Subject:
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Re: Technic's only in a coma (WAS Re: Technic's Dead )
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Mon, 5 Aug 2002 19:49:05 GMT
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Viewed:
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3033 times
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In lugnet.dear-lego, Suzanne D. Rich writes:
> Did the TECHNIC sets sell well through the 90's? (serious question)
Surely not. Think back to what the store shelves looked like. There is a
reason that Technic has died.
> > then how is it possible that today's kids don't
> > need advanced building sets like these?
>
> What is there to need? (serious question)
What kids need is the experience of complex modularity with rules of certain
varying granularity. Technic (and LEGO more generally) and Erector and Mechano
and even Tinkertoys supplied that before the 80s. But in a broad sense there's
no reason for kids to do that stuff now when they can play with computers.
All of the low-level cognitive skills that building with Technic exercises can
be more easily and inexpensively exercised with various computing exercises
from games to serious programming. I'm not saying you can do everything
important with a computer -- yet. But the niche that these toys occupied is
filled with more efficient and topical tools. Mindstorms is successful because
of the adaptation of The Brick to the modern paradigm.
I think that 3D aesthetic is something that computing is not yet up to
exploring very intuitively and probably won't be for another decade at least.
So some of the value that LEGO has as a "real life" toy is shared by Technic.
Packing gears with appropriate geometry in three dimensions is different
(and superior) than being limited to two.
> TECHNIC turned away from the old solitary-kid, up close, quiet,
> real-life functionality to a new high-energy shooting, grabbing, and
> slamming activity. I think they wanted to look more like a "convertable
> cool toy" company than a "construction kit you can use to make a cool
> toy" company.
Yup...and this is a good thing! This allows us to continue getting Technic
bits in reasonable quanity. If they hadn't figured out to do this, I think
we'd be missing out more completely.
> > I changed the subject line of this
> > posting because I believe that Technic isn't really dead, it's just in a
> > coma. It can be brought back to life but it requires the will and
> > determination of the company in order to see it through to it's logical
> > reawakening.
>
> I think it's dead. and the doctors in this hospital do triage.
Yup. The "will and determination" would be to lose (more) money. I just don't
think it'll sell in quantities that justify production. Maybe it hasn't for a
long time.
Chris
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Technic's only in a coma (WAS Re: Technic's Dead )
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| (...) I'm just jumping in to this thread now, sorry if I'm redundant.. (...) nope, no way. (IMHO) (...) What about DACTA? If price were not an issue, why wouldn't we buy a zillion DACTA TECHNIC sets? could/should the adult community focus on that (...) (22 years ago, 5-Aug-02, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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