The Great LEGO Plague of 2002
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- čas přidán 12. 01. 2023
- 2022 was a pretty neat year for LEGO, but it can't hold a candle to the absolute insanity that was 2002. Let's hop in our Hypno Cruisers and jump back 20 years to explore what I like to call "The Great LEGO Plague of 2002"!
Photography and other resources used in this video: drive.google.com/drive/folder...
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I created the photography, stop motion animation, and music in this video. Original artwork by Brett Halland. Thanks for watching! - Zábava
What a perfect video topic for a Friday the 13th!
We've got a double header weekend for Slugger fans - new video today and livestream tomorrow! Hope everyone has a great weekend and thanks for letting ole Slugger be a part of it. ❤
The livestream is going to be on Saturday, January 14th at 5 PM EDT right here on CZcams!
Wedge, Plate are in almost every set from cars, ships boats and houses to animals and they come in much more variants than those bricks
Please don't drop your video quality, so few CZcamsrs make such high effort stuff.
there is one happening now with the lego "dots" where all sets seems to have these useless 1x1 tiles now and showing no signs of stoping
Merry Christmas!
I don't see it as a plague so much as a first attempt at expanding the palate of shapes to include more curves. Lego's often done this where they make a change that's good, but take it too far and have to learn moderation all over again. Galidore was them overdoing the success of Bionicle. Recently they've been overdoing the decision to make sets targeting adults.
Yeah I totally agree, recently they have focused a little too much on the 18+ aspect of sets, it’s not bad it’s just we haven’t gotten many battle packs and mini builds, not that I like them but I feel other people might miss out because all the sets are $80 and up.
This pattern makes a lot of sense now that you point it out - it does seem to make sense within the context of them intentionally trying to constantly innovate while also preserving what works. Seems like a side effect of that innovation?
If think you are wrong 18+ sets are not the issue it is more an issue of seeking bigger and more expensive sets the hulk buster doesn’t need to cost $500 it could cost $300 and be smaller and with an excellent build what should make a set 18+ is the target audience and building techniques not the $ they can make good $35 18+ sets and they do but only as gwp outside the bonnonical line
Well, you know how the saying goes: "The Plague is in the eye of the beholder"! 😉
@@classiclegotanker4235 18+ sets main issue is that they are marketed as 18+ set and not being more sophisticated than 7+ set.
At least botanical collections are amazing partpacks.
Honesty as a moc builder, I’d say that these pieces are actually useful if you want to create rockwork or terraim
I could see that! I just hate having my curves and slopes touching though, haha. 😅
That one very specific piece on the thumbnail tells me what this is gonna be about.
This guy knows what's up! ^^
Thanks Solar Sands
The PRODUCTION QUALITY on this. I admire your determination
Thank you very much! 😊
I don’t actually dislike this part, but the “lumpy” stacking problem is VERY real. Especially compared with other parts. I’d say the plates with angles are a better example of what they should do, like how in the new Galaxy Explorer they can make perfect angles
Dang, I liked those parts! I definitely agree that the printed versions are often tricky. Some of them that were vaguely decorated (made with some sort of style that didn't insist on being a specific thing) definitely gave me creative parameters to work around. Even as a kid, sometimes limiting myself to two or three colors not of my choosing was fun, especially if I managed to find other printed bricks with the same limiting colors.
Haha, I'm definitely not the best builder out there, so maybe this is more about me not being able to adapt and innovate with new pieces. 😅
Hi. I got to know your channel through Solar Sands and I just wanted to say it's astoundingly beautiful the work you put into these videos.
As someone who has never cared much for Legos I've gotten a whole other level of appreciation for it.
Cheers
Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the videos! There's a huge back catalogue of stuff there, if you're looking for more. 😊
I absolutely love how your videos start with a broad tone about the state of Lego, only to narrow down to very specific subjects and their history. Really makes them feel unique.
Thank you! I try to tie all my scripts back into the large tapestry of LEGO's history, if I can! 😊
@@RRSlugger I appreciate these retrospectives! Your chill vibes also really helps making them a pleasant experience.
btw, forgot to answer the question at the end XD: My least liked lego piece is more so an entire category...WINDSHIELDS. There are sooooo many different windshield models(many of them printed). They come from cars/ships so their range of use narrows down to making other cars/ships, and I don't really do many of those. In the end, I just end up with a massive tray of loose windshields that have no use for the MOCs I make.
Absolutely fascinating video. I'm so glad you did the research into these parts - learning the percentages was mind-boggling!
Hey, thanks for checking out the video Cheesey! Didn't expect to see you here. 😊
I know a fellow LEGO parts nerd when I see one, haha. I too was blown away at how widespread this part adoption was in as little as a year!
I think the smaller curved parts work way better, since you can get similar shaping to these parts without being nearly as hyperspecific
As a fan of the Alpha Team theme which heavily used these bricks, I actually love them and have a lot of nostalgia for that era of LEGO.
I respect your preference for the blockier pieces; they’re very charming. I personally like to see these as Lego saying “hey look! We figured out how to make more aerodynamic looking stuff!” And with themes like Star Wars and Racers, the need for sleeker “more realistic” shapes rose. I personally can’t imagine where we’d be without these molds.
Glad to see all the effort you put into your videos get recognized by a bigger creator. 🎉
2002 Is when I was the ideal age for these sets. The white blue shark and orange variants haunted my lego bin for years. Everything I built was basically organic sloping spaceships.... now I know why
Been thinking this my entire life. Thank you for the vindication.
I love this part! It's really difficult to make compound curves in Lego, so I've found it to be a nice shortcut!
I'm a rampant mocbuilder so they come in handy, perhaps you simply don't have the same utility for them.
I never thought that hard about this part before, but you're totally right. I never really use it and finding that one of a pair of printed ones is always super annoying.
It took me two decades to finally understand why I stopped liking Lego as much in 2002, but I think I can now put my finger on it! 😅
I'm not even a Lego fan but for some reason I love these Lego videos. I am a fan of engineering and architecture
In 2006 I went to the Lego store at Disney in Orlando, and I was excited to see wedges in all shapes and sizes and colors in the brick wall.
I got home and to my dismay I realized they didn’t bother to have pairs in the brick wall. To this day I am stuck with handfuls of useless wedges.
Honestly, if you can't find a way to incorporate these pieces, that might be more of an issue with creativity than anything.
I get where you're coming from, and the sock metaphor is spot on. Lego blatantly overused that part in 2002. Good vid!
I've always liked the turntable and lever, although I'm not sure if either of them justify having a unique connection type to pull off their function. Surely you can't dislike the lever but like, say, the steering wheel. I'd definitely like to see a video covering the topic and reasonings behind it. You always have an interesting perspective.
Haha, I am blown away by how many people want me to talk about those two pieces! It feels like every 3 or 4 comments mentions them - I guess I'll be making another video sometime, haha. 😅
Solarsands sent me, your videos are some of the best I’ve seen on all of CZcams
I am so glad someone with an audience finally said this! I have tons of awkward curved slopes (especially the 2x6 that you highlighted) that I can’t use for anything I regularly build. They just sit in a big bag at the bottom of my “parts I don’t use” tote.
0:05 first appearance of the crane in the R.R. Slugger Cinematic Universe
2002 was definitely a watershed year! I think we both went into our Lego dark ages around the same time, as my lego collection takes a nosedive after this year, hitting rock bottom in 2008 and doesn't come back up again until 2012. This piece may very well have played a small subconscious part in that path
I never realized it back then and only recently really understood what it was about LEGO from this era that irked me so much. I still had plenty of sets from 2002 - 2005 when I was younger, but there was always something intangible about the build quality of "plagued" sets that I could never put my finger on.
There’s definitely a certain kind of magic in the blocky look to things before these part came in and the style started to change.
I grew up in this era and always found these pieces left in the bin because you couldn’t do anything with them except make a car or plane which is usually what they came with originally
I guess, a lot of this just relates to what parts and designs somebody is used to. I recently discovered a similar revolution 25 years earlier. In 1977 Lego introduced inverted slopes and those got used not only everywhere but also in masses from the start. The large scale Fire Brigade 218 uses 28 of them as mudguards, which is around 10% of the entire set. And the sea plane 371 has more inverted slopes than all other pieces combined. I could rarely find any set from that year without the new piece.
That is fascinating! I *love* inverted slope pieces, so I definitely should look into that! 😮
@@RRSlugger however I need to correct myself a bit: They already appear in 1976, but for 77 it's (according to bricklink) over 30 sets (which is probably close to "all" back then…). 218 is still second in quantity for the red 2x2 inverted, closely behind the VW T1.
The UCS Slave 1 is pretty amazing because of these pieces, honestly
Set designers probably just wanted to use the new parts. Think about it. Your entire career at lego, you’ve been building and designing with angular bricks and then *BOOM* you suddenly are able to convey all this new shaping to builders. It’s just like dark teal returning as a colour. Everyone wanted to try it out.
The pairs argument is pretty good. Especially since lego has produced far more of the pieces that need pairs as apposed to the plain 1 angled ones. However when you hold the argument about how much space the bricks take up under scrutiny, I’d say it falls apart because there are tons of bricks without a large amount of studs ontop or even none. They usually don’t take up as much space however they do sometimes. Tiles are a very good example of this.
And onto the point of “they are usually placed at the top, in the front of things”, lots of lego parts are catered towards one purpose. Like your not gunna use a turbine engine for much other then a turbine engine or a helicopter propeller other then a propeller. however I will give you that it homogenized the part real-estate.
Lastly onto “the look of the builds beyond this point”, this was around when lego stopped using photography and begun using CGI. It begun with lines like bionicle and by 06, pretty much every set had it. These early CGI renders mostly look pretty bad and the gleam the curves gave on the CGI looked atrocious.
Sorry this comment was pretty long. It was a good video however I’d say the wrath of overdetailing was much worse personally. Probably because I grew up around lego right before it.
Yup, this is about where I'm also standing on the subject. I enjoy angular-shaped designs like Slugger which is why I'm attracted to older themes too, but I grew up with Lego during the latter half of the 2000s up to 2015, where Lego had found much better use and moderation of these pieces. Simply, I can't imagine a theme like Aqua Raiders, Atlantis, or Space Police III *looking right* without their more tasteful and intentional usage of curved or sloped pieces. And I'd argue they're just as easy to MOC for as most other themes!
Yeah, it's annoying when something is being over-used in places it shouldn't be, but that shouldn't be the fault of the piece itself, right?
Also yeah, I can't fathom what the problem might be with the levers and small turntable plate. Even if the argument is "they are two pieces that can only be attached to each other," I don't see the issue when that's literally the only way one *could* design pieces in the same size and functionality? Let alone the fact they always come pre-assembled together anyways. If pieces like these + the steering wheel were something totally extraneous I might see the complaint, but they're so basic and extremely utilitarian that I feel their functions outweigh "uh but how can I take the piece apart and use them individually?"
At the end of the day Modern Lego's spamming of micro-details & several extraneous+unnecessary colors (arguably making sets LEAGUES harder to rebuild into something else) and their focus on "Mature display pieces" (garbage for insecure normies to clutter their shelves with) is what Lego's *truly* plagued with today.
No need to apologize for the long comment - it was worth the read!
You're probably right about set designers being excited to use these pieces - I can only imagine how it must have felt to introduce curves to LEGO in such a big way!
I appreciate your criticisms of my arguments here, but really the 42% adoption rate *within a single year* is the main takeaway. Sure, a turbine is always going to be a turbine or a giant 8x16 tile is going to go on top of something, but were either of those parts included in 42% of the retail System sets the year they were introduced?
*That* is why I consider it a plague; the limitations of the part itself PLUS the staggering adoption rate. One without the other isn't nearly as significant. 😊
jesus christ im getting so old, thank you for this ultra specific video
Now I want to see a video about the turn tables and the levers
Hahaha, guess I'll have to talk about them sometime!
When he showed the piece he was talking about I was like: "OH COME ON!! YOU GOT TO ADMIT THIS PIECE IS COOL!!"
No really, I love that piece and how it's been used in many sets. From jets, to spaceships, that piece is AWESOME. But this video was a fun analysis!
Solar sands anyone?
The Jerma985 of the Lego community.
Always a good day for a Slugger video, and even better day with a deep dive part analysis!
Thanks for putting a finger on what's been bothering me with those 2002+ sets. I don't mind curved bricks and all, but this specific part really was award.
There are so many LEGO videos on CZcams, but you're videos are always unique and fun to watch!
Yeah the pairing of prints on that part is what sold me on your argument!
Every attack of the clones set to my knowledge has this piece except for the tusken raider encounter! Great video
The worst offender that comes to mind is Darth Maul’s sith infiltrator that came out in 2007. It’s a nostalgic set personally, but it is one cursed smooth ship
You need to hit the algorithms man, totally underrated! So much work into these videos!
This channel is a gem
Just found your channel, lol. I'm a life long Lego fan and builder. 20 years ago in 2002, I was 19 years old, and barely buying Lego at the time, I had my childhood collection in storage, and didn't start collecting again until around 2005/2006, but thank you for the awesome and informative video. I never really thought about what it was like back then
Just came from solar sands, and I got to agree you are the perfect human being.
Another amazing and eloquent video as usual, I hope you keep it up!
Your videos are criminally underrated, I always find myself drawn in by whatever simple magic you do with your editing and music as well
Thank you! I always start my editing process by synching up the entire script to the appropriate music tracks. I feel like some folks treat music as wallpaper, something that’s there but you don’t really notice it, but if you spend extra time and care during this phase of editing I find you can really improve the pacing and flow of the video. 😊
@@RRSlugger What you're doing here is really quietly amazing, the slow realization that I am watching something arranged so well is an uncanny sensation.
Weirdly enough, this is one of my favourite pieces.
No, those two peices at the end are pure gold and ingrained in my childhood memories of when I used to play with lego.
i love how much contempt and disgust u are capable of harboring for four shapes of plastic chunk. impressively well-reasoned, too! i often feel like the things people cant stand about their hobbies can be as interesting and meaningful as the things they love.
Thank you! Indeed, it comes from a place of passion! ❤️️
great video! keep up the work man
I have to agree with you. I've a few others but this one was indeed so prominent
I *do* have a least favorite LEGO piece, several in fact, and only seldom mentioned in social media over the past few years. But now you've got me writing a 4-page document minimum about each of them. Or so I hope.
The Maniac 4 Bricks Manifesto! 😄
@@RRSlugger that's the alternate title for my book Bizarre LEGO
This video tickled my brain in the right places, loved it
here from solar sands, ill definitely be sticking around :)
same
This is one of my all times favorite pieces, but this video is still great, lol
Wow I just subscribed to you a minute ago
Perfect timing!! Welcome to the channel! ❤️️
just came from solar sands and subbed because omg these video quality is so good!!!
This is a fantastic video!
I love how you compared it to the actual Black Plague to just show how awful the brick really is. The pain is still felt today with the occasional offset pieces that go missing on some sets.
I remember getting several Lego sets for my birthday in 2002 and throughout the year. It wasn't until sometime later that I definitely felt like something was different compared to the older ones that I had, but I didn't think about it much as a kid. One look at that piece and I agree that it was the big change to everything.
I've been watching a lot of your videos lately and have to say this video is the *creme de la creme*
Thank you! I'm super proud of this one. 😊
Solar Sands was totally right - this man is SO DRAMATIC about LEGOes and I absolutely LOVE it!
This is the most suspenseful damn video
Your videos are fantastic, great work sir 👏
This is absolutely the best Lego channel too ever exists
I became conscious around 2002 or 2003 so the Lego I got as a kid already used very big, specialized parts in almost every set. So every time I saw Lego that was released before I was born it felt different, I could never really say why but I think this video really showcases why my feeling is warranted
ohhh that thing. yeah I remember that. loved em as a kid.
As an '02 baby and who was obsessed with Lego Star Wars growing up, I loved that piece! it fit so well with making space-ships and other planes, I admit I am biased, but I also loved it when I found a new piece in a set, I always loved seeing how they'd be used and fit, and when building my own stuff I loved figuring out uses for all the niche pieces. Great video nonetheless!!!
Great video! Keep up the good work! 👍🏻
Fortunately these curved bricks are now useful and with the introduction of LEGO Ideas we have creative people coming up with good uses for them. For example, the LEGO Titanic uses them to create the complicated angles of the ship’s hull.
Exactly. I remember when I was little, half of the excitement of getting a new LEGO set was the allure of making alternate builds with the pieces you get. Now most modern sets have pieces that only work for that build.
It's a good day when slugger drops a vid
you are the greatest youtuber of all time i think.
using the black plague as a metric for the usage of a specific piece in sets is just beyond brilliant
Great video as always! I think Lego Star Wars is also worth to mention. I guess these rounded slopes were designed with star wars in mind and it really benefited from it. Attack of the clones was released the same year, and i dont think this is a coincidence. I think a good example is the slave 1 from 2002 vs the first one from 2000. The 2002 version is way better. But it is still strange it seems like they forced this piece to be used in so many sets where it just looks awful. Keep up the great work! You have become one of my favourite CZcamsr over the last few months! Greetings from germany :)
I'd have thought it woul be the other way round in that the Lego designers were excited to make use of a new sort of piece and took a few years of refinement to really get to grips with it.
Hello from Canada! I was actually in Berlin about a decade ago and loved it! ❤️️
Honestly, I definitely should have at least mentioned LEGO Star Wars here because it certainly had a huge influence on the creation of these pieces. 👍
Congrats on getting 10k subs, you surely deserve it ❤
Quite frankly the best Lego CZcamsr
this was a really great video! also those lever and spinny circle pieces at the end you mention were some of my favourites as a child haha
The more a model has pieces that give it a non-studded finish, the better it looks, but the less you can build something else with. In the old days, the boxes would suggest many other configurations you could assemble the pieces you just bought, but these days, it feels more like a set should be assembled, and remain assembled forever, except maybe for storage. With all the custom pieces, printed pieces, and specific colors, it's harder to mix and match sets to build new stuff. Lego can be considered model kits more than construction sets now, I feel, and that plague might well be the cause of that.
Glad to see someone really pick apart this specific clade of molds. My least favorite parts are Lego's mainline dinosaurs. I prefer brick-built dinos, or at least a compromise like Avatar's animals and Ninjago's dragons with pretty membranes and molded heads on otherwise intricate, bricky bodies.
I will say, though.... simplistic construction aside, those 2002 racers and Alpha Team sets certainly LOOK cool. Just a little ahead of their time, considering we can accomplish sleek shapes using smaller, more versatile parts now.
Your videos are so fascinating, I love its. You are both a time machine and encyclopedia.
Thank you! I try to do my homework before writing a video like this, but even I make mistakes. 😊
I don't know much about Lego but this commitment is exhilarating
Another good video!
I have a soft spot for part 41747 lol 2002 was when my family was able to afford buying us new sets and the lego island 2 sets were some of the first sets we got. That part was everywhere and thus was a huge part of my childhood
Curves and the updated browns and grays completely changed the look of Lego in such a short period of time. It’s a shame that it changed so much but it really opened up so many new possibilities and a completely new style. They were essential to Lego replicating many real and fictional things, just look at how much 2002 and beyond Star Wars sets vary from their earlier counterparts. LEGO lost its crude charm but unfortunately I’m not sure it would’ve survived if it hadn’t.
I don’t think there was any mandate though. Designers were simply excited to play with this new style of design. Even with the far more limited inventory of curved parts it must’ve been eye opening and they likely wanted to use them wherever possible, the same way designers now for example like to use new colors wherever possible.
The fact that I immediately guessed the topic tells me I need to take a break from Lego CZcams
Never really thought of this brick too much, but your examples brought back memories of anger and frustration as I realize that I have the same piece but not the opposite version to complete a build
this is my favorite video.
Thank you! ❤️
I was skeptical but you really brought me around
3:18 I like to use these for landscaping, vehicles, and perhaps other details you simply could not get on a larger moc
My mom wasn't even born in 2002
…there’s something about the math here that doesn’t add up. 😂😅
As someone who actually likes those parts, I begrudgingly have to agree with your points. I think to be fair, they did add a lot of much needed 'modern' angles and shaping to propel the toy into the 'not _just_ a blocky building toy' category that has paved way for its current mainstream status as a collectible toy brand. Interestingly, I think there's a similar 'plague' going on right now, and that is the modern tiles. They're used to smooth off virtually every single surface in every set and I feel Lego might be over doing it just a bit.
You very well could be right - perhaps this was a necessary evil to secure LEGO's longevity. Unfortunately, I think the sets of 2002 bore the full brunt of it... 😟
And I'm in full agreement with the over-tiling going on as well. Sometimes it can be nice, but when you have a Speed Champion set with some 200+ pieces and only a dozen or so exposed studs in the end, it starts to drift from the LEGO aesthetic I find appealing.
I love you RR Slugger
Solid thoughts.
I think Mars Mission utilized compound curved slopes to great effect. They gave so much form and flow to the sets.
This is Best background music on CZcams
I actually loved those parts when I was a kid. I loved to design sleek aerodynamic cars and the parts that allowed for that were very rare. You often had to use boat, plane, even spaceships parts to obtain something that resembled an actual race car. I also liked lego's more blocky car design's made of simple slopes, but for race cars I always felt I needed something more. I had plenty of fun figuring out how to use all the "new special parts" when I was busy creating my next ultimate racer.