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 LEGO Company / LEGO Direct / 5639
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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: 
3480 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 (...) (23 years ago, 18-Apr-03, to lugnet.lego.direct)

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