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Well. Wow. What can I say? It certainly appears as if we have opened Pandora’s
Bucket…
First, allow me to thank you all for your overwhelmingly warm welcome. I can
assure you, it is as thrilling to us to be able to make the announcement of
LEGO Direct as it is for you to read it.
Actually, I’d hoped to post this followup to the initial message much earlier
than this, but… when it rain, it pours. There was of course the (mercifully
brief) brouhaha regarding whether I was, in fact, real. (It is pleasing to
know that I am. I was worried.) And we wanted to be sure that we’d read every
single posting and e-mail that’s arrived before getting back to you – and
there have been hundreds of such messages. It’s a response that pleases us
immensely. (In other words, it’s good to be the Santa.)
We’re particularly gratified by the overwhelmingly positive response. We hope
that even the skeptics have been won over – no, this isn’t a hoax. We’re in
this for the long haul. And I can promise you that we will do everything that
we can in the coming weeks, months, and beyond to demonstrate with action and
not merely with words how very committed we are to making LEGO Direct the
enterprise that all in the LEGO community would wish it to be.
But let me reiterate something stated in the first post: it’s going to take a
few months to get this really rolling. One of the reasons we’re announcing
this now (as opposed to when everything is ready to launch) is that we want to
get your input *before* we make some critical decisions. To be truly
successful, we believe that LEGO Direct needs to function (as much as
possible) as a partnership between the LEGO Company and our consumers. Making
all of this happen is not as easy as it may seem, so give it time. And so, as
Todd kindly invited: we’d like to take off our coat and stay awhile. We’d like
to hear your thinking and share some of ours before putting all our plans into
action.
It also seems as if a couple of clarifications and comments may be called for;
herewith, in no particular order:
1) Thanks to Ian Sinclair for suggesting that we create an FAQ based on the
most common queries (and/or suggestions) we receive; we shall do just that. It
will take a while to pull this together, but look for it in a couple of weeks.
2) Todd Lehman wrote:
How does this sound as a new charter for lugnet.dear-lego:
lugnet.dear-lego: Online communication-to-LEGO channel;
formal dialogues with the LEGO Company; suggestions,
opinions, likes & dislikes, questions, etc.
[Brad, is there anything in the text immediately above which should not be
encouraged (for example, product suggestions)? Or do you intend for LEGO
Direct to go the whole nine yards and become intimately involved?]
This sounds fine to me. (Larry Pieniazek’s suggestion to archive earlier
postings to “dear-lego-old” also makes sense.) We’ll probably have to get some
legal clarification regarding product/concept suggestions (see the Legal
Notice on LEGO.com for a model). But yes, it is our intention to be involved
totally with our consumer community. I would expect that you may want to
establish sub-groups to handle some of the “meatier” topics such as bulk
ordering.
3) And speaking of bulk ordering, a couple of important things: first, don’t
worry – we’re going to do this! Though the targeted launch of the service is
late Summer, we’ll start discussing details within a few weeks; in fact, we’re
going to need your input to help us finalize the appropriate initial
offerings. So hang in there. Second, until more details are forthcoming,
please don’t deluge Consumer Affairs or S@H with questions. You’ll get what
you want to know right here in these newsgroups.
4) To Selçuk Göre Tony Priestman, Peter Callaway, Scott Arthur, Christian
Gemuenden, Tobias Möller, Susumu Takahashi and anyone else who has expressed
concern, please be assured: LEGO Direct is a global entity. By no means are we
intending to serve only the US, or only the US and Europe. We will serve our
community around the globe. Of course, we need to develop our global
capabilities in a manner that does not compromise the service and quality you
expect of us. So we will be managing the availability of our commerce
operations in phases; naturally, this means that most likely we will offer
direct-to-consumer services first in those countries where we already have (or
are close to having) order and fulfillment capabilities. But even at launch,
this will be a “more than just the USA” offering.
5) We’ve received more than a few inquiries regarding possible employment in
LEGO Direct. There are indeed some positions which we need to fill, mostly in
production, technology, and marketing; we’d welcome the involvement of AFOLs
in the group, if your experience and qualifications are appropriate. I will
post separately in the next few days regarding our requirements and the
process for submitting resumes and further job inquiries.
6) As noted, we’ve been deluged with e-mail. (I can’t say we didn’t expect it,
but again – wow.) We’ll try to respond to the most common questions and
comments with (at least) weekly postings; but for the time being, please
understand that we can’t respond to each individual message. Thanks for your
patience.
I’ll be back soon with more. Until then, play well.
And a very Merry Christmas to you from all of us at LEGO.
-- Brad
Brad Justus
Senior Vice President, LEGO Direct
Legodirect@lego.com
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Message has 9 Replies:
 | | Re: Thanks for the welcome
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| <snip lots of wonderful news> I would just like to say thank you once again and welcome. I like everyone else can't wait to share our feelings and ideas with you. I am sure some of us will be more critical than others but without constructive (...) (24 years ago, 22-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Thanks for the welcome
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| Brad Justus wrote in message ... (...) can (...) Thanks for the response. We are very excited to have you join us. This news is as exciting as waiting for Kevin Loch to upload scans of the 2000 catalog, however not as immediately gratifying. Rose (...) (24 years ago, 22-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Thanks for the welcome
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| Brad, I'm really glad to see this second post about Lego Direct. To keep the rumors down, could you do at least a monthly posting to keep us abreast of progress? Regarding direct sales you said: (...) The part about finalizing initial offerings is (...) (24 years ago, 23-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Thanks for the welcome
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| (...) What set number is that? S@H has never heard of that one! :-) All kidding aside, the idea has been previously raised of themed buckets to distribute theme-based pieces a la Freestyle, and I think it's a great idea! I'd love a Res-Q bucket, or (...) (24 years ago, 23-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Thanks for the welcome
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| (...) Brad - here's a critical one - there is a need for a SuperBrick - an RCX brick with many more I/O (like 8 as a minimum), for controlling trains, or very complex robots/machines. I know your Sales and Marketing guys were caught flatfooted on (...) (24 years ago, 23-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Thanks for the welcome
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| Hi, Brad Justus <legodirect@lego.com> wrote in message news:Fn5rAD.5Mt@lugnet.com... (...) Pandora's (...) can (...) of (...) Not at all..:-) <snip> (...) expressed (...) are we (...) our (...) you (...) (or (...) launch, (...) Thank you very much (...) (24 years ago, 23-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Thanks for the welcome
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| (...) I found this joke and the others in Brad's post really fun... I guess because I didn't expect the intelligent humor. I think TLG picked the right person to communicate with this online group of (fill in your favorite term to describe this (...) (24 years ago, 23-Dec-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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