Subject:
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Re: A fan no more
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 9 Jul 2004 01:32:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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4922 times
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In lugnet.general, David Simmons wrote:
> My complaints don't really concern the "fad" aspects of the Lego themes. I
> think licensing is an awesome way to diversify a product if it's done right.
> I would buy some of the new Castle, Star Wars, and HP sets regardless
> because there are some cool pieces and sets there. But now the pieces I
> want are rapidly disappearing for reasons of the color change and
> click-hinges and set design is just taking a killer nosedive overall. Those
> are my main issues.
Well, I was more or less responding to your bit on the fact that you thought
Lego seemed to think kids were stupid and needed to be spoon fed. However, I
suppose the color change and the set design issues are related to what I'm
talking about. I pointed out a bit a while ago:
http://news.lugnet.com/dear-lego/?n=4749
Basically, Lego themes are now created with less attention to the other themes
around them. A piece is designed with a specific theme/set in mind (like the new
KK walls, bionicle pieces, Rock Raider cockpits, etc), and not with the entire
*system* in mind. There's less consistancy across themes because Lego has chosen
to try and diversify their audience. And it's because of this loss of focus on
consistancy (for instance) that the color change happened. The focus was put on
"How do we make next year's product just a *little* bit better?" Nobody really
thought about the lack of consistancy from one year to the next (or if they did,
they didn't care much about it, and passed it off as inconsequential). Instead
it's more like how Hasbro or Mattel designs their toys. Barbies have nothing to
do with Hot Wheels, and next year's Power Ranger toy line has nothing to do with
last year's Ninja Turtles.
Juniorization in set design is similarly linked. Themes are desgined with a
particular age range in mind-- Star Wars may not have the same target age range
as Knight's Kingdom or Galidor or Jack Stone. Hence, you see varying degrees of
juniorization and design in those sets, with less attention to how they compare
with the rest of Lego's sets. Notice that "fad" themes like Knight's Kingdom and
Alpha Team are more juniorized than the Designer or My Own Train sets. The kids
these are intended for are more 'mainstream' kids who have less desire to build
creatively with Lego, and more desire to play with the finished toy. Hence, the
focus is on a quick build, lots of "cool looking" doodads, and playable features
(trap doors, etc). It's not that set design is worsening across ALL of Lego's
products. It's just juniorizing EXACTLY where they're trying to get a different
target market, which happens to be fad-ish themes.
Click hinges, I dunno. I doubt that's a change that's come about due to a change
in focus. My guess is that Lego feels that these click hinges will be better
over time than other hinges:
1) Other hinges can be pretty flimsy after even a little bit of wear (or
sometimes almost no wear). Click hinges (I'm guessing) will hold up better over
time
2) Click hinges are compatible with each other, whereas older style hinges
aren't. Bendy arms and 5-finger hinges don't go together, and neither do 1x5
bendy plates.
3) Click hinges are certainly more sturdy right from the start. They hold their
position REALLY well, and can take more friction.
Of course, on the downside, they only have a set number of positions, rather
than being fittable to any arbitrary angle, and they (in some cases) take up
more space than their normal counterpart hinges. Anyway, my guess is that Lego
decided to phase out the older hinges because they thought they were better--
sorta like how they phased out 4.5v motors and 12v trains for 9v ones. Ditto the
little teethity bits on technic half-bushings and technic connectors, replaced
with single-piece combos and smooth bushings. Lego just figured their new idea
was better.
DaveE
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: A fan no more
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| Snip lots of good analysis (...) Or the patent protection on it would last longer than the older versions it replaced. (20 years ago, 9-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: A fan no more
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| "David Eaton" <deaton@intdata.com> wrote in message news:I0K9M9.1GG2@lugnet.com... (...) [ ... snipped ... ] (...) change (...) better (...) over (...) 1x5 (...) their (...) [ ... snipped ... ] Have to disagree with your take on click hinges. They (...) (20 years ago, 9-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: A fan no more
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| (...) Another advantage is that they are compatible with clips. For example a 1x1 plate with clip can interface with a 2-fingered click hinge. I dislike the lack of "airtightness" of click hinges and the bulkiness of them, but as a system they are a (...) (20 years ago, 9-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: A fan no more
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| My complaints don't really concern the "fad" aspects of the Lego themes. I think licensing is an awesome way to diversify a product if it's done right. I would buy some of the new Castle, Star Wars, and HP sets regardless because there are some cool (...) (20 years ago, 8-Jul-04, to lugnet.general)
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