Subject:
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Next draft of the letter. I think it's coming together well!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego
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Date:
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Fri, 3 Dec 2004 21:41:32 GMT
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Hey all,
After reading the responses to my last draft and the other threads on this
board, I've lengthened the letter quite a bit, taking into the excellent
suggestions offered, especially Mark Jordan's excellent list, of which I've
incorporated quite a bit. I just want to say that I've approached the
composition of this letter as coming from an individual collector, not the
community as a whole. It is my feeling that a volume of individual letters
(hopefully from the four corners of the globe!) would have much more impact
than one letter with a lot of signatures riding on it (to say nothing of the
difficulty in getting such a letter signed by any who would want to do so!).
I think a letter like this which can be printed and signed by the individual
is much more practical in that it involves much less coordinating to
complete. I also addressed the letter to the new CEO, since a letter to the
company in general could end up somewhere where it won't do any good.
Let me know what you think!
This is really getting exciting! As much as I'm fatalistic about the color
change, it's a great feeling to be doing something positive about it. Let's
keep it going!
David Simmons
Your name
Your Street Address
Town, State/Province Zip Code
Country
Jørgen Vig Knudstorp
CEO Lego Corporation
Dear Mr. Knudstorp,
I am writing this letter to communicate my dismay about the recent color
change to gray, dark gray and brown. I want to issue you and the Lego
Company a heartfelt plea to please reconsider the impact that this change
has had on adult collectors like myself and to consider the impact that it
will have on all the children who will become adult builders in the future.
After all, most, if not all of us adult collectors were children who played
with Lego and while we have grown up, we have kept on building! We are here
for the long term. I plan to have this hobby for the rest of my life and my
enjoyment of the Lego product in the decades to come would be greatly
enhanced by having a consistent color palette. Hopefully, there are LOTS of
young Lego builders out there who will grow up to be adult builders. They
might not realize it now, but someday soon they may also come to feel that
this change is also not good for them or for the Lego Company.
As the years that I've played with Lego have become decades, the one quality
of the Lego product that I've come to admire most is the principle of
backwards compatibility. Ever since the introduction of the Lego System of
Play, the Lego Company has strived to apply the principle that every Lego
brick should match every other Lego brick, both in fit and color. While I
didn't fully appreciate this as a child, as an adult collector and builder I
regard this principle as the one that sets the Lego Company apart from all
other construction toys. I loved the fact that the bricks that I had as a
child more than twenty years ago matched the bricks that I bought as an
adult.
However, the color change has disrupted this continuity in many ways, all of
which I believe are bad for the Lego Company. For your edification, I have
compiled a list of the negative effects of this color change below:
Gray, dark gray, and brown are colors which have been produced for many
years, several decades in the case of gray. As an adult, I looked forward to
continuing to add more pieces to my collection in the years to come. I
especially looked forward to combining pieces that are decades apart in one
model. This will not happen with the color change, and it's disappointing to
see new and wonderful pieces introduced that I would love to use but cannot
because they don't match the pieces that I have. As a result I will be
purchasing very little new product because I will be avoiding sets that have
the new colors.
Because I believed that gray, dark gray, and brown would always be the same,
I spent a considerable amount of money collecting enough of these colors in
order to build what I wanted. I made an investment in the principles of the
Lego Company, and now I and many other adult collectors feel like that
investment has been at least partially defaulted. Even if I were to chose to
purchase product containing the new colors, I would then be faced with
choosing between two equally unappealing scenarios: I'd either have to deal
with the headache of having to sort colors that are only very slightly
different from one another or I'd have get rid of all my old gray, dark
gray, and brown colors and replace them with the new ones. I certainly do
not have the money to replace every brick in my collection with the new
colors, nor do I want to because I much prefer gray, dark gray, and brown as
they were.
I will be spending much less money on new Lego product because I don't want
to adopt the new colors. This is very disappointing because I always looked
forward with great excitement to the announcement of new product. That
excitement is now tinged with a bittersweet feeling because if the new
product has the new colors then I will be not purchase it even if I really
like the particular set.
If the Lego Company does not hold backwards compatibility in such high
regard, it makes adult collectors wonder what other principles of the
company may become undermined in the future. This lessens our respect for
the company and compromises our desire and inclination to recommend your
product to family and friends as we have done for so many years.
Finally, myself and other adult collectors are upset that the Lego Company
didn't consider the effect that the color change would have on us or even
solicit our opinion or input on the matter. The Lego Company has made many
great strides recently to more directly court the adult market, and they
have all been wonderful, but these efforts would have been greatly bolstered
by involving us in some way in a decision that has had the single greatest
effect on us since the first bricks were placed in our hands. Please bring
gray, dark gray, and brown back and restore our faith in your company and
the principles that have made it great!
Sincerely yours,
Your name here
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