Subject:
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Re: All this fuss about service packs and accessories
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Sat, 5 May 2001 10:22:27 GMT
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Viewed:
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628 times
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In lugnet.general, Lawrence Wilkes writes:
> I have to observe that the reason they stopped selling them in the first >place is because no one bought them (and the same reason they still have all >these sets left over too).
Huh? I fail to see any reason for them not to keep listing the accessory
packs in the catalogue until they are sold out (what's it take up , an inch
or two per item?). You are asserting that they pulled these packs from sale
so they could do what - store them somewhere at the cost of storage? Seems
unlikely to me...
...they are probably available somehow by accident, or hopefully by design!
> Is the fuss just a few people who crave these pieces, or is there genuine
> demand?
I think we represent genuine demand. For each vocal person on Lugnet, there
are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of persons that would do exactly as
the vocal person does...but I am just guessing.
> If there is a demand - why wasn't it there less than 2 yeas ago when they
> stopped selling them? Why will it suddenly grow now?
2 years ago there wasn't as much lego activity on the net, I should think --
that's all free advertising for TLC. People browse other person's creations,
decide they want to build something too, and voila! Demand...!
> Is the fuss just because of the highish prices some of these things can go
> for on ebay, and people seeing dollar signs, or just want to collect for
> rarity value, or do they have need for the sets?
Need? There is no need for any of this junk! It's a silly avocation that
amuses some of us. That's about it. That doesn't mean we won't throw some
money at it -- we WILL do so. As for me, I purchase strictly based upon my
own project requirements -- all pretty vague it is too. I never purchase
for resale. I have opened every MISB set I have ever possessed --
regardless of perceived eBay value. I have also avoided purchasing items I
considered overpriced at eBay values (hence: Poor Richard's Guarded Inn
variant with white Tudor walls
http://members.aol.com/blueofnoon/lego/gi/givariant.html).
It'd be great to be able to purchase more stuff at a reasonable price from
TLC itself. And I am a big believer in the idea that they could stop R&D of
new stuff and just rerelease old stuff and be more profitable than they are
now with all the many and pointless directions they have been pursuing. Of
course, I could certainly agree to some continued R&D towards architectural
element accessory packs. Such items could be used in any and all themes...
> Sorry, but a couple of dozen folks demanding this stuff on lugnet does not a
> market make - certainly not enough to fire up production lines
That's an opinion, and you know what is said about what opinions are like...
What's more is that people will buy from a pool of available items -- if
only junk is available, they will buy junk. People don't stop having to get
birthday presents just because TLC's current product line sucks...! If TLC
made the range of products sold from the early 80s to the mid 90s available
again, I think they would sell better now than the stuff they have out this
year. The failure of lines like Paradisa was really a failure of
advertising and not of the product itself. Bring back the old stuff and
kill the Bionickles garbage! I still have to believe that quality sells
itself...
Mega Bloks seems to be doing a tidy business of making slightly inferior
quality bricks of a generally very generic variety -- but the designs are
fairly clever with but a very limited range of elements. I sometimes think
MB sells better than Lego. Isn't there a lesson in there somewhere?
Me, I figure that TLC is sitting on a gold mine of stuff that they have
already developed, they need do nothing more than cycle it to the public.
They need develop nothing further, or at least they could drastically reduce
their R&D and pocket the savings.
Go check out a TRU -- TLC must have taken a bath on Rock Raiders, or they
may pay a price in new sales for the manner in which retail outlets are
having to dump those crappy sets and thereby recover what is a loss in
projected sales revenue. The only good thing to come of RR was the Minifig
set -- which is in reality an accessory pack to me and many others.
Meanwhile MB has released a fairly impressive Harley Davidson set with a
staggering piece count for only $40 -- and its mostly comprised of common
elements. I intend to buy one, but I'm so cheap I'm waiting for a sale of
some kind. Again, isn't there a lesson in there somewhere?
I'd love to know who is doing better financially between these two
companies. I know I am impressed with MB for doing so well with what is
apparently so very little in terms of available elements.
Forgive me, Lawrence, I think I am overtired now and rambling a little bit...
...I hope the gist of it is clear.
-- Hop-Frog
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