Subject:
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Re: Color Change background
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.color
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Date:
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Thu, 13 May 2004 20:54:13 GMT
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In lugnet.lego, Jake McKee wrote:
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First off, I apologize for bringing this issue up again, but a promise is a
promise. I said I would deliver more background info on the color change, and
here it is. In an effort to reduce the almost certain flood of responses to
this post, please understand that I am only posting the story, and won’t be
debating the color change merits. My goal here is to simple share the real
story of how the color change to be. Sorry for taking so long to get this out
to you. In an effort to be 100% accurate, I wanted to fact check like mad
before posting. I know that some people won’t believe this is the “real”
story, but if you have a stack of Bibles, I’m ready to swear on them.
Now, on with the story! First a little background.
The Design Lab is an internal group at the LEGO Company who is responsible
for overseeing the “system” aspects of everything the LEGO Company does.
They’re the ones that maintain the element library, element history, “own”
the element design process (working with others in the company), own and
guide the growth of the element library (ensuring the element selection
doesn’t get out of control like the late 90s), own the color palette, and
many other tasks. Basically, they work to ensure that the system works long
term, and is the most robust, consumer (kids and adults) friendly it can
possibly be.
Around the beginning of 2000, we found ourselves with a color palette that
was growing far too quickly, and far too organically. There wasn’t enough
vision put into how we were expanding and adding new colors. The decision was
made to apply the same type of thinking we now use in approaching the long
term element design process to the color palette. The desired outcome was to
create a color palette that would work effectively for years to come, and
that could scale easily and correctly. We didn’t want to end up with the same
out-of-control color situation as we did with elements in the late 90s – that
was a hard lesson to learn, but we learned it well.
This initiative led to a revised color palette. This new color palette
included some deletions of low-use colors, additions of new colors, and some
tweaks to the existing colors. The goal in all these changes was completely
and totally focused on creating the absolute best set of LEGO colors
possible.
There has been a great deal of assumptions posted about the reasons we made
the changes. Everything from trying to copy MEGABloks, to trying to save
money on recycling parts. I know it seems hard to believe (unless you really
think about the long-term history and attitude of this company), but it
really is as simple as trying to create a sustainable and consistent color
palette for the future.
As one part of the process of defining this new, long-term color palette, we
tested the new color palette with children in the US and Germany. I won’t get
into the details of how we actually tested, as I don’t have those details.
But suffice to say, the tests came back overwhelmingly positive.
A planned roll-out plan of these new colors was planned and implemented for
all products produced starting January 2004. The thinking was that it was
much better to simply make a quick switch to the new colors, assuming
(correctly, from what little we’ve heard from non-AFOL sources; incorrectly
from what we’ve heard from the AFOLs) that the change would go fairly
unnoticed. Changes are made regularly to the bricks, to make them better in
some way. Improved clutching power, easier part separation, and many other
things I don’t begin to claim to understand are regularly tweaked to help
improve the elements. With the LEGO Company’s desire to keep their
decades-long reputation for quality, we’re constantly working to improve
things that almost all the time, consumers won’t even notice. I know a
statement like this will open a can of worms. The point I’m making is just
that we are constantly improving little small things trying to make the
overall system even better.
Of course, one thing that Design Lab was unaware of at the time of
implementation was the incredible impact on the AFOLs. It’s hard to remember,
but when this “color palette cleanup” process was first initiated, LEGO
Direct was one person – Brad Justus. The LEGO Community Development team was
more than 3 years away from being formed. My role was both the Community
Liaison (30%) and Web Producer (90%) – an amount that adds up to more than
100%!
Unfortunately, I simply wasn’t able to carry the AFOL message to the Design
Lab in time. For that I apologize. I know I’ve let you down, and because of
it, a good number of people no longer trust me and/or the company.
Right or wrong, agree or disagree (yes, I know that you all believe it was
the wrong decision and disagree with it), please understand that we fully
acknowledge and apologize for our poor implementation. I know, I know – many
of you believe that the change should never have been made.
Because I’ve been working closely with Design Lab (together with my LCD Team
colleagues) to help carry your message of frustration and concern, they now
understand your concerns probably better than any group in the company.
Again, I apologize for having not done a better job, earlier, in getting the
AFOLs introduced to this group.
Many, especially those in the 1000steine community, have voiced their
concerns with my/our efforts to help find a bridge between old and new. Some
feel, as was posted on LUGNET, that efforts like the colors bags are
“tranquilizers”. That was not at all the intention. Since we still believe in
the changes (not the implementation, mind you), and the costs would simply be
incredible prohibitive at this point (we lost a bit of money last year...),
we’ve tried to do our best to help deliver to you as much as we can to help
this transition. Is that trying to “keep you quiet”? Not to me… to me, it’s
trying to respond to your needs. Those things include:
- Admitting that we made a mistake in our implementation
- Defining in writing, what colors have been locked i.e. defined as “universal”, thus being “untouchable” (will have a full list once it’s ready in a few weeks)
- Agreeing to consult core consumers (AFOLs and child enthusiasts – Club kids) when making future core changes.
- Working on solutions to provide either old bricks or new bricks to help ease the transition.
I don’t begin to think that we’ll never make another mistake again. After
all, the company is made up of humans, and humans make mistakes. What I do
hope you know, or agree is that we will do a better job of trying to ensure
this type of situation doesn’t happen again.
I hope this helps clear things up.
Jake
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Jake McKee
Community Liaison
LEGO Community Development
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Jake, I have said nothing on the color issue so far. I do not have a big
collection, so it will not affect me that much personally. And I am sorry that
you’ve been given so much grief over this matter. However, please convey this
reality check to TLC:
Children in general just don’t care whether light gray looks a little brighter
or not. These subtle color changes won’t increase TLC’s profits. The only
effect, which you have already noticed, will be to alienate people who are
lego’s most avid fans. If TLC is losing money, color changes are not going to
bail them out. If they want to make a profit, all they have to do look back at
the period when they were most successful (late 80’s, early 90’s), and ask
themselves: what were we doing back then that we aren’t doing now? Listen to
those who have your best interest at heart. Go back to the simple themes of
legoland, don’t rely on movie tie-ins. Go back to good set design, not the
clunky confections you have today. Don’t buy the argument that kids today
somehow have shorter attention spans than they had ten years ago. A kid with a
really short attention span isn’t going to be building much lego anyway. Make
bionicle for those kids, but don’t sacrifice you care product. And pay
attention to the way your product is presented. Where are the distinctive
yellow boxes, with their storage trays, attractive flip-tops and plastic
displays? From the outside, a mega blox box looks far more attractive than
anything lego has on the shelf. Again, stop scratching your heads about the
next magic bullet to make the company profitable again, and just look in the
mirror. We AFOLs do have TLC’s best interest at heart - our purpose is not to
give you a headache, which is all that we have seemingly accomplished lately.
Our advice might just be better for you than some kids being forced to make a
decision about which gray they think is prettier.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Color Change background
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| (...) Great post! I'm with 100%. And i wish someone at TLC (besides super-Jake) reads this. Spotlighted! Best regards, Paulo Renato (21 years ago, 14-May-04, to lugnet.color, FTX)
| | | Re: Color Change background
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| (...) Incredibly well said! Furthermore: Today I was in Target, and a young boy and his mom were searching up and down the LEGO aisle for a set. I offered to help them out and asked what they were looking for: "the LEGO Optimus Prime" was the (...) (21 years ago, 14-May-04, to lugnet.color, FTX)
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