I have a theory about people who develop software.

Amelia Bellamy-Royds :progress:

@megmac @Chigaze @linux_mclinuxface I don't think I ever had Lego kits (there were some bought for my older sister, but it was all a big bin by my time), but I personally find it sad that Lego seems to have turned into 3D jigsaw puzzle kits instead of free-form creativity tools.

Like, I understand why the company wants it that way: They want you to buy more for each project instead of re-using pieces. But it's not the same.

Kyle Davis

@AmeliasBrain @megmac @Chigaze it’s also easier for them to do licensed stuff: if they make a Star Wars kit they can sell to Lego and Star Wars geeks.

Can’t do that with just bits.

Paul Turnbull 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 🇵🇸

@linux_mclinuxface @AmeliasBrain @megmac To be fair while their front line marketing is the kits you can still by straight blocks of all types. I know a number of people with large block collections.

Kyle Davis

@Chigaze @AmeliasBrain @megmac very true. The kits are just so much more marketable and marketed.

To put it another way: A bucket of bricks is something you buy for yourself, a kit is something someone buys for you.

Meg

@linux_mclinuxface @Chigaze @AmeliasBrain I definitely mostly got kits when I was a kid but to be honest Lego wasn't my biggest "building block toy." I was actually way more into Construx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construx), and a lot more of my freestyle building was with those (though they were also kits). It kinda seems like, even aside from the bigger emphasis on branded stuff, there's also a big loss of variety of this kind of alternative building toy.

Either way when I was a kid I don't think most of the kits were branded ones. They were mostly just generic space ships and castles and towns. I kinda wonder if that also still felt more freeform-able since "Lego Millennium Falcon" feels a lot more shelf worthy than "Lego Space Ship no.204".

Kyle Davis

@megmac @Chigaze @AmeliasBrain oh man, I had some construx but were definitely a lego family. I recall building rather gigantic swords with construx. We’d fight with them and they fall to bits in a satisfying crunch upon impact.

We also had quite a few Capsela as well but I understand that was rather obscure.

Capsela - Wikipedia

(en.m.wikipedia.org)

Kyle Davis

So: my theory went out the window.

I was going to guess developers would be mostly in the "used the bits for own purpose" category like me.

I know as a kid I would go find the kit with the best bits, and literally throw the instructions in the bin within minutes of getting home.

Oh well.

freeformz 🏳️‍🌈

@linux_mclinuxface always follow the instructions the first time. After that - build whatever.

Kyle Davis

@freeformz I got a lot of that response.

I recall being older and helping my younger cousin put together a kit and watching him follow the instructions carefully and thinking "really? people _use_ those?"

Chris Huck :freecad: :ubuntu:

@linux_mclinuxface I never got any #Lego sets as a kid. However, I received #Construx and an #Erector set. In both cases, I built all of the things in the instructions, which is how I learned how the pieces interact. However, I later learned that some of the pieces in the Erector set fit with the Construx… So, from then on, I combined the two into lots of my own creations. I often wish I still had some of both to recreate the cool stuff I made as a kid.

Kyle Davis

@chrishuck huh. I had no idea that construx interacted with erector sets. I had a little bit of erector stuff.

(Also, several folks have brought up construx… I thought it was obscure! Guess not, at least here!)