Subject:
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Train Shows
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 7 Jul 2002 04:11:52 GMT
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Viewed:
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1244 times
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Jeff Stembel wrote:
>
> In lugnet.castle, Rick Clark writes:
> > Aaron West wrote:
> >
> > Hm. A better question might be "WHERE ARE the fan clubs for the other
> > popular themes of CASTLE, PIRATE, and SPACE?" There are at least twelve
> > organized LEGO train clubs in the US, plus clubs in the rest of the
> > world as well. Each club holds regular, highly public shows each year,
> > and directly inspires interest in the LEGO Trains line.
>
> I see plenty of clubs: WAMALUG, NELUG, MICHLUG, etc. These cater to all Lego
> fans.
>
> As for Train Shows, virtually NONE are comprised of a single Lego Train layout,
> and organized by said train club. They're invited to model railroading shows,
> not as Lego bricks built into trains, but model trains built out of Lego.
> There is no such thing as a National Model Castle Association or National Model
> Spaceship Association, with regional shows. There just is not enough interest
> to sustain such things. Lego is releasing a large number of train sets because
> that is currently where they are getting free advertising (and consequently
> increased sales): from the layouts at shows.
Well, PNLTC is doing a good job of bucking this trend. I am slowly
recovering from my first day at a PNLTC show. We have lined up a store
front in a mall for the rest of the summer. Today was our first open
house. We have been building the layout over the past week (after a
couple weeks of planning and brainstorming).
The layout has three main "islands" connected by long bridges. One
island is a farm scene, the next, large island, includes a city, a yard,
some more city, then Kim Toll's mountain town, and finally a few more
city buildings. The last island is a waterfront area with Jeremy Rear's
container and naval yard, and my brand new work in progress 12v coastal
town layout.
Sitting on it's own at the front of the store is Matt Chiles's roller
coaster which is an absolute technical marvel, especially when you get
several runs in a row without a problem.
As far as why do the other themes not have shows so much: Simply, it
helps a lot (especially when a group is starting) to piggyback on other
events (we're even piggybacking our open houses on the mall's monthly
trading card show). From a modeling perspective, model railroading is
certainly the most organized group, and I think it has a lot to do with
the dynamic nature of model railroads, and the completeness of the
simulation (which I have mentioned before, no other modeling hobby lets
you simulate, in an automated way, the system being modeled so
completely [I added the "in an automated way" because one could argue
that war games and role playing games are pretty complete simulations,
but you don't get to just sit back and watch them happen]). Of course
the various rocketry and radio control hobbies have lots of group
gathers, but LEGO will have a harder time penetrating those areas.
LEGO wargaming may be the next big thing which allows AFOLS to reach out
to non-AFOLS in a public way. Of course the key to do that will be to
make the games take advantage of the strengths of LEGO and provide game
systems which lend themselves to the brick (I think Brickwars and Evil
Stevie's Pirate Game both do so in their own ways).
Other venues will start to provide ways to publicize other themes.
Putting on a big space display at a Science Fiction convention (which of
course has been done) is a great way to share and interact. Displays at
libraries or museums can be a way to share castles (and you can gain
interaction by having an open house where there is an opportunity to
meet the artists).
As to why is LD spending so much effort on trains: While the train shows
are certainly a factor in LD's decisions on what sets are introduced, I
think perhaps a larger reason is the perception that TLC's train
offerings are no where's near to supplying the demand, and that lack has
been going on for longer than the other themes. Of course part of the
problem is how to market trains. They're hard to market because the
entry level is a $100-150 set, as opposed to the entry level for say
castle or space where a $20 set can give you a good taste. And then of
course you need additional accessories...
This last point is perhaps another reason the model railroading hobby
involves much more shows. While you can spend an awful lot on RC or
model rockets, I suspect the percentage of fans who spend a significant
amount of their income on those is much less than for trains. Again, it
returns to the modeling a complete system. You need a table. You need
some more trains. You need scenery. You need some more trains. You need
houses. You need some more trains. You need little people and cars. Oh,
and you need a larger table to have room for all those trains, which
means you need more... Of course once you've spent all this money, you
want to share your hobby (plus, you'll never have space at home to run
that really really long train). Oh, and a show gives the opportunity for
vendors to sell you more things you just gotta have. Wrap that all up
with an admission fee, and the show coordinators are actually willing to
shell out a few bucks to the exhibitors.
Back to the completeness of simulation aspect, guess which hobby also
has lots of conventions...
I'm probably all wet on the RC and model rocketry though. I've never
been involved in those hobbies, so the shows and such are probably
there, and folks probably do spend as much money as model railroaders.
But they're still not nearly as good fits for LEGO as trains.
In the end though, I think I've got a better idea of why showing LEGO at
train shows is so much more common than other themes. In the end, the
model railroaders recognize that LEGO trains are an expression of the
hobby which is far more accessible to kids. And that may be the reason
you won't see an upswelling of LEGO at RC and model rocketry. There are
plenty of RC cars which are perfectly accessible to kids. Model rocketry
is plenty accessible to kids old enough to participate safely (and heck,
younger kids can always be handed to button to push when it is safe to
launch, and any kid will get just as much satisfaction from watching the
launch as the adults do).
Frank
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Train Shows
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| In lugnet.general, Frank Filz writes: [snip] (...) [snip] (...) At some point I am hoping pictures will appear. [I have already zoomed over to the PNLTC site where I thought there might be a shot or two ... but not yet... soon? please?] To have a (...) (22 years ago, 7-Jul-02, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Train Shows
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| (...) Well said, Frank. I am currently in the process of inventorying my N-scale model railroad collection in order to sell it (well, maybe I'll keep the Southern Rwy F3A-B set from Kato) and jump into Lego railroading with both feet (and wallet!). (...) (22 years ago, 7-Jul-02, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: New Santa Fe Car Sets #10022 and #10025
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| (...) I see plenty of clubs: WAMALUG, NELUG, MICHLUG, etc. These cater to all Lego fans. As for Train Shows, virtually NONE are comprised of a single Lego Train layout, and organized by said train club. They're invited to model railroading shows, (...) (22 years ago, 6-Jul-02, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.pirates, lugnet.space, lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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