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First off, I'm going to be curteous and leave this in lugnet.general; that
way, anyone not interested in other groups, don't have to see it.
Secondly, I'm setting the followups to .debate in case any lugneters decide
to rage against each other.
If anyone responds, and believes their response should have followups to a
specific group, feel free to set your own followups. If you don't know how,
just ask and someone will explain it.
Now, with all that said; I am happy to say; yes, it is so...
Lego has branched off into several licenses and about a dozen themes while
discontinuing the original space, town, and castle lines. The prices have
gone up and the competition is more tempting than ever. The greatest recent
success for Lego is Bionicle.
Lego Direct is an experiment. So long as it does well, it will continue to
progress. This progression will probably slowly occur after careful
examination of quarterly and annual sales results. Quite simply, Lego is
not going to bend over backward just so Lego Direct can pander to a bunch of
whining, impatient adults who constantly criticize todays attention
deficient youth and their buying habits.
Classic all-engrossing themes and many subthemes are done and gone. I wish
I hadn't missed most of them, but I did. But you know what? I really like
what I see on the shelves. I often walk down the Lego isle and study the
pieces shown on the boxes. The more I study, the more I realize I would
like to have sets that I never thought I'd be interested in. Is that a
problem? Sure, if you're on a limited budget like myself, or if you only
purchase sets to build once then place on a shelf forever.
Lego had a couple of really bad years back-to-back. I'm sure they're still
getting their bearings readjusted. What happend? Some would blame
juniorization, while others would blame Insectoids and UFO. The point,
however, is that Lego had no means of recouping the losses of poor selling,
all-inclusive themes...like Space or Town Jr. Every new theme or subtheme
is an experiment; it either hits or misses. If it hits...GREAT!! everyone's
happy! However, if it misses...the company has to make sure that other
themes will support the loss. The entertainment industry is reknown for
this. One great selling album will pay for the loss of dozens of failures.
The same goes for publishing and movies as well. Maybe Lego was behind on
this trend when they felt those not-to-distant financial blows, but now
they've got it right.
A sure-fire hit like Bionicle will surely pay for any loss garnered through
sub-themes like Alpha Team or Extreme Island or Galidor. So what if some
people are displeased with a few of the themes...there's plenty to choose
from. And just in case someone can't find what they like in their hometown,
there's always Lego.com and their Shop at Home or Lego Direct options.
Retailers WILL NOT carry every availabe set, nor the entirety of all the
themes they do carry. If you miss it on the shelf, shame on you. If your
retailer never ordered it, shame on them, but at least you can still go
online to find what you want. If you are such a recluse that online
shopping is beneath you, then you have no call to complain about retail
selections. Lego has little control over retailers. If you're in financial
slump and just can't afford to buy what your retailer has, then at least you
have a chance later on down the road to grab it online.
Bulk parts won't move throgh retail. If that's what you're dying to get
your hands on, just wait. And if it feels as though you've waited too long,
then wait some more. Lego is in the process of "catching up" to the current
market, the bulk parts are comming because there is a market for it.
Remember, Lego had some very bad losses recently and for their own reasons,
they would rather focus on expanding the product line.
I get dissapointed when I can't purchase all the sets I need to get parts in
specific colors that I want. But that's the challenge isn't it?...to build
with what you have? I find that the most challenging models I have built
were the ones where I used colors that I have in limited supply. They are
also the models I am most proud of.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Yes, it is so...
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| Wow, Kiby that's some post, here a few additional thoughts, again a little something I picked up on at Bricks West 2002, Star Wars IS today's Space theme, it was said by a reputable source that TLC is going to Play out the Star Wars theme and (...) (22 years ago, 11-Aug-02, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Yes, it is so...
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| (...) Unfortunately, yes. (...) Too many adults think today's youth lack the attention span to build like the AFOL community, and I think this is a great misconception. I've seen some really great stuff out there built by kids, so I would like to (...) (22 years ago, 11-Aug-02, to lugnet.general)
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