| |
In lugnet.lego.direct, Jake McKee wrote:
| |
In lugnet.lego.direct, Terry Prosper wrote:
| |
In lugnet.lego.direct, Jake McKee wrote:
Let me flame you nontheless.
|
Well, these days I pretty much knew that was coming.
| |
I’m disgusted by the attitude of TLG in this issue. For the first time in
my LEGO life, I’m considering boycotting your products.
|
For what it’s worth, it would be a shame for you to give up your hobby over
this issue alone. That’s completely your right to do, of course. I’d hate to
see you give up the hobby. (And no, not just because I’m a money-grubbing
corporate lackey... but because I’m a member of the fan community too, and I
hate to see anyone leave!)
Jake
---
|
First, I’ll say this is not a flame at Terry. Everyone is allowed their opinion,
and if nothing else, he’s letting it be known. Now, having said that, I have to
side with Jake. He has been taking heat for this the entire time, even though
I’ll bet he has little if any input about the change. Jake, I’ve said it before
and I’ll say it again, I support your efforts 100%, and I applaud you for taking
the heat when I’m not sure you should. I’ve spent 15 years in the customer
support business and it’s always the front line troops that get shot at. I’m
glad you wear your flak jacket.
Now, as for TLC attempting to make money, I hope they are. They are a business,
and unless a business is non-profit, they should try to make money. This is why
they changed the color in the first place. If they decide to make more runs in
the future, I’ll buy more then. If not, I’ll use what I have currently.
Now here’s the funny part. I just finished reading a book called “50 years of
Play”. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s a book TLC released internally in 1982
to celebrate 50 years of Lego being Lego. The book goes into a lot of detail
about how the company got where it did and how the Christiansen family made
things work. They started out making wooden toys that were immensely popular.
They survived 2 fires that destroyed workshops during the first few decades.
They decided after the second one to skip the wooden toys and concentrate solely
on the “Lego System of Play” (what is now the Lego toy we know and (sometimes)
love. I’ll bet there were a lot of people pissed off about that decision to
change, but the company kept going. Next, Lego introduced the “Scale-model line”
in the early 1960s AS AN ATTEMPT TO PLACE LEGO BRICKS IN AN ADULT CONTEXT.
Guess what. It failed, but Lego plunged ahead and Modulex was introduced. Lego
continued to move forward. (Look closely at the irony of this. TLC has tried to
cater to the adults before and failed. I don’t blame them for being gun-shy).
Lego in the recent past has tried a few other ventures that failed; Galidor and
Znap. But they tried because they (as a company) have to look to the future.
They have to take calculated risks. They also have to listen to the sound of
reason. Many people were wondering what happened to the basic building kits of
old that sparked such imagination. Enter the Designer kits. People wanted a
chance to get old kits that they saw but couldn’t buy anymore. Enter the Legend
and Classis series. Now I agree that the Legend series as it’s called is not a
complete re-issue of the old kits, both because of color and part substitution,
but who cares. I think it’s better to release an old kit under a new number with
a few changes so my kids can play with the kit and enjoy it. And I promise you,
my boys are both Lego purists, but they could care less about the color issue.
They just want more Lego bricks to play with and want to own kits kind of like
the ones dad still has assembled from the good old days (especially the Pirate
stuff).
Now this part I’m a little shaky on, but I *believe* that Kjeld is going back
into the captain’s chair in Billund to help bring Lego back to what it used to
be. If that is the case, and he is half the man he’s described as in the book,
then Lego is well on it’s way to continuing a streak of excellence that in my
humble opinion is still one of the most impressive in ANY manufacturing
industry. And I defy anyone to show me a MegaBlok or Bestlock kit that’s better
quality than a Lego kit.
I have tried my damndest to stay out of this whole line of discussion because it
is very political to me and cuts into my play time, but I’m finally breaking
down and jumping in. I hope I don’t spiral down in flames when all is said and
done.
Oh well, back to my building.
:-)
|
|
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: 6 new bulk packs at S@H
|
| (...) Well, these days I pretty much knew that was coming. (...) Since I'm the one that beg, borrowed, and pleaded to make this happen, I'll take the heat for the decision. It wasn't a shameless attempt to do anything but deliver to the fans (...) (21 years ago, 18-Mar-04, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.market.shopping, FTX) !
|
94 Messages in This Thread:
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
