But comparing the 2015 and 2021 larger Classic sets, overall looks like LEGO has toned down the number of different colors a bit to have more parts of the same colors.

I still personally think the 2018 Building Bigger Thinking sets were the best so far, but partly because of the generic minifigs+accesoires included.

But I do applaud LEGO for at least trying different "themed" Classic sets like wheels, windows, eyes, lightbricks, transparent sets, and the return of the €5 "colored" small sets. (green/blue in 2020 , white in 2021)

 

The more I look at the 2021 11013 Creative Transparent Bricks , the more I start to like it.

Also 11014 Bricks and Wheels does seem to use some newer and different colored wheels again, so variation is good.

Edited December 16, 2020 by TeriXeri