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I am trying to work out if we can deduce anything of statistical
significance from the vote/view/rate information revealed on the My Opinions
page for the different Legend candidates. For example, the top rated
responses for the Barracuda (the winner) and the Yellow Castle (not the
winner) are:
Simply put the attention to detail in the Barracuda set the standard for
Lego
sets. It is unsurpassed as a display piece.
632 votes, 1143 views, 55% agreement rate
What would be more of a legend than the set that started the whole Castle
theme?
273 votes, 490 views, 55% rate
[See the previous posts for the data for all 5 top reasons]
It's tempting to say 632 votes beats 273 votes. Barracuda wins.
But these are not the votes for the sets themselves, only the votes for the
5 top reasons for liking the set. Obviously if there was a wider range of
reasons for liking one set than another, then the votes for the set overall
would be spread more thinly than those reasons than for a set with a smaller
range of "popular opinions". In which case the overall most-popular set
could (theoretically) show lower votes per top reason than a less popular
set.
However, is there any good reason to think that the number of popular
opinions would be significantly wider for one set than another? This is
possibly more a question about human behaviour than the sets themselves.
I guess it will be interesting to see the results for the other 3 Legends
and see if any "counter-intuitive" data appears.
It is also interesting to note that the top reasons for the Barracuda
popularity were more diverse:
display/detail, fun/imagination/play, rare/collectable
than for the Yellow Castle, which focussed on:
historical significance, use of ordinary parts, collectable
Irrespective of the actual votes, if I was TLC, the top reasons for the
popularity of the Barracuda make it sound more appealing to the mass market
(children!) than the Yellow Castle does. The top reasons for the Yellow
Castle suggests its voters (and I was one of them :-)) were a bunch of
nostalgic old AFOLs -- notice how fun and play didn't seem to be among the
reasons.
Indeed, it makes me wonder who actually participates in these Lego My
Opinion surveys, and whether it is in any way representative of actual
customer demographic. I suspect that AFOLs are disproportionately
represented in these surveys. Look at the top reasons. Most of them sound
like the person has some prior knowledge of the set (possibly having owned
or built it even), e.g. "It is unsurpassed as a display piece", "quite the
catch to even own one", "the set that started the whole Castle theme", "This
set well represents classic lego ".
For kids who weren't even born when these sets were released, their
knowledge of these sets would presumably have come from the picture and text
on the Lego WWW site about the candidate legend sets. Only one of the top
reasons for these two sets remotely sounds like a kid's response: "it looks
fun to build and play with". If you hadn't had a prior exposure to this set,
I think you would say things like "it looks like ..." or "it sounds like
..." rather than "it is ...".
Indeed, when you read the text about the Legends:
http://www.lego.com/build/features/legendvote/default.asp
it sounds like it was written for AFOLs. Notice the emphasis on the history
of the set, the changes that be made for a re-released version and the
almost absent discussion of the "play" potential. Compare these descriptions
with those that appear on sets in the S@H catalogue, which focuses on
playing. For example the Red Beard Runner on S@H says:
Hoist your sails for seafarin' fun! You're Red Beard, captain of the ship,
with a crew of 6 ready for action! When the mast collapses and the skull
hull breaks away -- snap them back into place for the next high seas
adventure. There's plenty of action, with a plank to walk, cannons, crane
with net and of course, a treasure chest filled with gold!
and the Bull's Attack (Castle) says:
Plan an attack to capture the castle. You're armed with two catapults that
really shoot and a cannon that blasts a cannonball high over enemy walls.
Plus, a giant battering ram for knocking down the castle gates! Includes 3
knights and 1 prisoner carrying swords, axes, and bows and arrows. Let the
battle begin!
When I try to look at the Legends descriptions from a child's perspective,
they don't honestly sound that interesting! Indeed, the sets sound very
"static"; the Battrax sounds the most playable with its snap interlock
system and the moving cannons on the Barracuda make it sound a bit dynamic.
Kerry
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: New legend is up
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| (...) It depends on how early in the voting the opinion was first added to the list. If I recall, the top vote getter was only around 50-60 when I added that bit about the Barracuda (yes, I mentioned it here out of sheer vanity since it was the top (...) (22 years ago, 10-Jul-02, to lugnet.general, lugnet.pirates)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: New legend is up
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| (...) people who (...) Ah ha, so here are the top responses for the 375 Yellow Castle: What would be more of a legend than the set that started the whole Castle theme? 273 votes, 490 views, 55% rate This was the beginning of castle lego. The (...) (22 years ago, 10-Jul-02, to lugnet.general, lugnet.pirates)
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