Subject:
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Re: Nicely now. What do you think of the new colors?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego, lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 16 Jan 2004 13:48:01 GMT
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Hi Jake. Thanks for asking.
This is my first post in regards to this topic, although I feel very strongly
about it.
My biggest concern is that this is an omen of things to come. After producing
these colors for over twenty years, they are changed so that they are visually
incompatible with the original colors. What else is going to change?
This change appears to have been made in utter isolation. Did LEGO Direct know
about the proposal to change the color ahead of time? Could it (should it) have
impacted the decision? Perhaps someone thought that no one would notice (which
would be a strange reason to change a color!)
I understand that LEGO is dynamic, not static, and the manufacturing processes
change all of the time. I also understand that LEGO is a business, not a hobby,
and that radical business decisions may be required to stay afloat. But this
particular decision is a mystery -- it alienates a part of the LEGO customer
base without enticing a new, larger customer base to take its place.
The number of color choices has exploded. When I first got involved with the
LEGO System in the early 80's as an adult, there were six main colors of bricks
and plates, with the exotic dark gray showing up with the 9V trains somewhat
later on. Even as late as the late 90's, the only new colors to appear in
quantity were dark gray, tan, and green. The advantage of the limited color
palette was that it was possible to build up an inventory of parts, choose a
color theme, and execute on it.
Today, there are what, 20, 30, 40 colors? A few contemporary sets have included
two nearly identical colors, like orange and medium yellow orange. The mosaics
alone have included light- light gray, and only as 1x1 plates. Colors appear
primarily in only a handful or parts, like the silver-gray bricks in the Santa
Fe cars. The result is that it is difficult to acquire enough of many colors to
build with. I'd love to use dark red, dark blue, medium blue, light yellow, and
other colors as part of the NCLTC layout, but the availability and after-market
expense prohibit it. The colors are dangled by LEGO as enticements, or are
merely treated as throw-away -- after all, how is the average child supposed to
build anything in dark red?
Yet over the years I've come to like the exotic colors, and go to great efforts
to get more of them. I assume that LEGO has a new manufacturing process that
allows it to produce parts in far more colors than in the past. If that's the
case, why the silence on continuing to produce the old colors? Why can't LEGO or
LEGO Direct commit to producing legends in their original color palette?
I fear that there's no technical reason, but returning to the original theme, it
is because of isolation from the marketplace, and portends more poor business
decisions to come.
While I wait for LEGO's ultimate strategy (or lack thereof) to become apparent,
I will enjoy the LEGO I have, and probably buy more. I won't buy new sets with
the new colors at full retail though -- the colors aren't worth it to me.
Cary Clark
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Nicely now. What do you think of the new colors?
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| It's only a couple of weeks in the new year, and it looks like it's going to be an interesting 2004! I have a request, but before I go any further, let me say that personally, I understand the concerns surrounding the color changes. I know many of (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, FTX) !!
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