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My 2 cents about the Lego system/theme controversy...
In the 60s, there were no themes, and all Lego toys (I think) were called
Lego System (of play).
In the 70s, the word system was not used to describe any Lego toys, or
themes, etc - there were Lego Building Sets and Lego Models, at that time.
Incidentally, the US name of the company was Lego Systems, Inc.
In the late 70s, early 80s, when (what are commonly referred to as)
themes came along, is when Legoland came about. There were originally 3
Legoland Systems (Town, Castle, and Space) and some sets didn't fit into any
particular system, nor were they called system (Trains, Boats, Technic) -
although personally, I have always thought of Trains and Boats as part of
the Legoland Town System.
In 1989, the first year of Pirates, the name Legoland System was still in
use, and so there was a fourth system (Legoland Pirates System). This was
the last year of Legoland.
However, that was the last year Lego used those descriptions for what we
call themes. Since then, all Lego sets fall into the Lego System (as
before, in the 1960s), except Technic is not part of Lego System. And since
then, each theme, subtheme, or whatever, was officially called a
collection - the Boats Collection, the Pirates Collection, etc of Lego
System. The word assortment applies to the full range of Lego (including
Technic and System) released in a given country - the US assortment, etc.
I suppose Todd is 99% right in his postings about this. I think since
Lego has a tendency to change its naming conventions every few years, it
makes it very difficult to come up with one absolute set of names. Theme,
and subthemes, which Todd gave us a few years ago seem to work just fine for
me, although those words are very unofficial.
I like the collection term they are using now - though, looking at my
1999 catalog, I am not sure they are still using it. It kept it simple,
though, just any (theme-type) name was a collection in its own right, and
didn't require classification within some other system or theme (like
Nautica, Fright Knights, etc). So, if you are like me, you can call your
self Castle complete (that is Legoland Castle System complete) without
wasting your money on the Ninjas and Fright Knights (which are separate
collections)!
--
Have fun!
John
My Trade/Sale (and links) Page
http://www114.pair.com/ig88/lego
my weird Lego site:
http://www114.pair.com/ig88/
Todd Lehman wrote in message ...
> In lugnet.space, Kya Morden writes:
> > On Wed, 3 Nov 1999 05:18:36 GMT, lehman@javanet.com (Todd Lehman)
> > wrote:
> > > No, the LEGO Star Wars product line at minifig scale isn't a theme, it's • a
> > > System. Play themes are subcategories of Systems. Aquanauts is a play
> > > theme within the Aquazone System, for example. Time Cruisers and Time
> > > Twisters are play themes within the Town System. Ninja is a play theme
> > > within the Castle System. Insectoids and UFO are play themes within the
> > > Space System. LEGO Star Wars is a separate System from LEGO Space.
> >
> > *blinks* then what's a subtheme? I always thought that Insectoids
> > and UFO were subthemes. Now I'm confused ^^;
>
> There's really no such thing (officially) as a "sub-theme" -- it's just an
> artificial term cooked up by us fans, just like "Classic Space" and "BURP"
> and "minifig."
>
> JoshuaD once did some Deja-research and told me that it's my fault for
> starting the whole theme/subtheme confusion a few years ago back in RTL.
> The Fibblesnork LEGO Guide uses the term "series" instead of "sub-theme",
> but LEGO doesn't use the term "series" either -- LEGO uses the term "play
> theme."
>
> Anyway, Insectoids and UFO are certainly sub-categories of the LEGO System™
> Space product category, which in turn is a sub-category of the LEGO System™
> product category, but TLG has special names for the layers in the taxonomy:
>
> Product Programmes consist of one or more Systems. Systems consist of one • or
> more Play Themes. Joshua knows much more about it than I do, but over time
> I'm learning it, and trying to correct the mistakes I've been making for so
> many years.
>
> So, in summary, Space and Castle and Aquazone aren't Themes, they're • Systems
> (which sit one layer up from Play Themes). UFO and Ninja and Stingrays are
> Play Themes within the Space, Castle, and Aquazone Systems, respectively.
>
> (My brain hurts from that too. :)
>
> --Todd
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: News on the 2000 space line!
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| (...) There's really no such thing (officially) as a "sub-theme" -- it's just an artificial term cooked up by us fans, just like "Classic Space" and "BURP" and "minifig." JoshuaD once did some Deja-research and told me that it's my fault for (...) (25 years ago, 3-Nov-99, to lugnet.space, lugnet.admin.database)
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