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Subject: 
Re: Molds - I just don't grok the economics
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.lego.direct
Date: 
Fri, 18 Apr 2003 22:52:59 GMT
Viewed: 
949 times
  
Well, as for the cypress tree issue...
Lego Direct is responsible for all the new re-releases, and it doesn't seem
to have the power to make new molds, I guess to cut costs for more
AFOL-targeted models.  While the big fad models made outside Lego Direct can
afford new molds easier.  That's all I can guess.

The rational must be that putting yet another tree in every set won't gain
much money, but getting a name-brand figure into a set will outweigh the costs.

-JHK

In lugnet.lego.direct, Kerry Raymond writes:
As I was building 4480 Jabba's Palace, I was thinking "nice pieces, useful
colours, but what will I do with all those Jabbas if I buy more of them?"
Then I thought to myself ...

Why it is uneconomic to make new molds for cypress trees etc which could be
used in many sets when it is possible to make a new mold for Jabba's body
which has about zero potential for reuse in any other set (apart from one
involving Jabba)? You could put a cypress tree in every creator and designer
set (and many other themes), but you could hardly put a Jabba in them.

I can understand the argument for not making new molds just to service the
needs of a particular adult nostalgia market (e.g. knight's helmets in a
particular style) if they don't figure in any other likely future offerings,
but I guess I don't understand it for more generally re-usable pieces.

My post is not motivated specifically by a desire for more cypress trees,
but more for anyone who can offer an economic rationale for the TLC's
observed behaviour in this regard? Do they really have an accounting model
in which the cost of a new mold must be justified against the income
anticipated for the first set in which it is used without any regard to
amortising such an asset over a longer period?

Kerry



Message is in Reply To:
  Molds - I just don't grok the economics
 
As I was building 4480 Jabba's Palace, I was thinking "nice pieces, useful colours, but what will I do with all those Jabbas if I buy more of them?" Then I thought to myself ... Why it is uneconomic to make new molds for cypress trees etc which (...) (22 years ago, 18-Apr-03, to lugnet.lego.direct)

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