Subject:
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Re: Open letter to the CEO of the LEGO Company / Call for your signs! (no discussions here please)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.color, lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Wed, 19 Jan 2005 02:58:28 GMT
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Reply-To:
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Geoffrey Hyde <GDOTHYDE@stopspamBIGPONDDOTNETDOTAU>
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Viewed:
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357 times
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I have to agree with the main reason why this letter was created. The old
color of grey was a lot less painful on the eyes, it even blended in quite
well with the new colors. It certainly is a lot more difficult to tell one
brick apart from another.
There is a huge sense of disappointment, and "why did this have to happen"
about the color change. I also think that LEGO have not researched the
whole issue thoroughly enough - they certainly didn't see the color clash
with old/new bricks coming.
There are those who like the new colors. They have good reason, one of
which could be that they only just recently entered into LEGO building, and
therefore don't have old greys to worry about.
I fully support bringing back the old grey color, and letting the new color
disappear. It is very hard on the eyes to tell one from the other. Also
some old grey bricks do have shine on them, this can be even more confusing.
With the expanded color palette I thought LEGO was really going to try and
keep more of the new colors, and perhaps even make small adjustments over
the next few years. I certainly didn't expect them to wipe off half their
color palette.
Regarding the new brown and dark bluish grey colors, I feel these are not a
mistake, if LEGO had the production capacity for these new shades, I feel
both old and new mixes could be made available. That being said, it would
not be a huge loss if these were to disappear.
Geoffrey Hyde (37) QLD, Australia, under $100, (same for 2004), purchases
went up in 2004, mainly because there were so many good deals around at the
time, and I want to buy bulk amounts of bricks, still don't like the new
colors, main reason being that the availability of old colors is depleted,
and there is some confusion in particular about the light grey change.
Cheers ...
Geoffrey Hyde
"Reinhard "Ben" Beneke" <ben@1000steine.SPAM-block.com> wrote in message
news:IAJ2zM.5C3@lugnet.com...
> _________________________________________________________ February 2005
>
> To Mr. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp
> CEO of LEGO Company
> Billund
> Denmark
>
> Dear Mr. Knudstorp,
>
> we are writing to you, the highest authority of LEGO Company, in order to
> express a matter of utmost importance for our community. We, the
> signatories of
> this letter, form the group of Adult Fans Of LEGO® (AFOLs). Some of us
> have
> children who play with LEGO® toys but most of us build models with LEGO®
> bricks
> ourselves. Until recently, we have been the biggest fans of your products.
> Now,
> however, our enthusiasm for your products has been put extremely at risk
> because
> we are calling a decision into question that was made by the LEGO Company
> which
> is of great importance for us.
>
> The issue that has stirred up anger over the past year, is the fact that
> within
> LEGO Company a wrong decision has been taken, namely the break of a
> tradition
> which had existed for the past 40 years - the continuity of the
> SYSTEM colours.
>
> New tones e.g. grey, dark-grey and brown, as well as some other, less
> important
> tones have been added to the product range at the beginning of year 2004.
> This
> measure has caused great offence through the fact that long-established
> colours
> were abandoned at the same time and are now no longer used in new sets.
> From
> this decision, countless problems for collections and self-created models
> occur.
> These problems have been discussed in detail at www.Lugnet.com. You can
> find
> extracts of these discussions at the end of this letter.
>
> Through the change of the colours we find ourselves extremely restricted
> in
> exercising our hobby as we are used to and thus are even more annoyed
> about this
> - in our eyes - unnecessary and quite badly thought-out decision. This
> topic has
> been troubling us for more than one year now and has lead to strong
> negative
> emotional reactions.
>
> The relationship of LEGO Company to its fans has never been as good as
> today,
> the same holds true for the model palette. The possibilities we, the
> AFOLs, have
> today - be it the buying opportunities or the participation in
> product development - are simply incredible ("Bulk-order", "S@H",
> "pick-a-brick-wall", "My Own Creation", "Community development team"). We
> had
> never thought all this possible just a few years ago. And we are extremely
> grateful for all these opportunities, but unfortunately these praiseworthy
> achievements turn into almost nothing through the decision of stopping the
> production of the important colours. Even the most beautiful set that is
> achievable on the market now is completely useless for us as source for
> building
> an own model of it as our partly huge brick collections are full of bricks
> of
> the old colours which do not match with the new colours.
>
> We found out that LEGO Company still produces sets which were introduced
> before
> 2004 and which accordingly contain the "old" SYSTEM colours. At present,
> production machines run parallel and produce the same elements in both
> colour
> shades (old and new). We are therefore of the opinion, the time would be
> right
> to stop the further application of the new colours now since these are
> widely
> not accepted among customers. We agree with the decision to limit the
> colour
> palette to prevent it from growing to infinity. We find that the time is
> right
> to stop the production of the new colours and to reactivate the production
> of
> the old colours. It would cause LEGO company no trouble at all since all
> resources are available until today: production machines, stocks and
> granulate.
> By the discontinuation of the new unloved colours, resources would be set
> free.
>
> Through the measure of taking back the colour change, you would earn our
> greatest respect which would be mirrored clearly in our purchase behaviour
> and
> our picture we have of the brand LEGO!
>
> We call upon you, Mr. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, to take action now!
> Give us back our SYSTEM of grey, dark-grey and brown!
>
> Signature (age), place (state), approximate annual budget before 2004,
> approximate budget for 2004, (optional data)
> (example for sign)
> LEGO®-Fan A. Smith (33), city, (state), much money in 2003, less money in
> 2004
>
>
>
>
> APPENDIX (some statements from the LUGNET-discussions):
>
> Main arguments against the colour change:
> "weakening of the LEGO® SYSTEM through such a drastic alteration is bad"
> "incompatibility of warm, old, and cold new colours"
> "restricted use of the new colours because of incompatibility"
> "new part shapes are not available in old colours, old part shapes are not
> available in new colours"
> "new colours are too similar to the ones of cheap competitors (Megabloks)"
> "old colours appear yellowish beside the new (bluish) colours - this makes
> them
> look worn"
> "unnecessary alteration, as the questioning of teen LEGO®-Fans has shown"
>
> Minor but still serious problems:
> "sorting"
> "hard to see differences at bad light"
> "contradictory communication about the purpose of the changeover"
> "it seems that LEGO Company itself is not convinced about the change
> towards
> bluish colours as it does not promote it in public"
> "rejection of the new grey because it appears to look military-like"
> "exactly the clearness of the new colours is their disadvantage:
> steel-grey is
> not suitable for building rocks, reddish brown is not suitable for most
> shades
> of rust and wood"
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