Subject:
|
Re: Theme longevity? (Was: Wild West ?!)
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.general
|
Date:
|
Fri, 5 Nov 1999 05:09:56 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
718 times
|
| |
|
|
In lugnet.general, Steve Demlow writes:
> Sproaticus (jsproat@io.com) wrote:
> > Daniel van Berkel wrote:
>
> > What I'm trying to lead up to is: how concrete of a policy is TLG's 3 year
> > period? Does anyone else feel that it's liable to change without warning?
>
> I assume this is referring to three-year "theme" (Adventurers, Wild West,
> etc.) cycles, not "sub-theme" (Cowboys, Indians, etc.). I don't think three
> years is an accurate assumption: Wild West had two years ('96 - more
> cowboys/soldiers oriented, and '97 - more Indians oriented); Aquazone ran
> for three years; Adventurers is going into year three but could continue
> longer, etc.
>
> What a TLG employee told me a while back is that there are too many themes
> to keep them all in production at once, so that e.g. Pirates had a few
> years off but is (I believe - don't quote me on that!) supposed to be back
> next year. This means that Wild West could be back in 2000 or 2001, etc.
> Of course, sales figure/popularity will surely influence whether themes
> are resurrected or not. The recent LEGO book says that Pirates were the
> most popular LEGO line yet, so it only makes sense to bring them back.
>
> Steve
> --
> Barb & Steve Demlow | demlow@visi.com | www.visi.com/~demlow/
My thought is that the Adventurers more or less replaced the pirates (Much to
every AFOL chagrin). I expect them to do a pirate length run, if they remain
popular. My guess is that we will always have the three large themes (castle,
town, and space) in some form or another. However, the fourth theme seems to be
flexible (for a while it was pirates). My guess from a marketing standpoint,
the TLG decided that the Pirates were on the end of the lifespan and brought in
the Wild West theme as a replacement...notice the simultaneous release for
market testing purposes. When the Wild West themes did poorly, the were quickly
phased out and the Adventurers were brought in for the fourth theme. My guess
is that Steve is right. There are simply two many themes to correctly do more
than four at a time. When the rare fifth theme appears, it is to test the water
on a replacement on a longer running fourth theme. When one fails (Wild West) a
replacement no longer has the luxury of a test year (Adventurers) and gets put
into production. Assuming a pattern develops and the Adventurers remain
popular, the Adventurers will see three to four more years and then it will be
replaced by yet another fourth theme (possibly a return of the pirates or
perhaps something new...dunno).
Just my two cents,
Craig
|
|
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Theme longevity? (Was: Wild West ?!)
|
| (...) I assume this is referring to three-year "theme" (Adventurers, Wild West, etc.) cycles, not "sub-theme" (Cowboys, Indians, etc.). I don't think three years is an accurate assumption: Wild West had two years ('96 - more cowboys/soldiers (...) (25 years ago, 5-Nov-99, to lugnet.general)
|
29 Messages in This Thread:
 
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
