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Hey Y'all: I am very glad that Lego Direct has at last set up shop on the web. Some of the elements being offered are a terrific boon to us lego hobbyists. I hope we shall soon see a considerable expansion of the elements offered to include a (...) (24 years ago, 29-Jun-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) Richard, I agree with you on the prices, but I was expecting them to be higher anyway. I think that what you propose (ignoring common pieces and concentrating on the rarer stuff - tiles, windows, etc), will be a naturally happening (...) (24 years ago, 29-Jun-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I completely disagree. Keep in mind that the 1200 piece bucket is discontinued, so once supplies are gone, it is gone. To get all the 2x4 bricks in the 100 piece bulk pack, you would need to buy 9 62 piece brick packs. It's all for the (...) (24 years ago, 29-Jun-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) What do you mean the 1200 piece buckets are discontinued? Where did this information come from? I've never seen a posting about this topic. I find it odd that TLC would deprive the general public of basic bricks when many of them have no idea (...) (24 years ago, 30-Jun-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I remember seeing this in RTL and market.theory<?>. Recently picked up 15. Auction off everything but the black and green. When I saw the bulk prices from LD I began thinking maybe I should hold on to some. I believe there is another tub (...) (24 years ago, 1-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) <excellent price / cost analysis snipped> (...) A few points to consider in the price analysis: I believe the 1200 piece buckets, and other, similar offerings, are kind of a loss leader for Lego; they don't aim to make a profit on them, but (...) (24 years ago, 5-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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That's all well and good, but isn't there a fixed minimum cost below which one cannot go - IE in order to turn the molding machine on and have it churn out bricks from the designated mold wouldn't there still have to be a minimum cost incurred for (...) (24 years ago, 5-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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| | Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
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HOW TO DO BULK SALES IN THE 21st CENTURY ~~~...~~~ Be prepared, this is long... I hope you find it is worth reading. I think it is time we stopped guessing what The LEGO Group's real costs are. None of us know; period. Some people with actual TLC (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general) !
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(...) Ian, I think you started off on the right premise--we're all guessing. But then you go on to assert that your scheme would be cost-effective. What makes you so sure? You've set forth a tidy scheme, but the numbers are still an unknown. Can be (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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Ian Sinclair <sinclair@cadvision.com> wrote in message news:3963efd5.607927...ion.com... HOW TO DO BULK SALES IN THE 21st CENTURY ~~~...~~~ Be prepared, this is long... I hope you find it is worth reading. I think it is time we stopped guessing (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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Erik, you raise many excellent points. I outlined the core idea, the plan is in the details. Some thoughts on what you have said. (...) Erik, if TLC has production lines than currently run unmanned, there is no reason a different organization of (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) Opps... Thanks Geoffrey. It was late, I have no other excuse. <ICS> (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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Ian Sinclair <sinclair@cadvision.com> wrote in message news:39643b6f.527169...ion.com... (...) Maybe that is the case, but I've seen one report that the facilities they use are fed from a set of huge silos containing raw ABS materials in different (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) I would guess that you are correct. I, and other people (IIRC), have gotten parts with swirls of other colors in them, which leads me to believe that they don't hand clean them between runs. Mine is a pretty nifty brick, actually, and I'd love (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) I think they do a little bit of post molding finishing. I'm pretty sure I read about this in one of the books. Depending on the cost to do this (which almost certainly changes over time), they may finish some parts and not others. (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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Legoland California has a factory tour which provide a lot of insights into the production. The video in the waiting lines is long about 15-20 minutes and has company history, commericals, and factory clips. Inside contains a working molding machine (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) I'm sure that there is a feed system of pellets (most likely) to each injection machine. Probably one gravity tube, that can possibly have different colors fed into it. (...) Possibly, it would be nice to know. As some have said we often get (...) (24 years ago, 8-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) This sounds like one of the few things that could stop the flow of ABS, though I doubt it's cleaned inside very often. (...) I totally agree. The unknown here seems to be how many pieces must go through a mold before the new color completely (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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Tom McDonald <radiotitan@yanospamhoo.com> wrote in message news:FxEoJG.Aq2@lugnet.com... (...) though (...) be (...) injection (...) through (...) Or do they have newer machines that simply flush out the old color with a bit of compressed air or (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Bulk Prices!
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Oops, I sent this to Richard when I meant to post it. Here's a second try.... I have to argue with the 'vote with your dollars' logic. If no one buys the bulk bricks, TLC will come to the conclusion that there is no demand for them and stop selling (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I think TLC is absolutely not doing this as a favour to us, although we can certainly be happy perceiving it that way and TLC would be equally happy for us to perceive it that way. I think TLC is doing this because they realize they do need to (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) Do you think that they will begin to communicate with consumers about other things than bulk sales? Ben Roller (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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I really wonder who else (other than the adult Lego community) regularly uses Shop At Home to make purchases. You have to be a die hard Lego fan to go to the trouble of mail ordering specific pieces. There is lots of selection in the stores to keep (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) Its hard to say right now. I sure hope so. I know that right now I'm preparing to go to the Kidvention at Legoland California to demonstrate LDraw with a few other CAD enthusiasts, and that TLC is providing a lot for me and my crew. This is (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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When I was young (early 80s) I drooled over the parts packs brochure. I never begged my parents to order any ("You already have too much Lego" might have been the answer.) Now I live in an apartment building. One day in the elevator I observed a (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I do, yes. Absolutely. In fact, they have (at least BradJ has) already begun to communicate with consumers about other things...LDraw at Kidvention, for example. --Todd (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) Oops, that's missing some important words. It should say: Getting themselves geared up for bulk purchasing and anything else related to it which they may or may not choose to do, such as short just-in-time production runs (if they can switch (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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"Tim Courtney" <tim@zacktron.com> wrote in message news:FxF8AJ.HMo@lugnet.com... [ ... snipped ... ] (...) be (...) yet (...) Where did this number come from? While I suspect the WAMALUG members are buying lots of stuff from the Outlet I find it (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I heard that from a few WAMALUG members when I was at Brickfest. The manager of the outlet store (WAMALUG member, I believe) reports WAMALUG sales figures separate from general sales figures to her boss at TLC. Kinda nice, that way TLC is more (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I still have the receipt from one order I made when I was about ten years old. :) several trees & flowers service packs, some crater baseplates and space landing baseplates, and other good stuff :) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) When I was a child in the 80s, I would buy from S@H Canada. I would think long and hard about what I wanted. I would stare at the last pages in the in-set catalogue. Then I would figure out what I could afford with my limited budget. I would (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) Well, I used S@H from Israel and forced my uncle to ship the sets to me... (I think the first time I did that was at 13). -Shiri (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I had severl orders, from 8 years old until I was 18. If you count over 18, well, it is a lot of counting! : ) Scott S. -- (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I disagree. Consider the example of mold tooling that was built to the same form factor for the same machine. To change from one to the other requires merely a substitution of the tooling and a change in settings for amount of plastic to (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) Wow! Where did you hear that number? I wonder how much of that is me? ++Lar (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) factor for (...) to (...) That may be, but when I worked in the plastic part plant, and I changed material and colors numerous times when I was a Utility, a color change merely required a dumping of the material from the hopper, blowing it out (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) Maybe. I dunno. I guess I would ask not how much *labor* was involved, but rather, how much time transpired while the machine was out of production. In your description, for example, the bull time to bring the new mold from storage has no (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) I remember when I was 9-12 years old (1962-65) back in the days when there were 138 different parts packs available, all of them sold in Toy Stores. I used to walk the 10 blocks to "Earl's Bike Shop" in Detroit. They had all the Samsonite (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) I remember orering rom Lego several times as a kid...trees and flowers, red/green/yellow 10x20x1 megabrick/plates, the small yellow Legoland forklift, etc 2 experiences I remember best: I recall getting a catalog in 1975 or 1976 advertising a (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) You are just right. Actually there is a term SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) extensively used in Total Quality terminology, which covers many methods to decrease the time consumed during die changes down to below 10 minute barrier (...) (24 years ago, 11-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) If you don't already have it, buy The Ultimate LEGO Book. Then read pages 32-37. Brian (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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I didn't know there was a Lego book. Would Chapters carry it, or do I have to order it from LEGO? (...) (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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I've never heard of Chapters, but the the book should be available at book stores like Waldon's, B. Dalton, and the like. If they don't have it they can probably order it. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at some online retailer's web sites as well. (...) (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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Chapters is a big Canadian book store that has real life locations and a website at www.chapters.ca. I went there to look up the LEGO book, and they can get it! (...) to (...) pages (...) (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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(...) Not really just plastic; also pigmnets to colour the plastic. I work in the printing ink industrie, and many of the pigments we use, are also used for plastic. The price of pigments are anything from 3 USD /kg and uppwoards. The most (...) (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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(...) The ISBN is 0-7894-4691-X for the Ultimate LEGO Book. Published in the USA by DK Publishing Inc. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley. Just an FYI for those looking for it. Mike All other themes are just spare parts for Castle! (24 years ago, 14-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
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