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 LEGO Company / 3709
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Subject: 
Re: The Future of Trains
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.lego
Date: 
Tue, 2 Oct 2007 03:41:25 GMT
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Viewed: 
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As a Senior Engineering Analyst, I understand facts, figures, and numbers.  If a
department reports low sales on something, that may indicate that a product of
that department should be cut in order for the company as a whole to be
profitable.  However, a good Analyst knows that numbers don't tell you
everything.

In the case of 9V Trains, the numbers indicate that sales have been down for
years.  The reason why hasn't been a lack of interest from customers though.  It
is due to lack of new product releases, lack of public availability, and lack of
advertisement.

In comparison, the Firefighter product line has numbers indicating that sales
are up, but how many of us have purchased the new fire station every year?
Sales are good for this product line for the same reasons that 9V is down.  The
fire fighter line gets new products each year in several price ranges.  It also
gets the best store availability and good advertising.

The numbers alone don't mean anything, but if numbers are what TLG cares about
try these numbers:

LUGNET Trains is the third most posted to theme: (over 31,000 posts)
The 9V Train theme has the largest number of fan organizations (at least 21
officially recognized worldwide)
Browsing through Brickshelf, 9V Train fans seem to be one of the biggest
purchasers of LEGO (sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars per club)
It is the only theme (to my knowledge) that has a website dedicated to its own
preservation (the one and only)
The Train theme now has its own online magazine (one of a very few)
No other theme, has brought together as many people (though Space, Robotics, and
Castle are very high)

The bottom line is that numbers don't mean anything without the details
surrounding them.  We can probably all agree that a company must design new
products that customers want, advertise those products, and make them available
in order to sell them.

What I can't understand is why TLG would stop designing new 9V sets, not put
them in stores, and then wonder why they are not selling?

Please, will someone say that TLG will re-evaluate their research for facts and
figures that were not seen before?

Most sincerely,
Scott Wardlaw



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: The Future of Trains
 
The simple fact is that no matter what products are on the shelf or how good (or crap) the design is, trains that get their power from the track (ala 9V) will ALWAYS be more expensive than a matching train that takes battery power (rechargeable or (...) (17 years ago, 2-Oct-07, to lugnet.lego)
  Re: The Future of Trains
 
(...) *coughBIONICLEcough* Ok, granted, it rarely involves face-to-face interaction on the same level as more AFOL-friendly themes, but it still counts. (17 years ago, 2-Oct-07, to lugnet.lego)

Message is in Reply To:
  The Future of Trains
 
I'm posting this on behalf of Richard Stollery, head of LEGO Community Development: LEGO 9V Train Communication Billund, Oct. 1st ’07 Dear all, Many of you are aware of the on-going discussions on the 9V train system. We would like to thank you all (...) (17 years ago, 1-Oct-07, to lugnet.announce) !! 

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