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 LEGO Company / LEGO Direct / 3530
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Subject: 
Re: what makes a legend?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.lego.direct
Date: 
Tue, 23 Oct 2001 03:49:22 GMT
Viewed: 
809 times
  
In lugnet.lego.direct, John Neal writes:
[...]
And so my question to AFOLs is: What is it from the Legends line that makes it
so appealing?  Because it seems to me that most people are praising the sets of
the past because of their complexity and creativeness *in general*, and would
want issues *in that vein* rather than *exactly* in that vein.


I have to disagree a little with this only because I don't think that we
should relegate the only sets issued 'in that vein' to being the half dozen
'Legends' that LEGO releases each year.  I would hope instead, that as LEGO
senses the popularity of these sets, they would start releasing more and
more of their sets using the principles that the had in the past.  In other
words, it would be a tremendous shame if every other set LEGO released got
more and more juniourized, leaving only the tiny Legends line as a faint
echo of how great the company once was.


For example, take the recently reissued Metroliner and Club Car.  I was happy to
see them reissued for the sakes of AFOLs who hadn't the opportunity to buy them
the first time around, but personally, I already owned 2 4558s and 4 4547s, so I
passed on that offering.

But what if the Metroliner were reissued in silver (hey, just an example: I can
dream;-) or more close to earth, what if the Metroliner had been reissued, but
all of the wheel sets were *dark gray* instead of black?  Whoa, now that gives
folks who already own one like me a reason to buy one.  Heck, that gives
everyone a reason to buy one!  Folks who never had one in the first place
wouldn't care; they never had one in the first place-- and if they really wanted
black, well there are plenty of wheel sets out there with which they could swap.

This is an example of how I think LD can kill 2 birds with one stone, as it
were, and make a lot more people happy in the process (*except* the nostalgic
and collector-types, who represent a small minority IMO).

So I ask-- what is more important: fidelity to the old classics, or simply more
of the cool sets as offered in the past?

It is my hope that we send a message to LD that sure, offer us classics, but
only because offering them is easier/cheaper/more efficient than redeveloping a
new set, but feel free to change colors, make improvements, in order to make
them *even better*.


-John

Personally I think that the LEGO *Legends* should be as close as possible to
the original.  However I would be VERY pleased if they also released another
line of sets 'inspired' by older sets.  These shouldn't be called 'Legends',
however.

I don't think that it would be a terrible cost if a few missing molds have
to be recreated to make a Legends set, because the mold can always be used
to make pieces for other newer sets as well.  In fact, it would be silly for
LEGO not to make use of these pieces in other sets if they were available.
Hence the cost will be amortized, and so shouldn't be counted against
remaking a legend.

Note, however, that I can easily live with new wheels, ventilated heads, and
other modern equivalents of the original pieces.  Even the venerated 2x4
brick has had several minor changes over the years.

So my point of view: depending on how long this Legends line will continue,
(and I hope it's a long, LONG time!) I would prefer passing up on sets --
*for now* -- which can't be reproduced exactly because of 'missing pieces'.
Hopefully the appeal of Legends will make it more desirable in the future
for LEGO to go to the expense to recreate older molds, and then we can have
the Legends line come back to the sets they'd passed on before, and do them
right.

The only exceptions I would be willing to accept would be if there's a piece
that truly has no other use than in that one set.  If that set was in fact a
legend, it would be okay to rerelease it with a substitute.

BTW: I'm one of the people who detest using stickers instead of printed
elements.  Recreating the stamps to print an element shouldn't be impossible
to do.  That technology has improved a lot.

Oh, and please, consider selling LEGO Legends in stores!

--
  David Schilling



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: what makes a legend?
 
(...) Although I think Lars is being a bit extreme in calling a re-issue with less than 99% original parts dishonest (in advertising, I presume), he does bring up a very good point, to my way of thinking. Even if LD recreates every printed brick, (...) (23 years ago, 23-Oct-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)  

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