Subject:
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Re: A fan no more
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 8 Jul 2004 21:27:48 GMT
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In lugnet.general, David Simmons wrote:
> The other problem I sense is that TLG doesn't seem to have any confidence in
> the intelligence or imagination of their target market. Kids aren't stupid.
> In fact, I think in general they're much smarter than people think. ...
> ... TLG doesn't
> seem to believe that kids have this ability anymore, that they need to be
> told what to do with their Lego, that they need to be dazzled and bombarded
> with action-packed imagery in order to imagine what the creative
> possibilities are.
Well, I think the issue isn't that kids are any dumber or less creative than
they used to be-- it's just that Lego is aiming for a different market.
Back when I was a kid, there were a few other kids I knew that played with Lego.
A few. Almost everyone had *some*, but only a few really LOVED it. The rest of
them all wanted Transformers, M.A.S.K vehicles, GIJoe figures, Ninja Turtles,
Go-Bots, Voltron and Star Wars toys. And these are the kids who don't really
have the willingness and/or patience to imagine something on their own. It's not
that they can't, it's that they can't be bothered. Not when there's something
more interesting beating them over the head with its super-cool laser guns,
power swords, turbo hovercrafts, and transforming dino-zords. The call of less
imaginitive toys is too great for them to ignore, and so they're lulled to them.
Certainly if you put these kids in a room full of nothing but Lego, they'd build
and have a great time doing so (maybe even more of a great time than with other
toys). But if you put them in a room with Lego AND all these other fad toys,
they'd gravitate towards the fad stuff.
I'm not sure it's any different now. You've got these mainstream fads like Power
Rangers and YuGiOh, which do really well financially (although the toy market in
general *has* been fading in recent years), and then you've got all the niche
toys like Lego, Erector sets, model kits, Playmobil, and even other things like
Baseball Cards. Stuff that's been around for a long time, and probably will be
around a long time to come, but just doesn't make vast stinking wodges of money
like the fads.
Lego has just been slowly moving towards the fad-market. They've been
diversifying their products between the niche toys and fads. Certainly some of
the stuff they've got is really good, and isn't fad-driven (My Own Train,
Designer, Creator, MOC sets, bulk offerings, Mindstorms), and some of it is
moreso fad-driven (Knight's Kingdom, Alpha Team, Galidor, Bionicle, HP,
Spider-Man). But we AFOLs remember the days when almost NONE of it was fad
driven. We're more like spoiled children who remember how good it was when
almost all of Lego's product line catered to what we wanted.
It's a shame to see that certain themes appear to be destined to *always* be fad
driven, and that we may never see nice generic castle or space figures ever
again who aren't each given a specific character, name, and backstory. But that
just seems to be the way Lego is going. They want to diversify their audience
and target both the niche crowd *and* the fad crowd. And that means changing our
mindset as AFOLs to *expect* that dividing line-- to know that (hopefully) Lego
will always continue to produce great stuff that we love, even if at the same
time they produce things that really aren't our cup of tea.
DaveE
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: A fan no more
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| My complaints don't really concern the "fad" aspects of the Lego themes. I think licensing is an awesome way to diversify a product if it's done right. I would buy some of the new Castle, Star Wars, and HP sets regardless because there are some cool (...) (20 years ago, 8-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: A fan no more
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| IMO this all is summed up in the change from the slogan "Just Imagine . . . " to "Play On!". Bruce (20 years ago, 8-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: A fan no more
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| Can I have a HUGE round of applause for Dave here? This sounds like someone who loves LEGO, but at the same time, also understands that LEGO is trying to do what it can to get sales from a larger market--in light of many companies who have grown (...) (20 years ago, 8-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: A fan no more
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| "Thomas Main" <thomasmain@myrealbox.com> wrote in message news:I0JJwE.o1F@lugnet.com... (...) catalog. I (...) browsed (...) action (...) design (...) contrast, the (...) image. (...) This (...) and the (...) but (...) them as (...) at the (...) (...) (20 years ago, 8-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
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