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 12:23:06 GMT
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Viewed:
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13030 times
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Jake -
I don't like the change to the colours. I think it's a big mistake.
I'm aged 30, and I've been buying Lego for myself for 25 years. Bricks and
plates have been available in light grey for that long, as have mini-figures. I
regard both as staple parts of the LEGO range of products.
I don't regard the original light grey as dull or drab. It seemed a perfectly
good colour in the Classic Space range. Given that it was used for both the
spacecraft and the landscape plates, it seemed a good compromise for
constructing both mechanical and natural objects.
Three things in particular tempted me to pick up Lego again as an adult. One
was the introduction of the Classic Star Wars range of toys (not particularly
Episode 1). Another was the novelty of the new orange colour (in the original
7130 Snowspeeder). The third was the introduction of the more natural-looking
colours of dark grey, brown and tan/beige. Also, more green bricks (rather than
just baseplates) were appearing. Although these had been around in various
themes before, it was only at the time of the introduction of the Star Wars sets
that I noticed them appearing in any useful quantity or variety of shapes.
In my travels I've looked down from hills on German villages, and at least seen
pictures of places in Denmark where the houses really are bright white, yellow
and blue, with bright red roofs. I've seen German steam trains with jet black
locomotives with bright red wheels and bright carriages. But, in Britain,
they're not like that. In fact, much of Europe, including Germany and Denmark,
isn't (or wasn't) like that. Brickwork is dull. Roofs are dark. Old steam
trains were dark red, blue and green with dark red, green or brown and cream
carriages.
It looked like finally I could build some of the things I knew using Lego, so I
set to buying up all the sets I could find with these new colours in.
I'll admit that I thought the original brown was a little too dark to use as a
look-alike for wood. I think the new one is an improvement, but I can't use the
new one alongside the old one because of the difference. I have a lot of brown
bricks and plates, although I don't use much brown on any one model. This is
probably down to the darkness of it, so, on the whole, I'm quite comfortable
with this change.
The change in light grey seems pointless. There's very little difference, but
it still becomes glaringly obvious if you try to combine old and new parts. The
new one is slightly lighter, and although this may represent mechanisms and
metal vehicles better, it is less effective at representing stone or concrete.
I preferred the older colour. It's hard enough to tell white from light grey in
the instructions, without making the bricks lighter too.
The change in dark grey is a bad idea. The new colour appears to have a hint of
blue. This puts me in mind of the colour of the exhaust of a dilapidated petrol
engine - all burnt oil and carbon monoxide. Quite honestly, it makes me feel a
little queasy looking at it.
Again, if you showed people some Star Wars-themed metallic craft using this
colour, they may say it is an improvement. But I want to use dark grey to build
a rocky Mediterranean hillside, and the new one is awful. The older colour
suited both quite happily.
So, why the change? Subtlely different hues have been introduced as new colours
in the past - why didn’t Lego do the same again?
Was it because the lighter shade of orange was a complete pain? I saw no point
to it, as it just caused confusion with the original orange. But, I knew what
sets it came in and could make a point of buying one or the other.
Here, I have no choice, which I object to.
I honestly don't believe the company could have received as much positive
feedback from its market research as it has negative feedback now. Why didn't
Lego put out the new colour and let the public decide which it wants to buy?
After the failure of so many 'new ideas', why was this one rushed through? The
company trawls for the fans' opinions in so many places, looking for the odd
idea to boost its business. But, when something comes along that would so
obviously have a huge impact on us, there's not a single question asked.
Again, the fans are useful for advertising the brand, but their satisfaction is
clearly irrelevant to the company. How many life-long builders were involved in
the 'Market Research'? It's pathetically easy to lead a group's answers; even
inadvertently, particularly if the researchers have a vested interest in a
specific outcome. I've been railroaded into giving compliant responses several
times by poorly-run groups or badly worded surveys. As I said before, a new
mini Imperial Star Destroyer looks great in the new colours. A fort on a rocky
hillside just looks tacky. Which you use as an example will bias the outcome.
I'm reminded of the joke about the 'Focus Group' tasked with coming up with new
names for 'Ford' motor 'car's; The Ford Motor Company subsequently launches the
Ford 'Focus' and the Ford 'Ka'...
Some of the leaked images of future sets even show the company was experimenting
with skin-tone pink mini-figures in some of the product lines. So what happens
when you put a criminal in a police station jail? If he's black, the negative
publicity will bring you down. If he's white, will he always be white? Will
the set make-up vary from country to country? It's a potential PR disaster, and
there's no need for the change. I can't believe anyone even gave this idea the
time of day.
In all its publicity, the Lego company prides itself on its history of quality
and customer service. That history has taken a serious blow. The oft-repeated
tale of Mr. Christiansen insisting those wooden ducks received a third coat of
paint has been given a new twist – after all, he never said it had to be the
same colour as the last two coats, now did he?
If there really is no going back, we need supplies of these new colours in a
variety of shapes - separate 1-wide and 2-wide plate variety packs, and bricks
in separate 1-wide and 2-wide variety packs, so we can at least begin to
kick-off a basic collection. Maybe 'widget' packs of round bricks and plates,
macaronis, headlight bricks, hinges etc.
This may even be a chance to GET THE ROOF BRICKS RIGHT!!! Honestly, who decided
to put more 2x3 than 4x3 slopes in the one bulk pack? How about bulk packs of
45° slopes with all the corners and ridges and ridge-ends and overhangs in
reasonable quantities? Do that in the new dark grey, and you might just be
forgiven.
But, overall, this would still need clear labelling, so we know what we're going
to get up front, and can make the decision. The company has misjudged the
market so many times in recent years, it's still a disparaging shock to see such
dependence on narrow 'market research'. It just sends out the message to the
customer that we're too stupid to know what we want.
A company's reputation is built on repeat customers, not impulse buying. The
adult fan base may not be a massive percentage of the company's income, but how
much is it really? It may mean only 5% of sales, but that’s the same 5% year on
year. The rest comes and goes. That’s got to be worth something, as has the
publicity. And anyway, how much Lego did the people in the survey go on to buy?
Any company that treats its repeat customers with such callousness, quite
frankly, deserves to make a loss. I just think it's a shame when it's connected
to something I enjoy.
Jason Railton
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Message has 1 Reply:
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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