Subject:
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Re: The LEGO Revival Survey
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 26 Jul 2005 19:49:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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4209 times
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Dan Thompson wrote:
> Why do LEGO toys have value to you?
I've had LEGO products since I was a little child, and they've shaped my way
of thinking. I'm a programmer, and bricks taught me how to think more
efficiently about object oriented languages.
> What makes LEGO brand construction toys worth your money?
I like the concept of bricks, I always have. I've gone through lots of toys
in this genre, like Maccano's Erector sets, K'Nex, and a few others, and
they just were not as fun, easy to use, or comprehensive like bricks were.
Now, it is true LEGO isn't the only manufacturer of bricks, but Megablocks
is the only true competetor to LEGO. However, that said, Megablock designs
suck badly, they aren't imaginative. Megablock brick quality also tends to
be subpar to to LEGO's.
> In what way has the LEGO brand let you down?
Ultimately, it hasn't. Bionicle, although marketed incorrectly*, is an
interesting way to go. It involves taking special parts and building cool
looking things. The only thing I don't like about Bionicle is that it has
taken resources away from true Technic sets, and fewer and fewer new
Technic sets are being released.
* Bionicle has been being marketed as a precursor to System, ie, LEGO pushes
Bionicle fans into System instead of the other way around. Bionicle is
still a Technic series product, and should be treated as somewhere to go
after System.
Now, on the other hand, the Star Wars line has somewhat let me down. I think
some of the designs are interesting, and the SW line has produced a few
cool parts, but Star Wars killed Classic Space. I'm a huge SW fan, and I
own a few SW LEGO sets, but I'm a bigger Classic Space fan.
> Recently, how has the LEGO brand improved?
As I said above, both the Bionicle and Star Wars lines have produced
interesting parts. The ball joints from Bionicle-in-a-can sets are great,
lots of mecha builders have been using them.
> What would you like to see LEGO (re)introduce in the next three years?
I really do want more Classic Space. I know Star Wars prevents LEGO from
building Classic Space, but I really would like to see more.
> What does LEGO need to do to sell more products for less cost to them?
This is a simple case of marketing. Lets say you sell a kit for $50, and one
person buys it, or you sell a kit for $40, and two people buy it. Lowering
prices just a tad will improve prices quite a lot. I myself have had that
problem, the good kits are out of my range; I've also talked to a lot of
people who had this problem.
In addition to that, people (me included) miss the really cheap sets. Like,
whatever happened to polybags? Bionicle-in-a-can is cheap, sure, but those
cans increase the price a lot. A $12 can would cost about $8 in a simple
cardboard box.
Also, heres a simple fact: many of us can rationalize buying 10 $5 dollar
sets than 1 $50 dollar set. Thats consumerism for you.
> What reason(s) do you have for not buying new LEGO sets?
As I just said, cost. The only thing I've been buying lately is the
Bionicle-in-a-cans and the cheap Designer sets. I'd love to get sets like
Titan XP, but I just can't afford it.
> What would it take for you to spend more money on new LEGO products versus
> buying sets/parts on the second hand markets?
Cost. LEGO kits now cost entirely too much.
> What will it take for LEGO to remain the best construction toy for all
> ages and be a profitable company?
I believe I've answered this question in my previous answers. ;)
> What are your home country, first name and age?
Patrick McFarland, 21, USA.
> Is there anything you would like to say with this last question that you
> feel someone at LEGO should not go without reading?
When I was a child, I used to belong to the the Lego Fan Club, and it was a
neat little thing to belong to. However, I'm too old to belong to it now,
and I don't have any children that I could hide behind and say I'm
subscribing for them.
I think the AFOL community needs a Lego Fan Club for adults; I know quite a
few AFOLs that would subscribe to it instantly. Your consumer base is
aging. Taking the 1980s as the peak of LEGO sales, you have tens of
thousands of people world wide that ultimately never grew up, and are
finally going somewhere in life.
We have the money, and we want to buy your stuff. Why aren't you making
products specifically for us?
--
Patrick "Diablo-D3" McFarland || pmcfarland@downeast.net
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids,
we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and
listening to repetitive electronic music." -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo,
Inc, 1989
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | The LEGO Revival Survey
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| LEGO is a changing company that many think is not what it should be or what it used to be. The best quality construction toys are made by LEGO. The current customer relationship between LEGO and the people who enjoy the toys they make is the best it (...) (19 years ago, 23-Jun-05, to lugnet.general) !!
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