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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Tue, 4 Dec 2001 04:20:20 GMT
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Highlighted:
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(details)
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In lugnet.general, Erik Olson writes:
> In lugnet.general, Allan Bedford writes:
>
> > The volume of new and odd pieces in recent years seems to counter the
> > argument that they are trying to keep costs down. If this were the case,
> > why are we seeing lines like Jack Stone, Rock Raiders, Bionicle etc. that
> > use more new pieces than ever before?
>
> Because they can patent new pieces?
You're going to have to help me with this one. How does this make economic
sense? Wouldn't it be better to focus on the pieces you have, the ones that
are already useful and for which molds have already been created? I mean,
Megablocks has a 2x4 brick, but that doesn't prevent LEGO from using them.
Why not just focus on good set design and let people buy the better made
bricks? Megablocks has some awesome adult-themed and well-designed sets
right now but I wouldn't buy them if they were free. They are not
constructed from genuine LEGO bricks and that makes all the difference.
LEGO already *has* what they need to be successful... their own plastic
bricks. What they don't have right now is the design and marketing savey of
their competition.
> This is not a whole theory: it doesn't mean they're all basically useful
> inventions, just that it keeps Lego, uh, different.
LEGO was the original... that's what makes it different. The fact that it
happens to make the best bricks.... that's just a nice add-on benefit. :)
> I guess they get a budget for theme development. Some gets spent on new
> parts, some new part ideas get cancelled, the theme gets the "venture
> capital exit test (we can save 1 million if we cancel it now instead of next
> year)" and then it goes to market to earn its keep, and Fate cuts its cord
> in exactly two years. If Wal-Mart asks for one, a new set is allowed to
> escape the barn in year two.
Ah, the millions that could have been saved by axing the Jack Stone series
before it ever hit the CAD stage.
> I feel like I have just stocked my bomb shelter. I have opened all my brick
> tubs and buckets and sorted them into bags with the year stamped on them.
> Little survival rations to the future.
Are you serious about this? I can almost believe that someone might do
this. I was in my local Zellers store this afternoon and once again (LISTEN
UP LEGO COMPANY PEOPLE!!!) I had money to spend... but no product to spend
it on. I just wanted to buy a bucket of bricks. Just any old bucket with
any old combination of bricks in it. Why is this so hard to do?
Just yesterday I finally broke down and bid on a LEGO item on eBay. I've
used eBay for over 2 years, but never bid on LEGO. Guess what? I won the
set. A copy of the 8030 Universal Set from the Expert Builder line. Guess
what? (LISTEN UP LEGO COMPANY PEOPLE!!!) The money that I spent on that
set could have gone directly to the LEGO company. But they don't seem to
want my money. I keep offering it to them. I keep telling them what would
make me give them my money and they keep acting like I've got two heads or
something. (LISTEN UP LEGO COMPANY PEOPLE!!!) I will pay *you* money if
you will only put out something like what you used to do. Take a look at
that item that I bought on eBay. I didn't want to buy it, but I had to...
you don't offer anything like this today. Why not? Please, for the love of
Pete would someone tell me why?
Signed,
Giving my money to strangers, instead of giving it to the LEGO company
(a.k.a Allan the Ranter)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: End of Year Thoughts
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| (...) It sounds absurd to me too. I said it wasn't a whole theory... it's a partial theory, postulating patenting pieces as the formal cause. Look, we know it's really expensive to make new pieces. But they keep doing it. It must be that they regard (...) (23 years ago, 4-Dec-01, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: End of Year Thoughts
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| (...) Because they can patent new pieces? This is not a whole theory: it doesn't mean they're all basically useful inventions, just that it keeps Lego, uh, different. I guess they get a budget for theme development. Some gets spent on new parts, (...) (23 years ago, 4-Dec-01, to lugnet.general)
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