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Here are rough notes from Brad's talk tonite at NorthWest BrickCon.
Sorry for the delay, the venue didn't have connectivity and the nearest Kinko's
was closed... and my wifi on this new laptop didn't work for me in the first
coffee shop I tried so I came back to the hotel for a few min....
Any misidentifications, typos or errors in transcription are mine. I'll try to
answer questions but it may be a while before I am next on a network
Enjoy...
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04 October 2003
Brad’s talk from NWBrickCon
Mark’s info:
There will be awards:
Best Robot, Best Mecha, Best Train, Best Castle, Best Moonbase module, best
Space model, and best of show
Math’n Stuff is giving 20% off at the show, see them if you only got 15.
Please sign the commemorative T-shirt if you haven’t.
Please put the dot on the map if you haven’t done so yet.
Brad comes on to talk and starts with a few remarks.
Jake sends his regrets.
Good reports inside the company from Vancouver and from Seattle (but where’s
your online report guys?)… Hope Portland is going well (it's concurrent to this
weekend)
The LEGO Company loves you guys!
The truck show, as discussed at BrickFest, is one facet and doing these is
another and enabling other sorts of fan activities is yet another. Kids are
sometimes intimidated by truck show stuff as master builder stuff can be
daunting. For a kid to come to a show like this is better inspiration, because
it shows what “non Master Builders” can do.
Thanks very much for what you do, we are glad that you do what you do… it helps
support the brand.
Then Brad launched into Q & A
Q: Mindstorms, any new news or products?
A: it’s being worked on but nothing definite yet. The line is important, the
line is an enabler
Q: Castle?
A: yes
Q: MOC series?
A: Still in development. Have you noticed that we have fewer SKUs but that
they’re better? That takes a lot of attention to detail… it puts pressure on us.
We have a finite development resource available. The MOC process is a bit
unusual and it takes time to evaluate and to do and it’s not effort free. Next
year you are going to see some neat stuff.
Q: more on how RCX/Mindstorms gets sold and advanced
A: It’s strong in educational, strong in the direct channel, but it’s true, it
has been 2 years since direct retail presence. We are exploring other channels
for example, allowing FLL to directly sell as a fundraiser or other things. It’s
not something that we want to kill off
Q: (Mark Sandlin): Why the recycled Star Wars? Why not new stuff and stuff not
yet modeled yet?
A: This is the “off-off’ movie year, we are two years past, there is a run-up to
episode three but LEGO are better at keeping interest up than other venders. As
the run-up comes, there is interest in the original trilogy and the sets,
interest in the sets that kids did not have the chance to get (when they were 5)
but can get now (when they are 9) so there is a place to remake more popular
items. In some ways that also allows us to use new elements and new techniques
Q: Original space.city.castle? Any thinking there? We have seen one or two sets
from several years ago… more stuff coming?
A: that’s what LEGO Legends is. We have done it across the board with the
exception of classic space which we are NOT ignoring but which we can’t do as
much with as we’d like due to the Star Wars license. Do not worry; we will
continue to do Legends. It has to complement the retail assortment and not
conflict but there is more coming. .. We have done a lot of town, a fair amount
of castle. We will get to space but it has to be balanced
Q: Jon Palmer – likes future product. What does Brad Justus like in future
products?
A; It would be a lot of fun to do Star Trek, for instance…. They maybe need to
improve the star trek franchise… it’s a logical place to license. I also think
it would be fun to go into classic science fiction novels like Dune or the
Foundation series and mine some of those for ideas.
Q: Eric Sophie – there has been a lot of neat Mindstorms and RCX in train
layouts... can you talk about any tech there and train tech?
A: Yes we’ve noticed it. We’d rather see people make that adaptation. Mindstorms
and trains is not something the 8 year old is considering. We are looking at it
but it’s not easy. Maybe more with light and sound… because we source the motors
externally, we can’t do the break between the motor and power pickup
Q: David Schilling: Any chance for My Own Creation sensors? Or enabling a case?
A: We’re not sure where this is going yet. We need to look at how Mindstorms II
is going to unfold. We can’t easily be a sub for things like cases; we have less
control over quality… AND we are now exposed on the liability front
Q: Gary Mcintire How long is the Lucas alliance going? Any chance for Lord of
the Rings?
A: 2007…. As for LoTR, it is rated R/rough PG 13. That is something we won’t
license. Maybe we could do darker sorts of fantasies but they are too violent
for our product focus
Q: Eric Sophie: What would YOU like us as fans to do?
A: Spread the word. What you do to inspire kids is great. We like this. What is
going to happen with LEGOWORLD is interesting. That’s a Lego event but it’s not
a “LEGO” event because it’s partly LEGO partly De Bousteen, partly fox kids,
partly the hall owner. Everyone’s expenses are defrayed by the fees… 10 EU to
get in X 40K gate so this is a big time deal… they have a hall that is 3x this
hall plus a lot of other stuff. They provide crowd control for the event for
other halls (Fox Kids, LEGO and other exhibitors).
Don’t forget that NL is a bout the size of a state…. FoxKids is sort of like a
local broadcaster that’s really big, not like ABC. We currently don’t have any
club that is AS organized and as large as DeBousteen… these events are getting
bigger and bigger and you guys are learning how to organize public events, as
opposed to private (internal fan focused) events.
One learning was that many many LUGS got involved in the What will you Make
tour. That was a chance for THEM to learn about stuff. The exhibition stuff is
up on the upswing. Working with schools, working with Science centers, that’s
what we want to see. You can do the stuff we can’t do. We have limited
resources; we can only be so many places at a time. Most of the company focus is
and has to be on retail. We will do what we can to encourage that but we just
can’t be everywhere.
Q: Robin Sather - anything you can say about the Canadian market? We know there
is a marketing partner in place… our older order fulfillment system is
different, any retail partners?
A: No specifics, the old shop at home is not coming back… We can’t talk about
where LEGO brand retail is going to go next year. We are aware that Toronto is a
hot bed but we don’t know if we are or aren’t coming there. There are 8 stores
opening in the next 8 weeks. NJ. Boston, NY, Chicago and some others. We have to
grow expertise in brand retail. We want to do it right, not do it everywhere. We
will get there.
Q: Eric S – how is the NASA line doing? Relationship?
A: NASA is very pleased; they would like to do more if we can. NASA is also very
involved with FLL, not just product. The FLL challenge this year is about mars.
It’s an outgrowth of what we did with NASA… think as far as back as Red Rover.
The challenge is more related to living/colony than to rovers
Q: Thomas Garrison – communications with customers? Sometimes it seems like a
mismatch… large Technic set only around for a few months, blue baseplate is
suddenly gone. Does LD have any interest in trying to gauge demand or telling
people when they are about to sell out?
A: If we tell that, someone will buy them all up, that may not be fair.
Bricklink is great, we like it, but we want to be fair. Take the cypress trees…
we thought we could do another run and it turns out the mold was shot, no more
shots left. It is a delicate thing, we want to be careful... if something is
“hard to find” or Limited Quantities, we actually mean it. That’s a cue. Take us
at our word but we are not going to tell you to prevent runs. We tried quantity
limiting but people don’t like that.
Q: have you ever tried pre selling an entire run?
A: it’s more problematic than it might be… what do you do about refunds and etc.
yet we are considering it for bulk elements
Q: Mark Rideout - Is LEGO threatened by BL?
A: no. there is always a secondary market; the way that BL coalesced that is
good. The economics of scarcity and plenty (the price of Leia for example… we do
not look at BrickLink to see what’s scarce and then flood that) are what they
are.
Q: Studios website is down. Is that line dead?
A; that’s coming back up but it may be a different URL. Studios as a line WON’T
be continued. People did not like to be restricted to just stuff in that line.
We want to encourage filmmaking as part of the LEGO experience, telling stories
is an extension of role-playing with [physical brick so we are going to continue
to encourage that. We just don’t see an entire line there. We are not in the
camera business, we learned that from Studios…. Nor are we really in the digital
software business. Digital cameras and stop motion stuff and video editing is
more and more prevalent. We don’t need to do that any more. We should be in the
pieces to tell us the stories
Q: Ashley Glennon - Any chance for color mosaic?
A: not soon.
Q: would you consider releasing a patch to the Studio software to allow any
camera, and has there been any progress on Lego track (short pieces, curves new
points etc)
A: no, and yes we know the issues with the geometry and it’s being looked at but
it’s not right away
Q: wheelset upgrade path? The metroliner wheelsets were bad
A: we do not have a specific upgrade path. Call consumer service and they will
deal
Q: SPIDERMAN… any marvel chars?
A; no. it’s a sonly license not a marvel license
Q: Stephen Fisher - Subthemes? Designer is nice… but are you going to do
subthemes again? Has licensing replaced that?
A: no. Look at Orient Expedition? There is always a story there. Bionicle… there
is a story there too. A huge one.
Q: but is there separation between the age limits? The train stuff doesn’t need
a story but the others do
A: Orient Expedition and star wars are in the same age bracket… there are
stories in both. No separation just because of licensing. We take known
quantities. We are much more careful of what we license… we take a few and they
are long lived
Q: new technology… trains keeps on popping up. Any chance for maglev trains for
example?
A: build your own.
Q: Eric: would you have lent me the Bionicle van?
A: Only if Jama was driving.
Q”: how are make and create and designer doing
A: awesomely
Q: community support kits are centered around make/create will that continue
A: it’s about LEGO; it’s about creativity so we like that theme even beyond that
line. It promotes the brand and you can make what’s in your head. Would you see
a star wars truck show year? No. The community support kit will always about
wanting to build with LEGO. The m/c sets will continue to be important next year
and beyond
Q: the 4x4 land rover, how is it
A: great
Q; themes get burned up faster now. Can we fight that? Can we help?
A: Orient expedition is already getting discounted… that’s retail. Same deal
with the rest of them. Is that any thing we can fight? We are trying to
establish franchises and refresh within them. That puts less of a stress on our
designers but we’re stuck with that. There isn’t much that can be done about it.
Q: if the product continues to sell, TOA have continued to sell and Wal-Mart did
restock them for the movie, for example…. Once sales slow down that’s it.
They’re ready
A: yes. Toys are like movies now. Everyone wants to know how did it do its
opening weekend. Then it falls off. It’s not 1977 any more... movies don’t
last. If it doesn’t perform in the first month first 6 weeks, out it goes. Ditto
with toys.
Q: it’s great to see LEGO is sending the kits out. Can we expect official help
with other public events? Not just train shows.
A: the event kits went out to everyone not just train clubs.
Q: any chance that lego.com can be quicker about new products info? If the site
got updated faster that would be nice
A: that was a story with the back of the cloud city box had a picture of the new
MF on it. Our plan was not to say anything till toy fair. We accidentally let
that slip out in advance. We wanted to sustain interest in the franchise. Next
year is about environments (Hoth scene or whatever) as a drive of interest.
Q: any plans for UCS to be extended to other things? 70’s muscle cars? Other
stuff?
A: you are seeing a lot of big models. Some big Technic is sort of UCSish. Right
now SW is the best theme to do that in. We proved a lot by bringing out the ISD.
A lot of people thought we were psychotic for bringing out a 300 USD set… but it
sold well. We may not go much bigger…. A 1000 dollar death star may not be in
the cards (that would be the MINI scale)
Q: support for LUGs… if we wanted to do a Christmas display for example, and the
people for the show wanted a big statue or whatever… can you help?
A: yes we can do that. Talk to Jake…
Q: I need 1000 Leias for a project
A: too much information Jon Palmer!
Q: when are we getting Pick A brick in Seattle
A: when a store comes it will have PaB, all stores will have it. Dunno when we
will have them
Q: Lego doesn’t charge local sales tax. How do you pull that trick off?
A: it’s a different nexus. Different incorporated entity… that’s why you cant’
buy from S&H you can’t return it to brand retail locations
Q: is there a Japanese Brad Justus? It’s mysterious to us because we can only
see their pictures.
A: there’s only one Brad Justus. I am responsible globally… we are trying to get
our knitting taken care of in NA and EU first. It IS popular and growing in
Japan. There’s a cultish aspect to LEGO... they are very into brands and super
brands in Japan. Just having the brand is cool. Branded merchandise is cool.
T-shirts, key chains, branded things *the stereos for example) and mecha and
other stuff like that….so that’s a bit challenging. We are not yet reaching out
to that phenom but we will be. We will have a Japanese LEGO.Com later. That will
enable us to reach out to the community
Q: Eric Sophie: Anything new?
A: As it turns out, I do happen to have something…. The UCS snow speeder… it’s a
big and sweet model. Available for preorder on Monday, 129.99 US... about 1400
pieces. (The windshield appears to be printed.)
General oohing and ahhing ensued and that was it for the talk.
See you at LEGOWORLD, Brad...
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Brad's talk
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| (...) Thanks Larry!!!...!!! I've yet to be able to make it to one of these events so it's great to get these transcripts of Brad's talks. I appreciate the trouble you go through to get this done. There's always some great info in there and things (...) (21 years ago, 5-Oct-03, to lugnet.events.nwbrickcon)
| | | Re: Brad's talk
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| In lugnet.events.nwbrickcon, Larry Pieniazek wrote: (snip) (...) Wow, that WOULD be a cool idea....both the Star Trek license and improving the franchise:) (21 years ago, 6-Oct-03, to lugnet.events.nwbrickcon)
| | | Contest/voting results (was Re: Brad's talk
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| (...) I meant to post the results Sunday, but I forgot. Maybe someone else can fill in what I forgot (if any), or correct any misremembers in the below: Best Mindstorms/Robot went to the SMART display Best Mecha went to Jama, by Eric Sophie (that it (...) (21 years ago, 7-Oct-03, to lugnet.events.nwbrickcon)
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