My how Lego has changed

[AshleyAshes]

Keep in mind that my main view here is based on the Town/City sets, since that's what I had as a kid and that's what I'm buying these days. Since there's about a 12 year gap from when I played with lego as a kid and now, that was a lot of time for Lego to evolve and so it suprises me.

Minifigs: When I was a kid, Lego was only just evolving from the 'Smiley Guy' face, to more elaborate stuff like 'Smiley Guy With Sun Glasses', 'Smiley Lipstick Girl', and 'Smiley Guy With The Extra Cool Looking Sun Glasses'. Now my minifigures have a huge range of faces and I think it's pretty neat. ...Though I'm mildly creeped out by the children's unbendable minifig legs.

Stuff got big! Especially road vehicles. When I was a kid most vehicles were 4 studs wide and if they were 'really big' they were six studs wide. Often it'd be a four stud wide cab with a six stud wide back end. Even the truck in Victory Cup Racers, which featured a truck that carried race cars was only four studs wide. Now all the 'large vehicles' I have are six studs across. Those passenger planes scare me even, eight studs wide? Lego passengers able to ride in a vehicle SIDE BY SIDE? That's madness I tell you!

The 'tropes' of construction has changed. This is particularly true for vehicles, I remember when most vehicles used some head light blocks, that 4x5 a car chassis thing, two doors and these were used in some variation to make a truck or car.

SNOT. Okay, I'm liking snot, so far three sets have used it for vehicle noses, I've liked it so far and I can see how it can be expanded and used in more ways. When I was a kid, those head light bricks or a few other bricks were all that could do that and they usually were just for slapping on light and grille pieces. Now you can have much nicer vehicle fronts just by making simple use of SNOT.

But some things havn't changed, probably the two most important things. 1) Every Lego set I build, teaches me more about building Lego and gives me more ideas on how to build new things. 2) If you don't like something about a lego set, you can always change that. It's Lego, they arn't models, they are construction pieces and you can form the pieces to your will. Right now I'm working with LDD to redesign my passenger train. I don't like the Bombardier Talant look that the train has and I want something a tad more 'classic' with a locomotive at the front and two passenger cars. I'm designing it based only on what pieces the set gives me and what PaB can give me access to.

That said, what happened to when the back of the boxes had examples of other things built using the set? :(

But probably the most impressive change? The Internet. There was no Pick A Brick, no hoards of sites with MoCs and design tips. No people trading discount information to help keep the hobby affordable. Back in my day, the closest thing I had was the 1995 Idea Book and that thing seemed obsolete even when I got it in 1995.