Too much Lego? Good or Bad?

[Capt. Kirk]

As I commented earlier in the topic, LEGO has nothing to fear in that respect seeing as the 1983 crash was caused primarily by the markets being flooded by third-party games of inferior quality.....People who compare LEGO in 2012 to Atari in 1983 are blowing the non-issue of LEGO expanding and diversifying completely out of proportion.

But it was not only caused because of third-party games of inferior quality.

Other factors also played their role in the crash story because IMO not only one single factor does it all, it's most of the time a combination of different factors:

ATARI

- Programmers had no time anymore to actually make a game in relation to its quality level.

- No recognision or reward for their top programmers with result that Atari’s best programmers left in droves (fed up with low pay and no recognition).

--[David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Bob Whitehead, and Alan Miller all left Atari to start their own company, which they called: Activision

- On top of the talent vacuum: business executives started losing touch with the real world.

Try to read it like this (hypothetical statement):

LEGO

- Designers have no time anymore to actaully make the sets in relation to its quality

--[because of too much themes.

- No recognision or reward for their designers with result that LEGO's best designers leave in droves.

--[i have no idea about the payment at LEGO but maybe in relation with their workload it can become low.

- On top of the talent vacuum: business executives started losing touch with the real world.

--[2005-2006 is a proof of that.

What do you think?

[Vindice]

Try to read it like this (hypothetical statement):

LEGO

- Designers have no time anymore to actaully make the sets in relation to its quality

--[because of too much themes.

- No recognision or reward for their designers with result that LEGO's best designers leave in droves.

--[i have no idea about the payment at LEGO but maybe in relation with their workload it can become low.

- On top of the talent vacuum: business executives started losing touch with the real world.

--[2005-2006 is a proof of that.

What do you think?

This is my main concern that if there are too many themes, then each one becomes watered down. Maybe someone in the TLG marketing dept says to a designer

"Yes that set looks great but we are going to introduce yet another new theme and this will clash with that one"

Pharaohs Quest, DINO and Atlantis could have all produced amazing sets on top of the great ones we already had. If TLG wants to produce more of their own "licenses" like they are doing with Ninjago (cartoon series and extra marketing) then they need to allow each theme time to grow in the market place and establish itself.

Consider this, if LEGO Dino is a massive success and TLG stop it after 1 wave, one of the cheaper chinese made alternative companies will see the success of this range in the marketplace and maybe jump on it and soak up the big profits.

What TLG would have done in this case is just lay the groundwork for other companies to come in and reap the rewards. Does this make sense???

[Sato]

Consider this, if LEGO Dino is a massive success and TLG stop it after 1 wave, one of the cheaper chinese made alternative companies will see the success of this range in the marketplace and maybe jump on it and soak up the big profits.

What TLG would have done in this case is just lay the groundwork for other companies to come in and reap the rewards. Does this make sense???

No not at all, Although I think it's unlikely this will happen as most of these knockoff's aren't found in most toy-stores. (They lack the shelf-space.)

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As my main interest in Lego sets lies in Technic and Creator, I can't say there are to many sets being released.

But I understand the concerns about the growth of the number of themes which is already showing in stores because of the lack of shelf-space, Some sets or even whole themes aren't on the shelf and catalog stands are empty and often don't get refilled leading to a lack of public knowledge about the existence and availability of certain sets.

Nowadays I order almost all of my Lego sets online because its cheaper (Saves me 20-30 euro's on the more expensive sets.) and they've got everything that Lego has on offer in stock or available for shipment in 1-3 days.

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Just another thing to add to this discussion, How long before Lego runs out of 4-digit numbers and the numbering logic is completely lost? (Technic has been jumping all over the place lately.)

[Otum]

For mee ther is not enough lines, but only if they care about quality in designs.

An example is the new superheroes line. I really like that designs, and if you mind that TLC give to our magazine minifigs and free sets for testing and reviews, we can check that this new line "accomplish" that top quality.

Moreover, if you think about another "new lines" like LOTR your VISA are crying ^^

On the other hand... Star Wars. It smell like "lack of ideas..."

That's true that UCS star wars have slow down design quality, hope when I see that free set that LEGO set send us for review, I could change my mind.