---
title: "akira and the slow decline of lego"
published: 2019-08-29
---

isn't the title of this post just so… ambiguous and misleading? that is to say,
titling something **akira and the slow decline of lego** definitely gives the
implication that i'll be talking about some sort of causation (or at the very
least correlation) between what appear to be apparently unrelated topics.

***spoiler alert***: even if i *was* writing about some correlation between
`lego` and `akira`, i have little doubt that it would be any more than hindsight
bias and imagined significance coupled with taking events that had a global
effect and using those to link the two together. people do this sort of thing
all the smegging time and sometimes it can sound pretty convincing. 

but no; i'm just going to briefly touch on those two things separately from
each other but in the same blog entry.

## akira

![](/images/akira-title.png)

i don't think i've mentioned `akira` yet, and i only have this year to say what
i currently want to say about it.

![no, not this. everybody knows this already](/images/akira-freedom-of-the-press-is-now-in-jeopardy.png)

the thing about `akira` is:

![first of all, doesn't this look lovely and peaceful? a few seconds later a big boom decimates tokyo](/images/akira-1988-7-16.png)

![31 years after the (beginning of, end of, or really short) third world war](/images/akira-ad-2019.png)

> that's the image i wanted. `akira` is a masterpiece and a hugely influential
> and significant film (especially in the world of anime), and *it takes place
> this year*! so if you haven't seen `akira` yet, this year is a great year to
> finally watch it! and if you *have* seen it before, just rewatch it, ok? no
> big deal. in fact, make an event out of it. turn off any unnecessary lights,
> crank up the volume, and fill your belly with whatever gets you pumped
> (popcorn or pizza for food is pretty standard, and to drink i'd say either
> beer or coke because they sound like pretty standard choices as well). 

also the guy shown in this final screenshot says a weird mix of things i agree
and disagree with, and it's hard to know how much of his ideology i actually
agree with, but this line is gold:

![](/images/akira-corrupt-politicians-and-capitalists.png)

## lego, why did you do it?

i am and always have been a pretty huge lego fan. however, **lego used to be
better**. and by this i mean the sets lego made were more fun to put together
(and gave you better pieces to work with later), the series/themes used to be
more creative, and everything used to be more universal/uniform. there used to
be raised base plates that came with the big sets that were just fun af to
build on. minifigs didn't all have unique faces and body parts. and don't get
me started on when they began making film-based legos with that pseudo-skin
colour.

this is an example of one of those base plates you can't find anymore:

![](/images/lego-baseplate-raised.png)

### pop quiz!

**how many current and recent lego themes can you name?**

were most of them based on films? were they? i mean, you have collector sets,
generic bricks sold in tubs severely lacking in brick shapes if you want to
build something other than maybe multi-coloured enclosures or whatever, city of
course (unless it's called something else now), the friends (?) sets (you know,
the ones marketed to girls with the scary looking minifigs), ninjago, probably
a medieval themed one, and about 10 or so different series that exist solely as
cross-marketing tools between mainly film/tv franchises [`star wars`, `disney
princesses`, `marvel this`, `dc that`, `harry potter`, you get the idea] and legos.

what i see as the beginning of lego's downfall from its glory days can be
clearly identified, and was very memorable. it was the disaster known as **jack
stone**. i remember seeing `jack stone` legos on the shelf for the first time
and wondering how an idea so off-putting made it into production. *and
apologies to anyone who was fond of `jack stone` or "flesh-coloured" minifigs
(which i'm getting to)*. 

jack stone legos started in 2001.

> also in 2001:

lego alpha team is introduced. i remember thinking how cool it was that the
alpha team lego minifigs were all unique (by which i mean that `alpha team`
legos seemed to be an actual `team` of the same unique minifigs, which was cool
and new). i did not expect them to make it the normal thing to do for all lego
sets, and that the days of generic and easily swappable minifig designs would
actually end. at least i can say i much prefer the `alpha team` approach over
the `jack stone` approach to making minifigs worse.

![how is this appealing in *any* way?](/images/lego-js013.png "jack stone")

and speaking of making minifigs worse, the "skin-coloured minifigures" began
just a couple years later, in 2003. 2004 is when a lot of the colour-swapping
happened, making life as a lego collector just that much harder (although
compared to the minifig changes, colour-swapping bricks and tiles is nothing).

### did you know?

lego's ceo up until 2004 had always been a member of the family. looking at
wikipedia's `lego timeline`, it shows that someone by the name of **jorgen vig
knurdstrom** became the first non-family ceo of lego in 2004. what year does it
say **knurdstrom** started at the company? 2001. apparently stepped down in
2017 iirc. i've only been looking at references for parts of the time i've
spent writing this, and i'm basically just monologuing (as advertised) in a
random rant so forgive me if any of my facts are off. in any case i couldn't
decide whether to make a joke by implying that lego not going in the direction
i would have wanted was some sort of conspiracy and knurdstrom's fault or say
that i feel bad for the guy having to be in charge while the company went
downhill ^^' so take your pick.

also sorry i lied about these being "brief". i wrote that thinking it would be.

until next time,

***stay tasty*** `o/`
