Subject:
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Re: Some disturbing news
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 26 Oct 1999 18:49:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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1290 times
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In lugnet.general, "Tony Kilaras" <kilaras@speedus.com> writes:
> I would say Lego has been targeting primarily kids since the introduction of
> the mini-fig. I can't think of even one instance (and I've been here a long
> time) where Lego implemented something an AFOL wanted.
Well, except Star Wars -- but kids probably wanted that too. Do you mean
things which adults wanted but which kids didn't necessarily want? Yeah,
hmmm, I can't think of any wishes-come-true either -- certainly not in
Castle or Town, to say the least.
There may be shred of hope, however -- Eric Kingsley of NELUG noted in
http://www.lugnet.com/org/us/?n=92
that TLG reps stopped by the NELUG table during MindFest and asked them what
they would like to see as the next MindStorms Star Wars set. In the worst
case, maybe they were just asking just out of curiosity, but I'll bet they
were clearly able to see that they were talking to some very excited and
knowledgeable adult Star Wars and LEGO fanatics whose opinion was actually
worth something to them.
> What's changed is that
> Lego now thinks that kids are now simplistic, commercially driven, attention-
> deficit afflicted morons. Hence, rampant juniorization and tie-ins with Star
> Wars and Disney and God knows what else.
It sure seems that way. :-(
> We can't do anything about the current situtation. Nothing. We have to wait
> this nonsense out. I regret that Star Wars is such a success for Lego because
> it merely postpones the day of reckoning.
I'm holding out hope for a few things:
* I know there are people within TLG who understand why the Star Wars line
is such a success -- and not just because of the name, but because of the
non-juniorization of it. If these people can convince Marketing or whomever
to return to non-juniorization and other traditional values, then there's
still hope. Even if some of the product lines, not necessarily all of them,
are course-corrected, it could be majorly helpful.
* Through attrition and layoffs, gradually there will be newer and newer
employees in the design and marketing departments at LEGO. We know from
Jeroen Ottens's appearance and information tidbits earlier this year that
TLG does hire adult fanatic builders occasionally, and I cannot imagine that
not being an increasing trend as more and more adult fanatic builders become
more connected and visible. So, I try to think of it as us adults gradually
infiltrating LEGO over time and having a positive impact (assuming that all
the good ideas don't get shot down). By the year 2005, nearly every new
employee that LEGO hires for design probably will have been exposed to quite
a bit of excellent fan-stuff on the net and probably will be fairly
knowledgeable about what and how adult builders think.
* As more and more people aggregate into clubs and user groups like PNLTC,
GMLTC, NELUG, and BAYLUG, more and more articles about adults will begin
appearing in the popular press. Just earlier this week in fact there was an
article[1] in the New York Times which mentioned adults. And of course
there was the mention in Entertainment Weekly last month, and the Forbes
articles about reverse engineering the RCX. The stage is really set now for
a nice steady ramp-up over the next 12 to 18 months. By 2001, it will be
impossible for TLG to ignore the quantity of "visible" adult builders. I
don't know what that number will be, but it will surely be in the tens of
thousands. Someday, maybe 2005, maybe it'll be a hundred thousand.
Like you say, we've gotta just wait it out. Someday the sleeping giant will
awaken, and let's just hope that it's friendly to us.
--Todd
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/biztech/articles/23lego.html
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Some disturbing news
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| The biggest hope I hold out is that the model railroading hobby takes to LEGO trains seriously and in a big way. This is a hobby which has manufacturers capable of meeting or exceeding TLG's quality of manufacture, and know that if they put out (...) (25 years ago, 26-Oct-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Some disturbing news
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| (...) attention- (...) because (...) days after I started researching Lego on the net. After buying the Classic Star Wars sets this summer I have decided to get back into Lego after 10 years of them being stored away in a closet at my parents' (...) (25 years ago, 26-Oct-99, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Some disturbing news
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| (...) I would say Lego has been targeting primarily kids since the introduction of the mini-fig. I can't think of even one instance (and I've been here a long time) where Lego implemented something an AFOL wanted. What's changed is that Lego now (...) (25 years ago, 26-Oct-99, to lugnet.general)
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