Subject:
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Re: The Official "Issues List"
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.ambassadors
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Date:
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Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:51:01 GMT
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Viewed:
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10756 times
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Disclaimer: I'm not a train guy, not even close. And I agree that the 9V system
is a fantastic system in and of itself, not to mention the amazing things train
clubs do with it. Should it be on the "list"? I'd *absolutely* agree. And I
really *really* hope that it's not going away anytime soon. That said...
In lugnet.ambassadors, William R. Ward wrote:
> There are no space or castle or any other genre that
> does anything nearly as visible to the public eye as
> train clubs.
Hmm. I'm not sure exactly where you get that statistic from. For instance, FIRST
LEGO League had "nearly 90,000 children participating worldwide 8,846 teams"
last year, and this year the projection is for over 106,000 children. In terms
of people *directly involved*, that's about a 10% annual growth in "outreach
potential" (especially when you consider most of these are in schools, or even
have corperate sponsors how have their own vested interest in promoting them).
What is a firm estimate for the number of folks actively involved in train clubs
and shows? Is it around 100,000?
Of course, this isn't a complete picture either - you could argue that the true
outreach potential is due to the number of "casual visitors" that wander through
something like NMRA and have their eyes very widely opened by the incredible
things you can do under the 9V system. But if we need to take actual public
contact into account, again something like FLL has a great public outreach as
well - in some cases televised locally, in the case of the Atlanta finals it's a
major economic event with literally global coverage. And this is only
semi-conventional media coverage: try searching YouTube or similar for "LEGO
trains" (411 hits, with the most-watched video receiving an average of about
10,500 hits/month) and "LEGO robots" (2,100 videos, with the top-rated one being
ironicly a toilet-paper dispenser (?!?) at about 380,000 hits/month). Again, via
this free (from the standpoint of LEGO and even most "casual visitors") "public
show" the exposure seems to be in favor of something other than trains.
I am *NOT* saying that "robotics issues" are more important than 9V trains... or
than color issues... or mold consistancy... or that any one aspect or point on
that "list" is more important than another. What I *am* trying to point out is
that in the one aspect of LEGO that I have some familiarity with, the above
quoted statement (and the emphasis that it seems to imply) might be a little
narrow-focused. Again, I *don't* know the whole story... but with my very
limited view, it seems to call into serious question some of the facts stated
above. If with a very limited view I can see some flaws, then perhaps with a
much wider view (company-wide) there might be a few other discrepencies as well.
> It's great PR for LEGO and they would be absolutely
> stupid to cancel it.
TechTV covering an international robotics contest where some LEGO robots were
overall winners is great PR... that doesn't mean LEGO should save the RCX
because it's cost-effective.
> And that your reaction is being brought to the forums *NOW*, to
> be *ADDED* to the list, really appalls me. It should have been
> #1 on the list ALL ALONG!!!!
This is actually where I'm confused. You're terribly upset that the Abassador
program is trying to respond to the calls from the community? I can understand
advocating loudly for your favorites (and 9V is, again, a *VERY* good one to
advocate for - I'm all for that), but to say you are appalled that it's being
added to the list, well... I guess that's just not the way I think. YMMV. But to
say it should be #1, and as support for that position argue that the public
outreach of trains is unmatched compared to any other theme: that I would say is
simply not supported by the data.
(And once again, before I kick off a hige firestorm... I very *badly* want the
9V system to survive for my own reasons as well - it's a fantastic adition to my
end of the hobby, and what a well-established train club can do is simply
awe-inspiring.)
--
Brian Davis
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: The Official "Issues List"
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| (...) The death of 9V trains would be a thousand times more devastating to the single most visible contingent of LEGO fans than the grey color change. Train clubs are the real ambassadors of LEGO. Throughout the world at model railroad hobby shows, (...) (17 years ago, 29-Jul-07, to lugnet.ambassadors, FTX)
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