Subject:
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Re: Nicely now. What do you think of the new colors?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego, lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:12:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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12895 times
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Jake,
Thanks for the “official” opportunity to be heard. I’ll spare you the history,
but suffice it to say that LEGO has been a part of my life for the past 34
years, and is one of the things that keeps me young.
I posted a poll on LUGnet about this issue. While not scientific, ballot-box
stuffing is extremely difficult. The results can be seen
here
While I fully understand the reasoning behind the new colors, I cannot
understand why the old ones need to “go away.” In my opinion, there is too
large of an “installed base” of the old colors to simply cease making LEGO
elements in those colors in favor of other, slightly different colors. All the
reasons have been fully articulated here on LUGnet (here are a few again):
1)
new and old colors won’t match,
2) expensive older collections will become
somewhat “obsolete” (especially when elements are phased in or out), requiring
purchasing lots of new (or old) colors
3) those not “in the know,” when
combining sets for MOCs, will see the color mismatch and see it as a
quality-control issue, and frankly, LEGO is too pricey to have color
quality-control issues
There are more opinions, but I think these are the ones espoused by most AFOLs
here.
Now, I can assume that LEGO could anticipate these issues. After all, LEGO
employees can assumed to be collectors, and market research should have given
you a clue to # 3 above. So, a somewhat cynical AFOL, who realizes that things
are never as they seem, can speculate thusly about the color change:
1) LEGO
doesn’t really care about AFOLs and their expensive, extensive collections,
making this color change on a whim; and/or
2) LEGO somehow has no choice in
making the color change. Something about the manufacturing process,
environmental regulations, or other unspoken (to the AFOL community, at least)
factor forces LEGO to make the change; and/or
3) The new colors closely
approximate a clone brand, and LEGO is making the change because market research
says kids want to mix their LEGO and clone brand bricks. and/or
4) LEGO is
making the change so they can charge a premium for “classic” colors in bulk in a
year or so.
My personal (very cynical) “take” on the situation is that the new colors are
for the “consumer” market only. There are elements avaliable to LEGO company
model builders that the general public just can’t get (in any quantity), and I
don’t think we’ll see new models at LEGOland parks, road shows, etc, made
exclusively of the “new” greys, ever. Which leads me back to conclusion #1
above - LEGO just doesn’t care about AFOLs and their collections.
Simply put, unless there is some physical or legal factor making production of
the “old” colors impossible, I don’t think you’ll ever convince hard-core AFOLs
that this was a good idea.
Thanks for listening,
James Wilson
Dallas, TX
LUGnet Member #1783, fan of The Brick since 1970
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Nicely now. What do you think of the new colors?
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| It's only a couple of weeks in the new year, and it looks like it's going to be an interesting 2004! I have a request, but before I go any further, let me say that personally, I understand the concerns surrounding the color changes. I know many of (...) (20 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, FTX) !!
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