Subject:
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Re: End of Year Thoughts
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 30 Nov 2001 02:59:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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622 times
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> In lugnet.general, Richie Dulin writes:
> > In lugnet.general, Allan Bedford writes:
> > And apparently Bionicle is selling like crazy. But does that make it right
> > for the company to abandon its sense of reason and pursue only fad toys?
>
> Abandon it's sense of reason to sell something that is "selling like crazy",
> they are a toymaker not some benevolent institution.
Perhaps I should clarify. I don't mean to suggest that they stop selling
Bionicle. But rather that they not drop other core lines and design values
for the sake of jumping on a fad product. The problem becomes... what
happens when they follow the wrong fad, or pursue the right fad at the wrong
time. LEGO didn't used to be a fad toy... it set trends and others followed it.
> > If they read the instructions at all. From what I've heard from some
> > parents, the Bionicle 'stuff' is so simplistic the kids often don't even
> > need the instructions to assemble them.
>
> I could assemble may 651 tow truck set without instructions in 1972...
> clearly that was simplistic and of no lasting value... same for my 677
> knight's parade... or my 644 TV van
You must have been a lot smarter than me. ;)
But I guess this argument could be made for any number of smaller sets over
the years. I was more fond of the original police station, fire house and
hospital. And yes, I needed instructions. And that felt good. It felt
very adult to assemble them myself.
> > other than to build hybrid Bionicles, with
> > other Bionicle parts.
> Oh, so they do take them apart to build other things. Wherease, I presume,
> taking apart town sets to build other town things would be okay?
As long as they're not juniorized it's not only okay... it's the better way. ;)
> > There is little or no intermixing with their
> > traditional LEGO bricks.
> And my daughter doesn't mix her System with her Duplo... and my friends as a
> child didn't mix their Duplo with their System (though it wasn't called
> system then.) Duplo can mix with System, so is it a crime if it isn't?
> I tend to keep my technic seperate from my System.
>
> So what?
I keep my Technic separated for storage, but for building... all pieces are
equal. From what I'm hearing, some kids see the Bionicle pieces as needing
to be kept separate from all other LEGO pieces at all time... they simply
don't see the connection to the traditional bricks. I think that's my
biggest concern.
One of the Bionicle-buying mothers at work commented today that she'd like
to see the company put out huts or forts in which the Bionicle creatures
could dwell. Doesn't that seem like a perfect opportunity to incorporate
more traditional stud and tube bricks into the Bionicle line?
As for keeping Duplo and 'regular' bricks separate. Well, I'm sure we could
start an entirely new (and very long) thread on that subject. From my point
of view they are two very distinct product lines. But they do have
something in common. Studs and tubes. Brick-like forms. They are two
shades of the same color. Bionicle is a new color altogether.
> > > > I still don't get that 'wow' feeling when had my first look at
> > > > catalog from the 80's until the mid '90's.
> >
> > > Don't forget that you're a bit older now, and you may find that other
> > > memories from the 80's and mid '90s seem a bit more exciting now as well ;-).
> >
> > I'm old enough to have LEGO memories from the early '70's. They are my best
> > memories and my most cherished.
> Which was my point. The older they get, the more cherished they become. The
> summers were hotter, the hailstorms more intense, the watermelon sweeter and
> the school holidays longer when I was five. Or at least that's what my
> cherished memories tell me, meteorological and school records would probably
> disagree (that leaves the watermelon, though ;-))
Well, I think we are seeing two sides of this story. You're saying (I
think) that good memories get better as time passes. What I'm trying to say
is that my current LEGO bricks (and some of the better sets) still give me
that same warm fuzzy feeling I had more than a quarter century ago. The
company *can* do this, it's just that they seem to have forgotten they own
philosophy of children and imagination. If they do intend to follow the
flavor-of-the-week type toys then I wish they would simply admit this in
their business attitude and tell us adults that it's over. They tease us
with things like the Ultimate LEGO Book and hint that bricks are so
critically important to the core values of the company. Then they release
things like a line of LEGO branded back packs. It's the hypocrisy that's
bugging me.
> > I doubt that if I ever have kids they will
> > have the same warm fuzzy feeling about the junk the company is turning out
> > these days. If things get any worse... we will play with my collection of
> > bricks and won't be buying any new sets.
>
> My daughter and her friends get pretty excited about LEGO products today.
>
> If you want to find out what kids think of LEGO, talk to them, not their
> parents. Kids memories will come from kids, not their parents.
>
> > What the company has to remember is that parents don't *have* to buy these
> > products. But shouldn't they *want* to? Shouldn't they feel good about
> > spending their money on LEGO products, like parents 25 years ago did?
>
> I certainly feel good about buying my daughter and her friends LEGO. It is
> an excellent product of excellent quality with play scope which is
> unequalled by anything else.
The important thing to note here is that we two adults have two very
different opinions on this subject. Who should the company listen to?
Both of us.
You are speaking to them with the dollars you spend on their products. I'm
trying to voice my concern with the dollars I don't currently spend to buy
any of their offerings. I *want* to buy things from them, but the shelves
of my local toy stores are better than 1/2 full of Megablocks, rather than
LEGO. Sad day.
> Richie Dulin (who, in 1979, thought that LEGO's introduction of Legoland
> Space was a bad thing because it was of limited scope. But who's learned his
> lesson.)
Allan Bedford, who still thinks Classic Space is perhaps the best 'series'
that LEGO ever released. Strong theme, consistent colors and incredible
design. Those aren't really complicated ideas are they? Why could this
company pull off that series 20+ years ago, but today can't come up with a
single set that maintains those common sense principles?
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: End of Year Thoughts
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| "Allan Bedford" <apotomeREMOVE-THIS@...vista.net> skrev i meddelandet news:GnLEz9.FG2@lugnet.com... (...) Maybe because 20+ years ago, the Space Race was still Big News (OK, maybe 20+++ years ago), kids only had 2 TV channels to watch, no home (...) (23 years ago, 30-Nov-01, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: End of Year Thoughts
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| (...) Abandon it's sense of reason to sell something that is "selling like crazy", they are a toymaker not some benevolent institution. (...) I could assemble may 651 tow truck set without instructions in 1972... clearly that was simplistic and of (...) (23 years ago, 29-Nov-01, to lugnet.general)
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