Subject:
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Maybe No New LEGO Direct Trains? :-(
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 20 Oct 2003 17:50:56 GMT
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Just read Larry's transcript of Brad's talk at LEGO World and couldn't help but
feel bummed out by this:
> Q: where do you want to stand with trains in the future?
> A: it’s a great area to work in. Retail liked what direct did, so world city
> happened so they could get in on trains. The retail business almost completely
> drives product development. I WOULD like to see some track geometry changes. I
> am not sure that we need to come out with new trains in Direct for a while...
> Make your own train. Make your own pirate ship. Making new track is harder than
> new sets. If I had to pick I whould rather see us do track geometry than new
> sets, but retail drives product development.
full transcipt:
http://news.lugnet.com/events/legoworld/?n=30
Maybe I didn't get the point right from this but the impression I have is that
Brad would rather not see LEGO Direct make any new trains (i.e. locomotives and
rolling stock) although they may be forced to (this is where I'm a not sure)
because of the needs of the retail business. Brad would rather see us make our
own trains and have Direct just focus on track geometry. Since Brad's the VP I
assume this means there aren't any new LEGO Direct trains in the works right
now.
If this is true, then I feel sad to be me: When I 'make my own' train it stinks
:-<
World City trains don't have the detail and realism that the 10020 Super Chief
proved was possible from an official set (and I don't need so many curved tracks
and power controllers). I had hoped that 10020 was going to be the start of a
new trend of prototypical sets with accurate road livery, etc. Sure the piece
count was high (436 pcs just for a locomotive) so it wouldn't be an ideal retail
proposition, but I hoped it would work for LEGO Direct. In my opinion, the
Sante Fe Train Kit was the "UCS" set of the trains genre: 2757 pcs, $221 US, and
one heck of an awesome accurately detailed LEGO set. I feel like a Star Wars
fan would if they heard Brad say that he doesn't think Direct needs to come out
with any more UCS sets. I was really hoping that we'd be seeing a new Super
Chief style set (or sets) coming out this spring (assuming none came out this
year so as not to step on the World City line).
There are so many good Train builders in this community that I wouldn't be
surprised if most of you don't feel bad about the 'Make your own train' solution
Brad proposed. For a guy like me, I can't help but feel a bit blue. I'm sure
I'll have a great time with a set like 4512, but I feel bad having to give up on
the expectations set by 10020. To date I haven't come up with a MOC train that
can compete with either of them.
Who knows maybe TLC will break their trend and start coming out with highly
detailed and prototypically accurate retail trains. Or maybe I just
misunderstood Brad. No matter what, I understand I'm an AFOL, making me less
than 5% of all LEGO customers, and I'm a train-head who can't MOC too well,
making me a minority in the minority, so I can't blame TLC for not targetting me
when they choose what sets to sell.
I'm interested to hear how others feel?
Regards,
Paul D.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Maybe No New LEGO Direct Trains? :-(
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| (...) I was at the Q&A session as well, and certainly did NOT get the feeling it's the end. From what I've heard/seen trains do well, they just won't invest much in new moulds for them, since THAT money would be better spent on new track. Maybe (...) (21 years ago, 21-Oct-03, to lugnet.trains)
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