 | | Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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Dear LEGO - From what we've heard we haven't seen the last of Juniorization. I'm very disappointed about the news re: the Jack Stone line. I wasn't too excited about the line to begin with (because it isn't my thing), but to hear that its Juniorized (...) (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego) !!
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) That's a fantastic point. I was out of my Dark Ages for five years (and 26 years old) before I'd ever even heard of Dacta. Admittedly, I'm not the best-informed consumer, but I'm not the dimmest, either. If I'd been aware earlier of this (...) (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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(...) Funny how they try to imitate other toy companies - first it was imitate K'Nex with Znap - failed. Now its Playmobil. Gimme a break. -Tim (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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"Tim Courtney" <tim@zacktron.com> wrote in message news:G84wF5.8qp@lugnet.com... (...) about (...) Isnt that called Playmobile? regards lawrence (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) Maybe at this rate they'll eventually start imitating LEGO. Dave! (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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(...) lol.. Well, what boggles my mind is they have a BETTER product concept and yet they reduce themselves to imitating lesser toys. -Tim (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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(...) Yeah, that is baffling. It's like they're saying "We were the best toy of the century because we were the best in our niche, so now let's try to force ourselves blindly into someone else's well-established niche." Dave! (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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"Dave Schuler" <orrex@excite.com> wrote in message news:G84z96.F1F@lugnet.com... (...) of (...) force (...) "And stop doing the things that got us voted toy of the century" "Right, now where is my foot? OK. Aim...." regards lawrence (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) [followups to lugnet.general] Hey, there's that branding thing again! TLC keeps saying it wants to be the strongest brand among families with children by the year 2005, yada yada yada yada yada, etc... I'm really starting to worry that what (...) (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.general)
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(...) I've been talking to a friend who believes just that. Its sick, really. What they're going to end up weakening is the association between their brand and quality products. And they'll end up saturating the market with their brand identity (...) (24 years ago, 2-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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Long comments: I saw two guys today, when I was at Wal*Mart, they looked at a few models (from Revell) then looked at the legos. They scanned the sets, then turned back to the models an took one, and left. They both seemed interested in the legos, (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | NY Times article on strategy
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The New York Times had an article on TLC today focusing on the Bionicle line and TLC's positioning of this product as a form of "interactive" type "action figure" geared toward the 10 year old market - the age at which kids traditionally abandon (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego) !
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Amen brother! Testify! :-) Seriously though, I think you hit this one on the head. Lego won these awards, but didn't they also lose money last year or something? I think I remember reading something like that before. Weren't they shutting down a (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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I totaly agree with this. I, being 14 years old find the Lego sets of today quite basic and boring especially all these peices moulded together. I was looking through all my Lego product catalogues a couple of days ago and was amazed at how much (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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"Adam Murtha" <adammurtha@home.com> wrote in message news:G8670B.H6n@lugnet.com... (...) No. It's just a marketing term! regards lawrence (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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From: "Adam Murtha" <adammurtha@home.com> (...) Lego, I second this. Could someone who is in the know please give us some idea about the future of the minifig? Even a post saying that someone is looking into it would be a great start. Thank you, (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) 15-20!, its more like 5-10! I have a few of the tow truck places (can't figure out the set #, but i don't really care about that), from 2 years ago, and the "Jeep" has 5 peices not counting the wheels! Josh "Where's the box car door again?" (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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(...) I don't make the decisions about "the future of minifigs," but quite honestly, I haven't seen, heard, or smelled a single thing within LEGO that suggests to me that the minifig is going anywhere. We've been making figures at other scales for (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego) !
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(...) This seems to be getting pretty serious. I know I haven't been very freindly to our Lego representative in my posts...maybe I'm biased towards corporations/big buisness. Sometimes I think that I have no right to comment on Lego, It's not my (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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(...) Well, I'm concerned about it from the business angle as well. I mean, it's almost as if the folks at the top at TLC have decided that they've become bored with the whole show and want to cash out of the business in a few years. Who knows if (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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(...) OMG, I'm still throwing up Bionickles... Could we then change the name of this site to BUGNET (Brick Users Group Network) and include MegaBloks and Tyco in the official breakdown of the newsgroups, and in the pop-up reference? =0P -- Richard (...) (24 years ago, 3-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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A few people have asked if Town is going to turn into Duplo, and the mini-fig will be left out. Well, I believe it has already happened. Can anyone say "Racers"? And on another post: kids wanting more complex sets. I was in a local Super Wal-Mart (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) Anecdotal as these examples may be, I have experienced the very same thing -- overhearing a child or parent talk about needing to get a more complex set than the juniorized sets provide. Even if TLC does extensive market research (which I (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) In lugnet.dear-lego, Tomas Clark writes: (...) Hmmm, every one of those product lines is distinctly apart from System in terms of both content and marketing-- except Creator. Creator overlaps with System in a pretty obvious way (obvious to me, (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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Note from the reaction we've seen from Jake and Tomas, the minifig rumor is just that - a rumor, and shouldn't be treated as true in the least. Regardless of opinions whether they will cease to be offered in the future. -Tim (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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(...) Isn't this pointless speculation? You'd be paranoid about the end of minifigs even if told otherwise? Like Tim said, stay focused. Tomas tried to explain "This does not mean the end of minifigs". And here we even have Alpha Team, aimed at a (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) But is LOM pulling your weight? I mean, with all that oatmeal you're betting, sure you're stocking up on LOM but you're probably stocking up too :^) (...) Some nifty little sets I haven't had the cash to collect yet...shame. But my priority is (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.general, lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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Erik, I couldn't agree more. This is actually *wild* speculation! Remember the idea....create a _full_ product line that spans an age range of 0-99. How can this happen if any line goes away that targets an age range? If creator is successful, then (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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(...) Great idea, now it just needs to be put into practice. There needs to be more normal product line sets that are aimed at the higher age groups. In train for example, most AFOLs I know (including me) want trains that look like trains, how about (...) (24 years ago, 4-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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(...) But here's another thought: the age range for System appears (to me) to be shrinking. What used to make a great gift for a 9- to 10-year-old now makes sense targeted at 6- or 7-year-olds. If Creator fills up the 4-6 range, that leaves a (...) (24 years ago, 5-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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(...) More interestingly, what would happen to the product line if TLC were bought by LUGNet in 2006... Everyone start saving your pennies :) Steve (24 years ago, 5-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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(...) That might actually be logical for some kids, like the frequently mentioned kids who don't have much patience for building. But I doubt it would ever be true for all kids. The "action figure" lines like Throwbots, Roboriders, Bionicle have (...) (24 years ago, 5-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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(...) Interesting point. Note - I was pretty much a 90% LEGO kid. But I kept my sets together and played with them, rather than doing a lot of custom models. Now I found I'm lacking from that experience and have to learn 'how to build' all over (...) (24 years ago, 5-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) You're right, TLC at this point seems like a definite target for a takeover. This is harder since they are privately held, but people in the toy industry have to see that Lego is a brand and a firm that is struggling. But I don't think that (...) (24 years ago, 6-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: John Heins' article on strategy
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John, your whole post was excellent. I really think that we ought to see more "Dear Lego" posts with constructive ideas like these and less kvetching. We've got to understand that TLC is saying that the crisis is that kids aren't buying Lego sets (...) (24 years ago, 6-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: NY Times article on strategy
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John, now THIS was a post that people pay attention to. The contents of this message fall outside my area of control, but I can tell you that this is the way to get the appropriate people within TLC to pay attention! Great work and thanks for the (...) (24 years ago, 6-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) I saw much the same thing at TRU: 3 teenagers (I almost fainted - I'm not sure that I'd *ever* seen this) came into the aisle and were oohing and ahhing over the SW sets, but after a few remarks about how expensive the Millenium Falcon is, (...) (24 years ago, 6-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: John Heins' article on strategy
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(...) Why? It's TLC's responsibility to make a go of it. I, the consumer, owe the maker of a luxury-goods commodity absolutely nothing. I, as a fan, am more than happy to financially support the company if I feel that the price is right...if, in (...) (24 years ago, 6-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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(...) How many of your conversations were with small children? Of course Juniorization doesn't appeal to you or me: we're not the target audience. The problem here as I see it is LEGO is having real trouble defining the target audience for different (...) (24 years ago, 7-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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| | Re: Juniorization Lives, and comments on marketing strategy
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Okay, that was long and rant-ish. Here are the points I was trying to make, in brief: 1. The problem isn't Juniorization, per se, but the application of it. 2. In order for Lego to survive, they must lure new consumers (small children). 3. Best way (...) (24 years ago, 7-Feb-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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