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In lugnet.general, Sanjay D'Souza writes:
> An online parts ordering service may be the way to . Choose the parts you
> want and put them in your "online shopping basket" and then send your order
> away.
>
> But then again with TLG undertaking their "Fitness Program" to reduce costs
> I doubt such an idea would be appealing to them at the moment.
Why would this be a bad thing? Instead of spending time and money
guess-timating what themes people <b>may</b> be interested in, why not allow
them to decide what parts <b>they</b> want to purchase? No more inventory
problems (ref. Western Theme - how many more Disney Movies(TM) can LEGO co-opt
momentum for?)!
Here's an idea...
Instead of selling pre-imagined sets, sell a service which would walk the
customer through the realization of their imagined objects. Of course, those
who graduate from the apprenticing will stop paying for the service, but they
will continue to buy parts as they desire. Think of the apprenticing as
advertising for the parts business.
Now, LEGO would continue to package theme boxes, just fewer and larger, to lure
in new customers. Give away one "apprenticeship" with each of the
pre-packaged sets, and they'll be hooked. Hey, make it like scouts by
presenting accomplishment badges/certificates/trophies for skills mastered.
Start charging from the second imagination session, and pretty soon, you'll get
thousands of imaginations running around in circles demanding more LEGO. (^_^)
This very well may de-emphasize the reliance on LEGO for ideas, but if the bulk
of LEGO corp's bureaucracy shifts into directing a community, instead of
selling ideas, and the remainder continue to design the bricks (aka: units of
imagination), they could outsource designing to the community (of graduated
apprentices ^_^) by endorsing a few notable designers from the community with
an "official" theme book.
In addition to being sold the the "indoctrinated", these official theme books
would be given away with every theme-oriented box, just to entice you to both
make all of the models, and go through the ordering process so you can have all
of the models built and in front of you. Imagine staging the battle of Yavin
with all micro-scale ships!
By decoupling the designers from the production arm, many more designs can come
out, showing the versatility of the parts. This should drive up demand, once
kids see what else can be done, especially outside a theme. Subsidize
the ideas, and sell the bricks!
As for licensing (such as Star Wars), LEGO can still take care of the
legalities, and production of the parts while the rest of the community can
take care of designing the models which are left out. Think of a Millenium
Falcon model at every scale, from nano-scale to a 1-meter in diameter with
Technic!
Yes, I know Lego gives away subscriptions in each box, but IMHO, it's not very
directed, proactive, nor does it give off the quality of value (since it's
free). Also, it's not training people to be dependent on LEGO to fulfill their
Imagination Needs(TM)(^_^).
Well, one can dream...(and boy, aren't these strange dreams?)
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: US BULK SALES?
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| (...) Nice idea, but I doubt very much that it would have any success. First of all, there are many (probably more than you think) people who buy LEGO just for the sets that come with instructions. They just want play sets and/or the fun of building (...) (25 years ago, 13-May-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: US BULK SALES?
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| On Wed, 12 May 1999 21:26:21 GMT, "William Wong" <ywong01@akula.com> wrote: [Big snip] Interesting idea. I don't see TLG being able to commit to such a long-term plan, unfortunately. :( No vision in the company currently. Darn those (...) (25 years ago, 13-May-99, to lugnet.general, lugnet.dear-lego)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: US BULK SALES?
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| Gary Istok wrote in message <37382DAB.9902B6BD@u...ch.edu>... (...) of (...) to (...) If this service were still available in the US I'd imagine that sending a list of pieces with matching pic (from say the LCad database) would ensure the process (...) (25 years ago, 11-May-99, to lugnet.general)
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