[rkangel]

> the push towards smartphone-dependent toys feels weird

I haven't seen this push? The new Lego Smart stuff is explicitly "screen free play". There is an app but it's just for firmware update and configuration and you can't even connect it unless the brick is on the charger.

[bombcar]

Lego has been testing modern sets without instructions and instead tell you to download an app for your phone.

The ones I know of are the Mario ones, but they apparently need a phone anyway to setup the little characters.

[ziml77]

Which Mario ones are you thinking of? Because for the only ones I know of with electronic character, you just place them over special tiles they can read to select how they will react.

[Freak_NL]

All normal sets still come with a booklet don't they? They offer the option sometimes though.

Plastic parts bags are getting replaced by paper ones, but the booklets aren't going anywhere.

[FarmerPotato]

Hmm, the comment I was replying to was deleted.

I hate app obsolescence, and licenses that expire on your old hardware (Microsoft Word..) I exhibit 1980s video games. The hardware just continues to work. It's a disgrace what happens to mobile games, they just disappear. (Whattaya do, save all your old phones? I'm hating on you, Atari Classics app on iPad 2; revoked my paid license to use it.)

But to be fair, Lego has gone to great lengths to keep their companion software alive. Still, the nature of mobile: apps require constant updates to stay listed for new OS versions.

For one, Lego Commander existed uselessly on my phone long after it ceased to work... until one iOS it wouldn't install anymore.

Lego giving you a CD with software and instruction was a comfort (challenge: find a CD drive!) but only Mindstorms really.

For desktop apps in the 2010s, Lego relied on Silverlight to get Mac and PC compatibility. So what happens when you rely on a Microsoft framework... still as late as 2015 I was still able to download Mindstorms 2.0 (introduced 2002??) from Lego.

With instructions pdfs, Lego has been ok to let hobbyists reproduce the downloads (last I saw.)

Another thing Lego did was to provide SDKs for Mindstorms (a while after the community reverse-engineered a lot of it...). Opening it up that way was encouraging. (Lego even started distributing HiTechnic's 3rd party sensors, the folks that reverse-engineered the Mindstorms 1.0 RCX.)

I was part of the fan movement from 1998-2001 that hammered on the message for Lego to open things up. What happened is that they hired several of us :)