Well, that’s just two Jawblades. With sets like the Inika, you have very different characters represented by generally interchangeable sets. With individual builds, you can make them more individual. If a clone set build is bad, it brings down all of the sets with that build. If a set with it’s own build is bad, it’s not gonna hurt the other sets. Ketar is, objectively, probably the worst set of all G2, but that doesn’t make Akida bad. Watch NickonAquaMagna’s reviews of the 2015/2016 sets, he does a good job at showing how different builds help illustrate some parts of their characters.
1 Like
Honestly, I don’t hate clone sets. Sure diverse sets are more interesting, I don’t mind getting clone sets if I like the design of the sets. For example, I like the Toa Metru build, and their probably my faveorite sets build wise. But at the same time I don’t like the Toa Hordika sets.
I wouldn’t mind if they made more clone sets if it meant that they can make cool titans as well as great diverse sets.
2 Likes
Sometimes those parts aren’t available on Bricklink yet, making buying dupes the only/easiest method of getting said parts.
That would be stupid.
It would be nice to get Jawblade’s head in another colour, but a direct copy of Jawblade with some recoloured pieces would be a ridiculous way to distribute it - why would there even need to be a second Jawblade? A different set using a gunmetal head piece would not only make more sense, but it’d also be much more interesting.
In that you get parts in more colours, yes, but with G1 it was specific palettes of parts released in clone waves, which were uniform in aesthetic to the waves they were released in. This opened up the doors to texture/shaping clashes in later sets/MOCs that reused those parts, and made things look incredibly cheap and cobbled towards late-2007 and onwards.
No they don’t but many do. Why disparage the vast majority of your audience by offering the same toy over and over for the benefit of the minority who might want certain pieces in multiple colours?
3 Likes
I fail to see how getting more recolors is stupid, even if there are a few to a set, it still adds variety to the parts palette. Also, you’d be surprised at how many moccists and BL sellers would buy clone sets with new recolors.
From a purely parts perspective clone sets offer a nice range of colors for certain pieces at the cost of a smaller range of actual part variety. This alone nearly cancels out the appeal for me, as it would mean although I would get a small group of parts in every palette I would be cutting myself off from the possibility of a greater diversity of parts.
From the toy and building experience perspective, clone sets suck. There’s just no other way to put it. Despite being an amazingly designed toy, building and playing with the fifth or sixth Bohrok is incredibly boring because it’s the same exact experience. Good clone sets aren’t good because they’re clones, it’s because they were designed well. I’d much rather have a diverse wave of sets with each having its ups and downs than clone waves again.
1 Like
I agree with everything you said but the issue with me is that once you get really good at customizing mocs, the sets hold little appeal to you because they’re on a much lower level design-wise and then priority goes to collecting parts instead. Not bashing people that like to collect sets, that’s cool by me, I just have a different view on things 
For mocists it may very well be useful to have clone sets, if LEGO still used the old system. Now however, with ccbs, there is essentially few, if any, situations where clone sets would provide recolors or much needed parts. Let’s say all the 2016 sets are Kopaka. Other than the recolored new parts they already have, there’d be maybe one or two recolors across a couple of sets. It’s unlikely that they’d recolor the skrall armor, they could but their not afraid to mix silver and gold. That leaves bohrok eyes and Kopaka’s lower arm. The eyes already have colours they can bring back, so we’d be lucky to get anything new there. For the lower arm Tahu would likely use the already available red one, Gali the silver one, and Onua the purple one released with joker. That leaves Pohatu and Lewa. Lewa would get a recolor, however Pohatu could also just get a silver shell for his lower arms or a recolor as well. That’s half the Toa who get one type of shell recolored that isn’t new. How much do you gain from that? With a generic system such as ccbs, the only parts that absolutely need recoloring are the new parts. The torso shell is on all Toa, the unity piece is on all winter sets in 3 colors, the crystal piece comes in 2 colors with 6 different secondary colors in nearly every set. In the summer the new shell will come in 4 different colors, and s on every set. With CCBS, there is nothing to gain from clones compared to unique designs. We would not have gotten Metru blue shells on Kopaka if he was a Tahu clone, we would not have got the recolored shells and addons on Tahu if he was a recolored Kopaka. With cases such as Pohatu and Lewa, yes we could get some good recolors. However unique designs provide better recolors. How many recolors have we gotten this year so far? Tan shells, Metru blue shells, Azure shells, orange skrall armor, silver skrall armor, gold skull armor, red shells, trans purple shells, trans purple bones. If the Toa were clones, we wouldn’t have got that much variety, without having massively cluttered sets.
1 Like
Clone sets only work IMO if it’s a horde enemy
3 Likes
Well in many cases, clone sets can be easily explained thought the lore. For example Rakshi all have the same builds because they were made quickly and by the same person, Makuta. Toa Metru all have similar builds because they were made by the same unified Toa design energy common for Metru Toa, same for the Metru Matoran. Bohrok, Vahki, and Visorak dont need much explaining, they are all robots and/or the same breed, with only slight variations.
Doesnt mean I like seeing clone sets, much rather see different builds, but at least for some of them there is lore justification.
2 Likes
VeRy true. It makes them look like a pack, or group.
2 Likes