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Subject: 
Re: anyone got a report of the new sets shown off at brickswest? <Next Legend?>
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general, lugnet.space
Date: 
Fri, 22 Feb 2002 00:21:45 GMT
Viewed: 
1538 times
  
In lugnet.general, William R. Ward writes:
"Allan Bedford" <apotomeREMOVE-THIS@altavista.net> writes:
In lugnet.general, William R. Ward writes:
Brad Justus addressed this at BricksWest, saying that Space was not on
the agenda because of the Star Wars Ep. II release.  There's no
contractual restriction, as has been rumored, but there are good
marketing reasons why it would not be a good idea to include space
sets at the same time as a major push for the new Star Wars sets.

Am I the only one who fails to see the logic in their.... logic?

Would it be so impossible to believe that a Space set released alongside or
shortly after the Star Wars sets might actually appeal to the same market?
If you're talking 'Classic' space, then you're talking late 1970's.  And if
you're talking late 1970's then you're talking Star Wars.

Put another way, if you have both a Classic Space legend and new Star
Wars sets out at the same time, a consumer with $100 to spend on LEGO
will have to decide which to buy.  As a result, neither the Star Wars
set, nor the Classic Space legend, will sell as well as they would if
the other wasn't available at that time, although the overall sales
for LEGO may be the same or even more.

I guess I saw the possibility of releasing a Space set as a compliment to
the Star Wars line, not competition.  Guess I was mistaken.

It's not unfair to say that the original release of the first LEGO Star Wars
sets may have brought even more adult fans back to the hobby than did
Mindstorms.  These are people with a connection to both the movie and the
old LEGO sets.  Why not offer them a bit of both?  Because if the next wave
of Star Wars sets is as weak as the ones released before this past
Christmas, then we'll all need an alternative to buy.

Because instead of buying $100 worth of Ep. II sets or $100 worth of
Legends, the customer would either buy $50 of each or would have to
give up one or the other.  Sales figures for both lines will be hurt
by that.

Whereas I was looking at it thinking the same person might buy one set one
month (perhaps Star Wars) and another set the next month (perhaps a Space
set).  In fact spending twice the money, not the same.  I was really looking
at it from my point of view. If I were to see two sets that both appealed to
me, I would find a way to buy them.  I budget my hobby money, so it would be
one now and one later.  But if there's only a few choices, then there are
only that many dollars spent.  Maybe my spending patterns aren't in keeping
with regular LEGO buyers.

I suspect we have to wait until Ep. III has come and gone before we
see any Space legends.

And if this is the case then...... things are worse off than I'd imagined.

LEGO is a company, not a community service organization.  If they
release Star Wars sets, they want them to be profitable.  If they
release Legends sets, they want them to be profitable.  If they
release both at the same time competing for the same audience, neither
will be as profitable as they would otherwise.  That's the bottom
line.  And in business, the bottom line is what it's all about.

I couldn't agree more.  But if they want the big bucks, they're going to
have to make sure that the quality of set design is higher than has been
lately.  They are doing this with things like the Blacksmith Shop and the
new train engine.  They are proving that they are capable of finding,
designing and releasing this type of quality.  I encourage them to keep it up.

Regards,
Allan B.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: anyone got a report of the new sets shown off at brickswest? <Next Legend?>
 
(...) That's precisely why they don't want to do it. They don't want to dilute the brand by having too many choices for the same audience. They don't want to hurt LEGO retail figures by having LEGO Direct offer products that directly compete with (...) (23 years ago, 21-Feb-02, to lugnet.general, lugnet.space)

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