Subject:
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Re: what makes a legend?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Thu, 25 Oct 2001 17:26:16 GMT
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Viewed:
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877 times
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In lugnet.lego.direct, Brad Justus writes:
> We're having a debate here in the ABS-paved halls of LEGO Direct that I'd
> like to throw open to the community.
>
> The topic is: what makes a LEGO Legend a legend? Or, more precisely, if we
> cannot bring back a set precisely as it was (or pretty darn close), can it
> still qualify as a Legend?
It has taken me five severe revisions to answer this very difficult
question. Each time I allowed myself to go off topic into the realm of what
I wanted to see, and what I thought LEGO could do to improve their company,
rather than answer the question of what substitutions were acceptable.
For Brad's sake, I think I have finally restricted my answer adequately. :)
There are two kinds of substitutions that might need to be made: Functional
changes, and Cosmetic changes.
From what I have read, the functional changes are ok, even preferred if it
means the re-release of a favored set. Such changes as substituting the
metal axles for something current, or switching a 4.5v or 12v train model to
use the current 9v system would be fine. (I believe we would all purchase
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/7740 and others if modified to the current train
specs. I doubt very much if even the most devout purists would complain.)
However, the cosmetic changes are much more difficult to rate. This is
where the stickers, minifig style and baseplate questions come in.
To sticker or not to sticker? I hate stickers - No, I take that back. I
love stickers, they definitely add a certain detail to the models that
bricks could not achieve alone. However, I never use the stickers that came
with the sets. I have gone to great pains to make my own (disposable)
stickers - my original LEGO stickers remain flat in a cool, dry place,
untouched by human hands. If the original decaled pieces do not exist, I
raise no objection to the inclusion of stickers to replace them - but I
still won't put them on. However, I draw the line at stickering a minifig.
The minifigs see way more action than a single brick does. A sticker on a
minifig wears out several times faster than on an ordinary brick, and I
won't even bother putting my own stickers on.
Along the same lines of cosmetic changes, last night I built my Galaxy
Explorer - the same one my parents bought for me when I was 11. (So that
makes me how old?) But I did not use the 6x3x1 slope with the decal, I used
a plain slope. Same with the LL928 bricks. I substituted them with blank
bricks. The minifigs I substituted with unmarked red and white town
minifigs with the new helmets and clear visors. The wheels I substituted
for the current plastic axle type. Finally, I built it all over again using
the wrong color pieces. You know, it is still a good set! The cosmetic
changes did
not bother me like I expected them to. The only thing I could not get past
was the landing base plate. I substituted a plain gray one (no road) and it
did not look right at all. If that landing pad design does not exist, that
is going to be one BIG sticker. ;)
I did the same with some of my other space sets - the change in minifig
design did not bother me like I thought it would. There is no doubt that
collectors will scream "But it's not the same!" I believe that for most, it
is simply because we would be denied a source for those rare parts not being
manufactured any more, which long time collectors most definitely want. I
for one, would jump at the chance to beef up my classic minifig collection,
lay my hands on some cypress trees (if everyone else does not buy them all
up first) and supplement my monorail tracks. But I also have the
realization that this is not going to happen anytime soon, if ever. In the
meantime, I can live with a good deal of change, and I will continue my
purchases of the legends series.
One last note to keep in mind though - It appears AFOL's are the primary
audience for this, after all, no child age 6 to 14 was even alive when these
sets originally came out. The only ones with nostalgia towards these sets
are the AFOL's. Be cautious in the changes you choose to make. Nostalgia
is a difficult thing to measure. There is no way that LD can tell ahead of
time if a set is going to be a success or not, and it IS possible that too
many changes might deter some purchases. Brad, you may want to follow up
your original message with some specifics so that we can give you a more
solid response. Don't tell us which sets are under consideration, but
suggest "LD wants to replace x piece with y or z pieces" and see what
reaction this evokes. We seem to have come to a unanimous decision that
metal axles are out, and the newer ones are in. A similar consensus might
be achieved on other parts without giving too much away about which sets are
under consideration. You were sufficiently vague in your request of how
much is too far - I fear that we were equally vague in our answer (I was
anyway), and may not have helped as much as we all wanted to.
"Bury me with my Bricks"
Mark
PS - This was a pretty important issue to me. This is my first post, ever. :)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: what makes a legend?
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| (...) Well, IMO, for your first post that was extremely well written! And I too would agree that this is perhaps the most interesting general topic I have seen since my internet dark age ended several months ago... I look forward to Brad's future (...) (23 years ago, 25-Oct-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | what makes a legend?
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| We're having a debate here in the ABS-paved halls of LEGO Direct that I'd like to throw open to the community. The topic is: what makes a LEGO Legend a legend? Or, more precisely, if we cannot bring back a set precisely as it was (or pretty darn (...) (23 years ago, 19-Oct-01, to lugnet.lego.direct) !!
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