Lego Thread - Because KF wasn't already autistic enough.

[Humongous Faggotous]

I've recently gotten back into Lego and (after my initial weirdo alarm went away) have been enjoying Jang's reviews. Can someone enlighten me on the drama with him? He seems mostly normal, but I keep seeing people mention him being skitzo and some kind of accident from years ago. I didn't see anything about it in the highlights or search, could someone enlighten me?

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

Brickshelf is shutting down on March 1st due to Kevin Loch's death, so archive archive archive.
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This is sad, but hardly surprising. I remember even in its heyday, Brickshelf was constantly up and down. That said, I'd love to call out one of my favorite discoveries and AFOL builders, Hateshi Itou aka Hachi:

https://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=hachi

and his web site:

http://www.hachitore.sakura.ne.jp/ce_top.html

I think I found his work through LUGnet back in the day (talk about another dinosaur in the community), but I was constantly impressed by his design style and professional photography. In the days before google translate, flickr, etc., he was one of the best castle builders, especially outside Europe, even if I couldn't crack the Japanese moon runes back then. Most of his work still holds up, even if his output has slowed. The pure verticality defies a lot of builds today from LEGO (with a few exceptions like Eiffel Tower, Avengers Tower, etc.). I also loved the (presumably photoshopped) backdrops that really evoked the 80's and 90's LEGO catalogs.

Thankfully, his website has most of his brickshelf content, but it will be a sad day when brickshelf goes down. That focused silo of content, even though it's hard to find, is really not much harder to find content than say, a facebook group or trying to find anything on insta or tiktok. Likely RIP to one of the old ones. (It will be interesting to see if someone picks up the domain, I really hope it doesn't get squatted.)
Edit: forgot to put his name in, fixed. Added some extra commentary.

 

[Space Police]

Thankfully, his website has most of his brickshelf content, but it will be a sad day when brickshelf goes down. That focused silo of content, even though it's hard to find, is really not much harder to find content than say, a facebook group or trying to find anything on insta or tiktok. Likely RIP to one of the old ones. (It will be interesting to see if someone picks up the domain, I really hope it doesn't get squatted.)

I've been going through all of Brickshelf's space builds and archiving all my favourites (I think I've saved about 500 images in 3 days). I've found some really cool ones, though there's lots of mediocre stuff (probably built by some kid or a novice builder, though I can't get mad at that because there's passion behind it). I tend to use Flickr for my Lego needs; lots of the oldfags like Karf Oohlu are still there and there's generally a really high standard of quality. I don't know what the community on Instagram is like because I refuse to touch social media, but it's generally sad to see how the community in general has shifted from being MOC-focused to being consoomer-focused; not to get all nostalgic and whatever but it seems the peak MOC output was 2007-2015 since many builds from then are very creative and use such advanced building techniques they still hold up today.
Also any recs for space/sci-fi build pages?

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

Also any recs for space/sci-fi build pages?

Looking through my old links, most of the old space sites are dead. Quite a few of the guys I used to follow ended up working for LEGO (and often took social media down). Agree on Flickr, though I know a lot of people left when they changed owners and usage permissions.

If I dig up anything later, I'll post it. The really annoying thing with social media is it really isn't that social- things end up in weird, private silos that just kind of rot away.

 

[Yours Truly 2095]

Any of you autists have Cobi sets? I have such an urge to stockpile their armed forces and historical sets for my future children. Are they like Lego where they discontinue shit for no reason?

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

Any of you autists have Cobi sets? I have such an urge to stockpile their armed forces and historical sets for my future children. Are they like Lego where they discontinue shit for no reason?

I'm not even on the spectrum, but I do have a good chunk of Cobi sets I've just picked up over the last year or two. Their tolerances between bricks seem to be tighter than LEGO, which is impressive! Usually the clone brands are all loosey goosey or just all over the place (some loose, some tight, nothing quite fitting right). They are weird in that they do a lot of special elements (especially for masking studs/knobs), and for things like aircraft cockpits. In that way, it almost feels like a hybrid between Lego and gunpla (or even model building).

Pretty much any company in this brick space discontinues product. It's just not practical to continually put out the same product year on year. (Once the mold runs out, the set is discontinued, etc., and I get the feeling some of the Cobi molds get chucked more quickly.)

That said, the secondary market for old Cobi sets isn't as cutthroat as LEGO (excluding their short-run limited editions). You can still buy 5+ year old Cobi sets easily in the secondary market. My general advice is if you're in the market for something unique, like the new SR-71 or the German flying wing, or even the top line stuff like the Bismarck or the 1:12 tanks... get them before they're gone. If you're after a ~1:30ish Panzer (rather than a specific one or specific camo), they have about 20 variations over the last decade.

Honestly I'm looking forward to their Roman line (some of it is already out) and their Napoleonic War line just announced.

 

[Space Police]

I'm not even on the spectrum, but I do have a good chunk of Cobi sets I've just picked up over the last year or two. Their tolerances between bricks seem to be tighter than LEGO, which is impressive! Usually the clone brands are all loosey goosey or just all over the place (some loose, some tight, nothing quite fitting right).

Mega is also really tight now. I remember the Spider-Man 3 Mega sets were a total nightmare to keep together, but the MOTU sets and the space rover from a few years back were pretty difficult to take apart. That SR-71 looks really cool, so thanks for the tip. I got a few of Cobi's Roman sets around 2013/2014, and they were typical clone Lego sets, but it seems they've really improved.

 

[Fat Gollum]

I remember in November hearing rumors that there would be a lego simpsons set for 2025 but I haven't heard anything about it since then.

https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-the-simpsons-rumoured-play-it-safe-2025/

 

[The Lawgiver]

I got the sonic tails SA2 mech lego today, not the worst but not the best either. Still, it's oneof the few sets that visually interested me even with it's minor issues. Does that shit where it stretches out the steps via doing identical one twice for mirrored parts instead of just having an instruction to mirror them. I'd sreccomend finding a way to fill in th eback to be more substantial, and replace the grey seat and wings with brown and black bricks respectively. I specifically ordered some parts from lego's site around the same time I ordered the set to fix it myself since I saw all of the parts I needed were available in black and brown.


There's some other thingsI'd fix if I had better resources at my disposal (like the feet) but having actually accurately colored wings and gunmetal foot vents really helps the set look better and closer to the source.
No I don't know why they packed metal sonic in with him but it's FINE.
Also glad to see some bionicle-esque technic parts survive to this day.

 

[Space Police]

I got the sonic tails SA2 mech lego today, not the worst but not the best either. Still, it's oneof the few sets that visually interested me even with it's minor issues. Does that shit where it stretches out the steps via doing identical one twice for mirrored parts instead of just having an instruction to mirror them. I'd sreccomend finding a way to fill in th eback to be more substantial, and replace the grey seat and wings with brown and black bricks respectively. I specifically ordered some parts from lego's site around the same time I ordered the set to fix it myself since I saw all of the parts I needed were available in black and brown.

View attachment 6924209View attachment 6924213View attachment 6924217
There's some other thingsI'd fix if I had better resources at my disposal (like the feet) but having actually accurately colored wings and gunmetal foot vents really helps the set look better and closer to the source.
No I don't know why they packed metal sonic in with him but it's FINE.
Also glad to see some bionicle-esque technic parts survive to this day.

I wish it had the number, the Tails logo on the wings, and those little red triangles, but that would have resulted in lots of stickers and people would have complained. I also wish they figured out how to make it triple-change into a plane without any partsforming at all. I came up with something decent that only requires changing the wings, but they could have used round pins instead of axles to avoid that.

 

[The Lawgiver]

I wish it had the number, the Tails logo on the wings, and those little red triangles, but that would have resulted in lots of stickers and people would have complained. I also wish they figured out how to make it triple-change into a plane without any partsforming at all. I came up with something decent that only requires changing the wings, but they could have used round pins instead of axles to avoid that.

Same here, it feels too stripped down without all the shit that's tied to it's design. It doesn't even turn into a plane or car and the stock photos and early review copy people have the legs default stance placed in a wrong/awkward way while what's clearly meant to be a dash/hover mode stand in is treated as "plane mode"
I think I talked about this earlier but it also oddly uses the sonic the fighters tails logo print again from the workshop/tornado set I don't have, and it's weird they didn't handle the wing logos similar tot he tailfin logo just being the circle disc part from the workshop on the normal tornado. There's some other weird choices with some bits that fucking confuse me with this thing but that would have easily been doable with like one or 2 parts swaps.
I'm just glad the set CAN actually stand the way it's meant to and the stock photos are just weirdly hasbro levels of lazy for this one set apparently.
I just realized the 2d game promo art for the mech mode omits the little silver greebles and that now bothers me.

That focused silo of content, even though it's hard to find, is really not much harder to find content than say, a facebook group or trying to find anything on insta or tiktok.

No it's actually less hard to find compared to those listed sites due to those places now fucking DEMANDING you make an account to look at fucking anything on the site.

 

[Dan of Steel]

Pretty sure people have already mentioned TrikBrix being back, but it's finally nice to have comfy classic Lego kino again.

 

[Space Police]

Nice to see more Ninjago City! The gimmick for this one is that you use the parts from each module to build the robot, and the modules include a Gunpla store with Ninjago robot sets and a micro Cole Titan Mech and some sort of magician's house. The bridges and cranes look really cool as well. I wish they either ran with the industrial aesthetic all the way or added more neon/transparent/brightly-coloured roof decorations since those are something every Ninjago City set has had. And correct me if I'm wrong, but why are they extending the old area to 3 levels rather than 2 in this set?

Also the rumour for this year's big Marvel set is the Oscorp Building, which is the most interesting one they've done since the Daily Bugle.

 

[Nymph Enthusiast]

I've recently gotten back into Lego and (after my initial weirdo alarm went away) have been enjoying Jang's reviews. Can someone enlighten me on the drama with him? He seems mostly normal, but I keep seeing people mention him being skitzo and some kind of accident from years ago. I didn't see anything about it in the highlights or search, could someone enlighten me?

Information regarding Bamidele O. Shangobunmi runs deep, a writeup on him would be very interesting and doing so has crossed my mind, but ultimately he is too innocent to warrant that (despite his quirks he is too good to be put side by side degenerates and retards).

The accident you are referring to is the video "Nobody else stopped..." on Highway 237.

Dot points on various things
-Before getting into LEGO was into RC cars, ran his own forums and there are old posts about some drama of him being very strict and banning people, hence some slander.

-Well liked by the community, seen as fair, creating a friendly atmosphere, high quality reviews and a cool city, pretty much on top of the game for a long period of time and outlasting other channels like The Brick Show or BrickQueen (grim).
-Mostly serious but would also show his funny side, such as the GNAJBRicKS channel featuring weird edits and a rap song.
-Getting raped by COPPA, losing most of his income and starting the domino effect to today. PewDiePie actually discussed this interestingly enough. As a result Jang had to start from scratch, and in an attempt to garner multiple streams of income fragmented into many different channels on many different focuses.
-Unintentionally dunking on MandR and making him seethe (is he still even relevant?) by ignoring a question to interview him, MandR later tried to stir up drama but was shut down by Sarah (Formerly Justin). At some point MandR also made a twitter post ridiculing JANG for being overprotective of his wife (who has only been mentioned and briefly appeared in minifig form)

-Remember how I said there was some drama on his RC forums? What I didn't mention is that since then, JANG has manually moderated every single comment left on any of his videos. He has been very vocal against people who leave comments (Not even rude comments, just suggestions or ideas for his city) and this has been an issue brought up in countless videos. This is why some people refer to him as schizo, because it had gotten to the point of him calling out future comments whilst recording the reviews or city updates. It has also led to his comment sections coming off as artificial since they are all full of praise, the rare time someone corrects a mistake and he lets it through, he leaves a depressing reply.
-Repeatedly stressing the fact that he is a workaholic, barely sleeps, works 18 hour days and no less. He has taken some days off when generating a goal for charity donations.

-Another cause for the schizo claims may be relating to his city. Long ago it was getting a lot of attention and updates, over time the updates diminished. Eventually Jang started a new city, he had big plans for it but soon after was not satisfied. He came to an epiphany that all this time he was not longing for a city, but a model train layout, and that is why his previous updates consisted of putting trainlines everywhere including through a zoo (lol). Here are the most recent updates:

-Finally after all these years the only workaround to generating $ from his old videos is to manually reupload them to his new channels, he has started the process and has many thousands to go.
-Recently reviewing and showing a likening to the unfortunately named knockoff Funwhole, admittedly the sets look way better than LEGO's (I personally cannot stand the dreaded black reddit box, overreliance on licensed themes, and just random shit like the Black Peanut Man minifigure) but it ties back into his angst towards LEGO Ambassadors, and resorting to being cheap to stay afloat.
-The simplest way to put it is he is a shell of his former self and does not seem to have enthusiasm for LEGO or a sparkle in his eyes.

If you haven't seen him yet, I highly recommend Brick Sculpt, regular activity, highly enthusiastic about creating and exploring the system, and is the antithesis to JANG in that he strives on community feedback.

 

[Space Police]

but it ties back into his angst towards LEGO Ambassadors, and resorting to being cheap to stay afloat.

Some retard on /toy/ said the real reason he hates Lego Ambassadors so much is because he tried to apply for it once and he got denied due to being a sex offender. Is there any validity behind that? The other theory (and this is the more likely one) is that he tried sponsored reviews during his RC days and got in trouble for being too critical.

 

[Nymph Enthusiast]

Some retard on /toy/ said the real reason he hates Lego Ambassadors so much is because he tried to apply for it once and he got denied due to being a sex offender. Is there any validity behind that? The other theory (and this is the more likely one) is that he tried sponsored reviews during his RC days and got in trouble for being too critical.

The drama around Jang is pretty miniscule, just accumulative, and by most viewers probably goes unnoticed. Anything too serios or too extreme, such as what you mentioned, or he is going through/is divorced, or faking his identity, is just shitposting.
Refusing to be an Ambassador just comes down to his values, from memory he accepted a promotional box for the LEGO Masters show some years ago, more recently he did get some third party cars to review.

I have found that most ambassadors are just shit and only for the $$$ (I wouldn't know don't watch them, I have just seen the thumbnails or abundance of Star Wars videos on recommended) which creates a false sentiment on how restrictive they have to be. Tiago is pretty critical (Yeah I know he's an ex LEGO employee), and Cheesey receives free sets but does not even even review them (For example he has turned one into a modular, or made a video on how the minifigure has changed over time and then at the end throws in a quick look at the set).

After all the talk it would just be silly for Jang to turn around and become an ambassador, a hit to his ego and use of #NotSponsored. Ultimately this is what has led to his decline, taking on costs of buying the sets himself has led to sparse reviews rather than covering whole waves, ambassadors also receive sets early so their videos come out on day one, whereas Jang's would come out weeks or months later after the hype and interest had already been fulfilled.

 

[Space Police]

The Jurassic World Rebirth sets look great. The vehicles are amazing, gas stations are always nice, and it's nice to get a ruin/temple playset. I just wish the vehicles were bigger and standalone since they're the best part.

 

[Arturito Burrito]

The Lego Group is looking into making their own video games in-house. I don't know how this would affect TT Games's unannounced UE5 game or 2K's contract to make Lego sports games. While I don't think this investment will last, I hope TLG wouldn't make the same mistake they made with their other outsourced games and make microtransaction-heavy messes.
I know this isn't necessarily about the physical toys, but TLG did mention a new factory in Virginia that would avoid tariffs. This bit of info might not have been posted yet.

Article (paywalled?) | Archive

Lego is building up its capability to make its own video games as the world’s largest toymaker invests heavily in developing its own digital play experiences alongside its bricks and mini-figures. The Danish toymaker had outsourced its video game studio as well as theme parks and other non-core activities after its brush with bankruptcy two decades ago. But Niels Christiansen, Lego’s chief executive, told the Financial Times that after a strong period of growth, in which its revenues doubled to $10bn since 2019, it was adding new digital capabilities to its core physical toy business.“ We can definitely say as long as we’re under the Lego brand we can cover experiences for kids of all ages, digital or physical. [Games development in-house] is something we’re building up,” he added. Lego has enjoyed success with a series of video games developed by external studios, as well as its more recent tie-up with shooting game Fortnite, which has attracted 87mn players. It has invested several hundred millions of dollars in tripling the number of software engineers it employs since 2022 and beefing up its digital infrastructure. The toymaker has also released a number of Lego sets based on video games such as Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. Christiansen’s comments came as the Billund-based company continued to outpace US-based rivals such as Mattel and Hasbro in both revenues and profitability, growing faster than a toy industry that has been weighed down by existential worries about digital devices stealing children’s play time. Lego reported on Tuesday that revenues last year increased by 13 per cent to DKr74bn ($10.1bn) while operating profit rose by 10 per cent to DKr18.7bn ($2.7bn). Mattel’s revenues were flat at $5.4bn in 2024 while operating profit rose by a quarter to $690mn. At Hasbro, revenues fell by almost a fifth to $4.1bn while it rebounded to an operating profit of $690mn. Christiansen said that Lego would not “overreact” to the threat of tariffs from US President Donald Trump despite importing most of its sets into the US from Mexico. He said Lego liked to “produce as late as possible” to avoid having excess inventory so would not pre-ship any sets. He added that Lego had got through the Covid-19 pandemic as well as surging inflation and raw material costs “by not overreacting, and it’s the same approach here".
He added: “Right now, there are no tariffs, but there is uncertainty.” Lego has announced a new factory in Virginia in the US but it will not open until 2027. “It will be good when it comes on stream. We made that decision before tariffs.”
The chief executive concluded: “In the big picture, tariffs are not what keeps me awake. That’s being relevant.”
He stressed that there was increasing competition for children’s time with digital products such as YouTube. Lego has tried new tie-ups such as with Fortnite and Formula 1 in an attempt to attract older children. “We have made quite a few investments in the future — I’d almost rather overinvest. That’s the benefit of being family-owned and long term,” Christiansen added.
Lego over-extended itself at the start of this century by moving into peripheral businesses and moving away from only making its iconic bricks. But Christiansen believes it has learned its lessons and is better able to support more activities as it is a much bigger company. Lego’s founding family also bought back its Legoland theme parks recently as the company increasingly looks at the likes of Disney as a rival rather than toymakers.

Edit: I switched tabs on mobile and posted too early.

 

[Nymph Enthusiast]

Masjid depicted in its historical native Muslim homeland.


Invasive bazaar depicted in the contemporary Bri'ish land of Brick Nottingham.


On the topic of LEGO city building, anyone following Brick Sculpt? Chris is probably the best LEGO content creator in a good while, and his take on the city being outdoorsy is a massive improvement to the typical urban modern shitholes like below.

I think it is greatly benefited by being of a smaller scale, whereas typical LEGO cities are too large, which inhibits how much $$$ can be put into them so they end up looking very flat and boring, this for some reason does not apply to Brickcrafts who appears to generate infinite money.

 

[Hope Eradicated]

Lego Pokemon is happening next year,

Edit: included the video