Subject:
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Re: Whither LEGO Steam Trains? (was Re: QT Movie of 4565)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Wed, 21 Feb 2001 20:25:26 GMT
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This may want to followup somewhere other than trains, but I can't decide
where...
In lugnet.trains, John Neal writes:
>
>
> Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> > <snip>
> > Why did Duplo go powered?
>
> John Neal wrote:
>
> While we're asking, why did *Brio* go powered?? To me, Brio was the last hold
> out of the old-school, traditional toy train. But have you seen Brio lately?
> (Have you seen Brio *prices* lately?;) Not what we played with as kids! And
> look at the knock-offs! Brio must be fighting for its proverbial life against
> such inroads as the TtTE wooden trains. Heck, check out these:
> http://www.woodentrain.com/subcat2results.tpl?cart=981739522132471&catsuid=4&category=Whittle%20Shortline%20Railroad&page=1
I gotta admit, these are really beautiful. And non-powered, btw.
> Movement is very seductive; and, generally speaking, I think kids prefer it
> over push. We can say that we didn't have powered this or that when we were
> kids, but I think it's due to technological advancements more than anything.
> I think I would have enjoyed my Brio to be powered when *I* was a kid!
I think you'd be wrong there. You think you'd enjoy it, but you wouldn't.
Because after turning the train on, what is there to do? Nothing, really.
Powering trains removes an entire level of interaction, and kids get bored
because they're no longer in control. This was confirmed to me anecdotally
by a fellow PNLTC member, who bought three powered engines for his three
boys, and found they completely stopped playing with Brio.
Yes, kids prefer to *buy* powered over push. But they prefer to *play* with
push over powered. Look at the sales of Hot Wheels vs. slot race sets. For
anyone who owned both, think back to how much time you spend crashing Hot
Wheels cars together, and how little time you spent with slot cars after you
got the set and played it a couple times. (No flames from slot car fans,
please...)
> > When I was buying Duplo for Taya (9 years ago when
> > she was 2) it was unpowered. If they went powered for Duplo, I suspect that
> > the window for kids that can handle system but can't handle power is pretty
> > small. But I could be wrong...
>
> Remember, much of marketing to kids means marketing to parents. If a parent
> thinks it's cool, they'll buy it for their kid, no matter how inappropriate.
The other side of that is that if a kid thinks the advertisement or box is
cool, he'll want it, even if he'll never actually play with the actual toy
past the first week.
There's a real conflict in trying to create toys that are appropriate for
both kids and adults. For adults, more detail and more realism is important.
But for kids (and especially for young kids), realism decreases imagination.
A toy that makes engine noises will keep kids from going "Vroom vroom!" On
the other hand, Connor, my four-year-old, takes two 2x8 plates, makes a
cross, and plays with his new "airplane" for hours at a time. He imagines
passengers, crashes, sound-effects, and even dog-fights.
<short soapbox speech:> I think it's part of a parent's responsibility to
lead their children to toys that they will enjoy and/or learn from, and to
not just buy the toys they want. That's often a hard call. It's not unlike
LEGO's marketing data showing that kids want to buy Juniorized sets. LEGO
can certainly sell more this way, but that doesn't mean kids will play with
them more. <getting down from soapbox>
I feel like there's more to say about this, but I'm out of words.
Rick Clark
I was recently reminded of an excellent quote by Neil Gaiman, that seems
appropriate here:
"The cost of getting what you want is having what you once wanted."
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Whither LEGO Steam Trains? (was Re: QT Movie of 4565)
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| Larry Pieniazek wrote: <snip> (...) While we're asking, why did *Brio* go powered?? To me, Brio was the last hold out of the old-school, traditional toy train. But have you seen Brio lately? (Have you seen Brio *prices* lately?;) Not what we played (...) (23 years ago, 9-Feb-01, to lugnet.trains)
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