Subject:
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Re: HELLO?!, LEGO CO. ! was: Will the educational arm of Technic & Mindstorms continue?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 13 Jan 2004 00:08:21 GMT
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Original-From:
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Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmailSTOPSPAMMERS.net>
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Viewed:
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1990 times
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Chris Phillips wrote:
> On the other hand, Technic is just a fancy name for a category of brick. TLC
> can crank out beams, liftarms, and connector pins about as inexpensively as they
> can crank out 2x4s, and it uses the same ABS pellets and molding equipment.
> They would gain very little by ceasing production of these parts. If anything,
> their "return to core values" would imply that they will produce more of these
> parts in order to capitalize on their biggest strength: pumping out brick.
More to the point, their competitors (eg MegaBloks) are churning out almost nothing
BUT basic bricks. They have a very narrow range of parts.
If Lego want to compete there, they need to play to their strengths which is
their enormous inventory of molds and carefully thought out parts choices.
So, I'd expect to see more sets with 'interesting' parts - and less with large
numbers of 2x4 and 2x2 blocks.
For me, I just hope they still produce motors.
The other Mindstorms parts are unlikely to wear out or break - and there are
interesting 3rd party suppliers of computers and sensors.
But I've yet to see something close to a replacement for the Lego motors that
"just works" with existing wheels and gears. What's worse is that Lego motors
break and wear out.
So long as they continue to make those nice motors, I think we AFOL's can weather
the storm until the "rightness" of the Mindstorms concept comes back into vogue.
> It is sad to see a company that has been a worldwide household name for decades
> struggling so desperately just to stay afloat. But hey, I don't think I could
> afford to lose a quarter billion dollars either...
Yep.
But I just can't help thinking that when they say that they are being pressurized
by other companies producing electronic toys and computer games - their reaction
ought to be to push MORE into electronics and computers and not to shy away from
it.
---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net> WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
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