Subject:
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Re: anyone got a report of the new sets shown off at brickswest? <Next Legend?>
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.space
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Date:
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Thu, 21 Feb 2002 14:09:27 GMT
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Viewed:
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738 times
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Allan Bedford wrote:
> Would it be so impossible to believe that a Space set released alongside or
> shortly after the Star Wars sets might actually appeal to the same market?
> If you're talking 'Classic' space, then you're talking late 1970's. And if
> you're talking late 1970's then you're talking Star Wars.
This would be a valid point if the bulk of their Legend sales were to
adults. Unfortunately they aren't. The bulk of their sales are to kids
(directly or indirectly). Probably 95% (or more) of their market has a
very limited budget (kids or adults). This means that if they release a
Space Legends set soon after a bunch of Star Wars sets, they will not
necessarily see that much carryover sales because everyone's blown their
budget on Star Wars sets.
These budgetary concerns are almost certainly why the main characters
appear in so many sets. They want to make sure that at almost any budget
point that a kid can get the main characters of the theme.
> It's not unfair to say that the original release of the first LEGO Star Wars
> sets may have brought even more adult fans back to the hobby than did
> Mindstorms. These are people with a connection to both the movie and the
> old LEGO sets. Why not offer them a bit of both? Because if the next wave
> of Star Wars sets is as weak as the ones released before this past
> Christmas, then we'll all need an alternative to buy.
Yes Star Wars contributed greatly to bringing AFOLs out of their dark
ages (and probably even a few adult fans who never had LEGO as a kid).
AFOLs are still not LEGOs target market, and no matter how much we feel
we spend, and how much influence we have, the reality is that we are a
minor (but valuable) sub-market. The value of this sub-market is such
that they:
- Do look for ways to interact with us
- Do look to us for ideas on Legends sets (if we liked it when we were
kids, chances are kids today will like it)
- Do look to us to be "ambassadors of the brick"
The reality is that overall, they have a pretty good feel for what makes
a good set or theme for kids. Even Jack Stone. While at Legoland during
BricksWest, I saw at least one family purchasing Jack Stone sets. Mind
you, this is the captive audience which is most valuable to LEGO, the
families who are buying continually. It's true that we saw some Jack
Stone on clearance (note that we did not see the whole line, primarily
the biggest set). I would actually wonder more if the stores misjudged
the age range of the set and the corresponding budget (younger kids will
have less money spent on construction toys in general).
What else did we see on clearance? Mososaurs (mostly, a few other
dinos), well, guess what, I bet they just aren't as appealing as T-Rex,
besides, the dinosaur craze may be waning. Soccer, well, who plays
soccer in the winter? (and despite how much we might like the Women's
Team set, the reality is that our culture targets LEGO at boys, and boys
aren't going to buy a Women's Team). Droid Escapes, well, this was
probably a flub of a set even though some of us were buying a bunch even
before clearance just to get the walls. I expect any toy range with a
large range of items to have several flubs, you just can't hit a home
run every time.
Frank
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