Subject:
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Re: Lego Technic: R.I.P. ?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 14 Nov 2002 15:05:58 GMT
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Original-From:
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Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.[StopSpammers]net>
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Viewed:
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911 times
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Laszlo Meszaros (ETH) wrote:
> Designing Technic LEGO is not easy at all. It requires lots of
> practice. Most buyers of Technic sets lack the design background,
> at least in the beginning. Children build the same two or three
> models the leaflets describe for a few times and they will throw
> it away with disappointment.
What's needed is to include a book with (say) a hundred designs
in it. That would cost a bunch to print - but in a $200 set, it
might not be impossible.
I would also suggest designs that are modular - given a dozen
different drive mechanisms (tracks, skid-steer wheels, steering
wheels, bipeds, quadrupeds, etc), a dozen different sensor
setups (line followers, bump sensors, etc) and lots of 'cute
character' stuff like wings and faces.
This would allow the less-able kids to still feel they were
creating something unique whilst really only combining a couple
of stock 'modules'.
All of this stuff is well covered by the piles of excellent
books out there (most written by people on this very mailing
list) - but parents too often spend the money on the big expensive
toy at Xmas and presume that their job is done. They are unlikely
to go hunting in a bookstore of all places some months after
the Mindstorms set is collecting dust.
What was needed was to put that INTO the packaging of the set...
and not hidden away on a CD-ROM or in some expansion set.
> I suppose TLC did not take this into account. I saw very few
> (original) Lego idea books that would help to introduce the
> customers into the fantastic world of creating OWN models. The
> way to the first success is long and tiring. Even longer without
> the organized and didactic help.
Yep.
> This morning I have called the local TLC representative with a
> bunch of questions. The most important ones he refused to answer.
> The one regarding to lift Lego-oriented books into the product
> portfolio he just replied "not part of the company policy".
Lego doesn't have to do that. Anyone can (in principle) write an
after-market book - and many have.
The problem is to get those books situated in toy stores no more
than 3 feet from the shelves full of Lego. Then, a parent (who knows
nothing about Lego beyond the 2x4 bricks they had as a kid) would
realise that this was a large-scale hobby with a massive following.
(Woah - there are like a dozen books here about this Mindstorms
system! I don't seen *ANY* for the KNEX set on the shelf next door.)
---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
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