Subject:
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Re: Whither LEGO Steam Trains? (was Re: QT Movie of 4565)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains, lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Thu, 8 Feb 2001 20:45:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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2504 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> I'll say this. We *thought* going in that new parts are harder to justify
> than new colors for existing parts which are in turn harder than using the
> old part in a previously used color. Now I *know* how hard new parts are.
> Especially when you amortize across fairly small runs. Think about how many
> copies of the landspeeder sold and you'll have an idea of what a fairly
> large run is for a part.
>
> Train drivers, I am sure you would admit, are likely to be small run items
> compared to landspeeders. Even amortized over many years. Even if every
> single AFOL buys 100 of them, which ain't gonna happen.
>
> But do not abandon hope. As I said repeatedly before we met with LD, change
> in large organizations happens incrementally. Prove the early steps and you
> get more authority to do the more radical later steps. There was no doubt in
> my mind that I'd be right about that before we met, and I'm just as certain
> now as I was then.
One thing I would take as giving some hope to getting a new type of
train driver is that TLC has created special parts which have so far
only showed up in a single set, and not even a high volume set. I
suspect that if TLC gets a good feeling that a good steam locomotive
would benefit the whole trains line. Lets say they sell 1% as many steam
locos as lanspeeders, and lets say they don't even break even on the
development cost of the new part(s), but what happens to their bottom
line when many of those buyers are new customers? They could easily make
up the revenue from the other sets they sell those new customers a bunch
of other higher volume, more profitable sets.
Does this mean that a steam loco is likely for this year, probably
pretty unlikely. Probably not even next year, but perhaps 2003 will see
one IF TLC sees the potential.
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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