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Subject: 
Re: No way for a LEGO newbie to get up to speed? Unfair!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 19:47:44 GMT
Viewed: 
1025 times
  
Alex Wetmore wrote:

Has there been a time when there have been multiple universal sets out at
once?  From my memory (which is missing much of the late 80s and early 90s
since I didn't use Lego then) usually there was one Universal set out at a
time, not 3 or 4.  Yes, it is easy to look at Pause and say "I'd love to
have all of these Universal sets now".  But I don't think that you ever
could have walked out and bought them all on one day.

Actually, in '96 there was at least the Briefcase set, a Universal fiber optic
set, and the Technic Control Center II.  There may have been more, but these are
the universal sets in the Technic line that I know of.

The space shuttle seems to have a wide variety of pieces, doesn't have an
RCX, and comes close to the 10 cents per piece mark that most Universal sets
hit.  The price includes two motors... if you don't count those and remove
their cost then it comes in at under 10 cents per piece.

You may be right on this.  The shuttle, however, is not in this year's catalog.
It will probably be gone very soon..

The only problem I have with model sets is that generally speaking, the • number
of pieces they contain which have many uses outside the general type of • model
that the set is made for is somewhat limited, and not worth the money, • unless
one is merely interested in building that particular model or models • similar to
it.

I can see this for certain sets, such as the Super Car, which have one use
pieces (the 4wheel steering/drive pieces in the Super Car come to my mind).
However I disagree that this for most Technic sets.  Look at the Space
Shuttle (http://www.lugnet.com/pause/pix/technic/tech8480.jpg) and tell me
some pieces which you think aren't useful in a general sense.  The main ones
that I see are the angular pieces used for building the nose and engines,
but I actually do use these sorts of pieces fairly frequently in my Technic
building (and I don't build "models").  The only other thing which I could
see you considering disagreeable about it is that it comes with a large
number of white pieces, instead of black, yellow or red (the most common
Technic colors).

I was never saying that one set should be enough for all time, nor was I saying
that an enthusiast would spend $500 or $600 in one day.  I was merely trying to
show that there should be something to get someone started (Mindstorms is,
inded, a great place to start), and still give people somewhere to go from
there.  Mindstorms is a great Universal Set, but standalone, it doesn't have
enough pieces to fully suffice for very long.  In practice, at least one other
Universal Set is required to compliment it for any models that are moderately to
very complex.

Of course the Space Shuttle is going away...

I rest my case.

Mark



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: No way for a LEGO newbie to get up to speed? Unfair!
 
On Tue, 19 Jan 1999 19:47:44 GMT, Mark Tarrabain <markt@lynx.bc.ca> wrote: How about the Technic XXL set? That has lots of, especially long beams, and also some other useful stuff. I think I'm gonna buy me another one :) Jasper (26 years ago, 20-Jan-99, to lugnet.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: No way for a LEGO newbie to get up to speed? Unfair!
 
Mark Tarrabain wrote in message <36A4D43D.EA1EFA19@l....bc.ca>... (...) At (...) to be (...) universal (...) be. (...) of (...) Has there been a time when there have been multiple universal sets out at once? From my memory (which is missing much of (...) (26 years ago, 19-Jan-99, to lugnet.general)

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