Subject:
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Re: The Bar Does Not Go Down
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Thu, 13 May 2004 18:46:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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5415 times
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In lugnet.dear-lego, Terry Prosper wrote:
> I mostly agree with your post, but you omit to mention that Crunch isn't
> always gonna be crunch... It can be a pair of legs for another Minifig, a
> torso with different arms for a spec. ops. cop in your city, a head for a
> thief in your castle (actually, I think crunch wouldn't do very well as a
> castle head, but you get the point).
You're right, but that's not quite the point-- An Alpha Team set can still be
integrated into the rest of your collection. An onion dome piece can still be
used as an engine on a space ship. And a Harry Potter head can be any other
figure with glasses and a little scar. The point is that it's less likely to be
than some other more generic piece. A child presented with a He-Man action
figure can still pretend that it's a mailman. But it's less likely. The more
specific you make something, the less likely you are to spark creativity. But
conversely, you also need some degree of specificity to get the ball rolling.
The point I was trying to make is that I think Lego's gone a bit too far in
recent years. Its goal for the past few years was to be the best brand name in
households with children. They've tried to expand into all sorts of places, and
to become another Mattel-style toy company, mixed with Disney's reputation for
being wholesome (not to start up a Disney debate). And they've tried to broaden
the appeal of their toys by targeting certain markets, the same way that other
fad toys do.
To broaden the appeal, they've made the toys more flashy and more specific. And
they've given them storylines. Remember Transformers from the 80's? They were
actually marketed earlier, and totally flopped. But Hasbro got ahold of them,
gave them a storyline, and they flew off the shelves. Lego's done the same
thing. They've tried to give more of a storyline and specifics and flare to sets
to make them appeal to a greater audience.
Was it successful? Uh, to some extent. Certainly with Bionicle. Not with
Galidor. Has it made Alpha Team more successful sales-wise than a more generic
cops/robbers theme? I couldn't tell you. But I do believe that a more generic
cops/robbers theme fits more with the Lego system than Alpha Team.
If you really liked an Alpha Team set, there's very little reason to associate
it with, say, a Harry Potter set. Some family that buys Alpha Team for their kid
is probably not too likely to buy a Harry Potter set. But when you make the sets
more generic, they relate to each other better. The focus moves more from being
"an Alpha Team toy" to being "a building toy", because less importance is put on
the aspects that make it an "Alpha Team" set. And suddenly, a family that's
buying one Lego product or theme is more likely to buy others. As someone
pointed out, after a while, "the customer no longer goes to a toy store to buy
'toys' - he goes there to buy Lego".
> At first, I wasn't happy with the "new" (back in the days) heads. Up to this
> point, there were 2-3 male heads and you took smily and put girl hair on him
> if you wanted a female minifig. I was happy with that. But now, I wouldn't
> want only generic minifigs faces. I love al those "new" faces, those
> different personnalities that are obvious at first glance.
I sort of agree. Like I said before, there's a happy medium somewhere in the
middle, and it's not just minifig heads. It's the way the sets are marketed
now-- and the enhanced character faces are just one aspect of that. I too like
having minifig heads with a bit more character than simple smileys, and I hope
they keep them. I just hope they can start to put the focus more back on being a
building toy. And if that means losing some of the flashy cartoonyness, and
losing a few developed-character-minifig-heads, well, I can live with that. I
just want that happy medium back.
DaveE
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: The Bar Does Not Go Down
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| (...) I think that's why most of us loved the sets from the 80-90s period. There were only a handful of themes (Castle, Town, Technic, Space, Train, Basic) and there was so much room for creativity. Not saying that we can't be creative now, but (...) (20 years ago, 13-May-04, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: The Bar Does Not Go Down
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| (...) I mostly agree with your post, but you omit to mention that Crunch isn't always gonna be crunch... It can be a pair of legs for another Minifig, a torso with different arms for a spec. ops. cop in your city, a head for a thief in your castle (...) (20 years ago, 13-May-04, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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