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Lou's original post, on the current state of Lego, made me pretty sad.
I'm now 28, so I grew up as a kid playing with sets from ~1978-1990, a truly
wonderful time for Lego. Thankfully, I saved everything I had and they are now
part of my collection.
Today, I have a lot more disposable income, and I spend it on buying more old
sets, not the new ones. It's not just nostalgia, it is play value. I truly
can't stand these cars made out of 4 specialized pieces.
Whatever Lego says about Juniorization, I agree with others here - it is NOT an
effective tool. Because of my hobbies (Lego, Matchbox cars, Star Wars), I spend
a ridiculously large amount of my spare time at toy stores and places like
Target, WalMart, TRU, KB, etc., in the toy aisles. I have seen many parents and
kids looking at Lego sets, and the reactions are amazingly one-sided - noone
likes these new sets!
Parents are the ones with the money who buy the sets, especially the large
ones. They instantly recognize:
1. The sets are far too expensive
2. They are not playable/expandable/whatever you want to call it
3. They are not like the sets they had when they were young
Lego forgets that a 5-year old does not have $20, much less $50, to spend on a
set, not to mention they can't see things so well up on the shelves anyway! The
kits must appeal to the PARENTS. And the Juniorized sets DO NOT.
Also, these overspecialized themes have a terrible effect - they keep the child
from wanting more Lego! Think of the wonderful old Lego towns and castle scenes
depicted in the 1980s catalogs (check out the cover of the 1981 train catalog
at
http://www.sdss.jhu.edu/~rrg/hobbies/lego/eurtr1981cat.jpg).
To build those towns, you had to buy hundreds of dollars of sets. And many of
us wanted to do that when we were kids, just like buying all the Star Wars
figures and ships to recreate scenes from the movie. But today, this doesn't
work - how big an Arctic scene does a kid want? Or how many ugly race cars?
To sell a lot of Lego, TLC must keep the buyers coming back for more. The
current themes are 99.99% ineffective at this, except maybe Star Wars.
When I have seen kid at LUG meetings, and probably you all have seen many more
at train shows, we see that look of longing and wonder at the huge setups. And
they want to do that themselves! Think how much Lego sales each kid who tried
to build even a small Lego town/train layout would mean. You don't see that
desire in their eyes when they see the new sets.
Well, that's enough for now. I know I'm preaching to the converted on Lugnet,
but I am hoping that in the off chance someone at TLC reads this, I add my own
voice to the chorus asking for change.
Build on,
Roy
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