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Here is a rough transcription from Brad's talk at LegoWorld 2003 on Saturday
evening. Sorry it took me a couple of days to get net access (we're dialed in
from the ldraw.org booth on the show floor at last... long story, the fast
connection did not materialise)...
An editorial comment: Some of the questions were the same ones asked 2 weeks ago
at NWBrickCon (and in some cases, 2 months ago at BrickFest 2003), and they got
the same answers they did before. That's just an artifact of the fact that it's
impossible for everyone to keep up with everything in our hobby these days.
A procedural comment: The content will be on the deBouwsteen website as soon as
is practical, perhaps translated into Dutch, please be patient.
As always, any errors or misrepresentations of what was said are unintentional,
and I accept responsibility for them, with my apologies. Please ask for
clarification and someone will clarify.
Brad’s talk at LEGOWORLD
18 October 2003
Paul Woelters introduced Brad Justus.
Brad’s introductory remarks:
Thanks for everything, its (the show) even better than last year. Good stuff
going on. Thanks especially for all the work that is done to make LW happen. It
is after all the biggest event of its type in the world.
LEGO is not about what we put into the box, it’s about what you get OUT of the
box, you’re a real inspiration to parents and kids that it doesn’t have to be
done by master builders, anyone can build terrific stuff out of LEGO if you want
to. Thanks very much for making that happen.
The company does recognize this. I went back with a bunch of pictures to the
global management team to show them.. look at what the fans can do with what we
make, our consumers creativity matters more than anything else. Not selling
Hogwarts as a set but as a means to creating more. We have now formaliszed a
group to work with community clubs and groups, Jake McKee and Kate Such are both
on that team, the community development organizations (Tormud Laskuson is
running that group (sp?)… we are focusing on NA and EU but we want to get to
other parts of the world as well.
We want to fix any problems you have had with communicating with LEGO. If you
need to talk and you’re looking for help or advice or whatever, talk to Jake or
Kate and we will get you in contact with the right people and make things
happen.
The best thing we can do is not to do everything by ourself but to go out to the
community, and enable the community… the beauty of lego is revealed in what YOU
do with the brand and we are out to do as much as we can to encourage people to
have their own events and show off their creativity. It’s a better expression of
what the brand is about than what we can do and it’s a huge thing for the kids.
We just did 20 cities in the US, at every stop there are 5 tents, one of which
is the community or enthusiasts groups, 4 tents are from the company. The
community tent has been the most popular poart of the event. Kids are
intimidated by miniland or master buiulder creations, “a professional did that”…
but the builders of the community are what they will grow up to be. The kid
saying “dad, I can make that” is what LEGO is all about. The message of the
brand is to inspire kids get out there and build.
Manfred Moolhuysen: Are we getting a LEGO btrand store in the NL.
A: focused on getting all the shops that are opening up and urnnig. Tey are
primariuly in the US. Thereare going to be more EU shjps., U doi[t know exactly
where they are going to be. I don’t decide, it’s a matter of the real estate
costs.
Nik Pieniazek: Are you from Canada?
A: no, I live in NYC… I say about and not aboooot.
Q: Why is the Mars Expedition scale so small? The launcher model is very small,
the biggest one (rover) is oversized
A: the models were not meant to go together… 3 smaller sets mark 3 important
moments in space exploration, the ISS, Apollo and the mars mission… the other
sets are done to a different scale. There is a image of the LEGO minifig on the
DVD that’s attached to the landers, and that DVD is attached WIT LEGO BRICKS!...
there are bookelst in each set that educate the kids on the science. We did I
thtat way because we could., they are not meant to be in scale with other lego
sets.
Paul Woelters Q: Any re-release of 12V as 9V train sets?
A: We are looking at it, no firm decisions yet.
Q: Can you reduce the price of older sets?.. when you reintroducing older sets
(LEGENDS )the prices are too high compared to original
A: Legends came out at the original retail price or close to it, so they are
CHEAPER than they were before after inflation.
Q: Any truth to half length 9V tracks? Why was it printed on the box of 4512?
A: That was a mistake. I don’t know why it was printed that way, it was done at
art creation time, sorry about that... At some point maybe we will get the
wishes that Jake and I(Brad) put into the design team for track geometry
changes…. But we cannot say when or if that will ever happen.
Q: Ben Beneke: More colors for axles and motor covers? Can we have red and blue?
And can we have bigger train wheels?
A: We are aware of these. Wheels are unlikely, other colors are possible but
whatever the mix is, is what it is. We have a limited range of products we can
bring out as exclusives. We know that train enthusiasts want certain things but
we cannot do it all
Q: there have been new parts available from S@H, would like thank you for doing
assortments instead of single part SKUs… the assortments have been well thought
out and having lots of accessory parts in one SKU is a good thing. Of course we
want 100 part single parts bags too…
A: yes, everyone wants everything (laughter). We have a SKU crunch… 3 years ago
there was maybe 500. we are slowly bringing that down, we are under 400 now.
Fewer products but more attention to what we are making. I think (and hope you
think too) that they are fewer but BETTER products. Discovery, make and create
and other great sets. The make and create in particular are the results of fans
like you saying you want to express your creativity better. The childhood sets
weren’t even delivered with directions in some cases, they just had idea
pictures. The M&C sets have inspiration books. There was a lot of care in those
sets. We have put a LOT of thought into them…
Q: we have not found a new supplier for mono?
A: no we have not.
Q: How do we tell if a train set has the new good wheels or the old bad wheels?
A: Jake… I don’t have a definitive answer on how to tell on the box. But call CA
and get them swapped out.
Q: they have said they will only exchange 40 wheelsets total
A: are they ALL bad?... (Q:… yes they are all bad…) but we have not found it to
be a consistent error. We can’t pin it down to the batch. We can’t say every set
has a problem. If you have reached the 40 wheel limit, send Jake a note and
will try to address/help you get them replaced… and we will announce if we have
a definite answer.
Q: Eric Brok : A point of concern about the product in general: The new hinge
system (click hinges) was Ok for certain kinds of hinges but now you see it in
every kind of hinging parts… even in parts that are not appropriate. Does the
company /designers know that we do not like these, can we ask that they use the
old designs when they are better….
A: We will pass that on. Jake: Don't just tell us... can you also use the
website email forms to feed that sort of thing in… they really do document those
and pull the records together and pass them on. If you drop all those emails in,
they will see a lot of feedback that says that and it will help. They DO get
digested, we're not just saying that, and we DO pass them along to marketing and
mfg and design. Also CA info gets circulated upwards….. all the way to senior
management
Q: any plan to level prices for different eu countries. In Italy we consistenly
pay higher proices than other countries.
A: the shop at home pricing levels are set to operate at roughly the levels at
the retail products are priced at. We don’t want to sell way less than retail or
way more, and that needs to be true even for S@H exclusives, when viewed
proprotionally, a 500 element shop at home exclusive set should be similarly
priced as a 500 element set at retail. On the whole we think our exclusives are
priced fairly or better for what you get element count wise and model quality
wise.
Q: For some prices EU prices are nearly the same and for others (Star wars for
example) there are price differences up to 40%. That’s not a tax difference
A: I am not in that part of the organization. pricing is done by retail and
it’s market specific and it is a factor of what the market might bear.
Q:what is the AFOL propourtion of sales? Has it increased?
A: hard to say exactly but it seems to be considerably less than 5%... Overall
sales have gone up.. there are a lot of items that are very popular among kids
Nik Pieniazek Q: are you looking for a supplier for monorail tracks?
A: no we are not looking
Q: There are problems with the new wright fliyer., there are wing tension
issues. Kate knows about them... it is very fragile
A: it’s a fragile prototype too, so a fragile model… Kate: the comments have
been passed along. Right now that’s the production model we have. There have not
been enough complaints or returns to justify a recall of the product.
Q: Ben Beneke: Quality… dark blue and dark red colors seem shiny and transparent
which is not normal coloration… the new colors look cheap to some of us… why is
it?
A: No specific answer. We do change color formulations and plastic suppliers.
Also (Jake) dark blue just looks different… it’s a more vivid color (lime green
is bright) in some cases and a duller color (dark red is dull) in some cases.
Q: Why did you forget south America, you closed the Brazil factory and closed
the LEGO operation…
A: Brazil is a strange market. Importing anything is very very highly taxed. If
it wasn’t for that it was not financially justified to have a factory there. We
have not forgotten about it, can we serve SA with SAH? Not sure. We have to pick
and choose distribution focus, unfortunately.
Q: Is there a chance of classic space coming back?
A: nothing is dead, things come back….
Q: new shops from LEGO that sell pick a brick… we have noticed something from
one year on now, the shops try to order the same colors again but every time the
replacement parts are different than what was ordered. Will that be a problem in
future?
A: the intention is that the assortment will change, all the time. You are not
going to see the same assortment over and over… go back to it in a few months
and you will see some different things. We make thousands of elements… we can’t
sell all the elements all the time so we have to rotate them. It may frustrate
AFOLs but the mundanes like the variety and like that it changes. It gives you a
reason to come back every month.
Q: will there be an online inventory of what is available at stores? Some people
travel very long distances and it would be nice to know in advance
A: there is no central repository of store inventory now, so that’s not easy
plus they want you to come back again.
Q: plans to have a discount for fan memberships (club, LUGNET, whatever org)?
A: no firm plans but that is an idea. In Orlando one of the display cabinets
“belongs” to a local community group (GFLTC) whioch once a month puts a
different model on display in that cabinet. Maybe we can somehow help fan clubs
, needs to be talked about. We would like to see that happen in some future.
Q: will there be a LW 2004?
A: I don’t know but I would assume so… I was told that the entire weekend has
been sold out so I HOPE it would happen. But you all have to want to come back
and do it. It is very tough, very draining it takes a lot to put the show back
together, and we recognise that it's a lot of work (and we appreciate it!)
Q: PickABrick… sometimes you have only right doors or only left wings… not
paired.
A: I will pass that on… I did not know that. I don’t go into stores for all my
LEGO, I do have my own sources, you know...
Q: Where do you get your LEGO?
A: it’s a secret (laughter)
Q: why must it (PAB pricing) be different at different locations? What is the
basic price of the brick? Is there a way to get different pricing perhaps by
large quantities?
A: Maybe it's related to the cup or the size of the cup? LEGOLAND is not brand
retail… they sell by weight but shops by volume. I cannot speak to all the
details of why things are the way they are on that.
Q: ISD? How is it doing? Are we getting more sets in that size?
A: I am not telling if there are more coming. What would justify going that big?
We cannot do that every year. The ISD sold BETTER than we expected, it sold
amazingly well. A lot of people said we could not sell a 300 dollar lego set…
the instructions alone were very time consuming… now people are bored by 1400
piece sets… we sold out of the first ISD production run before we shipped it so
we did another run
Q: Lar: Given that LEGOWORLD just snatched the record back (under a new, unified
rule set that is a bit more difficult to get good times under which must be used
for all future ISD record attempts) and given that will likely generate some
trash talking from the US on reclaiming the record, did you stash enough ISDs to
allow record attempts for quite a while?
A: Yes. Yes we did. That is the weirdest question I've ever gotten. (laugher)
Q: is there any future for the Mindstorms line?
A: yes.
Q: Can we get an adapter feed of Mindstorms? We were never officially able to
buy version 1.0… we feel limited by having to use batteries only
A: I will pass that along
Q: Are there any plans to completeth eparts inventory of that program (LEGO
Digital Designer) with all parts available? We have more parts in ldraw.org than
creator ever did or when digitial designer did. Will all bricks be available?
A: It (the 1.0 version) is officially available and 1.1 is coming within a few
weeks. It does not add to the element set but improves the stability and
installation. We will improve the element set but will it be all of them ever? I
don’t know... probably not. certain technic elements and things that bend are
hard to do. Part of how we did digital designer (which is aimed at kids, it has
a broad audience, 120k downloads in 8 weeks) was not to be standalone ,but to be
part of a virtual build then buy the thing that you build that I talked about in
the past. Digital designer is a critical step in making that happen, it's the
design tool for that. All the parts are official, the zero points are right,
it’s time consuming to get the elements right. It’s the same element library as
what is in the designer sets…. You can experiment virtually.
Q: DD for Mac?
A: no
Q: Lar: Ldraw/DD interop?
A: we have an SDK for the spec… you can save Ldraw creations in a format that
the digital designer can read. It’s not an unknown question.
Q: where do you want to stand with trains in the future?
A: it’s a great area to work in. Retail liked what direct did, so world city
happened so they could get in on trains. The retail business almost completely
drives product development. I WOULD like to see some track geometry changes. I
am not sure that we need to come out with new trains in Direct for a while...
Make your own train. Make your own pirate ship. Making new track is harder than
new sets. If I had to pick I whould rather see us do track geometry than new
sets, but retail drives product development.
Q: Ben: but we need access to the older parts in order to do older trains like
7740…. We need those to build them.
A: Yes we know. Substitute, you have the skills. We are going to keep developing
the train line, don't worry. We cannot make particular promises, though. Remote
control, dcc, those are not the directions we are going. DCC is just not a large
segment of the market. Even direct exculsivies…. Dcc is too small of a market.
At least today we cannot maek a strong business case for it.
Q: Plates, faulty parts? Where did INTERTOYs get those (InterToys, a NL toy
chain, had a large sale stand at LW and was selling a lot of discoutned stuff
including loose assorted parts... from large bins... root through for wahat you
wanted and pay by the bag... some of the orange plates in the assortment were
discovered to be warped and off color)...
A: we don’t know but we are on the case. We need to find out where they came
from and we will take it from there. You can call consumer service too.
Q: You just told us that DCC and other remotes, that the segment is very small.
Can you make it easier for us to change them…. Put screws on the motor or on the
switch so we can more easily change things around.
A: it’s outsourced, we cannot change the motor design.
Final remarks: Last year I did promise the catalog in dutch and open invoicing….
I knew I could not come back if I didn't deliver that. Well... we got that done!
Sorry, nothing to show in the way of new models… the show is too late in the
year and we already did our surprises! But you have seen we've done some great
stuff this year...
talk ended.
++Lar
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> Q: plans to have a discount for fan memberships (club, LUGNET, whatever org)?
> A: no firm plans but that is an idea. In Orlando one of the display cabinets
> “belongs” to a local community group (GFLTC) whioch once a month puts a
> different model on display in that cabinet. Maybe we can somehow help fan clubs
> , needs to be talked about. We would like to see that happen in some future.
Hey nice plug to the guys in the GFLTC, cool!
jt
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> Here is a rough transcription from Brad's talk at LegoWorld 2003 on Saturday
> evening.
> A: yes, everyone wants everything (laughter). We have a SKU crunch… 3 years ago
> there was maybe 500. we are slowly bringing that down, we are under 400 now.
I wonder why that is (the SKU crunch).
> Q: Ben Beneke: Quality… dark blue and dark red colors seem shiny and transparent
> which is not normal coloration… the new colors look cheap to some of us… why is
> it?
> A: No specific answer. We do change color formulations and plastic suppliers.
> Also (Jake) dark blue just looks different… it’s a more vivid color (lime green
> is bright) in some cases and a duller color (dark red is dull) in some cases.
Some of the dark blue parts that I have (from R2D2) are all over the map
consistancy wise. There is an issue here.
> Q: DD for Mac?
> A: no
Bummer. They really don't get it do they. Mac is the premier OS on a PC. Lego
is the premier building toy set. They should be desirous of having Mac support.
> talk ended.
>
> ++Lar
Many, many thanks for the transcript Lar
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Ray Sanders wrote:
> In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> > Q: DD for Mac?
> > A: no
>
> Bummer. They really don't get it do they. Mac is the premier OS on a PC. Lego
> is the premier building toy set. They should be desirous of having Mac support.
Not to get into an OS war, but Lego's frequently said they tailor towards the
large market group (which is why so few of the AFOL demands get incorporated).
The Mac market probably just isn't big enough for them to justify the
development costs. It's what, 5% of total PC sales? It's not that they don't
"get it", it's that for them it doesn't make good business sense.
Adrian
http://www.brickfrenzy.com
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Ray Sanders wrote:
> > Q: DD for Mac?
> > A: no
>
> Bummer. They really don't get it do they. Mac is the premier OS on a PC. Lego
> is the premier building toy set. They should be desirous of having Mac support.
Premier doesn't necessarily equal dominant. (more's the pity, sometimes) Given
that DD is free on the PC, how much would you willingly pay for DD on the Mac?
If your answer is "it should be free" then it should be clear why they didn't do
it.
> Many, many thanks for the transcript Lar
My pleasure, as always. I'm just sorry we (and this was a team effort, Jan
Albert Van Ree worked very VERY hard behind the scenes to get me connectivity)
weren't able to get this to the community sooner.
++Lar
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> Here is a rough transcription from Brad's talk at LegoWorld 2003 on Saturday
> evening. Sorry it took me a couple of days to get net access (we're dialed in
> from the ldraw.org booth on the show floor at last... long story, the fast
> connection did not materialise)...
Thanks again Larry! No need to apologize for taking a couple days. Appreciate
you taking the time at all.
-Paul D.
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> The company does recognize this. I went back with a bunch of pictures to the
> global management team to show them.. look at what the fans can do with what we
> make, our consumers creativity matters more than anything else. Not selling
> Hogwarts as a set but as a means to creating more. We have now formaliszed a
> group to work with community clubs and groups, Jake McKee and Kate Such are both
> on that team, the community development organizations (Tormud Laskuson is
> running that group (sp?)…
FYI, correct spelling for that is Tormod Askildsen.
-Tim
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> Q: Lar: Given that LEGOWORLD just snatched the record back (under a new, unified
> rule set that is a bit more difficult to get good times under which must be used
> for all future ISD record attempts) and given that will likely generate some
> trash talking from the US on reclaiming the record, did you stash enough ISDs to
> allow record attempts for quite a while?
> A: Yes. Yes we did. That is the weirdest question I've ever gotten. (laugher)
Can someone please post these new rules to the public? Is there any central
place for info on each ISD timed build to date?
Thanks!
-Tim
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> Here is a rough transcription from Brad's talk at LegoWorld 2003 on Saturday
> evening. Sorry it took me a couple of days to get net access (we're dialed in
> from the ldraw.org booth on the show floor at last... long story, the fast
> connection did not materialise)...
Thanks!
> Q: There are problems with the new wright fliyer., there are wing tension
> issues. Kate knows about them... it is very fragile
> A: it’s a fragile prototype too, so a fragile model… Kate: the comments have
> been passed along. Right now that’s the production model we have. There have not
> been enough complaints or returns to justify a recall of the product.
Hm, I was not aware of this at all. Still want one though.
> Q: PickABrick… sometimes you have only right doors or only left wings… not
> paired.
> A: I will pass that on… I did not know that. I don’t go into stores for all my
> LEGO, I do have my own sources, you know...
There have recently appeared cardboard boxes at Swedish toystores that are
filled with misc. bricks. You can dig through the box and fill 1 litre zip-lock
bags and pay by the bag. The same problem apears here too. Although the
pricepoint is great it's still frustrating to only find left parts and not
pairs.
I have some photos of when I and my friend Harri got nuts this past weekend at
such a store here (a two day event actually):
http://thetnt.no-ip.org/2003/07-12/031018%20L%F6sviktLEGO%20p%E5%20Barnens%20Hus/
Do note that the photos are on my home computer with a cheap ADSL hookup. I have
inventories of what I got in case anyone's curios.
--
Best regards,
/Tobbe
<http://www.lotek.nu>
(remove SPAM when e-mailing)
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Tobbe Arnesson wrote:
> In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> > Q: PickABrick… sometimes you have only right doors or only left wings… not
> > paired.
> > A: I will pass that on… I did not know that. I don’t go into stores for all my
> > LEGO, I do have my own sources, you know...
>
> There have recently appeared cardboard boxes at Swedish toystores that are
> filled with misc. bricks. You can dig through the box and fill 1 litre zip-lock
> bags and pay by the bag. The same problem apears here too. Although the
> pricepoint is great it's still frustrating to only find left parts and not
> pairs.
>
> I have some photos of when I and my friend Harri got nuts this past weekend at
> such a store here (a two day event actually):
> http://thetnt.no-ip.org/2003/07-12/031018%20L%F6sviktLEGO%20p%E5%20Barnens%20Hus/
>
> Do note that the photos are on my home computer with a cheap ADSL hookup. I have
> inventories of what I got in case anyone's curios.
I visited LegoWorld yesterday and also filled a bag at the Pick A Brick
in the InterToys shop inside LegoWorld. I managed to get 327 bricks,
including lots of 2x3 bricks and 2x8 plates (thus not only small parts),
in the bag. That only for 4.49 Euros makes it about 1.37 eurocents per
brick, not bad i think :-)
Niels
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> > I have some photos of when I and my friend Harri got nuts this past weekend at
> > such a store here (a two day event actually):
> > http://thetnt.no-ip.org/2003/07-12/031018%20L%F6sviktLEGO%20p%E5%20Barnens%20Hus/
> >
> > Do note that the photos are on my home computer with a cheap ADSL hookup. I have
> > inventories of what I got in case anyone's curios.
>
> I visited LegoWorld yesterday and also filled a bag at the Pick A Brick
> in the InterToys shop inside LegoWorld. I managed to get 327 bricks,
> including lots of 2x3 bricks and 2x8 plates (thus not only small parts),
> in the bag. That only for 4.49 Euros makes it about 1.37 eurocents per
> brick, not bad i think :-)
Not bad at all!
I got 1.359 bricks in seven bags, thats a lame 194 bricks per bag. Of course my
20 Panel Wall 3 x 4 x 6 DkGray, 10 Brick 8 x 8 and 47 Brick 1 x 16 DkGray did
lower the possibilities some :)
Today I found another store that has these hunt-a-brick boxes, they seem to be
all over Sweden, so I'm going in again. This time it's in walking distance from
my home so I don't have to make the 60 minute drive.
Our bags cost EUR 5,5 to 5,95 but it's still good prices for LEGO!
When filling them with misc. small bricks the bag seems to never get full. I put
the 20 Panel Walls into one bag, then it was "full", I then proceeded to put in
small parts and I got tired of the task before it was filled for real :)
/Tobbe
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Tim Courtney wrote:
> In lugnet.events.legoworld, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> > Q: Lar: Given that LEGOWORLD just snatched the record back (under a new, unified
> > rule set that is a bit more difficult to get good times under which must be used
> > for all future ISD record attempts) and given that will likely generate some
> > trash talking from the US on reclaiming the record, did you stash enough ISDs to
> > allow record attempts for quite a while?
> > A: Yes. Yes we did. That is the weirdest question I've ever gotten. (laugher)
>
> Can someone please post these new rules to the public? Is there any central
> place for info on each ISD timed build to date?
See Jake or Kate (i think) for official rules but the gist is this, I think
(corrections welcomed)
- one set of instructions only, the ones already in the box, no bringing in
multiple instruction copies or using a presplit copy
- the timer starts with you doing the first cut on the box seals, the box has to
be sealed.
- the instructions start out bound. If you want to break them up, that is fine
but it happens after the clock is running
- 10 people exactly, no more no less, no substitutions mid stream
- no prebuilt subassemblies that are brought and traded in/out...
- parts sorting trays are OK, though. (I think)
(some of these things may not have been done in the past, just saying them)
The idea is to replicate the experience that someone might have in building it
themselves, they presumably do not have 10 instruction copies themselves before
they start.
Hope that helps.
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>
> There have recently appeared cardboard boxes at Swedish toystores that are
> filled with misc. bricks. You can dig through the box and fill 1 litre zip-lock
> bags and pay by the bag. The same problem apears here too. Although the
> pricepoint is great it's still frustrating to only find left parts and not
> pairs.
>
> I have some photos of when I and my friend Harri got nuts this past weekend at
> such a store here (a two day event actually):
> http://thetnt.no-ip.org/2003/07-12/031018%20L%F6sviktLEGO%20p%E5%20Barnens%20Hus/
FYI: Telling from the pictures, the Swedish boxes are the same (both box and
type of pieces) as those at LEGO WORLD. Also, the boxes were specially printed
with full-color art.
So appearantly, this wasn't a singular opportunity, but it's a new marketing
concept of TLG and boxes may very well appear in severa countries and places
soon, I guess.
(BTW: the 'discounted' sets at the LEGOWORLD Intertoys store was mostly just 10%
off of regular Intertoys retail, which was ok, but nothing Americans should envy
since your regular retail is considerably lower :-)
Eric
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X-FUT: lugnet.general
> FYI: Telling from the pictures, the Swedish boxes are the same (both box and
> type of pieces) as those at LEGO WORLD. Also, the boxes were specially printed
> with full-color art.
> So appearantly, this wasn't a singular opportunity, but it's a new marketing
> concept of TLG and boxes may very well appear in severa countries and places
> soon, I guess.
We have now "inventoried" three sets of these boxes and for the major part they
are the same. Some contain other elements though.
For instance, the two I have been digging in has plenty of both rats and frogs
while a third one, dug by Tore Eriksson, does not have neither frogs or rats but
owls.
Of the two boxes I've been digging in only one had 1 x 16 bricks (and it _had_
close to 100 of them :) ).
At least five stores spread out over Sweden has been reported to carry these
boxes so it's likely they will appear in other contries as well. Hope it
restocks with a different set of parts later, a hope that is not shared by my SO
- she found it rather boring to watch two grown (?) men digging in a cardboard
box for about an hour :)
According to a salesperson in one of the Swedish stores (loosly translated):
"All stores have access to the boxes, they (TLC) tests if this is a good way to
sell basic parts since a lot of people/customers ask for that."
He also says: "There are about 50 different bricks and colors."
I'm doing my part to show TLC that this is a good way to sell parts in Sweden :)
--
Best regards,
/Tobbe
<http://www.lotek.nu>
(remove SPAM when e-mailing)
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"Tobbe Arnesson" <StPnAtM@lotek.nu> wrote in message
news:Hn5JIv.812@lugnet.com...
> X-FUT: lugnet.general
<snip> - she found it rather boring to watch two grown (?) men digging in a
cardboard box for about an hour :)</snip>
She should have been at LegoWorld: entire families diggin' those boxes as
well as crawling the floor (there was about half a box worth spread on the
floor) for pieces, kids telling their parents what to get, grandparents
holding the bags....
Duq
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> She should have been at LegoWorld: entire families diggin' those boxes as
> well as crawling the floor (there was about half a box worth spread on the
> floor) for pieces, kids telling their parents what to get, grandparents
> holding the bags....
Ah, sounds chaotic enough :)
The only thing we did was support the box a little on the side with a
BASIC-bucket so we more easily could dig the corners. I'd love to empty the
whole box into a larger container or move it part by part so nothing is missed
:)
I have a little work-in-progress inventory here:
http://www.lugnet.com/~1793/
(photos 'stolen' from Peeron.com and illustrations from ldraw.org)
--
Best regards,
/Tobbe
<http://www.lotek.nu>
(remove SPAM when e-mailing)
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In lugnet.general, Tobbe Arnesson wrote:
> > She should have been at LegoWorld: entire families diggin' those boxes as
> > well as crawling the floor (there was about half a box worth spread on the
> > floor) for pieces, kids telling their parents what to get, grandparents
> > holding the bags....
>
> Ah, sounds chaotic enough :)
> The only thing we did was support the box a little on the side with a
> BASIC-bucket so we more easily could dig the corners. I'd love to empty the
> whole box into a larger container or move it part by part so nothing is
> missed
In this case it was a fortunate accident. Someone attempted to tilt the box, the
result was that the bottom torned loose and fell out. Several AFOL's (including
me) dived on it like a swarm of hornets and started eating themselves trough the
resulting pancake of LEGO bricks. I've never seen fingers move so fast before.
As you understand: we've had lots of fun.
> I have a little work-in-progress inventory here:
> http://www.lugnet.com/~1793/
Nice. I suspect that the availibility per shop will be prone to frequent
changes. I wish that someone would care to maintain an inventory of the
brickshop of Legoland Billund.
With friendly greetings, M. Moolhuysen.
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At Legoworld there were several cardboard boxes (I didn't count how many, but I
assume it was around or over 10), but there were more kids and alduts than there
was space around these boxes, so several shoppingbaskets were filled with bricks
from the boxes and sorted out elsewhere on the floor by the customers. Nice to
see people sitting on the floor digging through bricks in these shoppingbaskets
:-)
Niels
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In lugnet.events.legoworld, Tobbe Arnesson wrote:
> At least five stores spread out over Sweden has been reported to carry these
> boxes so it's likely they will appear in other contries as well. Hope it
> restocks with a different set of parts later, a hope that is not shared by my SO
> - she found it rather boring to watch two grown (?) men digging in a cardboard
> box for about an hour :)
Just one hour ?
Yesterday I was at a Toys R Us in Den Haag (The Hague) where I met somebody who
was digging the box from 12:00 till 20:30 !!!!! The shop's employees gave him
food and drinks ;-)
I only spend two hours filling up two liter bags, mostly with small parts wich I
had to dig for realy deep.
Niels
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In lugnet.general, Niels Karsdorp wrote:
> In lugnet.events.legoworld, Tobbe Arnesson wrote:
>
> > At least five stores spread out over Sweden has been reported to carry these
> > boxes so it's likely they will appear in other contries as well. Hope it
> > restocks with a different set of parts later, a hope that is not shared by my SO
> > - she found it rather boring to watch two grown (?) men digging in a cardboard
> > box for about an hour :)
>
> Just one hour ?
> Yesterday I was at a Toys R Us in Den Haag (The Hague) where I met somebody who
> was digging the box from 12:00 till 20:30 !!!!! The shop's employees gave him
> food and drinks ;-)
> I only spend two hours filling up two liter bags, mostly with small parts wich I
> had to dig for realy deep.
Ooops! I'm not that crazy after all :)
Hope you told him about Lugnet and all!
I'd love to empty the bin(s) pice by piece into some other conatiner thus
picking up every single piece there is.
I'm up to ten bags now in four sessions...
--
Best regards,
/Tobbe
<http://www.lotek.nu>
(remove SPAM when e-mailing)
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"Tobbe Arnesson" <StPnAtM@lotek.nu> wrote in message
news:Hntn0v.M6u@lugnet.com...
> > Just one hour ?
> > Yesterday I was at a Toys R Us in Den Haag (The Hague) where I met • somebody who
> > was digging the box from 12:00 till 20:30 !!!!! The shop's employees • gave him
> > food and drinks ;-)
> > I only spend two hours filling up two liter bags, mostly with small • parts wich I
> > had to dig for realy deep.
>
> Ooops! I'm not that crazy after all :)
Hey, just finding another nutter doesn't make you sane! ;-)
Duq
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In lugnet.general, Ronald Vallenduuk wrote:
> "Tobbe Arnesson" <StPnAtM@lotek.nu> wrote in message
> news:Hntn0v.M6u@lugnet.com...
> > > Just one hour ?
> > > Yesterday I was at a Toys R Us in Den Haag (The Hague) where I met somebody who
> > > was digging the box from 12:00 till 20:30 !!!!! The shop's employees gave him
> > > food and drinks ;-)
> > > I only spend two hours filling up two liter bags, mostly with small parts wich I
> > > had to dig for realy deep.
> >
> > Ooops! I'm not that crazy after all :)
>
> Hey, just finding another nutter doesn't make you sane! ;-)
That's crazy talk! Of course it does!
:)
--
Best regards,
/Tobbe
<http://www.lotek.nu>
(remove SPAM when e-mailing)
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