Subject:
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LEGO Pirates! D-Day Approaches!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 2 Oct 1999 16:10:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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474 times
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This is the message submitted to www.slashdot.org
It has a slightly modified version of my last posting, and this
introduction so people outside the LEGO community have some idea what
has been happening for a long time.
Ian Sinclair
Hello Slashdot...
I just realized that I fired this off to you without any explanation.
I also fixed a couple spelling and grammatical errors.
My Declaration of War has come about after spending almost a year
building Mindstorms LEGO Robots and interacting with the huge
following of other adult fans of LEGO (AFOL) on the www.lugnet.com
Lugnet and rec.toys.lego are the homes of the adult LEGO community on
the internet.
In the past year, my LEGO collection has gone from zero pieces to
almost 15,000. I have spent almost $2,000 CDN on that collection.
My adult collection is insignificant compared to thousands of other
collectors who design, build and play with many different LEGO themes.
I have gotten to know hundreds of great people who, in time, all grow
to have the same complaints as hundreds of people like myself.
The LEGO Group has said that over half of the very successful
Mindstorms LEGO Robotics sets have been sold to adults.
This appears to have come as a shock to the marketing folks at LEGO.
I'm sure it didn't come as any surprise to all of your readers who
most likely were exposed to LEGO as a child and always dreamed as I
did, of one day building robots.
Mindstorms made that dream easily possible.
Yet The LEGO Group has zero involvement on www.lugnet.com, the home of
the adult LEGO community. In fact they really prefer to think we
don't exist as a market segment.
As a businessman, I simply cannot fathom their inability to exploit a
wealthy market segment, encouraging up to part with out money on even
more LEGO sets.
Instead we are ignored, disillusioned, frustrated and angry that The
LEGO Group will not meet the needs of the adult market.
Below is my `Declaration of War'. It was posted to
http://www.lugnet.com/general/ and rec.toys.lego earlier today.
Perhaps the Slashdot community will support us in our efforts to right
a wrong and help solve our many concerns not being addressed by The
LEGO Group (TLC).
Thank you
Ian Sinclair
Did I actually say that LEGO has no competition in my `It's Time Adult
Fans of LEGO (AFOL) Take Action' posting? It would seem that I am
wrong... More about that in a second...
First things first...
The time has come to take our battle with The LEGO Group (TLG) to the
streets.
Adult Fans of LEGO, D-Day approaches...
I suggest the invasion take place Saturday, December 4th and Sunday,
December 5th.
The significance of this weekend, being the first one in December
should not escape anyone's attention.
I hope I now have your attention. First a quick little recap, then I
will give everyone their orders. Pick your own squad leaders locally,
and follow `The Plan'.
You may skip to that now if you are well aware of the situation AFOL
face. Scroll way down... :-)
During the earlier conversation, someone posted a link to Best Lock
at:
http://www.best-lock.com/new/index.html
I just got around to looking at all the sets on this site.
Personally, I think the Military, Space, Castle, Airport and Pirate
sets look pretty darn impressive despite some blurry images.
Have all of you looked at the sets on this site?
If they were built out of LEGO and not Best Lock, how many sets would
you be ordering this year? Personally, I would say twenty at least for
myself.
The situation with The Lego Group gets more and more absurd...
If what some have said is true, TLG's patents on its oldest bricks are
coming do if they haven't already.
If what some have said is true, TLG has decided bricks are not where
it's at. They would rather use name branding to promote stuff most of
you and myself have no interest in buying.
Meanwhile the competition (which does exist), sees LEGO completely
loosing touch with its consumer base, especially AFOL from what I can
see.
TLG uses the profits from their over priced sets (compared to the
competition) to wage wars in markets that are meaningless to so many
others and myself. IE. Brand name crap
TLG doesn't bother to reproduce (even in limited quantity) all the
sets so hotly desired from the past.
TLG chooses to cancel very successful themes because there two or
three year run has ended. So sorry, it doesn't matter that we made
lots of money selling our customers stuff they really loved.
It's now time to produce Insectoids, Cyberslam, and other useless
themes most of don't want at the expense of those themes we do.
TLG doesn't even bother dumping really, really poor selling themes
after the first year. Why? Because each and every theme, good, bad or
ugly must run its planned course even if retailers sell zip, blow them
out at pennies on the dollar, and waste valuable shelf space on crap.
So people I have to ask all of you these questions?
Why am I so loyal? Why do I refuse to even look at another block
builder? Why do I enjoy paying more? Why do I buy even more
expensive auction items? Why do I settle for sets I don't much like to
buy, just because I need more parts to build stuff I do want?
I could go on... must I?
PEOPLE, ARE WE ALL COMPLETELY STUPID?
Or are we sado-masocists who enjoy being punished by a cruel, sadistic
and moronic TLG that I can't stand anymore, just because they make a
product I dearly love?
This situation reminds me of the Commodore Amiga Fiasco where I was
punished for over ten years because a manufacturer couldn't figure out
how to sell and market the best designed computer and operating system
invented in 1985 when the competition took about eight years to
realize that attaching a term like `Multimedia' was just the ticket to
selling really inferior machines with an even more inferior operating
system.
I will not go through that emotional gut wrenching again without a
fight. Is TLG to become the next Commodore?
Is TLG, like Commodore (and the C64) a company so blinded by its past
success that it blows its entire future because it has completely lost
touch with its consumer base, the industry, the market place, and
refuses to change with the times?
I will not watch this happen again without putting up a fight.
THE PLAN
~~~~~~~~
Adult Fans of LEGO, D-Day approaches...
I suggest the invasion take place Saturday, December 4th and Sunday,
December 5th.
The significance of this weekend; being the first one in December
should not escape anyone's attention.
War will commence as follows:
I will organize `The LEGO Pirates'.
We will force the surrender or capitulation of The LEGO Group.
TLG doesn't like bad press...
That is their weakness. We will exploit it to maximum effect.
`The LEGO Pirates' will give TLG something to really think about.
TLG will no longer be able to ignore us. Ever.
The Battle Begins
~~~~~~~~~~~~
At this point I would like all of you to place your Supertramp album,
`Even in the Quietest Moments..' in your deck. Select track seven and
hit play. For inspiration... Continue reading.
The `LEGO Pirates' will be mobilized across the land from sea to sea
in a two day picket action outside every major department store we can
muster, at the height of the Christmas season.
Dressed for Pirate raiding, and carrying REALLY BIG PICKET SIGNS we
will make our dissatisfaction with The LEGO Group known LOUD, CLEAR,
and PUBLICLY.
We will create a MEDIA @#$% STORM the likes of which TLG has never
seen!
We will arm ourselves with our largest LEGO boxes, and we will openly
play with our Man-O-War Pirate ships, and our X-Wings.
We will make swishing sounds!
We will wear our pain with honor.
We will strike fear into the hearts and minds of every LEGO executive
big and small.
We will contact the media, large and small in advance.
I trust that CNN world coverage, and local news coverage everywhere
will get our message across quite clearly.
Apparently, some people do still watch the evening news...
If this battle does not end the war, we will fight on! We shall never
surrender...
I would hope for The LEGO Group's sake that they address our concerns
promptly.
I can't stand Christmas shopping season. I would much rather stand
out in the snow, recreating the Hoth Battle every weekend until
Christmas morning.
LEGO Executives, I come for you!
Dune is such a great movie. <evil grin>
If you would like to defer this publicity nightmare, please contact me
at the following number day or night.
I look forward to hearing from you. And promptly. Do I make myself
crystal clear?
Thank you for your attention.
Troops, please stand down until further notice.
Ian Sinclair
sinclair@cadvision.com
403-265-3622 Tel.
403-265-3631 Fax.
P.S. Hey maybe a few of our generals will be flown to TLG head
quarters to meet the enemy and sign the peace treaty.
After all this heartache, I would certainly hope so...
Please feel free to fill up my mailbox if you would like to represent
the Adult Fans of LEGO.
And off I step, into an unknown world. Will it be heaven or hell?
CC: Everyone In Your Address Book
The FORCE isn't a JEDI (tm) mind trick, it's now the internet. (tm)
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