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Cary Clark / FAQ / General / townjr

What is “Town Jr.” ?

From Cary Clark:

The Lego Group introduced a line of town-themed sets that bridge the gap between its Duplo™ and System which it called Town Jr. It was aimed at four to seven-year olds. It generally replaces small model parts that build, for instance, a vehicle chassis, with a single large and less flexible part.

New parts introduced by Lego that could have been made of multiple common parts are termed “Juniorized”.

From Tim McSweeney: a message to the newsgroup “Dear-Lego”

I’m not minifig kind of guy, Back when I was a kid I used to get space stuff and so on, but at some point I moved on to technic and didn’t really look back. When the information started coming out about the Mindstorms stuff I decided to get back into the swing of things. I started buying Technic sets again to get myself up to speed, I joined Lugnet, I put a Lego wallpaper on my computer. One lunch time at work I bought a couple of tiny sets, (a ninja, and a bat-lord I think) To sit on my computer.now I’m hooked, My desk has been taken over, I’ve bought a lot of the larger Adventurers and Ninja sets for home... you know how it is.

I’ve watched the complaining about Town Jr. with mild interest. Everything that people said made sense. Dumbing down the sets seems like a bad idea. Lego is about construction not just Action figures, You know the drill. I went and had a look at some of the new Town sets just to see what everyone was complaining about. They didn’t look too bad, Sure they are a lot simpler and less detailed than some of the recent Town Stuff, I can see how people Who have come up through this golden age would complain. If anything the looked to have less specialized pieces than some of the more detailed Town Stuff. (bear with me, I am going somewhere). The also reminded me a lot of the Town sets I played with as a kid, Very Simple(No Doors) Check out

©1978 LEGO

To see what I mean

Was This really just Lego Going back to it’s roots?

Feeling Rather Nostalgic I decided to buy one:

©1997 LEGO

I Got Back to My Desk and opened the Box. Inside where three printed bags I had been warned to expect these.

Tearing open the first bag I pulled out the instructions.

I knew something was horribly horribly wrong when I saw that the plans consisted of only TWO steps. Looking at the pieces I suddenly knew what everyone was complaining about. The base of the truck thingy which I had blatantly assumed to be made up of half a dozen pieces was one great solid piece of plastic. A few decorative bits stuck on the top and that was it. I assembled all three models in record time and sat staring at them in disbelief.

Editor’s Note: Here are two examples of juniorized car bases. Set 6565 contains one or both of these, or similar parts.

I had never even thought it possible that one could feel dirty while playing with Lego but now I look at my hands in disgust.

I Apologize to all those people who previously took the time to complain about town Jr. I had you silently catalogued as overly sensitive whiners. Now as I join your ranks I understand the great crime that has been committed.

That’s it for Town Jr. and me. No more will I throw money at cute LOOKING Stuff. It’s proper Lego or nothing.

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