Subject:
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Re: Say it ain't so...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 11 Aug 2002 16:44:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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2034 times
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In lugnet.general, Aaron West writes:
> In lugnet.general, Matt Hein writes:
> > In lugnet.general, Michael Hassall writes:
> Have you noticed that you are posting in lugnet.castle? Hmmm... I'm
> building Castle creations right now and the best thing that EVER happened to
> my MOC stuff has been the Harry Potter line and the colors available in it.
> Thank god that Wal Mart and others decided to clearance all Harry Potter
> merchandise right after X-Mas (down to 80% off!) in my area and then stock
> right back up on the same sets 2 months later. As far as Castle goes, HARRY
> POTTER ROCKS!!! The only thing that would make it perfecto! would be MORE
> SUITS OF ARMOR AND GHOST KNIGHTS!!!
Well, that's great for you, and I can definitely see we are at odds on this
subject, but that doesn't matter. Yeah, It would be great to see a lot more
grey walls and turrets inthe HP series (as long as I don't have to buy
multiple copies of the castle just to get it). The smaller sets, though,
have a bunch of specialized sets, and are very unpleasing to the eye, such
as the Diagon Alley shops set, and the Sorting Hat. As for Gringott's Bank and
Hagrids hut, those are okay, but I don't like the idea of the paper rooftops.
Anything else like the final challange seems to be some sort of marketing
attempt to get kids to buy these, since the figure contained inside is not
available elsewhere, so they 'have' to buy it. Need more knights definitely,
but it's a shame they didn't get smart and include some in next years lineup.
> If you want to build anything with LEGO, certainly colors are important, but
> Castle has zero use for trans blue windows! ALSO, I was a LEGO buyer back
> when Unitron was available and what I remember was that most stores had many
> Space sets to chose from at the time. I ALWAYS passed on Unitron because
> the price per part was too high, and the sets seemed forced. Did not float
> my boat, so to speak, primarily because it was competing (at my house) with
> the new Aquazone releases that had a much higher WOW factor. They are only
> popular NOW in retrospect, at the time they were not long term money makers
> for LEGO. Possible reason that Space lost steam is that LEGO introduced new
> worlds/themes that caught kids imaginations more strongly. Remember that
> kids have a limited budget and love "new" things.
Here we go again, common misconception. No, what fool in his right mind
would use trans blue windows in his castles unless they were for stained
glass? I'm thinking since this topic drifted from space to castle, thatI was
mentioning
using my star hawk II's for castle purposes. If you read clearly, I was
talking about aquazone. I was addressing that stance towards .space. Pay
attention next time.
> LEGO can only have so many product molds and assortments running before they
> stretch themselves too thin. The reason LEGO Direct can offer us
> re-released old sets or new items is because of the available assortment
> from the parent company and the small product run. LEGO Direct uses our
> AFOL, online, catalog and LEGO Club member purchase data to creat sales
> history facts to present to the central management for the release of new
> items or themes. Rereleases are still in their infancy, but I expect that
> the data they are collecting will eventually allow TLC (LEGO parent company)
> to be able to present that data to stores such as Wal Mart for new product.
Good, I hope to see those soon in a nearby store, but I'm just hoping I
don't have to wait about five years for this to happen (or until that
StarWars contract expires.) It would be great, however, to see more items
like Ninja and complex town sets on the shelves.
> I have marketed my own product before and let me tell you, you CANNOT just
> call Wal Mart and ask if they want to buy your item. You have to test
> market it yourself and have all kinds of business data and spreadsheets and
> reports proving that it is a winner. My guess is that LEGO Direct has all
> that in mind with their "Great Experiment". Any AFOL who refuses to buy the
> cream of the crop LEGO selection available from LEGO Direct because they
> can't impulse buy at the store is a fool. Why, becasue you miss the best
> items and you aren't using your purchasing power to send the message of what
> product you prefer. They collect NO data from whinning and lamenting "what
> ever happened to (blank) setrs".
No, I have never said that. Who in their right mind would pick up a phone,
dial wal mart and ask "hey,what's up, I want to sell some lego, so I'm
thinking that a contract by 2003 would be nice..." It doesn't work that way,
and I'm surprised you think I would be out of my mind to try it. Since TLC
has connections and contracts with retail outlets, it's only fitting that
they market some intelligable products that way.
As for test marketing, I think that's what they're doing, but they should
know since most of the products we want were successes and sold well in the
past. So what if kids today are different from last generations youth. Lego
has the same principles as it did then, and I'm sure kids today would like
to see something interesting in the lego aisle, besides action figures and
countless
licensed products.
No, It's not about the impulse to buy at lego direct. I just feel that a
person shouldn't be forced to access everything through the internet. What
ever happened to going to the store and buying something? It seems these days,
people are just too busy to do things the old fashioned way, or just don't
feel like getting outside. They should, however, conduct several marketing
polls to find out what a majority of the community would like to see in the
upcoming product line. I think they have done this before, but I think a
questionaire or an extensive poll would be prefered. It would give some
credability to the reports.
> When a product hits a popular nerve with kids, you stick to that cash cow
> until the milk dries up. Bionicle, Soccer and others are keeping LEGO
> profits coming in by the millions. Everybody seemed to beat the Ninja line
> to death as a bad thing while it was available. If LEGO does listen to us
> on LUGNET (and they do), where was the praise for this line back then to
> keep it going? Seems like LEGO can't do any thing to make a buyer happy
> with the tone this thread is taking.
What? Ninja was great! Heck, it was one of the most innovative untapped
line I had ever saw? Think about it, who wouldn't want to buy an army of
crazy assassin ninja warriors? And again, you're thinking I'm condemming
lego because I'm unhappy. No, I'm just asking a question "where has a
complex line of intelligable sets gone, and why aren't they available
through retail."
A negative post would slander lego for this, and I'm not doing that, just
questioning some policies I don't like.
> Star Wars was a good calculated response to 20 years of LEGO fans wishing
> for LEGO to make Star Wars themes, perfect timing for the release of new hit
> movies and Lucas is a very special License provider with all his
> restrictions. You want to go to his camp, you have to play buy his rules
> because of the contract regarding marketing and product he worked back in
> the 1970s. When Star Wars runs it's course, LEGO may renew or follow their
> own Sci-Fi trends.
Yeah it does, but don't you think seven years of nothing but starwars would
eventualy get boring. I admit the original three years of production run
were the best thing that ever happened to me, but now they're trying to
capitalize on the new star wars movies, and I think the designs are just
really odd. Not exactly reminscent of great sets like the X wings, Tie
figters, Naboo fighters or Snowspeeders, but still interesting, to say the
least.
> This is NOT MATT's post but I'm tired of this kind of post.
> Star Wars costs on average $1.00 to $5.00 more to pay the licensing fees to
> mister Lucas to allow LEGO to make gobs more cash than I'll ever see. LEGO
> is only free if you steal it, and that would be acting like a jerk.
Yeah, those licensing fees really add up, don't they? I think it's great to
see some starwars on the shelves, but it's kind of hard to see seven years
of it. I wonder what they'll do next year, since nobody really knows EpIII's
release date? What about after EpIII? Will they continue making scene sets like
lego studios did?
> Not me! If I see any Space now I'd have to pass on it because there are too
> many good Train, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Direct sets and accessories for
> me to lust after right now. I just don't have enough cash available to meet
> my desires for those items and allow for Space like the old them to return.
> Now if Direct made one to three re-releases I might consider it if the other
> stuff dried up. Other wise build what you like, make your own Space.
Hmm...yes. If I saw a Battrax or some Blacktron items up for sale, I would
buy them out in a heartbeat, even If I had to do it through direct. I'm
thinking the other items will eventually dry up sometime soon, so It would
be good to see expansion kits for HP sets (did you read my post concerning
that?) Just wishing to see some cityscape creator kits. (now that would
really make my day.)
<<_Matt Hein_>>
> Perhaps this should go to another newsgroup?
> Good points are being raised here, but please lets all refrain from crying
> out to god against the "crimes of your favorite company". That is not very
> constructive. Thank you Matt for sticking with the topic and not taking
> anything to personally. You are doing a fine discussion :)
> Best y'all!
If you want, it would be probably be a good idea to take this subject to
email. I think the community is tiring of this, even though some good points
have been raised.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Say it ain't so...
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| (...) Have you noticed that you are posting in lugnet.castle? Hmmm... I'm building Castle creations right now and the best thing that EVER happened to my MOC stuff has been the Harry Potter line and the colors available in it. Thank god that Wal (...) (22 years ago, 11-Aug-02, to lugnet.general)
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