Subject:
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Re: Improving the adult image of LEGO
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:50:52 GMT
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Viewed:
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10277 times
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In lugnet.general, David Laswell wrote:
> TLC is still trying to come to grips with the fact that we _do_ still
> collect. You'd think it would be a no-brainer.
> ...
> And this is a _time_ when ubergeeks have grown up, and toy collecting has
> actually become something of a mainstream hobby. It simply astonishes me
> that noone before Jake managed to figure out that 1+1=2.
I'm not sure that's really a fair assessment-- or, rather, the tone implies that
everyone else at Lego was clueless until Jake showed them how it's done. But
that's not really the case.
I think it was more true that certain groups within the company (Jake being one
of the ones we're the most familiar with) started to understand that the adult
community would be worth MARKETING to. And a few groups understood how to do
it, while others didn't. Adult fans were clearly known to the company already.
They even gave Gary Istok a quick mention in the _World_Of_LEGO_Toys_ book,
which came out in 1987. And that was a good 6 years before the alt.toys.lego
newsgroup appeared online, and LONG before there was as substantial of an adult
presence in the hobby.
But that started changing in 1999-- probably even in 1997 or 1998, since 1999
was the first time when LEGO Direct announced itself to the community. The goal
was clearly to begin communicating with the emerging adult hobbyist community,
and to see what was going on. I'm not sure who within the company started that
initiative, but clearly LEGO was paying attention.
From there, it took a few years for the company to figure out how to market to
us. Bulk bricks, UCS sets, LEGO Legends, etc. Some things did really well (Cafe
Corner, anyone?), while others didn't (various Legends sets, for example). It
took some time for the company to switch gears from being purely a toy company
for today's kids to being a product that spanned generations.
DaveE
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Improving the adult image of LEGO
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| (...) This is a little off-topic, but I gotta agree with Mr. Eaton here. I don't think it's fair to blast LEGO for "not catering to the adult market". If we do a real quick review of sets geared more towards adults in the past 5-6 years I come up (...) (16 years ago, 16-Sep-08, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Improving the adult image of LEGO
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| (...) But that's exactly the point. It's not that they weren't aware of us at all. It's that they thought we were an inconsequencial fraction of the total market, and thus not worth catering to at all. And strictly in terms of the total customer (...) (16 years ago, 17-Sep-08, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Improving the adult image of LEGO
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| (...) TLC is still trying to come to grips with the fact that we _do_ still collect. You'd think it would be a no-brainer. I mean, here's a company that leaves bowls of bricks out on their conference tables that you are _encouraged_ to play with (...) (16 years ago, 15-Sep-08, to lugnet.general)
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