The biggest gripe I have with Lego's creation of the 18+ tag is that the age suggestion now has more to do with who lego thinks will enjoy a set, rather than who is capable of building the set. Fans know what they can build, so the age suggestion in my mind was for parents who knew what properties their children enjoyed, but didnt know what their kids were capable of building. I still think that is the case for the other age ranges, but for 18+, I guess lego now thinks adults need to be told what is ok for them to buy. This is most apparent with the BTS set (<a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/search?q=Bts" rel="nofollow">https://www.lego.com/en-us/search?q=Bts</a>), an 18+ set with simple building techniques targeting a brand mostly enjoyed by teenagers. Compare this to the Airbus heli (<a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/airbus-h175-rescue-helicopter-42145" rel="nofollow">https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/airbus-h175-rescue-helico...</a>) which is more aptly labelled at 11+ while having twice as many pieces and being a technic build.
Cheap imitation building blocks are stunningly high quality nowadays and many companies offer extremely interesting sets at a fraction of the cost of real LEGO blocks.
1) these static built once and super glue in place are antithesis of the LEGO movie, I just find that amusing<p>2) these are barely LEGO constructs and much more click together models — there are so many custom pieces specific to this one design. It’s not like you start with 10k grey rectangular blocks and end with a millenium falcon — though I believe that was how old LEGO statues at the parks were built?