LEGO Revival: Discussion

[Hobbes]

Umm... I don't think too many members should have that signature. Like this page of the thread looks pretty annoying so far with all those big red letters. Pointing out the survey is ok but this borders on stimulus satiation.

Just my 2 cents...

[SuvieD]

The "Value" question asks why do teen/adult people have LEGO still after the traditional 4-12 years of age. It is generally a sentimental, hobby/relaxation or mind stimulation response. This is different for everyone and it will help LEGO determine what "hooks" they are missing in current efforts that will get children to continue with the brick beyond 12.

The money question is simply, what is required for you to take money that could easily go elsewhere and spend it on a childs toy for yourself or your family. What things about LEGO equate to being worth spending money on. Things such as number of bricks, what type of sets or simply do it look cool are easy answers one could use. This is sort of the logic of Bricklink. People feel sets and peices are worth xx.xx amount based on so many different factors. Having a set with a rare part or a special element is sometimes enough for people to buy a set for more than they would otherwise. Having a high piece count is always helpful when selling. LEGO sets = money. LEGO obviously sets a price and must make a profit, what do they need to have in the box for you to say "Yeah, that is worth it, I'll get one (or twelve)."

I will tone down the sig. for you Hobbes. A little ;)

[Mister Phes]

Umm... I don't think too many members should have that signature. Like this page of the thread looks pretty annoying so far with all those big red letters. Pointing out the survey is ok but this borders on stimulus satiation.

Just my 2 cents...

You're absolutely right Hobbes! Imagine if everyone had that... It would drive everyone insane. So I've modified mine... Obviously...

[Mister Phes]

Things such as number of bricks, what type of sets or simply do it look cool are easy answers one could use.  This is sort of the logic of Bricklink.  People feel sets and peices are worth xx.xx amount based on so many different factors.

Good old BrickLink...

This is how I see it:

• Buy sets from eBay because they're cheaper, but not pieces because they're far more expensive.
  
• Buy pieces from BrickLink because they're cheaper, but not from ebay because they're far more expensive.
  

Now that BrickLink exists I wouldn't buy a set specifically for a piece - I'd just go to BrickLink... Or eBay if there was one for a reasonable price.

[SuvieD]

I see your point. If LEGO came to you and you had to choose between two pirate theme sets for them to produce that have exactly the same price, one is an island set with 247 pieces, three figures and a small ship, and the other set is a ship with 401 pieces, 4 figures and a black monkey which would you have LEGO produce. They can't make both. Which one has more value concerning your money?

Those are the things you should look at.

[Hobbes]

I will tone down the sig. for you Hobbes.  A little  ;)

It's ok that you have the signature since you're the holy survey-initiator (no sarcasm intended!). I just think others don't need it...

[Mister Phes]

Nah... Not everyone needs it... That would be over kill. But obviously there are some forums/threads where SuvieD doesn't post, so Just to make sure everyone sees the link a couple more can't hurt... Can it?

[Mister Phes]

I see your point. If LEGO came to you and you had to choose between two pirate theme sets for them to produce that have exactly the same price, one is an island set with 247 pieces, three figures and a small ship, and the other set is a ship with 401 pieces, 4 figures and a black monkey which would you have LEGO produce. They can't make both. Which one has more value concerning your money?

Those are the things you should look at.

It would be the ship with the 401 pieces, 4 figures and the black monkey if the ship was the same size as the Caribbean Clipper... The reason being it has over 150 more pieces than the other set and this ship would be bigger than any of the existing "middle" sized ships.

However, if it was a ship the size of the Black Seas Barracuda then 400 pieces would hardly seem enough. It might imply many oversized generic pieces! So that wouldn't seem like very good value.

This scenario seems too fantastical and there isn't sufficent information to make an accurate assessment. I could never see LEGO making a 401 piece ship for the same price as 247 piece island . That doesn't sound realistic! The hull alone would consist of 3 large pieces (assuming the hull system is the same as in the past) and represent at least a quarter of the set's cost. Then there's another 398 pieces on top of that! That's more like a dream set actually! That would be fantastic value!

So I'm not sure how to apply this to my feedback as yet... Not in terms of realistic expectations anyway. I think I need to sleep on this matter before thinking it through...

[Hobbes]

But obviously there are some forums/threads where SuvieD doesn't post, so Just to make sure everyone sees the link a couple more can't hurt...  Can it?

Nah, since you're everywhere (omnipotency and stuff ;) ) it's ok...

[yoda601]

I've posted it here, so be sure to monitor it, SuvieD.

[SuvieD]

Yoda, please post this quote to that site also so that the people there will see that this is in fact going to be read by LEGO and it is not just a unseen opinion poll. Thank you for your help. :)

I have emailed Jake Mckee (LEGO customer relations) and he has promised to at least read what we have written. See quote below.

If you want to put together the results and send them over, I would certainly read it. (I read everything, and I do mean everything, that ends up in my inbox)

As far as sharing it with others, I would do this when and where appropriate. If the feedback is helpful, then obviously it make more sense to share it internally.

But if the content comes back focused mainly on why LEGO should go back in time to the 80s and how we

[SuvieD]

Well, after taking a quick look it seems as though we have 40 responses so far. Almost half of the 100 person goal. :) I would like to make it to almost 500 but we shall have to wait and see.

It appears that some of the people responded twice but I will get that sorted out before long.

For those who haven't yet taken the time to help out please do so. I would like to see 50 by July 1st. There are 31 days left until the August 1st deadline. If there are at least two responses a day between now and then we will have 100+ completed survey answers to send to LEGO! :-D

I am crunched on time this week but I will see about *cough*spamming*cough* the request reaching more people. :-D

I still need a brave soul to post at least a link to FBTB as I only have a free internet address I can't. It would be great if someone who knows German could get a link on 1000Steine, and a bionicle fan to get a link on BZP. Or any other site you can think of that has to do with LEGO. Please! :D

I will try to pull a brickshelf battle stunt and get some people to see the link there also. :^D

The snowball has been released we shall see if the snow is sticky enough to make this a boulder. :oo

The LEGO revival!

[The Middleman]

Just relayed it to FBTB.

[Mister Phes]

SuvieD, it appears a lot of users have formatted their surveys. Exactly how are you going to set up this Excel Spread sheet?

If you copy & paste directly in the later versions of Excel some of the formatting will be retained, however, for each carriage return the subsequent text will be placed in a new cell. If you edit each individual cell then paste all the formatting is lost.

If you were to use a later version of Word copying & pasting will pretty much retain the formatting, but still using the default font. Is there any particular reason you've chose Excel? Being a number crunching program its going to be arduous to layout such long text responses. Would it not be simpler to send the responses as a Word file? Or do you have a whizz bang Spreadsheet figured already?

[ImperialJohn]

So - I have started And will edit as I get done(or refine my answer)

If one is allowed to edit how does one mark the answer as done?

[Mister Phes]

I presumed by August 1st the surveys would be taken to Jake McKee completed or not. Therefore there was no requirement to mark them as complete. Mine is still undergoing revision.

[SuvieD]

Excel has something Word doesn't. That is it can have multiple pages of info in just one file. I haven't solidified the format yet but I am thinking of doing something like this where answers have a page and then have a Overview page with possible graphs. It will depend on the number of responses as well as how lengthy each response is. I really want this to not only look sharp but to have it easy to read and be useful. I am fairly handy with excel and i think it superior to Word in every way but lengthy word processing. Two options are before me. Each person would then have their own page with their own answers. The other option I am looking at is using one page for each of the questions and then listing everyones answers to that question on that page keeping lets say all of Phes' answers on line 6 for each page. The second option is looking like it will be the most helpful as if LEGO wants to look at the data on peoples ages for the survey it will all be on one page. If they want to see how people are let down that would be all together so it make more sense.

Formating isn't my biggest worry. I will try to retain any formating (minus color) but it is the answer that means something and must be recorded with integrity. I will format the entire file with a standard set of colors and styles to look nice.

I think if we take this seriously and present it professionally then LEGO will have to consider it as valuable research and as far as they are concerned "free" research.

I really am doing this not so much because I am a LEGO fanatic it is just that I believe in this product and what it stands for. I really want to see great things from LEGO in the future and I will not continue to sit idly by and make negative remarks about the latest juniorization or weak set design. I think some people really enjoy not only being negative but helping others have a bad attitude as well.

I want to thank everyone again for helping with this survey. I truely hope LEGO will make us happy and provide the most excellent toy in terms of quality, innovation, and value.

The LEGO revival!

[Mister Phes]

But what would you graph though? There's only age and location... You'd need a lot of results for that to be any good. Unless there's something I've missed - which there probably is...

[SuvieD]

If peoples answers are consistant to a good degree then if lets say 35% of people surveyed asked for minifigure sets and 40% want more legends sets then I could include that in a pie chart. It will entirely depend on data amounts and time. Reality is that if I can't make time to include charts or graphs then I won't. The answers are more important than a chart, though, it is nice to see something visually also.

I am giving myself 14 days to compile the data and make it look the best I can. If life gets hectic I will make sure all answers are included and nice looking but some of the polish and glitter will remain undone.

All of this is subjective and can be based on what answers are given. Right now there are millions of possibilities. The closer to August 1st the better answer I can give about what may or may not be able to fit in graphs/charts.

[Mister Phes]

But what if 47% of those who want mini-figure sets ALSO want more legend sets as well? That's not going to work well as a pie chart!

[Hobbes]

He would have to use more than one pie-chart. Then it shouldn't be a problem.

Using a "numbers-based" tool isn't that a bad idea. People in charge above a certain management level don't understand words well. They need numbers and pictures. Almost like little kids. If you can give them that they're happy. So, I think it's better than a very long text document. Sure, Jake probably will do the last "refurbishing" but providing him with a pre-formatted survey-result just shows that this was done with care and good will. Can only help.

My 2 cents... (I'm running out of change here *wacko*)

[Mister Phes]

That's a good idea Hobbes! Graphical representations are much less arduous to interperate than plain text afterall. Mutliple pie charts would solve the dilemma but the way SuvieD had written it, I got the impression he was planning to put all the results on the one pie chart. Or that's how I interperated it when I was half asleep!

[yoda601]

I posted the link ;) And I really hope this will help!

[Mister Phes]

Formating isn't my biggest worry. I will try to retain any formating (minus color) but it is the answer that means something and must be recorded with integrity. I will format the entire file with a standard set of colors and styles to look nice.

Mine is kind of dependant on formatting since there's so much. Maybe I've got too much but there's a lot I want to say...

[SuvieD]

Well, as of right now there are 65 survey participants. None of the admins on any of the forums was willing to "push" this but most "allowed" it and in the case of Eurobricks helped by making it a sticky (thanks EB!). I myself have been in and out of town and will continue to be through this week. I will have to make July 17-23 my big push week. Can everyone who placed a link somewhere else please nicely bump them during that week.

I will do my best to push here, Lugnet, and CC. I will also see if my brickshelf trick will work. Thank you everyone who is helping out.