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- 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/`
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