‘Live, laugh, LEGO’ – LEGO’s new message board is getting torn apart online

The LEGO Group’s latest reveal isn’t getting what you’d call a flattering reception from the community, with reactions ranging from ‘lifeless’ and ‘sterile’ to ‘terrible’ and ‘boring’.

41839 Message Board popped up at LEGO.com yesterday, joining the previously-revealed 41838 Family Travel Memories in what’s shaping up to be a brand new theme for the LEGO Group. But initial reactions to the reveal haven’t been kind, as the community rallies against a set widely written off as dull and expensive. You only need to check out this reddit thread for the proof.

“It doesn’t feel like a good decoration,” wrote crab_milker. “It’s completely devoid of colour, it feels lifeless and sterile to me.” The brick-built take on wooden signs – you know the sort – apes their beige aesthetic right down to its colour scheme, which is focused mostly on white and dark tan elements. One redditor described it as ‘sad beige LEGO for sad beige children’.

You can use 41839 Message Board’s 1,743 pieces to build up to 30 letters from the Latin alphabet, with pieces included to add accents for other languages that use the same alphabet. But even the LEGO Group’s examples are being ridiculed, from its perhaps deliberate arrangement of words – see ‘home your is bricks where are’ – to the more confusing ‘our family U O N V @ home!’

“It’s ‘the future is durs’ all over again,” joked luke_in_the_sky, referring to the O-that-looks-like-a-D in LEGO DOTS’ 41952 Big Message Board. Others have offered their own suggestions for apt phrases to write with 41839 Message Board’s pieces, the best of which has to be ‘Live, laugh, LEGO’. And some have pulled no punches at all in their critique of the August release.

“I wonder if you can spell ‘cash grab’ with this set?” wrote MisfitDiagnosis, while RyanTheQ added: “Another ugly, low effort, overpriced set. How long do you think this will gather dust on shelves before [the LEGO Group] quietly discontinues it?” They’re not the only one to pull 41839 Message Board up on its £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 RRP, either.

“$100???? [The LEGO Group] is insane with this price,” one redditor offered, while another wrote: “This set is gonna end up in the bargain bin real quick… ain’t nobody buying this at full price.” Not everyone has been so quick to criticise the set, though. “I see a lot of cool pieces and building techniques,” said gev1138, in a comment that’s already attracted multiple downvotes on reddit. “Looking forward to more info on this. Day one buy? Unlikely, but I really can’t judge yet.”

Of course, it’s worth bearing in mind that 41839 Message Board’s target audience is probably not hardcore fans who hang around LEGO subreddits. But to be fair to those commenters, they have done their best to ascertain the actual demographic for this model. And the consensus is… ‘wine moms’. Or as SinewGod put it: “The Botanical sets were a huge hit, so their marketing team dug deeper into what white women love.”

41839 Message Board launches August 1 for LEGO Insiders, and August 4 for everyone else, at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores.

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Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

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