You can still buy LEGO Classic which is just a bunch of bricks.

From experience there's a motivation, almost a compulsion, to follow the instructions to build the cool thing. Then... they sit there, those bricks never taken apart.

That compulsion doesn't seem present in freeform building, and there's been zero interest in it in our household. I know that's not true for all, but it seems like a lost art. Maybe it's because the IP sets show how but not the why it's constructed in a certain way, so given a bag of Lego most wouldn't know the process of creating something they can see in their minds eye within the constraints of the available bricks.

	▲	wffurr 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		When I was a kid and I got a new set, I would build it according to the instructions, play with it, and then disassemble it and sort it into my brick collection. Occasionally I would get the instructions back out and re-build it, and other times I would kitbash and make random cool stuff. My parents still have all my Legos from the 90s, including the instructions, and I've been able to rebuild a bunch of the space ships with translucent neon accents. It's pretty sweet and my kids love it.
	▲	beastcoast 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Lego used to encourage building new things by putting alternate builds on the back of the box, but intentionally not giving you the instructions. Now they do 3-in-1 for certain sets instead, which misses the point of that.

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skrebbel 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Not really. Even LEGO Classic has way too many different colors (and only a few bricks of each), and too many weird shapes. Even if you buy a lot of it, it's hard to make your own designs that actually look nice (as in, not having that one incorrectly-colored brick in that one place, and so on).

I for the love of God can't comprehend why LEGO Classic has 4 shades of blue. It makes everything worse.