| |
In lugnet.trains, Jason J. Railton writes:
> Was there much call for steam models at the Train Summit? Most of the
> pictures I saw where of diesel and electric designs. I know there are
> plenty of people out there valiantly forging driving wheels out of technic
> gears and hubs, which they then have to keep well away from points and
> crossings.
I'm under NDA so can't discuss exactly what was said about what we want.
But what do you think? You wouldn't expect that we would have asked for
things way different that what we asked for publicly in this group and
elsewhere, would you? If you did, you'd be confused. We were in part taking
what everyone said and reading it back, in part drawing on our surveys of
train club members, of the NMRA, of talking to hobbyshop owners, etc. (Yes
it was an honor to have been asked to go but it also was a lot of work)
Except for J2 (just kidding, sort of), we did our level best to leave our
emotions out of it and represent what we knew everyone wanted.
I'm under NDA so can't discuss what the responses from LD were.
But, look at the prior speculation on what sorts of development and
manufacturing costs TLC is likely to incur for various things, how many
people it takes to run a molding machine (I think we came up with somewhere
around .02-.1 person per machine), what sorts of runs are needed to amortise
tooling, etc, etc, etc... all stuff that we publicly speculated on, going in.
Then put that together with the fact that I made a big deal out of thanking
people for the high quality speculation. Do that and you might be able to
guess how accurate that speculation was.
I'll say this. We *thought* going in that new parts are harder to justify
than new colors for existing parts which are in turn harder than using the
old part in a previously used color. Now I *know* how hard new parts are.
Especially when you amortize across fairly small runs. Think about how many
copies of the landspeeder sold and you'll have an idea of what a fairly
large run is for a part.
Train drivers, I am sure you would admit, are likely to be small run items
compared to landspeeders. Even amortized over many years. Even if every
single AFOL buys 100 of them, which ain't gonna happen.
But do not abandon hope. As I said repeatedly before we met with LD, change
in large organizations happens incrementally. Prove the early steps and you
get more authority to do the more radical later steps. There was no doubt in
my mind that I'd be right about that before we met, and I'm just as certain
now as I was then.
Hopefully this answers your question AND Jon Kozan's too.
++Lar
|
|
| |
Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> I'll say this. We *thought* going in that new parts are harder to justify
> than new colors for existing parts which are in turn harder than using the
> old part in a previously used color. Now I *know* how hard new parts are.
> Especially when you amortize across fairly small runs. Think about how many
> copies of the landspeeder sold and you'll have an idea of what a fairly
> large run is for a part.
>
> Train drivers, I am sure you would admit, are likely to be small run items
> compared to landspeeders. Even amortized over many years. Even if every
> single AFOL buys 100 of them, which ain't gonna happen.
>
> But do not abandon hope. As I said repeatedly before we met with LD, change
> in large organizations happens incrementally. Prove the early steps and you
> get more authority to do the more radical later steps. There was no doubt in
> my mind that I'd be right about that before we met, and I'm just as certain
> now as I was then.
One thing I would take as giving some hope to getting a new type of
train driver is that TLC has created special parts which have so far
only showed up in a single set, and not even a high volume set. I
suspect that if TLC gets a good feeling that a good steam locomotive
would benefit the whole trains line. Lets say they sell 1% as many steam
locos as lanspeeders, and lets say they don't even break even on the
development cost of the new part(s), but what happens to their bottom
line when many of those buyers are new customers? They could easily make
up the revenue from the other sets they sell those new customers a bunch
of other higher volume, more profitable sets.
Does this mean that a steam loco is likely for this year, probably
pretty unlikely. Probably not even next year, but perhaps 2003 will see
one IF TLC sees the potential.
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
|
|
| |
Larry Pieniazek wrote in message ...
> I'm under NDA so can't discuss what the responses from LD were.
Can I ask if something was discussed?
I have been thinking about the studios line. Every store is selling the
accessory sets, which I think are rather limiting in appeal if you don't
have the main set.
Why can't they do this with the train line, I would think that the train
line would have more cross appeal than the Studios line.
So was increasing the local availability of the train line discussed?
Rose
|
|
| |
r2 wrote:
> Larry Pieniazek wrote in message ...
> > I'm under NDA so can't discuss what the responses from LD were.
>
> Can I ask if something was discussed?
>
> I have been thinking about the studios line. Every store is selling the
> accessory sets, which I think are rather limiting in appeal if you don't
> have the main set.
>
> Why can't they do this with the train line, I would think that the train
> line would have more cross appeal than the Studios line.
You are correct about the cross appeal of trains, which is one reason why
LD is interested in them.
> So was increasing the local availability of the train line discussed?
One point of fact-- remember, LD is about *direct* marketing to consumers,
bypassing the retail channel (I assume that is what you mean by "local
availability")
-John
>
>
> Rose
|
|
| |
John Neal wrote in message <3A832BFD.F599C578@uswest.net>...
> One point of fact-- remember, LD is about *direct* marketing to consumers,
> bypassing the retail channel (I assume that is what you mean by "local
> availability")
Yea, I'm just one of those people that likes to ogle over a set in person.
Rose
|
|
| |
In lugnet.lego.direct, John Neal wrote:
> One point of fact-- remember, LD is about *direct* marketing to consumers,
> bypassing the retail channel (I assume that is what you mean by "local
> availability")
I thought they were about direct contact, not just direct marketing.
Steve
|
|
| |
Steve Bliss wrote:
> In lugnet.lego.direct, John Neal wrote:
>
> > One point of fact-- remember, LD is about *direct* marketing to consumers,
> > bypassing the retail channel (I assume that is what you mean by "local
> > availability")
>
> I thought they were about direct contact, not just direct marketing.
> I didn't say "only";-) But all seriousness aside, you are correct,
> obviously. They also run CA. (although I am by no means an expert on the
> roles of LD)
-John
>
>
> Steve
|
|
|
