Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?

[ttyymmnn]

I'm building the Elf Club House, this year's Lego holiday set. We've gotten the last few of these, and they're always fun to build. But I've got to wonder who the heck at Lego thought that it was a good idea to print the instructions on a black background. Sure, it looks fauncy, but some of the pieces are almost impossible to see. The phone camera really doesn't give the whole idea, since the camera tries to remove shadow etc.

The directions said I was supposed to use three of those 1x2 flat brown pieces, but it took me a while to even see the placement of one under the two red pieces.

Here, the dark green pieces show up better in the photo than they do in real life.

And there's a dark green piece under the two lighter green pieces, but it's almost impossible to see.

It's not all gloom and doom though. This toy airplane is pretty cool.

[Brickman]

LEGO Co.: We need a load of black ink

Ink co: How much you need?

LEGO Co: yes

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@ttyymmnn Proof dark themes are the spawn of the devil

[Rusty Vandura]

@ttyymmnn I'd love to add that little aeroplane to my Lego single-engine airplane collection.

[ttyymmnn]

@rusty-vandura said in Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?:

@ttyymmnn I'd love to add that little aeroplane to my Lego single-engine airplane collection.

It's all standard Lego pieces except for the propeller. I've never seen that particular piece before.

[Just Jeepin']

I'm reminded of my rant about Culver's digital signage. Businesses do stupid things.

(So grateful I have somewhere to link now.)

[ttyymmnn]

@just-jeepin Kinja from beyond the grave! Is that part of the trove of articles somebody snagged?

[Just Jeepin']

@ttyymmnn One of two (jimisaherb.com being the other, earning an untimely demise today, https://opposite-lock.com/topic/2316/f-is-for), this one by Jb boin.

It's a little tricky to navigate; I happened to have my own local archive so I could find the article ID and drill down into the site to find it.

http://jbboin.phpnet.org/oppo/extractor/archive/oppositelock/

[ttyymmnn]

@just-jeepin Thanks. I knew about those but haven't spent any time checking them out.

[ttyymmnn]

@whoistheleader said in Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?:

@ttyymmnn Proof dark themes are the spawn of the devil

My kids swear by the dark theme on their iPhones. I can't stand it.

[Exage03040]

The only appropriate time to not use darkmode?

[KAC]

@ttyymmnn I've never seen the red piece representing the engine either, granted I've been away from actively tinkering with Lego for quite a while. Anyways the plane is very cool.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@ttyymmnn There are only a few things where I like dark themes. Design based programs like video editors, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, etc, I like it because it's easy to see where the bounds of the artboard/video end. But for text based things, please no. It makes it so much harder to read.

[ttyymmnn]

@kac said in Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?:

@ttyymmnn I've never seen the red piece representing the engine

I've seen it before, but it's not all that common.

[Skyfire77]

@just-jeepin @Jb-boin Thank you thank you thank you! I'd lost the link to the archive of Oppo That Was, but there it is! Now to salvage more articles!

[pip bip]

@ttyymmnn that's bad.

[ttyymmnn]

@pip-bip I’ve been building it using directions on my iPad. Much better than the printed directions.

[pip bip]

@ttyymmnn contact lego and complain

[Shop-Teacher]

@ttyymmnn I'm sad I missed this one before it sold out.

[ttyymmnn]

@pip-bip

@pip-bip said in Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?:

@ttyymmnn contact lego and complain

There is actually a request for feedback at the back of the instruction tome. I will definitely reply. Hell, I might even win a "Lego set" for my trouble.

[ttyymmnn]

@shop-teacher said in Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?:

@ttyymmnn I'm sad I missed this one before it sold out.

Keep your eyes open. When I ordered this back in November, they said it was sold out and I wouldn't get it until January. Then out of the blue I got an email saying it was on the way.

[Shop-Teacher]

@ttyymmnn said in Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?:

@shop-teacher said in Dear Lego: What the hell were you thinking?:

@ttyymmnn I'm sad I missed this one before it sold out.

Keep your eyes open. When I ordered this back in November, they said it was sold out and I wouldn't get it until January. Then out of the blue I got an email saying it was on the way.

I'm having the opposite problem right now with the things I did order. I placed a large order of sets for my kids on Black Friday, and it's all just sitting in the warehouse. I'm starting to get nervous.