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, lugnet.dacta
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Date:
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Mon, 5 Aug 2002 22:57:14 GMT
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Viewed:
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15368 times
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On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, Suzanne Rich wrote:
> Allan Bedford wrote:
> > LEGO (meaning the parent company) needs to take a look at the success of
> > their own Mindstorms sets; Technic to the max. Maybe even the huge success
> > of Bionicle; sort of Technic sculptures if you will.
>
> 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 possibility instead? I for one, would love to encourage those
> products' survival, and I have more hope for that happening. ..at least
> for a little while.
Well, technically DACTA is already as dead as the DUPLO, err, dodo:
http://www.lego.com/dacta/home.asp
The middle of the page announces the DACTA is now "LEGO Educational
Division". This press release raises three interesting questions:
1) Is this rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
2) Does the abandonment of a 20-year-old, distinctive brand name for a
bland but more descriptive name signify a failure to establish the brand,
or are other influences at work?
3) Why is a press release---published on the WORLD WIDE WEB, and
consisting of *barely formatted text*---available only as a .doc?[1]
> Assuming toy availabiilty is all about money, and adults say they're
> willing to pay big bucks to keep nice sets from going away (as we
> sometimes hear, "I'd pay TLC to re-release nice TECHNIC sets, I don't
> care HOW much it costs!"), why aren't we buying DACTA like there's no
> tomorrow? or are we, and I just don't realize..
I don't involve myself with TECHNIC, and the fact that DACTA is usually
irrelevant to Castle makes it largely irrelevant to me. It is my general
impression, however, that DACTA products are a) hideously overpriced and
b) available only to those willing and able to jump through the hoops
Pitsco erects to frustrate those who want to buy Lego.[2] If these
impressions (true or false) are common among Lego buyers, I can understand
why few would be interested in DACTA.
> I know that TLC wasn't happy when their 90's research showed that boys
> were building the main model, only to put it on a shelf. and that was
> happening a lot.
This doesn't seem like much of a problem. . .so long as the kids are
buying the sets to begin with. Notwithstanding, such thinking on TLC's
part no doubt explains the killing of Model Team. On the other hand, LD's
sculptures seem to be fairly successful. . .
> With releases in 1999, traditional TECHNIC was essentially killed off in
> favor of something more sexy, and cool - something to show off (and to
> look more attractive on store shelves). The blocky look was out. Action
> was in.
>
> 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.
But thinking in terms of such a dichotomy misses the essential point that,
to many (although not all) people who are or would be interested in Lego
products the point is not to make or play with a "cool toy" that has been
assembled---the point is the process of assembly itself. When a
construction toy company loses sight of this, it has forgotten why it is a
*construction* toy company to begin with.
--
TWS Garrison
http://www.math.purdue.edu/~tgarriso/
Remove capital letters in address for direct reply.
[1] I've read and heard plenty of slams about people in the ed biz
(which would presumably include me)---is this an attempt to validate them?
Is it really that hard to type <HTML><BODY> </BODY></HTML>? It's a good
thing we have AbiWord. . .
[2] My personal experience with same extends only to trying--and largely
failing---to navigate www.pitsco-legodacta.com and associated sites for
information on sets like 9261.
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Message has 2 Replies:
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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