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Subject: 
Re: "MOC" Blacksmith Shop on lego.com
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Mon, 17 Dec 2001 12:48:46 GMT
Viewed: 
5164 times
  
In lugnet.market.theory, Richie Dulin writes:
In lugnet.market.theory, Allan Bedford writes:

I'm exactly the opposite.  I will ONLY buy a set that I like and I only buy
it for the set.  Whatever parts it happens to contain then so be it.  This
currently explains why I don't buy a lot of sets. Most of the current
offerings are so shallow on design that anything I build at home looks better.

Okay, so you only buy sets for their good design. The parts selection
doesn't matter...

When I built my adult collection of bricks from scratch 3 years ago I was
lucky.  It happened to be the 30th anniversary year of LEGO in Canada.  All
the Zellers and Wal-Mart stores were full of anniversary buckets and tubs.
I loaded up on tons of basic bricks.

Clearly, you didn't buy the buckets and tubs for their good design, but for
the parts selection....

Then I bought a number of Technic and
eventually Star Wars sets, along with an assortment of others,

So you found some good designs...

to round out
my collection with a smattering of 'specialty bricks'.

It seems like you were buying these for parts then...

No, to quote myself from the posting you replied to:

"Whatever parts it happens to contain then so be it.  "

I have never and would never buy a set only to get a part or parts.  If a
good set has interesting parts (and hopefully still a hefty dose of basic
bricks) then I buy it.  This is one of the reasons I'm a big supporter of
bulk and service pack sales.  If you want a particular brick or bricks, then
I feel that's where you should be able to get it.  To buy a set for the sole
purpose of figuring out what parts it has you need and which ones you can
sell off, that's just too time consuming for me.  For some this may work,
but it's not for me.

As it turns out, I should have bought 3 times as many buckets and tubs.  To
find one today in a Zellers is like finding Bill Gates loading MP3's onto an
iPod.

But don't you only want to buy good designs?

Yes.  AND (please see my above comments) I want lots and lots of basic
bricks at a REASONABLE price.  Currently I can't find any buckets or tubs in
retail stores here in my part of the country.  To buy any quantity of basic
bricks at current bulk pricing is simply prohibitive.

I can't imagine I'm the only person in the world who wants LOTS of basic
bricks and a moderate selection of specialty parts to use as accent pieces.

Take my recent fire truck model for example.  Its internal frame and external
body are primarily BASIC bricks.  However some of the accent pieces are
anything from Technic bricks, to Star Wars light grey slopes to transparent
1x1 rounds for lights etc.

http://www.apotome.com/lego/station71/engine71.htm

The contrast to this style of building might be best shown in the Jack Stone
Police Headquarters.  This set uses specialized pieces where basic bricks
would have done just as well.  To my mind this is the cardinal sin of LEGO
building.

http://guide.lugnet.com/set/4611

There is no reason that those white columns could not have been done with
stacks of regular 2x2 bricks.  Using specialty pieces just for the sake of
creating expensive new molds for parts just doesn't seem to make economic sense.

And as for sets... well as mentioned above I only buy things that look great
as a set.  This doesn't leave much to buy nowadays.  Anything of good design
is only available through Shop At Home and thanks to exchange, duty and
shipping, I don't use Shop At Home.  If any one reading this doesn't yet
understand my frustration with this company, feel free to write me and I'll
elaborate further.

Hmmm...

So to sum up: you want better designs and better brick selections, but when
LEGO makes them available, they're too expensive for you?

Richie... I don't know where you are, but I live in Canada.  We used to have
a division of LEGO operating within our borders.  I used to order from the
Shop At Home service and get service packs and Technic bulk bricks I needed.
Then they closed down LEGO Canada.

If you take a look at the Shop At Home catalog that now arrives at my door
you'll notice that everything is in U.S. prices.  So if you want to know how
much a set (or bulk pack) will cost me, then double the price.  It's
actually more than that, but I'm trying to keep this simple.

Then add in shipping (which is also quoted in U.S. dollars).  To order any
significant quantity of bulk bricks would require me to secure a bank loan,
or miss a mortgage payment.  I am simply advocating for more reasonable
pricing on bulk bricks OR (big OR) put more assorted tubs and buckets in
retail stores here in Canada where I can buy them readily.

I'm a LEGO builder Richie... not an AFOL, not a collector, not a reseller.
My primary goal (with regards to dealing with the LEGO company) is to get
them to understand that for a certain segment of their market, these are
dark times.  Finding bricks that are readily available and moderately priced
(at least here in Canada) is a tough assignment.

Regards,
Allan B.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: "MOC" Blacksmith Shop on lego.com
 
(...) But, you said you bought them "to round out my collection with a smattering of 'specialty bricks'." (...) But you said you buy sets for good designs. And you just said "I have never and would never buy a set only to get a part or parts.". How (...) (23 years ago, 17-Dec-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: "MOC" Blacksmith Shop on lego.com
 
(...) Okay, so you only buy sets for their good design. The parts selection doesn't matter... (...) Clearly, you didn't buy the buckets and tubs for their good design, but for the parts selection.... (...) So you found some good designs... (...) It (...) (23 years ago, 17-Dec-01, to lugnet.market.theory)

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