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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Fri, 16 Jan 2004 03:40:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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12913 times
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Jake,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide input. I have already sent in letters
though the consumer affairs website.
After reading most of the posts in the thread, I don’t know if I will be able to
add any unique or new viewpoints to what has already been stated. I will add my
opinions in the event that you will be using the responses to this thread for
some sort of numerical/statistical analysis.
I do not like the new colors for several reasons.
1. I have been collecting Lego since 1973. I have amassed a great quantity of
light gray and dark gray pieces over the years. I have piece types in light
gray that have long since been discontinued. Up until this year I could mix
gray parts from newly bought sets with parts from my original classic space sets
in a MOC and have it look good. New and interesting pieces such as the 3x12
wedge plates are not as useful to me, since they will not match some of the
colors in my current collection. I am not going to spent the next 20 - 30 years
(and thousands of $$) amassing an equivalent collection of the new grays. The
collection I have right now will have to serve my needs. I usually buy sets for
parts to build MOCs. I occasionally have bought sets for the set themselves.
The Santa Fe super cheif is an example. I felt that this set was so well done,
I bought 3 of them. I was intending to buy the train cars to go with it this
year and get in to trains. Now I probably will not since I cannot be sure that
the gray in the SC cars will match the gray in my super chief engines. You have
lost a potential train customer. In short, one of Lego’s core selling points
has always been its backwards compatibility. This applies to the color palette
as much as it does the stud-tube connection and piece geometry.
I think that the new snow speeder is a great set and is much improved over the
original snowspeeder set. I have not purchased it solely because it contains
the new grays. The only 2004 set I have purchased is the new x-wing and only
after it was confirmed to have the original gray/brown colors. If it had not, I
either would have not purchased it or I would have returned it. As it stands
now, since November, I have spent $0.00 on new retail Lego purchases (though I
did receive the new space shuttle for xmas - and it had the old gray in it) and
have spent ~$300.00 ordering “classic gray” parts on bricklink.com to complete
various MOCs. I used to buy retail sets to get parts that I needed... you have
driven me to bricklink instead.
2. The new grays are not as versatile as the older colors. The new colors
almost have too much of a cold and sterile feel to them. As others have stated,
the new colors are not well suited to building creations such as castles, wooden
ships, and other things that require an earthy or muddy feel to them. Even for
building mechnical type creations, the older grays could be used to give a
creation a dirty, weathered feel. The new grays are great for building
aircraft, tanks, spaceships, and other mechanical things but that is about it.
Even so, I am not willing to buy the number of sets required to amass even a
working collection of the new grays to build a moc like
this. Part of the
problem is that most of the newer sets are comprised of so many different colors
that it is very difficult to amass a useable collection of any newly released
color.
3. I am extremely unhappy with the way this color change has been handled. I
feel like Lego tried to “pull a fast one” with its consumers. I explain my
feelings in more detail here and
here. Most AFOL’s are very
intelligent and mostly rational people. Many people here feel that focus-group
story does not make much sense and thus there has got to be a “real” reason
behind the change. Whether or not there is more to the color change story,
this move has seriously damaged the trust that alot of us long-time consumers
had for TLC.
4. As already mentioned elsewhere, the color changed is likely to be perceived
by the general consumer market as a quality issue. In my opinion, TLC’s
quality control has been on a downward trend for several years. I have yet to
get the train wheels on my aforementioned Superchief set replaced... which
reminds me when I call them, will I get old or new gray wheels? After the
problems with the wright flyer set I wrote about in this
post I wonder if TLC really does care
about their perceived quality. If the perceived quality of Lego brand bricks
sinks low enough, what is to prevent the general consumer base from buying the
cheaper clone brands?
5. As I lover of Classic Space, I really feel ripped off. We will never see a
true legend re-release of the Galaxy explorer. Blue and light gray are colors
that I have always cherrished.
Thats about all I have to say about the color changes. I do hope the TLC does
switch back to the correct colors for their bricks. If not, my life will go on.
I may or may not buy new sets but I can defintely say that I will be much more
selective. I imagine the only sets I will be buying are ones that really stand
out as excellent sets. Which judging on past years, will be a small minority of
the overall product line. I would be willing to tolerate a co-existance of all
4 shades of gray given the sorting problems.
While I’m on my soapbox, I am also going to complain about the seemingly blanket
replacement of finger hinge parts with click hinges. the click hinge parts
should be able to co-exist with finger hinge parts... Each hinge type has
applications for which one type is better suited than the other. This is
another example of where it is bad to replace something rather than adding
something to the product line.
Thank you again for the opportunity to offer my input.
drc
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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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