I recall reading something somewhere about baseplates being no longer produced in-house by Lego, but were third party items, which is another disincentive for their inclusion. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Totally agree. Baseplates mean a nice clean, self-contained set. And sure, the raised plates could be seen as lazy but surely kept the price down when compared to the number of bricks required to get such a dynamic terrain.

I'm started avoiding sets unless they're big and on wheels, or have a baseplate. King's Castle (70404) would have been elevated to brilliance with a baseplate. As it was, it felt a little.... basic.

As a general rule, I'm not a fan of the CRAPP type. My main exception being the Classic Space moon craters, I love those :)
And I agree, the flat ones are pretty useful in different colours and would help make the Hoth set look better.
FWIW, I don't have any of those Hoth sets, so I'll probably buy this new set. But I can see why people are upset about it.

I loved the raised baseplates as a kid. I spent all my money on the Royal Knights Castle in '95. A decision which was largely influenced by the massive raised baseplate with a ramp and secret stairs down one side. It is a shame they are not used much any more. And the roadplate combo packs are expensive and force you into getting many more + junctions that you would ever want.

I never understood why baseplates are not full plate thickness, and couldn't be raised with bricks attached underneath. I prefer 16x16 and 8x16 plates for my layout as it allows for more varied terrain easily. 16x16 has replaced the 32x32 as my "modular" standard. As a result I have been loving the smaller creator sets released in 2015 and 16 and have used the techniques to shrink my other modulars to make the most of my limited layout space.

Absolutely agree. I came back to LEGO via the Modular Buildings which are nice and tidy to set up and display and just cannot see myself buying some "sprawling mess" like this or 76052 Batcave. 10247 Ferris Wheel works for me, as it's neatly set up on 16x16 plates.

75098 Assault on Hoth seems to have many more issues than just a lack of the baseplate. But I agree it's one of them. Or could be one of them. Anyway, 75098 looks terrible when compared to pictures above it.

This was my first response when I saw the upcoming 60132 Service Station. Where's the roadplate? Just about every service station in the past has included a roadplate for the station to sit on.

And when was the last time we had an airport with a runway?

Le sigh.

Great article and l totally agree. A couple of baseplates to tie the Hoth set together would make a huge difference

Excellent article, thank you.
Indeed, baseplates would have been a great addition to the set, CRAPP or normal would matter less than having them in white.
I would even be happy to see them available separately in white. With the Arctic theme last year and the almost permanent Hoth theme, I still do not understand why we see no white baseplate. Would still be better than red ...

Another reason for the lack of baseplates could be the recent decrease in box size to save paper. A baseplate is large and, particularly in the case of those with raised portions, can hugely increase the size of the box. If they can use normal plates to do the same basic job, then they will.

I prefer sets on baseplates but 8x16s and 16x16s can be extremely useful, especially when building MOC Modulars.

Uhh wow, talk about a paradigm shift - prior to this article I was under the impression that baseplates were very much hated for anything other than modulars or MOCs.

I miss baseplates. Growing up in the late 70's and 80's as my 1st go around with LEGO it seemed every larger set had baseplates...Big Rig Truckstop had 2

I'm sure I heard somewhere that the clutch on certain parts of baseplates isn't great, and that the tolerances between studs are slightly less than normal bricks, which can lead to them warping slightly when a full row of (for example) plates is put on them. I've not really investigated that though, so can't confirm it. I might have a look into it this evening.

The police station may have base plates but where's the helicopter?

Sets like Ferris wheel do work with the new plates, although perhaps in the old days this would have been built on a 48x48 (like the carousel) - or a 32x32 and 32x16 like the old ferris. I agree though about the Hoth set, it is way too disjointed for me, although in the end it is Lego so you can choose to put it on a different format and moc up your own scene. I've tended to shift a lot of the newer sets onto old style base plates - so my grand hotel sits at 48x32 scale.

Maybe we should campaign to have a wider variety of baseplates sold as standalone items (like white or brown, for example). My kids love playing with the old ramp and pit plates, so much fun to "hide" characters and weapons in, etc - they'd be keen to buy these separately as well as the flat ones.

CCC touched on most of my thoughts. The Grand Hotel is easy for little to play with. Each of my kids have there own way that they like to set up the cocktail table and piano plates. It's fun to see their imaginations run with these toys.

I have wondered about the disappearance of base plates because they were such a staple in the past, but I've excepted the evolution of LEGO sets.

And speaking of imaginations, mine must be broken. I can't imagine the Hoth set looking any better on base plates. Builds would be arranged on the vertical and horizontal lines with little chance at an organic display. If I would want to display this, I'd buy some white fabric to fit on the shelf.

I like baseplates, and agree that many recent sets would be better with them. Its odd that they don't include them in sets, but will happily sell them individually.

For the target audience, children; removing flat baseplates is a definite improvement. The main argument you have Huw is for "display" purposes, but as kids I think we all wanted to position elements of a model in the way our imagination intended.

The Police Station is a good example. What do you gain from baseplates apart from extra stability and a bit of road? The trade-off is that, like the Fire Stations, the designs are now modular and can be reconfigured much more.

It's easy to have rose-tinted glasses, but 3D baseplates were also a pain at times. They couldn't be disassembled when putting them away, they looked out of place with other models and served limited purpose.

The disappearance of baseplates in sets has been bothering me for a while now. Sets with disparate elements feel diminished without them, and sets that could have been more impressive with a raised plate now feel less so. And imagine some of your favorite sets of the past, like 6195 above, without their baseplates, and those sets lose a lot.

I keep hoping that LEGO will reverse course on this, but things don't look very hopeful at the moment.

5986, one of the most loved sets from my childhood, is a great set because of the raised baseplate. Without it, it would lose a whole lot of playability. I miss big raised baseplates :(

to me, one of the major improvements on lego sets has been removing the baseplate to let anyone chose it's own layout. Hoth is a big mess and i think it would have looked worst than this with a baseplate under it.
On the other side of the coin, i would love to see more different measures of baseplates sold separately. Right now i'm moc-ing on a small serie of modulars with baseplates 8x32 and i would love so much to buy a couple of those as stand-alone new sets.

Hear, hear! Thank you for writing this article. By far my biggest disappointment with LEGO lately is the overall avoidance of playsets (vs vehicle-based sets) in most of its licensed themes. And when they do choose to make them, they give us garbage like this new conglomerate Hoth UCS. In Marvel, they've given us 5 different jets already (most of them of the Quin- persuasion), but they can't give us even a single playset-based set with a baseplate and substantial build. As much as I love the new Avengers: Civil War set based on the airport, I would much rather have seen more than just an airport tower included as far as structural builds. The pieces from yet another Quinjet could have gone towards a more substantial airport build. Change your ways, LEGO! If people aren't buying playsets as much anymore, the problem with their popularity is due to changes in your approach to designing them.

Not fan of baseplates myself. I'd much rather see all such models to be able to 'close up' and 'connect' (via pins, clip mechanizms) all the components into one substantial unit, which would look good for display. Some sets kinda have this property but most of them don't. And I agree it's very inconvenient and doesn't look properly.

Baseplates should be included, be they 32x32, 16x16 etc. The sprawling mess of some sets is ridiculous and for those who like displaying MOC's or normal sets usually end up buying seperate base plates.
On the Battle 4 sets in 1, it's a mickey take. They could of at least designed a better set, added more base plates for continuity and included some extra bits like a better cave for Luke upside down, another Wampa and Taun Taun.
However, a couple of the minifigs do look like the Norwegian Rescue skiers with their moustache's

I think in some sets they should absolutely bring them back, it may inspire lazy design some times but its not like that doesn't happen just now. More tool in the box for clever and talented Lego designers cant hurt, and road plates need to come back, there is not enough of them nowadays.

I seem to be genetically predisposed towards philosophical opposition to 3D baseplates in LEGO, except for the timeless space crater plates which were the greatest anythings ever. However, upon building the article-referenced 6195, I found the use of sculpted 'plates to be brilliant. I now have that very set in an underwater-themed display amongst a bunch of other sets recent & old, and all have baseplates beneath them for attachments & consistent texture. My entire main LEGO city layout is covered with baseplates. Every custom structure I build starts with a baseplate. Baseplates are wonderful when used to good effect!

I have to admit, though, that flat ones haven't a fraction of the structural strength of proper plates. I wonder if that is one of the factors that has led to their gradual abandonment by TLG proper. Also, kids do often enjoy sprawling out the components of playsets to align reality with the ever-changing constructs of their imaginations. Add in the apparently rather high production cost (judging by the retail prices, at least), and there are a lot of factors working against these classic foundation elements.

The first thing my eye caught when this set was revealed was the lacking of baseplates, so I'm quite pleased to read this article. When Assault on Hoth was first published as a set coming in 2016, I was picturing a hanger of some sorts with gun turrets that was possibly hinged so that it opened up to reveal a playset inside, a snow speeder to dock into, Luke in a cave off to the side with a Wampa, and other key elements from the Empire Strikes Back. When the set was finally revealed a feeling of complete disappointment came over me. This was just a collection of small sets looking like it was hastily rushed together. There was no flow or structure to how the set was to be laid out. While this would make a great playset for children to enjoy because of the different elements, the feel of a typical UCS was lost. The completeness of a good Lego set wasn't there. I like my Hoth Echo Base set a lot more than this disaster.
Showing these other great sets with their accompanying baseplates is a telling example of the playfulness lost with this latest edition. With my excitement gone, I know this won't be one of my Lego purchases this year and for that I am truly disappointed.

The 'one major problem' is the price of these items. For that price, I would expect a baseplate to put it on, bearing in mind that baseplates alone are not cheap items.

I'd like to see them sell baseplates in a better range of colours. I really need some white ones for my WV display for example.

I only have 2 baseplates, a 32x32 tan baseplate from a Games set and a 32x32 baseplate specially made for a police station in the 1970's. And my little brother absolutely loves building things on them. More sets with baseplates would be a great thing IMO.

When is the last time they made street/road base plates?

The prices on ebay are ridiculous.

Whatever about price, I can get over sets such as Assault on Hoth, because they're honestly not needed; but the lack of baseplates for the Airport set is particularly egregious.

I love baseplates. Even as a kid, I loved baseplates because it gave you a starter to build on that could fit into your Lego city beside the roads and other buildings. I miss them, absolutely I do.

white base plates would be great for displaying holiday sets

I would guess that it's because they sell the base plates directly at quite a high price. They would rather do that than supply them "free" in normal sets IMO. It's a shame as I have always loved base plates and to me it's the right way to start a building. My niece and nephew love them as well so I hope they return sooner rather than later.

I've bought several 32x32 baseplates from my local LEGO store, and help display groups of sets wonderfully! I completely agree that Assault on Hoth would look much better with a couple white baseplates. I don't know why they aren't in larger sets anymore...

In this case it would be nice if they included white base plates with the set or it would at least be nice if Lego actually sold white baseplates so we can do it ourselves. Lego should at least try to offer a better selection of plates for individual sell.

That's why I made this with some 48*48 plates trimmed down and a $30 14*15" wire shelving unit. http://i.imgur.com/shuje7Kh.jpg

I have bad memories of base plates from when I was a kid. I had a couple of the road plates; they'd be very hard to firmly attach together with bricks or plates across the join and would bend upwards slightly, making them an untidy proposition.

Although, I never had a larger playset that was built upon one or two of them, so my experience will differ to that of others.

I have always yearned for a 32x32 (or larger) plate that was a regular plate with the ability to receive studs on the underside.

I don't think baseplates are that necessary for the most part, it doesn't bother me that a lot of the stuff for that Friends hotel are just freestanding, for example. I do however hope that LEGO still considers using baseplates if a set really demands it, i.e. that set ideas aren't scrapped because they'd require a baseplate to work.

Take 3368 Space Centre for example. You couldn't really do that kind of structure without putting it on a baseplate. Just putting it on a few plates directly under it and it'd fall over too easily. Would LEGO just not make a set like that nowadays? I hope they still would, although the most recent similar set (60080) didn't, but it didn't have the built up launch platform either.

I have luck to have both 32x32 and 48x48 plates as building without them is impossible if you are creating buildings and always loved these sets which included modified plates like castles or bases :)

As a general rule of thumb, I miss the inclusion of baseplates in some larger sets as they DO lend a sense of continuity for sets with disparate elements. TLG seems to have all but abandoned them, but it seems to me a strategic smattering of them each year could be of great benefit to fans. I generally purchase baseplates to put larger sets on for display or for their inclusion in my town and city layouts, which I will do when I buy the new service station set.

On sets such as the Assault on Hoth it would add needed topography in the base aspect.

Now that my son is almost five, he's graduated from Duplo to Lego, and as a father who grew up on castle, space and city sets, I couldn't be happier. Add in the great power and (ir)responsibility that comes with adult buying power, I've been picking up quite a few sets to build, (with him of course). We love the creator modular sets, and I can't get enough of them since they weren't around in the 80s or early 90s, but as a kid growing up in the 80s, the OP is right in that it felt like every big set came with a road or base plate, which to tell the truth, I loved, because those served as the foundations for all my creations. So imagine my surprise now 25 years later when coming back to Lego that practically none of the sets have them. I too like the OP think that having the plates help keep things organized, and I've learned fast enough with my son that even the lightest of sets will have parts falling off and rolling off the table and disappearing. By keeping things at least somewhat locked on a plate, it fells like you can at least contain it.

One thing as an adult that wasn't around when I was younger is the creator modular sets, and man, I can't help but think how great these would look on base plates, especially the old city road ones. Unfortunately the only city plates they sell are the two plate sets with a curved road and a intersation or T-section if I recall, and I can't help but think there use to be much more variety back in the day....

I do miss baseplates, especially raised ones. While the CRAPP part from Scorpion Pyramid was hardly my favorite, many previous ones were very good.

Not a fan of the raised base plates I am afraid. Unlike a few other comments, more rooms would not have added that much to the set for me. This is NOT a bad set in my opinion, it is a great play set, but it is not a display UCS set. Therefore more rooms, would not really move it out of play set land into display land. For me the use of perhaps smaller plates in conjunction with a more detailed cave that sprawled out and connected other parts. The problem with this set for me, is not its potential (some people are going to MOC the hell out of this and it will look great), but its lack of cohesiveness - the base plates would go some way to fixing it, but not all I think.

I do like Demon-Xanth's idea though, that looks great :)

The Lego Friends sets have the 'playmat" landscape boards to use. My daughter likes that but it's a pain to pick up and move all these little tiny building things...

I believe that AFOL or just LEGO builders in general like to have a baseplate as a foundation to their building because it really feels having a 'CLEAN SLATE' to start from. A baseplate gives the starting point of something new :) As long as LEGO keeps on putting the Modular buildings on baseplates, I'm still OK with them. All though they've gone more and more missing indeed...

To finalise my comment, have a look at these two sets from the 90's:
=> http://brickset.com/sets/6409-1/Island-Arcade
This sets contains a baseplate for a set that these days couldn't be imagined with one.

Look at the wonderful baseplate that was included for this set, complete with pool and small bending steps...
=> http://brickset.com/sets/6416-1/Poolside-Paradise

Been begging for 32[square] white plates for years, for the love of Christmas!

Bring back more base plates! Personally I just don't see the appeal of the new style of sets with pieces and sections just floating everywhere.

I sure do miss the sets today having baseplates. I think they really need to go back to including them in sets again. The new Octan gas station looks incomplete with out a road baseplate. All the other ones had one. I also really like the classic space moon crater base plates too. I just think sometimes some of the sets are missing something with out them.

I would agree with you Huw that baseplates would indeed help, however this really isn't a UCS set.. We can all buy base plates to produce a more condensed set but isn't this really classed as a play set. I have no doubt that in some form or another word will get back to the designer but that'll be it.. It was interesting to see that Lego's Facebook page had almost 1000 comments of which most were bad.. Will this make a difference? Probably not.. If people really want this set I suggest waiting for a sale because if this set flops it will be discounted and retired early!

I do prefer base plates, but am okay with having to purchase them separately to keep the set costs down, but more colours/road designs and other options would be great. I don't like these new playmats that have been appearing in different themes as they are not really proper Lego i.e. part of the "system" of play.
I wonder if they've looked at producing 32x32 plates as the 16x16 have been so popular? But these would be pricey to produce I guess.

I may be able to explain why base plates have seen a steady decrease recently. I work at a rubber and plastics company. We use very similar plastics molding presses for automotive use. Generally speaking, the larger a part is in a plastics molding environment, the more difficult it is to effectively mold that sample. Base plates are large complex molds. Lego has probably moved away from them because of the scrap that is produced. The decision more than likely saved them a large sum of money.

You can add as many baseplates as you want but the Assault On Hoth is still a horrible set.

I half agree and half disagree with this article. I miss baseplates, in castle and police and fire stations they really help out a lot. However I'm currently looking at the Friends light house and there is no way that would be better on a baseplate.

Baseplates are missed but as someone said they still can't make up for badly designed sets.

As Lego is a business with more competition than ever before, the decision to no longer include expensive base plates is most likely purely financial. As someone said earlier it also increases the box size, which also adds cost (I seriously doubt this is to save paper as was suggested) and decreases store shelf space. Too many of us forget that Lego is a business that must react to market and competitive forces. As of late they are doing very well, but you will recall they were near bankruptcy in the late 90's I believe.

If anything, this decision to almost discontinue them has driven the price of 16x16 and 16x32 baseplates up. Personally I'd like to see more of the latter included, as they tend to be very practical (for half-size-modular houses for example).

While I do tend to dislike when sets lack a dedicated space for INTERIOR furniture (like the table and chairs in Skyra's Mysterious Sky Castle, or the aforementioned Heartlake Grand Hotel), I don't really miss baseplates at all. Baseplates tend to crowd set features into a fairly cramped area, and force structures and features into very rigid 90 degree layouts. Even when you do want a set to have a solid base, I tend to prefer the sturdier 16x16 plates (as well as preferring the more versatile and customizable BURPs over raised baseplates).

I seriously doubt the new Hoth set would be improved by a baseplate. Not only would it interfere with some of the interesting angles on parts like the trench, but it would also eliminate the ability to easily reposition the different parts of the set (as well as potentially enforcing an unrealistic proximity between sections, such as the Wampa cave which realistically should not be right beside Echo Base itself). Also, without a huge amount of additional landscaping, it would change negative space that can be imagined as anything or filled in to your heart's content into a flat plain that would not necessarily suit the less ordinary landscape of Hoth.

I ended up buying lots of old city, green and blue baseplates from bricklink for my kids to play with. While not having baseplates allows for more modularity and creativity, with baseplates they get the same since they can just reposition the set anyway/anywhere they want it to be.

Yes I miss having base plates in sets. If they are not going to be in sets then they should at least offer a good variety separately, without being stuck with tons of duplicate "+" as noted earlier.

I always thought the various (raised) baseplates were great and as large piece so to speak and you could be creative in reusing it to suit your needs. Its unfortunate there were only about a half dozen prints for each (i.e. 2552, 30271, 6024); too bad there weren't more.

Great article. I began to wonder about this as well when this past Winter I needed something to tie together all of our Winter/Christmas themed sets for display. I ended up buying the separate tan base plates and painting them white.

Very good point this article brings up. If I buy larger structure sets, they're usually modulars so I didn't notice this right away...sneaky!

On a side note, I *really* wanted that Neptune Discovery Lab set growing up as a kid. What happened to all the magnet pieces Lego used to make, too? Those are awesome!

Wasn't one argument against baselplates made by Lego that they break so easily? I like them a lot, I bought many, many Lego boardgame sets just for the baseplates. I baseplatified many of the sets which did noch come with them (newer castle sets for example).

Baseplates DON'T increase box size! Almost all sets that had a baseplate (in the past) or should (new sets) all come in large boxes already.

A $20.00 city car set is not going to get a single road plate with it.

my most baseplate heavy set is fort legoredo. I think the fort covers an area of about 48 x 48 studs. but the baseplates cover an area of 64 x 62, for the sole purpose of attaching a few bushs and barrels outside the fort. it's pretty terrible for the purpose of displaying, since it takes a lot of extra space for very little.

in another hand, my rapid river village has a 32x32 plate that is mostly bare, but this one is printed with a river pattern and complete the water bit coming out of the cave, so it's pretty welcome here.

Thank you for that article - it hit my feeling of this lazy set:
Missing base plates, missing beckon ideas, missing rebels base.
To summerize this product (slightly misquoted) "The Brickpire Falls Back".

I loved me some base plates. Sure it's a little annoying that the bottoms are smooth and they are a little flimsy (many nervous moments carrying a set built on one) and not always the best clutch but having an instant area of open studs is awesome. I'm not really concerned about interior space for furniture and stuff, never really been a 'doll house' guy. I doubt it's a box size issue, didn't they pretty much abandon their small box experiment? Lots of different views here but I'm confident TLG's viewpoint is it saves them money and that's all that matters.

Great article, Huw. I also love and miss baseplates as part of large sets.

I too thought the same thing about a UCS - This is suppose to be an exclusive and have hard to find items, not something thrown together like a Costco or Sams club exclusive.
Recently I bought a few large white baseplates that Lego did not offer ( Ebay ). I did this as I wanted a winter setting for my Christmas sets under the tree. I almost sprayed a large grey Baseplate to white to stick with LEGO brand.

Personally I'm quite happy with the way LEGO sets have evolved. Baseplates are large, limited in function (because they have no studs on the underside), and they have an irritating tendency to force layouts into a rigid-looking rectangular grid. Raised baseplates in particular could be fragile, and in some cases (like a lot of large, specialized pieces from my childhood) seem to have been fairly expensive, driving up prices of sets much the same way floating boat hulls do in today's City sets. http://brickset.com/sets/6195-1/Neptune-Discovery-Lab is a set I quite enjoyed as a kid! But I didn't have to pay for it back then. If I had, I might have had some reservations about paying $90 (that's equivalent to $145 in today's money) for barely more than 500 pieces! Same goes for other beloved sets from my childhood like http://brickset.com/sets/6082-1/Fire-Breathing-Fortress and http://brickset.com/sets/5978-1/Sphinx-Secret-Surprise . Looked great, but offered a pitiful value in parts by today's standards.

Sets without baseplates can allow for more dynamic layouts, can be packed in smaller boxes, and can serve as a source for much more versatile landscaping parts like 8x16 plates, 16x16 plates, and mountain bricks. Just look at sets like http://brickset.com/sets/70728-1/Battle-for-Ninjago-City , http://brickset.com/sets/70751-1/Temple-of-Airjitzu , or http://brickset.com/sets/60130-1/Prison-Island . Would these really be improved if you swapped their interesting brick-built foundations for generic raised baseplates? In my opinion, no, they would not be. It would force their foundations to conform to a predefined shape, make the foundations more plain-looking, reduce the usable interior space, and reduce the piece count and the amount of creative building without an equivalent reduction in price. No thanks! That all sounds like the opposite of what AFOLs should be lobbying for! The 90s may have been my childhood, but the LEGO design standards of the 90s are not something to aspire to!

I will also concur with @Lyichir that white baseplates would've just made the Assault on Hoth set WORSE, forcing the set into a cramped rectangular layout that simply wouldn't suit the subject matter one bit, and making it more difficult to rearrange the contents.

What if the Lego designers put base plates in as an option in the instructions for some sets and the collector could buy the plate separate? I do miss the base plates and certain model setups would lend well to including them. I understand not everybody is a fan of baseplates but I did like the CRAPP as it did lend nice designs to some of the pirate sets like El dorado Fortress and Imperial Outpost. I also liked giving the city an actual city feel. I also see without base plates also allows the collector to arrange things how ever they please or also takes up less space to store or display the models. I guess you could detach the buildings from the Big Rig Truckstop and make them more like current models...

when i place the fares wheel in my city i plan to remove the plates and place it on a baseplate

I like having flat baseplates, as they help tie things together for display. Never had many of the raised ones, but I'm a big fan of the flat ones. The great thing about having flat plates in a set is that you don't HAVE to use them.

Are we all forgetting that LEGO's primary audience is kids, and baseplates are really easy to bend or break? Haven't you purchased a used lot of LEGO, only to discover that the important baseplate to re-create a classic set contained within is bent or broken?

I think the move away from baseplates is well justified. The decision to build sets with a lot of loose sub-assemblies on the other hand is just laziness and bad design.

---tom

I hadn't thought about this before, but now I do, yes, I can see the decline of baseplates, especially 3D ones. I don't know which I prefer. Obviously nice flat baseplates are good, but they still exist. The 3D ones look great in a set, but are more difficult to use for MOCs. And using plates instead is a bonus, 'cause, hey! More bricks!

I guess I like the solidity of baseplates, but considering I hadn't noticed the loss until it was pointed out, both options are pretty much equally good.

I had to buy about 20 16x32 white plates to a chineese ebayer for my winter display (winter sets) .

Quite disapointing that TLG cannot produce a "rainbow of base plates" : white, blue .... baseplates are the base of Lego !

@henrysunset: I don't think loose sub-assemblies are bad design. They allow you to re-arrange the set's contents to your liking, and spare you from having to pay extra for the empty space between the set's actual contents. If a set like the Battle of Hoth were on baseplates, it would either feel cramped, with everything condensed to fit efficiently on a base, or empty, with everything spread out inefficiently, which would create a more authentic sense of scale but make display much more difficult.

Great article, more of this please! I miss the baseplates and agree they are a missing piece in many recent sets.

I don't know that the problem is baseplates as much as set design. Starting with the Winter Village sets, there was a noticeable trend away from a single build with a few small accessories, and toward a bunch of mini builds in a box. The Winter Market is the most obvious example of this.

When we do get a single build now, it tends to be something like Lord Business Evil Lair, which doesn't represent any actual location in the movie. It's designed for play value and price, rather than as a display piece.

I doubt kids, who are the target market, care much about the shift, but I find it a big negative when LEGO courts the adult market with sets like Hoth and the Batcave. These are not display sets, they're play sets with prices so high that a lot of parents are going to balk at buying them. (I can't imagine a lot of kids today are familiar with vintage Batman. Maybe they are, but that set has "adult collector" written all over it.)

It's really hard to make a set that appeals to adults and kids, because the expected uses are wildly different. In trying to serve both audiences, LEGO ultimately fails both audiences. I would think it a stronger strategy to develop specific, higher-priced sets for AFOLs and call any sales to kids a bonus.

This is pure speculation on my part, but another reason could be that baseplates seem to be vacuum moulded rather than injection moulded? Possibly not worth keeping around the manufacturing machinery for these.

Great story, I also agree with most of the comments, it's amazing that many sets do not have the basis, in many sets is much needed basis for playing, so that all parts have more harmony, and have everything more orderly and in place.

A great article. Whilst there's debate for and against baseplates, it would be nice to have other colour baseplates available to buy, particularly a white 32x32 baseplate. Providing baseplates as separate sets allows customers to choose whether to buy some for our models or not. We then choose whether to pay extra for them. Perhaps we have to be patient though. It has taken years to get a 32x32 sand one, without having to buy 3843 Ramses Pyramid to get one! With the number of Winter Village, Hoth and potential Starkiller Base sets, perhaps the time is now 'white' to have another colour plate.

Base plates were very appealing to me back in the days when I collected old and/or vintage Lego sets off Ebay. I loved the different shapes, colours, and patterns (such as the runways in old Airport sets).

To my knowledge, Lego still sells individual base plates on their website. Even the medium-sized ones can be quite expensive, though, which leads me to believe that base plates aren't as "cost-effective" as they used to be. Then again, every thing is more expensive when you buy it individually.

One reason I DON'T LIKE base plates is because I display my Lego sets on glass shelves. Therefore, the interior lighting unit of my cabinets get blocked by the sets on the top shelves.

I love baseplates, although only having two: (A flat 52 x 52 and a 52 x 26 structure one) They're uses are unlimited, MOCs, buildings, minifigure displays. I agree that a large white baseplate in NEEDED for this Hoth set, otherwise it's just gonna be loose parts everywhere.

Aanchir,
The new space shuttle set has 500 pieces and is $120. With no baseplate.

Sometimes they are great (castles) sometimes they suck (the hospital!!?!)

As a child I wouldn't want to spend so much money on a base plate - potentially several weeks pocket money for 1 piece but they would represent the most useful piece of any larger set I got for Xmas or birthdays. Having a set design of several smaller components may allow a child to sprawl and be creative but without that larger base plate you will always be limited in the scale of your imagination when it comes to building. If Lego made more base plates the economies of scale would make them cheaper. They could even be sold as a loss-leader in order to sell more bricks.

I've never been a fan of 32x32 baseplates due to their flexibility and poor clutch power. That said, I also HATE sets with loads of disparate little pieces not connected to the main set. I'm a big fan of 16x16 plates, but as mentioned in the article, they're pricey to get in bulk.

I 'built' a 48x48 base for my Grand Carousel out of regular plates and bricks. This set in particular needs a base that won't flex - especially if you ever plan to move it. I then used the 48x48 green baseplate that came with the Carousel to hold one friends stables sets that had little pieces all over the place. Much better in my opinion, and a lot easier for my daughter to keep all the elements in one place.

I've built several 48x48 bases out of plates/bricks now, but each one requires 18 16x16 plates which makes them expensive. Although I haven't tried it myself, I've heard a suggestion that using a 48x48 baseplate at the bottom of the plate/brick/plate sandwich is a good compromise as you get the stiffness but isn't as expensive as using all plates. I'd love it if they brought out 48x48 plates, but I can't see that happening and may not even be possible.

I would greatly like to see the return of CRAPP baseplates. In fact, I wish they could be sold individually, like the 32x32 flat baseplates from the newer LEGO CLASSIC theme. The only baseplate design I do not agree with is 30271 (from sets such as Castle of Morcia and Ogel's Mountain Fortress), purely due to size and the weight on each side making it too easy to warp.

I too miss the old-style CRAPP base plates. 2 of my absolute favourite sets as a child were 6276 and 6278 (along with the Black Seas Barracuda, of course), which wouldn't have been half the sets they were without them. I would love for them to make a reappearance, but I guess LEGO has moved on.

Sadly I no-longer have those sets as I stupidly gave all my LEGO away during my dark age. I'm just glad sites like Bricklink exist so we can still get hold of stuff like that.

Most sets under £45 don't really have the box space/size for a 32x32 baseplate and LEGO is only going the opposite way, shrinking boxes, at the moment, so it probably wont change soon.

Huw, keep this kind of article and commentary coming! Well written! I think baseplates have a place in LEGO, whether it's an official LEGO set or a MOC. Growing up in the 80s & 90s, the sets with baseplates looked like a whole world. For example, the island look in various Pirate/Islander sets or Space-themed sets with a planetary landscape.

I agree...a great article!

About your article - nice, but too bad you did not mention, when first baseplates 32x32 appeared... It was nearly 40 years ago!!!
I am that old, that I do remember how much I was dreaming about my first road baseplates. There were 2 boxes: 2x turn and 2x T-crossroads. I was soo happy to have my little town!
What do we need the baseplates for? My answer is: to have a complete little lego world: with snow/water/grass/asphalt/vulcans/landings and so on... Is it really so expensive? Why there are no new versions of roads for so long time?

Meh, I'm sort of divided. I liked the big 3D baseplates growing up. If I were to build a town, I'd need baseplates everywhere. Roads and plates under all the buildings so that they're the same height as the roads. That being said, baseplates are flimsy, and I remember being bummed as a kid that I couldn't stack something I built on one of those smaller baseplates ontop of something else. I wanted to make a multi-tiered house and didn't have big enough plates for the floors/ceilings, but only baseplates. Because of their height, baseplates are sort of in their own system and it's always been weird…

There's definitely pros and cons to the old baseplates. I don't imagine we'll ever get something like http://brickset.com/sets/6276-1/Eldorado-Fortress again without a raised baseplate. That's an example of a set that used the raised baseplate well, and there are just as many instances of baseplate misuse among sets from the late 80s, 90s and early 2000s. I think the pendulum has swung too far the other way recently though and I'm inclined to advocate the usage of larger baseplates where it makes sense. Does it make sense for the Hoth set? Maybe, but like Rex and others have pointed out there are different fundamental problems with the set's design that wouldn't be solved with a baseplate.

I love baseplates and want to see more use of them.
I have several of the raised baseplates including the blue canyon plates from the Neptune Discovery Lab, the blue moon crater plate from the Sharks Crystal Cave, several of the classic grey moon crater plates, the ice plate from the Ice Station Odyssey, the stone pattern plate from the Dragon Fortress, the water and sand plate from the coast watch HQ and the grey plate with the plant stickers from the hospital.

I concur with others who say that raised baseplates on sets like the prison island would ruin the sets and that the Hoth set wouldn't be fixable with baseplates alone (the root problem with the Hoth set as others have said is that its got many of the same things we saw in previous Hoth sets and really should have had more of the Hoth base and less of the exterior battle stuff we got last time (like the defense canons and such)

I think the hangar should have had a base plate to be able to have the command center and hangar door look better together but I'm ok with the side elements being separate. I think there is a time and place for both baseplates and lack thereof. A castle, base, airport, etc. should all have at least a large flat base plate. The smaller buildings and so forth are fine without them.

Amen! I totally agree that set would be greatly improved by tying it together on a couple baseplates. White baseplates would also make it a more desirable set just to obtain those. It would also force the designers to tie things together better. Good article. I do miss baseplates.

I have feelings on both sides of the baseplate debate. I think they're very useful, and I love their use in sets like the Modular Buildings, and in the classic Western sets as well. I don't personally miss the raised baseplates (although I can think of a certain upcoming volcano-related sub-theme that would benefit greatly from their return). I don't think baseplates add to every set, and in particular I don't think they'd add to the new UCS Hoth in particular. I love the flexibility that the multitude of submodels allows, for different arrangements for both display and play. I plan on incorporating it into my existing Hoth display, mixing different section into different areas. If the set was anchored to a baseplate or two, it would likely take a lot more re-engineering to break it down into subsections without the support of the baseplates.

All that being said, I think a plausible solution would be for Lego to offer more baseplate options for individual sale. As it is, we've really only got the X-large grey, and large green and sand available as a standard. If Lego sold large white baseplates (among a selection of other colors), folks who wanted to augment their UCS Hoth (or whatever set) would have an easy way to pick up the baseplates they needed.

I do miss baseplates, and though I never had a raised basplate I love it and I don't think they were crafted out of lazyness, if you think about it having a building built on a mountain from ground up and all is built by using bricks, it will raise the cost, same thing goes to those big ugly rock pieces.

Regarding to nowadays not using baseplates I could think of cost and economy, a 100$ back in the 80s and 90s is not the same as today, another reason to not using them is to let the kids rearrange their own builds the way they see it fit rather than having it in a limited position, still it doesn't mean that I like the idea of not using the baseplates.

I still wish I had bought more than one of set 6162, just for the clear 16 x 16 baseplate. With some trans-colored tiles, that thing could make an awesome stained-glass window.

I absolutely LOVE both raised baseplates and regular baseplates. When I was a kid, having a set with a raised baseplate meant that you had one of the best sets out there. Even the flat baseplates worked for me in the Fort Legoredo (although I always wished it had come with a big baseplate in the center.

I bought the Royal Knights Castle years later due to it having such a unique raised baseplate.

I think quite possibly the people who disliked base plates are now working at lego and are leaving them out of their designs. I could be wrong, its just my theory, but baseplates like the ramp/pit one were used quite often in the 90s, when I was a kid. Meaning the people who didn't like them then are now adults like me and are showing their dislike with their wallets

The base plates express a different time and space continuum, a time where the rules were set and had to be followed. You could use the bricks freely, but not the baseplates, for those had specific structures.
Beside this, I think the lego video games have changed the perception of baseplates, making the whole ambientations independent and interconnected by the story and not by the rigid base plates. And the design follows exactly this.

I don't understand why the fuss over no baseplates. For at least 15 years, AFOL's have been complaining about the lazy designers and their over-reliance on using "shortcuts" such as baseplates, BURPs/LURPs, etc. "Give us more brick-built structures", we all said. "We don't like street baseplates, we want to brick-build our own streets", we said.

Well, so now we have brick-built structures. MOCers have their nice parts, with no big ugly baseplates or POOP parts. And now we're wringing our hands about the lack of those nice baseplates to tie the structures together?

I guess the lesson is, "be careful what you wish for, you might just get it"!

Who knows, maybe in another 20 years all the big sets will have baseplates again, and the next generation will be complaining that there aren't enough brick-built structures in the sets...

I don't understand why the fuss over no baseplates. For at least 15 years, AFOL's have been complaining about the lazy designers and their over-reliance on using "shortcuts" such as baseplates, BURPs/LURPs, etc. "Give us more brick-built structures", we all said. "We don't like street baseplates, we want to brick-build our own streets", we said.

Well, so now we have brick-built structures. MOCers have their nice parts, with no big ugly baseplates or POOP parts. And now we're wringing our hands about the lack of those nice baseplates to tie the structures together?

I guess the lesson is, "be careful what you wish for, you might just get it"!

Who knows, maybe in another 20 years all the big sets will have baseplates again, and the next generation will be complaining that there aren't enough brick-built structures in the sets...

Interesting article. It's nice to read everyone's views.

Personally, my OCD likes a layout with baseplates to connect things to for stability. You can easily do angles by using a second layer of plates and tiles to attach train curves and the temple of Spinjitzu.

I think a baseplate can add to a set. For example this one is really missing a baseplate in my opinion. http://brickset.com/sets/7641-1/City-Corner

My kids on the other hand don't mind. We a few of the Lego play mats, the are quite nice. http://brickset.com/sets/850596-1/Heartlake-City-Playmat. They just as happily play on those, large pieces of 4x8 foot MDF, glass table, floor or on top of the baseplates without actually attaching to the studs.

Battle of both and Bruce manor are just disappointing to me.

Baseplates! I have many fond memories of the baseplate included in 6276 Eldorado Fortress; both with the set itself and numerous MOCs. Also the one that came with 6079 Dark Forest Fortress was very useful, as well. Bring them back, TLG!

"I never understood why baseplates are not full plate thickness"

@SuperWags

A base plate is fairly heavy compared to a brick piece's weight, imagine a brick, let alone a plate, that is 32x32. I believe the other rumor about base plates are they force a box to be a certain size (with room likely to ensure the plate does not get damaged) and that the weight is prohibitive, and the cost to make them is up there. Plus with the way the quality of plastic seems to have dipped I wonder if the base plates are hard to manufacturer now.

As for the Hoth set needing baseplates.. IMO what it needs is an AT-AT to be an Assault on Hoth

I will say that without a base plate I'm not sure how sturdy these sets are or how easily they can topple over on thick carpet

Ah, the golden era of base plates gone bye. Quite sad indeed ;-{

As a kid I had a Gas Station and Police station that each came with one and the Airport had 4 or 5 BPs. Most recent set to include 4 BPs was the Eiffel Tower [circa ~2007] -- which was hard enough to build as is -- would have been impossible without them.

I used a green BP to make a MOC of the Ewok Village years before Lego their released version, which is a gorgeous set (i proudly own it); however ever that could've + should've included 1 or 2 BPs.

They are useful as a FOUNDATION. Would sure be nice to see Return of the Jedi, um er Base Plate in more sets.

More cost cutting from Lego.

I love the 16 by 32 base plates that came out in the late 2000s in sets like the modular buildings and town plan.

Today the sets are set on normal plates of different sizes which can be transferred on top of the 32 by 32 base plates that are sold separately. Lego has released 2 green, 1 tanned and 1 blue base plates so far. They also go along with the road base plates if you're more into a table top display.

I think Lego is creating a variety of options for fans to display their Lego in their own ways. So I have no complaints here.

As far the hoth base set is concerned, I think 1 or 2 rare white base plates will be nice to include.

Great article; I love this kind of discussion! You know, I came to this expecting to emerge as I entered, totally pro-baseplate, but I find I actually can't argue with any of the practical or creative considerations people have raised against them.

That said, I still love baseplates - I think it has a lot to do with having mostly played with Lego on the (carpeted) floor as a child, when a baseplate was a sturdy blank canvas. I remember how excited I was when I first got a big one (I'd guess 32x32). I was obsessed with making house layouts at the time - sort of like blueprints in brick, and I liked the extra room. Baseplates also made it easy to lift whatever I was making and move it somewhere safe to make way for visitors, or the hoover. Having said that, I remember that the bigger the baseplate, the more careful I had to be in moving my castle/adventure playground/riding school, for all the structural reasons people have mentioned. They're definitely not a perfect solution.

I think I actually miss the CRAPPY and its ilk the most from modern sets - I liked the way they allowed you to build models that made use of variable topographical heights and features without sinking a ton of bricks into non-visible parts of the model that were just there to add to the height. That could still matter to a kid without a huge collection of bricks, though of course you could argue as to whether that kid's parents would find it better value to shell out for an old CRAPPY or a lot of bricks in whatever colour. (I'm still annoyed that TLG no longer sell supplementary boxes of bricks in one colour - those were a lifesaver for my childhood castle MOCs!)

I'd like it if TLG would make a couple of different CRAPPY-style moulds in a few colours - can imagine green, white, sand and grey being useful for a lot of imaginary settings. They could sell them as standalone items rather than messing with the economics of sets, and yes, they'd be expensive, to judge from baseplate costs now, but it'd be nice to have them as an option.

Trying this again.

Has anyone that is a member of a LUG or knows an Lego Ambassador asked what the official word is from TLG regarding them moving away from baseplates? My city is nothing but baseplates, maybe it's because I am a child of the late 80's/early 90's, but I think the sets NEED baseplates.

@Jersey Brick Guy I'm an Ambassador and can confirm that this was asked on the LAN Forum 7 days ago and has not received a response from anyone at LEGO yet. There was some debate (among ambassadors) about whether this was an appropriate question for the LAN forum versus registering a complaint via LEGO customer service. I am in the camp that this is probably better addressed through LEGO customer service and would recommend that you email or call them to make them aware of your concerns.

Looks like baseplate prices will rise. Also it is a shame lego look to be heading this way, airport lost the plates, and now other ie hoth set, sad to see this happen.

This is quite a good topic I have mixed emotions/thoughts on baseplates. I'm a AFOL, grew up in the 80s, 90s and have two sons who play with Lego. From my perspective I actually like the larger 16x16 plate pieces being used now for sets over baseplates as they are sturdier than baseplates and can be uses for a variety of MOCing for both adults and youth I enjoy them for making Medieval houses and my sons do for adding "floors" to their structures. However I will say I'm not a fan of the Hoth style sets Huw mentioned that are pretty much a bunch of smaller free standing structures that are combined to be a "large set" I generally call these sets "Scene Sets". To me "Scene Sets" are just a mess and I will put all the pieces on baseplates just to keep them all together. For this purpose (and others like creating a nice scene) I find baseplates are needed and I'm happy I can buy them on their own and will agree they need to be available in a variety of colours. If you think about it, just about any modern "Scene Set" would have been built upon a baseplate had it been created in the 20th century. On the creative side for my sons, in our house many "Scene Sets" become a member of the "parts bin" sooner than a self contained structure. For example the Mines of Moria (9473) and Attack on Weather Top (9472) were both bought and built at Christmas 2013 and the Mines lasted about a month and Weather Top is still intact.

baseplates ftw

It's great to see this as a desirable subject for people to comment on, and I'm late to comment, but because I haven't seen mention of MILS yet, I thought I would mention MILS (Modular Integrated Landscaping System)*. This is the way I want to build future "baseplates" due to MILS' detail options and connectability, even though it would cost more than baseplates, especially for SNOT road plates!

I never had baseplates as a kid, but I admired them and thought they would be cool, especially the road plate style baseplates. The only "raised" 3D baseplates at that time were in space.

I don't usually use baseplates, but I've only been building for a couple of years and prefer challenging engineering projects instead which haven't been anything like modular buildings, which I can see benefiting from baseplates.

However, I think white baseplates would be nice to see as I would like to build a winter scene on-the-cheap. And for Hoth I'd be cool seeing them for kids, although I'd prefer to build this set into MILS.

*MILS (Modular Integrated Landscaping System) Plates (Baseplate+4plates), HispaBrick, www.abellon.net/MILS - 32x32 stud-sized module is BTU (Basic Terrain Unit). Restrictions apply only on sides where elements of different builders are connected, but to keep things simple try to keep connectivity very flexibile with-in your own moduels. BASEPLATES: They make up the base of the MILS plate, but if you don't use that you can use 3 plate layers (1 brick height) covered with a tile layer so it matches a base-terrain level MILS just below stud height. COLORS: Baseplate colors usually don't matter unless you want to build detail down to the baseplate level. SIDES: 1) Corners get a 1x3 corner brick (or three 1x3 corner plates) which you can use to unqiuely identify your modual(s). 2) Then continuing in from the corner on each side starting at the 3rd stud, place a 1x4 technic brick. 3) The rest of the sides can be completed as their owners want, but flush is recommended unless you want to run wires or have a sensor or have a hole for an "interactive" feature. SURFACE: Use regular plates and appropriate brick supports underneith to create a surface.

Definitely agree with your article, its also a pain to put those sorts of sets in towns or cities as they don't fit in well and you're left with bits and pieces everywhere.

I never had any base plates growing up, and I can't say that I ever missed them. I did have 2 green 10x20 bricks, which I still use when I want to make a large sturdy platform for something. I had friends with the space base plate with the L-shaped mountain and the 4x4 round crater, and also had a base plate with a landing zone that looked somewhat like a street intersection, but we tended not to rely very much on those for play.

I can see some value in LEGO producing base plates in green (grass), brown (earth), white (snow), black (roadway), blue (water) and gray (city). I can also see some value in some of these being printed with streets. I think meeting the goal of having ground structures such as the mountain-crater, pyramid bases, etc. would be better served by LEGO creating a finite set of 4x4 terrain pieces (i.e. pieces in roughly Duplo scale; imagine something analogous to WC3 map tiles with terrain types, colors, variations, etc.) that can be combined in a variety of ways and placed on top of the aforementioned finite set of bases. That way, reasonable-appearing ground features could be created without relying on 100s of bricks for the groundwork, base plates could be sold separately and with lower inventory to those who want them, and builders would have far greater flexibility in being able to modify the terrain design if they so chose.

That's my 2c.

Thank you for posting tis article. I too have wondered about the lack of baseplates. I remember as a kid Eldorado Fortress, Message Intercept Base or Black Knight's Castle had wonderful use of baseplates and added a three dimensionality to the sets that as of late seems lacking. Just because it was simple doesn't equate that the designers were lazy. Look at the Temple of Airjitzu or the Classic Batcave and I feel that baseplates would have made them better rather than having so many different modular builds to put together. Just my thoughts.

I also prefer plates rather than baseplates and am therefore very happy with set 40158 http://brickset.com/sets/40158-1/Pirates-Chess-Set , which contains a total of eight 16x16 plates as well as four 8x16 plates. As far as I know, there aren't a lot of sets which offer that many plates at this price point: the Pirates Chess Set, containing 857 parts, has a RRP of £ 45.99 / $ 59.99.